A Tale of Joey and Jonathan - written by Michael Shine

 Jonathan and Joey are the actors in our family. Jonathan currently lives on his own in LA where he pursues acting and Joey, lives in both LA and Dayton, OH and has been acting professionally since he was three. Jonathan is five years older than Joey and actually got Joey started in the acting business. It was with the Oakwood High School performance of Music Man when Jonathan was nine, where he played Winthrop, along with our sister, Lauren, who played Amaryllis. The rest of the cast were high school students so Jonathan and Lauren stood out as elementary school kids and gave impressive performances. Joey, age three and a half, attended every rehearsal with my parents and soon learned lines, songs and dances to Music Man. He entertained us at the dinner table with his interpretation of Winthrop and the lisp.

It was this event that propelled our family into the thespian world. With Joey being an incredibly expressive extrovert, he took to the stage with ease and comfort. But each of us kids at one point or another were involved in some kind of performance. Even I, the most adamant non-actor in my teenage years, participated in the stage crew and as a phantom in the Dayton Playhouse’s Scrooge. Jonathan excelled in the first few years following Music Man, even rising to do a La Comedia show. And Jonathan, Lauren, and another sister, Julien all participated in the Playhouse South performance of The Sound of Music. Although Jonathan was succeeding (much like Joey would later do) he was soon trying to juggle school with acting and decided to take a hiatus. It was not until his junior year in high school that Jonathan dove back into acting with full force, playing the lead, Bat Masterson, in Guys and Dolls.

In 2003, everyone in my family except little Elise and I played roles in the Live TV Show on CBS, “Inventing Flight.” Elise and I were sitting in the audience as they were all performing (even our parents) and Elise, who was only three at the time, said, “My whole family is out there.” It was a precious moment that now reminds me of how much our mom stressed the importance of family: that family, when together, strengthens each of us individually. It’s funny how much this idea has engrained itself in my psyche (and I’m sure it’s the same with the rest of us) without actually thinking about it very much until now.

Joey obviously excelled in the years following Music Man, but without the success that our family felt during this show and soon after, Joey may not have found himself growing up in the world of acting. It was as if a light bulb went on and we all suddenly realized that there was a place that our pent up creativity could be channeled. Joey continues to work on impressive roles and Jonathan juggles college and acting in LA. And it’s anyone’s best guess as to what surprises the future will bring. Success, however, has to be a natural outcome from all their hard work. 

Photo below (L to R): On Stage we see Richard Luthman holding Joey Luthman (age 6), Julien Shine (age 13- 1/2), Lauren Shine (age 12), Tess Luthman and Jonathan Shine (age 11). They were portraying "The Traveling Family" of the 1960's in the Live Television Show on CBS.

2003 CBS ~ Live Program  "Inventing Flight Celebration"

My Brother, Joey by Michael Shine

As Joey’s brother, ten years older, I remember fairly well his big steps with little feet into the art of acting. He did countless smaller gigs in the beginning that my siblings and on a few rare occasions I too were involved in. While I did my best to steer clear of the anxiety of performing in front of people during my awkward teenage years, Joey took to the stage like a light bulb in a dark room at ages as early as five and six. Joey seemed resistant to the crowd—carefree. I assumed that he was too young to fully realize what he was doing. But even today, Joey is at ease in front of people and cameras.

Before I knew it, Joey was booking shows at the dinner theater La Comedia in Dayton—and this place was no joke. The actors performed dozens of shows in front of 400 – 500 people, so many that the roles of kids Joey’s age were divided in half and played by two kids so that they had time to do things like eating and homework. It was a mere 35 shows, although Joey did do all 72 shows for several productions. This was professional acting. And from there, it wasn’t a huge surprise to see Joey flying out to LA for auditions and then eventually moving with our parents to be closer to the action.

Joey has had a good deal of success and gained an incredible amount of experience. He is, for the time being, living back in Dayton (so I get to see him more often!) and now  at age 13, spends a lot of his free time teaching himself parkour and making movies. If I was impressed by Joey’s acting ability in the past, then I have to say I am blown away by his ability to make movies; they don’t even have to be about anything in particular! His skill in finding camera angles that work, filming himself, and editing is obvious. I was especially impressed to learn that he’d done the videos on his own, setting the camera up on a tripod and then cutting the film to make it seem almost as if there were five cameras following him around.

And now he is also devoting some time to filming a BlogTV show with our sister Elise where they crack jokes and have friends of theirs who are up-and-coming actors call in to be interviewed in a kind of Skype- Live talk show. It’s very enjoyable, especially if you know Joey. Be sure to check it out.

 

written by Joey's Big Bro,

Michael Shine    The Joey & Elise Show on BlogTV