2024 is well underway and it’s already been an exciting year.  Post-production for Searching for the Elephant is complete and it is beginning to hit the film festival circuit.  It is an Official Selection in the Reel Harmony Film Festival U.K.  That announcement came on the heels of the release of the film’s official trailer (Click the link).  Theatrial release for the public will most likely be later his summer and I’ll be sure to post more information as it becomes available.

Company Men is also in post-production and should be released soon.  This short film, written by P.T. Hylton and Jonathan Benecke was lots of fun to work on, especially since I got to act with my friend Eugene Wolf.  Eugene is such a wonderful actor and a terrific scene partner and the entire process was a joy from start to finish. I hope to share a link to that film very soon.

Last but not least, I’ll be participating in Barter Theatre’s 2024 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights.  The AFPP is one of my favorite events as Barter presents stage readings of selected new plays.  I’ll be reading in Snakeroot, Thurday evening, February 22 at 7 PM in Barter’s Smith Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia.  I highly recommend the AFPP.  It’s always a fun experience for everyone.

Just a quick update on the latest film news:  Post-production for “Searching for the Elephant” is practically complete!  But even though the film is almost ready for release, the actual release date will likely be later in 2024.  The film is being submitted to various film festivals for consideration and many festivals require that any films included in the festival NOT be distributed in theaters prior to the festival.  So theatrical release for the film may not be until summer.  I’ll be posting updates as they become available.

A second note on the film front:  I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be working in front of the camera with my old buddy Eugene Wolf again in December!  This time Eugene and I will be playing two hitmen in a short film entitled “Company Men”, written by PT Hylton and Jonathan Benecke. PT and Jonathan are both novelists who between them have written several books that span a number of different genres.  The script is really wonderful and anytime I get to work with Eugene is a joy so I’m really looking forward to the shoot.  Of course, I’ll post more info when I can!

Wow!  What a month!  We’ve wrapped principal photography for “Searching for the Elephant” and I can’t begin to describe what a joy it was working on this film.  First of all, thanks to our wonderful director, David Alford.  He ran the ship with a gentle, caring, intelligent and firm hand.  He was everything you could hope for in a director.  Any film shoot is full of surprises, some of them problematic.  But David’s unflapable calm was an example to all of us.  More thanks to Joseph Stam, who played my grandson, Jason. Joseph is a remarkably talented actor:  hard-working, dedicated and fearless.  Sharing the screen with him was an honor and a joy.  Dan Parsons, our Director of Photography, was amazing once again.  His eye for detail, depth and clarity is so impressive.  He was always working to find the shots that most powerfully told the story.  In fact, the entire Crosspurposes Productions cast and crew were terrific.  They are all talented, dedicated artists and I loved working with each and every one.  I can’t wait to see how this all comes together. (I even got to shoot a car chase scene! REALLY can’t wait to see that!) But I’ll have to be patient.  The film likely won’t be released until the summer of 2024.  If the opportunity arises, I’ll be sharing clips on here as I can.  I have posted a few production photos in my photo gallery, too.  But in the meantime, I’ll be content to just sit back and smile at the memories of the “Searching for the Elephant” experience.   It’s all been great!

Principal photography for Crosspurposes Productions latest film, “Searching for the Elephant”, has begun!  I’m so excited to be working with such a wonderful cast and crew headed up by our director, David Alford.  I’m particularly pleased to be working again with our outstanding Director of Photography Dan Parsons.  Dan was the DP for “Royal Ashes” and working with him for just a few days then was a joy.  The chance to work with him for four full weeks of production is turning out to be just as rewarding as I hoped it would be.  “Searching for the Elephant” is the story of a troubled young man, Jason Bowden (played with depth and commitment by the wonderful Joseph Stam), who is forced to live out a year of probation at a secluded ranch in the middle of nowhere with his estranged grandfather, Griff Bowden (my role!).  Griff has his own battles to fight.  A Vietnam-era POW with PTSD, Griff doesn’t want Jason at his home any more than Jason wants to be there.  There are no easy answers for either man and the chance to tell this story with this group of artists is a dream come true.  I’ve posted production pictures in my photo gallery and I’ll keep updating shots as we continue.

I’m proud to join Cross Purposes Productions (https://crosspurposes.productions/)  in announcing that I’ve been cast in their upcoming feature film,”Searching for the Elephant”!  It’s the gritty tale of a young man, Jason Bowden, who has been in and out of trouble with the law.  He’s forced to spend a year of probation on a ranch in the middle of nowhere with his estranged grandfather, Griff Bowden – a man who is fighting his own inner battles and who has no interest in his delinquent grandson. The resulting conflict makes for an intriguing and ultimately affirming story. For more information just follow this link. It’s a great script from a faith-based film company with a terrific track record.  Their award-winning films “Found” and “Royal Ashes” have reached audiences in the millions.  I’m proud to have been cast as Griff.  Here’s a link to their announcement. I can’t wait to get started.  We’ll be filming in July-August 2023.  (The term “searching for the elephant”, by the way, is a ranching phrase for a cowhand who has been hired to work but is always looking for something better – he’s searching for the elephant.)  I’ll certainly be posting more details over the next few months.

I’m really excited to be participating in an upcoming concert tour with the Symphony of the Mountains!  May 7-10 I’ll be narrating the classic “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev.  I’ve loved this piece since I was a kid and I’m really looking forward to working with Cornelia Laemmli Orth and the truly talented musicians in the symphony again.  There’s more info at the SOTM website: https://symphonyofthemountains.org/   I’ve been blessed to have worked with this wonderful group several times over the years, most recently as a member of their Board of Directors and as a participant in the “Paths to Dignity” series of events designed to raise awareness of the needs of the unsheltered.  “Peter and the Wolf” was one of my first real introductions to the use of musical themes to tell stories.  It’s going to be great!

Happy to announce that I’ve been cast in the role of James Lauri, the father, in “Within the Skin”.  The trailer was shot this spring in North Carolina.   It’s the story of a runaway daughter who pays a visit to her estranged, ailing father in Finland but soon discovers a dark truth that everything is not as it seems. The story is in the horror/suspense genre and was written by Ty Yachaina.  It is being produced by Rob Springer and directed by Randy Kent.  Other cast members include Rob as Eric, Erika Monet Butters as Kayla, Ana-Adele Lloyd as Claire, Emi Curia as Emily, Thomas Annuziata as The Stranger and Savannah Lange as Young Girl.  Of course as things develop I’ll keep posting details but for now suffice it to say that I’m truly excited and honored to be asked to be part of the cast.  I’m looking forward to working with them all!

2022 has started off with a big focus on television!  I spent two weeks in January shooting scenes for Jupiter Entertainment for two crime shows – Snapped! on the Oxygen Network and American Detective on Discovery+.  I’ll post more details about both as they get closer to airdates later this year. The web series  Kith and Kin premieres in February on Seeka.tv.  I play Waylon Dumont, the patriarch of the Dumonts, an Appalachian family with a deadly secret.  And the trailer for “The Home“ , a comedy pilot from DMZ Productions, debuted this week.  (You gotta look fast to catch me.  My character, Doug, is a resident of “The Home” and most of my scenes will happen later in the series if it gets picked up. Fingers crossed! The trailer is great and holds a lot of promise for the series.)  All in all, a busy time!

And keep an eye on this space for more news about events later in the year, including the release of the feature film “Royal Ashes” and an upcoming limited tour with the Symphony of the Mountains!  If we can just get Covid to calm down so we can all get things back to something like normal!

I had the unique pleasure of starting the month of November pulling double duty (and enjoying both jobs!) on the set of “A Calling”, a short film written by T. Cat Ford (who also took the picture shown here).  My primary responsibility was as Director of Photography, a role I hadn’t assumed in a film since 2012!  (I’ve shot plenty of projects since then, of course, but had not been a DP since “This World” nearly 10 years ago). “A Calling” is based on true events in the late 1960’s resulting from discontent over court-ordered integration in Georgia and a series of threatening phone calls that were made to a variety of folks, from a 10 year old child to a young mother whose white daughter befriended a black student to the wife of the first black teacher in a predominantly white school.   The film was directed by my friend Susanne Boulle who, interestingly enough, also directed me in a play by T. Cat called “Power in the Blood” that Barter produced in 2008. (My friend, Ashley Campos,  (shown here as Gina, the young mother in the film), was also in that play!   Susanne also directed Ashley and me in “Blackbird” that same spring.)

As I said, I pulled double-duty in “A Calling”.  In addition to working as the DP, I also played the role of Walter Roberts, who is awakened in the middle of the night by a call from someone purportedly planning to dynamite a school.  Unfortunately for the caller, Walter wasn’t the person he was supposed to call!  That’s right, crazy as it seems, the caller actually did dial a wrong number and  revealed his plans to Walter by mistake.  This shot (taken by Barter alum Heather Eisenhart, a production assistant for the film)  shows Walter hanging out on the porch with Hank, sound designer Bobby Beck’s hound, playing Walter’s dog.  It was an intense week, but great fun and I truly appreciate T. Cat, Susanne and producer Claudia Zahn letting me play!

I had the privilege of spending a few days in the mountains of western North Carolina this summer working with the fine folks from Outtake Productions on their new web series “Kith and Kin”.  I played Waylon Dumont, the cantankerous patriarch of the Dumont family who, along with the family’s matriarch, Betty, hides a dark and frightening secret from their three daughters.  It’s a spooky tale set in the Appalachians and it was a lot of fun to shoot.  The folks from Outtake Productions couldn’t have been better or easier to work with.  And, for the first time in my career, I was playing a scene as a drone hovered above.  Pretty cool, actually!  Although I’m beginning to worry a little about “cantankerous” becoming a bit of a common role for me….  🙂

In what I hope was the first of many visits, I went to Richmond, Kentucky last week to shoot scenes for the pilot episodes of “The Home”.  It’s a comedy from DMZ Productions and producer/director Darren Zancan set in a nursing home staffed by an eclectic band of characters who tend to a bizarre family of residents – of whom I am one (along with Buzz Leer and Pete Berwick, pictured here.)  The storylines mostly rotate around the staff with the residents occasionally popping up to throw a few curveballs.  We shot enough scenes for the first four episodes and Darren got that done in four days – an incredible amount of work.  With luck, the show will get picked up and more episodes will be shot in the future.  It’s really an outstanding cast and it was a pleasure to be part of the show, really a lot of fun.  So let’s all hope for more to come!

Excited to announce that I’ve signed my contract with DMZ Productions to play the role of Doug in pilot episodes of  “The Home”.  The series will be shot in Kentucky in July.  The show will follow the adventures (and misadventures) of the staff and residents of an assisted living center.  It’s the brainchild of director/producer Darren Zancan and is based on his past real-life experiences working in a nursing home.  In Darren’s words “it’s fun, it’s weird, it’s different…It’s built around these fun personalities that come together” that work and live in “The Home”.  My audition for the show was one of the most fun audition experiences I’ve ever had.  I think the show is going to be a blast.

Recently did an interview with Kyle Hannah and Gene Rowley from Jumpmaster Press for their interview series:  Under the Canopy.  What a great time!  Really enjoyed talking with these guys.  I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of recording narration for several audiobooks published under the Jumpmaster Press label.  Just follow this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ChmvC-C5U

Now that we’re all beginning to see some light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, shooting is starting to kick back into gear for production companies across the country.  I’ll be working for three different productions this summer:  David Alford’s Cross Purposes Productions, right off the heels of his super successful release “Found” will be shooting a new feature this summer: Royal Ashes.  I’ll be playing a music store owner named Mahoney.  I’ve also been cast as Doug, a resident of an assisted living center, in “The Home” a comedy series scheduled to start shooting in Kentucky in July.  The series is being produced by DMZ Productions. Later in the summer I’ll play a crusty Appalachian patriarch named Waylon Dumont in a web-series entitled “Kith and Kin”. That series is produced by Outtake Productions, shooting in North Carolina.  I’ll have more details on all these projects as the summer progresses!

Just wrapped production for my latest audiobook narration for Jumpmaster Press:  R. Kyle Hannah’s “Lighthouse Keeper”.  I’ve had the pleasure of narrating several of Kyle’s books but prior to this one they had all been science fiction, probably my favorite genre.  “Lighthouse Keeper” is a fantasy, full of wizards and warriors, flying horses and unicorns and I have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve done.  Kyle does a wonderful job of creating characters and situations that capture a reader’s attention and doesn’t let go.  So if you’re a fan of fantasy (or even, like me, if it’s not usually your favorite genre) I highly recommend the book and – a little later this year – the audiobook!

Trying to deal with the pandemic has been challenging for everybody but for the performing arts it’s been devastating.  Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Katy Brown, however, Barter Theatre has been doing some very innovative programming.  Starting last summer and continuing on in 2021, Barter has been presenting a full slate of shows for the whole family at the Moonlite Drive-In.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in the development of the video team that shoots the live performances and simulcasts them on the big screen.  Check out the full range of shows that Barter is offering to help get us all through these challenging times with some great entertainment at bartertheatre.com

I had the great privilege of working on the short film “Hen & Ham” this past fall.  I played a crusty old junkyard owner (beard and all!) named Rusty.  The film was written and produced in Kannapolis, NC by an impressive young filmmaker named Elias Gandy.  I really enjoyed working on the project, including the chance to work with a pair of talented young actors:  Jeb Aufiero (on the left) played Hen and Vincent Felice (in the middle) played my junkyard sidekick, Buddy.  “Hen & Ham” is scheduled for release in March 2021.

Congratulations to my friend and fellow Barter alumni David Alford and his company, Cross Purposes Productions. His new feature film, “Found” premiered in theaters in 2020 and  is being distributed in 2021 by Bridgestone Multimedia Group!   The film stars Joseph Stam as Finch and Wendy Piper as Janelle Brennan and features some old Barter Theatre friends in several roles.  I play Sheriff Bob Callier.  “Found” is the story of a young Appalachian teen who has been raised isolated in the mountains and who is suddenly orphaned and thrown into the modern world. (Check out another short clip from the film in the “Video Reel” section of my Gallery.)

The Washington County Public Library has created a webpage specifically for the Dial-a-Story children’s books that I’ve been recording over the past few years.  Check it out at dialastoryweb.netlify.app/.  The site has every story that I’ve recorded for the past three years and they’re all categorized by different subject matter, from humor to animals to holidays – well over a hundred books with new stories added every month.  It’s one of the most fun and rewarding projects on which I’ve ever worked. By the way, you can still access the most recent Dial-a-Story offerings at the WCPL website:  www.wcpl.net/kids-teens/dial-a-story/

I just finished production of the audiobook version of “Tales From the Busty Ostrich” by R. Kyle Hannah published by Jumpmaster Press.  This is the final book in Kyle’s Tri-System Authority trilogy and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it.  I’ve now done two complete trilogies for Kyle.  In addition to the Tri-System Authority trilogy I had earlier recorded Kyle’s Time Assassins trilogy.  If you are a science fiction fan – and I am – you’ll love them.  I grew up on Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov and Kyle’s work falls very much into that style of sci-fi.  I’ll be putting a small sample from the book in my audio gallery.

I recently signed to do the role of Sheriff Callier in the feature film “Found”, shooting this summer (if social distancing regulations allow).  The film is written and produced by my friend and fellow Barter alumni David Alford and his company, Cross Purposes Productions. Based on James 1:2-4, the story is about a young Appalachian teen raised “off the grid” isolated from the rest of society who through a tragedy suddenly finds himself orphaned and tossed into our modern, hi-tech world.  A troubled family attempts to rescue him and in the process discovers what “testing your faith” really means.  Go to crosspurposesmovie.com for more information.

Currently, particularly during these days of quarantine, film and television auditions in the southeast are frequently done by way of self-tapes. The casting director sends a page or two of a sample script (called a “side”) to the actor and the actor then shoots video at home to send in for the casting director to review. Audition via internet! To make that job a little easier I followed a tip from my friend Bobby Beck and purchased a RØDE wireless microphone kit. Relatively inexpensive and extremely easy to use. I’d recommend it to anyone in need of a good wireless microphone. Thanks for the tip, Bobby!

I have officially signed with Talent Trek Agency as my agent for film and television work. Headquartered in Knoxville, Talent Trek also has offices in Chattanooga and Nashville in Tennessee and an office in Asheville, NC. The agency is a full service SAG/AFTRA agency that was founded in 1983 by Charlotte Dennison and Juanell Walker.

I recently had a great photo session with the wonderfully talented Sarah Laughland to get new headshots, some of which have been incorporated into this website. In addition to her stellar photography work, Sarah is an outstanding performer. Some of you may remember Sarah from her time as an actor at Barter Theatre. She and I worked together on several shows, most recently in “Elf” where she starred as Jovie, the object of Buddy the Elf’s affections. Check out her website at sarahlaughlandphotography.com. She’s terrific!

It was really gratifying to be invited to appear on Daytime Tri-Cities at WJHL and talk with one of the show’s charming hosts, Amy Lynn, about my recent retirement from the Resident Acting Company at Barter Theatre.  I’ve been there several times over the years to talk about different shows and to guest host a couple of times, but this was the first time to talk primarily about my career and my time at Barter.  Amy is such a delightful person and it’s always a treat to be able to visit the folks at WJHL.  The interview is still available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qk36Up-LXw

I was in Georgia January 10-12 to shoot a short film for SCAD director Hattie Huzsagh. Her film, His Trophies, tells the story of a candidate for governor who faces a moral dilemma forcing him to choose between his family and his candidacy. The other cast members were a great bunch to work with as were the students from the Savannah College of Art and Design who made up the crew. We shot at locations around Monroe, a truly charming small town east of Atlanta. It was a lot of fun to do and we couldn’t have been better treated by everyone involved.