About Me
I was playing Anthony in LA's first small theatre production of SWEENEY TODD at the original East West Players' black box theater space. Small theatre always being on a shoestring budget, Sweeney's 2nd floor barber chair/trap door into the bakehouse had been slow to complete and only arrived during previews so we hadn't had much time to work with it. Opening weekend I was offstage under Sweeney's barber shop, singing to give vocal support for the 2nd Act opener "God That's Good." I was standing too close to the trap door when Sweeney released his first victim and the edge of the trap door hit my right eyebrow. I was momentarily stunned and felt my eyebrow which was wet . I rushed to a backstage mirror to see blood running down from my split eyebrow. Applying pressure with a paper towel, I had literally only a minute before going onstage to sing in the "Johanna" (quartet), and I spent the entire number entering, singing for 45 seconds, exiting to get a fresh paper towel, applying pressure to right eyebrow, entering, singing, and repeat. The active bleeding eventually stopped although I needed stitches after the show. I spoke to a friend in attendance who said "yeah, I noticed the eyebrow and I didn't remember Anthony getting mugged, but I just thought, 'Wow, that's really good makeup'"... I can laugh about it now...