Alex grew up on the border of Bath and Richfield, Ohio. He schooled in the Revere family of schools and worked for many employers in the area, including Max McQ's Bar and Grill (now Larry & Jerry's) in the valley, Finast (now Tops) in Montrose, Hollywood Video (have they been bought out by Blockbuster yet?) in Fairlawn, and Kline Cement (no parentheticals left, sorry) in Copley.

When Alex wasn't actively earning a paycheck, he did a lot of work for and with Bath United Church of Christ, including performances in the annual Youth Musicals from 1992 to 1995, lay-leading throughout his high school days, singing in the choir, and various volunteer work. Alex played football for Revere every year except his junior year.

Alex also performed in a few plays with the Revere Players and was a vocalist in the local garagebands Phantasm (with Matt Pace, Andy Pace, Rory McGuiness, and Dave Cue) and Black Tie Optional (with Dave Cue, Rory McGuiness, Justin Engasser, and Matt Pugliese). If one of them ever gets famous, consider this preemptive namedropping. Alex also played with an off-again on-again musical group of Dave Cue, Marc Mellion, Ed Black, and Jon Hershberger. They called themselves the Crusades when leading worship groups and Spontaneous Minstrel when ringing doorbells and seranading the thousands of local women Jon had a crush on (just kidding, Jon).

Alex also started the underground magazine called The Thing That Should Not Be with fellow Phantasm members Matt Pace and Rory McGuiness. They nearly got suspended from school for the first one in eighth grade so they only put out three more throughout the following year or so.

From 1991 to 1995, Alex attended five volunteer Group Work Camps in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, one Young Life Camp (1994) around Lake Seranac in New York, and two New Wilmington Missionary Conferences (1994 and 1995) at Westminster College in Pennsylvania, though he rarely otherwise got out of the state of Ohio. He brought his guitar to most of them, so, if you saw Alex there, then you've probably heard the early stages of his music.

Alex graduated from Revere High School in 1995 and went to Ashland University in Ashland, OH. There he divided his time about equally between Christian groups and the Theatre Department. He participated in Hope Fellowship Missions, Prayer, Outreach, Drama, and Worship Teams, as well a few projects with the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). In 1996, he recorded and produced an album called "The Songs of Hope" with fellow musicians Charly Sommers, Matthew Fischl, and Sean Spring as a fundraiser for the Hope Missions Team. The album sold out, but that isn't saying much, given the limited "production" run of about 100 or so.

Alex performed in many plays and musicals in the Hugo Young Theatre and Studio Theatre, even playing the lead adult male (murderer mistaken for Christ) in the North American Premiere of Richard Taylor's musical Whistle Down the Wind. Alex co-wrote and performed in both a sitcom pilot aired on Ashland's TV-2 (though he never actually saw the finished product) and a murder mystery performed in Hugo Young. He also opened for a comedian who came to campus one night his sophomore year.

Alex won third place in one talent show with a song about his underwear, and second place the following year with a song about crack. Or maybe he won second place with his underwear. He doesn't remember.

Also at Ashland, from 1995 to 1999: Alex was the white guy in the Imani Gospel Choir, the rope-twirling and guitar-playing singer in the broadway review group Drop of a Hat Players (songs of note include solos "She Likes Basketball" and "Give a Man Enough Rope" as well as duets"It's You" with Celeste Romesberg and "Muddy Waters" with Eugene Sumlin), the most-shameless promotor and briefly assistant editor of Passages AU's literary magazine, and the humor columnist who had a drawing instead of a photograph in the pages of The Collegian. The notorious column was called Fly Casual and it probably chronicles his college years better than what little is written here.

Alex created and wrote the High or Learning comic strip (drawn by the amazing Adam Baker) which allegedly was the first comic strip to ever appear in The Collegian. Alex also appeared on one of those sorority-sponsored "Most Wanted Men on Campus" calendars, though it didn't do him much good, his longtime girlfriend-now-spouse going to a different school.

Alex was a camp counseler at Wooster Outdoor Center in Loudonville, OH for one summer (1997) and went back to freelance facilitate high ropes and low ropes teams courses every warm month or so for about eighteen months following that stint. In addition, he worked in the campus writing center for a few years, helping ESL (English as a Second Language) students with their English writing skills, compositions, and creativity.

He graduated in December 1999 from Ashland University and moved to Parma and then Lakewood (both in the Cleveland, Ohio area). For the next four and a half years he worked as an editor and web-guy for an international construction industry publisher in the Akron-Cleveland area, continuing to telecommute for the same employer even after moving out of Ohio.

Alex married his high school sweetheart Jen Orr in July 2001 and, in August 2002, they moved to North Carolina so Jen could go back to school for a masters degree. They currently reside in Carrboro, part of the North Carolina Triangle. Recently Alex has performed occasionally with the Deep Dish Theater Company in Chapel Hill, and in a variety of local independent films.

More to come hopefully. Drop a note if you think you know him.

11/09/05 Update:

New: Myspace profile

New: Blog RSS for Livejournal



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