The 4th Wall

I was born October 22, 1984 in Sumpter, South Carolina. My father was in the air force at the time so we often moved. Not long after my birth we moved to Shaw Air Force base in Las Vegas. It was just my parents and my older brother and I. When my parents got divorced me and my brother traveled across the country with my mom. After a few months living with my Aunt, we got settled into Rhode Island where I started 2nd grade. We might have stayed there had it not been for a chance meeting at the wedding of my Aunt Terri and Uncle Dicki. My mom met Paul English their, the man who would become my stepdad. When they started dating we moved to Connecticut and began our lives in the town of Bethel. I was starting 3rd grade at the time. I was getting settled into the town and into the school sytem when another important stage of my life began. CCD, that's religious education to those of you non-Catholics. Anyway, this was where I got my first bite of the theatre bug. Sometimes, after telling us a religious story, the teacher would ask us to act the story out in a little skit. I would always volunteer for this because it was such fun. Meanwhile at school, I was developing a taste for public attention and showing off with athletics. I was the fastest kid in my fourth grade class and won all of the speed related field day events. Unfortunately my confidence and extraversion was shortlived. As I entered middle school and even into high school I developed into a very shy and quiet individual. I could still be competitive and outgoing at times, but at others it was the opposite. It was like I was two different people. The continued well into high school and is even still present as part of my personality.

Summer break during college was never a period a stagnation. Each summer I continued my education, my actor training and my career as best I could. The summer between my sophomore and junior year I went to Lacoste, France to study for a semester. It was there that I learned about the history of theatre as well as classical acting techniques. That was my first exposure to performing Shakespeare. At the end of the summer I played the roll of Dr. Royer-Collard in an adaptation of Quills. The following summer I was part of an improv troupe that performed at the Savannah Actors Theatre. This group (known as the Opposite of People Squad, or OOPS) was a great because it allowed me to perform improv in front of a live audience and become more comfortable with it. That same summer I attended the National Stage Combat workshop in Las Vegas. It was bitter work as for three weeks I did combat litterally from dawn until dusk 6 days a week. I was trained in Unarmed, Rapier and Dagger, and Broadsword (in which I recieved a proficient rank). I also got a taste of Quarterstaff, sword and shield, knife, small sword and film fighting. The training I recieved came back to aid me in the future however and it was well worth it. The following summer I stayed in Savannah and took the last class I needed to finish up my minor requirements. I also participated in a few short films.

In the months leading up to graduation I was uncertain what I would do when I left college. I knew I wanted to go back to graduate school, but I didn't want to do it right away. My opprotunity appeared in the form of the Shakespeare Tavern apprentice company auditions. I scheduled and audition and took a day off from classes to go and try my luck. At graduation my family came in to celebrate and (as luck would have it) it was pouring that day. I was fascinated by our graduation speaker not because he said anything memorable or meaningful but simply because he had an interesting voice, one I studied as he spoke because I'm sure I can use it for some role. It wasn't long before I received and acceptance letter to the Tavern. The timing worked out perfectly between my final class and the apprentice company start date. I was able to finish up my last class at SCAD and move to Atlanta with an extra day to spare.

My first year at college was probably one of the most difficult and life changing periods in my life. I had gone to SCAD with the idea that I was going to pursue a career in Sequential art (comic books to those of you that don't speak nerd) and do theatre on the side as a hobby. I took an intro to performing arts class (because I planned to minor in that) and I was immediately hooked. I knew that this was what I wanted to do and I didn't care how difficult a career it was to pursue. I changed my major to performing arts and let sequential be my minor. My freshman year I was in a lab show called Valparaiso, directed by another student. I had a small part but I was excited to be doing theatre again. My sophomore year I officially joined the Performing arts department and began doing student films. At the end of that year I was in West Side Story, my first mainstage show at SCAD. The following year I was cast in the mainstage show As You Like It and I assistant directed the freshmen show Our Town, although I was eventually called upon to act in that show when one of the actors dropped out. I also performed in a lab show version of A Midsummer Nights Dream. In addition to continually doing film I was getting interested in doing improv. An improv club I frequently attended helped me meet people and I had a lot of fun with it. My Senior year I was cast in 3 mainstage shows, 1 community theatre show, my own senior show and of course some films. It was a very busy time of year for me. My own senior show, Dark Side Story, was rehearsing at the same time as The Marriage of Bette and Boo (in which I was the lead). These shows also opened within a week of each other. This created a lot of tension but it ended up working out just fine. Ironically, Guys and Dolls was my last show at scad, which I found funny because it was also the first show I ever acted in.