The `Speare Bearer: One-Man Street Shakespeare

A wonderful couple, Chris and Renee Smith invited me to perform for their youth theater ensemble. I ran late because my friend Bmac’s dad installed a sweet smart phone charger gadget on my bike today, so now I can charge as I ride. So pretth much the second I got there I had to launch into my shakespeare show for a group of about 60 children btw 5 and 12 yrs of age and a few adults… Again I thought I was losing them, but they were a good audience. We had a really interesting q&a afterwards and REGRET not getting any footage of anything. IDIOT!

Anyway, afterward Renee and Chris were nice enough to treat me to a home cooked meal at their wonderful home, and Chris took me to see a community theater show he built a terrific set for. It was great fun.

All in all it was a good day, a day that really makes me look forward to launching. The kids had such great questions like “how do you do you remember all those lines?” and “how does it feel when you come off stage and people applaud for you?” Oh, they were so sweet it’s killing me.

Man. This is it. God is good.

As most of you know, at the end of this month I’m beginning my One-Man Street Shakespeare on a Bike tour! Below is the list of cities I will be stopping through along my tour around the USA.

One-Man Street Shakespeare Tour Destinations!

If you or someone you know well lives within 50 miles of any of those locations, and wouldn’t mind hosting this weary Shakespeare gypsy for a night, or if anyone has requests for `Speare Bearer appearances, please contact me. A night getting a hot shower and sleeping in a warm bed as I’m doing this tour will make all the difference in the world. I don’t need much, I’m a pretty low-maintenance guest, and I’ll likely never be in an area for more than one night. Besides, one of the main goals of this trip is to spend time with old friends, and make new ones. So please, check out the list of cites, and let me know if you would like to host me, or have any suggestions as to places I might look into. I’m making a database of possible contacts across the country now. And to let you all know, my tentative launch date from Tampa FL is:

Sunday, January 29th, 2012.

Also, I’ve raised enough funds via my Kickstarter fundraiser to get my trip started, but I’m still lacking some important resources and supplies I’ll need to complete the tour successfully and safely. If you didn’t get the chance to donate before, or you’d generously like to donate again, below is the link with instructions on how to donate to my tour via my Amazon account: 

How to donate!

Any donation, whether it be $1, $10, or $100 is deeply appreciated. Please, please, please, spread the word via your Facebooks/Twitters/facetimes, and keep checking the blog for updates. I’ve got some video from my last two shows in Savannah, GA, and Port Charlotte, FL forthcoming. Thanks so much, and I look forward to hearing from you all.

So, I was going to leave Wednesday, but a woman named Renee saw my show at the high school and hired me for $100 bucks to do a show at an elementary school. It seems like the kids might get something out of it, and I can’t pass up $100 bucks, and my friend Jason was going to do a recording session on Saturday, which I figure might be a fun thing to do before I take off, so I’m going to do that the night before I leave… Besides I think it’ll be cooler to be able to leave from Tampa and not actually have to ride through Port Charlotte and North Port again. So as of today I’m about a week off from the real kick off, on the 29th. I’m leaving about a week later than I wanted to, but I think it’s for the best.

So far I’ve done two official shows. I did one at Muse Arts Warehouse in Savannah, right near SCAD, where I went to school, and had some former professors and lots of old friends come see it. I think that performance was a personal best for me in terms of the entire show, maybe about 50 people showed up and the audience was very gracious. I got to meet a lot of people, see a lot of welcome old faces, we did a Q&A at the end and I got to talk a bit about the project and what it means to me, and my artistic life… got to listen to myself talk for a bit, and we all know that’s what we artists reaalllyyy love. Also, a professor I never had, but a really nice fella named David Storck invited me to speak at some of his acting classes at SCAD. It was a great time for me to see these kids who are a few years younger, and blow some more of my hot air at them, tell them about my experiences the last few years, and answer some of the questions I badgered them into asking me so I could hear myself talk more. So, Savannah was a fantastic time. 

Did another show here in Port Charlotte at my old high school, and again about 50 people, students (mostly the drama kids, but some others too), a few of my good friends, and/or friends parents who were in town, and a lot of my family showed up to support me. It was awesome. Things felt a little more tenuous at this show, and I felt like I really had to work to keep this crowds attentions, which was good for the performance, and they seemed to respond really well at the end. We did another Q&A here and I was really pleased that many of the people at this show seemed really interested and had some really good questions. One sweet young girl told me she’s hoping to go to SCAD for Performance. If she ever reads this I wish her well.

Now I’m just kind of biding my time… going to commit to only rehearsing by doing street performances from now on. Which is TERRIFYING, but it’s go time. There’s more I want to write I guess, but my brain is getting fuzzy, so I’ll just implore you all again, please donate to me, via my Amazon account because I still need quite a few more supplies to really make this thing work for me on the road. Right now I’m not fully prepared to really be able to take care of myself, and my bike,  and eat well enough to keep my strength up (I’m still missing a few supplies, like a pannier, and possibly a camp stove… ). I’m trusting God to provide these things, because i need them and don’t really know where they are going to come from.. so I’m just going to ask you all to donate, even if it’s $5 to the trip. If you already have, PLEASE know I am deeply appreciative of your donation.. I just want to make sure I can face this challenge squarely, not under-prepared. I don’t want to disappoint so many people who’ve put their faith in me. Anyway, click here to find out how to donate.

Thanks to everyone who is following this blog. I really appreciate you all, and I am doing my best to try to do you all proud, and really spread this Shakespeare with all the enthusiasm, joi-de-vivre, and ferocity I can muster. More soon. Love ya.

I am coming to the conclusion that all kinds of Art, but in my case particularly the performing arts, is a service industry. We are called upon to offer the best, and most true and vulnerable parts of ourselves to make art that edifies humanity, and draws them closer somehow to the divine. If you are calling yourself an artist, and you aren’t doing this, I personally believe you are missing the mark. I say this also taking into account the basic belief that as an artist, if it means something to you, it means something to somebody else, and working from your heart helps to heal yours and theirs.

So there’s LOTS of news that I’m hurrying to get out before I go sleep in a tent in my moms backyard, (preparation for my tour). I’m still here in South West in Florida for a another 2 weeks or so before I take off on the One Man Street Shakespeare bike tour. I’ve been here spending some time with my family… I’ve really not spent much time at home at all in the last 4 1/2 yrs I was living at home, so I’ve been doing some much needed catching up with friends and family… also doing a lot of prep work for the tour… actually purchasing a bike, a 2012 Surly Long Haul Trucker I’ve named Grace Monger, (a peddler of Grace), been doing some riding, been doing a good amount of rehearsing, really starting to stretch out and loosen up into my repertiore… it feels nice, but there’s a lot more work to do.. and I’ve booked two preview shows for myself, one in Savannah GA, where I went to college (at SCAD), Here’s a newspaper article about that (!!!!), and one here in Port Charlotte. Hopefully there’s another forthcoming article about that one.

It’s getting late, and that’s the major news so I’ll just end by encouraging everyone to please donate to my tour. I’m DEEPLY indebted and so grateful to everyone who donated to my Kickstarter, and if you didn’t get a chance to and want to contribute, or if you are just divinely generous and just want to donate more, just go to thespearebearer.tumblr.com/donate and there’s simple instructions there about how to give via amazon.com. That’s all for now. Love you all. Good night.

How does recklessness fit into your artistic life, if at all? 

What I mean by that is having no regard for career, a particular piece, or how your work will be received, but just being willing to destroy your work in an effort to make it the best you can. Is there any merit in that approach? What is the alternative? Is there a middle ground? Is that middle ground valuable?

My friend Mandella talk about it a lot.. we’ve experienced growth in the last year or so working together making music, and what I’ve said to him is in retrospect (though he doesn’t agree..) is that when we get into the studio to record, we willfully TRY to destroy, to ruin the piece, in an effort to see just how far we can push things. We do things that we might feel intuitively, or instinctively, but by any sort of logic are self-sabotaging or self-destructive… and it’s not always the right choice, but we at least find it more interesting much of the time.

For me as an artist, at this point, I feel that is the way to go, but I’m curious to hear from other artists what their point of view on this is.

That’s right! I’m a proud alumni of Savannah College of Art and Design and I’m bringing this crazy show of mine back to Savannah! If you’re anywhere near Savannah please come out to Muse Arts Warehouse and come check out the show and hang out! It’s going to be insane!!  

Hit the link for more info:

The `Speare Bearer at Muse Arts!

That’s right. If anyone happens to be in the South Florida area, come out at see my electric, lunatic one-man Shakespeare show at PCHS! I graduated from PC in 2002, and it’s an honor to come back home and share my work with the community. the address is below. Please come on out, it’s FREE, and it’s going to be insane!

PORT CHARLOTTE HIGH SCHOOL.
18200 Cochran Boulevard
Port Charlotte, FL 33948