Welcome to those of you who have seen Drawn Dead.
A few notes about the show:
– Yes, this is based on a true story. Some details were shared a bit out of order, but the key salient details happened… my experience with poker, my decision to quit a demanding job, my trip to Pendleton, and my run ins with the weather during my trip. Obviously the voiceovers are a dramatization.
– My offered impression of my UW coworkers is embellished and satirical. Truth be told, we mostly got along fine and I mostly think well of them. The scene is more of a presentation of what I felt at the time. My full time career was mostly just too demanding for what I was doing in my life, and I needed the freedom to pursue my own interests so I left… amicably.
– Yes, I was in fact a profitable poker player during my time playing, both in tournaments and in cash play. I didn’t make close to enough to consider going pro as I didn’t play more than once every couple weeks, and I didn’t have any sort of bankroll to ever consider such a thing. No, I did not play online, as it is illegal to do so in Washington State. Thanks, Margarita Prentice!
– No, I don’t play anymore.
– The show has some clear rough edges and remains a work in progress. Though it’s been in written development for months, a lot of the show’s current elements were very recently implemented. Once John Leith and I began work together about a month ago we mutually made significant changes to the show. He and I ceased collaboration about a week and a half before opening night to allow me to implement and rehearse the revised show.
– Yes, I wrote and composed the song at the end. Save for obvious samples, all the audio was designed by myself.
For those of you new to this weblog, a few brief bits about me:
– I grew up in Las Vegas and have lived here since 2004.
– I practiced theatre in HS and my first stint in college at UNLV in Las Vegas. I left theatre mostly behind in 1999 and did not come back to practicing in theatre until 2010.
– Since then, I have studied and practiced various forms of improv, as well as clown theatre, stage combat (SAFD certified in 2011), Meyerhold Biomechanics and modern + improvisational dance. I have also seen hundreds of shows, made a few performance pieces and helped out several arts organizations in varying capacities.
– I had never so much as taken a dance class in my entire life until last year. I now work extensively with the dance community, and you can thank Jenna Bean Veatch (who cast me in her production Sideshow) in large part for turning me in that direction.
– I have worked extensively over the past year with Vanessa DeWolf and Studio Current, as well as a host of other dancers, writers and performance/visual artists, in researching experimental performance art processes. The pieces I create now are a process of researched combinations and amalgamations of various performance arts.
– Given the above, I pretty much don’t do theatre (as you know it) anymore, don’t make conventional theatre plays, and likely won’t do either again. Giving you a resume or CV would be a bit of a misnomer, in the sense of, “Look at all this stuff I don’t do anymore.”
– That said, other recent projects include work with Daniel Linehan, KT Shores, GENDER TENDER, Vanessa DeWolf, Xan Scott, Jenna Bean Veatch and Ear to the Ground. I take on projects on a case by case “is this interesting or relevant to all of us?” basis.