Great goddamn seats! (A love letter to USF!)

 My friend Bryson (who drove 10 hours to see me in both shows this year) came up with the saying: "Great goddamn seats!" many years ago.  It applies not only to being onstage with very talented people but also to taking the time to look at the world around you.  All that you have gone through has led you to where you are...look around.  You have great goddamn seats!

This summer, I certainly have both of these seats.  I am surrounded by the natural beauty of Zion and Bryce Canyon, and I am also surrounded by some of the most incredible artists I have ever shared a stage with.  Plus, the humans here are some of the kindest and most caring individuals I've ever known.  I feel so lucky to be here.  And I have great goddamn seats!

When I'm acting with Henry as Leonato, and watching him spit fire, I not only get to experience that as an audience member, but I get to interact with him too!  When Melinda and Walt meet as Beatrice and Benedick, I get to enjoy their battle of wits along with the audience.  When Blake, as Dogberry, kills the audience with a simple shoe squeaking on the stage floor, I'm in the wings dying too!  And it's not just the principals that are keeping me engrossed fifty shows into the run, it's everybody.  And we love one another! The vibe in that room has been family from the start, and that's because our director, Brad, and my angel SM, Tanya, made it so. 


I also have GGS (great goddamn seats) in Henry VIII.  I actually take a step down on the staircase to witness Cassie as Queen Katherine destroy Cardinal Wolsey (Mixon) with venomous words!  I guess in that case it's not so much a seat as standing room only.  Feeling so lucky to understudy Mixon's Cardinal, and Henry's Leonato.  Two legends who have accepted me as a friend and colleague.  GGS! When Topher as King H, embodies the King body and soul, I get to bask in that.  I get to be a part of it. Plus, holy crap, I am in Henry VIII!  I've never even seen another version of it, never seen it listed to audition for, and here I am a Utah effing Shakes actually in it!  It's pretty damn awesome seats! I promised my mom long ago that I'd do the entire canon, and I got to knock off the hardest one this year. I also get to act with Henry again and Walt, and my new bestie, Frankie!  Hell, my girl Alaysia who is so lovely as Queen Ann even got my nickname "Trick" to happen here.  Nobody made "fetch" happen, but I finally have a cool nickname and one that my mom would have approved of. (She hated when I was called Pat).  

Aside from the shows I am in, I have GGS for the other shows and cabarets that happen here.  I love Shrew!  It's the most joyful version I've ever seen and reminds me of the time I met Annie playing Kate to my own Petruchio.  And watching real life couple and talented geniuses John and Caitlin play those unlikely lovers fills me with FOMO that my seats are in the audience and not right there with them.  They are still GGS though.  

I only had one chance to see Winter's Tale.  It was beautiful.  Watched with reminiscence as Chauncy crushed Leontes! Was astounded when Topher, Mixon, and my roommate John Harrell stole the show as the clowns and Autolycus respectively.  Utterly enjoyed Doh giving serious Flava Flav vibes as Time.  Fell in love with Traci's Hermione along with everybody else.  No wonder Leontes gets jealous!  

I think I'm the biggest fan of Greenshow that ever lived!  These SUU students bring about as much joy as the most recent DNC!  What a talented group of young artists they are.  I am so impressed with all of them, and it speaks to the strong training that they must be receiving.  They are all wonderful, but I do have a favorite, the dance captain of my heart, Ashley who has to basically carry me though the dances in Much Ado!  Plus, she yelled in an Italian accent that she loved me during the Greenshow.  I feel like the uncle that none of them wanted but are stuck with.  

And the talent and joy behind the scenes are every bit as amazing as what happens on the various stages! One of the most impressive things about being here is seeing everybody being part of the same team.  I don't think I've ever been part of a process where cast and crew all hung out and chilled together. (Other than SBTS, where the cast is the crew). There is a real family vibe here, and most jobs claim to foster that, but here it actually exists.  And it's beautiful.  

This could be a very long blog if I tried to include all the GGS that I have here, so I'll leave more to be revealed later, including the contemporary plays and my seats for them.

But my heart is full, and I have Great goddamn seats this summer!  

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