First Quarter 2007

Greetings family and friends. Let’s get started…

Performances

The run of the Gershwin musical I did, TipToes, went very well. Opening weekend Korken, one of the boys alongside me in the chorus, got laryngitis – couldn’t sing or talk…nothing. So when I got to the theatre on opening night the director asked “Could you do Korken’s scene?” I was all “Sure.” Then realized – hey, you gotta memorize a half dozen lines before going on in a few hours. I didn’t freak, really, but was nervous for a brief second. I ended up doing all his performances that opening weekend without any problems or flubbed lines. The show must go on, huh? All in all, it was a really great experience. The director was just as great as he could be and is in the process of putting another project together that I hope to be involved in. The cast was SO talented. Many of them and big stage and film credits to their name. I ended up learning a lot from that show and had a good time doing it.

After TipToes I turned my attentions to “Hello, Dolly.” I heard of an audition for the show and decided to watch the movie version starring Barbra Streisand (directly by Gene Kelly by the way) in order to become acquainted with it. While watching the movie I decided that I wanted to play Barnaby – the assistant to the assistant to the shop owner. I thought – it’s a big enough part to make me feel as though I’m doing a little more than chorus work and it’s not TOO big that I can’t handle it. Besides, Barnaby’s character was the dancer in the show and I know I can do that. I worked feverishly to learn a few of the songs Barnaby sings along with. I went to the audition and sang my best. They told me they weren’t doing any dancing that night, just singing but that I’d hear from them. Finally after 4 long days I heard that I was invited to the callback for Barnaby. Yeah!! I went to the callback and the first thing we did was dance. The choreography was easy enough and without sounding as though I’m tooting my own horn, I was the best male dancer there…so “honk, honk.” AnyHOOT, after dancing they taught us a song in literally 60 seconds, had all the boys stand in a line, asked one boy to step up to the piano, the guy played the 32 counts, you sang and then stepped back in line. NEXT! And on and on until all the boys sang. During that time I sized up my “Barnaby competition” and zeroed in on only 1 guy that would give me a run for my money. I know I’d already danced better than he and once I heard him sing I knew I sang better as well. Yes! After that we read from the show and were put in groups with other scene partners. THIS would be MY undoing. The ONE line in the scene we were given to read would be the end of line for me. It read: “Gee Cornelius, I’m ONLY 17….kissing is not that important to me yet.” Yeah. I know. This old, grey mare is a little long in the tooth to be trying a line like that. YEAH, I SAID I KNOW ALREADY. But let me just say this in my defense: I knew the character of Barnaby was that of a “young, inexperienced clerk” – I just wasn’t quite clear on how young. I mean, only 2 summers ago I played Tommy Djilas, the town’s teenaged (or so) no-goodnick surely I could play Barnaby. Cut to me getting a call later that week from the stage manager: “Hi Don. Listen, the director REALLY loved you but decided to go a different way with his casting of Barnaby. He was wondering, however, if you’d be interested in being cast as the featured dancer. He’d have lots of things to give you throughout the show…blah blah blah.” I told him I’d call him back. I did a few days later and told him I took another project (more on that in a bit.) “…another way with Barnaby…” oh, you mean cast someone who is actually 17 (or close to it) versus a hag who’s months away from 40? Is that what you mean by “another way?” Yeah, just checking. I can’t blame them though. The kid they cast would have been my second choice…first being me of course.

As for the other project I took, I’ll be a featured dancer the new rock opera called Junk. Information on this production is available at www.junkrockopera.com. It’s a pretty interesting project, very different from Hello, Dolly. Given the choice of doing chorus in a traditional musical or doing chorus in something new and unique, I opted for the latter. How was I to know that I would be faced with yet another dance “ghost” from my past. What does that mean? Well, for those of you “watching the show (of my life)” you’ll recall that last year at this time I was involved in a production of “The Wild Party” where I not only had to tap for the first time in 18 years but was given a spotlit tap solo. Tap was never my strong suit so I thought it was just funny and ironic that I would be given such a number. So that was then and no need to fear anything now – I conquered my “tap ghost” – I feel confident about tapping and hope to do more in other productions. Enter me in my first rehearsal for my solo in Junk. What do we have? No, not tap. Something WORSE…MODERN!!!! And we’re talking the kind of modern where you thrash your body around, not necessarily making any specific movements, etc. I’ve always hated this kind of modern dance. My thought is: this isn’t dance, it’s just a plain, old mess. From the vague direction of unstructured choreography “Just kinda do something sorta like this…” to the specific direction of unstructured choreography “Don’t point your feet when sitting on the floor but don’t flex them either. Have them somewhere in between.” To which I responded “You mean just hanging there like dead fish.” To which she responded “Yes.” My comment wasn’t meant to sound snide, though it could have. Her response wasn’t at all said like “Uh huh, yeah you snotty bitch” but more like a “Exactly, you totally get where I’m coming from.” ASIDE from that the experience should be pretty fun. I’m happy to have a friend in the cast that I knew from TipToes, that always helps. The production runs 2 weekends in May. After that, I’m going to take a break until the fall since I have lots of summer plans to celebrate my birthday.

Work

This section has been removed to protect the innocent, sorry folks. dp

Personal

The personal life is kinda just about where it always is. I went on a date the other night with a guy I met one night out at a bar. It was towards the end of the night, I’d had a drink or so, the lighting was dim, he seemed cute and my age-ish so I asked for his number. I called and we went out. Thank goodness he was still cute when I picked him up. We had appetizers and drinks and good conversation…then I found out…he’s 29!! COME ON!! I’m sure he was still talking after he said that because I saw his mouth moving but all I kept thinking was “29? Really?” He seemed older, mature. We’re supposed to go out again but after that one I’m not that sure. 10 years is a long time. Let’s put it this way, I could have driven him to kindergarten after getting my first license. Yeah, I know. But we’ll see. I’m open to anything and everything these days and am trying to go with the flow.

My little sister had her second baby, Jayden Wallace Hodgdon on March 20. Now Morgan has a little brother to boss around in a few years. Ahh, the memories…right Renee? I mean, what’s life like without a bossy, older sister? That one goes out to all you bossy, older sisters out there…I know you’re reading…Kris, Jenny, Venckus, etc, etc. J Thinking about it, I seem to have surrounded myself with a slew of girls from the older sister club. Hmmmm, I’ll have to see what my therapist says about that. But back to my new nephew, let’s see what the tally is up to these days: nephews = 5, nieces = 2. What a rip off!! I need more nieces!! But then again, gauging the girls in my family by volume alone I think things are pretty even. Other family news includes a nephew who just turned old enough to drive a car (WHAT?!) and my Godson who will be graduating from 8^th grade this spring. Am I really this old? Really?

Speaking of, the Year of Don has come along quite nicely and plans for the Summer of Don 2007 are just about complete. I have a trip to Chicago (date TBD) planned with my LA friends/Josh and Monte, I have a weekend in LA with my dancing friends/Marty and Natalie, and then I have a long weekend in Provincetown with my close “family of friends” over the weekend of my birthday. Also, I’ve recently decided to throw myself a party in LA for all of my LA friends to attend. You know, it wasn’t until recently when I started thinking about whether or not to have a party that I came to realize how many friends I’ve made out here. Friends that I really like and it made me happy. That party is (tentatively) going to happen Saturday, August 18. I say tentatively because I haven’t signed the contract for the space yet but it should happen soon. There were so many people that I wanted to invited, both here in LA and in Chicago, that I decided to rent some space at a bar for a few hours and have the party there. Sure it’s going to be a little pricey but you only turn 40 once. So any of you friends from Chicago who need a “reason” to come out to LA feel free to use my party as the excuse. There are a few really cute hotels in the neighborhood that should be reasonable. This invitation goes out to my family as well – I’d love to see you all here, too, and introduce you to my LA friends.

I think that’s all for now. Life is moving along and I’m moving along right with it. Acting, singing and dancing keeps me happy. Therapy has helped a bit, too. But all in all things are good. I’m happy to be able to write that. Please let me know how you all are doing. I hope to see you soon.