It’s Spring. Time to box up the winter sweaters, open the windows, and air your life out. In the Spring of 2007, I was living alone for the first time in my whole life and decided it was time for a massive Spring Cleaning. This story is called “Out with the Old” it was written and performed in April of 2007.
As Fall settles in, the leave change to brilliant orange and red. The baseball season ends; football kicks off and I am left scratching my head when people around me ask about who I think will win any given game, I am reminded of my history with sports and how, as a child, I was forced to give all of them a try.
This story is called “Strike Three” it was written and performed in 2005.
Throughout the generations, people have expressed their anger, their joy, their confusion, their indignation, their pain, with expletives and adjectives that bring a curtain extreme tone to their point. These very same words, when uttered by children, send parents past the threshold the rational thought and straight for a bar of soap.
This story was written and performed in 2006, it’s called. Watch Your Mouth!
From 1999 until 2002, I worked for a summer enrichment program at Children’s Home in Iowa. Working with youth in need was far and away the most rewarding job of my life. These children, through their bravery taught me about life and love, hope and faith. In 2005, I wrote a 4 part story cycle about my time there and I present to you in its entirety.
This is The Lost Boys.
Leaving school with a performance degree is always a tricky thing. You are filled with hopes and dreams that your name will be in lights in no time… then reality crashes down on you, your bills are due, your checking account is overdrawn, your credit cards are maxed out and the only food left in your cupboard is half a roll of stale saltine crackers. But you are an artist, and you make it work. You find time to audition and you get a second job… at Starbucks… just like me.
This story is called Venti Working Man, it was written and performed in 2005.
The Big Apple, The city that never sleeps, A town so nice, they named it twice. In the summer of 2006, I spent a week in New York City, visiting friends, seeing shows, but mostly to be a tourist. Little did I know I would experience an awakening; a renaissance.
In 2006, the people of this nation voted for change when the Democratic candidates overwhelmingly took over the house and the senate. This was a clear message to the powers that be that the American people were fed up with what was going on; the war, the fear, and an ignorance of human decency that seemed to permeate the current administration. This Tuesday, the American people has that opportunity again. We can change this nation for the better. We will only need your hope for the future, and your vote.
This story was written and performed in November of 2006, right before the elections. It’s called, Worth The Fight
Every October, high schools, colleges, and universities celebrate a homecoming. This gives their alumni a chance to come back, see a football game, and visit with their friends that they may not have seen since they graduated. For me, this has always been a great opportunity to see how old, bald, and fat people gotten. But most importantly, to relive, if only for a weekend, the carelessness, simplicity and stupidity of college life.
This story was written and performed in October of 2007. Its called, The Fainting Goat
Going to the dentist is something that people, young and old, fear alike. Between the sound of the drill, the sterile smell of the clinic, the scraping of teeth with sharp metal instruments or the panic that you feel when you realized that you probably having flossed as much as you should have, the anxiety of sitting in that chair is enough to make people put it off until it is absolutely necessary. The first time you go to the dentist as a child however, you know nothing of what’s to come.
This story was written and performed in 2005, it’s called Tooth Hurty.
One of the most important things in a fathers life is his legacy. The values and traditions that were instilled in them by their fathers hold special meaning and urgency to pass on to their children. Unfortunately, sometimes their kids are resistant to bare the family crest. In my family, the tradition is fishing and I, a very unwilling fisherman.
This story was written and performed in 2001. Its called Gone Fishin’.
