Hitting Left-Handed and Other Cool Things My Dad Taught Me

This is my Dad...John Stone. People used to call him Big John.  

I've always looked up to him. I still do. Here are few really cool things my Dad taught me.

He taught me to fish...how to tie the knot...how to catch it and clean it. He gave me a knife and a sheath I wore on my hip. He even gave me a rattlesnake "bite kit" that had a razor and some suction cups? That scared me. I think I was eight or nine. Here I am a few years later. 
 
I love fishing.

My Dad taught me baseball...my favorite game to this day. But more than just teaching me to throw and catch and the rules of the game he made me learn how to hit left-handed so I could drag bunt if needed.

That is a GIF if you want to see me round first and leg out a double watch the video below.

I can't recall ever having bunted but I sure do love to swing the bat lefty. It brings me joy.


























Here is a song about baseball I sing at auditions sometimes.
What You'd Call A Dream 

He gave me the gift of critical thinking.
He taught me chess and we'd play together. It was far more challenging than any video game. After pondering my next move I'd slowly pick up the piece and place it (without removing my hand of course) and with a tiny smile on his lips while I was still thinking he'd say, "Are you sure you want to make that move?"

We'd watch and discuss shows like 60 Minutes and Nova and he listened to my thoughts on the topics. Even though I was a kid he made me feel my input was valuable.

My Dad taught me about honesty, saying if I always told him and Mom the truth, things would be okay.
So, when I broke the garage window for the 3rd time (practicing pitching) even after being told not to do that specific thing I knew I had to go to the front yard (where he was cutting the grass) and immediately tell him.  I don't even think he got mad. He just fixed it...again.
As a corollary to this he showed me it is perfectly acceptable to admit you are or have been wrong and there is courage and strength in doing that.

He taught me many other things as well of course but probably the most valuable thing I learned was the following...

When you find the love of your life you stick with her.

 Thanks Dad.

So you are thinking of going to college for a Musical Theatre degree

I love musical theater. It is what I have to do. I even believe it is what I am supposed to do. So I get it. I really do. It came to me through Frank Demiero...this guy.

He came into my grade school music class and asked if anyone wanted to audition for a show called "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Not really knowing what any of that meant I raised my hand....sang and was cast. This is what followed.


Nice glove and hair right?
The experience was wonderful, challenging and enlightening. In retrospect, it was life changing. By the time I reached 17 years old I knew I wanted to be an actor and was considering college choices. My Dad called and spoke to the head of the theater department for the University of Washington. Thanks Dad that was cool. The advice I received was to spend as much time as I could "on the boards." He suggested I enroll in Shoreline Community College which had a good musical theatre program where I might get stage time. Apparently, the underclassmen at UW weren't often cast in shows. Following the suggestion I enrolled at S.C.C. and promptly was cast in "Charlie's Aunt." The advice was good.
Eventually I transferred to the UW and graduated with an English degree. It was my backup plan.  Acting classes and vocal lessons have been helpful but the majority of learning my craft and the depth of it have come from time spent on the stage...in rehearsal and with the audience. The audience is integral and while you do have an audience of peers in the classroom it is not the same.
So why am I writing all this?
I feel uncomfortable with the amount of money colleges are charging for a degree in Musical Theatre.
You see, I understand the economics of being an actor. Being a professional actor, specializing in musical theatre, is not an easy way to make a living. Jobs end constantly. Shows close unexpectedly and way too many people want to do your job for free. In fact, some people will even pay a very large sum of money just to wear the costumes and be on stage for a few minutes. They are called "Walk -Ons." (I am not certain of that spelling.) I learned this while doing The Music Man at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.
Here is an awesome clip of our backstage warm-up.  You gotta watch it...it's cool.

My college experience from Shoreline Community College to the University of Washington was a fantastic, enriching and wonderful time and I don't want to discourage anyone from furthering their education. But when I hear what they are charging for a musical theatre degree I scratch my head and wonder how someone can ever pay that back working on stage? In the mid 90's when production contracts on the road were plenty and the cost of a college degree was significantly lower it made some sense to me but I am wary for the next generation of young performers. I see the joy on their faces when they tell me what college they got into and it warms my heart. I am excited for the journey of learning and exploration they are about to embark upon and then I worry about how they will pay that debt off and I hope that they have a full ride scholarship.
One time while catching a beer at McCann's at Port Authority in NY waiting for my bus home after my show I ran into an old theatre friend who introduced me as, "The guy who made it."
That surprised me. Took me off-guard really cause that was not how I felt. But I suppose to him I had. I was working on Broadway. Still though, I was struggling to pay my bills and my show was closing.
So follow your dreams my friends. Do that thing that you simply must do but please don't shackle yourself to a mountain of debt. It's not necessary.

On Acting

"How are you today?"
I get asked this question, or a variation of it often.  "How ya doing?"  "How's it going?"
Basically it's the same question.  I recognize this as a greeting...a way of opening up a dialogue as I load my groceries onto the conveyer belt at the QFC.  I do not look at this as an opportunity to engage this person with an in depth discussion about how I am actually feeling at that moment.  My feelings are irrelevant to the transaction that is about to take place so I usually answer cursorily.  "Good," I say.
If I am feeling particularly verbose or I'm trying to show off I may say, "I am doing well, thank you."

One of the things I love about doing theater is that it asks of us...requires us to answer that question and to explore our emotions be it on stage or in the audience. Theater makes us think and delve into what makes us "feel."
Being a kid that grew up in the 70's I had a particular advantage to delving into my feelings.  My mom bought me this album. For those of you who don't know what an album is (there might be some who don't.)  Voila.
Here's the wikipedia page explaining what it was all about.
Free To Be You And Me
And this was a record player.  There were many different styles of record players.  Some were spectacular.  Being a child, mine was modest.  This one is similar.

Still though, it was magic to me.  This is how we entertained ourselves in the 1970's...that and playing cards, Monopoly, The Game of Life and Clue.
So, the point is, I was given 'Free To Be You And Me' and listened to it frequently.
Here is a video of my favorite song called "It's Alright To Cry."  I never saw this video as a child but it's pretty much exactly how I envisioned it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y52bs0aX6v8

The 70's were awesomely weird.  If you didn't live through them you can hardly imagine it.
Anyway, as I spend more and more time in this body of mine, I figure it out little bit better.  To some degree, that goes the same way with my emotions.  I am getting to the place in my career where acting is about understanding my own feelings, my own emotions better, and having a better understanding of myself allows me to layer those emotions into a performance and have it be real, or at least have it feel real to me.  The more I understand the circumstances of the character I am playing the better.  So I dig into the text and I think about the backstory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backstory
Incidentally, I learned about characters and backstory not from theater but from role-playing games.
BUT, through experiences only living life can teach you I'm more...informed with myself and how emotions impact me and that is invaluable.

Recently, I had the privileged yet daunting task of delving into Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady.
Here I am performing "Accustomed to Her Face."
https://soundcloud.com/gregstone/accustomed-to-her-face-from-my
It was...well...emotional.
Sometimes having the courage to share is the hardest part.
Luckily, for me, my Mom bought me an album where my favorite song was "It's Alright to Cry."