I can hardly believe it myself, but it is already mid-May and before the month is over I will have performed in three brand new dance works.

May 16th-19th I will be dancing as part of The Jobs Project, an original dance inspired by interviews with 25 Philadelphians, from CEOs to sanitation workers.

May 19th at 7pm I will perform an improvised interdisciplinary collaboration with Murmuration, a genre-crossing ensemble focusing on free improvisation based on Western classical music. This performance is part of thirdbird's Blind Date series.

May 22nd-24th and 27th-29th I will be performing in shatter ::: dawn, a performance event merging installation art and dance, for ten audience members and five performers.

Check out the kickstarter campaign for shatter ::: dawn, a dance installation event where I will be performing under the direction of Zornitsa Stoyanova. There are 5 performers and only 10 audience members each night, so stay tuned for more information about tickets. 

On Sunday May 19th I'll be performing as part of Thirdbird's Blind Date series.

Blind Date is an evening of improvised performance where musicians and dancers are matched with someone they have never worked with and challenged to: “make a plan, or plan not to."

I've been paired with Murmuration, an amazing group of classically based improvisors with Eric Coyne on cello, Russell Kotcher on violin and Andrew Marsh on vocals/trumpet. I'll be dancing/talking/singing on the spot. It is sure to be a wild night for everyone involved.

Just getting home after an exciting rehearsal for Punkmonk with Alex Torra in the room.

Although I have been working on and researching this piece for almost a year, it is still very much in the "emergence" phase. In this phase of the rehearsal process, I'm willing to try lots of ideas that may or may not be scrapped later on. I am still discovering the physical and verbal language of the world I am creating.

This month or so of rehearsal is about playing around in the world of performance art. Taking inspiration from artists like Franko B and Marina Abramović, artists that focus on their own bodies performing (sometimes extreme) concrete actions.

I have some rehearsal experiments coming up involving boxing, blood, beer and karaoke. Some wild risky stuff happening. Looking forward to sharing it with you in the near future!

Come see me perform some of the very beginning ideas of Zornitsa Stoyanova at Scratch Night tonight!

My residency at Rutherfurd Hall in Allamuchy, NJ has come to an end. "Meet the Mediums" was a great success and lots of fun to perform.

Many actors in the early stages of their careers find jobs in touring shows or small regional theaters throughout the US. In this way they are able to hone their performance skills in front of strangers in strange locations. As a primarily devised theater maker (at least at this point in my life), these trips to Allamuchy are opportunities to practice making good theater come together quickly under the variety of challenges that come with making performance away from home. It is a chance for me to practice my technique in front of a group of strangers who, for the most part, are not part of the arts scene. That makes it very different from performing a piece in NYC or Philadelphia. I'm very grateful to have these opportunities and every time I go up there I learn a lot about myself and where I am at with my technique.

Now it's off to dance rehearsals the rest of this month and next, for a piece with Zornitsa Stoyanova and one with Gina Hoch-Stall. Both opening in May.

Also, stay tuned for Philadelphia Fringe announcements!

This whole being a theater artist thing is outrageously fun, personally rewarding, and bizarre. Sometimes even I am surprised by the strange things I get mixed up in. Here is a sample from this week.

1. I had an interview for a simulated patient program. As a simulated patient you act ill so that medical students can practice doctor-patient interactions. At the end of the interview the head of the program asked for a volunteer to read from a script and simulate a patient with 9 out 10 stomach pain. No one raised their hand for quite a while, so I volunteered. After it was all over I got a spontaneous round of applause. When I was leaving the building multiple people wanted to congratulate me on how realistic the portrayal was. This is what I do for a buck ladies and gentlemen. I hope I get that gig!

2. I am picking up my workout regimen, counting my calories and monitoring the amount of carbohydrates and proteins I eat. I have to admit, some of it is personal vanity (I'm curious if I can get a six pack), but most of it is the beginning of a process to look a certain way for future iterations of Punkmonk. A solo piece where I portray a Cockney skinhead and a Thai monk.

3. On Monday I will move into a stone cabin in small town Allamuchy, New Jersey as an artist in residence at Rutherfurrd Hall. On March 1st, 2nd and 3rd I'll be performing at the Hall in Meet the Mediums. I play Junior Medium, the only member of the medium family without psychic powers. Junior likes to light things on fire and frequently sneaks away from the family to talk to himself while wearing a gas mask.

I love doing this stuff.   

Meet me in Allamuchy, NJ for my next performance piece entitled Meet the Mediums. If you are looking to share a ride from NYC or Philadelphia, let me know.

Check out video excerpts from Hackles and the intro to a work in progress showing of Punkmonk.

Hope to get "Mining the Mine of the Mind for Minderals" video footage up soon. If you didn't get to see the show and would like a full video link, contact me.

Next up is Meet the Mediums, a new work with The Medium Theatre Company that has been commissioned by the folks at Rutherfurd Hall in Allamuchy, NJ. I head up there along with the rest of the Mediums for our residency on February 25th culminating in performances at 6 and 8pm on March 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I play Junior, an awkward teen with pyrokenetic aspirations.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see my work in progress at Scratch Night. I'm excited to get back into the studio and start working again.

If you missed Monday night's showing, I've posted a video excerpt here.

Also keep your eyes peeled for video footage from my 2012 Fringe projects. I'm hoping to get those up in the next few days.

Hard at work in the LAB space from now until February 4th when I will present a work in progress sneak peak at the new solo I am developing. RSVP here.

Tonight was the final day of the five day Falls Bridge workshop in improvisational dance led by Margaret Paek and Rebecca Bryant of the Lower Left Collective.

Tomorrow night at 8pm I'll be dancing improvisationally with Margaret, Rebecca, Megan Mazarick, and Marion Ramirez at Mascher Space Coop.

Hope to see you there!

Having a nasty version of the cold hasn't stopped me from taking a whole mess of workshops and classes. Yesterday, I finished a great two week program studying with Pig Iron Theatre Company and tomorrow I'll start a week long workshop on improvisational dance techniques as part of the Falls Bridge festival. I'll share more details about that once it starts up.

Until then, take a look at some writing I did about the week I spent working with dancer/choreographer Susan Rethorst.

Happy 2013! To start the year off right I had my first day today of a two week-long workshop in devising theater with Pig Iron Theatre Company. It is a great group of people, and I am looking forward to spending time making something out of nothing with performers I've never met before. We will have an open showing of some of the short works we make on the 12th. Get in touch if you'd like more details.