Namaste, Everyone
As secretary of Actors' Mission, the local community theatre troupe here in Rock Springs, WY, I wanted a way for us to communicate with one another, and some folks we don't even know at this point, all about our goings on, productions, events, and other points of interest. One way would've been some kind of newsletter, but this is much more interactive, much more fun and interesting. At least until our website is developed.
So here is the first post on the Actors' Mission blog site. Feel most welcome to leave comments, do whatever it is people do on these sites. That's where the real fun will be. I hope that you visit often, leave your mark, and tell your friends about this-we'll use it as a way to publish information, expand resources and connections, discuss productions and the direction of the troupe, maybe even offer some constructive analysis. But, to any who choose to leave comments, or "blog" as they say, please remember that we want to be respectful and courteous.
So let me begin by posing (or "posting", I guess) something for you to think about and add to. As a lot of you know, we're gearing up for opening night of "Death in a Nut's Hell"-four one-acts, three of them comedies, about death. So what kinds of interesting experiences have you had with death, either within or without the scope of this production?
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Hey fellow actors: I am looking forward to seeing this blog become a meeting place for us. I have already added it to "my faves"...A note of warning to future posters...You must choose an idenity before you write any comments...If you write first then choose to sign up to Gloogle/Blogger your writing will disappear...(It just vanishes into that great big cyber junk yard)...Then you have to rewrite your wonderous and one-of-a-kind thoughts. I have also discovered that there in no spell check so...beware...
Our current production is "Death in a Nut's Hell: A Date with Deathtiny" It's a night of one acts dealing with a fun side of death and reflection. Our play dates are May 1, 2, 3 at 7 Pm and May4 at 2 Pm. Of course, we'll be serving free food one hour before. Come early and often to see your peers at work.
Now, on another note. I am including an article that Donovan wrote about me for the newsletter I was writing a while ago. I was writing about each Board Member and I was the next in line. It's not vanity on my part, it's just that I want Donovan's work to be recognized.
Mike Jeffery
Article for Actors’ Mission Newsletter
He has been called “the glue that holds the Actors’ Mission together”, and rightly so. Mike Jeffery has been a member of the Actors’ Mission since its second production in the late Spring of 2003, when he acted in “Petrified Forest”. Since then, Mike has been involved in every production thereafter not only as an actor, but as Stage Manager and Secretary of the Actors’ Mission Board of Directors. In addition, Mike has been the “EmCee” to every production, warning the audience to “please set your cell phones on ‘stun’”, not to use photographic flashes during the performances because “they may frighten the animals”, and always letting the audience know what a great time they are about to have. It is Mike’s gentle and down-to-earth style of delivery that imparts its own sense of comfort and confidence not only to the audience, but to the cast as well. His presence and calm demeanor have provided something very special in every Actors’ Mission endeavor.
Born in Rawlins, Wyoming, Mike lives in Rock Springs with his wife, Tina. Two of his three daughters, Kelly and Lonnie, live in Rock Springs in close proximity, while their third daughter, Faith, resides in Washington state. He and Tina’s grandchildren, Ryan and Anya, also live here. Prior to settling down in Rock Springs, Mike has had International living experience when he served in the US Air Force from 1971 – 1979, where he was stationed in England for part of his service. He has worked for R & D Sweeping these past five years, and, has, in his own words, developed a very real “dislike of snow”.
Mike became involved with what became the Actors’ Mission when it was founded by Geoff Peterson and Sharon Dolan, with a small but strong role in its second production, Petrified Forest. When asked why he first joined and has subsequently worked in so many of the Actors’ Mission productions, he replied “…besides the roar of applause, that’s a bit of humor, I needed to be involved in the community. Until the Actors’ Mission, most of my time was spent solely with my family, and I felt I needed to get more active. Being with the Actors’ Mission got me out of my shell. And now Tina wants a T-shirt that says ‘Actors’ Mission Widow’”.
Mike’s natural inclination has been being Stage Manager for almost every production since his debut in Petrified Forest, but his acting credits also include The Hairy Ape, That Championship Season, Terms Of Surrender, Inherit The Wind, A Good Woman Of Setzuan, A Christmas Carol, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. But it was a request from Geoff Peterson one Spring evening in 2004 that led to his most memorable acting role when Geoff correctly envisioned Mike to portray Karl Marx in Howard Zinn’s Marx In Soho.
Marx In Soho was a one-man show in which Mike portrayed the deceased Karl Marx “returning” to “Soho”, (New York instead of London due a ‘bureaucratic mix-up’), more than 100 years after his death to try to explain his philosophy of his great Communist Manifesto, not only at the time when he wrote his Great Work, but his disappointments in Mankind’s interpretations of it since his death. It was a highly acclaimed performance, and one that will always remain one of Mike’s greatest successes. “Marx re-opened my socialist way of thinking. I’ve always been a Liberal. In fact, I make Jesse Jackson look conservative. Tina hated Geoff for ‘Marx’ because it did this. “Marx” was my ‘Big Hurrah’”.
Not as big a “Hurrah” perhaps, but equally important is Mike’s ability to help in every production. Almost at the last minute, Mike was called on to play a lead role in That Championship Season, and his efforts contributed and were responsible to that production’s success. When asked if he desired to continue acting in future productions, he replied, “I’m done with acting. I don’t want to go thru the memorization anymore. Acting requires three different parts in relation to the other characters. You have the part itself. You have to memorize that part’s lines, and then you have to go outside of yourself and “look in” at what your character is doing in relation to all the other characters. I am pretty happy being Stage Manager and the “Emcee” for our shows, and I like being Secretary. I like the ‘organizational thing’ and I am definitely a ‘people person’. I would like to write something someday, maybe a play.”
Mike sees the future of the Actors’ Mission as an “on-going” concern in the (Rock Springs) Community. “I see the Leadership roles being moved on to the next generation, our plays becoming more complex, and the Actors’ Mission being in another venue. I would be great if we could get our own little Playhouse”.
When asked to make one defining statement about the Actors’ Mission, Mike said, true-to-form, that, “The Actors’ Mission is something that could be a great benefit and addition to the community if we all work together.”
In conclusion, this author must note that for him, personally, one of the greatest and most enriching aspects of my time within the Actors’ Mission has been to work with, and get to know, Mike Jeffery. I truly believe that this sincere, hard-working individual has done more to give this diverse and talented assortment of people more of a sense of “family” than any other person. He is an example of how we may all wish to be. I really cannot imagine a production without his understated but very intelligent presence, and I am personally a better person for knowing Mike Jeffery; as are we all.
--Donovan Rawlings, March 2007
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