Michael James Fry

Michael James Fry grew up in a small town in Ohio; and when he was young, his parents took him to see many professional Broadway touring companies who performed full-length plays and musicals at **Memorial Hall** , located in nearby [downtown] Dayton, through association with the Kenley Players. It was at this early-teen age in the 1970's that Michael had the good fortune to meet, face-to-face, with Vincent Price, Mickey Rooney, Lucy Arnez, Don Ameche, Shirley Jones, Shawn Cassidy, Ann Miller, Tommy Tune, David Birney, James Farentino, Henry Winkler, Barry Williams, Roz Kelly, Brenda Vacarro and many others - and thus accordingly, his lifelong desire to become an actor in the theatre was vibrantly born. Michael's first theatrical performance - (outside of playing an average shepherd; or, on one occasion, Joseph, in various Christmas plays in a local church) - was as a sailor in the chorus of a junior high school production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore", in which he wore his father's [authentic] US Navy uniform. He went on to become involved with a few different theatrical productions at Tecumseh High School - (near New Carlisle, Ohio, where he graduated from in 1982) - including operating a follow-spot light for a production of, "The Boyfriend", playing the role of Mr. Witherspoon in, "Arsenic & Old Lace", playing the role of a Travelling Salesman in, "The Music Man", one cameo appearance as "an actor" in the Carl Reiner play, "Enter Laughing" and a few different appearances at various on-campus events and other local events with the high school choir, including one appearance at the old Masonic Home in Springfield, Ohio. While attending Tecumseh High School, Michael simultaneously attended a drama school called, "The Maple Lane Players" - (near Urbana, Ohio) - wherein he studied acting, singing and dancing while appearing in and doing tech for local productions there, in the small sheep-barn-converted-into-a-theatre, including playing the role of The Executioner in a staged production of "Alice in Wonderland," he was in the chorus of the musical, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off", he played Mr. Snow in the musical, "Carousel", and also Tony in "West Side Story" - AND - In addition to doing tech or acting in other shows there, he also danced in a touring company produced by The Maple Lane Players called, "4th Position" and did some standard tech for The Maple Lane Touring Company. In the fall of 1982, Michael began his studies in the Professional Actor Training Program at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from the College of Liberal Arts, in 1986. Favorite roles played at the university include E.F. Albee in the musical, "George M!", and he was in the chorus of the musicals, "Candide" and "Most Happy Fella", he played Don Giovanni in the popular play, "Amadeus," Tybalt, from Shakespeare's, "Romeo and Juliet", and Woof in the tribal Love-Rock musical, 'HAIR." His acting thesis project was based upon the question of whether or not Charles Manson was a product of society as posed in the writing and production of an original one-man play entitled, "Piggie, Piggie, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb", in which he successfully played the role of Charles Manson - (the only two performances of the show were "standing room only") - and the show was well-received by both the public and the entire acting staff. He also did one puppet show while at the university; and performed in three dance concerts on stage at the Festival Playhouse, with choreography by Sandra Tanner-Mack. He also acted in a few student films. During the summer seasons when not at Wright State University, Michael would work on location in various different types of "Summer Stock" theatre programs, including the 1983 "Trumpet in the Land" outdoor drama - (and from within that cast, a separate production of, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was performed for the rest of the large cast - Michael played a small role in that production) - and he played the role of Fred Casely in the musical, "Chicago" in the summer 1984 . . . He played the lead role of Charlie in the musical vaudeville, "Tintypes", the role of Victor Velasco in Neil Simon's, "Barefoot in the Park", Sandy Tyrell in Noel Coward's, "Hay Fever" and a "Property Mime" in the Chinese Children's play, "The Land of the Dragon - all in the summer of 1985 at the Findlay Summer Stock Theatre, in Findlay, Ohio . . . He was then invited to return the following year in the summer of 1986 to the same stage to perform in and work as a Dance Captain to a 2nd production of "Tintypes", to play the role of Froggie in the comedic play, "The Foreigner"; and also, to play the role of Larry in the popular musical, "A Chorus Line" . . . In the fall of 1986, Michael joined "The Theatre Project" in Columbus, Ohio, in which he was hired to play the lead role of Rich in the William Hoffman play, "As Is" . . . Then in the summer of 1987, Michael worked in downtown Dayton, Ohio, at the Sinclair Community College where he played the role of a waiter in Thornton Wilder's, "Our Town", and he also sang the role of Whizzer in the musical operetta, "March of the Falsettos." The following winter on the Sinclair stage, Michael then played the role of Dromio of Ephesus in Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" . . . And during these years, he also went on to perform the role Stephen Hopkins in the musical, "1776" at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn/Dayton, Ohio . . . and he acted the roles of Arles Struvie and Hank Bumiller in the play, "Greater Tuna" and he also originated the role of Ralph in the new, musical operetta entitled, "Justice in Joppa" - the latter two were both performed at the Fairborn Playhouse, in Fairborn, Ohio - (which is now locally called, "The Actor's Playhouse.") Following his arrival on the east coast in Weehawken, New Jersey, in the hot summer of 1988, Michael performed two Shakespearian roles at the William Carlos Williams Center, in East Rutherford, New Jersey . . . The roles he played were Nick Bottom in, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and Antipholus of Syracuse in, "Comedy of Errors" - (his second production of that show.) His first role in Manhattan was in an original play called, "Aunt Melodious" by play write Scott McCrea; and it was performed at The Horace Mann Theatre at Columbia University, in Harlem. In the very same theatre, he also played a small role in the classic play by Lope de Vega, called, "Fuente Ovejuna", and the character of Lennox in Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Then in July of 1991, after having moved into the George Washington Hotel, in Manhattan, Michael read two original poems in NYC at a poetry reading sponsored by the "Poetsfeet" organization; and in the same year, he began attending classes at The Duality Playhouse at 119 West 23rd Street, wherein he spent the next three years studying The Meisner Acting Technique, doing various acting showcases and working there as a Tech Supervisor and House Manager. He went on to further his Meisner Acting Technique studies at Carnegie Hall, under the professional coaching of Fred Kareman, who studied at The Actor's Studio with Dustin Hoffman; and who once told Michael that because of his talent, he could be the next "Dustin Hoffman" . . . Then, in the spring of 1995, Michael joined the New York "Lovecreek" Theatre Company, which was located on 42nd Street on **Theatre Row** in Manhattan, at the Harold Clurman Theatre. In addition to doing tech work there, Michael also performed nothing but lead and major supporting roles for the next 2 years, including, for example - a lead role in the play, "Automatic Telling", playing the role of Adolph Eichmann in, "The Wallenberg Mission", the lead role in, "Conversations in Hallways"; and also in addition to playing other roles in other original plays, he ended his longterm residency with Lovecreek by playing the lead role in George Bernard Shaw's little-known one-act play called, "The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet" - which was celebrated all around as a tremendous success. Michael also acted in many other productions, such as playing a suicidal motorcycle biker in the title role of, "Mango" at the Bliss Street Repertory Theatre, in Queens . . . Other Off-Off Broadway plays include several other original works and other classics, such as one production in the 1990's of, "Salome", by the Avalon Theatre Company, on the upper west side of Manhattan; and he originated another lead role in a new play called, "Magic Moments", produced by The Chelsea Repertory Theatre Company. Michael then took a much-needed break from show business and put his time into Bible study and other religious studies, painting, poetry and music. It was during this time that he composed his two-act rock opera entitled, "Karlovema: An Epic Rock Poem." He performed three concerts of his music at 116 MacDougal Street from 2011-2012, at the exact location of the original "Gaslight Cafe", which is one of the places that both Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan first performed their music. This is the same, very famous room wherein Bob Dylan performed his well-known song, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", for the very first time in public. After some time had passed and once prompted by his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth, in the spring of 2015, Michael returned to professional show business, but this time as a Background Actor in television and movies. His first paid role on television was that of a Music Industry Executive on the HBO series, "Vinyl", in which he appeared in more-than-one episode. This lead to other work, including paid shoots for and appearances in "Law and Order: SVU" (NBC), "The Deuce" (HBO), "Girls" (HBO), "The Detour" (WTBS), "Broad City" (Comedy Central) and "Ray Donovan" (Showtime); and he booked acting gigs in the movie "Wonderstruck" (2017), the Stephen Spielberg movie, "The Post" (2017) and also the extremely popular Joaquin Phoenix "Joker" movie (2019). Yet, because he loves the work that creates the art as much as he does, Michael has also appeared in various local student film projects, for the sheer joy of making movies. For example, in the fall of 2017, [1] he shot a brief film at Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn, and then, [2] on Valentine's Day of 2018, he shot a second film by the same director near the same location at Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn. Next, [2] he appeared in an action-adventure film short called, "Godspeed", in which he played a small role, and [3] he played the character of the MOON in a New York University student film project based upon, "The Werckmeister Harmonies", the popular masterpiece by Hungarian director Bela Tarr. (The NYU production was directed by Andy Yu.) Next, in the summer of 2018, Michael originated the lead/title role of FRED, singing on stage in the outrageous funny Off-Broadway musical, "Captain Filthy Fred", at the La Mama / Ellen Stewart Theatre in New York City, which was produced by Pilvax Productions . . . and then right after that, in August, he originated the role of "The Homeless Man" where he sang on stage in the Bruck/DeMaio musical, "Madison Square Park" - (the latter of which was first produced at The Medicine Show Theatre in Hell's Kitchen, and then subsequently in The Mary Rodgers Room, at the Dramatist's Guild in Times Square, on October 20th, 2018.) In September of 2018, Michael played the role of Timofei in an Off-Off Broadway production of the eccentric Matei Visniec play, "How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients" also produced by Pilvax Productions, at The New Stage Performance Space at 106th Street in Manhattan, at Central Park West. In the fall of 2018, Michael and his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth, were asked to be models in a painting by New York artist, Phillip Jonn. The painting is entitled, "American Gothic, 2018" and is based upon the original 1930 work by Grant Wood. The work by Phillip Jonn was completed during his online "Art and Kvetching Show" internet broadcast on November 25th, 2018. This is the fifth artistic likeness of Michael that the artist has created since 2011. In January and February of 2019, Michael starred in a short film playing dual lead roles as twin brothers in a movie by director Henry Wallace. The film was shot mostly in upstate New York, in a small town called Broadalbin. He and his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth, stayed at the well-known Historic Broadalbin Hotel. On February 22nd, 2019, at the Triad Theatre on west 72nd street on the upper west side of New York City, Michael made his forth appearance as an opening act for the New York hard rock band called, **Like It**. On March 12th, Michael played the role of a Homeless Man in a short film called, "For a Better Life", by film director Lauressa Nicholson in a scene shot in the New York City subway at Union Square in Manhattan; and then on March 29th, 2019, he again played a Homeless Man in another short film called, "Belle" by director Eduardo Cistern in a scene shot at the intersection of 12th Street and Avenue B in the East Village, New York City. On April 6th, Michael worked as a background actor on a TV series for the USA network called, "Mr Robot." During filming, and after having been captured on-camera for a very brief moment with both of the show's leading stars - (Christian Slater and Remi Malek, recent Oscar winner for playing Freddie Mercury in the internationally-acclaimed, "Bohemian Rhapsody") - a decision was made. This happened because once Michael was seen by the Production crew physically moving past the show's leading actors, they determined that his on-screen presence is "so distinctive" that he had to be removed from the rest of the filming for that day for fear that should he be seen a second time in the same scene, he would surely pull viewer focus and inadvertently upstage the leading actors. On Thursday, April 11th, Michael did voice-over work in Chelsea, Manhattan, playing several different "turn-of-the-century" characters from the American Old West on the new, animated internet feature called, "The Medicine Show", written and produced by Malachi Roth. On May 4th, Michael went to Brooklyn, NYC, to film a cameo appearance as a subway rider in the Gretta Wilson production of, "Mizuko: (Water Child)", a Japanese-American independent film short. He was thrilled when the producer of the project gave him approval to wear a cross and read the Bible while on-camera during the shoot. On May 22nd, Michael played the role of a "Bait Station Clubber" in the new *Hightown* TV series, shot for the STARZ Network, (Season 1, Episode 5); and on May 28th, he played the role of a "Hasidic Protester" in HBO's *The Deuce*, (Season 3, Episode 6.) On June 12th, he traveled to the Bronx as a Day Player to shoot a scene for a TV Comedy Pilot called, "Parallax". While he'd previously done photo shoots in certain cemeteries over the years, this was the first TV show he ever shot in a cemetery. On August 8th, Michael performed as part of an Off-Off Broadway ensemble in "Unchilding", an experimental theatrical project that made its World Premiere at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, on West 37th street in New York City. In one online review of the show, he was specifically mentioned by name: "Nonetheless, Kaufman [the show's director/producer] marshaled dozens of people and impressive resources for this piece. He and his casting associates found a strong group of actors who brought presence to the stage, especially Michael James Fry as a crusty soldier." On Sunday, August 11th, Michael performed at the Stone Creek Bar & Lounge, 140 East 27th Street in Manhattan, along with actress Rebecca Rapoport-Cole to professionally pitch Malachi Roth's "The Medicine Show" to potential investors.