87 A Lie of the Mind by Sam Shepard dir Nic Dimond for Strawdog Theatre. All Shepard, all the time. But no blond hair for this one. Nor a beard. No this time I played Mike, the “normal” brother who returns home after his sister, Beth (Shannon Hoag), is brutally assaulted by her husband, Jake (Jamie Vann). Mike accompanies Beth to their childhood home, where their parents, Baylor (Jim Poole) and Meg (Laurie Larson) still live. Jake, is hiding out at with his mom, Lorraine (Janet Ulrich Brooks), and his sister, Sally (Anita Deely). He sends his brother, Frankie (John Henry Roberts), to see if Beth is still alive, and Frankie “accidentally” gets shot in the leg by Baylor and essentially taken prisoner, and Beth, suffering from brain damage, becomes obsessed with him as his wound becomes infected. I had been aware of this play for most of my life. I have a very distinct memory of reading the review of the NYC debut in the Sun-Times when I was 14, I think I registered it because Aidan Quinn was in the production and I had just seen him in the movie Reckless, with Darryl Hannah. I also hung lights as part of my practicum for Stagecraft Class Freshman year in college, in a production directed by Sandi Zielinski. In our production, Mike started out in a suit and tie and finally winds up in layers and layers of winter hunting gear. Aly Amidei designed the set and it was this fragmented stage where the pieces didn’t quite fit together. We also had live, unscored, accompaniment to the show. This is the show that asks some tough questions like, where are you going to find half of a dead deer? #retrospective #2007 #alieofthemind #samshepard #nicdimond #strawdogtheatre #kittycatsweatshirt (at Strawdog Theatre Company) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7OUPv6pABm/?igshid=pyy9l821goea

82 Tooth of Crime (Second Dance) by Sam Shepard dir by Nic Dimond, with music composed by Mikhail Fiksel. I was Lit Manager at this time in my Strawdog career. We were slated to do 12th Night in the third slot of the 2005-2006 season. Back while doing True Ballad, I actually had to miss a weekend because I had to attend a wedding in San Antonio. I was walking down the street in San Antonio when my phone rang, and it was Nic and he said, change of plan, we had a reading of Tooth of Crime, we are doing that instead. What we soon discovered though, was Shepard had retooled the script in the 90s, added the parenthetical Second Dance to the title, and that was the only version he would licence, even though it was not published at the time. Also - it’s a musical and they wouldn’t - no matter that we paid to perform the play - give us the damn music, written by T Bone Burnett. (you can find it on Amazon now). So Mikhail (Misha) Fiksel wrote some banging tunes for which he never really got the credit he deserved. We had a round of singing auditions at The Hidden Cove Lounge on a Karaoke night for the ensemble. And I got cast as Chaser, mechanic and left hand to Hoss. Now you may not know this about me, but I CANNOT sing. Nor should I. But here we were. It’s an interesting little script, in that the first half is mostly a succession of scenes, where someone comes in and tell Hoss and his right hand, Becky some bad news and then leaves, and the second half is mostly a musical battle between Hoss and his rival Crow. So a lot of euchre happened backstage. This show was a literal ROCK SHOW. With rock show lighting and sound and costumes. The inspiration for my character was Perfect Tommy from Buckaroo Banzai Across, Who was platinum blond. And after three hours in the stylist chair I was (ish) too. Chunks of my scalp were coming off in the shower for weeks. I also had an International Male T-shirt with tattoo sleeves and motorcycle boots that had lifts on the bottom and the inability to move my ankles. #retrospective #2006 #toothofcrimeseconddance #samshepard #nicdimond #mikhailfiksel #chaser #bottleblonde #chernobylscalp #internationalmale #kelpie #thefuckyeahs (at Strawdog Theatre Company) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7BPKUCJXDV/?igshid=emny3ez85e0w

79 The True Ballad of Fall’s Blessings by Hank Boland, music by Mikhail Fiksel dir Nic Dimond. Somewhere around ‘02-early ‘03 Nic Dimond came up with the idea that Strawdog would help to create their own show, and it would be a musical. Hank Boland was brought on board with Mikhail Fiksel, and for several years, we conducted a bunch of workshops and improvisations, that Hank took some ideas from and that became the True Ballad of Fall’s Blessing. Now, you may not know this about me, but I CANNOT sing. But this time it was okay, because we left the singing to the people who could actually sing, Carm and the ladies, and I just helped on some choruses. The story takes place at the end of the old west, and the Hennesy sisters have just lost their father. He left them a watch, a coin and a compass along with a dying farm and a deck of cards. The Hennesey’s give the three tokens away, not knowing that the strange Mr. Parker wants/needs to win them back. So he enters into a wager with Phineas Waterman, a sideshow entrepreneur to reclaim them, and if Phineas does, he will have access to Parker’s Dust Band, a collection of the dead playing the music of the spheres. This sets into motion various journeys that take place over a year, involving a preacher and his pregnant wife, a young man who wants to be an actor and joins the cavalcade whose starting acts are a bearded lady, a double jointed thespian and a boy who will eat anything. I played Tyler Carter, a mysterious man who shows up to the farm who loves gambling and whiskey, and ends up planting more than crops. In a play filled with ghosts, circus “freaks”, a one armed Frenchman and the devil himself, I played a guy who got caught between two sisters, got drunk and knocked up one of them. The years of working on this show produced many fun memories, and a lot of the jokes stick with me today. They also produced a cast album. #retrospective #2005 #thetrueballadoffallsblessings #hankboland #nicdimond #mikhailfiksel #tylercarter #thesortingbox #whocareifyourballsarealittlehairy #iwouldloveforyoutoseeit #embracethestrange #Whatwasthedealwiththezombiemusicians #theactoff #theboxofdoom #slapliloquy (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/B651q9lpVd-/?igshid=5azu0o0s5pj5

74 The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare dir Nic Dimond for Strawdog Theatre at Theater on the Lake. This was a great opportunity to get to remount the previous year’s production of Caesar in a larger venue with an audience that may not have seen it in its initial run. Plus it was like summer camp. Some days almost literally because we would rehearse outside, because this was in the day when Theater on the Lake was open air, and not insulated against sound. It was also kingdom of the spiders and pitch dark backstage. This would be the first of three times I personally would get to perform there. And the only time we didn’t have mics. I love these photos, because this is how I imagined the show looked in Strawdog. It obviously wasn’t. Still g-d impressive - but the scope at TotL really suited the show. I think in a lot of ways it was a better show at TotL, mainly because the show sunk into our bones in the intervening year. #retrospective #2003 #thetragedyofjuliuscaesar #williamshakespeare #nicdimond #marcusbrutus #theateronthelake #kingdomofthespiders #summercamp (at Theater On The Lake) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6s9AufJWaB/?igshid=1rdqcz50iw9qu

57 The Waltz Invention by Vladimir Nabokov dir Nic Dimond, at Strawdog Theatre. For some reason it seems when I do a show in the summer I have to grow a mustache only. I’m positive that it is completely unnecessary and just cruelty on behalf of the director of record. The Walts Invention is about a man named Waltz (natch) who invents (also natch) a machine capable of destroying the world and rises to power. I played two characters, General Stump, the world’s oldest general who only had one leg and a gardener. But the mustache did all the heavy lifting. A huge absurdist show in a tiny space, and back before Strawdog took over the apartment next door and turned it into a rehearsal room and green room, there were 14(?) of us crammed into a 15x15 dressing room with no bathroom access and hanging out a back window smoking and listening to the NBA finals on a tiny radio. In fact my main concern getting home every night was that the Bulls would win in town and I would have to make my way through the throngs of reveled. #retrospective #1998 #thewaltzinvention #nicdimond #strawdogtheatre #stump (at Strawdog Theatre Company) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6BTIJMJpGS/?igshid=jocrptizskvl