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!

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.

Mele Kalikimaka

I have been grossly negligent of late with regards to posting. This can be readily explained in three words: I'm in Hawaii.

Before I go on to anything else, I want to do a PIMP YOUR FRIENDS segment. The pimping, in this case, is of Croft and Pearce, a British comedy duo. They are gorgeous, hilarious, and also happen to be dear friends of mine. They've been gigging around London, and have just released their first YouTube video, which I think you should watch. It's the first in a series regarding Prince William's engagement. I think it gets even funnier with every repeated viewing.

I want to do a fairly epic blog post a'la Krakow (see Feb or March if you don't know what I'm talking about and care to read about my all-too brief travels to Poland), so I'll save that for a few days from now, when I'm in Boston, freezing and unwilling to do much aside from rehearse and hibernate. Oh, that's right, kids. Starting December 27th, I will be in snowy, slushy Boston, in rehearsals for NINE. I've been reading the script, and I'm SO excited!!! Not for the brutal weather, obviously, but singing this incredible music will more than make up for it.

The Marginally Christmas Cabaret went smashingly well! Thanks to all who came out to see us! Videos are currently being edited, and will hopefully be posted to my YouTube channel within the next few weeks.

So, tomorrow, I'll wake up in Honolulu for the last time. We'll see Pearl Harbor, my parents will go to the Baylor basketball game, and then we'll fly to Breckenridge, Colorado, for a family Christmas. December 26th, I catch a flight that puts me into Newark at midnight. I'll get home, unpack, REPACK, and catch a bus to Boston first thing in the morning for a 5pm rehearsal. Mercifully, I can sleep the entire next day. Then I'm in Boston through February 27th! Trident Booksellers & Cafe, here I come!

Some pics of The Big Island posted below!

The Trouble with Contini

It's been a lovely week for The Jackson here - my friend Daniela and her boyfriend Tobias have been visiting me from Germany (she and I met when I first moved to the city, and she was here doing an internship to complete her Masters Degree. We were both hired at Starbucks on the same day, over five years ago now), I've been catching up with loads of friends, AND I got a job offer! I've been cast as Stephanie Necrophorous in NINE at Speakeasy Stage in Boston! Hoorah! The show is in January and February, which is, of course, a HORRIFYING time to be in Boston, as I remember all too well from four winters there during college. For the ART, though, for the ART, darlings! It was a goal of mine for this year to book something in Boston, as I do love the town so. The BCA, where we'll be working, is GORGEOUS. GA-GA-GORGEOUS. One has to love a newly renovated facility. I still have to talk to the company manager and do contract stuff, but I wanted to share! Hooray! Stephanie is the critic who sings the patter section in FOLIES BERGERES ("The trouble with Contini, he's the king of mediocrity," etc), and was played by Kate Hudson in the movie (which I did not see). The great thing about NINE is that, with so many female roles, there's the possibility of doing the show around six times, and playing a different one in each production! I really am dying to play Seraghina, the prostitute who sings "Be Italian." One day, one day! In the meanwhile, I'm thrilled to have a project to look forward to! I have several auditions coming up in the next few weeks as well, so I'm keeping busy with all of that.

Speaking of which, I have an audition for THE 39 STEPS soon, and am coaching a student on all of the woman's accents this week (English, Scottish, and either German or Russian, depending on the version of the script used), so I'd best go and give it a read! I've seen it twice, but need to get all my ducks in a row and prepare!

Things I Like

I was going to update yesterday, as I spent most of it on a BOLT bus going to Boston and back, but wasn't feeling well for most of it. I watched seven episodes of MAD MEN instead, which I've been trying to do for AGES! I just have the last two episodes of Season 3 left, and I'm all caught up! This is one of the trials of having what is known as a "flexible schedule," as getting addicted to a particular TV show requires DVR, planning ahead, and, you know, actually knowing what night and what channel something airs on. I'm a DVD junkie myself.

Anyway, as I'm still not feeling in tip-top shape, and I have about half an hour before a student comes over for a coaching (Bronx dialect, in this case), I thought I'd do a rather silly little list of Things I Like. I like lists, for one, so here goes:

List O' Things I Like (in no particular order):
Bite-sized Shredded Wheat
Flip-flops in fall
The color blue
Janis Joplin
The Chrysler Building
The kid in my building who is always wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine boots
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot
Asparagus
Headscarves
Winning, especially games like Scrabble, because then I feel victorious as well as wildly intelligent
Halloween
New York City
Picnics
Francois, the drunken Frenchman who lives in the Village
Michael's cooking
Sitting in the balcony of the Brattle Movie Theatre in Harvard Square
Karaoke
Cappuccinos
Jeff Buckley
Dumplings
Walking through SoHo or the LES on a Saturday or Sunday morning when there's nobody around
Absurd costumes & wigs, especially when I get to wear them
Family holidays
The Winter's Tale
Traveling alone
Zinnias
Chagall
McNally Jackson Bookstore
Scooby Doo Cartoons
The National Theatre in London
Gigantic earrings
Yoga
Godard's A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
Skype
My friend Jill's website, especially these webisodes
Berlin
Freckles
Coffee
Places I can wander around without shoes on
Rehearsal
My chiropractor
Rain
Grapes
Ella Fitzgerald
TX-style BBQ
Absurd fb profile photos
Cafe Reggio on MacDougal St.
Alfred Hitchcock
Girl Scout cookies from the freezer
Strangers with Candy
Regina Spektor
The Lord of the Rings books and films
How nerdy that last item was
Being exceptionally nerdy in multiple ways
How long this list has gotten

Coffeeshop Reflections

I'm sitting in RBC NYC, a coffeeshop in TriBeCa that I'd never been to before. This is a shame, as my cappuccino was excellent, there is WiFi, and it's SO near The Flea! I'm better informed now! I needs must know where every blessed non-Starbucks establishment is in this city. I NEEDS MUST KNOW!!!

Well, it was a doozie of a week, but in all ways wonderful! I had a couple of rehearsals for this concert I’m singing in next week for the 99th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (March 25th, 1911). The text of the song in which I have the lead vocal is from a famous speech Rosie Schniederman gave a couple of weeks after the incident at a memorial service held at the Met Opera House. I’ll include the text here, as it’s very powerful:

"I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting. The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today; the iron teeth are our necessities, the thumbscrews are the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the firetrap structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire.
This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Every year thousands of us are maimed. The life of men and women is so cheap and poverty is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death.
We have tried you citizens; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us.
Public officials have only words of warning to us – warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law beats us back, when we rise, into the conditions that make life unbearable.
I can't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement."
– Rose Schneiderman, The Triangle Fire(April 2nd, 1911)

She’s a major figure in the first wave of feminism, as well as in reform for women’s labor laws in the early part of the twentieth century. Apparently, Schneiderman’s granddaughter will be at the concert, which is really exciting. The concert is on Thursday evening!

I went to Boston on Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day...in BOSTON...all of the bars were packed with college students sporting green, green, green) to see my acting teacher (Karl Bury) in PARADISE LOST at the ART. I’ve hitherto only seen him on film or television, so this was grand! He was excellent, as expected. I can’t say I loved the production, though most of the actors were fantastic, and the play is great (it’s Odets, c’mon!). I had a few quibbles, shall we say, with the direction. He made some choices I felt were arbitrary and detracted from the telling of the story. The trip was well worth it, though, not just to see Karl, but also to spend the entire day walking around the city. The weather was glorious, and perfect for being outside…I would love to go back to Boston for a gig. I wouldn’t want to live there permanently, and certainly not in January, but during the spring and summer, it’s a gorgeous place to be.

On Friday, I performed in A TIPSY CABARET, a show I set up with some girls from my acting class and various gigs. We rented a space, hired my friend Michael to play for us, and invited our friends to come watch us perform - for free! Too often do we have to pay something like $25 to see our peers perform, and it adds up. So delightful to be able to offer the opportunity to watch us with no charge.

I opened the show with “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” preceding it with, “In the spirit of performing things we probably shouldn’t be doing at auditions…” It got a nice big laugh when the vamp began, and everyone recognized it. Later on, I sang "Moments in the Woods" from INTO THE WOODS, "So Far Away," from Carole King's album TAPESTRY, and "Class," from Chicago, with my amazing friend Melissa Dowty, who just returned from a 9-week gig in TN. SO good to have her back, and to get to sing such a ridiculous song with a comedic genius like her. All in all, the evening was a success, and a nice reminder for all of us that it's good for the soul and the creative spirit to sing for yourself sometimes, and perform for an audience, rather than a bunch of people behind a table who are reading your resume. Woo!

I've also begun work again on my own cabaret show for the character of Lady Jo...so far, I have a very (VERY) rough draft, and am excited to meet with my friend Phillip to discuss where we can go with it. YES for taking initiative and creating projects and jobs for ourselves! Actor Empowerment. Let's get with it.