Home Stretch

Basic Training will have its final Off Broadway performance on December 1 and it feels good to know that we came to NY and conquered.

In the past few weeks I've been doing lots of radio interviews including an interview with the lovely Farai Chideya on NPR which is posted on the website www.basictrainingnyc.com if you'd like to listen in. Early this morning I did an interview on WBAI which went really well. The best thing about doing a 7am interview definitely ain't the time slot. It's seeing the city of New York slowly come to life. WBAI is down on Wall Street and it's right in the middle of the action. I had never experienced that before: The news anchors setting up to let the world know what was happening on Wall Street and how the markets were looking. The vendors warming up their carts full of bagels, coffee and juice. The rumble of the subway under your feet and the cabbies using their horns like a rooster's call to awaken the sleeping giant that is New York City. I miss Vancouver but NYC has a flavor all its own.

My wife returned from England last week and we spent a few days at a gorgeous house in Connecticut. Always good to get away and enjoy the sound of nothing. We just sat by the fireplace and watched movies and talked about our excitement and expectations of our new baby. What will it look like? Will it eat a lot? (if it takes after it's Dad it will) Something tells me fatherhood will change everything but I wouldn't have it any other way.

The success of Basic Training has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities that I am forever grateful for but it's also exposed me to a lot of fake promises and fake people. Like any industry you gotta take the good with the bad I guess. The joy I get in coming home to a loving wife, a few true friends and family is the only thing that seems real to me right now. Like mama used to say - people are what they do, not what they say.

I feel like my hardest work is still ahead of me but this journey started with a few people that need to be recognized. Tony Lepore is one of them - this guy is my stage manager but he's not just any technician. Since 2004 he has stood by the show through thick and thin always believing that it would one day open Off Broadway. When ever I had to do an industry showcase in a rehearsal room at the last minute he would drop everything and make sure that although we only had a boom-box the cues were right on time. Tony's professionalism and work ethic make him one of a kind and he has traveled with Basic Training to Dubai and Abu Dhabi which solidified his place in my mind as one of the hardest working dudes I know. Hanging out in Dubai also meant my wife and I got to spend some fun time with him and it was unforgettable. In 2005 when Tony and I first arrived in the Middle East and realized that we didn't have to pay for food we almost ate ourselves sick. Looking back we probably looked like two inmates sitting there wolfing down gourmet food like somebody was going to steal it from us.

Good times.

I can't say this run in New York flew by but I can say that every show feels like the first one. Except for the matinees. I will never understand the logic behind doing a 2pm show when the 7pm still isn't sold out. But when the lights go down it doesn't matter. Everybody gets 100%.