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.

Sandino!

I've been a busy bee!

ROMEO & HAMLET went fantastically - audiences of Shakespeare nerds and homosexuals alike seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly! The cast was absolutely delightful. Occasionally, it occurs that you find yourself infatuated with everyone you're sharing the stage with, and vice-versa. You want to spend all of your time with these people, even though you're already forced to spend all of your time with these people. There's an alchemy between the personalities. I felt that way about my castmates for R&H. Disappointing to do such a short run with such a marvelous group of folk! Oh, to try to keep it together every night, as certain scenes got more and more outlandishly hilarious...Not an easy task. Anyway, the fact that we all seemed to be enjoying ourselves on stage, and had great rapport were consistent audience comments, which is a good sign in a piece like that.

I've been working a great deal this week, as well as auditioning and preparing for the readings I have next week - one on Monday, and the other Friday. The first one is a play that was written by a friend of one of my R&H castmates (his name is Blair MacKenzie), and the one on Friday is a new AR Gurney play we'll be reading at The Flea. Exciting! I will be taking my computer with me to work today so that I can get some good work done on those (and hopefully my cabaret show) in between work and a play I'll be seeing tonight.

The biggest news from this week is that I FINALLY got to see my brother perform on Harold Night!!! Okay, I admit that I am biased, but I'm also an intelligent person with the ability to discriminate. He was freaking funny. His troupe, Sandino, gels really well together - they play well with one another. Oh, it was so fun! We had a huge posse there for him, including our friend Chris Ruth, who went to BoCo, but who we also knew from high school in Colorado. Chris and Aaron took improv class together, I believe. Was Chris on the improv team I put together in high school? You know, I honestly cannot recall...Chaos Theatre was what we called it. There was a joke that you had to be a sibling to be on it. Ten members, six of us half of a sibling pair. The Wyatt Brothers (both of whom live in NYC now, Paul & Alex), the Stacey sisters, and The Jackson Duo. That's how we billed ourselves. So many funny brothers and sisters. Anyway, ANYWAY, the point is that it was thrilling to see him up there, rocking it out and getting huge laughs from the UCB crowd. Some guys were going up to him afterwards to ask him about how long he'd been at UCB, his background, etc - he's cultivating a FAN base! Isn't that cute? Here is his UCB performer profile! They're performing three times in June, which is a sign that the artistic director thought they performed well last month. Come check out Sandino!

Off to work go I!

Tech-itty Tech Tech

I’ve neglected writing for far too long, but it’s been all for good reasons. Rehearsing one show all day, doing a completely different show at night, packing in the yoga classes, and occasionally working in a restaurant all mean there is very little time for blogging.

I’m on a break from tech for ROMEO & HAMLET, which opens tomorrow. Well, we begin previews tomorrow night, but as there’s only one preview, we might as well be opening tomorrow. I love these theatres with wifi! There are three of us who’ve been lugging our computers to the theatre, maximizing work time. Anyway, it’s been quite a ride, throwing this show together in so little time, but now we’re in the theatre, and in costume, stumbling through. Woo!

The cast is absolutely lovely, and really funny. The guy playing Rosencrantz (Phillip Taratula) is absolutely hilarious every single moment he’s on stage. Seriously. I have not had this much trouble holding it together on stage in years. Nothing like sitting centerstage, wallowing in grief, and nearly choking, you’re trying so hard not to break, while the “dead” bodies on either side of you are shaking with suppressed laughter. I am so blessed in my life to know so many talented, funny people.

Speaking of funny people, I went to an improv show my brother did with his indie team SWOON on Friday, which was delightful and a lot of fun. I brought my darling friend Nikka along. By the way, I check her blog out pretty much daily, and you should as well. She is a swanky fashionista!

I’m going to get some reading done and maybe take a quick nap before we’re back for our evening run. I suppose I have many, many more things to talk about, but bless me, I can’t remember a one! The joys of tech – your mind melts into a puddle of uselessness. Ha. Sadly, that’s not too exaggerated at times. Luckily, we get out early tonight (8pm). This tech is only an 8 out of 10, not a 10 out of 12 (meaning, we’re only called for eight hours out of a ten hour time block, as opposed to the usual tech schedule of being called for ten out of a twelve hour block). It’s amazing how much difference those two hours make. Freeeeeeeedom!

A Week of Debuts

Whew, what a week! I’m sitting in the dressing room at The McGinn/Cazale theatre, during a brief moment offstage in today’s matinee of STOP THE WORLD – I WANT TO GET OFF! We opened last night - already! Ta-da! The four member female ensemble is either on stage or singing in the wings for 9/10 of the show. It’s really fun – I play something like 16 characters. The show is essentially an excuse for me to go on stage and act like an over-the-top crazy person for two and a half hours, which in my mind is great cause for rejoicing. My day job doesn't give me this liberty.


So, this past Monday, my dear friend Hannah Croft had her understudy run at The National Theatre in London!!! She’s understudying the role of Lena in THE WHITE GUARD, directed by Howard Davies, in a new adaptation by Andrew Upton (Cate Blanchett’s husband), and starring Conleth Hill! The understudies are guaranteed one show somewhere during the run, and she said it went well! I haven’t been able to get more details from her yet, but it’s such an exciting gig to have regardless of the fact that she then gets to actually play the role! I mean, THE NATIONAL! Hannah and I have been to so many shows together there! In fact, we have a silly running joke about sitting in the front row at The Lyttleton, which is the space her play is running in. We went to see AFTERLIFE, starring Roger Allam, and sat on the front row, the fourth and fifth seats off the aisle (Ten pound seats! ShaZAM!). There was an attractive male ensemble member that we were convinced had eyed us during the curtain call. The very next day, we queued for day seats to NEVER SO GOOD, starring Jeremy Irons, which was running in rep in the same theatre. We ended up getting the exact same seats. And the same young ensemble guy was in this cast, too. We were a touch embarrassed to appear to be crazy theatrical stalkers. That was two years ago, and we still go to bits when we think of us there, making eyes at what’s-his-face, wearing the same jumpers as the evening before and everything…I’d also like to remark that Jeremy Irons was truly marvelous.


Another marvelous debut this week – my brother Aaron had his first performance on Harold Night at UCB with his team Sandino! My parents got to go, along with many of our friends, and I’m depressed I didn’t get to be there. Apparently, they were hilarious, and I can’t wait till I get to go and see him rock it out with all of the funny folk!!!

Now I’m getting ready to go on for the evening show – my parents, Aaron, and Mikey are here!


Oh, other good news – I booked another show! I’ll be playing Mercutio in ROMEO & HAMLET from May 6th – 16th at the Abingdon (June Havoc Theatre) as part of Gayfest NYC. I have always – always – wanted to play Mercutio, so I’m pretty jazzed about it. I got the script the night before from the casting director, and thought as I read it, “Well, if I don’t book this, it’s not gonna be my fault. I am PERFECT for this.” I’m really looking forward to it! Rehearsals start next Tuesday, so I’m busy, busy busy!


Well, this was a disjointed post, but, to be fair to myself, I’ve written it in about eight sittings as I run in and out of the dressing room when I happen to have a moment. Right now it’s intermission of the evening show. 9:04pm. Woo! Time to re-oomph the hair before going on and belting out the Alto Two a bit more. Ahh, my Glinda hair gel…what would I do without you?