March Break!

Hey Abyss,

It's finally March Break, I am so excited to finally have a break!

This last week has been a whirlwind; we did 5 shows of The Seagull and I also had my Solo Show Tutorial. That doesn't sound like a lot but it is, I can promise you.

Looking back on the experience, despite my initial hesitations about it, it was truly amazing and I am so grateful to have worked with Tanja on this wonderful show. It challenged me in so many ways and her supportive and blunt ways only made it more successful. Thank you :)

The weeks leading up to now have been rather introspective for me and I have solidified a lot of my personal and artistic goals. I have also started to understand that everything takes time and although I am becoming aware of the things that will help me grow, I have to give them the time to flourish in myself. Instead of demanding growth and beating myself up for it not happening right away.

Tanja called me on owning my wins today in our "end of project interview" and it has never rang more crucial. I am very reliant on the opinions of other people when it comes to my work and life. This trait is extremely deadly in myself and I am glad that she put it out there for me. I am learning how to feel confident in my choices regardless of how people react, or how they feel. It is about me and my choices and how I choose to express myself.

This seems elementary, but I have always struggled with feeling good about my ideas. Especially here at NTS due to the massive amounts of talent that abound. In order for me to become stronger in myself as a young man and artist this issue needs to be resolved.

I have had a few people come into my life lately that have shown me what my life could be like without my insecurities, and it is far better. So, my mission to myself is to continually do what I love and work towards that positive and brave person that I know I a capable of being.

Life is so funny sometimes.

I am truly blessed.

When I take the time to actually listen to what's around me, as well as myself, I learn so much. This week is going to be about me. I have started a cleanse of my mind and body and really want to enjoy and learn this March Break.

I am going to see Montreal this week, finally, and focus on my Solo Show.

That is a promise. (I am full of promises today...)

And on that note I am going to take a shower and begin with going to see Twelfth Night at the Monument - Nationale!

Here is a goofy photo of my character from The Seagull.

Night Abyss

Off With His Hair!

Hey Abyss,

This week has blazed by; we do our first performance of The Seagull on Tuesday.

I cannot believe it.

I am really excited to see how it goes. Things have been really great for me, personally, this week. I have had a lot of epiphanies and it has made my trajectory a lot more clear.

I have finally received a mentor, who does the actual job of mentoring me. As well as being surrounded by throughly supportive teachers that have seen what I am capable of and what is holding me back as an artist. With the advice from these people over the last two weeks I have been uncovering a lot about my process and who I am/want to be in the classroom.

Sometimes we need to be shown our faults, so that we can make them our assets.

I am still learning how to stay in the unknown/confusing aspects of my education, but it is a difficult thing to do. I know that by me being resilient and forcing myself to accept challenges on a daily biases, I will become stronger in my craft.

Working with Tanja Jacobs has been great. She has challenged me in a lot of ways and also allowed me to do the things that I am good at, a nice combination. Although looking back I wish I had allowed myself to be challenged more rather than receding into the work that fulfils me at the moment. She is a wonderful actress, and is really direct, which is what I need. As I tend to be a procrastinator, and skate around what actually needs to be done, and awful habit to have in school.

I have also found myself being two types of performers: There is "School Wayne" and "Life Wayne" and they both are part of me, but I need "Life Wayne" to combine with "School Wayne" to make the most out of my education.

I sound absolutely crazy, but essentially "School Wayne" is lazy and more concerned with social aspects. Whereas "Life Wayne" is a driven, focused but practical actor. And so basically these two need to fuse like a Yu-Gi-Oh Card.

As for the title tonight, I am shaving my head. Its for my role in The Seagull, but it has been a while since I have done it and I am slightly nervous heading into it, sorry for the pun. Below is all I need to make this night a success.

So, I am going to proceed with that and will be posting the before and after pictures to my Tumblr and Twitter!

Night Abyss. 

Oatmeal Cookies and Almond Milk?

Hey Abyss,

Today was the end of the second week of rehearsals for The Seagull that Tanja Jacobs is directing for our first studio performance at The National Theatre School of Canada. It is still a text exploration and not as high tech as the third year shows are, but it is exciting knowing that we are working towards a show that is open to the public! We are performing the last week of February, right before March Break.

The contrast of how slow and fast the weeks go by never ceases to amaze me.

Yet the cold winds never stop blowing. Montreal weather is the pits.

Rehearsal is going well, it has been a very active week which was a nice change from all the table work we had been doing. It is true what Tanja said though," We will know the play much better after spending so much time excavating it".  We have been delving into a lot more character work this week which is my preferred area and I have been throughly enjoying discovering who these people are beyond what is written.

My favourite part of putting a show together is getting acquainted with all the new people we are playing. It's like going to a party, for lack of a better analogy. I love the transformation that happens over the course of rehearsal. Or in any process for that matter. I absolutely adore the aspect of sinking into a character and becoming one unified mass. It teaches me so much about myself, not just as an artist and my range as an actor (when I do it well), but as a person and what my facets are in my waking life. I always find the process of character development very informative.

So needles to say, this week has been fun.

I bought a ticket to the Mrs. Carter World Tour (http://www.beyonce.com/tour-dates) today, which will be taking place in July here in Montreal and I am stoked. I am going by myself, but am not worried because I can guarantee that I will not be the only one having a good time. Seeing Beyonce and Prince live are two of the things I need to do before I die. I am scratching this concert off my bucket list and also cannot delve into any extracurricular expenses for the next 5 months, which includes any food but rice and beans.

Sacrifices.

I am teaching in Ottawa this summer as well as my home town, and so there will be much travelling. I hope that I can book some work in Halifax this summer so that I am not completely broke for the first two months of the summer break. That is all very far in the future now, so it is best not worry about it. I have a good feeling about how this year is turning out and cannot wait to see what unfolds for me as a student, and performer in the next little bit.

I feel very blessed.

I am now going to watch Mad Men and read from The Art of Manliness book and teach myself how to bring the classy back.

Night Abyss

50 cents and the Super Bowl.

Hey Abyss,

It is Sunday, which means that I have a number of things to do. Namely homework, laundry and cleaning the rest of my apartment. I have this tenancy to only clean my bathroom and living area, and avoid my kitchen completely. I am not entirely sure why I do this, perhaps I will come to the conclusion one day.

I also need to accomplish these things before the Super Bowl starts at 6:30, so this will be a challenge in itself.

Oh, and I need to find 50 cents before I can do all of my laundry.

#Studentproblems.

Yes I just did that.

This week has been an interesting one. I have a tenancy to anticipate a lot in my life. I think of all possible outcomes of situations and usually like to endow new experiences with excitement. Unfortunately most times my ideas of how situations will play out is not exactly how they do.

We started rehearsal on The Seagull with Tanja Jacobs this week, and it has been different than I anticipated.

Not bad, just different.

We have spent the last 6 days doing explorative table work, which Tanja kept reminding us is really effective in knowing the script inside and out. It was interesting because I have never spent that amount of time simply writing down facts and questions. But she is right, I feel like I know the content of the play very well now. The hardest part of this week was not delving into my developing process, which is very character based, instead it was mostly spent reading and writing.

I now see the value in this process, and understand that the beauty of the school is that every person that works with us is going to bring something new and we have the option to carry that through our lives as actors or abandon it completely. We are consistently filling our utility belt as young performers and we get to build a process for ourselves with the tools that we have been given. I also have to take into account that regardless of what process I develop for myself, depending on the director I may work with, I will have to change it to accommodate their desires.

A hard pill to swallow when I am still figuring out what works for me.

As time goes on at the school, I figure out what contributes to good acting and makes actors strong. The school is filled with people who are talented. But its finding out how to use your talent in the strongest way possible which comes through in a variety of ways. Second semester, this year, has been showing me how hard you have to work behind the scenes to bring it on the day. This "working" aspect is something that I am relatively bad at, and so the opportunity to explore different ways to jump in has been challenging but exciting.

Things are still very early in the process of The Seagull, so I may have more details down the road. For now this is what I have been thinking about. I am off to find some quarters and clean my bathroom again in avoidance of my dishes.

Night Abyss

Forward into the New Year!

Hey Abyss,

I am back from a wonderful and much needed vacation. I learned to never underestimate the feeling of simplicity.

If there was one thing that I am coming back with from my break it is that.

I am normally a pretty self-stressed person and find that I usually pass by the things that I truly enjoy for things that I think need to be done, such as watching a TV show or listening to an album that makes me happy. Speaking of TV shows I am currently watching American Horror Story: Asylum and Mad Men.

I received the first season of Mad Men for Christmas and am throughly enjoying it, which doesn't come as much of a surprise since 3.54 million viewers also share that opinion.

School starts back up on the 8th, but I am presenting some more work on my Solo Show on the 6th to Adam Lazarus and Jodi Essery. I am looking forward to making some more headway with the character I am working on. So far most of my "work" on the piece has been character development, specifically over the last few days. I have spent way too much money on it so far, so here is hoping that something good comes out of our meeting on Sunday.

Other than research and watching TV, not a whole lot has happened since my return to Montreal.

But there is nothing wrong with that.

I am looking forward to what lies ahead for me in 2013. I feel truly blessed for the amazing year that was 2012. My family and friends have honestly been a wonderful source of support throughout the year.

Over the break I had the opportunity to go back to my high school and talk to some of the students in Grade 11 Drama, it was a really wonderful experience to see the desire in some of their faces. I hope that I was able to provide them with valuable information. I really wanted to encourage them to do what they loved and not be trapped in the walls of the small town that we come from. My home town is what is making me the artist that I am becoming, but it is easy to get trapped there and not look outward for the things you love.

I have a few resolutions for myself this year, and I want to work hard on making them a reality rather than another list that is shoved to the back of a desk drawer. I am also going to work really hard this semester on cementing a process for myself with script work. I feel as an artist the process is continually changing, but I want to have some staple things that I always do with the script I am working on at the time.

When we get back we are working for three weeks with Lazlo Martin on Three Sisters, specifically working particular scenes from the play rather than the whole piece. Then we head into rehearsal for The Seagull with Tanja Jacobs. I have been cast as Shamraev (for those of you who know the play that will mean something haha), it is a smaller role but I plan to make the best of it. I am looking forward to being in rehearsal again. I like the process of working towards a larger product.

Anyway, it is getting late so I am heading to bed.

Night Abyss.

Sunday - A Day of Rest?

Hey Abyss,

Things have been busy over the last four weeks. I can't believe how quickly things are moving, but at the same time I am very anxious to get home to my family and friends in the Maritimes.

My classmates and I had a Christmas Party last night which was great, we had so much tasty food and I felt rather classy with my ugly sweater and glass of Whiskey. All I needed was a cigar and I would have been ready for a segment on the Art of Manliness. Of course being surrounded by all the food and Christmas music playing in the background made me a little more homesick. I am really looking forward to the break this year. The last few weeks have been especially draining, energetically.

The two weeks we had with Tanja Jacobs were interesting, to say the least, I felt I had the most fun in the last few days we worked with her. After those days I am quite interested to see how our process goes after the break.

We then worked with Yael Farber for the last two weeks, she is an intense woman. And I mean that in the best sense of the word. I learned a lot from her, she is a very generous and focused person and offered such wonderful insight into the characters that we were working with. The spine of the last two weeks were the text from After Miss Julie by Patrick Marber, and so it was a very fierce exploration, if you know Marber. The class was very sacred to me so I won't delve that much further into it, but I feel that it was exactly what I needed right now in my journey here at the school.

Another NTS moment that I won't soon forget.

We have been bombarded with many little projects lately, that have to be continually percolating with us at all moments of the day. This has made it hard to come home and relax, but everything is changing next semester because we start to move into productions for the next year and a half. As I stated in earlier posts; we have three studios shows next term.

The Seagull Directed by Tanja Jacobs

Solo Show Directed by Adam Lazarus and Jodi Essery

? Shakespeare Directed by Joe Ziegler

I am completely amped to start doing some productions, they are not fully fledged as they are still explorations but we do have public performances which is exciting in itself.

Today, in a couple of hours in fact, I am filming an audition for a movie that is shooting this summer, it is very much a shot in the dark considering it is an open call but I feel that there is no harm in submitting. I'm nervous about it because this is my one shot, its not like a regular audition where there is option to be directed. I submit one take.

Other than that there isn't really anything else going on. We start working on the staged reading of our text that David Yee has written for our class. I anticipate that it will be a fun week, I have some remaining research to do on the text before tomorrow though.

Wish me luck.

Night Abyss

The Seagull

Hey Abyss,

This week we start seeding work on Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, which my class will be performing in the new year as one of our three studio performances. Our version is being directed by Tanja Jacobs and I am really pumped to meet and work with her for the next little bit. We are working with her for the next two weeks and then will be moving onto work with Yael Farber and Strindberg's Miss Julie. Leaving only one week after that before Christmas Break happens.

Things are moving so fast, its nuts.

During this time we have to be working on our Solo Show which will be presented in March of the new year (our second studio show). This is more or less a "moon project" it is always orbiting whatever we presently have going on. I am still trying to find things to write about for this project, but as time goes on I feel that something will inspire me and I will go like a locomotive. The essence of the project is we have full creative liberty over what we want to present, but we have to write and perform alone onstage for 15 minutes. Kind of scary, but also exciting.


To touch on the last two weeks, after Maiko and Antoine, we worked with Nina Lee Aquino and David Yee on a new play he is writing for my class. We basically workshopped for the rest of the week and now have a full text and were asked to continue exploring that until we receive a revised draft closer to December 14th, which is when we are doing a staged reading of it. I really like the play and hope that we will be able to bring it into full production in our third year.

Nina and David are great.

And last week we had the most amazing Shakespeare Voice class with none other than Andrew Wade, who has worked with the likes of Judy Dench and Gwyneth Paltrow. He was so great, I learned so much from him in 6 days and kind of wish that we had him more often. Definitely a memorable moment from NTS.


Not much else has been happening of late, I am getting over a cold brought on by the inconsistent weather changes here in Montreal. So thats nice.

Blackbird is still making its rounds, which warms my heart.

It did well in Warsaw, and is playing in Rome these next few days. It will make its theatrical release in Paris during the month of February. A North American release has not been decided yet.

My break from reading the two versions of The Seagull, has been used to write this entry so I am going to go back to reading.

Thanks to all the readers who continue to read my ramblings, it means a lot.

Night Abyss

Here are some neat links:

Yael: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/edinburgh-festival-reviews/9480925/Edinburgh-Festival-2012-Mies-Julie-The-smash-hit-of-the-Fringe.html

Nina: http://kapisanancentre.com/2011/07/20/reasons-why-you-should-know-who-nina-lee-aquino-is/

Andrew: http://www.actorsworkout.org/2009/11/andrew-wade/