Charles, "Blithe Spirit" at York Little Theatre What was it like to play my first lead?  Overwhelming, nerve-wracking, and absolutely terrifying at first.  Fortunately, I was working with some terrific people, both onstage and off, not to mention a brilliant script.  In the end, the nerves went away and it became exciting, exhilerating and loads and loads of fun instead.  (Oddly enough, it was Carol Brown, one of my co-stars in this ghostly tale, who got me started telling ghost stories of my own.)

Jim, "Dr. Cook's Garden" at Oyster Mill Playhouse A fabulous show by Ira Levin, creator of "Deathtrap."  The middle half of the play is just the two of us: me as young Dr. Tennyson, and Mike Stubbs as his mentor, who's murdered thirty people "for the good of the town."  Love, trust, suspicion, betrayal, the seduction of evil.  It was also a reunion with some terrific people I'd last worked with in "Canterbury Tales" the year before.

"A Christmas Carol" at Open Stage of Harrisburg I came in as a last-minute substitute in 2000; I scrambled to catch up and get off-book, and things were starting to look up... and then, one week before opening night, the costumer handed me a pair of stilts.  Somehow things worked out, and I was back again the next year, and the year after that.  A hearty, if belated, THANK YOU to the team of dressers who got me in and out of the nine-foot Ghost costume night after night.  I couldn't have done it without you.  (This was also the inspiration for the solo "Carol" I do now.)

Baron Van Swieten, "Amadeus" at Gretna Theatre Gretna's a regional theatre; I've been working with them for a while now.  I've toured to schools and senior communities with "Amelia Earhart: Lost Hero," I've appeared in their staged-reading series, and I've had two original plays produced there.  But this was my first appearance in their mainstage series.  Of the last-minute technical challenges, I'll say only this: our first dress rehearsal of Act Two was in front of 650 people.

Various Roles, The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire I've been working at the Ren Faire since 1998--in the cast, on board the "Terror Train," selling tickets, t-shirts, teddy bears... and as the pickleman.  I love the interaction--so much so that at Blast From the Past (a 1980s festival), the directors took me aside and asked me to keep my participant pass visible just so they could stop telling people, "What, the Trekkie guy?  Nah, he's okay, he's just an actor."

Tartuffe, "Tartuffe," by Pocket Change Productions My first major role in a feature-length film, no-budget film.  It was all shot in green-screen, an odd experience which led to... Various, Ham On Rye Virtual Theatres Almost five hundred live, blue-screen performances as part of HOR's half-live, half-animated, highly interactive VR games. Model, Smith Communications Angie Smith got me started as an extra, and later she was the one who gave me my best print ad so far.

Director, "Good Help is So Hard to Murder" at Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg I've directed children's shows, one-acts, comedies, original plays, even Shakespeare, but "Good Help" was my first time directing a full-length farce.  The script is brilliant, funny, and deeply warped. Plus, I got to play the best part myself: the voice of the parrot.  ('Course, the publicity and the review still called it an "all-female cast," but that's another story.)

Student, Acting and Improv No list of my favorite moments as an actor would be complete without a word or two about Tom Roy.  He's an actor, a director, a creator of wacky holidays, but I know him best as my improv teacher.  He more than anyone led me to open my mind, trust my gut instead of my fears, and follow my dreams just as far as they'll take me.  Thanks, Tom!  Yes-AND!

YOUR PICTURE COULD GO HERE Teacher, Acting and Improv I'm proud to continue the tradition with students of my own.  I've taught acting and improv at York Little Theatre, Theatre Harrisburg, Penn State Harrisburg, Open Stage of Harrisburg, and Encore Entertainment, and drama and theatre courses at Susquehanna University and Elizabethtown College.  (Check out my  upcoming acting classes.)