So, did y’all know that I was an actor?

The theatre bug was buzzing all around me but didn’t bite until the summer after Sophomore year, when my teachers scraped together money to send me off to a two-week theatre camp called “Maine Summer Arts”. Oh boy. Two whole weeks away from everyone/thing I knew, interacting with other theatre people, dancers, artists, sculptors, writers. Misfits. Like me. The old story about the kid who never really fit in, but finding some identity and more importantly acceptance in people who shared his awkwardness. My awkwardness. But from there, my very first steps toward myself.

Because you see, on stage it doesn’t matter. You can be whomever you want. Little did I understand what that freedom meant, to be able to explore all those aspects of myself when I’m not busy being “me”.

But I digress.

With new attitude and confidence, I continued my theatrical pursuits as well as musical. I played sax in the band for years, and the following summer (before Senior year) landed me smack dab in the middle of the ultimate cliché: band camp. Again only two weeks, but I came away knowing exactly what I’d be doing for the rest of my life: performing. Sorry Mom and Dad, I’m not going to business school to become a CPA; I’m gonna go act.

University of Maine didn’t have a musical theatre program so I kept a foot in each department, with the final piece of paper reading “BA in Theatre”. I worked hard and had some really good mentors who helped me understand that “honing your craft” mostly has to do with digging yourself out from under all the baggage of misconception, ego, and fear. One professor said that we were being taught idealistically, and that the real world will look nothing like what we were set up to believe. He went on to say that this is done intentionally, not to discourage us but in hopes that we would “make things better”. I took that idea to heart--perhaps too much at times--that wherever I went and whatever I did, I would try to make things better.

I also decided that theatre for me was a career, and that meant that I should be able to support myself. “My art is valuable, and deserves compensation.” Anything less than that would move it right into the “hobby” category.

And work I did. Children’s theatre tours, regional shows. Eventually I based myself out of NYC, but unless you’re on Broadway the paying gigs are found in dinner theaters in Ohio, barn theaters in Michigan, vacation theaters in Missouri and New Hampshire. I hopped on busses to perform in traveling shows that took me all over the country and parts of Canada. Even Alaska. Auditions became rarer as I began getting work through referrals. Sure, there were downtimes, but I would just head back to NYC and temp for a while, keeping my eyes out for the next show.

I befriended a scriptwriter in Washington DC who helped me do just that. A video production company he worked for was hiring, and he facilitated an introduction. There I spent the next 5+ years.