Second Quarter 2007

I looked to see when I last wrote and, wow, it's been a long time. But I decided to wait an extra month to write in order to include ALL the birthday celebrations I threw myself. And we’ll get to that a little later but let’s go over some other things first.

WORK

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

PERFORMANCES

In June the theatre group of which I’m a part – Musical Theatre of Los Angeles (MTLA) – had a fundraiser. We’re looking to raise funds to execute our first musical as an official company. The benefit was an evening of musical theatre numbers from a variety of musicals. I performed in: “All That Jazz” & “Hot Honey Rag” from Chicago, 2 numbers from the show we did last year, Wild Party and then “Steam Heat” from the Pajama Game. That was the best number since it was a trio and gave me a chance to be highlighted a bit. The finale was awesome as well. We sang “No Day” from RENT; a very powerful song from a very powerful show. We made a little money but not as much as we were hoping so I think we’re going to do another benefit in the fall. Some same numbers, some new. The line up isn’t in stone yet but I’m looking forward to it anyway.

I’ve gone out on a few auditions but nothing has “stuck” yet. As some of you know, I did a game show that aired on GSN (Game Show Network) at the beginning of July. I didn’t win anything but had fun doing the show even if it didn’t look as though I was having fun. What does that mean? Well, I may or may not have been caught on national television giving what some may or may not call “dirty looks” to the other contestants when they beat me at the buzzer. In my own defense I will say that IF I do look as though I’m making a face it only proves that I was totally interested in playing the game and winning and not just wanting to be on TV.

But the biggest story of all would have to have been an audition I did in the spring. It’s important for an actor to have an agent. Why? While I have been getting myself auditions by submitting on my own there are some auditions that only agents know about. Without an agent I don’t have access to that information. Sometimes actors send headshots, resumes and letters to all the agents in town HOPING that they’ll be asked to come in to meet and ultimately get signed with an agency. There are some agents/agencies that represent dancers as well as actors and therefore have an audition to see if they like anyone well enough to represent them. That’s the audition I went to in the spring. There were various calls throughout the day: jazz, hip hop, and musical theatre. Since I wanted to be represented for musical theatre I planned to go to that audition. Also, I knew the other calls would be riddled with 18-23 year olds who want to be music video dancers. Not me.

Ok, so I find out that in order to be eligible to take the musical theatre audition you HAVE to take one of the other auditions. Great. Fine. I went to the jazz audition. When I got there it was packed. It was so packed that they said “OK, we’re going to have you do something very simple across the floor to see if we like what we see. If we ask you to stay, stay for the official audition. If not, thanks.” I love it – an audition to audition (insert eyeroll.) Fine. I wore my little shorts to show off the gams, I mean these ARE my calling cards, and went across the floor. Got to the end and was told “Thanks but we won’t be needing you to stay.” What?! Whatever. But as I was walking out I said to one of the other people running the audition “Hey, I really wanted to take the musical theatre audition but was told I had to come to this.” She was all “Oh, then just come back for that. No worries.” Ugh. So I hung out in my dance clothes and as time went by the musical theatre people started showing up. How did I know? They were all dressed to the 9s looking like they were ready to go out on the town. I’m thinking “Uh, aren’t we going to dance? And if not, I look like sweaty ass compared to everyone.” As it turned out – no – we’re not going to dance, just sing our song and do our monologue (of which I prepared both.) And rather than the audition process I’ve become used to – everyone waiting outside the audition room and people called in one at a time – this audition had EVERYONE in the room watching EVERYONE audition. So it’s the table of about 5 agents and about 30 or so girls and guys all wanting to get into this agency.

They went through the pile of people randomly. The first person was called. She sang, everyone clapped. She did her monologue, everyone clapped. The second person went – same thing. She sang, everyone clapped. She did her monologue, everyone clapped. Awesome I thought. They called me next. So I stood on my mark, note: looking like sweaty ass – and sang. I think a hairpin fell out of someone’s head in the very back of the room because I F-ING HEARD IT. No one clapped. Pause. So I said “Ok….I’m going to do my monologue.” I finished and had the same response – none…at first, then some half hearted clapping. Whatever.

I’m glad I went because it was a good experience. I’m also glad I went because 2 weeks later I got a voicemail that I couldn’t quite make out. Some agency wanted to sign me. I couldn’t make out the name and wondered if I was on some mailing list. I did a search on line for what I THOUGHT the name sounded like and couldn’t find anything. Finally I listened to the voicemail again and thought – wait, she’s not saying DDO is she? I called the number and voila – it was them. It was the audition where I could hear a pin drop. When I talked to my (now) agent, Chantelle, she said “It was so great to see someone with talent.” So there you go, I now have an agent. I’m so LA, right?

THE YEAR OF DON

If you’re a friend of mine you know that this year’s birthday was a big one for me. I wanted to make it as special as possible so I planned of few different things with a few different groups of friends. With exception of a big family trip that did not come to pass I have to say that all of my plans were executed and executed perfectly. Here’s a quick rundown:

CHICAGO TRIP

I wanted to have a trip with a friend that’s become very special to me over the last few years, Josh, and thought what better place to have that trip than Chicago. We came for the last weekend of June and had THE best time. The weather couldn’t have been better – warm, sunny and oddly lacking humidity. Since Josh hadn’t been to Chicago in some time I was very excited to show off my hometown. I was also very excited to show off my Chicago friends. We had dinner at My Pie (my FAV Chicago pizza) and then off to Sidetracks for their famous “purple slushies.” Lots of friends were able to come for dinner and drinks and it made the evening very, very special. Among other things done while in Chicago: ballet class, gay country line dancing, Taste of Chicago and a leisurely stroll down Michigan Avenue. We were lucky enough to spend time with my little sister for lunch one day and brunch with my mother on another day. I thank Josh for all the effort he put into this trip.

DANCER TRIP

I started taking dance class in June of 1984 and shortly thereafter met people who have been very close friends ever since. I thought it would be great if those friends and I spent time together for my birthday. My gift request of them: come out to LA so we can all take a ballet class together. It would be the first class we’d taken together in 10, 15 years maybe and just like old times. Key word in that sentence: OLD. J The idea was less about taking class though and more about just being together in our old environment. Natalie and Marty came out to spend the weekend with me the week before my birthday. We had a great time with the highlight being (for me at least) all of us taking class. Marty and Natalie might have a different take on this but I thought it was great. I thank Marty and Natalie for traveling to LA to spend the weekend and for taking ballet class (ok, BARRE ONLY) with me.

PROVINCETOWN TRIP

This trip had to mean the most to me because I spent my actual birthday in Provincetown. Best of best friends were there to celebrate my day as well as each other that weekend. The cast of characters – were just that characters: Mary Jo, Monique, Jenny, Barry, Mike, Grammy, Greg, Brian and Edgar. The trip was flawless…ok, there was one little hiccup. The night of my birthday when we went to dinner I asked for the server if she could take the lobster out of its shell if I ordered it. She said: “No, I’m too busy and so is the kitchen.” She and I went round and round with what I might like instead. Every time she suggested something I quickly cut her off with a “No” before she even finished. It was a verbal back and forth with everyone at the table just watching in silence. Frustrated she asked; “Do you have an idea of what you’d like?” I said: “Yes.” She was all: “Well, I think you should get what you want, it’s your birthday.” And then I was all: “Yeah, I want the lobster and I want you to take it out of the shell.” Sitting there with my arms folded I almost didn’t order anything. (Sidenote: semi-epiphany at that point as I realized that I’d done that since I was very young and concluded that somehow there is “power” or “control” in choosing or not choosing to eat. VERY interesting, yes?)

Other than that one little moment everything else was the absolute best. My friends had a little pre-dinner cocktails party for me on my birthday evening complete with gifts and a champagne toast. They were all SO generous in flying out to P-town AND buying gifts. I also received 2 special gifts from people not in attendance – my niece Morgan and nephew Jayden sent me flowers as did my good friend Jen. Those vases along with a third from Barry and Mike made my room look and smell beautiful for the duration of my stay. It’s a weekend I’ll never forget and I’ll love my friends forever for it.

LOS ANGELES PARTY

If anyone would have told me when I moved to Los Angeles in January 2003 that for my 40^th birthday I would have a party where I invited 100 people that I liked enough to host I would not have believed it. Well, it happened. Out of the 100 or so people I invited about 50 showed and stayed the evening. Since I wanted everyone to enjoy themselves and knew my apartment would be way too small I rented space and said that would be that. No clean up for me to worry about, no “playing bartender” – none of that. The evening went off without a hitch and I couldn’t have been happier. Among my “local friends” there was Grammy who came in from Las Vegas, Karen who came in from Chicago, Jason who came up from San Diego and Jay who came down from San Francisco. And generous, oh my. I can’t believe some of the gifts I received from my friends here. The girls at Bon App bought me an iPod (my first/only) and my friend Monte gave me a/the Tiffany key ring. Gifts don’t measure friends or friendships but if they ever did I know now that I’ve won the jackpot of jackpots.

For those of you who have made it this far, I’ll end here. My apologies for such a wordy email/update but I knew I wanted to wait until after all my “official” birthday celebrations were concluded so I could report and brag about them. I say “official” because in the year of Don there can, should, and will always be a few more unofficial birthday outings before December 31. I’ll be sure to write about them and anything I may have missed this time around – next time around. Until then I’m looking forward to getting all of YOUR updates. Tell me what’s going on.

My very best,

Don