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!

A Holiday Cabaret, You Say?

Is it a shameless plug if it's on your own blog? I didn't think so.

Next Wednesday night, the 15th of December in the year of 2010, I'm singing in a cabaret show I put together with my dear friends Alesia Lawson and Sarah Randall Hunt. If you're in the area and free that night, I suggest you check us out, because it's gonna be a grand old time.

A MARGINALLY CHRISTMAS CABARET!
We know what you boys and girls want this holiday season - SINGIN'! LOTS OF IT! Well, Santa ain't gonna let you down, kiddies. He's sending a magnificent triumvirate of funny ladies (and a couple of funny lads!) your way this December 15th! We will occasionally be embracing the fact that this cabaret show is mid-December, and throwing something Christmasy your way. However, as we really can't be bothered to Fa La La La La our way through an entire 90 minutes, the majority of the evening will be free of elves, trees, dreidels, reindeer, nativities, and references to the Claus family.

Vaguely holiday-related. Absolutely hilarious.

Suggested donation of $10. Anything we make over the first $200 is going to The New York City Coalition Against Hunger.

Featuring the glorious talents of:
Sarah Randall Hunt
Amy Jackson
Alesia Lawson

With guest performers:
Aaron Jackson
Hernando Umana
Kenneth Kyle Senn

Aaaaand the marvelous Michael Hopewell on piano!

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 @ 7:00pm
The Producers Club - Royale Theatre
358 W. 44th St, just off 9th Avenue

The Les Incompetents Edition

My favorite relatively new Thanksgiving tradition that my bro and friends and I have implemented over the past few years is to eat the Thanksgiving feast at real dinner time (approx 7:30 or 8:00pm - none of us care about football, which I can only assume affects the timing of everyone else's meals), and then watch HOME ALONE before we eat dessert. Watching HOME ALONE has now become our way of officially ushering in the holiday season, and this year, I decided to mark it in an even more official fashion: I tweeted it.

Live tweeting during particular events (The Academy Awards and the Tonys, if we're getting down to MY specifics, but it also works for shows like MAD MEN, various political speeches/debates, breaking news stories, etc) has really changed the way that said events are experienced. The feed for the #tonys this year was better than the actual Tonys themselves. ANYWAY, on Thanksgiving, I live tweeted all of the best parts of HOME ALONE, and, as there are many iconic moments, it got a bit epic.

For those of you who aren't regular users of Twitter, it may behoove you to know what a hashtag is. Basically, it serves a simple search function, so that anything I wrote with a (#) preceding it would show up in the general Twitter feed for those exact words. However, many people also use it to make jokes or somewhat sarcastic asides with. I love an aside. I use it every which way possible.

Anyway, here they are - THE 2010 #HOMEALONE TWEETS!


And now...my favorite part of Thanksgiving...#homealone!!!

Mac Culkin is TINY!!! #homealone

Kevin, you are what the French call "Les Incompetents."#homealone #freakingclassic

When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone! #homealone #freakingclassic

First pizza delivery to the McAlister house. #homealone #freakingclassic

This pizza boy is gay. #homealone #freakingclassic

Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi! #homealone #freakingclassic

Look what you did, ya little jerk!!! #homealone #freakingclassic

Goodnight, Kevin! #homealone #freakingclassic

WE SLEPT IN!!! #homealone #freakingclassic

Run, Run, Rudolph playing in the airport sequence....Let's face it. It's #freakingclassic. #homealone

This entire house is completely red & green, even though the family is in Paris for Christmas. #logical #homealone #freakingclassic

Even the creepy furnace is green! #spooky #homealone #freakingclassic

Jumping on the bed/trashing the house sequence. Undeniably, a #freakingclassic moment in cinema. #homealone

Buzz, your girlfriend! Woof! #homealone #freakingclassic

Keep tha change, ya filthy animal. #angelswithfilthysouls#homealone #freakingclassic

KEVIN!!! #homealone #freakingclassic #whoops

Sledding down the stairs, inspiring millions of kids to injure themselves at home! #homealone #freakingclassic

Daniel Stern, there you are!!! Welcome! #homealone

Hope Davis with a magnificent French accent and long blonde hair.#homealone

Shaving cream. Enough said. #homealone #freakingclassic

Escaped Tarantula! Noooooooooooo! #homealone #freakingclassic #majorplotpointlaterinthemovie

I'm a criminal. #homealone #freakingclassic

The best part of the movie!!! Mac Culkin screaming, his face inches from the van the bandits are driving. #homealone #freakingclassic

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree large-scale subterfuge!!! #homealone #freakingclassic

The gay pizza boy returns! #angelswithfilthysouls #homealone #freakingclassic

Bing Crosby lip-synching in a towel and shaving cream part two!#homealone #freakingclassic

Simultaneous grocery bag breakdown. #homealone #freakingclassic

Wet Bandit attempted smackdown! #convenientlyplacedfireworks #homealone #freakingclassic

I think we're gettin scammed by a kindegahdnuh! #homealone #freakingclassic

Moments of learning and growth for dear young Kevin McAlister!#homealone #freakingclassic #talkswithacreepyoldman

Oh, child! It's time for some serious #carolofthebells here on #homealone! This movie is getting INTENSE!!! #freakingclassic

This is MY house. I have to defend it! #homealone #freakingclassic #whereismybattleplan?

Oh. It. Is. ON! #wetbanditsandkevinhowdown #homealone #freakingclassic

Iron to the faaaaace!!! #iwouldthinkthatwouldknockyououtbutthatisjustme #homealone#freakingclassic

Singed head! #morepainfulthanfunnyreally #homealone #freakingclassic

Covered in feathers! #morefunnythanpainfulreally #homealone #freakingclassic

You guys give up, or you thirsty for more? #howaretheynotdeadyet #homealone #freakingclassic

You burglars are morons. #homealone

Brick wall to the face. IT IS TIME TO GIVE UP, WET BANDITS!!!#homealone

All I'm doing is sitting here, thinking about how long Daniel Stern had to be in makeup every morning to get that iron imprint. #homealone

Wet Bandit Crackdown! HaHA! Thwarted for THIS Christmas, Marv & Harry! #homealone #freakingclassic

John Candy, you are a symbol of the early 90s. This may be poor consolation, but there it is. #homealone

That bed looks so cozy, I'm contemplating buying myself bright red sheets. #homealone #suggestiveselling

A beautiful Christmas family reunion!!! #homealone #catherineoharaissogood #freakingclassic

I went shopping yesterday! I got the milk, eggs, and fabric softener!#homealone #freakingclassic

A grandfather/granddaughter reunion! Beauteous! #homealone

Kevin!!! What did you do to my room??? #homealone #freakingclassic

Now that #homealone is over, it's time for PIE!



Hope those were at least moderately enjoyable to someone. By the way, the title of this post refers to the fact that certain movies (I'm lookin' at you, PRINCESS BRIDE) have different special editions available for purchase. I'm pretty sure most of them are identical in content, it's just a matter of whether you'd rather have Buttercup, Humperdinck, or Westley immortalized on the DVD cover. In keeping with this theme, we were rather disappointed to discover (a few years ago now) that HOME ALONE only offered the "Family Fun" edition. We thought this was a load of crap. The special features are great, sure, but we wanted a little more flair. Who wouldn't rather get to choose between the "Les Incompetents," "You Little Jerk," and "Keep the Change, Ya Filthy Animal" editions? Or even between the versions entitled "The Wet Bandits," "Hyper on Two," and "The Polka King of Chicago"??? AM I RIGHT? "Family Fun," huh? LAAAAME!

Our Noble Mission is Almost Complete

Tis the closing night of ROCKY HORROR! I'll have two shows (an 8pm and a midnight), some strike duties tomorrow, and then run lickety split back to the city for a rehearsal at 6pm. I'm doing another reading of SCAM, by Blair MacKenzie, playing the brash and sarcastic Cassie at New York Theatre Workshop on Monday night. Whew! I will be sleeping all day Monday so that I'm alive for the reading!

I am nerdily loving this book I picked up last week at McNally Jackson, my favorite NYC bookstore (and not simply because it is my namesake)! It's called My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, and it's a collection of fairy tales written by contemporary writers. As they're based on real fairy tales, they are DARK, and all SO good. I tend to read a lot of classics, so I'm thrilled to now have a bunch of new (to me, anyway) writers to check out.

A quick dinner, then off to don the feathery eyelashes and excessive purple eyeshadow of Magenta once more! By the way, the title of this post is one of Riff Raff's to Magenta in their final scene, before they belt epic notes and the spaceship blasts off. Y'know. The usual.

A Sensible Three Show Day

My apologies for my blogging negligence. I've been working my tail off in Asbury Park doing ROCKY HORROR, and we have very limited wifi access. It's given me more time to catch up on my Chekhov, but I've fallen behind in everything internet related.

The show is SO MUCH FUN! We opened last night, and I'm on a break in between our matinee and 8pm shows. As it's the day before Halloween, we also have one at midnight. Three show day, huh? Let's do the Time Warp...AGAIN. And AGAIN. AND AGAIN!!! Vocal stamina, be with me today!

We're having a ball. I'm learning so much, since we have to be on our toes at all times - y'know, because every audience is different, and more or less responsive, what with call-outs, dressing up, throwing toilet paper/confetti/playing cards, etc. It's fun when the real ROCKY fans come out and know a lot of the more hilarious call-outs. I'm posting a few pics that I'm in - more to come later, when I've raided the CD at the office. I'd say my Magenta is Naughty Nurse Ratched meets Gloria Swanson circa SUNSET BOULEVARD - and then there's my finale costume! The cast is RIDICULOUS. So funny, and amazingly talented singers. And the band - the band! It's so exciting to rock out every night. Or day. Or whenever. I've lost track of time already.





Okay, I have to leave my beautiful internet cafe haven (if you're ever in Asbury Park, do yourself a favor and visit The Twisted Tree Cafe. They make EVERYTHING fresh, and have a lot of vegan/veggie options for those who need that, plus free wifi, amazingly lovely owners, and delicious everything!) and head back to the Carousel House (the show is playing on the boardwalk in what used to be a carousel. It makes for a really cool non-traditional playing space) to get back into mic and eyelashes. I left the rest of my makeup on. There's a huge Zombie Walk going on today on the boardwalk, so people aren't looking at me like I'm strange, just like I'm really lame for not going far enough. I look intense, but not dead. Ha. Ahh, it's all about context, isn't it?

It's Not Worth Putting My Suitcase in Storage Anymore...

I'm calling tonight "Pack-a-palooza!" as there is much folding and such that needs to occur tonight. Naturally, I have yet to begin. Oh, procrastination, thou art my worthiest opponent! Anyway, we started music rehearsals for ROCKY HORROR on Monday, and learned some ography for TIME WARP later in the week. This cast is ridiculous! By that, I not only mean that they can all wail like nobody's business, but also that they are hilarious, in character and in life. So much FUN! You know what I've discovered I love about this show (other than the fact that there seems to be no end to my getting hired to do obscenely over-the-top dialect work)? You really can't go too far. Music rehearsals have primarily consisted of plunking parts and us laughing in disbelief at one of our castmates just belting the flesh off our faces. Singing your face off in this show is actually not self-indulgent! Ahh, the glories of playing aliens. With Russian accents. If you're me.

Anywhoo, I can just hear you now, saying, "Amy, do tell me some tidbits regarding what you've been up to lately! Perhaps with LINKS!"

Oh, twist my arm.

First of all, here's a link to Theatermania.com's cast announcement of ReVision's ROCKY HORROR!

I am very excited for my darling friend Nikka Graff Lanzarone, who is making her Broadway debut tonight as previews begin for WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN! AAAAAH, so exciting!!!

Last week, I saw the Broadway productions of La Bete, starring the always incredible Mark Rylance and delightful David Hyde Pierce, and Pitmen Painters, a beautiful West End transfer (go see it if you can - I just LOVED it), the Off-Broadway production of Angels in America, and both casts of Office Hours at my beloved Flea Theater! All of them were grand, marvelous, wonderful, etc for different reasons! I recommend them all, and feel free to comment or email me if you want a bit more of a scoop. Tomorrow I'm seeing A Life in the Theatre, with TR Knight and the glorious Patrick Stewart. Sunday, I leave for New Jersey to begin our rehearsal process fo rilz (clearly a technical term in the industry for diving into all-day rehearsals).

Speaking of which, I need to pack!

Before wrapping this up, I would like to take a brief moment to mention the recent rash of tragic teenage suicides due to bullying, in many instances because of their actual or perceived homosexuality. These deaths absolutely break my heart. A number of outreach programs have spun into motion in reaction to these events, and I just wanted to pass the information along. Regardless of one's views on homosexuality, I think we can agree that a 13-year-old hanging himself in his backyard in reaction to being bullied and feeling humiliated is horrifying, and that we could all afford to spread some compassion.
The IT GETS BETTER Project
Give a Damn - LGBT Equality