Converting All Your Sounds of Woe Into Hey, Nonny Nonny

No matter what - no matter what pain my body or voice may be in, no matter what I may be upset or flustered or anxious over, no matter what someone may have thoughtlessly said earlier in the day that my hypersensitive self may still be reacting to - everything is always better on stage. Intermission will come, and I'll be back to reality, and once the show is over, there is an entire night and day ahead of me before I do it again, but while I am on stage, I am the luckiest, the happiest, the most blessed, and the most contented girl in the world. I've been on stage or in rehearsal more days than not this year, and, obviously, not every day is a good day, or a day in which you feel like going out there and making people laugh, or putting yourself in an emotional state you know you're going to have difficulty shaking later. Those days, however, are the days when I am most grateful to be able to go out there and be completely and entirely at home, dead center stage. It's really difficult to feel lonely when you're transparent in front of your fellow actors and an entire audience of witnesses.

This last time through BOEING BOEING, I woke up one morning to an incredibly personally upsetting email. I joke about how much I cry, but honestly, I mainly cry (or used to, anyway) at the theatre or on someone else's behalf. This email...I ugly cried for four hours. When I stopped crying, I was a zombie, and could barely focus on speaking to my castmates without losing it. That night at the show...I cried as I was about to enter, I cried immediately after exiting, I cried doing my quick changes...but on stage...It was reaffirmed for me that once I was on stage, I was in the safest place in the world. For me. I had to go out there and make people laugh when I was in the closest thing to emotional agony I have ever experienced, but it was glorious, and helped me to begin to heal, right there. Luckily, Gretchen is an incredibly volatile, passionate woman, and so I thanked myself for the years I've spent working on my technique (so that I could let myself feel that deeply in front of people without losing control of my voice, or crying when it was inappropriate, etc), and threw myself into her. A couple of the actors I spent the most time on stage with said that my performance wasn't markedly different, but that I had a fire behind my eyes like NEVER before (and I am usually described as a pretty intense performer). I was so humbled to be granted the gift of being on stage that night, of having to go outside myself and my little problems.

I've been a bit sad the last week or so. It makes sense - I lost a wonderful friend to cancer on Monday, which was devastating, and I'm hitting the point in the contract when all of my shows are open, but everyone else is still rehearsing (or at least busier), and I'm feeling a bit lost, like I have to find things to productively fill the time. For some reason, this vague melancholy is pestering me for a couple of hours every day (perhaps the epic Russian novel I'm working my way through is adding to that...though I'm pretty sure reading Tolstoy has only the opposite affect on me). I was feeling a little down before the show tonight, and realized, about two numbers in, that I was happy - joyful, in fact, and it was purely because I was on stage, playing, invested in GODSPELL and what we were all creating together. It is such a relief to be able to step on stage, see the audience, and live in that world for a few hours. I think it every day, and I will say it here: I love, love, love, LOVE my job.

Art. It's good for what ails ya.

A Little Pick-Me-Up

It's been a long week of GODSPELL tech. On days such as today, I like to remind myself of things that make me happy in order to counteract the exhaustion and any frustration I might feel (my voice is tired - I get frustrated when it doesn't do exactly what I want it ta do). Because when I like something, I want everyone to know about it, I shall link and share these things with you.

Alfie Boe singing just about anything. I find this video stunning and charming. Obviously, watch all of his Val Jean stuff as well. Unreal.

Hipster Animals - This tumblr is AMAZING. I have been following it since Day 1, and am addicted to it. Dyna Moe, who also did the art for MAD MEN YOURSELF, started it in March or so. Get into it.

Murder, She Wrote - It streams on Netflix. All of it. Obsessed. Angela Lansbury has been a personal hero of mine for many years. I want to play Mame and Mrs. Lovett so desperately! I wish that JB would occasionally be incorrect, but really, Jessica Fletcher can do no wrong.

WHAT THE BUCK SHOW - Michael Buckley is the greatest of all YouTubers. I'm not really into celebrity gossip, but I love Buck's videos. He is hilarious in every post, and a great Twitter follow as well. I watch him regularly, but if ever I am sad, I absolutely make sure to watch something of his.

My beautiful, darling friend Nikka is going on as Velma Kelly in the Broadway production of CHICAGO in less than a week. That thought pretty much makes me want to explode with happiness.

This pig.

Regina Spektor - She is more wonderful than words can express.

I have recently become a WORDS WITH FRIENDS addict. I'm okay with this. My castmate Michael (with whom I am playing three to five games at any given moment) has informed me that I have a problem. We were playing WORDS WITH FRIENDS with each other on our phones whilst simultaneously playing an actual game of Scrabble with some other castmates last night. Just sayin' here...I don't think I'm the only one with a problem...

Eddie Izzard - Was obsessed. Am obsessed. Don't see this trend stopping any time soon. Many of his shows also stream on Netflix.

My friend Al Silber's delightful blog.

Jeff Buckley's perfect album GRACE.

UCB - Getting to see my brother do improv most Tuesday nights (when I'm in the city, anyway) has been amazingly fun. His team is brilliant, he is ridiculously talented, and I'm glad more people are getting the chance to fall in love with his abilities and appetite. He is the best friend in the world. Also, his dog is adorbs.

ModCloth.com - Dudes, I spend way too much time and moolah on this website. I love it so.

The number of nerds in this current cast I'm working with is off the hook. We're pretty much all Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Musical Theatre/Coloring Book fanatics. I'm so very much at home.

Coaching - I love teaching. I'm definitely working with some of my castmates once this week is over. People want to learn Scottish and RP and such. Happiness.

The fact that Alan Rickman, Paul Gross, and Nina Arianda are all going to be on Broadway within the next few months makes me crazy happy. Let's just get Mark Rylance and Janet McTeer to stick around for awhile, and I'll be all set.

I'm blessed to count a great number of witty, compassionate, warm, soulful people among my friends. That's also a big stress reliever. I'll put out a tweet or a fb update, send a text to a choice pal or two, and I'll probably be laughing sooner rather than later. Lucky. Blessed. And now, tired. Another long day of rehearsal lies ahead.

Call Me When You Need Your Mirrors Smashed

I've been in Colorado for the last few weeks, belting my face at 10,000 feet as Mrs. Walker in TOMMY. We opened last night, and will dive into GODSPELL music rehearsals this afternoon before another evening with our friends The Who. I love working in rep (meaning playing in multiple shows at the same time), which I did a couple of summers ago with Festival 56, when we played the Shakespeare throughout the entire contract. I think it's going to be incredibly beneficial to me this summer especially, because Mrs. Walker spends most of the show guilt-ridden, grief-stricken, and deeply troubled. There is a good deal of power-belting, alternated with crying and silent acting. Joanne, who I'm playing in GODSPELL (she sings BLESS THE LORD), is all joy and silliness, which will be a wonderful contrast.

I'm gonna take an obligatory sentimental moment and say how much I love this company. In the last few years, I have lucked out enormously with the caliber of human beings I've had the good fortune to get to know. There is an incredibly large number of wonderful people in this crazy business, and having that fact constantly reinforced always makes my heart happy. Everyone working out here is a delight, and pretty hilarious. I must also say that the actors I have the pleasure of playing with are generous, kind, and ridiculously talented. I'm gonna link their websites at the end of this post so that you can stalk them and listen to their glorious voices.

Now, news flash - I have a car on this gig. I hadn't driven in probably four or five years, but now I drive half an hour to the theatre every day. In doing this, I have discovered the necessity and the beauty of a playlist, of which I now have several. Some are more mellow, some are really nerdy (I shall spare you my musical theatre-only lists), but mainly, they're designed to wake me up (singing at 9am, helloooooooooooo) and make me happy. Here's the one I play the most often:

F' You - Cee Lo Green
I Want Harry Potter Back - Lily & James (my friend Grace's AWESOME wrock band - they are FAB)
I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
Material Girl - Nick Adams; PRISCILLA OBC Album (lovelovelove)
Helter Skelter - The Beatles
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
Bille Jean - Michael Jackson
Rumour Has It - Adele
I Was Made to Love Her - Stevie Wonder
The Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga
Everybody's Talkin' - Nilsson (this always reminds me of MIDNIGHT COWBOY)
Cry Baby - Janis Joplin
Rocky Raccoon - The Beatles
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Oh, By Jingo! - Danny Kaye
Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel

Here are my castmates' websites:

Garret Bruce on YouTube
Jacque Clydesdale
Erin Edelle
Rhianna Pfannenstiel on YouTube
David Piazza
Michael Walker on Twitter
Brett Michael Wilson on YouTube

You'll have to see Melanie Beck and Josh T. Smith live, I suppose, for they are on fb, but not the wider webs.

Larry Moss, Larry Shannon

I spent last week in Los Angeles, taking Larry Moss' scene study workshop intensive. If it sounds a bit dramatic to fly across the country just to take a class...it was. Hey, that's how I roll. I missed his workshop in NYC in January because I was in Boston doing NINE, and I'm going to miss it in July, as I'll be in Colorado. My longtime scene partner Denis and I decided that it might be a fun challenge to get out of our city and comfort zone by going to shiny, scary LOS ANGELES (it has always seemed shiny and scary to me, anyway) to do this work.

It was fantastic.

This was my fifth time taking this class with Larry, and I always come away recharged, inspired, and focused on issues that need addressing. He assigned us Conor McPhereson's SHINING CITY, which I hadn't read before, but loved like mad. Dublin accents! Anyway, we dug in and got a lot of good work done. We were both excited by the notes we got, especially as they were pretty much the same for both of us, which makes selecting future scenes pretty straightforward. He ended our second work session with one of my favorite phrases: Flee forward.

Larry told me to reread THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, by Tennessee Williams, and to work on both of the female roles in order to stretch myself. I did so (newest obsession, thaaaaanks, Larry!), and have been looking at various interviews and articles online about the play (reviews, production history, what have you). I stumbled across this quote earlier this evening, from an interview Williams gave about the play. I think it's one of the more beautiful things I've ever read:

“The drama in my plays, I think, is nearly
always people trying to reach each other. In
Night of the Iguana each one has his separate
cubicle but they meet on the veranda outside
the cubicles, at least Hannah and Larry
Shannon meet on the veranda outside their
cubicles, which is of course an allegorical
touch of what people must try to do. It’s true
they’re confined inside their own skins, or their
own cubicles, but they must try to get out as
much as — they must try to find a common
ground on which they can meet because the
only truly satisfying moments in life are those
in which you are in contact, and I don’t mean
just physical contact, I mean in deep, a deeper
contact than physical, with some other human
being."

I mean...the man could WRITE!

I leave in a week and two days for my three month adventure in Colorado. I am ridiculously excited. The daily smashing of mirrors and belting of high notes is going to be so satisfying.

The Normal Heart

People, go see THE NORMAL HEART. It's beautifully acted, it's moving, and it's important. Plus, when's the next time you'll have an opportunity to see the incredible Joe Mantello on stage? Go. Bring tissues. Not kidding. I was sobbing in the street afterwards. Go.

Rainy Saturday

On rainy days like this, I want nothing more than to sit at my favorite table by the window at Cafe Reggio on MacDougal Street, reading a novel and drinking a pot of Blackberry Supreme tea. I also want to scrape the foam off the top of a cappuccino whilst curled up on a couch at Ost, feet tucked up underneath me, surrounded by old books and East Village types. Things being what they are, I suppose I'll lounge on a couch in the green room with my mystery novel and cuppa joe until it's time to go onstage and do the last performance of this contract. I suppose it's a lovely way to while away the evening. I'll camp out at Reggio soon...

BOEING BOEING - Full Review

We got a fantastic review from Joanna Greco Rochman at THE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN, but the website will only allow you access to part of the article without paying for it (ahh, these online times), so I decided to type out the entire article from the paper (an actual newspaper!) so that it could be read in full. Thar she blows!

1ST CLASS COMEDY LIFTS OFF AT SEVEN ANGELS

Need a good laugh? Then head over to Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, where "Boeing Boeing," Marc Camoletti's door-slamming, fast paced face takes center stage.

Semina DeLaurentis directs this production, making it abundantly clear that she is a master when it comes to comedy. Whether she's in a show or directing it, DeLaurentis puts comic timing and wild antics on stage.

The action revolves around sophisticated Bernard, a confirmed bachelor who has come up with the perfect plan to keep three gorgeous women as his lovers without having to marry any of them. He simply selected three flight attendants from airlines without overlapping schedules. Bernard is happy to proclaim to his unsophisticated friend Robert that all three women have been essentially pre-screened by major airlines for personality, beauty, and intelligence. All he has to do is keep close track of flight schedules.

Gil Brady, as the debonair, successful businessman Bernard, is quite the lady's man. He bears a resemblance to Pierce Brosnan, and his performance is every bit as polished. R. Bruce Connelly displays his usual comic genius in his shy-to-sly portrayal of Brady's bachelor friend. Connelly makes it impossible not to laugh out loud when he is seduced or trying to seduce one of the flight attendants. Whether he is checking to see if his teeth are in place after wild passionate kissing or crawling on all fours to go undetected by the ever watchful maid, Connelly is a non-stop flight of laughs.

Had it not been for the powerful performances of the three flight attendants, Sarah Knapp as Bertha might just have been able to steal the show. With her oversized eyeglasses, she is able to keep a close eye on the comings and goings of the many in-and-out visitors to her boss' apartment. With the charm and accent of a French maid and perfect comic timing, Knapp delivers a stellar performance.

One by one, each of the three flight attendants enters the apartment, with one as gorgeous as the next. Wearing skin-tight colorful uniforms, they immediately draw attention. Liz Clark Golson portrays Gloria, a sexually liberated American who is appropriately dressed in a red hot, skin-tight outfit. Her voice and actions balance Southern belle sensuality with aggressive cosmopolitanism. Olivia Gilliatt exudes Italian passion as she moves from jealous and suspicious to a Sophia Loren mystique. Amy Jo Jackson, as Gretchen, is another actor who nearly stole the show. She is a commanding figure on stage, with the tough attitude of a Gestapo agent and the overpowering purr of a very large pussy cat. Perfectly cast in a bigger than life role, Jackson is a joy to watch in action.

Rounding off a pretty flawless cast is the pretty flawless creative design team. Erik D. Diaz's set has provided Seven Angels with one of its best ever sets. An ultra-modern Patis apartment with chrome-trimmed furniture and soft ivory-hued leather chairs grabs your attention. Trenton Spears' crisp, clean sound design is so realistically rendered that you'll know exactly when an airplane is taking off. Jimmy Johansmeyer's costumes couldn't be more perfectly suited for each character. And Matt Guminski's lighting design completes the creative team's well-coordinated vision.

Overall, this is an outstanding Seven Angels' Equity production. It is a fun way to wait for spring. It plays through April 16 and will likely have to add performances. This is one show you don't want to miss if you're looking for a good time.

A Love Letter

There's an episode of the fantastic Canadian television show SLINGS & ARROWS (a parody of the Stratford Festival), in which the opening night of KING LEAR is cancelled because the actor playing Lear is out, doped up on morphine (details not worth going into here, but watch the show). The Cordelia and one of the other young actors are commiserating at the bar with two of the older character actors in the troupe. One of them says something to the effect of, "You have to have a few horror shows to go along with the good ones. Then, later on, you'll have stories to tell. You'll have had a life!" I remember being so moved by those words (which were more eloquent in actuality than in my recollection), because they attest to the gypsy spirit of theatre people - you go on, you go on, you go on. You measure your life by what role you were playing at the time. As the Brits would say, there is just one thing that should keep you from going to work on a given night: "Only death. Your own."

I'd just gotten back to New York from a really difficult gig when I watched that episode of S&A, and it called to mind what we'd been repeating all summer when something ELSE, so horrible as to be funny, would happen: "One for the memoirs, darling, one for the memoirs!" Let's just say that working with a cow as a scene partner is DEFINITELY going in the autobiography.

Last night, we had a FANTASTIC show. The audience was really with us, and was having a ball (in a comedy - farce, especially - the audience gives you SUCH a boost, and when they're enjoying it, you don't have to work quite so hard). We went back to the cast house, and were all having dinner and our post-show wind-down, still buzzed by how much fun we'd had on stage. I asked Sarah, the actress playing Bertha, to please tell us ANNIE 2 stories. Now, there are certain shows that you hear about, even years later, that have become infamous - CARRIE being the most well-known example. ANNIE 2 (subtitled HANNIGAN'S REVENGE) is one such show. It was amazing to sit around the kitchen table, eyes wide, and listen to her recollect horror story after horror story - how amazing the script was at the first reading to how it was destroyed, lewd things that were said to her, Dorothy Loudon's understudy having to go on without a single rehearsal and her lines written on poster board in the pit, crying children, weeping mothers, one actor who you'd know was about to go up on his lines because he'd sort of twitch by blinking three times - really and truly unbelievable stuff.

I love that I've worked enough to now have some stories of my own to tell - some of them wonderful and fun, some of them hilarious, some of them absolutely AWFUL (Summer of the Cow) - and can't wait to accumulate more. It brings SLINGS & ARROWS to mind...you've had a life! A life in the theatre. Is there any richer kind?

The Plastic Bag May Not Inflate

BOEING BOEING opens tonight! We've had a few nights of previews (meaning, figure out how to deal with the shrieking laughter emanating from the audience), and thus far, it's been a lot of fun. I thought it'd be interesting to take a moment and catalog the similarities and differences I've noticed in doing this show for a second time in less than a year:



THE SAME:
Farce is incredibly, painstakingly, ridiculously technical. Amazingly fun once you get it down, and hopefully nothing the audience notices, but there is virtually NO wiggle room to "try something new." All of that is in the relationships.

DIFFERENT:
The audience here is more reluctant to laugh at certain things than they were in Olean. Not most things, but a couple of jokes here and there. Comedy is endlessly fascinating.

THE SAME:
This remains, along with doing Shakespeare outside, one of the most vocally challenging shows I've ever done. I might put ROCKY HORROR up there, too. In BOEING, I am basically full-belting all of my lines. The entire show.

DIFFERENT:
The stage at Seven Angels is MUCH bigger than at Twin Tiers - I would venture to say it's twice as large. If that is an exaggeration, it certainly isn't by much. This means we can REALLY run after each other (it feels like I am always chasing or being chased by someone else), and also that we're all losing weight just from doing the show so much. Not much, but wow.

THE SAME:
Kissing men who get progressively sweatier as the show goes on.

DIFFERENT:
Having doors you can slam the crap out of on your entrances and exits. The set was amazing on my last production, but the doors didn't slam in that satisfying way. FARCE!

THE SAME:
Huge false eyelashes, red nails (ugh), and red lips. Also, we all have to use the kind of lipstick that is INCREDIBLY difficult to remove, since everybody kisses everybody in a highly frantic and ridiculous fashion.

DIFFERENT:
I love how different the relationship between Bertha and Robert has become in this production from the one I did this summer(from what I can see on stage and hear from the monitors in the dressing room). They're not even that different, but it's noticeable to me. Both are fully supported by the text, and both hilarious...It's one of those things I love about acting - that the chemistry between different people can yield such different results, and still to absolutely hilarious effect.

THE SAME:
Getting anywhere from at least a titter to full-on entrance laughter. Never has it worked quite so strongly to my advantage to be so obscenely tall.


Hooray for an opening night!

Join the Actors, they said! See the world, they said!

Well, perhaps it's not "The World" in the grand sense, but I'm definitely making a tour of New England this winter. I arrived in Waterbury, CT last night, and started BOEING rehearsals today! The theatre is lovely, and the cast is hilarious and really cool. I adore this play!!! I have a lovely room with a couch and a bedside table with a shelf that my computer and all of my books fit neatly on, so once I get home from rehearsals, it's entirely possible to make tea, get into bed, and then never move again. As this is not Boston (meaning, a pedestrian city with enticing coffee shops), I plan to hibernate!

I'm very excited that my friend Hannah will possibly be coming to NYC in late April/early May so that we can get some serious writing done on the project I've vaguely mentioned in previous posts. I've been enjoying working on it solo, but can't wait to get us going in the same room. We hope to get it completely fleshed out in the Spring, and then shoot in the Fall.

I'm also really pleased to announce that I'm the Client of the Month for Artist Upgrade! How fun! Scroll down the page a smidge and click to see what they've written about me! I love them - they are fantastic to work with, both from a design and maintenance standpoint.

I meant to do this in a post while I was still in Boston, but clearly, I didn't. I wanted to pimp some of my wonderful NINE castmates! I've listed below anyone that had a website listed in the program:
McCaela Donovan - Carla
Jennifer Ellis - Claudia
Cheryl McMahon - Guido's Mother
Brittney Morello - Ensemble
Kami Rushell Smith - Our Lady of the Spa

One More Song About Movin' Along the Highway

Last week in Boston! So much to do! I really wanted to go to the MFA today, but I'm making myself pack a bit, first. There's a friend's show that I want to see on Sunday at 2pm in NYC, since it's my ONLY chance to go, which means I have to be on a bus at 7:30am. Gross, but necessary. Anyway, it means all packing must be done IN ADVANCE!!!

It's been an exciting few days. My new headshots are printed and waiting for me to pick them up back in NYC, I now have an Equity card in my pocket, TONS of my NINE castmates were nominated for Boston's IRNE awards, I got my housing and transport info for BOEING BOEING (I go out there Monday night!!!), and, drumroll, please - I got a job for the summer! Huzzah! I'm thrilled about this one for several reasons, but most of all because it's at Lake Dillon Theatre, which is about a twenty minute drive from where my parents live in Breckenridge, Colorado. I'm going to get to live at my parents' beautiful house for THREE MONTHS SOLID, and many family members that haven't seen me perform in awhile are going to get to see me do TWO shows! This is ANOTHER reason I'm happy - I'm playing Mrs. Walker in TOMMY (exciting exciting belt-my-face exciting), and Joanne in GODSPELL (I sing BLESS THE LORD). I used to watch GODSPELL every night to fall asleep when I was in middle school. There was no such thing as too much Victor Garber or too many dancing hippies. TOMMY opens in June, and then runs in rep with GODSPELL once that show opens a couple of weeks later. What a great ensemble piece.

NINE has been ever so much fun! I finally broke down and bought a video camera last weekend, after a year of meaning to, so I'm going to try to take some video to make a sort of backstage tour. When all is said and done, we'll have done something like 34 performances. Doesn't sound like very many, but we're so deep into routine by this point, that it does feel a bit like we've been running for months. Most of the shows I've done recently have been either in NYC, or with casts completely from NYC, so it'll be weird to go home and then not run into people on 9th Ave. There are a few girls moving to the city within the next couple of months, and a few more as the BoCo ladies graduate, but still. This is a wonderful cast that works ALL THE TIME. Luckily, Boston is not far - I may have to come back to see them be fantastic in future shows!

This is just delaying the inevitable packing. Streaming Netflix, I'm gonna need your help on this one!

An Unexpected Verdict

I would like to announce to all who read this blog, that my parents - both my mother AND my father - really enjoyed our production of NINE. This is a wonderful surprise, because my parents have seen a ton of musicals and plays, thanks to having two children in the business, and NINE was on my father's shortlist of "Least Favorite Shows," sandwiched firmly between COPENHAGEN and CATS (I'll let you guess which one of those is the #1 most painful theatrical experience of my dad's life).

I just wanted to share that.

Oh, I also wanted to share that I'm going to be doing BOEING BOEING again! I'll be performing as Gretchen (duh) at Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, CT. We start rehearsals March 1st, and run March 17th to April 10th! I'll have two days off in between gigs, much of which will be spent traveling from Boston to NYC and from NYC to CT, respectively. Perfect timing!

Aaaaand a quick PIMP YOUR FRIENDS - look at how pretty Nikka Graff Lanzarone's shiny new website is!!!

I'm Bringing the Pompadour Back

All my glorious plans of blogging more frequently ended in sleeping instead. Hey, it was a looooooong tech.

The show looks BEAUTIFUL, and we've settled into our run. We were talking backstage last night about how NINE is a really fun show to run, and actually less fun to rehearse. Rehearsals can often be the most exciting part of the process - let's try this, okay, now this, what if I do THIS instead - but NINE is a bit of a beast. It's difficult to get a firm grasp on, and difficult to tell the story well (I know from having seen it several times before). Anyway, now that we're open, we've all just kind of relaxed and started to have fun. Below is a photo of me in full Stephanie Necrophorus regalia, singing about why I loathe our leading man:


I look ridiculous walking about the streets of Boston with poofy hair, but I got over that really quickly. If anything, most people are a little deferential when I have the pompadour happening, I suppose because it makes me look really intense. Yep. I frighten people. This is what I have discovered.

Okay, people, PIMP YOUR FRIENDS time! My lovely marvelous wonderful BATS are all involved in this amazing new project called #serialsattheflea. Late night episodic theatre. I'm grumpy about not being able to see them because I'm in Boston, so I'm trying to send everyone else to see them so that I can live vicariously, stage-mom style. Basically, there are five plays, and every week, the audience votes for what they want to see the next installment of. Only three make it. They'll return the next week with the next "episode" of their play, if you will, and the other two teams have to completely regroup and devise an entirely new premise for the following week. I freaking love The Flea. Two of the Bats, Stephen Stout & Dominic Spillaine, are the evil geniuses behind this whole thing. Go!

With regards to BE CREATIVE EVERY DAY, I have actually been succeeding, and not just because I'm in a run. I've been doing a lot of writing, as well as working on new material for a class I'll be taking soon. It's interesting challenging yourself to something like this, but not being a visual artist - I know I have something to show for it, but I can't just take a photograph of it and post it.

However, I CAN post videos, and I have done so for A MARGINALLY CHRISTMAS CABARET! There are four of them, and they all came out really well - my friend Alesia's brother David Lawson and a couple of his friends did all the video and editing for us.
Here is Colored Lights, from THE RINK. I call it the Liza Minnelli Special.
Next, we have River in the Rain, from BIG RIVER, featuring my marvelous brother Aaron! A few of his improv friends have watched and been impressed, as he only really sings when I force him to.
Then, there's the ridiculous Diamonds Are Forever.
And finally, the video that has unsurprisingly turned out to be everyone's favorite, I Will Never Leave You, from SIDE SHOW, featuring my friend Hernando Umana. He was my Riff Raff in ROCKY HORROR, and he sings like a beautiful woman. Seriously. It's actually not my favorite video for how I sound, but it's so preposterous that I can't help loving it.

Snow Day

During the snopocalyspe of December 2010, I spent two and a half days sitting in Denver International Airport, attempting to get to Boston by way of Newark. Today's snowsanity is a lot easier for me, seeing as the T is running, if slowly. I'm gonna admit it - I'm sitting atop my cozy bed in Brookline, wearing pajamas at 2pm. I slept in, watched the two-part Season 5 Finale of MURDER, SHE WROTE, and had a chard omelet with waffles. I was going to attempt to get things done outside of the house today, but quite sensibly decided that, if I had to brave the snow later to get to rehearsal, I might as well not deal with it for the rest of the day. The MFA will still be there later this week!

We began working through Act One last night, and let me tell you - this show is a massive BEAST! I mean that in the best possible sense - simply that there is SO MUCH to it, for absolutely everyone, from Guido on down. We're all pretty much on stage the entire time, and are all very involved in just about every number, so tracking yourself ("tracking" is the term used for where you are at any particular moment in a show. It's not just blocking, it's "Enter downstage left, but hang by the door till Actor A crosses, then be sure to shut it and turn the handle, because the door wont' close otherwise," it's what costume pieces you need to underdress in order to make a quick change in time, it's any props or set pieces you might be responsible for - basically anything that someone who was coming in to replace or understudy you would need to know in order to perform your "track" in a show) becomes difficult. It's gonna be great, we're just in the throes of the messiest stage of rehearsal (tech is a totally different kind of messy), which is exciting. So interesting to be part of a large-cast musical that is truly ensemble based.


On a different note, I just discovered and joined the "Creative Every Day" challenge. I'm thinking of trying to do weekly check-ins with it, and also trying to see how I can incorporate my blog into the creativity I already use every day (in rehearsal, in class, etc). January's (optional) theme is "Cosmos," which I think I'll play with a bit, once I figure out how best to bring myself to this challenge. I also began a Photoblog for 2011. This project is not an attempt to take gorgeous photos, but to truly blog about my days - the images, the experiences, the minutia that makes up a person's day to day life - through photos. It's been fun thus far, seeing people's responses, and challenging myself to find different types of things to photograph.

I am extremely cold right now, so I think I'm going to jump in a (hopefully, hopefully) ridiculously hot shower, then read some MOBY DICK, review my blocking and choreography, and head into rehearsal. I think it's also time to bust out my epic winter hat. I like to think of it as Doctor Zhivago meets Trudy Campbell.

Beauty in Black

A quickie post to exclaim that my NINE castmates are GORGEOUS! If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself!



If you want to buy tickets, click here for more information! Cast bios are also up, so feel free to stalk any and all of these beautiful women. Oh, and Tim.

I'm not very good at summing up with a grand, sweeping statement

I did it last year, and I'll do it again! A summing up of my year in the way that most makes sense to me - in shows! I'm including whatever workshops and readings I remember as well.

2010
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (workshop)
Dash Dexter (reading at MTC)
Don't Tell Mama's Cabaret
What Would Woody Do? (reading at The Flea with Tony Shalhoub)
A Tipsy Cabaret (at The Sonnet Theatre/The Producer's Club)
Stop the World - I Want to Get Off (with Musicals Tonight!)
Romeo & Hamlet (with GayfestNYC at The June Havoc/Abingdon)
Una, La Whore Del Mundo (reading at The Flea)
Office Hours (reading at The Flea with AR Gurney)
Scam (reading at Random House)
Unlawful Gatherings (at TAI, with my Sunday Playtime crew)
As Bees in Honey Drown (with Twin Tiers Theater Festival)
Boeing Boeing (with Twin Tiers)
Into the Woods (with Twin Tiers)
The Rocky Horror Show (with ReVision Theatre)
Scam (reading at New York Theatre Workshop)
Looking at Christmas (dialect coach - The Flea)
All Our Best for the Holidays (with Cape Rep)
A Marginally Christmas Cabaret (at the Royal Theatre/The Producer's Club)

And, as I began rehearsals for it in 2010...
Nine (with SpeakEasy Stage)

I'm missing a couple of readings in there from February. Can't remember project titles. Old age. It comes so quickly.

Wow, looking back on that, I was really fortunate this year. I met some crazy awesome people, and got to play two bucket list roles within the space of a month (Gretchen in BOEING and The Baker's Wife in WOODS).

Dialects I was hired to use in performance this year: Russian (2x), RP, Cockney, German, and Faux-Russian (hello, Magenta).

Favorite piece of theatre I saw is probably JERUSALEM in London with Mark Rylance - and it's coming to Broadway, folks!!! I also loved BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON at The Public and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES on the BroadWAY.

Other marvelousness with regards to my friends includes my brother performing regularly and hilariously with his Harold team Sandino at UCB, Hannah performing at The National Theatre in London with THE WHITE GUARD, Nick Adams booking a big ol' Broadway lead in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, and Nikka Lanzarone making her Broadway debut in WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN!

Ten points to anyone who knows what the title of this post references.

I'm starting the new year by seeing a show at SpeakEasy, then coming home to do some work on NINE on my own. We've worked through all of the music in the past few days, and have our first read through/sing through tomorrow! Huzzah! Onward.