Hey Peeps!
Happy New Year! It's been a while since I've update, but things have definitely been busy the last little while. I can't beleive we are alread into 2009. Um, one question...Where did freaking 2008 go!?!?
2008 was a good year. I thought I'd recap on everything I got to do this year:
January - April: "The Civil War" at Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley (playing leading roles Frederick Douglass and Clayton Toler). By far one of the best, and most powerful shows I have been apart of to date.
March - May: "Feelin' Groovy-A 60's Review" at Rodgers Memorial Theatre in Centerville. Put together and Arranged Music, Directed and Musically Directed the Show. A very tiring project, but worth the experience and it had a really neat outcome.
May-June: "Ragtime: In Concert" at Sandy Amphitheatre in Sandy. Directed, Musically Directed, and Conducted this production. What a freaking fun project. I had to come up with a simple concept/design that would be achieved with very little budget. The Orchestra became part of the set and background, and the cast dressed in "concert black" to simplify costuming. It turned out to be a successful production, and Sandy has now decided to do another concert production this upcoming season.
July: This month took me on trips to both Hawaii and Las Vegas. I spent 7 Days in Hawaii...BEST TRIP EVER. Met one of my dear friends Kristine who transferred with our company (Hilton) for a promotion. I stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Villiage Resort on the Big Island (Ocean View Room). My roommate Andrew flew over and joined me for a couple of days in Honolulu where we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Villiage Resort (in an awesome Suite with Ocean View!!) We had some great site seeing and beach time. It was my first true vacation in YEARS and felt so nice to get away from work for a while.
Later that month I joined a bunch of my good friends for a fun weekend trip to Vegas. It was in honor of a couple of friends Birthday's. We rented a nice Toyota Highlander and had a fun trip down. It got pretty wild and crazy at times, and I randomly ended up at this classy "strip club" and had an interesting night there....WTF!? haha
August: I had a fun trip to New York City with my best pal Scott M. Primary purpose of the trip was for call-back auditions for the Hairspray National Tour. While we were there we got to see 4 shows (Title of Show, Hairspray, Gypsy, and A Tale of Two Cities). It was sooo fun and laid back. I'm glad Scott was able to join me. I stayed at the Hilton right across from Ground Zero (Terrorist Attack Site). I could literally see down into the huge empty pit from my room. It was crazy.
September: Moved out of the Hudson House where I had lived for almost 3 years, and got a new house downtown in the Rose Park Area. Moved into a neighborhood where 3 sets of dear friends already lived. It's soooo nice living down town, and next to a park where my doggie can run around and play. I moved in with a great roommate, Ashely, and we have such a fun time together.
September-November: I played Dracula in Frightmares at Lagoon again. They built us a stage this year, so it felt much more like a real show this year. Of course it was fun having my roommate in the show with me along with other fun friends.
October - January: MUSIC MAN!!!! I ended the year working on "The Music Man" in Park City at the Egyptian Theatre. I worked on the show as the Musical Director and Conductor. It was a fun project. It felt pretty long and tiring, simply because it ran over each major holiday of the season (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year). But I was so glad I got to be apart of it. The orchestra was such a delight and sounded so good for how small it was (7-Pieces was all). We ended the run after 31 totall performances.
And now look....2008 is over and we are off to a busy 2009. Already I have opened a show "The Wizard of Oz" in which I designed lighting for. Now, I'm Musically Directing the show "Thoroughly Modern Millie" at Rodgers Memorial Theatre in Centerville. It opens on February 20th so be sure to come and see it!
Alright, that's all for now. :)
-T
So...Obama is our new president; how cool! Yet it's so weird at the same time. I can't say that I've ever been heavy into politics, but it's been really fascinating this year to follow what's going on and actually "live" through this historic time. I sit and think about how he must be feeling (tired? excited? overwhelmed?). I think about how crazy it must be to be living a semi-normal life one day and then become president the next. If it were me I'd just constantly have butterflies.
