Upstate, She's A-Comin!

We leave tomorrow for Olean, NY. I'm gone for six weeks solid, most everyone else for about two. I've done a pretty good job of packing light - I could've done it with one bag if I weren't also bringing my computer. Anyway, I've not had a moment to breathe for this entire week, but it's been delightful! We did our first stumble through of the whole play yesterday, and will go straight into the space on Tuesday. I also start Boeing-Boeing rehearsals as soon as I'm there, so if I thought I was busy now...

I have a full dancecard today. A full day of writing with the Sunday Playtime kids (we've now started calling ourselves The Crickety Crew - long story. Basically, everyone I know is hilarious), then home to finish packing, do copious amounts of laundry, and clean my apt before hanging out with Aaron and Mikey. Yay! I just wanted to check in, and express my excitement at how well everything is going!

A quick note on Aaron - his improv team Sandino got all of the anchor slots for July, which basically means that they are AMAZING! I dragged a bunch of my friends with me to Harold Night on Tuesday, and they were all highly amused and impressed. :) Ridiculousness is rewarded at UCB!

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!

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?

Good News!

So much to talk about. So little time. SO much good news!

I'm very tired, so this is going to be a good ol' fashioned BPBP: A Bullet-Point Blog Post.

* I booked INTO THE WOODS for this summer!!! I will be playing The Baker's Wife! AAAAAH! Jubilation abounds!

* My brother Aaron was invited to join a house Harold team at Upright Citizen's Brigade! Ahh! This is a big deal, especially as it was his first time auditioning. Something like 475 people auditioned, 64 got called back, and 20 were asked to join up! He is going to be really funny, and I am SO proud of him! I actually manage to see him a lot these days by going to Harold Night at UCB (Tuesdays at 8pm, incidentally, at their theatre on 26th and 8th Ave, and it's $5!), so it's mega-exciting to know that some day soon, I'll be seeing my bro!

* I booked a show for April! And I didn't even have to audition! HaHA! Mel Miller, who produces MUSICALS TONIGHT! up at The Vital Theatre on the UWS, called me on Thursday morning to ask me to be in the female "Greek Chorus" of STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF. It starts rehearsals Monday. The timing could not be more perfect. I did TOVARICH with them about a year and a half ago, and had such a great time. Two weeks of rehearsals, then two weeks of performances on the 8 show/week schedule, and then you call it a day! Easy peasy! A great little gig for when you're in between stuff. I'm excited to meet new people and get to know a show I wasn't acquainted with before!

* I have saved a draft of my Krakow adventures, but haven't posted it yet, as it's not DONE! It's really long already, so I figured I'd just go ahead and make it ridiculously long, so that if you want to read about Poland, you can do so in one post. Soon. Seriously. It's only been a MONTH! :)