We have endeavored to up the ante on our scenic painting for this show using a glazed subway tile effect with two tones. It’s taken many hours to accomplish this task, including lots of aging and stressing the set so it doesn’t look brand new. I think it worked well.

When you discover a cool YouTube video which shows how to make barrels from construction lumber how could I refuse the challenge. Particularly when Nicholle just requested some additional seating options that fit the world of the play. So this spring break I put on my cooper hat and made some barrels. The first one did not turn out so good, I got the angle cuts wrong but the next two worked like a charm.

Sometimes when your entire set is build on casters they jam and you just want to cry. Particularly when the set is being used not just for our upper school production Alice By Heart but also for our Lower Middle School musical Descendants. These casters have been used for many productions, and the dust and dirt of the stage can definitely impede their smooth running. We gently tipped them on their sides so we could WD40 the wheels, and eureka, it worked. Now, to minimally mod

Rehearsals for our next show Alice By Heart are welll underway. For the first time since I arrived at Jemicy I will not be directing but stepping back to allow our other performing arts faculty member Nicholle D’Anna to take the reins. I know that Nicholle is ready for the opportunity and challenge. In addition, this provides the students experience of working with different directors and allows me to step back and focus on the technical elements like the set. Here are a few

Celebrating our love of theatre at the Maryland State Thespian Festival 2025

The glory of a blank stage. We spend so much of our time as theatre makers filling the stage with magic to share. The moments where it is blank and clear between productions can be rare. When we fully strike and the stage is an empty space I am filled with the excitement of possibility. Visions of all that we will come to create leave me feeling inspired. Time to rest until the next show!

The longer I teach the more I learn. Not only about disciplines which I never really studied like sound design/production but also about myself. I am not a natively organized person. My brain and heart is a swirling chaos of ideas and feelings. However in my role as a teacher/director/leader I have found I must be organized so my students and collaborators have a clear sense of what we are doing, when we are doing it and how. So I am working towards creating more systems to s

If I was a filmmaker I might have composed this image, but me being me I witnessed this beautiful moment and decided to capture it. This year we are offering a new course in the performing arts called acting for the camera. Most of us alive today will watch and create more video content than that on the stage. My work as an actor in short films, some regional commercials and content creator for Clown TV gave me a lot of firsthand experience being in front of the camera. Writi

A set comes together by degrees. Baby steps which all lead towards an eventual reality. Every time I do this it feels new, because each time I do this I reach a bit further. This means I never really know what it will take. That is part of the fear and part of the thrill. Radium Girls is coming together.

Creating props for productions, particularly puppets is rather magical. Kronos and friends have been hanging around since the end of The Lightning Thief. We put so much time and effort into creating these pieces that it is hard to just get rid of them, however the likelihood of us needing all these props does not seem high. Following a quick post on Facebook Kronos has a new home with a community theatre in New Jersey.

For those about to audition, we salute you. Some great advice reposted from the Actor's Center. A person is an artist once they choose to be. Rather than try and prove that you are an artist just show up and make art, the work will follow. As we head into auditions this fall I hope I can help my students remember this.

Rae and I went on an adventure today to learn about basket weaving with native materials. Somehow it always reminds me of my first summer at boy scout camp when I took the basketry merit badge. We had a lovely afternoon learning a new skill and I am eyeing up long grass as potential materials anytime I see them in the wild. I am coming for you cattails!

I guess I am a scenic designer now. I set out to be a scenic designer even less than a director, and yet something about designing the physical world of a play feels like home. What starts as half formed sketches in my journal quickly becomes a model. Each step of the process reveals something new. Here is a sneak peak of my thoughts for Radium Girls.

Over the past week, I have been reviewing teaching materials for Shakespeare Theatre of LA’s Shakespeare & Social Justice Asynchronous...

Excited to share that this weekend I started the teacher training program for the Miller Voice Method! I believe this will add new depth...

Happy Opening to the cast and crew of Merry Wives of Windsor! It has been a joy understudying this show at the magical Patapsco Female...

Whew, did I mention it has been a busy week! It’s great to be back Understudying again at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. For this...

I was slightly worried that the whole day of riding in the rain yesterday may have dulled my senses. However, I am pleased to share I...