It's a jungle out there:

Okay, I havent updated my blog in a long time. I'm sure all you blog naysayers have been waiting on pins and needles for my latest squanderings (okay maybe only my friend Cara reads this but hey if you've touched one person you've touched the world...hee hee)
I often talk about New York, you think I would talk about something else for gords sake. But it is sort of an overbearing sibling who gets all the attention in the family (wait that would be me growing up I guess..sorry to my sister Denise. Just cuz I decided to be ON the stage..see if she would have just been an actor too...complete aside, but I've always had this reoccurring dream of Denise being a musical theatre actress and dazzling audiences as Polly in CRAZY FOR YOU...there would be no competition I would be thrilled to have a fellow Thespian sibling..and no my sister is not anything that rhymes with thespian....*cough) . But I digress...I have come to some huge conclusions about the insanity that is New York and what to be prewarned about if you are a newcomer. My thoughts are as follows:

Avoid Times Square, Union Square, Macy's Square...anything with Square in the title and intersections in the vicinity of Anything/Broadway. For some reason these areas are jammed to the hilt with MILLIONS of frenetic people, and attempting to move/walk forward is like an Atari game in it's final round where you are losing bad in an untimely manner with the chime sounding loudly any second. The last couple of weeks I have been aching for a vacation. I have to get out soon, to some deserted Island...where King Kong will snatch me up in a frenzy and protect me from big dinosaurs and waterfalls...and then eventually bring me back to the top of the Empire State Building in...NEW YORK CITY! NOOOOOOOOO!! ;)
Again I digress...
I have been starting to on-line date pretty extensively lately, and it has been very enlightening. I actually had TWO dates in one night recently...and what I learned from that experience is A) New York is a HARD city to date in. SEX AND THE CITY was written for a reason and that is because its damn true. And B) There has to be a spark there...a chemistry right away that you cant really determine from on line. I know this is kind of dumb and 19-year old minded but...nevertheless. Where is the Dr Phil theory that 'you have to be friends first' and love will grow from friendship? It's all relative and confusing...when does one finally grow up and not look for fireworks instantly? But it is great to be out there and dating and believing in something true, and the possibility that what you want is 'on its way to you' as you speak. I recommend online dating, it is very cathartic. And it's better than bars c'mon.
Yep yep yep....
So those are my Saturday musings and perplexed ponderings. Blogging is our map to the mind...woop!

"Rainy days and sundays always get me dooooown"- Oh, I know its Mondays. But doesnt Sunday fit better? Ah the late great Karen Carpenter...voice like spun silk.

Nothing much to report here on the Blog front. I have meeting many random people on the subway for some reason. And then having lengthy conversations. How strange, yet delightful.

Career news. I have a film audition tomorrow after work. And the TONK movie is still cruisin for financial support. Any offerings? New headshots are done (www.dcanderson.net for anyone interested, hes my dear friend very very affordable!) and my reel is going to be on the website very very soon.

Peace.

Celebrity Sightings by Thadd.

Okay, wanted to share one of my most exciting celebrity meetings to date. I met Richard Dreyfuss the other day! Due to the large snowstorm, most of the celebrities in Manhattan were forced to take public transportation. He was on the subway ramp can you believe it? Those who know me, know when it is a celebrity, someone I really love and admire, I HAVE to go up and say something without hesitation. And so I did. The conversation, though brief, was as follows:

Thadd: Excuse me, are you Richard Dreyfuss?

Richard: (slightly apprehensive of the freak named Thadd) Yess.

Thadd: I'm Thadd. I just wanted to tell you I'm a HUGE fan of your work, and you are such an inspiration to me. I love you!

(Huge high five handshake by THE Richard Dreyfuss with a big smile)

Richard: Thank you!

Thadd: Well, have a great day, so nice meeting you!

Richard: You too!

(Thadd faints from excitement)

Okay, I didn't really faint but next to Olympia Dukakis, who I met in November, this was one of my favorites. He was such a delight. I guess I am becoming a 'star gazer'..tell me no world.

I also saw Colin Cowie the other day outside my office. Big woop. :)

New York Times review for THE BOOK OF THE DUN COW!


The review from Talkin Broadway.

AND

American Theatre Webs review

Well, we have just opened THE BOOK OF THE DUN COW at Prospect Theater. Here is a link to the press we've gotten so far. I'll post any reviews as soon as they come out. First, as a reminder, each member of our cast gets 2 personal comps (aside from industry and AEA comps)so to my union friends, if you're interested in coming, you get in free with your card. The theater only seats 74 on the risers and an additional 11 people in the balcony, so it can fill up fast. It's a good show, with wonderful music and unique themes. I have to admit, it is exciting to be part of these NY premiere new works. One of the most amazing things was at our opening night party, there were almost ten students from Valparaiso University in Indiana who had DROVE up to see the show (thats right, drove). Walter Wangerin, who wrote the Award Winning Novel, is their professor, and he is unfortunately quite ill. In his support, they all came to see it opening night. AMAZING. It was great meeting them and sharing in their enthusiasm for the project.

But once again, I find myself introspective about doing theatre, mainly musical theatre. I talk about this alot, and am reminded about snippets in a great book I've mentioned before; SMART ACTORS FOOLISH CHOICES and the countless conversations I've had with my close friends. How BAD do you really want to do this? If you're unhappy what is the payoff and what is invested in this for your personally? The rehearsal process for DUN COW was exhaustive, mixed in with my full time work schedule, and lots of dancing, moving and positioning...by a great choreographer mind you (Got it? Keep it. Make sense? ;) however I KNOW, and have known for quite some time, I am someone who no longer wants to artistically express bouncing around the stage...I am NOT nor will I ever be a dancer, and I like that about my life and enjoy the peaceful moments more now anyway. I enjoy exercise and being able to CONTROL the pace of my human movement momentum ;) My dear friend Amber said when I first arrived, that New York really puts to the forefront HOW BAD do you really want to do this? EVERYONE is here to be an actor, and they are cut throat and determined..and often blind to the WHYS of why they have chosen this profession in the first place(insights from SMART ACTORS FOOLISH CHOICES). You need to examine why at some point. For me, I know I need to shift something here, I just need to examine a bit more...and I will!


Relating, things are moving forward with PLAYIN GOODE IN THE HOUSE OF TONK, the film I'm doing this spring. Cool thing is the original SHAFT Richard Roundtree has committed to it, and the director told me talks about Lawrence Fishburne making an appearance are possible. WOW. I play a sort of ghostly bartender. It's a great part I hope the financial revenue all comes through...we'll see. REALLY excited about it. And...excited to be in the peaceful 'non dancing' realm of da filmmaking.;)

And...I digress once again, February friends. Keep the whitelight burning.

Well, here we are Dec 29....post strike (thank you MTA), post Christmas (thank you New Balance gym shoes) and pre New Year 2006; the year I vow to make sleep my #1 priority. I remember being a teenager, and my parents bellowing yells at me never wanting to get up for school. Now I know it's just part of my nature...to need sleep like a hybernating bear, or else my entire world falls apart.

Trip home to Illinois and Wisconsin was good. It's hysterical how when you first get back there, everything seems to be going in slow motion. My friend Kathleen was like 'Oh the traffic is bad today' as I stared at the trickle of cars moving like snails down 290. It was too short a visit, but I'm glad I came, and I am glad to be back too. I do have to say the bus trip up from Chicago to Appleton was more annoying than about 4 weeks worth of riding the New York subway system (and that's pretty bad too I spent four hours in a car last week from 59th to Brooklyn). An example of the characters are as follows: loud, obnoxious talking to everybody in sight 20 year old mother of two who just began her service in the Army, loud ghetto man talking incessesantly on his cellphone, bitter bus driver woman who wouldnt tell you what the next stop was, and crying hysterical teenage girl who's friends baggage made us 45 minutes late!...so much for the Christmas spirit. If Jesus is the reason for the season, I wish he would have taken this bus ride with me.

Went to the doctor to get checked up, and good news; he said my Cholesterol levels are 'below average' for cardiovascular disease, which I am thrilled about. That soymilk and whole grain cereal must be working.

On the career front, I will be starting rehearsals for THE BOOK OF DUN COW at Prospect Theater in Manhattan. It's a new work, a sort of allegorical tale about animals and status, and I'm really excited to be working with this group of people. I am going to continue working at my full time job at Clinique Creative, so hopefully I will not run myself to the ground. As we know from the above, sleep is my milieu, my muse. Got called in last week for Mark in the National tour of RENT. This is the third time I've been called in, cast me already geez. Going to a master class Jan 9, and I just reread CALLBACK by Ginger Howard Friedman, which was inspiring. I love the story in it where she mentions chatter with the casting staff is good but assume nothing, and that she chatted and whooped it up for 10 minutes one time auditioning for a Broadway musical. She never heard from them again.

In conclusion....um.....I think....*cough....okay I have nothing to say in conclusion. This is a blog, not the Constitution.;)

Visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island today. Was only the second time I have been there, the last time being over 10 years ago in college. Such a cultural cornucopia of stimulating history. There was one plaque that resonated, written on a display of immigrant wicker suitcases at Ellis Island read something like "as the men and women came to seek new opportunities in an unknown land." I thought, wow that is my life moving away from the Midwest to "seek new opportunities in an unknown land"..not quite as glamorous as coming from Poland or Eastern Europe mind you, but perhaps just as profound inside for me. I have a limited scope outside the United States. I have only been to London, and that was when I was 12 to meet Paul McCartneys brother (this is Gods truth--ask me the details sometime) so I don't think I had as much appreciation for it then as I would now. But being there really made me feel the appreciation coming to the land of the free in 1900. The procedures and the 2% sent back and the desire for more. We spend so much time trying to get ahead as Americans we forget that we are truly blessed just to be here. Just to be born here. Okay, I am sounding like Oprah magazine but hey, periodic patriotism is allowed. Especially during the Holidays. :) On a down note, I found our lady of liberty surprisingly short. You think of her as cascading into the skys, majestic and towering; but when standing beneath her she's about as tall as a 7 story apartment complex or a car wash marquee. Go figure.

Happy Thanksgiving friends...kick it up this year, have tofu turkey...mmmm.

Wanted to share two fun new links.

First film stills are up for THE COFFEE SHOP I did this summer. One above and click HERE for additional.

Happy Veterans Day.

Saw NORMAL Off B'way on Friday, an amazing piece of theatre with polished staging and a strong and powerful message. Check it out if you are looking for a great show to see in the coming weeks.


These are my thoughts this weekend. Life begets you to trust moving forward doesn't it? As I hung up the phone with my friend Cara inviting me to Thanksgiving the other day, I thought to myself..I have AMAZING friends here in New York. When I left Chicago 3 years ago, I remember a lump inside about leaving my comfort zone of friends, colleagues and relatives. I had fear about the change. But now I know I am meant to be here, and had I not left I would have missed out on the wonderful people that are part of my life here. The fear of uncertainty should never be enough from preventing you becoming your fullest potential and moving beyond your comfort zone. The lessons and experience of living in New York are invaluble to me. Everyone should live here once, it teaches you sooooo much. Life is what you make it I guess, and if you are where you are meant to be you feel it inside. So yes..I am blessed with some amazing people here, and I thank each and every one of you for being on my side. Yeaaa!

Learning alot at my new job as an Administrator in Clinique Creative for Estee Lauder. Am beginning work on my on-camera reel, that should be on my website eventually. I dont want to scimp here, I want a good one so I am shopping around.

I have discovered a trick..learned it from a guy in Iowa. I wash my hair every other day or sometimes two days. Makes your hair much more manageable..and saves you money on Shampoo...Heloise would be proud.

Peace out.

Well what's new Ganoos? Sunday, I went to Yonkers NY, land of Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, to scope a Co Op via the Actors Federal Union for my friend whos on tour. These Co ops are special agreements with the Union financing 90% of them and my gord were they amazing. The town is beautiful, slanted hills, bricks streets all along the Hudson River. The advantage here is, my friend has asked me to live there if he gets it, so plush easy 20 minute train rides could replace my congested, often uncomfortable hair raising daily subway trips. We'll see. Saturday, I did a recording for my friends Marcus and Jesse who are promoting a show to a company in Germany. It was fun being back in the studio, I love the format so I cant wait for more of those opportunities. I am in my second week working for Estee Lauder Corporation for Clinique Creative. Not sure how I feel yet. I'm amazed that the voice inside still resounds loudly to choose the life of a performer and not a pension plan and benefits;) the older I get, the louder the voice is to perform. Shouldn't it be the opposite?

Other thoughts zipping around my cranium are: Why doesnt EVERYONE realize that EVERYONE is working on an entirely different life plan with different personalities. It would be much easier on us if we could just accept that people are ALWAYS going to contrast and challenge who we are. It's a dance its a battle...keeping true to who you are and adjusting as needed to people that drive you nuts...by keeping a distance or engaging in neccesary interaction.

October is coming to a close, and how quickly my favorite time of the year comes and goes.

I saw Jason Mraz in concert tonight, absolutely AMAZING! He is an amalgam of musical genius. Not only is his voice strong and soaring, he is a lyrical master with such catchy rhythms you are in love instantly. I am officially a fan. I've always liked him but now I am a huge admirer. Another amazing artist opened for him, Raul Midon... I dont even know how to describe him, this amazing mixture of R & B, funk, pop, folk, jazz all with a technique on accoustic guitar that was riveting, like India Arie and Bobby Mcferrons love child. It was night to remember, and a reminder for us as artists to use our talents 110% to the full gamut God gave us... very inspirational to me.

Well, this one is going to be deep one. Celebrities: These are my thoughts on celebrity-om. My first year in New York, I craved a celebrity sighting. Amidst my first thrilling couple of weeks 2002 perusing the streets of Manhattan, I found nothing but a few familiar looking postal workers and a rotten apple core on the street ledge. However, this past year it has been nothing but. Celebrities on the street, celebrities at my shows, celebrities at the Starbucks. And this is what I have come to realize. The more I see them, the more the fine line between us gets thinner. I realize it really is nothing in theory. When I would daydream in High School in rural Illinois, I thought somehow these otherworld people had reached something beyond the realm of reality. That somehow becoming famous granted a worth more than my own. I know now I could truly become a celebrity, and in narrow terms, am one already really. The people living and working and breathing in quiet midwestern towns, or bare populated Iowa see something on the TV screen that if they were around all the time, like this, would understand to their core that these famous people are merely one who a camera or newspaper has observed in excess. That is it and it gives you nothing in exchange. BIG lesson.

In lieu of that, I worked at Bobbi Brown this week and met her, in all her celebrity makeup guru-ness. She was delightful...heres who I have cast my eyes upon as of late: Halle Barry, Nathan Lane, Laila Robins ( Planes Trains and Automobiles), some Broadway stars and who else can remember?

I walked by what I believe was a dead man on the street today...*sigh. Only in New York.

On the career front, got called in for Seymour for the National Tour of Little Shop of Horrors, had a commercial audition for Time Warner Cable and am auditioning for some films. Our cast of Nerds:// is in mourning post Nerds://. such an amazing experience. Here's a photo above:

Some reviews of NERDS:

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/6793

http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C0DEEDE1430F937A1575AC0A9639C8B63

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/09_26_05.html

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This thought has been of particular inspiration to me...I have been overwhelmed by New York lately. SO many people on the subway, angry, disrespectful to space, no reverence really to others. And even if this is blind naivity or false hope, I miss the Midwest. There are days I just dont want to endure it. I remember a year or so ago I wrote how spiritually enlightening the subway is. However, when youth have never learned social manners, no awareness that the world is something we share, people with hate and misery in their eyes, blatant disregard for others space and your life, then enough is enough. Why does this seem so rampant in New York? I didnt notice this in Illinois or Des Moines. Is the Midwest truly a place that is graced and protected, or is it just in a bubble? Is it correct to state that life in the Midwest is better than New York, or at least tons more peaceful. I keep telling people that in comparison to Los Angeles I am glad I am here on the east coast, but it seems equally 'empty' here at times. My friend reminded me that Marianne Williamson says that these people have just forgotten who they truly are, that we all our unconditional love and it is our job to remind each other. But sometimes I simply see hatred and disregard. Are people just bred this way? I have moments too, however to be consumed with it. Ralph Waldo Emersons quote seems more relevant than ever.

And now the Hurricane in Texas..makes my problems seem unimportant. I have been going about my life blind really to Louisiana and Texas and I need to do something to help. Enough talk, and BE the solution to the problem. Lots on my mind today...

"A career is a race, and it's yours to win. Its not something that happens to you. You determine it's course. Not your parents. not your college career advisor. Not your master card balance. Not practicality. Not common sense. It's not what "they" approve of or what "they" tell you to do. Ultimately, it's up to you, and you'll win only by tapping into your passion, your desires, your humor, and your tenacity. It's your trip." ~Dreams into Action, Milton Katselas

“Strength of numbers is the delight of the timid. The Valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone”
– M. Gandhi

Heres some great new links about NERDS://



http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Video.aspx?ci=517338

http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=4622

http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=516744

I love this poem below by Emily Dickinson:

I stepped from Plank to Plank
A slow and cautious way
The Stars about my Head
I felt About my Feet the Sea.
I knew not but the nextWould be my final inch --
This gave me that precarious Gait Some call Experience.
--Emily Dickinson

Hey, heres some reviews from TREATY 321, which will close this week. Check out our final performances if you can Thursday at 3pm and Friday at 9:15pm. Good times.

NYTheatre.com review

Gothamist.com review

Oh New York...my body is missing being in a car in the midwest. The thing about New York is it is such a PHYSICALLY demanding city. Get up, walk to the subway, stand on the subway, hold your balance--out and UP the stairs and blocks and blocks to work. Walk to lunch. Walk back to the subway. You really get your workout daily here, although it is filled with smog. I often wonder if living in a car and getting a workout at the air filtered gym is a better option?

TREATY 321 opened last week, and it is very well done. The cast is enormously talented, and the director really knows his chops; the fine art of moments, bits, pacing and overall presentation.

Start rehearsals for NERDS tomorrow and I am thrilled.

Thoughts and quotes for this fine Monday:

"I was staring out my window at that beautiful barge with nothing to do, no one to speak to. Just a person, staring out the window. Can you understand what I mean when I say that as I allowed the feeling of lonliness to arise in me I felt a heartbreaking compassion, recognizing that every person everywhere throughout history has been subject to the very same loneliness I was feeling in that moment? I started to weep, with sadness and awe and grief and joy. I felt connected to the world in a new, different way, admiring the capability of the heart to hold all those feelings at once. Such strong feelings! And of course because it was MY heart, too how full I felt, and complete. This profound loneliness was in fact, exactly the opposite of what I'd always been afraid of.And once again, it yielded up a banquet of pleasure, unexpected and glorious."-Valerie Monroe

You wont catch me looking more macho than this folks. Me at the Mega M & M unveiling event at Grand Central Station.

It's official. I got the role of Steve "The Woz" Wozniak in NERDS: A MUSICAL SOFTWARE SATIRE for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Show will star Sean Dugan (OZ) Anthony Holds (Dracula) Jessica Snow Wilson (Little Shop of Horrors), Jeremy Ellison-Gladstone (Fantastiks) and ME! Details to come. Should garnish some much needed career attention for this 33 year old actor. :) Check out our article on Playbill

Here