Brrrr?

Herro folks. Happy winter. Hope y'all are keeping warm. (Note: today in Philly, it's a balmy 72 degrees. I kid you not.) In any case, here's what I been-a-upto:

1. Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. Back in October, I acted in an episode of History Making Productions's Emmy-award winning documentary series about colonial Philadelphia. I played a traveler. In a rowboat. With young Benjamin Franklin. Check out the project site. Episode to debut on ABC 6 in January. More deets to come. (I'll be the one with stankface, in the front of the rowboat.)

2. Blood in the Bathtub - TJ Kong and The Atomic Bomb. Later last month, I shot a Tj Kong music video. Directed by Brian Melton (with assistance from Claire Abribat). It was weird and lovely and involved bath tubs and grotty packages and charcoal makeup. Still to the right, and full video here. (I pop up around two minutes in).  Check out TJ Kong if you haven't already. They're crazy good. They describe themselves as: "a band of so and so's who sound like Bob Seger high on cocaine and lost in the apocalypse....a throwback, if such a thing is still possible, to the swinging, drunken dancing memories of jump blues and roadhouse rock and big band leaders and Elvis."

3. Directors Gym - Directors Gathering.  Just before Halloween, in proper fashion, I participated in a "Romeo and Juliet and Zombies" workshop for one of my favorite local organizations, Directors Gathering. The Director's Gym event gave three directors a chance to spend two hours with actors, developing and presenting for feedback a brand-new theatrical idea. Our work was led by William Steinberger (from Marbles. Check out his awesome company inVersion all day erryday). We danced to pretty sweet 90s playlists, talked about the intersection of low-brow and high-brow culture, and got to make a lot of iambic-pentameter-ish zombie noises. Good stuff.

3. Headshots n Berkshires n TryCaviar. I had the chance last month to do some shooting in the Berkshires while visiting with my family. Also took some headshots (check out Marie Gantz Photography) and did another shoot for TryCaviar, at Plenty Cafe. Nom nom nom. Some stills to the right. Even more shots under the photography tab, if yer interested.

4. Upcoming: Something From Nothing & MixTape Poetry Project. This January I'll be participating in the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training's Winter workshop, called "Something From Nothing." Check out Pig Iron. They do fabulous, inventive, physical/devised theatre. Couldn't be more stoked to get to know and learn from these folks. There's a performance date at the end of the workshop, too - deets on the homepage.
Also also, just contributed to the Kelly Writer's House's Mixtape Poetry Event. Curated by my once-teacher Michelle Taransky, the project includes four monthly mixtapes which each include 12 poems (or parts of poems) selected by 12 participants.  The poems are on their own sheet of 4" by 2.65" paper and stuffed into an actual plastic cassette case. There is a reading for the event in February, in which I'll be participating. (Also has deets on the homepage.)

5. What Else? I went to the Orbiter 3 Launch last week. Don't know what that is? Oh man. Check these guys out. Suffice to say, they're exploding in the playwright/theatre/awesomeness scene in a big big beautiful way. Features Safe Space playwrights Emily Acker, Emma Goidel and Doug Williams/director Maura Krause.
I'm continuing to work on a solo-show-type-thing, which I vaguely alluded to in my last post. Gonna continue to be vague until there are specifics to share. (heh. heh.) Stay tuned!
Last but not least, I returned to Penn last month to see my lovely iNtuitons's fall show, The Opposite of Loneliness: A Disconnection Project. Proud of these kids. (Performed with them for four years, served on their board for three, and directed their fall show in 2013.) Check these fools out. They're making awesome, awesome stuff.

Thanks for reading. Errybody stay warm(?), and have a happy Turkey Day. Finally, enjoy this derp-tastic photo from Safe Space to the right. Taken by JJ Tiziou Photography.