Susan and I are back in Chicago and I am rarin' to get to work. It was a ball driving that truck all the way, though I could have passed on trying to back into the alley.
Before I left I had a great day of shooting on "Killing Kennedy" with Nelson McCormick directing and Will Rothhaar playing Lee Harvey Oswald.
"Dan Stearns was powerful and heroic as Macduff." --The East Hampton Press
I don't know why I never posted this in February.
Off to a great start with JULIUS CAESAR in RVA with Henley Street Theatre. Great reviews so far. Here are the highlights.
"Shakespeare’s most complex character from Julius Caesar, Brutus...is performed with nuance and distinction by Dan Stearns. Stearns aptly portrays Brutus’s inner conflict and dignity as he is unwittingly drawn into Cassius’s scheme to overthrow the honorable Caesar, his best friend. His quiet monologue, followed by the poignant interplay with Portia, is wrenching".--Susanna Wu-Pong, Richmond Family Magazine
"Brutus is played by Dan Stearns who also appeared in God Of Carnage, and here he is the soul of the state. Stearns’ brutal honesty and sensitive portrayal gives a strong focus on the rebellious senators and his performance is great to watch."--John Porter, WCVE Public Radio
"In my favorite moment in the play, Brutus, played brilliantly by Dan Stearns, summons his servant, Lucius to sing to him as he goes to sleep. Brutus, struggling with the difficult choices he faces, is lulled into a calm slumber."--Julie Clayton, GAYRVA.com
"The top-flight actors in Henley Street’s production hammer home this grim landscape of unstable allegiances and shifty-eyed bravado by delivering Shakespeare’s script in bold, natural American accents.--Tony Farrell, Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Though the play might bear Caesar's name, it's fundamentally about Brutus' decisions and their consequences. As Brutus, Stearns skillfully portrays the character's inner conflict, struggling to reconcile his love for Caesar with the duty he feels toward his country."--Rich Griset, Style Weekly
"As the conflicted Brutus, Dan Stearns weaves a thread of exhausted decency through his performance, even in the iconic moment when he joins in on the murder of a man he once called his friend."--Liz Jewett, Richmond.com
Julius Caesar opens next week with Henley Street Theatre in RVA. We just got into the performance space yesterday and it is beautiful, the Gottwald Playhouse at Centerstage Richmond.
We had a great run of MACBETH with Round Table Theatre and I am now home in Staunton. Starting to prepare Brutus in JULIUS CAESAR with Henley Street Theatre, to open Marh 28, 2013. Good to be home.
Macbeth with Round Table Theatre Company will open on Jan 11 for a short two-week run. Great design and great performances. The final sword and buckler fight will be a thriller.
After a thrilling time performing Claudius in the bootleg Hamlet with Henley Street Theatre, I am settled in Sag Harbor, NY for two months. We begin rehearsals next weekend for Macbeth with Round Table Theatre Company and Academy in East Hampton.
Here's the info:
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
at LTV Studios, 75 Industrial Rd., Wainscott
Directed by Tristan Vaughan
Preview: January 10, 2013
Performances: January 11-20, 2013
Fridays & Saturdays, 8 pm
Sundays, 2 pm
One school performance TBA
LTV also plans to record the production for broadcast.
Round Table Theatre Company and Academy is a new production and teaching venture founded by Morgan Duke (Sturges) Vaughan and Tristan Vaughan to bring a renewal of classical theatre to the Hamptons. This will be their first full-length production. They currently offer Shakespeare classes, workshops, and readings at Guild Hall in East Hampton.
My fellow castmates and I from God of Carnage won the Ernie McClintock award for best ensemble at the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Awards last night!
Keep an eye out for my Bob Evans commercial, which will run again for one cycle, and my Harris Bank spot, which has been running for almost a year now.
Had a callback for the role of Eddie in the Kennedy Center production of Shear Madness. Keep fingers crossed.
Shot an industrial this week for Southern States, that will be shown at the opening of their annual managers' meeting. Got to hang around with some nice folks on a farm in Dabneys, VA and admire their polled Herefords.
Got news that our production of "God of Carnage" at Virginia Rep (formerly Barksdale Theatre), was nominated for an award for best ensemble by the RTCC.
Had a great weekend of fight combat, led by fellow ACA grad, Matt Wilson. I passed all four SPRs I attempted (renewal of my skills proficiency, as judged by a fight master of the SAFD). Basic pass: unarmed and broadsword. Recommended pass: rapier & dagger and single sword.
Not least to mention my third anniversary and my wife's birthday. Great times!
August is here and the weather is drying out and cooling off (a little) in the Great Valley of Virginia.
We had big, energetic audiences to close Merry Wives at Richmond Shakespeare. Very successful run of that play.
Last week I shot an industrial for the Army War College, prudced by Will Interactive. Excellent folks there. Easy to eork with and thoroughly professional.
Still working on Macduff and can't wait to get started.
Had a blast working with the folks at Barksdale on God of Carnage. Great ensemble, great director, great crew, great staff. Can't wait to work with them agian.
Now preparing to play Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor at Richmond Shakespeare in July.
UPDATE 6/9:
Rehearsals are under way and we are having a great time. Come to Richmond in July!
Four more weeks to see God of Carnage at the Barksdale in Richmond, VA.
"…this spryly acted quartet of seething adults evenly balances the physical, vitriolic leaps and lunges with Reza’s spitfire critiques on social etiquette."
"Dan Stearns slides easily into the lizard skin of a cold and cynical capitalist."
"As deft as they are with the language…these four are fearless in their commitment to physical comedy."
"...I am in love with this cast. I think all four actors do a remarkable job."
Great progress in our first week of rehearsals for God of Carnage!
Susan and I relocated to Staunton, VA so she could take a position as assistant professor of history at Mary Baldwin College.
Since arriving I have auditioned and been called back at Chesapeake Shakespeare, Cadence Theatre (Richmond, VA), and Barksdale Theatre (Richmond, VA). At Barksdale I will play Alan in their production of God of Carnage, directed by Bo Wilson, Feb. 3-Mar. 11 at the Willow Lawn Theatre. Check it out here.
I am available for on stage, on camera, and voiceover work in the VA-DC-MD area.
Just shot a spot for BMO Harris Bank today, that I believe will be a national spot and may even get play in Canada. I was Taft-Hartleyed for SAG on this, so I am now eligible for both SAG and AFTRA (I was a Taft-Hartley for AFTRA on "The Playboy Club").
They recast my role in "The Playboy Club." I gues they wanted someone who REALLY looks like Hugh Hefner, and not just sort of, as I do. And they want someone who can do the voice. Let's hope they will have something else for me.
"The Playboy Club" has been picked up by NBC. Keep your fingers crossed that they keep using me as Hef.
You can see me for a couple of seconds at 2:37 in the trailer for the show:
http://www.nbc.com/the-playboy-club/video/an-american-icon-is-born/1327501/
I shot my scene for the "Playboy" pilot on Tuesday 3/22. My contract reads "Guest Star at the discretion of the producer," so keep your fingers crossed about that discretion. Let's hope it's a guest star and not a feature. And really hope that the show gets picked up.
Sketchbook Reverb closed at Collaboraction on Sunday, 3/27, but we will be back in two weeks with an extension. Every Saturday night from 4/9-5/28, except 5/7 we will offer some of the shows we just played, as well as some new favorites from Sketchbooks past. Had a blast with the show and I expect the fun to continue, so if you missed it, you'd better get this on your calendar.
Just booked a pilot on NBC. In the final scene of NBC's pilot for "Playboy," about the Playboy Club in Chicago circa 1963, I will appear as the young Hugh Hefner.
You still have two weeks to see Sketchbook Reverb at Collaboraction. Get there. Thursday through Sunday. And one extra on Monday 3/21.
We had a great opening weekend and now it's time for you all to get to the Flat Iron Arts Building and see Sketchbook Reverb at Collaboraction, a celebration of the favorite eight plays from the first ten years of the Sketchbook Festival. There are great short plays by Keith Huff, author of "A Steady Rain" and a writer on "Mad Men;" Ellen Fairey, author of "Graceland" and a writer on "Nurse Jackie," and other known and up-and-coming playwrights. Thursdays through Sundays, plus a couple of Monday nights, through March 27. Check the website, www.collaboraction.org for all the details. See me die on the sea bottom in one play and return to kill Hitler in another.