We’ve been rehearsing since the last week in February. We are currently immersed in the tech/dress process and the play opens tomorrow night. I’m exhausted. The actors, the stage manager, tech director, props mistress and costumer are all ready to set this play free and let it be what it will be. I am curious to see how audiences will react. I’ve grown too close, too myopic, too familiar to be objective at this point. The actors are ready for an audience. Will the audiences laugh? Certainly there is some fun to be had. Deep breath. I am feeling a bit worn out, strung out and very emotional. I’m low on self-care and high (as in flying) on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Opening night is just slightly more than 24 hours away
My latest project is in the brainstorming phase so I thought I would toss it out here for your reaction. I would love to hear from you. I’ve decided I don’t want to do another traditional play for awhile. It’s time to explore something new. Enter – The Empty Chair Project. My hope is that this project will include many different kinds of performing and visual artists and give them the chance to explore working with a theme and making it their own
Something to ponder: how would you characterize your “drive” or your “purpose”? “My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.” ~Bette Davis I love the words in this quote: Passions: Desires, longings, mission, loves. Drive: Momentum, action, movement, pulse, breath. Purpose: Reason, Being, Living. Purpose without anything to prove. That sounds good. It feels like freedom. It’s more active than peaceful
Acting Concept: Acting is Doing This is the basic numero uno prime and ultimate concept to master. Acting is doing. What does that mean? In the most obvious sense it means when your character is onstage searching for his blue sock, you the actor will be onstage searching for your blue sock. You aren’t pretending to search. You are searching. You aren’t demonstrating to the audience that your character is searching and you aren’t emoting about how much you love the blue sock. You are truthfully searching for the blue sock
Warning! This post is long because I’m on valium. Read on to find out why. I want to share some things about this amazing journey of creativity and right-livelihood. I’m going to tell you a story about my first ever just launched acting class in my first ever just rented studio space. The first class was on Saturday, June 20. But I need to travel back in time a bit – all the way back to Thursday, June 18. Thursday afternoon around 2:40 PM, I was in my office at the day-job and I was talking to our student assistant about this or that. I looked away from him and turned back to my computer and the room began to spin. Spin as in rotate around me in a circular motion! I thought it was a blood sugar issue since I’m not so good about eating when I’m busy. Fine. No biggie
Hello. I am off on vacation starting tomorrow. I’ll be heading to West Texas to visit my dad and my sister and attend my 25th high school reunion.Twenty five years! The Friday Post will (if all things go as planned) be posted on Friday, but I’m not likely to get much up between now and then. Reminder: Acting Classes begin June 20th and will meet Saturday mornings from 10:00 – 12:00. If you are interested or have some questions about the class send me an email. You can reach me through the contact page on this site or find me on Twitter or Facebook. Rehearsals will start in earnest for Adult Entertainment when I get back so I’ll be carrying my script with me wherever I go. Our instructions from the director are to read through the script every day. Read, read, read and let the words sink into your pores. Then I’ll be able to post on the rehearsal process as we move along
I got some good news this weekend. I’ve been cast in another play with Theatre NXS – the same company that produced Problem Child. This play is another piece from George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel Series called, Adult Entertainment. No. It isn’t about the “adult entertainment” industry. It’s about some very mixed up adults – a washed-up public defender, two cops who long ago stopped caring about the greater good, and an ex-wife who is still trying to understand why her cop-hubbie has crossed over to the dark side. The four of them together and separately have created a state of continual crisis in their lives and the audience gets to watch them try to escape the consequences by making almost every bad choice known to man and woman.Meaty stuff – with some bizarre humor thrown into the mix to spice it up
I’m committed. I signed a lease for a studio space today. I have a key! I have a contract! This is real. I’ll be teaching acting again. I was driving back to my office after signing the contract and there were two questions swirling around in my head. Why didn’t I do this before? Why was I able to do it now
Here it comes. Opening night! Ready or not. Final dress and tech tonight and there will be butts in the seats tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed great luck and opportunity in the last six months. Picasso at the Lapin Agile was great fun and my character, Germaine, got to flirt, kiss all the boys, pour drinks and all manner of fun things I don’t get to do in my real life. I got kidnapped by a mummy, tied up and rescued by the hero in Venganza Azteca. I don’t want to admit to how many times in my girlish life I’ve fantasized about that scenario
I have been brewing this post for quite awhile and, frankly, I’ve been avoiding it. I want to say from the get-go that this will probably not be the only post on this topic because there is so much to explore. I also want to tell you that I am not an expert on eating disorders or body dysmorphia, but I am experienced. I’m experienced because I live with a skewed body image every day. I’m experienced because I have used food all my life as a substance to stuff down my feelings, desires and self-expression. I think any form of creative expression is an act of exposure
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