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.

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!