We made it through tech week. Barely. The last few weeks were pretty brutal. Putting together a show like Tarzan can be a technical nightmare. We had some long nights. One preview where an audience member stood up during curtain call and stepped into the path of Tarzan and Jane entering on their zip line. Now we are wrapping up a week of performances. This is a show that will get better and better as it settles and we smooth things out.

I got a very special moment this past Tuesday. My sister is in town with my two nieces and my nephew. So, I got to perform a Disney show for them…that was a dream!

Well, this post has to be short because I have to start getting ape make up on…time to entertain!

Hello Again, Dear Readers,

So, I thought I was not to be a part of the Tarzan company at Artisan. Then, while flying home from Atlanta, I hop on Gogo Inflight Wireless (truly the greatest invention of all time) and see a Facebook post saying that Tarzan had a new director and was having further auditions to cast a few roles…one of which was Kerchak.

Say what??!!

I did a little hunting, and there was some drama that I don’t know much about and don’t care to know any more than I do in which there was a change of directors for the production. I also found out that I was able to audition for the new director, Joe Sturgeon.  I prepared my stuff again, went in and sang my best…and a day or so later I got a call from Deeann Blair offering me the role!  My first Disney show was going to happen!!  And my nieces and nephew are going to see it!!!  Huzzah!

In this time of career transitions, the idea of leaving Texas, and basically trying to figure out what to do with my life…things have been made better by having this show.  Us theater people are a strange bunch.  We are eccentric.  We are obviously a little nuts.  But most of all, we are a family.  Ok, we do put the ‘fun’ in ‘dysfunctional’, but you can always rely on your family.  I am privileged to have been given another chance at joining this Tarzan family, and they have helped keep my focus in tact.  It’s a funny world.  You get cast in a show and for a few weeks you have a new family.  Instantly bonded.  Best friends.  Then, the show closes and people move on to their next projects.  Most you stay in touch with, but often you turn around and realize you haven’t seen that person who was your closest friend for those weeks in too long a time.  Then, like magic, you happen to get cast in another production together…and it’s like time never stopped.  You have an instant connection.  This strange phenomenon works over periods of years…even decades.  I have a number of people I could list that I went for nearly 20 years without seeing only to be cast again together and pick up like it was yesterday.

Anyway, Tarzan just entered tech week…which is a topic for another post.  Coming soon.  So, come back, won’t you?  Hang out for a few minutes in my corner of the sky.  I think I shall leave you with a little tease.  One of our Terks practicing some trapeze work with one of our young Tarzans.  OH…if you want to come see the show, comment on the post and I will tell you how I can get you $1 off a ticket just for reading my blog!   

A few years back Disney created a stage version of the movie TARZAN for Broadway.  It didn’t do very well, but seeing as I am the Disney fan that I am, I still wanted to see it.  I mean, Phil Collins music!  Apes flying around the stage!  A guy in a loin cloth flies over the audience!  What’s not to love?  So, when the closing was announced, I secured myself tickets to the final performance.  I had never done a closing night before, but WOW, what a night!  The show was a blast and even though it is not one a critically acclaimed show or anything, I will always remember being present that night.  It is one of the most memorable shows I have ever seen on Broadway or on tour.

Jump forward to last fall.  I have an out of the blue conversation with Rick Blair about coming to Artisan Center Theater to play the Big Bopper in Buddy.  As he is showing me around the theater we talk about the fact that they put Disney’s Tarzan on their 2014 season.  Now, let me be quite honest here…I thought they were CRAZY!  How could you pull off this VERY technical show in such an intimate space?  But they had a plan.  And right there I knew that somehow I needed to be a part of that plan.  I dropped many not-so-subtle hints that I wanted to play Kerchak, the leader of the apes.

When it was time for auditions, I made my appointment and picked a song that I thought resembled the role pretty well.  I really felt like I did one of my best performances that night.  I sang my song and was around to sing some of Kerchak’s numbers from the show.  I left feeling like that I gave it my best, which is all you can do in these things.  For any of you that don’t know the harrowing experience auditioning is…well, watch A Chorus Line (not the movie, please) and that might give you a little taste.  It is the most miserable part of this crazy thing we actors do.  Some go well, some you just bomb.  Sometimes the one you did well still doesn’t lead to you being cast.  Sometimes the one you bombed gets you a role. 

The day after the audition I had a message on my phone from the director saying they were making decisions by the end of the week “but you sounded WONderful!”  Hey…I sounded wonderful.  Great!  I think I may have a shot here.  Days go by….nothing….  Then a call from the stage manager saying that I was not being offered a part.  It was just a few days later that I was laid off from my job.  I had also kicked butt at another audition I had been at for a show that I really wanted to sing.  I would have killed to have even been in the ensemble.  Didn’t get that one either.    As these things go, it was kind of depressing to have that much rejection in the span of under 2 weeks.

Don’t get me wrong.  Rejection is just part of the game when you are an actor.  You don’t get cast much more than you do.  You just have to keep at it, plugging away.  But sometimes shows come along that you really want to do for personal reasons.  Tarzan was that show for me.  See, first of all, I am a huge Disney fan but have never had the chance to be in a Disney show.  It would have meant so much for me to finally portray a Disney character.  Second, I love my nieces and nephew more than just about anything, but I have never had the chance to perform for them.  All of my shows of the last few years have been a bit too adult in nature.  But here was a DISNEY show…it would be perfect!  But it was not to be. 

But wait……

To be continued……

Well, Hello Readers,

If any of you are still around.  I mean, I haven’t made a blog entry in months so I understand if you have stopped coming for a visit.  But, now I’m back!

It’s been a tough few months.  I did travel a bit, but just didn’t keep up the adventure here.  You see, I had one of those things they call a ‘major life event’.  After just over 9 years in a job with a company I loved, I was called in to my boss’s office and told that due to the merger with another major airline my position was no longer needed.  9 years…all my plans for life, retirement, family…gone in an instant.  Now I find myself among the ranks of the unemployed and it’s just not easy.  But that’s OK.  I will not let this get me down, it’s just a time to rethink the plan.  But, if you know anyone who is hiring, let me know!

So, in the time since I last posted I had a couple of standard trips to Orlando.  Did a trip to NYC to see Aladdin and The Bridges of Madison County.  Stayed with a friend who was working at a hotel at Niagara Falls.  Completed the Expedition Everest Challenge 5K with obstacles and scavenger hunt.  Did a day trip to San Francisco to see a preview screening of Maleficent and see the new Disney Infinity 2.0 announcement.  Took a last minute cruise on the Disney Dream with mom.  Have been to Atlanta to see my sister, brother-in-law and nieces and nephews a couple of times.  Plus a day trip to Jackson to take care of some family business.  Down…but definitely not out.

Plus, I have a little show I am doing.  Did I say little show?  I am doing Disney’s Tarzan!  More about that on my next post!

Gosh, I haven’t posted in forever.  Sorry about that.  I missed travel blogging a trip to Orlando where we drove back stopping in Biloxi on the way back.  I also passed through Beaumont, TX to pay my respects to the final resting spot of the real Big Bopper, JP Richardson.

Since my last post, I have been in rehearsals for a two week run of Stephen Sondheim’s FOLLIES the concert version.  I am playing Roscoe, who sings Beautiful Girls at the top of the show.  It is truly an amazing cast and I am humbled in their presence.  I hope I can try to hold a candle to the amazing performances happening on that stage.  The high A at the end of my song is trying to ruin me, though.  I used to have that note solid….then I got older.  I am trying to muster up a blended falsetto…but so far it is not happening.  Tomorrow we open.  So, hopefully the gods of Sondheim will send their good graces to GLCT tomorrow night.

I am hoping to put together a quick weekend trip later this month.  I kind of want to do some Broadway since there are so many new shows to see.  If anyone has any suggestions on where I might go or what I might do…let me know!

Until then, come see me at the FOLLIES!

-E. Scott

I know…I should be writing part 2 of my first 2014 trip.  Instead I am going to give you a side bar trip that was a lot of fun!

With the merger at my company we now have off on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a Holiday.  Well, I decided to make the most of this unanticipated day off.  I have been wanting to visit the Georgia Aquarium for YEARS.  It is the only place in the United States and one of only a very few places in the world that have Whale Sharks in their collection.  The biggest fish in the sea!  They can grow to a length of almost 50 feet. I have wanted to see one for a long time now.  A few years ago I tried to do the Georgia Aquarium on a visit to a friend that was living in Atlanta…but the timed entry meant that you had to buy tickets well in advance.  So, no whale sharks on that trip.  My second chance came when were had been planning on visiting my sister who was performing at Universal Studios Osaka.  The aquarium there also had whale sharks.  The trip fell through.  But this new holiday was going to be the day!

I planned with my sister to bring down my two nieces and nephew to pick me up at the airport but to not tell them anything.  It was all a total surprise.  My sister used her iPhone to film the kids behind her in the car as she was pulling up to the pick up area at ATL Airport.  It is the most priceless moment!  They were so excited to see me…and then to go to the aquarium.

I did the whole day as a day trip. Took the first flight from DFW to ATL in the morning, then was back on a plane that landed just before 9pm.  Perfect day!

After entering the aquarium you are funneled to this huge rotunda type room.  From there, each zone of the facility branches off.  It is a wonderful design.  The room kind of reminds me of the Animation rotunda at Disney California Adventure. Where there is music and things happening then you can choose what you want to do from there.  We started with the Whale Sharks (of course)…and they did not disappoint!  It was amazing to see these creatures in real life.  So graceful for being so large.  They live in the world’s largest single environment tank.  I cannot begin to describe the size.  It is truly massive with walls that are up to 2 feet thick. They also have the only Manta Ray on display in the United States.  Now, I had seen one before at Atlantis in the Bahamas, but they are still an amazing creature.  This one likes to do loop-the-loops in the tank.  Such a show off!  I could have sat and watched this tank for hours.  But there was LOTS to see!

The facility also has a collection of 4 Beluga Whales.  Having visited SeaWorld parks for many years, I have seen many Belugas.  I did not realize that they are actually quite rare and endangered.  The man doing a small presentation at the window took a poll to see how many of the crowd had ever seen a Beluga…only about 4 of us raised our hands and he said that was more than usual!  These are times that I am grateful to have been given the chance to travel as much as I have.  Sometimes, you can take that for granted.

They have an interesting penguin exhibit with a “crawl through” that puts you up close and personal with the birds.  There may or may not be some incriminating photos of my big self crawling through a glass tunnel.

The aquarium is also only the second time I have seen an indoor dolphin show.  The first time I saw such a thing was at Dolphinarium in Harderwijk, The Netherlands. I love combining the theatricality of an indoor show with lights and music and special effects to the amazing power of a Bottlenose Dolphin.  The show in Georgia has a storyline of a ship that had been guided by dolphins that was sunk by some evil group that didn’t like the dolphins or the StarSpinner (an actor who sings throughout the story).  It was a little hokey-er than some, BUT still had original music and live singing.  So, I LOVE stuff like that.  I bought the soundtrack and am listening to it as I type this.  The style is quite reminiscent of  the ‘Believe’ show that used to be at Shamu Stadium (a quick trip to Wikipedia just confirmed it was the same guy…dang I’m good!)

They also have many touch tanks, lots of habitats, and even a 4D original movie!  Quite a fun way to spend your day!

All too soon the day with those great kids and my sister was over.  I cleared in First Class on one of our new Airbus A319s for the trip home.  I was actually on ship #001…the first one delivered to our fleet.  It has some wonderful seats in First with great entertainment.  In all of my trips back and forth to Atlanta since my sister moved there, I have learned there is just enough time to watch a movie if you start it as soon as you board.  For this trip I selected Fruitvale Station with Michael B Jordan and Octavia Spencer.  Powerful film!

Ok, well its now 2am…I am almost down from the high that is playing the Big Bopper on Tuesday nights.  I should try to get the maximum of 5 hours sleep I can get before its time to go to work.  Thanks for reading.  Travel safe!

Well, Buddy is trucking along.  Audiences still seem to enjoy their evening, and I am having a lot of fun getting up and just letting loose.  There is still time to come and see me, though!  I am performing every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night between now and closing.  I also learned we are adding 2 more shows at noon on the next two Saturdays…I am not sure which of those I will performing in, though.  So, come on down and rock with us if you have a chance.  I still have some of those $1 off coupons!

One quirk this theater has is that the entire cast lines up and shakes hands with the audience as they leave.  A lot of people love it, I am not so much in that camp.  I mean, it is nice to have people praising you and all.  But, there is a sort of ‘magic’ that is lost standing out on the corner in your costume.  Plus, it is painfully obvious those that didn’t care as much for your performance.  Which is just awkward.  I mean, we can tell.  As an audience member, I am kind of uncomfortable with it too.  If I didn’t like something, I then am put in that place to say nice things that I may not mean. I guess I am just old school.  If I wanted to meet a performer, I go to the stage door and wait.  Still do!  None the less, it is what they do and it can be a nice ego trip.  And you do get to meet lots of people…and I love when the people have personal stories about how the show touched them, or how they remember this music when it was new and happening.  Anyway, if you come to see the show, come up and say ‘hi’.  It’s just what we do.

So, last weekend was my first trip of 2014.  I am off to a slow start with performances of Buddy.  This one was planned almost a year in advance!  See, for those of you who don’t know me, I am overweight.  I want to lose it and am trying to make those right steps to get to that point.  Some time ago I started walking during my lunch time at work.  We have these tunnels under the building that have mile marks listed on the wall.  I was getting pretty good.  So, me and a work friend signed up to do our first 5K.  And you know, it was fun!  I was so apprehensive but had a blast.  I did my second 5K at the Fort Worth Zoo, but my goal was always to get where I could do a Disney race.  They have these AMAZING medals they give everyone.  I don’t know why, but I wanted one!  So when the spaces for the Walt Disney World 5K opened up, I bought my place.  They also had an inaugural 10K run this year, and I signed up for it too.  I had almost a year to train…then I broke my foot.

Yep.  Broke my 5th metatarsal in a place that required I have surgery to put a plate on it.  That whole process bumped me off the wagon of doing my walking.  But, I was determined.  I had invested a good deal of money, so I was going to push and do it.  Use the race to get back in the swing of things.  So last week on Wednesday I began my journey.

Because I knew it would be a busy weekend for non-revving, I had actually purchased a plane ticket.  This was the first time in my life I had actually purchased myself a plane ticket.  I got a good deal, round trip DFW to MCO for right on $230.  I got to my gate and they were offering a $200 voucher for anyone with flexible travel plans.  I just had to get to the Wide World of Sports complex by 7pm, so I had time.  I took the voucher.  Then it was off to the next flight, only 1 hour later.  They were really desperate on this flight.  They were offering $300.  Nobody.  $400.  Nobody.  When they said $500…I was not going to pass it up.  I had to do some rearranging with my sister and her boyfriend because I would be getting in much later than planned, but I had a total of $700 in travel vouchers off of a $230 ticket! KA-CHING!

I only had one little snag. Back on my first flight I volunteered to gate check my carry-on bag.  When I got to Orlando, the regular checked bags were there.  But not the carry on.  The one that had my clothes…including what I needed to run the 5K the next morning!!  I love my company, but how do we lose a bag that was gate checked??  Anyway, I was lucky in that it was coming on the next flight which was arriving in less than 15 minutes.  Just a little snag and we were loaded on racing on our way to the Wide World of Sports.

I was quite surprised at the sheer size of the Expo for Marathon weekend.  It was HUGE.  I followed along all the paths, got my bibs, prepurchased pins, shirts, etc. while walking around the people much more fit than I.  What the heck was I doing at a fitness expo?  I mean, me!?  I do enjoy some of the looks people give when they see me getting my race packets.  What I want to say to them is “I can do anything!  This weight ain’t gonna stop me!”  But for every person that gives you such a look…I found there were dozens of people impressed I was working toward losing this weight.  I was told by more than one person that I was an inspiration.  Me?  I just want to fit on a B&M roller coaster again and get a cool medal doing it.  I am doing this for me.  I am doing this so I live a long time to see my amazing nieces and nephew grow up.  Maybe I am selfish, but this is for me.  If along that path someone out there is inspired to get up and start walking with me.  Come along.  I am there for you…but do it for yourself.  This is a personal thing.

OK…Thursday morning…VERY EARLY.  For a Disney Race you have to arrive crazy early.  The 5K was going to start at 6:15.  They said be an hour early to park and get to your corral.  That meant 5:15.  It was about a 30 minute drive from my sister’s house I was staying at…4:45.  Time to get up, shower, get dressed.  Yep.  4am alarm.  But there I was…parking at Epcot in the wee hours of the morning for my first Disney race! The last time I was in the park at that hour was many years ago when I was on the overnight Test & Adjust team prior to opening Test Track.  Remind me to tell you about those days sometime!

There were 5 corrals, lettered A through E.  I was in E.  This meant maintaining the required 16 minute mile would be a bit more challenging.  Still, I was in it to win it!  Ok, not really.  Just to complete it.  One by one they would start each corral out on the course.  Because this is Disney, the starting whistle is a big deal.  They blow the horn, fireworks shoot into the air and off you go.  I watched the wheelchair people start right at 6:15.  Then fireworks for Corral A.  A bit later, off went Corral B with their launch of fireworks.  Then Corral C.  At that point the first runner from A was already coming across the finish line!  I had not even started yet!  Boom…there goes Corral D and now it is time for those of us in Corral E to move up to the starting line.  I was really nervous.  How would these more serious runners deal with the fat guy trotting the best he could.  Suddenly they were counting down. 

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Then in a blaze of red and blue glory, our fireworks shot into the air.  The finale music from Fantasmic started blaring.  How appropriate.  I have always love that piece of music.  How it builds and builds.  How the fireworks just keep going in time with the music while Sorcerer Mickey stands above it all conducting a magical assortment of pyrotechnic, laserphonic, water spraying ecstasy.  I found my foot steps beginning to move to the beat.  One in front of the other.  That is what I told myself.  It’s just 3.2 miles, Scott.  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will make it.  Keep in time with the music.  Each step burning another fraction of a calorie. The steps to a better 2014 had begun.  Just.  Keep.  Moving.

This year was different for me.  We had two shows of Buddy: The Buddy Holly scheduled as a sort of New Year’s Eve party.  It was set up so that each of the casts (the show is double cast) could do one of the shows.  However, my double had plans and so I was on for both shows.  Since I do not go on until half way through Act 2, I timed my leaving the house so that I would arrive just prior to intermission.  I was surprised to find that the first show had not even started when I got there! A quick little mental math made me realize that the second show would run through midnight.  Oh Boy, indeed.

So, onward we plowed through.  For a show that was a disaster the night before, I was shocked.  I mean, there are definitely things that need to be worked out, but both casts ROCKED tonight.  We had everyone up, dancing, singing, and overall having a great time.  I did find that two shows is really pushing it on my voice for this one.  And by the time we are done, I am WHIPPED.  I took a 5 hour energy shot before act 2 of the second show to make it through.  But, everyone seemed to have a great time…and that is what is important.

And…man, I had a blast tonight.  It is fun to have people screaming for you.

OK, I am going to call this my last post for 2013 (even though its already 2014!)  But when you are in a show that doesn’t go down until almost 1am, you do what you have to.  I hope to have a travel year in review posted soon as well as goals and plans (or dare I say resolutions!) for 2014.  Thanks to all of you who may be reading.  I love all of you!

Happy New Year!