Man-Eating Plants, Italian Opera, and Cowboys... Oh My!
- Wesley Harmon
- Mar 15, 2023
- 2 min read
Life so far in 2023 has been wild to say the very least! I rung in the new year having just booked an internship at my dream theatre for the upcoming summer, and in mid-January, I found out I would be playing Mr. Mushnik in ETSU Theatre and Dance's Production of Little Shop of Horrors, my final show in undergrad! With that I thought, "You can just focus on finishing up your bachelor's and auditioning for Fall 2023/Winter 2024 gigs."
And audition I did! I finally got to attend UPTA for the first time! My preliminary audition went very well, and much better than I was expecting, which led to an overwhelming 12 callbacks (TWELVE) to knock out in a single evening! Just imagine the Benny Hill theme playing over a time lapse video of me running around the Renasant Center at top speed.
As soon as I got back from UPTA, I received an opportunity to audition for an understudy position for a spring show at Barter Theatre! Barter holds a special place in my heart as the closest Equity theatre to my hometown of Galax, Virginia. They have a 90-year history of bringing high quality theatre to all areas of Appalachia. I'm proud to say I booked it! I'm currently in rehearsals to understudy the incredible Zacchaeus Kimbrell as "The Young Man" in The Last Romance by Joe DiPietro! This cast is STACKED to say the least, and it's truly one of the greatest honors of my career so far to walk in the footsteps of these awe-inspiring performers. This role also gives me a chance to flex my classical singing muscles, as the role in mostly in Italian, with snippets of nine arias from the best operas the Italian language has to offer.
That's not all folks! I'm also happy to say I'll be reprising my role as "Winston Salem" the cowboy in Tweetsie's Wild West Train Adventure select dates April 16th-30th, with a possibility of more dates in the fall!
I'll include all the details about my current gigs below, but that's all for now! I'll try to update this blog section fairly regularly, especially since I'll be embarking on my biggest adventure yet this summer!
Little Shop of Horrors runs March 30th through April 2nd at the Bert C. Bach Theatre in the Martin Center for the Arts on the campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Ticket and show information can be found at:
The Last Romance runs March 25th though April 15th at Barter Theatre's Gillam Stage. Ticket and show information can be found at:
More information about Tweetsie Railroad, including operating days and showtimes, can be found at Tweetsie.com
Have a great day! And as we say in Galax, "Watch fer deers!"
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