100 Lives I've Lived

The beginning of 2009 was a difficult time for me. I wasn't cast in the television adaption of the web series Pure Pwnage. I didn't get a role in a play I wanted. I was working my day job at a law firm. This was such a stark difference from a few months before when I was living out my regional theatre dreams. Thank god for this production of Jerry Springer the Opera and it's bizarre content, difficult music, and fun cast because I needed an escape at this time in my life, and theatre was my safety blanket when it seemed like so many other things in my life were falling apart.

Philia in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum was such a fun character to play. It was fun to play naive, because I was naive and the character wasn't that far of a stretch from the person I was at the time. This was my first time playing a lead in a musical in a regional theatre production, and my second time performing this Sondheim play. And it was such a joyful time in a beautiful theatre (Rose Theatre Brampton).

Me? A pop singer? Definitely not. Well, maybe, I guess? I could try? The imposter syndrome was heavy when I was interviewed by the press about an upcoming show in the Gay For Comedy Gala at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto. And that lack of congruence is probably why I didn't get cast as a pop star in a reality show at that time. That's why they say "everything happens for a reason".

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Or in my case, a good connection and being in the right place at the right time. Here I'll tell you a little bit about a memorable experience I had performing at one of New York's most prestigious theatres, even though it was never on my career to-do list.

In 2006 I landed my first professional theatre gig (with Equity credits!) in Drayton Entertainment's production of "Not Now Darling". As an actress, I got the thing I wanted (the job!), but it still left me wanting more.

In 2010 my friend Megan (Nuttall) Whalen asked me to create a Christmas show with her for the Richmond Hill Center of the Performing Arts in Toronto. Together with Megan, Daniel James, and Donavan LeNabat we created a Christmas Show in the vein of a radio play-gone-wrong for a hundreds of seniors in this matinee performance. If only I could have remembered the words.

I did a live reading for the CBC's Annual "A Christmas Carol" at my church when I was 19. And on the fly I decided to take some creative license with Mrs. Cratchit... and I don't think it worked.

One of the first times I got bit by the acting bug was in middle school, when I was cast as Tom Jenkins in the musical "Scrooge", an adaption of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". The role meant a lot to me at the time, and also resonated with my grandfather.

Today's episode takes a look at my least favorite task: laundry. We all do it, we never talk about it. And for me it's my most hated chore.