Grace Jones, My First Feature Film, Award Nominations and Youth Theatre

It finally feels like fall in San Francisco after what has felt like a year of unending summer. I personally love the heat and would be fine with our newly tropical climate if it didn't come with nagging fears about the California drought. Thankfully, this fall coolness and the accompanying rain make me feel hopeful about Mother Nature's corrective power.

The change of seasons is always a good time to reflect and I look back now with gratitude for an eventful late-summer. I shot my first feature film in September - an indie project called Dayroom, which explores the effects of Don't Ask Don't Tell on a group of cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. I had a fun and educational time playing the compassionate Cadet Ernest and look forward to my next time on a film set! I'll keep you posted once I learn about plans for the film's distribution.

At the end of the September I got to check a very important item off my bucket list - seeing my beloved Grace Jones live in concert! She did not disappoint. As she shimmied, sang, and strode about that stage with love and power radiating out of every pore, Grace showed me how glorious it is to live fearlessly. I touched her hand for a moment but her fierce vitality touched me in ways that will linger for the rest of my life. If she's ever in your neck of the woods go see her! She challenges every limit you can imagine for the human body and makes you feel like you too can soar.

My peers in the Bay Area theatre community have been especially encouraging to me this summer. In September I was nominated for three Theatre Bay Awards (as a Featured Actor in The Amen Corner and as part of Outstanding Ensemble for "Choir Boy" and "We Are Proud to Present ...") and as of last week I have received two grants to write and perform a new solo play in the June 2016 National Queer Arts Festival. The play, Type/Caste, will explore the role of art in our corporate age and a queer, black artist's search for success on his own terms. I'm very excited to go on this journey with the super-talented Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, who will be directing me. Stay tuned for more updates about the show and please send me some good writing vibes.

I've been busy teaching another semester of the Youth Theater Project at the San Francisco Mime Troupe and I'm excited to invite you to my students' performance. Inside Out is a brilliant student-written play that explores what happens when a person takes a walk in someone else's shoes. I'm very proud of the work my talented students have put in and I hope you'll join us this Tues, Nov 10 and Wed, Nov 11 at 7pm at 855 Treat Ave, San Francisco for our shows. You can get more info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/930817710329001/ or at www.sfmt.org

And now I must get some rest before tomorrow's rehearsal for my upcoming holiday show in which I dance all over New York in the 1920s/1930s with the wonderful folks at Word for Word. I'll tell you more about the show in my next update but you should mark your calendars now for Nov 25 - Dec 24. It's gonna be a rollicking good time!

Goodnight, dear friends. Please write me with updates about your adventures.