I Popped My Cherry…Again.

And I did so in front of a room of very talented artists and an incredible acting teacher. On Thursday, February 18th at approximately 9:30pm, Lindsay Hopper and I took to the stage and got into place. The lights went down in the theater and Robin Karfo called out the name of our scene. Accompanied by her amazingly talented boyfriend, Jordan Bull, on the guitar, Lindsay and I began to sing “That Would Be Enough” from the insanely brilliant Broadway smash musical, “Hamilton”.

Weeks leading up to our song, she and I received texts, emails and in-person shout outs from various people who couldn’t wait to see us sing together. After our song ended Thursday night, we received a wonderful round of applause and cheers. We sat downstage center and received our assessment from Richard Lawson. It was a great first take.

I popped my cherry again because the first thing I said when I sat down for the assessment was, “I have to say that this is the first time I’m singing in front of an audience, with someone else and with accompaniment in 9 years!” I cheered and everyone in the room immediately cheered and applauded for me.

Singing in front of my peers and friends was a big moment for me. To give you some context of the magnitude of this event, please check out two previous blog entries I wrote in 2015 that addressed a failed purpose I had with singing and what I did to fix that:

Part 1: How A 15-Year Old Inspired Me:
http://wp.me/p8uI5M-3d

Part 2: Care-Fronting My Director:
http://wp.me/p8uI5M-3c

The rehearsal process was fun and it was a re-training of my ear in terms of singing with someone else and singing with an instrument and being able to re-learn the song quickly whenever the key was changed. It was like stepping into a dance studio after not having trained in a long time…you’ll always be a trained dancer, but you start re-learning, you start rehabilitating, you start re-awakening and the rust slowly but surely comes off.

I was like a giddy five-year old kid during rehearsals. I would then obsessively rehearse the song on my own. I also found myself singing additional songs in my free time. I started to remember how much I love to sing. I started to remember that I once sang at Madison Square Garden!

Lindsay and I will repeat the song and take it to the next level with the notes we received. I’d like to continue putting up musical scenes in class. How singing will fit into my overall dream remains to be seen, but maybe it’ll find its way into characters I write for myself in feature films and TV series. Perhaps my character will be that one that busts into a song in the middle of the restaurant to profess his love for someone. Or maybe when my character comes home from a long day of work, he busts out in a musical number to shake the day off. Sky’s the limit as a writer.

But in terms of staying in alignment with the concept of “Chasing The George”, singing “That Would Be Enough” after 9 years of not singing in public is an example of and testament to that: To move full steam ahead and commit. To not flinch. To have fun. To do the work and then let it go the minute I get on stage because I know the work is in me.

Here’s to more!

Chasing The George.