The Chronicles of Jason: December 2018

Richmond, Virginia was our second capital city of the tour (out of 5 total capitals we'd eventually see). We arrived here on Thanksgiving Day. Our hotel was super modern and trendy and made for college students. It was a bit much; but nice.

That evening, we had a Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant. On the walk there I saw lots of nice buildings/homes. It's exactly what you think Virginia would look like.

Thought you'd like this red door, Aunt Waneta.

The front desk at our hotel.

While standing in the lobby, we noticed our Rudolph, Shelby, on the television giving a live interview!

And they started to show clips from the show, and look at that! It's ME. The only publicity photos or videos they've got for this show are from the first year, 2014, when I was the only Santa.

Walking around in the city--

This says, "When Noah sailed the ocean blue, he had his troubles the same as you. For 40 days he sailed his ark before he found a place to park."

Our hotel

Ate lunch here

The Altria Theater

The capitol building with Candice and Ryan--

Back to the theater--

The ceiling of the theater--

Lobby--

Back inside the theater--

Up close of the beautiful ceiling in the theater--

It was also in Richmond, while touring the capitol, that I rolled my left ankle. It wasn't awful, but it was definitely painful. I should mention, I rolled my ankle right BEFORE we went to tour the capitol, so I wandered the entire capitol grounds limping. But it was a gorgeous capitol, and was designed by Thomas Jefferson himself.

Next up is Hamlet, North Carolina (NOT something to be excited about).

Tour is now more than half over. I'm working on figuring out how many total performances I've done of this show over the last 4 years. I do know it's more than 100 but less than 200 times. This year, several actors in the show have already celebrated their 100th and even 200th performance!

Coming back after missing last year it was especially important to me to step back strongly into the role of Santa; a role which I originated in 2014 and feel a certain kinship toward. Would it feel new and exciting or would it feel boring?

I know my second year felt like a weird dream -- "Did I really do this before?" My third year is what really threw me off -- "I can't have done this twice before? Was last year dejavu?" This year I'm much more connected and confident.

To non-actors, I wonder if this aspect of being an actor seems interesting or challenging. I imagine that it does.

I'm fortunate to never really have had difficulty with making each performance new, even (and especially) when I've done the same show nearly 200 times. I actually take great pride in my ability to be consistently present and engaged in each performance.

Memorization of lines, blocking, making each performance new, remaining present every moment, etc. are things I get asked about most often in reference to doing shows. It definitely takes focus; but I've also been preparing for this type of stuff my entire life.

But just because I'm a "professional" doesn't mean I don't have "off" days.

Everyone has off days, actors are no different. But being off as an actor differs in some interesting ways. When I've worked in an office and was feeling off, it typically has to do with being tired or sick. Especially in an office setting, those "off" feelings probably don't affect your actual job performance. You just feel off.

Well, when I feel "off" and am doing a show, that's totally different. Yes, my feeling of being off might be because I'm tired or sick, but that's rare. And yes, that could easily affect my actual performance (sore throat, hurt ankle, etc.).

But even when I'm saying all my lines correctly; even when I'm standing exactly where I'm supposed to stand; even when the audience is totally buying my performance -- I as the actor can still feel "off". This happened just the other night for the first time this year. The audience may have not been as vocal (clapping, oooing/ahhing, etc.), or my travel exhaustion may have gotten the better of me. I just felt strange, like something was missing.

Traveling from city to city like we are this week is confusing to the brain. It is imperative that you as the actor are focused and present at every moment, not just for the sake of the show and your safety, but out of respect for the audience.

Thankfully, this show that I'm doing isn't Shakespeare (which means it's not difficult or challenging), and me feeling slightly disconnected doesn't have any negative impact on the show itself.

Anyway, here are some photos from the next stop after Albany! I'm TRYING to catch up on blogging!

After leaving Albany, NY we headed on a bus to York, Pennsylvania - a 300 mile (5 hour) bus ride.