Lady Jo

Converting All Your Sounds of Woe Into Hey, Nonny Nonny

2011-07-15T01:26:00.006-04:00

No matter what - no matter what pain my body or voice may be in, no matter what I may be upset or flustered or anxious over, no matter what someone may have thoughtlessly said earlier in the day that my hypersensitive self may still be reacting to - everything is always better on stage. Intermission will come, and I'll be back to reality, and once the show is over, there is an entire night and day ahead of me before I do it again, but while I am on stage, I am the luckiest, the happiest, the most blessed, and the most contented girl in the world. I've been on stage or in rehearsal more days than not this year, and, obviously, not every day is a good day, or a day in which you feel like going out there and making people laugh, or putting yourself in an emotional state you know you're going to have difficulty shaking later. Those days, however, are the days when I am most grateful to be able to go out there and be completely and entirely at home, dead center stage. It's really difficult to feel lonely when you're transparent in front of your fellow actors and an entire audience of witnesses.

This last time through BOEING BOEING, I woke up one morning to an incredibly personally upsetting email. I joke about how much I cry, but honestly, I mainly cry (or used to, anyway) at the theatre or on someone else's behalf. This email...I ugly cried for four hours. When I stopped crying, I was a zombie, and could barely focus on speaking to my castmates without losing it. That night at the show...I cried as I was about to enter, I cried immediately after exiting, I cried doing my quick changes...but on stage...It was reaffirmed for me that once I was on stage, I was in the safest place in the world. For me. I had to go out there and make people laugh when I was in the closest thing to emotional agony I have ever experienced, but it was glorious, and helped me to begin to heal, right there. Luckily, Gretchen is an incredibly volatile, passionate woman, and so I thanked myself for the years I've spent working on my technique (so that I could let myself feel that deeply in front of people without losing control of my voice, or crying when it was inappropriate, etc), and threw myself into her. A couple of the actors I spent the most time on stage with said that my performance wasn't markedly different, but that I had a fire behind my eyes like NEVER before (and I am usually described as a pretty intense performer). I was so humbled to be granted the gift of being on stage that night, of having to go outside myself and my little problems.

I've been a bit sad the last week or so. It makes sense - I lost a wonderful friend to cancer on Monday, which was devastating, and I'm hitting the point in the contract when all of my shows are open, but everyone else is still rehearsing (or at least busier), and I'm feeling a bit lost, like I have to find things to productively fill the time. For some reason, this vague melancholy is pestering me for a couple of hours every day (perhaps the epic Russian novel I'm working my way through is adding to that...though I'm pretty sure reading Tolstoy has only the opposite affect on me). I was feeling a little down before the show tonight, and realized, about two numbers in, that I was happy - joyful, in fact, and it was purely because I was on stage, playing, invested in GODSPELL and what we were all creating together. It is such a relief to be able to step on stage, see the audience, and live in that world for a few hours. I think it every day, and I will say it here: I love, love, love, LOVE my job.

Art. It's good for what ails ya.

A Little Pick-Me-Up

2011-06-30T02:45:00.007-04:00

It's been a long week of GODSPELL tech. On days such as today, I like to remind myself of things that make me happy in order to counteract the exhaustion and any frustration I might feel (my voice is tired - I get frustrated when it doesn't do exactly what I want it ta do). Because when I like something, I want everyone to know about it, I shall link and share these things with you.

Alfie Boe singing just about anything. I find this video stunning and charming. Obviously, watch all of his Val Jean stuff as well. Unreal.

Hipster Animals - This tumblr is AMAZING. I have been following it since Day 1, and am addicted to it. Dyna Moe, who also did the art for MAD MEN YOURSELF, started it in March or so. Get into it.

Murder, She Wrote - It streams on Netflix. All of it. Obsessed. Angela Lansbury has been a personal hero of mine for many years. I want to play Mame and Mrs. Lovett so desperately! I wish that JB would occasionally be incorrect, but really, Jessica Fletcher can do no wrong.

WHAT THE BUCK SHOW - Michael Buckley is the greatest of all YouTubers. I'm not really into celebrity gossip, but I love Buck's videos. He is hilarious in every post, and a great Twitter follow as well. I watch him regularly, but if ever I am sad, I absolutely make sure to watch something of his.

My beautiful, darling friend Nikka is going on as Velma Kelly in the Broadway production of CHICAGO in less than a week. That thought pretty much makes me want to explode with happiness.

This pig.

Regina Spektor - She is more wonderful than words can express.

I have recently become a WORDS WITH FRIENDS addict. I'm okay with this. My castmate Michael (with whom I am playing three to five games at any given moment) has informed me that I have a problem. We were playing WORDS WITH FRIENDS with each other on our phones whilst simultaneously playing an actual game of Scrabble with some other castmates last night. Just sayin' here...I don't think I'm the only one with a problem...

Eddie Izzard - Was obsessed. Am obsessed. Don't see this trend stopping any time soon. Many of his shows also stream on Netflix.

My friend Al Silber's delightful blog.

Jeff Buckley's perfect album GRACE.

UCB - Getting to see my brother do improv most Tuesday nights (when I'm in the city, anyway) has been amazingly fun. His team is brilliant, he is ridiculously talented, and I'm glad more people are getting the chance to fall in love with his abilities and appetite. He is the best friend in the world. Also, his dog is adorbs.

ModCloth.com - Dudes, I spend way too much time and moolah on this website. I love it so.

The number of nerds in this current cast I'm working with is off the hook. We're pretty much all Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Musical Theatre/Coloring Book fanatics. I'm so very much at home.

Coaching - I love teaching. I'm definitely working with some of my castmates once this week is over. People want to learn Scottish and RP and such. Happiness.

The fact that Alan Rickman, Paul Gross, and Nina Arianda are all going to be on Broadway within the next few months makes me crazy happy. Let's just get Mark Rylance and Janet McTeer to stick around for awhile, and I'll be all set.

I'm blessed to count a great number of witty, compassionate, warm, soulful people among my friends. That's also a big stress reliever. I'll put out a tweet or a fb update, send a text to a choice pal or two, and I'll probably be laughing sooner rather than later. Lucky. Blessed. And now, tired. Another long day of rehearsal lies ahead.

Call Me When You Need Your Mirrors Smashed

2011-06-18T11:56:00.006-04:00

I've been in Colorado for the last few weeks, belting my face at 10,000 feet as Mrs. Walker in TOMMY. We opened last night, and will dive into GODSPELL music rehearsals this afternoon before another evening with our friends The Who. I love working in rep (meaning playing in multiple shows at the same time), which I did a couple of summers ago with Festival 56, when we played the Shakespeare throughout the entire contract. I think it's going to be incredibly beneficial to me this summer especially, because Mrs. Walker spends most of the show guilt-ridden, grief-stricken, and deeply troubled. There is a good deal of power-belting, alternated with crying and silent acting. Joanne, who I'm playing in GODSPELL (she sings BLESS THE LORD), is all joy and silliness, which will be a wonderful contrast.

I'm gonna take an obligatory sentimental moment and say how much I love this company. In the last few years, I have lucked out enormously with the caliber of human beings I've had the good fortune to get to know. There is an incredibly large number of wonderful people in this crazy business, and having that fact constantly reinforced always makes my heart happy. Everyone working out here is a delight, and pretty hilarious. I must also say that the actors I have the pleasure of playing with are generous, kind, and ridiculously talented. I'm gonna link their websites at the end of this post so that you can stalk them and listen to their glorious voices.

Now, news flash - I have a car on this gig. I hadn't driven in probably four or five years, but now I drive half an hour to the theatre every day. In doing this, I have discovered the necessity and the beauty of a playlist, of which I now have several. Some are more mellow, some are really nerdy (I shall spare you my musical theatre-only lists), but mainly, they're designed to wake me up (singing at 9am, helloooooooooooo) and make me happy. Here's the one I play the most often:

F' You - Cee Lo Green
I Want Harry Potter Back - Lily & James (my friend Grace's AWESOME wrock band - they are FAB)
I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
Material Girl - Nick Adams; PRISCILLA OBC Album (lovelovelove)
Helter Skelter - The Beatles
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
Bille Jean - Michael Jackson
Rumour Has It - Adele
I Was Made to Love Her - Stevie Wonder
The Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga
Everybody's Talkin' - Nilsson (this always reminds me of MIDNIGHT COWBOY)
Cry Baby - Janis Joplin
Rocky Raccoon - The Beatles
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Oh, By Jingo! - Danny Kaye
Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel

Here are my castmates' websites:

Garret Bruce on YouTube
Jacque Clydesdale
Erin Edelle
Rhianna Pfannenstiel on YouTube
David Piazza
Michael Walker on Twitter
Brett Michael Wilson on YouTube

You'll have to see Melanie Beck and Josh T. Smith live, I suppose, for they are on fb, but not the wider webs.

Larry Moss, Larry Shannon

2011-05-22T21:06:00.005-04:00

I spent last week in Los Angeles, taking Larry Moss' scene study workshop intensive. If it sounds a bit dramatic to fly across the country just to take a class...it was. Hey, that's how I roll. I missed his workshop in NYC in January because I was in Boston doing NINE, and I'm going to miss it in July, as I'll be in Colorado. My longtime scene partner Denis and I decided that it might be a fun challenge to get out of our city and comfort zone by going to shiny, scary LOS ANGELES (it has always seemed shiny and scary to me, anyway) to do this work.

It was fantastic.

This was my fifth time taking this class with Larry, and I always come away recharged, inspired, and focused on issues that need addressing. He assigned us Conor McPhereson's SHINING CITY, which I hadn't read before, but loved like mad. Dublin accents! Anyway, we dug in and got a lot of good work done. We were both excited by the notes we got, especially as they were pretty much the same for both of us, which makes selecting future scenes pretty straightforward. He ended our second work session with one of my favorite phrases: Flee forward.

Larry told me to reread THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, by Tennessee Williams, and to work on both of the female roles in order to stretch myself. I did so (newest obsession, thaaaaanks, Larry!), and have been looking at various interviews and articles online about the play (reviews, production history, what have you). I stumbled across this quote earlier this evening, from an interview Williams gave about the play. I think it's one of the more beautiful things I've ever read:

“The drama in my plays, I think, is nearly
always people trying to reach each other. In
Night of the Iguana each one has his separate
cubicle but they meet on the veranda outside
the cubicles, at least Hannah and Larry
Shannon meet on the veranda outside their
cubicles, which is of course an allegorical
touch of what people must try to do. It’s true
they’re confined inside their own skins, or their
own cubicles, but they must try to get out as
much as — they must try to find a common
ground on which they can meet because the
only truly satisfying moments in life are those
in which you are in contact, and I don’t mean
just physical contact, I mean in deep, a deeper
contact than physical, with some other human
being."

I mean...the man could WRITE!

I leave in a week and two days for my three month adventure in Colorado. I am ridiculously excited. The daily smashing of mirrors and belting of high notes is going to be so satisfying.

The Normal Heart

2011-05-09T13:29:00.003-04:00

People, go see THE NORMAL HEART. It's beautifully acted, it's moving, and it's important. Plus, when's the next time you'll have an opportunity to see the incredible Joe Mantello on stage? Go. Bring tissues. Not kidding. I was sobbing in the street afterwards. Go.

Rainy Saturday

2011-04-16T18:29:00.006-04:00

On rainy days like this, I want nothing more than to sit at my favorite table by the window at Cafe Reggio on MacDougal Street, reading a novel and drinking a pot of Blackberry Supreme tea. I also want to scrape the foam off the top of a cappuccino whilst curled up on a couch at Ost, feet tucked up underneath me, surrounded by old books and East Village types. Things being what they are, I suppose I'll lounge on a couch in the green room with my mystery novel and cuppa joe until it's time to go onstage and do the last performance of this contract. I suppose it's a lovely way to while away the evening. I'll camp out at Reggio soon...

BOEING BOEING - Full Review

2011-03-31T19:07:00.005-04:00

We got a fantastic review from Joanna Greco Rochman at THE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN, but the website will only allow you access to part of the article without paying for it (ahh, these online times), so I decided to type out the entire article from the paper (an actual newspaper!) so that it could be read in full. Thar she blows!

1ST CLASS COMEDY LIFTS OFF AT SEVEN ANGELS

Need a good laugh? Then head over to Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, where "Boeing Boeing," Marc Camoletti's door-slamming, fast paced face takes center stage.

Semina DeLaurentis directs this production, making it abundantly clear that she is a master when it comes to comedy. Whether she's in a show or directing it, DeLaurentis puts comic timing and wild antics on stage.

The action revolves around sophisticated Bernard, a confirmed bachelor who has come up with the perfect plan to keep three gorgeous women as his lovers without having to marry any of them. He simply selected three flight attendants from airlines without overlapping schedules. Bernard is happy to proclaim to his unsophisticated friend Robert that all three women have been essentially pre-screened by major airlines for personality, beauty, and intelligence. All he has to do is keep close track of flight schedules.

Gil Brady, as the debonair, successful businessman Bernard, is quite the lady's man. He bears a resemblance to Pierce Brosnan, and his performance is every bit as polished. R. Bruce Connelly displays his usual comic genius in his shy-to-sly portrayal of Brady's bachelor friend. Connelly makes it impossible not to laugh out loud when he is seduced or trying to seduce one of the flight attendants. Whether he is checking to see if his teeth are in place after wild passionate kissing or crawling on all fours to go undetected by the ever watchful maid, Connelly is a non-stop flight of laughs.

Had it not been for the powerful performances of the three flight attendants, Sarah Knapp as Bertha might just have been able to steal the show. With her oversized eyeglasses, she is able to keep a close eye on the comings and goings of the many in-and-out visitors to her boss' apartment. With the charm and accent of a French maid and perfect comic timing, Knapp delivers a stellar performance.

One by one, each of the three flight attendants enters the apartment, with one as gorgeous as the next. Wearing skin-tight colorful uniforms, they immediately draw attention. Liz Clark Golson portrays Gloria, a sexually liberated American who is appropriately dressed in a red hot, skin-tight outfit. Her voice and actions balance Southern belle sensuality with aggressive cosmopolitanism. Olivia Gilliatt exudes Italian passion as she moves from jealous and suspicious to a Sophia Loren mystique. Amy Jo Jackson, as Gretchen, is another actor who nearly stole the show. She is a commanding figure on stage, with the tough attitude of a Gestapo agent and the overpowering purr of a very large pussy cat. Perfectly cast in a bigger than life role, Jackson is a joy to watch in action.

Rounding off a pretty flawless cast is the pretty flawless creative design team. Erik D. Diaz's set has provided Seven Angels with one of its best ever sets. An ultra-modern Patis apartment with chrome-trimmed furniture and soft ivory-hued leather chairs grabs your attention. Trenton Spears' crisp, clean sound design is so realistically rendered that you'll know exactly when an airplane is taking off. Jimmy Johansmeyer's costumes couldn't be more perfectly suited for each character. And Matt Guminski's lighting design completes the creative team's well-coordinated vision.

Overall, this is an outstanding Seven Angels' Equity production. It is a fun way to wait for spring. It plays through April 16 and will likely have to add performances. This is one show you don't want to miss if you're looking for a good time.

A Love Letter

2011-03-26T12:09:00.005-04:00

There's an episode of the fantastic Canadian television show SLINGS & ARROWS (a parody of the Stratford Festival), in which the opening night of KING LEAR is cancelled because the actor playing Lear is out, doped up on morphine (details not worth going into here, but watch the show). The Cordelia and one of the other young actors are commiserating at the bar with two of the older character actors in the troupe. One of them says something to the effect of, "You have to have a few horror shows to go along with the good ones. Then, later on, you'll have stories to tell. You'll have had a life!" I remember being so moved by those words (which were more eloquent in actuality than in my recollection), because they attest to the gypsy spirit of theatre people - you go on, you go on, you go on. You measure your life by what role you were playing at the time. As the Brits would say, there is just one thing that should keep you from going to work on a given night: "Only death. Your own."

I'd just gotten back to New York from a really difficult gig when I watched that episode of S&A, and it called to mind what we'd been repeating all summer when something ELSE, so horrible as to be funny, would happen: "One for the memoirs, darling, one for the memoirs!" Let's just say that working with a cow as a scene partner is DEFINITELY going in the autobiography.

Last night, we had a FANTASTIC show. The audience was really with us, and was having a ball (in a comedy - farce, especially - the audience gives you SUCH a boost, and when they're enjoying it, you don't have to work quite so hard). We went back to the cast house, and were all having dinner and our post-show wind-down, still buzzed by how much fun we'd had on stage. I asked Sarah, the actress playing Bertha, to please tell us ANNIE 2 stories. Now, there are certain shows that you hear about, even years later, that have become infamous - CARRIE being the most well-known example. ANNIE 2 (subtitled HANNIGAN'S REVENGE) is one such show. It was amazing to sit around the kitchen table, eyes wide, and listen to her recollect horror story after horror story - how amazing the script was at the first reading to how it was destroyed, lewd things that were said to her, Dorothy Loudon's understudy having to go on without a single rehearsal and her lines written on poster board in the pit, crying children, weeping mothers, one actor who you'd know was about to go up on his lines because he'd sort of twitch by blinking three times - really and truly unbelievable stuff.

I love that I've worked enough to now have some stories of my own to tell - some of them wonderful and fun, some of them hilarious, some of them absolutely AWFUL (Summer of the Cow) - and can't wait to accumulate more. It brings SLINGS & ARROWS to mind...you've had a life! A life in the theatre. Is there any richer kind?

The Plastic Bag May Not Inflate

2011-03-19T10:52:00.005-04:00

BOEING BOEING opens tonight! We've had a few nights of previews (meaning, figure out how to deal with the shrieking laughter emanating from the audience), and thus far, it's been a lot of fun. I thought it'd be interesting to take a moment and catalog the similarities and differences I've noticed in doing this show for a second time in less than a year:

THE SAME:
Farce is incredibly, painstakingly, ridiculously technical. Amazingly fun once you get it down, and hopefully nothing the audience notices, but there is virtually NO wiggle room to "try something new." All of that is in the relationships.

DIFFERENT:
The audience here is more reluctant to laugh at certain things than they were in Olean. Not most things, but a couple of jokes here and there. Comedy is endlessly fascinating.

THE SAME:
This remains, along with doing Shakespeare outside, one of the most vocally challenging shows I've ever done. I might put ROCKY HORROR up there, too. In BOEING, I am basically full-belting all of my lines. The entire show.

DIFFERENT:
The stage at Seven Angels is MUCH bigger than at Twin Tiers - I would venture to say it's twice as large. If that is an exaggeration, it certainly isn't by much. This means we can REALLY run after each other (it feels like I am always chasing or being chased by someone else), and also that we're all losing weight just from doing the show so much. Not much, but wow.

THE SAME:
Kissing men who get progressively sweatier as the show goes on.

DIFFERENT:
Having doors you can slam the crap out of on your entrances and exits. The set was amazing on my last production, but the doors didn't slam in that satisfying way. FARCE!

THE SAME:
Huge false eyelashes, red nails (ugh), and red lips. Also, we all have to use the kind of lipstick that is INCREDIBLY difficult to remove, since everybody kisses everybody in a highly frantic and ridiculous fashion.

DIFFERENT:
I love how different the relationship between Bertha and Robert has become in this production from the one I did this summer(from what I can see on stage and hear from the monitors in the dressing room). They're not even that different, but it's noticeable to me. Both are fully supported by the text, and both hilarious...It's one of those things I love about acting - that the chemistry between different people can yield such different results, and still to absolutely hilarious effect.

THE SAME:
Getting anywhere from at least a titter to full-on entrance laughter. Never has it worked quite so strongly to my advantage to be so obscenely tall.

Hooray for an opening night!

Join the Actors, they said! See the world, they said!

2011-03-02T01:33:00.004-05:00

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

2011-02-24T11:10:00.007-05:00

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

2011-02-12T13:13:00.006-05:00

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

2011-01-28T11:55:00.005-05:00

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

2011-01-12T13:43:00.005-05:00

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

2011-01-11T01:01:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-01T13:00:00.010-05:00

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

2010-12-23T02:33:00.006-05:00

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?

2010-12-09T09:54:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-04T01:02:00.005-05:00

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

2010-11-13T17:19:00.004-05:00

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

2010-10-30T17:21:00.004-04:00

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...

2010-10-08T18:58:00.005-04:00

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

Get Rid of Me!!!

2010-09-24T23:09:00.003-04:00

Cherubs! I'd be most thrilled and grateful if you'd take 30 seconds to click HERE and vote for me! I could potentially win a trip around the world for six months, all expenses paid! I'm a little late into the game, but I'm gunning for what I can get!

Thanks, all! A more interesting post to come in the next few days. I'm still in Breck, reading mysteries, watching movies, and enjoying the mountain air!

Back in the 'Do

2010-09-22T02:32:00.008-04:00

I'm in Breckenridge with my mom for the week (the 'Do in the title of this post referring to the abbreviation for Colorado that my brother and I used with our group of friends in high school), just relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather. Here are some photos from the back porch/deck that I took this morning!

I also must share that I bought a sensational new hat today.

I have an audition tomorrow out here (I know, no rest for the weary, eh?), so I should get to sleep. I wanted to post those glorious photos, and to say that I've been getting my ROCKY contract and rehearsal info (we start in the city on Oct 4th, and relocate to Jersey the 11th), and I CANNOT WAIT TO START!!! I bought the album on iTunes to prep for the callback (I used to have it, but due to the deaths of several iPods and computers, was sadly lacking it), and have not been able to stop listening to it since. It's going to be so much fun to saaaaaaaaang!

Also, I just checked out the cast album of THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM from Lincoln Center Library and loaded it into my iTunes, as I often like to do with shows I don't really know (plus, I knew Larry Moss was in the original cast, and wanted to hear him)...It is AMAZING! All folk and bluegrass, fiddles and banjos. The show isn't done too frequently, which seems a shame, considering how lush the music is. I shall be doing more research upon my return to the city. I already found a couple of songs that I'm interested in recording or putting in my book. I was talking about it with my mom today, and realized that it makes sense I like that style of music, as generations of my family come from Kentucky and Tennessee, and many were fiddlers. Apparently, my great uncle Tom is a incredible fiddler, and someone else a little further back played the banjo. I love it! Time to perfect my folksy twang...

Oh, quickly, let's pimp a friend, shall we? I worked with an electrician at Twin Tiers this summer named David Kerr, who takes fantastic photos. He has a beautiful photoblog that I recommend everyone take a look at. He and a few friends have been chronicling their year with, essentially, a photo a day. Some really stunning work.

Oh, fantasy free me!

2010-09-10T13:00:00.007-04:00

So, I've been ridiculously blessed the past week or so, and I've booked another show! I'll be playing Magenta in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW at ReVision Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ, from October 28th - November 7th! We have a midnight show the day before Halloween, and I cannot WAIT! Science Fiction Double Feature AND Time Warp, plus running around cackling wildly while audience members yell things at you? Sign me up, please! Plus, it's another pop/rock show, which is a nice contrast to the last few musicals I've done (Into the Woods, The Sound of Music, Stop the World). Sometimes ya wanna sing legit, and sometimes ya wanna scream ya face.

Anyway, I've been sitting at my computer with my faithful coffee mug at my side, doing lots of mailing/regional theatre research grunt work, so it was lovely to be interrupted by a phone call with an offer!

The Trouble with Contini

2010-09-05T22:04:00.004-04:00

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!

Tired and Inspired

2010-08-26T01:16:00.002-04:00

I've been in Larry Moss' workshop all week. One more day to go. I'm up at 9am tomorrow, and I've got to be ready to scream the house down and eat my partner alive on stage. It's very exciting to be given permission to go nuts like that, but also takes a LOT of vocal and emotional stamina. Whew! As I said in a previous post, I'm working on Neil LaBute's REASONS TO BE PRETTY...I'd been having difficulties with how contemporary the language is (I do very well with Shakespeare, O'Neill, and Shaw...really heightened, complicated stuff). Larry was having me yell at top volume, and then shouted to me at one point, "Do it like Medea!" All of a sudden, I understood what I needed to do, dropped in, unleashed classical actor Amy, and felt MUCH better! It got a huge laugh from the class, because (aside from the absurdity of Medea screaming about flushing goldfish down the toilet), many people much prefer contemporary language to huge Greek and Shakespearian texts, but my comfort zone is a mite old-fashioned. It was a lovely moment.

I'm running to bed, but just felt like sharing...This has been a fantastic week. I love sitting and watching my fellow classmates (many of whom I take Karl Bury's weekly scene study class with, and have known, admired, and watched grow for years) ROCK IT OUT, and just take huge leaps forward in their work. So exciting. SO exciting. I can feel that I'm taking strides, too, and learning a lot about myself...I love acting so much. I love being involved in this community. I love artists. I love other passionate people. People who bring themselves and give of themselves. It's gorgeous, and makes me want to be a better actor and human being. It's also a blessing to work on a difficult scene like this with my dear friend and colleague Denis Lambert, who is brilliant, and the greatest scene partner a person could ask for. I'm so grateful for him.

Right, I have to go to sleep so that I can go full tilt boogie first thing in the a.m.

Beatniks and Zombie Ninjas

2010-08-20T22:11:00.002-04:00

Stumbled across this quote from Kerouac's ON THE ROAD earlier this evening. Forgot how much I loved it...

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle, you see the blue center-
light pop, and everybody goes ahh ..."

On a completely different note, I also watched the video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" for the first time this evening. What. Is. That. All. About. And people think Gaga is strange! I've been hearing that song for years, with absolutely NO idea what I'd been missing! Thank you, YouTube, for changing my life!

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed...

2010-08-18T00:19:00.006-04:00

I just had a wonderful "Arts Professional" day, and wanted to share.

On Sunday, my friend and mentor Jen Burke - my freshman speech teacher and senior advisor at BoCo - messaged me and asked if I was in town. She mentioned she was going to be in the city to teach some speech classes to some high school kids, and did I want to come in one or two days and assist? YES, PLEASE! Speech nerdiness and Jen Burke, all in one glorious mess? Jubilation! Anyway, I came in this morning, helped out a bit, working with high school kids on sonnets, and generally enjoying being back in a Voice & Speech class. Giving slight adjustments and watching actors ten years younger than me at the beginning of their training. The classes are taught as part of The Arts Edge, which was devised by one of our Deans at BoCo. It is designed to simulate the conservatory experience for two weeks, to give high school students both a leg up on the audition process, as well as insight into whether or not they'd really be happy doing this all day every day. It was fun! I hadn't been on the instructive end of a class situation in a long while, so it was good for me to get in there! Going back on Thursday to hang out and dive in again, and hopefully spend some time with Jen afterwards. I haven't seen her in a couple of years, and I've missed her terribly!

After that, I had a coaching with my friend Adam Laird, which involved him chucking out basically half of my rep book and photocopying a ton of music for me to learn. It was painful at first, but OH, so necessary. Ultimately, I felt much lighter, and convinced that not only were the songs we'd left in my book really specific to ME (as is the goal), but that the songs we were adding were only going to make it clearer and clearer exactly who I am as a performer. Rock. Thank you, Adam, for your tough love.

Denis and I had a great rehearsal for reasons to be pretty (it is technically spelled with all lowercase, which I think is its own kind of grandeur), and I'm feeling much easier within the material. I'm breathing a little better, and with less effort. Sorry if that means nothing to you - trying to explain it more fully would take a bit longer than I care to at this late hour!

After Denis left, I had dinner and watched some Australian television to prep for an Aussie coaching I'm giving tomorrow (ahh, when watching TV counts as research, I feel so much better about doing it). A truly magnificent day, from my perspective!

PIMP YO FRIENDZ: Today, on Pimp Yo Friendz (as it shall be known for this post), I'd like to introduce you to Maddy Wyatt. Now, I've only met Maddy a couple of times, which may have you wondering what I'm doing claiming her as a friend, much less pimping her out for your listening pleasure. WELL, I went to high school and did a great deal of theatre with the rest of the Wyatt clan - her brothers Alex and Paul, as well as her parents Judy and Dan. Maddy is a singer/songwriter, and has been performing all over the city for years now. Her brothers sometimes play and sing with her (Alex on drums, Paul on any number of instruments, though most of them are some variation of guitar). They made their Joe's Pub debut last Sunday, and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend! The whole band was great (the bassist and pianist are not, in fact, related to the Wyatts), the show was so fun, and I can't tell you how great it was to catch up with everybody after the show. Anyway, she's fabulous - her songs are all this kind of lush, indie deliciousness (I'm really terrible at describing things, but at least it's clear I really dig the music, right?) with a sense of humor, which I appreciate. Check them out! Maddy's MySpace Music Page has a few more songs on it. Enjoy!

I Have Talented Friends

2010-08-14T22:17:00.004-04:00

There are new production photos in my website gallery - shots of AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN, INTO THE WOODS, and BOEING BOEING! Go check them out!

I have a lot of work I've been putting off doing this evening (hey, I worked all day, so I find it hard to come home and not zone out for at least a little bit before kicking the brain back into action), mainly for the Larry Moss workshop I'm taking week after next. I'm working on REASONS TO BE PRETTY with my dear friend Denis. I really liked the play when I saw it on Broadway, but I'm finding it more difficult than I would like, as is ALWAYS the way with Larry! You get hired to do the things you already know how to do really well (absurd German accents are a bit of a specialty of mine), and then take classes to work out the kinks elsewhere in your craft. Hence a contemporary play that is not language-based or poetic. Nothing for me to hide behind, urg! Interesting, because certain dialects or heavily wordy plays would really freak out other actors, and it'd be something they'd have to struggle to get through. Nope. Hand me a tureen of George Bernard Shaw Word Stew any day of the week!

I have decided to add an official special feature to my blog on occasion (oooh, special feature, mumble, mumble, general excitement, ahhh!), with no clear idea of how often I'll employ it. I'm calling it "Pimp Your Friends." That's right. I have awesome friends, who are talented and ridiculous in so many ways that it is freaking crazy, and MORE people should know about them and their awesomeness. I've already pimped a few, and here is my glorious pick for this post...

Kerry Cox is a painter and artist who lives in Queens, works in Manhattan, and paints in Brooklyn. She is one of the coolest cats on the planet. She and I met selling eyeglasses together for SEE Eyewear, and I love her and her work. Check her out!

Summer Stock - Off the Clock

2010-08-11T00:26:00.005-04:00

Very tired. Just got back to New York City Monday in the late afternoon, and I'm still adjusting to civilian life. I'm posting some pics for your perusal pleasure, and then going to BED! It's been a good day - rehearsed with Denis, my friend and scene partner for the Larry Moss workshop I'm taking in a couple of weeks, then made pancakes and unpacked my bags while my friend Melissa was over. We told each other a lot of stories and used an obscene amount of character voices. Eventually, Nikka came over for silly fun time. Hoorah for friends and hanging out in my lovely apartment that I've missed so much!

Anywhoo, I'm posting many of my favorite photos from the past few weeks. I'd attempt to explain them all, but I think they're either self-explanatory or pretty funny, anyway, so I'm leaving them be. I do enjoy scrolling through fb photos of actors out on other gigs, just being idiotic and having a good time. We had some pretty rough circumstances with WOODS, and yet we still managed to find time to entertain and be entertained by one another. Such lovely, hilarious, talented, generous, and kind people. I have been very fortunate in the last year and a half to two years. Such wonderful colleagues and collaborators.

In Need of Some Inspiration?

2010-07-28T03:03:00.004-04:00

A fellow Bat sent me this speech about a month ago, and I wept when I read it, I found it so beautiful. I'm posting it because I've just been through day one of a rather rough tech, and I wanted to be sending out whatever good thoughts are possible. If you're at all involved in theatre, read and enjoy. If you aren't, I would hope it would help you to better understand those of us who are. It's one of the more gorgeous things I've ever read. Enjoy!

USC School of Theatre Commencement Speech

By José Rivera

Congratulations, we’re all colleagues now.

Having been perpetual students of an art form that can’t be fully learned because all the stories haven’t been told yet, we are now able practitioners.

Not only that, we’re partisans in a great struggle that may seem holy to some and crazy to others, but is wildly quixotic even at the best of times.

We’re all veterans of hope, sergeants and captains of an idealism and courage that seem anachronistic and beautifully, dolefully, painfully antique.

Because what we do, what we are trained to do, is to keep an ancient and sullied and disrespected and much maligned and amazing tradition alive.

We together keep the spoken word from going silent, spectacle from disappearing in the ones and zeros of forgetfulness, great life-and-death themes from dying of malnutrition, enormous characters and souls from the purgatory of indifference and ignorance.

Together we keep the The House of Atreus from foreclosure and the Skryker from extinction and Kent and Salem from dying of cancer and Pozzo from getting too lucky.

We are apostles of language, dreamers in blank verse, aristocrats of sight gags, archeologists of gesture and dance and sword battles and mask wearing and mythic games of tragic and comic consequences.

We bring Falstaff to the party and hope he doesn’t get too drunk and pinch too many butts even as we enter through the back door and try to deliver dream-worlds to the wary and the post-modern and the unsuspecting.

We traffic in awe and metaphors and are impatient with the ordinary and expected.

We fight the inertia of silence and talk too loud in polite locations and there is no Ritalin for us.

We don’t succumb to psychoanalysis and the voodoo of easy answers.

We thrive on complexity and ask that our monsters truly terrify us, that our lovers truly slay us with their passion, that our magicians truly make something out of nothing and hand it to us with smoke and a rakish smile.

We seek connections with the strange and communion with brave souls seeking the truth – not the entire truth, just a piece of it will do – a coin of truth we can keep in a pocket near our valuables, that we can spend in those frightening moments when we don’t know ourselves, when we’re in too deep and some clarity would help, some beauty that could redeem and enliven the night.

We turn awful experience and bad relationships and murdering office jobs and loveless parents and poverty and addictions and angst and loss and death itself into the fearsome gold of art.

We are alchemists and con artists, acrobats and used car salesmen, liars and enlighteners, and we are here to do the earth’s bidding because the earth is screaming out its stories and begging for us to write them down, and act them out, and draw her pretty pictures on the face of the clouds.

What’s in store now that you’ve made it through this training ground of the imagination?

Here are some of the highs and lows you can expect on this amazing journey.

There’s joy as you travel to wonderful places and receive the smiles and affection of new friends made in the crucible of performance, in front of raging armies of critics and prove-it-to- me, I’ve-paid-too- much-for- these-tickets, I-saw-it-last- year-in-London audiences and a perfect stranger comes up to you after the show to say they never felt so transported in the theatre before and they understand something about life they never understood until tonight and how you captured her parents’ pain and nobility so beautifully.

Fatigue as you give it everything you have, every single day, every muscle engaged in a marathon that doesn’t end until you end.

Pain because you tell yourself it’s just a gig, just a job, but then you fall in love with it anyway.

Discovery of your limits and appreciation for the breathless power of your mastery.

Bliss when you’ve written that one good sentence; or you delivered that one perfect moment when the lights are on you and only you; or you discover in the text an idea or an image or a parable so true that it makes your audience weep with recognition; or you put out into the world a rendering of a staircase or a costume or a throne of gold in three brilliant dimensions that just last week existed in none.

Awe when you sit backstage, a moment before your entrance and realize you’re about to give the greatest soliloquy in our language.

Gratitude when it dawns on you that you make a living from the honey and perspiration of your mind.

Excitement when you write Act One, Scene One on the top of the first page; and you sit along the wall on the afternoon of your third call-back for your favorite play; and you stand in the back of the house and that moment you worked on for fourteen hours with that actor who never seemed to get it gets the biggest laugh of the night.

Amazement when your lights reflect in the physics of time and space exactly what’s happening in the unlit chambers and labyrinths of the hero’s soul.

Even more amazement when your project, which you put together with faith, spit, and favors turns a remarkable profit in actual U.S. currency.

Humility when you look around and everyone else seems more successful, or richer, or quicker, or better reviewed or living on both coasts and are equally familiar with Silver Lake and Williamsburg.

Relief when you figure out that, like all great cyclical events in nature, your long career will rise and fall and you’ll be hot, then forgotten, then hot, then forgotten, then hot again.

Anger when the words won’t cooperate and the costume’s too tight and you made a grave error in casting the world premiere, or passion seems to be ebbing, or you’d rather have a baby, or the grant goes to your rival, or that barbarian in the second row keeps texting his lawyer, or ten people show up to your reading in a theatre with three hundred seats, or you can’t stand Bushwick anymore, or the McArthur people overlooked you – again – or the sitcom’s too tempting, or your favorite actor’s not available, or the culture’s going north while you’re going south.

Or maybe you’ve forgotten something – you forgot the joy and the magic and the purpose and the need for it all.

But then you remember and come back anyway.

That’s the amazing part.

You come back the next day because even when the words don’t come and the costume’s cutting off the blood to your legs, this activity connects you to your most authentic and naked self, to the child who told sweeping sock puppet sagas and imitated your dad’s big laugh and drew pictures of avenging super heroes, to the adolescent who fell in love with the smell of opening night flowers, to the mature artist who became enthralled with the great blank space, that enchanted oval, on which battles determine the course of history and lovers learned the key expressions of the heart and men and women modeled heroism and humanity and Estragon lost his way and colored girls considered suicide and Proctor wouldn’t sign his name and Arial was free to go and a wicked Moon under a Lorca sky betrayed the idea of love.

You come back to balance art and family, and sometimes your checkbook, because nothing feels as good as the act of acting.

You endure the indifference of agents and literary managers because nothing sounds as nice as the click of that perfect metaphor falling into place.

You put off children, or you put off real estate, or you put off the thousand intangible compromises of the spirit because nothing frees you from the dark enchantments of gravity like this.

You stay up to three in the morning memorizing those sides for your best friend’s new play even though she wrote the part for you and the producers insist you have to audition anyway, because nothing brings you closer to Creation that this.

So why do you do these things?

Why come back when it hurts so much?

What kind of people are we?

How crazy do we have to be to put up with this?

Let’s face it, given the speed of today’s run-away clocks, given the accumulation of power and money in the hands of the very few and all the injustice that flows from that, given the complexity of social intercourse in an age of instant talk and delayed reflection, you’re a member of a different species entirely.

You age differently than the rest of the population.

You try hard not to succumb to the common theories and manias of the crowd.

You speak in tongues when everyone else is speaking in fortune cookies.

You make one-of-a-kind little miracles with your bare and blistered hands for below minimum wage as stock markets soar and die and soar and die.

You write about your existential pain in unsentimental words for sentimental audiences.

Your curiosity is so vast and out of control you don’t know boundaries and you annoy your lovers with your constant need to analyze their every nuance and no answer is ever good enough because each answer leads to ten new questions.

You dream in such vivid colors, you wonder if you can market your sleep as the next cool drug.

Your sensitivity to the pain and joy of others is so acute you might as well have multiple personalities.

You and failure are so intimate with each other you could birth one another’s bawling babies.

You are gifted and cursed with a love of words so intense few other pleasures can move you like Lopahin’s declaration that he bought the cherry orchard, or what Li’l Bit had to do to learn to drive, or what devils of self-doubt whispered to a beautiful and wounded soul in a psychosis at 4:48 am.

For all this and more you came to this school and sacrificed, and worked your ass off, and delayed some big life decisions, and dreamed exceptional dreams, and fertilized your mind, and kept important promises you made to yourself.

That’s the important part: you kept the promises you made to yourself to stay in it and learn.

So now that you’ve come this far, and we’re in this room, together, what’s my advice?

It’s not a lot.

Love grandly.

Work forcefully.

Listen humbly.

Risk intelligently.

Risk stupidly.

Scare yourself.

Recycle your pain.

Think about greatness.

Make babies and make art for them.

Slay your heroes.

Laugh at yourself.

Betray no one’s trust.

Throw parties.

Make time for silence.

Search and search and search and search.

I could go on, but I don’t think you need any more advice from me.

I think you’re ready.

You, the fighter and hero of this morning’s tale are trained and ready to unpack your Heiner Muller and your tap shoes and your colored pencils and are brimming with ideas and full of courage and full of fight and you know the obstacles and laugh in their faces and the dragons you fight are windmills and the windmills you fight are straw and the time to talk about doing it is over.

It’s time to do it.

So lets go out now, you and I, lets go out and make some art.

Thank you and all the best of luck.

Woods-a-palooza!

2010-07-25T08:59:00.002-04:00

I am tired, and need to eat before a long day of INTO THE WOODS rehearsal, but wanted to post some of the production shots from BOEING BOEING. As you can see, it was a colorful and hilarious time.

There's a lot of drama going on here that isn't worth going into on this blog, but I would like to say that, despite a TON of obstacles, we are, slowly but surely, making the show come together. There is a great, GREAT deal of work to be done, but the orchestra sounds amazing, and many of my fellow castmates are fantastic. I am a trifle obsessed with Shane Jacobsen, who plays my Baker. If you had a lineup of potential Bakers, he'd be the most likely to be selected. We've named ourselves Bertie and Bettie Baker, and our little boy is Baby Bobby Baker. We're big into alliteration. Anyway, I have a fantastic time working with him, and with so many of my other wonderful fellow actor/singers.

I must eat breakfast before this ten am call, or I will be useless today. Greek yogurt is singing its siren song from the downstairs refrigerator...I'm coming, my darling!

BOEING is going!

2010-07-15T14:53:00.009-04:00

Our first preview performance of BOEING BOEING is underway! My character enters about 40 minutes or so into the play, so I'm chilling downstairs in the dressing room (that word was not chosen flippantly - the dressing rooms stay far cooler than the house does, especially with the eight gazillion bright lights they're using for our play), my Twiggy-meets-Babs hair done, and eyelashes so fake they would make Liza proud affixed to my face. The creative team decided not to wig any of us, and since my hair is short, Twiggy it was! I have to say, it's more work than I'm used to putting in, but it's really sleek and different. I don't usually do my hair up to go out or anything, but I might actually...you know, make an effort. At some point.

AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN went beautifully. It was SO much fun to do every day. Seven characters, nine costume changes, about 2/3 of them quick changes that had to happen offstage, and most of them involving wigs and/or hats. Here's me in my favorite costume - as Rhinestone, a backup singer. I had three lines as this character, but it was, as I have said, my favorite. Also, the character's official name is "Backup Singer," but we developed individual names, albums, hit singles, and albums to be released subsequent to the action of the play. This had nothing to do with the direction we were given, just our own crazy notions. I am throwing a tremendous amount of face in this photo:

We had our opening night party at The Bartlett House Museum, an old historic home. The whole house is decorated alternately with gorgeous furniture and BIZARRE odds & ends. There are dozens of elaborate dollhouses and miniatures upstairs, and a gorgeous old parlor, dining room, and hall downstairs. And I covet such a veranda. Among the stranger items to be seen was this fair lady, who is my new bosom chum:

Well, we have a fairly small audience for our preview matinee, but they are responsive and lovely - they seem to really be into it. I enjoy watching my castmates in this show, as they are hilarious beyond measure. Our director put it quite well when he said he couldn't decide which of us was the funniest. My good friend Sarah Hunt is playing Gloria, the American, and she's adopted Texas twang and Texas-sized 1960s hair. She does every inch of it justice. Alesia Lawson, a pal of mine that I met working last summer in Illinois, was brought in (per my suggestion, thanks SO much) to play Bertha (the disgruntled maid) halfway through the rehearsal process. The actress originally cast had a family emergency, and had to fly home to London. She was also slated to play Little Red in INTO THE WOODS, so Alesia took over her whole track. She's gonna kill it as Red! I met the other three actors when we began this project. Emily Ciotti, playing the glorious Italian Gabriella, looks like Sophia Loren when she decks herself out, 60s style, and says that all this teasing of her hair is going to make her family proud, as she's finally embracing her Jersey roots. Gavin Lodge is Bernard - dapper and goofy and adorable. He makes sarcastic comments regarding WICKED quite frequently, but I notice that he's the only one singing "Defying Gravity" in the dressing area. And then there's the amazingly talented and unbelievably funny Derek Milman as Robert. I have most of my scenes with him, and we spent a good chunk of our rehearsal time attempting not to crack up at each other as we flung ourselves across the stage. His EYES, they're comic gold! I've never seen someone's eyes get so wide! I personally think the show is a scream. And our set - our SET! It's incredible! Our costumes look fab, the music is perfect...I love this play, and I'm ever so glad I'm getting the chance to be in it, and with these talented people. A big shout out to our director, Brian Williams, who stepped in at the last minute when the director who'd been hired had to bow out. Farce is NOT easy, my friends. It's very scientific. You have doors slamming at specific times, costume changes, spit-takes, blah blah BLAH...it can be a mess. Luckily, farce is also amusing, so it's worth the initial rehearsal tedium. Seven entrances in this show, six of them doors. Yowza.

Whenever I blog backstage, I find my thoughts are a bit disconnected. I am usually listening with half an ear to the monitor, ready to run off at any given moment. I have large gaps in between stage time in this piece, which allows me to get a lot done! BEES was much more in and out. Labor intensive, that one. Delicious, though. I love playing multiple characters. I live for quick changes. Once you get it down, after a few rehearsals, it's like a beautiful dance, and it's exhilarating to run on stage when the audience saw you 60 seconds ago in a COMPLETELY different costume.

Off to finish the show! Auf Wiedersehen!

Only in Olean

2010-07-03T22:11:00.005-04:00

I've been in Olean, NY for almost a week now, rehearsing for the first two out of three shows I'm doing for Twin Tiers Theater Festival. We go into tech for AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN on Monday, and will finish blocking BOEING-BOEING early next week. The casts are fantastic, my directors are grand, and I think we're gonna have a couple of great shows. I had my BEES costume fitting yesterday, and I think I'm going to buy a couple of the dresses off them when I'm done. The play takes place in '97, and some of these costumes are hysterical. My favorite is the outfit I wear as Rhinestone, one of the backup singers in a punk band from London. I'll post photos when I have them - for now, I'll entice you by saying it involves ripped up gray zebra print, a bright red wig, and yards upon yards of tulle.

BOEING is also just a freaking blast - I've wanted to play Gretchen since I saw it on Broadway a couple of years ago. I went three times. Basically, my director told me I could go as far as I wanted to, and I've taken him at his word. We are throwing ourselves around that stage and burlesquing dialects with a ridiculous abandon. I am milking this German accent for every iota of potential laughter. MILKING IT, PEOPLE, MILKING IT LIKE A FRIGGIN MILK COW.

Speaking of which, I hear that Milky White (in INTO THE WOODS) is going to be played by an actual, honest to goodness moo-cow.

On that note, I'm going to work on my lines, read some of the mystery novel I found in a stack of rehearsal props, and maybe watch NOTORIOUS before going to bed. No alarm set for tomorrow - thank you, national holidays! Enjoy the random assortment of photos from the past week! Most of my time has been spent in rehearsal, but we have managed to head to Applebees for karaoke (oh, you read that correctly, all right), play a rather intense game of Jenga, and become regulars at Perkins.

Upstate, She's A-Comin!

2010-06-27T10:06:00.005-04:00

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!

Dark Summer Days

2010-06-17T15:12:00.005-04:00

I am a brunette till September for the shows I'm in this summer. Had it dyed from the platinum yesterday, and though I really like it, I'm definitely going back to blonde in the fall. My manager at the restaurant said, "You look like your own evil twin," which I thought was brilliant, and describes the effect rather well. I must say, catching sight of myself in the mirror is still a little disconcerting. I've always wanted an excuse to go dark brown, though, so haHA!

I'm taking pictures with my friend RL on Sunday, so I'll post something soon after that. I figure, hey, while it's brown, get something I can put on my website. It's easier for people to imagine me with different hair colors if I can...you know, SHOW them. Aldonza does not, in all likelihood, rock platinum tresses.

Rehearsals for AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN are going SO well. Having such fun. Onward!

Vote for Matt!

2010-06-14T18:12:00.004-04:00

While I would love to sit here and dissect the Tonys, or rather, while I would be moderately interested in sharing a few of my opinions regarding last night's broadcast, I haven't time. Gotta run to class, and only have a moment to pimp my friend Matthew. Some of you may know that Oprah has some contest going on to become a talk show host. Matt sent out a fb SOS to people to vote for him, and I'm here to spread the word. His video is funny, but he's even funnier in real life. So quick, funny, and ridiculous. He graduated the year above me at BoCo, and we took several classes together, most notably jazz. I had some back troubles that had me sidelined for awhile in jazz, and Matt would always dance the warmup at me, which is to say he tried to crack me up the entire time with his facial expressions and overzealous pivoting. Watch his video and vote for him a lot! He'd be a hysterical and very refreshing talk show host.

Click here to see Matthew's audition video!

Things I Like

2010-06-09T11:43:00.004-04:00

I was going to update yesterday, as I spent most of it on a BOLT bus going to Boston and back, but wasn't feeling well for most of it. I watched seven episodes of MAD MEN instead, which I've been trying to do for AGES! I just have the last two episodes of Season 3 left, and I'm all caught up! This is one of the trials of having what is known as a "flexible schedule," as getting addicted to a particular TV show requires DVR, planning ahead, and, you know, actually knowing what night and what channel something airs on. I'm a DVD junkie myself.

Anyway, as I'm still not feeling in tip-top shape, and I have about half an hour before a student comes over for a coaching (Bronx dialect, in this case), I thought I'd do a rather silly little list of Things I Like. I like lists, for one, so here goes:

List O' Things I Like (in no particular order):
Bite-sized Shredded Wheat
Flip-flops in fall
The color blue
Janis Joplin
The Chrysler Building
The kid in my building who is always wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine boots
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot
Asparagus
Headscarves
Winning, especially games like Scrabble, because then I feel victorious as well as wildly intelligent
Halloween
New York City
Picnics
Francois, the drunken Frenchman who lives in the Village
Michael's cooking
Sitting in the balcony of the Brattle Movie Theatre in Harvard Square
Karaoke
Cappuccinos
Jeff Buckley
Dumplings
Walking through SoHo or the LES on a Saturday or Sunday morning when there's nobody around
Absurd costumes & wigs, especially when I get to wear them
Family holidays
The Winter's Tale
Traveling alone
Zinnias
Chagall
McNally Jackson Bookstore
Scooby Doo Cartoons
The National Theatre in London
Gigantic earrings
Yoga
Godard's A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
Skype
My friend Jill's website, especially these webisodes
Berlin
Freckles
Coffee
Places I can wander around without shoes on
Rehearsal
My chiropractor
Rain
Grapes
Ella Fitzgerald
TX-style BBQ
Absurd fb profile photos
Cafe Reggio on MacDougal St.
Alfred Hitchcock
Girl Scout cookies from the freezer
Strangers with Candy
Regina Spektor
The Lord of the Rings books and films
How nerdy that last item was
Being exceptionally nerdy in multiple ways
How long this list has gotten

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-06-03T00:52:00.007-04:00

Oh, la la, it was my birthday today! I had my first rehearsal for The Baker's Wife in INTO THE WOODS this morning (ironically, Joanna Gleason, who won the Tony for this role, shares a birthday with lil' ol' ME), then hung out with my brother and Michael for the rest of the day! I went down to their restaurant near the Seaport, and we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back again! Believe it or not, it was my first time walking across said bridge! Immediately after that, we hopped on the Z train - another first for me. Five years in New York, and nary a Z train have I taken! This is a woman who has taken the G train multiple times! Anywhoo, we went to Babycakes so that I could have something delicious and yet free of refined sugar (which I choose not to eat, for the most part), and took some delightful photos while on the Lower East Side. We then came back to my apartment, had tasty dinner (compliments of Mikey), and watched NOTES ON A SCANDAL - my first foray into that film as well! Huzzah! What a splendid birthday! Below, please see some silly photos:

I'm so behind. My birthday party this weekend - Crocus Pocus: the magic of Spring - was a delight! As ever, a marvelous group of marvelous people. Hoorah for a Lady Jo soiree! In addition to mere frivolity, I did two readings last week that I'm simply dying to discuss (short version - one took place on the second floor of the Random House bldg, which is GORGEOUS, and akin to stepping into heaven for those of us that have problems with buying way too many books. The second one was at The Flea - a new play by AR Gurney, who was there working on it with Jim and all of us Bats the entire day), but it's LATE, and I must to bed! Gotta put on the commentary to NOTES ON A SCANDAL (I am a sucker for a commentary track) and drift off into sweet slumber.

By the way, I'm not being coy, I just didn't think to mention it - I am now twenty-seven!

La Cage!

2010-05-26T08:53:00.002-04:00

LA CAGE. Go see it. Douglas Hodge gives one of the best performances I've ever seen, Kelsey Grammer is wonderful, and the Cagelles are RIDICULOUS. I'll say it again. RIDICULOUS! A special shout out to my friend Nick, who was hilarious as the disgruntled drag queen Angelique. Those boys are amazing.

Anyway. Go. That's all.

Sandino!

2010-05-22T10:04:00.003-04:00

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

2010-05-05T14:32:00.001-04:00

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!

Ode to Carnivores

2010-04-18T03:17:00.003-04:00

I have just arrived home from a birthday party at my friend and fellow Bat Jamie's place in Brooklyn. His birthdays usually involve an immense amount of BBQ. I'd like to present an ode to Jamie now:

At a Birthday Soiree, best to greet
All your guests with a large pile of meat.
Using finger or fork,
They'll devour the pork,
And proclaim to their host, "Gee, you're sweet!"

A Week of Debuts

2010-04-14T21:06:00.004-04:00

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?

Poland

2010-04-11T16:43:00.004-04:00

I do have quite a lot to blog about, but wanted to take a post to say that my Polish friends and the Polish people are in my thoughts, as they cope with the loss of their President and many government officials who died in a plane crash yesterday.

A Little Flashback

2010-04-05T01:22:00.002-04:00

My friend Stephanie Johnstone, who was the composer that brought me on to the LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN project back in January, just got her website back up & running! On it, along with info about glorious Stephanie, are some recordings of various things she's written. Among them is a rough recording done at the final day of the workshop of one of the big songs. Usually, the actors did their thing, and the singers did their own, but this brought all of us singing together. You can hear me on THE WILL TO LIVE for a hot second when the music swells and everybody comes in. It's so funny listening to it - everyone involved has such fabulous voices, but on a lot of these pieces, Stephanie and Rachel (the director) worked very hard to make us sound pedestrian. So you've got a lot of highly trained, professional singers, taking out vibrato, flattening their sound, and allowing their pitches to be a little iffy. It was oddly quite difficult. But fun! And you can definitely hear that on here. Go listen and see what I was up to in January, and then check out more of Stephanie's stuff!

Click HERE to go to Stephanie's website!

Gratitude Lists

2010-03-30T01:06:00.006-04:00

Every night before I go to bed, I type out a "Gratitude List," comprised of ten or more things that I am thankful for that I was directly affected by that day. For instance, I wouldn't just say that "I'm thankful for my brother," but I could say, "I'm thankful for Aaron lending me $5 so that I wouldn't lose my place in line for Harold Night, and then saving me a seat when he got in before me." I then email it to two of my best friends in the world, and they do the same. It's great - the three of us have this daily email chain going on. It's a wonderful way to keep myself accountable to doing the lists, and a delightful way to keep in touch with these women. Neither of them have met, but through the lists (we've been going since early February, I want to say), they've gotten to know one another in a beautifully unique and powerful way. It helps that we're all actresses. Anyway, I love these lists. They keep me on my toes to really be aware and notice lovely little moments throughout the day. As I've had a particularly wonderful day, I thought I would be extra generous and share Monday's list with you!

1. Actually getting it together and baking delicious, agave-sweetened, whole wheat flour blueberry muffins! They came out marvelously, and are delicious! {Incidentally, blog-readers, these are from a babycakes nyc recipe. They are wonderful, and cater to people with food sensitivities - I'm just trying to improve my general health, and think babycakes is grand!}

2. I'm 21 days refined sugar free! Aaah! Yet it now seems like I've been doing it for ages, in the best way possible. {More on this in another post}

3. A seemingly endless supply of Jeremy Brett's SHERLOCK HOLMES episodes on streaming Netflix. Turning a new one on every morning as I make breakfast (or bake muffins, as the case may be).

4. Both Arlo & Sarah approving of the muffins. They are the first thing I've baked in this apartment (umm, moved here in Dec 08), so it's a nice affirmation.

5. A good, solid work-through of the Hedda/Lovborg scene with Arlo. Feeling ready to go up in class tonight.

6. Finally getting to work on a scene with Sarah. Digging in to NORMAN.

7. Umm, making a flank steak roll situation for dinner? I COOKED STEAK! With panko and mesclun and garlic and balsamic and some stuff...Let's be real here. It's the first meat I've cooked that was not bacon, sausage, or a turkey burger. EVER. I am proud of the Jo today!

8. First rehearsal for STOP THE WORLD! Realizing that when you don't have to audition for something, you often have no idea what the project is about! I discovered it's very English, and I may get to use a couple of accents! Among them? Da! Rrrrrrrussian!

9. Hanging out with Mel and Tom again. They make me laugh, and are so easygoing.

10. The cast seems lovely! The leading man and leading lady are married, turns out, which I find very amusing.

11. Running from rehearsal to class. Having a really good rehearsal of the Hedda scene with Karl. Allowing a few minor changes to transform it. The scene really coming to life. The relationship with Lovborg beginning to crackle and become more dynamic. Knowing working on this scene is going to affect the rest of my work on the play tremendously.

12. Going back to working on Hedda after an lapse of several months. How something about working on her just feels so right. So much to work on, yes, but still...so easy. Like wearing a comfortable shoe. A comfortable shoe you could stab someone to death with.

That's the general idea! Hope you like them - try some of your own, and start a wee email chain! I really look forward to reading my friends', and it's great to go back later and reread your own!

Krakow

2010-03-28T01:17:00.007-04:00

As promised – The Lost Krakow Blogs Entries!
(or: Amy Finally Gets Her Act Together!)

So, I arrived in Krakow on Monday the 22nd of February, after my flight had been delayed by an hour because the pilot was stuck in traffic and couldn’t get to the airport. True story. So, after sleeping on the floor by the gate for about forty-five minutes, curled up in my calf-length North Face down coat, and STILL freezing, I got on the plane, conked out (despite a child that could give Colin Craven a lesson or two in screaming fits), and woke up two hours later in Poland.

My friend Stan was waiting for me at the airport, and, good soul that he is, took me home to drop off my bag, and then straight out for a massive plate of pierogi. And I mean MASSIVE. Delicious! The restaurant was in the basement of one of the university buildings, and there was a lot of silly décor that made one feel vaguely as if they were at Disneyworld. Cheerful figurines of a distressingly large size, a giant fish-tank as the centerpiece of the room, and loads of wall décor. Mercifully, I wasn’t in Florida, but in the heart of Old Europe. Eating fried, fried food items.

Stan took me walking around the city for a bit after this, strolling by statues of saints, peeking into incredibly old churches, and meandering through the Old Town Square…Krakow is a gorgeous city. I really fell in love with it, and was quite disappointed to leave it after only two and a half days! Whereas Warsaw was bombed and destroyed during the war, then rebuilt in the image of itself shortly thereafter, Krakow remained intact, all of its history truly preserved. And oh, it’s worth seeing! There’s so much color, yet it feels relaxed. Yeah, it’s charming, but it’s not quaint. It’s not trying to be anything but a city that happens to be proud of its history. I found myself taking dozens of photos of grating. My eye was arrested everywhere by gorgeous, incredibly detailed grates that protected everything from contemporary windows to old, stained-glass ones. I’ll post a few of my favorites below!

A bit of personal history: Stan and I met a little over two years ago in New York, when he was visiting New York for awhile. We discovered that we both have a penchant for hanging out in coffeeshops, and that we’re also shutterbugs. Stan takes gorgeous photos. He’s a very dynamic, interesting guy, and his photos seem to reflect his love of travel and his insatiable curiosity. Anyway, we kept in touch, and hung out several times this past August, when his travels brought him Stateside again. It was a fabulous treat to now be shown HIS city, and to get to meet his family, girlfriend, close friends, and CAT! He’s going to be leaving Krakow soon for Leipzig, Germany, where he’ll be studying for three months. I had one of my most unique and delightful travel experiences EVER in Leipzig, so this amuses me. Perhaps as some point, I should dig out the notebook I kept while traveling on that trip (Sept – Nov 2007) and post some of my favorite entries. I really had such an amazing time. This all-too brief trip to Krakow really stirred up a lot of those memories, and I thought of all the amazing people all over the world I’ve been fortunate enough to meet.

I was astonished by the beauty of all of the churches. We went into something like six churches in two days, and they were all so majestic, and yet different! One had these flat, rectangular pillars that were painted to look like three-dimensional columns. I wouldn’t have known if Stan hadn’t told me to go over and take a good look at them. Another church was actually colder once we were inside it than it had been outdoors. I sat in a pew for a few minutes in silence, watching my breath freeze in the stillness. Stan and I had the church to ourselves, save for a lone woman praying, and in the cold and the quiet, I felt quite small. It happens sometimes when I’m in a place somehow emotionally or historically loaded (I remember quite vividly having this sensation several times before – when heading up the stairs of The Bronte Parsonage, at the Roman Baths in Bath, a tiny graveyard for pets alongside a river in Inverness, and also in one of the hallways of Hampton Court Palace), I get a sense of the immensity of history, of all the people who have come before, and who have walked the same stone steps or knelt at the same altar. It’s humbling. I always feel very human at these times.

After we’d hit up the requisite three churches for Monday afternoon, he took me to a café in Kazimierz called Alchemia. Instant obsession. You must know that I am a coffeeshop fiend, even if I’m not drinking coffee. It’s about sitting there for a lengthy period of time, either having a conversation with a companion, or nursing a cappuccino for two hours while you memorize lines, read a New Yorker, work on your German, tear through a novel…This place was SO cool. Deep, old-fashioned burgundy wallpaper, framed portraits high on the wall, and lit only by a single candle on each table, it’s perhaps not the best place to get a ton of reading done in the evening, but it was the ideal location for a latte and conversation with Stan. It may have replaced the one I went to in Copenhagen with my friend Ben as “Favorite Coffeeshop in Europe.” That’s a high honor. Some people go to national monuments when they travel. I go to places that steam milk and pull espresso.

Later that night, we met up with Stan’s good friend Pawel, who is, in addition to being a cool guy, a licensed tour guide for the city of Krakow! You know what’s fun about that? Having him reel off tons of information about a particular memorial, say, and then pointing to some random detail on it and going, “Yeah, but what’s THAT about?” and getting an immediate answer. Awesomesauce. He plied Stan and I with lots of traditional Polish fare (ahh, the bliss of using that excuse of needing to try Traditional Polish Fare! The following afternoon ended in food coma when we stuffed ourselves with Traditional Polish Desserts), including some ridiculously good mustard that I forgot to buy, but Stan has been good enough to promise to send me. I’m talking stupid good mustard, okay? It’s not my favorite condiment, but jeez, I’d eat this stuff out of the jar. He also took the following day off work, in order to pal around with us and tell me tons of amazing things about all the places we went. Did you know a lot of coffeeshops in Krakow have little theatres in the basement for cabarets and band gigs? See, I didn’t, but he showed me one! Oh, it was such a perfect little venue, I nearly threw up in envy.

So, the following morning, Stan, Pawel and I went wandering about the city (after Stan made the two of us French toast – he and I are both big fans of New York City diners), stopping for a tour of some of the rooms in the oldest university in Eastern Europe, a quick duck into the high school they attended together (once again, nearly threw up, as it’s so gorgeous, and they went to HIGH SCHOOL there???), a brief stop at Café Camelot (the one with the venue downstairs!), a walk to Wawel Castle, and, most memorably, a visit to St. Mary’s Cathedral. Oh, my. I stared around me in slack-jawed wonder at the incredibly saturated blues, the gold, the organ pipes along the back wall, and the ceiling of stars! Pawel was there to tell me which artisan designed which pieces, and at what point in history, and many other fascinating things that I’m sure my mother is jealous she didn’t hear (you think I’m a nerd? This woman majored in history and has me beat by a MILE). It was stunning. If you are ever in Krakow, you are an idiot if you don’t go to see it.

It was that afternoon that the aforementioned Traditional Polish Dessert Lesson and subsequent food coma came upon us. A brief nap was in order.

That evening, Stan’s girlfriend Kasia came into the city (she lives about 40 minutes outside), and we were all hoping to go out to a bar that had live music. They found one that apparently would have two musicians with drums, a guitar, and laptops, and we decided it’d be as good a place as any. Okay – WOW, this place was so cool. First of all, the music was AMAZING. I have this dark sensibility as far as music and art that appeals to me - it’s the part of me that loves murder mysteries and suspense stories, that is obsessed with film noir, that immediately rewound A CLOCKWORK ORANGE the first time I saw it to watch it again, that adores Edward Gorey and Alfred Kubin, and couldn’t get enough of Punchdrunk’s SLEEP NO MORE at A.R.T. this past year (if you don’t’ know what I mean by that, do yourself a favor and Google “Punchdrunk,” as they are glorious). Stylistically, the music I’d like to be writing is a dark swing, a la Squirrel Nut Zippers, but a bit scarier. Just as tongue in cheek, though. I really appreciate a somewhat murky and beautifully unsettling aesthetic. Anyway, this was sinister and mysterious – one song had this long drone underneath everything, which was so eerie and unnerving that I felt indescribably happy. Then, to top it off, while Stan and I had been at the bar, Kasia found a little tiny room just off the main area where the musicians were going to be, that was kitted out with a chair, a nightstand adorned by a candle, and a bed that was wedged perfectly between the walls. There was a portrait of some saint above the doorway (so you could see it as you sat on the bed, which, let’s face it, is a little creepy), and a few Banksy characters spray-painted on the walls. It. Was. So. Amazing. Something else that struck me as funny was that I wasn’t bothered by the cigarette smoke like I usually am (in Poland, smoking in bars is still legal). I’m a non-smoker, and am typically sensitive to smoke…but perhaps it was just the general ambience of the bar, or the music, or something I’m at a loss to explain, but it enhanced the evening for me. The smell and the haze gave the impression of truly being in another time and a world away from home, not just out with friends in some bar that could be anywhere. I have no idea what the name was – as I recall, it was rather long and somewhat pedestrian. That bar will always be Krakow for me.

The next day, I was due to leave around one, so Stan and I hauled ourselves out the door at an absurdly early hour (8am on vacation is not the Amy Jackson way) so that we could make it to the nearby town of Wieliczka in time for a 9am tour of the salt mines. Now, I could talk and talk and talk about them here, but you should really just google the place, and the salt mine website will pop right up. Basically, it was a working salt mine from something absurd like the late 1200s until 1996, when it mined rock salt from the ground below. Today, it mainly operates as a museum, though they do mine top salt still. If you go to the website, you’ll see photographs of many structures and statues that look nice and everything until you realize that they’re carved out of solid salt. At which point you go, “Whaaaaaat?” I can’t even describe how wild it was. There was a statue of Goethe! Y’know, cause he visited one time. So why not carve a life-size likeness of him? You enter the mines by descending, at a pretty quick clip, fifty flights of stairs. There were only six people in our tour group (I love traveling on the off-season, and getting up that early didn’t hurt, either), which meant there wasn’t a lot of jostling around to see things. Or touch the walls of the mine – solid rock salt. I should know, seeing as how I licked one at one point! I felt like such a rebel – licking a wall, sticking it to the man! The man, in this case, was probably comprised heavily of sodium.

The air was incredibly clean and clear down below. It was chilly, and so crisp. So quiet. Difficult to believe they were once full of men, removing tons and tons of rock salt. Oh – they had entire stables down there! For many, many years (that is as accurate a number as I can recall, unfortunately), much of the power was derived from horses, hitched up to these enormous wagon wheels. They would lower the horses down on ropes and pulleys, and down in the mines they stayed! Is that not CRAZY???

As Poland is a very Catholic country, there were several chapels carved out that we passed through. Many of them were quite simple affairs, simply with a crucifix and a place to kneel, with a statue here or there (some – gasp! - weren’t even made of SALT). One chapel, however, was quite different. There is one chapel still very much in use – in fact, there’s a Mass there every Sunday, and people are sometimes married in it! I cannot…I do not have words for how stunningly gorgeous it was. You enter at the top, and look down over it…White and grey…The chandeliers, which are carved from salt, light up a grand hall, where salt tiles are carved into the floor. You descend a staircase, which has reliefs of biblical scenes carved into the wall. There is an entire altar (and what we Baptists would call a pulpit) and crucifix, all carved from the grey stone. Among the Gospel carvings in the wall: The Last Supper, Palm Sunday, Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet, and the Lord being sent before Pontius Pilate. There was also a statue (larger than life) of Pope John Paul II, prominently displayed on your way out. The workmanship is unbelievable. Such attention to tiny detail! Everything looks perfect up close, and then to step back and survey the whole…I had several moments in which I thought, “Where am I?”

Perhaps my other favorite bit of the tour was a chamber in which there was an underground (manmade) lake. The guide hit a button, and the lights went dark. One of Chopin’s nocturnes began playing (oh, how I wish I could remember which one!), and various bits of the chambers were lit and dimmed, according to the music. The light show was all very well, but the music, the music! It echoed so sweetly in that chamber. It is not an exaggeration to say that, for me, it was a moment of profound beauty. Incidentally, Chopin visited the mines when he was 19 or so, which is why they selected music of his specifically. Regardless of why it was chosen, it’s magnificent.

After the mines, Stan found me a gigantic kebab, which I ate in the car on the way to the airport. I hate goodbyes. I adore New York and all (and I was headed back to London for a few days before coming back home, anyway), but there is something so special about traveling around and being with people you love and see far too infrequently. Hopefully I’ll make it back to Poland soon, and have a proper visit. Two weeks, haHA! Two days was a mere tease! We crammed so much into those days, though, that I have plenty of food for thought and delightful memories to sustain me for now.

Whew! That was perhaps the longest blog post in the history of time. For your viewing pleasure, I’m including some of my favorite photos from the trip below.

Good News!

2010-03-26T23:44:00.006-04:00

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! :)

Coffeeshop Reflections

2010-03-21T16:20:00.003-04:00

I'm sitting in RBC NYC, a coffeeshop in TriBeCa that I'd never been to before. This is a shame, as my cappuccino was excellent, there is WiFi, and it's SO near The Flea! I'm better informed now! I needs must know where every blessed non-Starbucks establishment is in this city. I NEEDS MUST KNOW!!!

Well, it was a doozie of a week, but in all ways wonderful! I had a couple of rehearsals for this concert I’m singing in next week for the 99th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (March 25th, 1911). The text of the song in which I have the lead vocal is from a famous speech Rosie Schniederman gave a couple of weeks after the incident at a memorial service held at the Met Opera House. I’ll include the text here, as it’s very powerful:

"I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting. The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today; the iron teeth are our necessities, the thumbscrews are the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the firetrap structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire.
This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Every year thousands of us are maimed. The life of men and women is so cheap and poverty is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death.
We have tried you citizens; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us.
Public officials have only words of warning to us – warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law beats us back, when we rise, into the conditions that make life unbearable.
I can't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement."
– Rose Schneiderman, The Triangle Fire(April 2nd, 1911)

She’s a major figure in the first wave of feminism, as well as in reform for women’s labor laws in the early part of the twentieth century. Apparently, Schneiderman’s granddaughter will be at the concert, which is really exciting. The concert is on Thursday evening!

I went to Boston on Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day...in BOSTON...all of the bars were packed with college students sporting green, green, green) to see my acting teacher (Karl Bury) in PARADISE LOST at the ART. I’ve hitherto only seen him on film or television, so this was grand! He was excellent, as expected. I can’t say I loved the production, though most of the actors were fantastic, and the play is great (it’s Odets, c’mon!). I had a few quibbles, shall we say, with the direction. He made some choices I felt were arbitrary and detracted from the telling of the story. The trip was well worth it, though, not just to see Karl, but also to spend the entire day walking around the city. The weather was glorious, and perfect for being outside…I would love to go back to Boston for a gig. I wouldn’t want to live there permanently, and certainly not in January, but during the spring and summer, it’s a gorgeous place to be.

On Friday, I performed in A TIPSY CABARET, a show I set up with some girls from my acting class and various gigs. We rented a space, hired my friend Michael to play for us, and invited our friends to come watch us perform - for free! Too often do we have to pay something like $25 to see our peers perform, and it adds up. So delightful to be able to offer the opportunity to watch us with no charge.

I opened the show with “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” preceding it with, “In the spirit of performing things we probably shouldn’t be doing at auditions…” It got a nice big laugh when the vamp began, and everyone recognized it. Later on, I sang "Moments in the Woods" from INTO THE WOODS, "So Far Away," from Carole King's album TAPESTRY, and "Class," from Chicago, with my amazing friend Melissa Dowty, who just returned from a 9-week gig in TN. SO good to have her back, and to get to sing such a ridiculous song with a comedic genius like her. All in all, the evening was a success, and a nice reminder for all of us that it's good for the soul and the creative spirit to sing for yourself sometimes, and perform for an audience, rather than a bunch of people behind a table who are reading your resume. Woo!

I've also begun work again on my own cabaret show for the character of Lady Jo...so far, I have a very (VERY) rough draft, and am excited to meet with my friend Phillip to discuss where we can go with it. YES for taking initiative and creating projects and jobs for ourselves! Actor Empowerment. Let's get with it.

Thursdays are for Trippin...

2010-03-12T00:35:00.004-05:00

Just saw the new HAIR tribe in their third performance this evening! I got $25 rush seats, which are up in the balcony, and moved down to the third row center during intermission! WIN! My beautiful friend Catherine Brookman made her Bway debut on Tuesday night in this production as a member of the Tribe and the lead vocal on "Black Boys." She was so fabulous, and looked amazing!!! It's been so wonderful to see three of my friends now make their Broadway debuts in this show. Plus, it's been a personal favorite piece of mine for about six or seven years now. I downloaded the Original Bway Cast recording onto my iPod in college and have been unable to stop listening to it nonstop ever since. Seriously. It's a killer show. Twas so delightful to run up on stage during the dance party at the end and give Catherine a huge hug!

Time to scamper off to bed so that I don't weep at the sound of The Morning Alarum Bell.

Summertime Jobs and Oscar Nods

2010-03-07T14:41:00.006-05:00

Oy, I've been so busy that I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with everything here! Between restaurant jobs, auditions, and computer death, whaddaya gonna do?

Okay. I promise I will chronicle Krakow at some point (for my own sake more than anything), but right now I have exciting news to share - I've booked a summer gig that I'm thrilled about. I'll be playing Illya/Carla/etc in AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN and The German (Gretchen or Judith, depending on which adaptation you read) in BOEING-BOEING. I'm also up for The Baker's Wife in INTO THE WOODS, which is also going up in their season. It's upstate at a new theatre festival called TWIN TIERS, and I cannot WAIT! First of all, I saw BOEING-BOEING three times when it was on Broadway two years ago, and have wanted to play the German ever since Mary McCormack made her first entrance. I cannot believe I'm getting the opportunity to play it so soon after it made its appearance on my "Dream Roles" roster! WOO! BEES should be great fun as well - it's a really fun piece for everyone, but the ensemble actors get to play an absurd number of roles, which is just fabulously fun. Now, callbacks for ITW are on Thursday. If I don't get it, no biggie, but The Baker's Wife has been on the top of the list for about fourteen years now (I can be very patient when need be), and this would be an ideal situation. I've never been in a Sondheim, actually, which KILLS me, but hopefully that will change this summer. There are other great roles in ITW, but this is one that is incredibly near and dear to my heart. Joanna Gleason (who won a Tony for playing this role) was born on June 2nd. Why, that's MY birthday! :) Love her. LOVE her.

Additionally, tonight are the Oscars!!! I used three exclamation points just now. I'm not even really jazzed enough to merit the use of one of them, but it is my favorite piece of punctuation. I have seen UP and AVATAR, and that is it. I don't even mean for Best Picture noms, I mean pretty much in general. What have I seen at the movies since the last Oscars? Harry Potter. Umm...Oooh, THE HANGOVER, I'm a little ashamed to admit. But it was $5 in rural Illinois, so I'm partially forgiven. That might be it. Have I only seen four movies in the past year? Yowzah. I think so. It's five if you count THE WRESTLER, which I saw in Feb of last year before the Oscars. I loved that movie.

I would like to mention that today marks the last performance of the Original Broadway Cast in HAIR. March 9th, the new tribe will begin performances, and in a few weeks, the Original B'way cast heads to London! I'm so excited for everyone. Can't wait to see the new tribe - my friend Catherine Brookman will be making her B'way debut!!! So thrilling!

I must tidy up a bit, for my gentle guests may be arriving at any moment. In honor of the night, I've pulled out my most appropriate book of matches for all the cigarettes I shan't be smoking.

What if her coach is second class? She at least gets to travel...

2010-02-27T13:37:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm back.

Right. SO much to write about that I'm a little overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. And, as is the way, I have to head to work in a bit, so I don't have long to type.

Let's finish up London before I do Krakow. I got back from Poland on Wed afternoon, and ran off to meet some friends for dinner and a play. We saw Mark Rylance in JERUSALEM, and I have to say that it is one of the best things I've ever seen. Excellent writing, fabulous ensemble cast, glorious production values, and a tour-de-force performance by Rylance. He was unreal. The girls I was with went to drama school with one of the cast members, and she told us that apparently, he was incredibly ill with a throat infection. This is a three hour play, in which he's on essentially the entire time, throwing himself about the stage, roaring, dancing, and then getting the crap kicked out of him. You want to be in top form for that. Well, I wouldn't have had any idea that he was at all poorly. What a champ. Incredible. Mackenzie Crook was also in it, and he was flipping brilliant. I had no idea he was pushing forty till I looked him up on imdb later that night. SO funny. Oh, it's seeing plays like that which remind me how much I love being an actor!!!

The next night, I met up with my dear friend Hannah (the one I stayed with) at The National, where she's in rehearsals. While waiting for her, I saw Amelia Bullmore wandering about the cafe, and I stopped her to tell her I'd just seen her play last week, and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS while it was on Broadway. "Oh, that was SUCH a happy time!" she said. We had a lovely little chat, and then I ran into her again when Hannah came to lead me through the labyrinth that is the backstage area of The National. She's very charming and funny, and apparently married to one of the men in Hannah's play THE WHITE GUARD. So, I went to hang out in the green room of The National with Hannah and about a third of her cast. The Green Room in this instance is a canteen and bar. Jolly Olde Englande. Anyway, I had definitely seen a few of the men in shows at The National before, which was cool, and THEN, Conleth Hill strolled in to hang out. I LOVE CONLETH HILL!!! I saw him in THE SEAFARER when it was on Broadway, and could not even begin to get over how fabulous I thought he was. Very exciting to be able to sit across the circle from him while everyone's having a casual chat. I love actors. And I love feeling fancy, as I did on Thursday.

Right. I really do have to run to get ready for work. I'll post the Krakow goodies later. I will say this - it was gorgeous, and I had a fabulous time. In only going for two days, I robbed myself completely. Can't wait to go back!

Who's Afraid of Vanessa Bell?

2010-02-21T20:52:00.006-05:00

Quickie here, as I'm meant to be packing for Krakow (going for only about two days, but I do have to wake up at the disgusting hour of 6am). I may be on vacation, but I still managed to get a spot of acting in! A couple of my friends here wrote a screenplay called BILLY & NESSA, based on the relationship between Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell in their youth and early careers/marriages. They wanted to hear it aloud and in its entirety for the first time, so they recruited a few actor friends (among them, Yours Truly) to do a reading. I got to read Vanessa, along with the occasional nurse and such. So incredibly fun! As I've been doing a lot of readings in the past year, it's only fitting I should do one even when I'm away. :) It was quite good, and as Sarah and Fi stayed with me in New York while they were doing a lot of their research (reading the sisters' letters and the like), it was fitting I should be there the first time they shared it with a group of people.

This morning was also my turning point. Every time I come over to visit, there is an official turning point. What I mean by that is, there is a definite day when I start sounding less American, I can feel my speech rounding out, and musicality swooping in with tremendous force. I start phrasing things differently, and my inflection just goes all kinds of crazy. I love it. Especially since I genuinely don't force it - this transformation occurs because my ear automatically starts adjusting and adapting to what I'm hearing. I just sit back and listen for enjoyment's sake more than anything. A much more delightful and less dramatic version of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde.

Life, London, and the Pursuit of Liberty

2010-02-19T21:12:00.007-05:00

I am in London!!! Excitement and delight all around! I arrived Thursday morning, and have been running about like a mad fool for several days. I started a blog post Friday evening, but abandoned it in favor of sleep. Here's what I wrote then:

I have been tooling about on my own while my dear friend Hannah is in rehearsal (she's in THE WHITE GUARD at The National), and being silly with her when she isn't.

This afternoon, I discovered, quite by accident, Borough Market, which I guess I'd heard of, but never bothered to investigate. It is AMAZING. Apparently, it's open Thursdays through Saturdays, and I got ridiculously lucky. I like to wander when I travel, you see, and despite the number of times I've been there, I really don't know London as well as I know some other cities, because I simply walk and talk with Hannah, and don't pay a lot of attention to where I'm going. So I have been meandering, getting to know the city again, and lo and behold, what should appear in front of me but some glorious open-air market that appears to be serving fine foodstuffs? Sweet mercy, I had me a delicious meat pie (with venison and partridge, no less!), olives, cheese, fish & chips that melted in my MOUTH...I wanted one of everything. Anyway, I was one happy duckie. Then I wandered (intentionally) over to the Tate Modern.

Here is where I pick up today:
I found a number of incredible and moving pieces at the Tate, but one room that particularly struck me was the gallery that displayed the Soviet Communist Propaganda. The room is absolutely covered in posters, almost from floor to ceiling, giving the the feeling, upon walking in, of being barraged with the images. That's the idea, of course - to simulate the experience of being confronted at every turn with drawings of hard working laborers and glorified party leaders. As a city dweller myself, I know what it is to be constantly flooded with advertisements. To imagine what New York would be like if they were all political posters, as opposed to ads for films, television shows, The Gap, and Fresh Direct, is a little terrifying. Below, I've written out the text from some of the most fascinating (to me, anyway) posters:

* Everyone Sign Up for Shockwork! (1932)
* On the paths of total collectivisation and mechanisation of agriculture of the USSR (1933)
* Women Build Socialism (1926 - the image on this was of a tough looking lady in a kerchief, who reminded me a bit of Rosie the Riverter)
* USSR - Center of International Socialism (1933)
* We have finished off our Enemies with our Weapons - we will Get Bread through Hard Work. To Work, Comrades! (1920)
* Ukrainians and Russians have a Common Cry - We must not let the Landowners Rule Over the Workers (1920)
* Women Workers, Take Up Your Rifles! (1918)
* Young Proletariat of Town & Countryside Unite! (1920s - This poster had two youths, one dressed in farmer's clothes, standing against a city landscape, and one in the city togs (complete with those tall cylindrical hats) standing amidst crops and flowers. They were shaking hands, and each holding a pole that had a banner stretched between them with the poster's text on it. Making up the background were the rays of the sun, which was just peeking up about halfway above the horizon. In the center of the sun itself was a hammer and sickle.)
* Cleanse the Party of all class enemies and hostile elements, degenerates, opportunists, double dealers, careerists, self-seekers, bureaucrats, and morally decayed persons. (1933 - This one had no image, just the white text against a red background)
- And now, my favorite -
* Long Live our Happy Socialist Motherland - Long Live our Beloved Great Stalin! (1935 - Complete with a drawing of Stalin looking stoic and yet benevolent on a balcony while a parade of happy proletariat walk by in the street below, looking up at him adoringly)

The room reminded me of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, and of the propaganda vs the photos of reality there as well. The checkpoint Charlie Museum is by far one of the most absorbing places I've ever been. So many things got donated there starting in the late 60s, I want to say, and so you can see a lot of the genuine items people used to escape. Two suitcases laid end to end on a top rack on the train that have a hole cut in between them, which a person would curl up inside of. A car with a rigged engine that allows a human to hide underneath. A hot air balloon used to float to freedom. It's really a gorgeous example of the human spirit in the fact of oppression.

I've done a number of other interesting things and spent time with loads of lovely people, but don't have time to be sitting here writing about them! Must be off! There is tea to be imbibed!

Treasure Trunk

2010-02-17T02:32:00.005-05:00

When I was a little girl, my grandma gave me a big cedar chest, hand-painted with images of Shirley Temple in some of her more famous costumes (hey - she sang, she tapped, she conquered - I loved her). Right now, it's living in the closet under the stairs in the basement, and I opened it up earlier this evening to go through some of the goodies stored in there. Here are some of my favorites:

* My 9th Grade geography composition notebook, complete with my folded-up MAP OF AFRICA assignment. Apparently, I got a 96 on it for "slightly sloppy coloring," which I suppose was fair. But geez, cut me some slack, Mr. Houston - it's a pretty accurate map of AFRICA that I hand-drew!

* The Life & Style section of Sunday, March 21st, 1999's issue of The Fort Worth Star Telegram. They have an entire spread of Shakespearean fashions. "O worthy readers, look what a wardrobe is here for thee! Sumptuous Elizabethan-inspired ball gowns move from Oscar films to the runway to our own mortal closets." I. Am. Such. A. Nerd. For. Saving. This.

* Monologues I hand-wrote from the production of THE KENTUCKY CYCLE I did in 10th grade, all mapped out, scored, underlined, and notated. It's fascinating to see how I worked at age 15 on a role that size. I cared about it SO much. I was playing the female lead in this beautiful play, and I was a sophomore, so it was a big deal for me. We built out the stage and put the audience up there with us, brought 50 truckloads of dirt into the theatre and crafted them into a stark, dusty landscape...I used to ask my director for notes every day after he'd already done notes. He must've gotten into the habit of holding some back, knowing I'd be yapping at his heels sooner or later. It's really funny to see how I used to work. I was essentially making it up as I went along, establishing my own working methods. I had a marvelous high school drama teacher, but when you're in a class of twenty or so other fifteen year olds, there is really only so much info they can impart.

* The headshot and resume of an actress who sat next to us on the plane on my first trip to New York. She wrote her number on the back of it in case we needed to know where to go to buy Aaron cheap shoes. I had it hung up in my closet all through my adolescence - here was a real, live, New York actress!

* An 8th grade report card. Straight As all year, except for stupid Honors Algebra.

* Programs and ticket stubs from shows I saw in high school. No playbills. Those went in a special box. :)

* A tiny notebook I passed back and forth with a good friend during History class in 10th grade.

* A list of Spanish verbs. I'm taking that with me, as I've forgotten everything I learned in Spanish class.

So delightful.

Also, here is a fun photo of Aaron and I while snowshoeing earlier today!

Colorado, My Hoooooome!

2010-02-13T17:57:00.003-05:00

The title of this blog post is taken from THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN. Just f your i.

I'm sitting in a large, comfy chair in my dad's study in Breckenridge, watching the snow come down outside. This morning, I made an omelet, read MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA (good ol' Hercule Poirot was in top form!), ate some peanut butter cookies, and watched some ski jumping on TV, as the Olympics truly began today. That stuff is NUTS! They are FLYING through the AIR! Ack!

I do love watching the Olympics. I become so unnecessarily invested in sports that I hitherto have had little to no knowledge of. The races are always more difficult for me to watch - oh, man, the swimming during the summer games nearly gives me heart attacks. It'll be just my luck that I'll end up with a bunch of kids who play incredibly competitive sports. What that'll do to my nerves, I dare not think about.

I loved watching the opening ceremonies. All that projector stuff...insaaaane. The whales crossing the stage, and the young guy who did all the flying stunts to Joni Mitchell...so beautiful. And I found the marching in of the athletes from all the different countries very moving. It made me miss many of my friends that are scattered all about the world. Russia. Poland. The Netherlands. Great Britain. Italy. Portugal. Denmark. France. Sweden. Germany. Ireland. New Zealand. I'm blessed to know so many different and wonderful people.

I'm here with my parents, my little bro Aaron, my uncle, and my cousins Josh and Jake. It is a GRAND time we are having! Basically, I'm sitting around being a slob, which is in direct contrast to the way I generally live my life. I love being around my family, and we're all having a good time being lazy bums. While I write this, the boys are all downstairs playing Wii. Jake introduced Aaron and I to ASSASSIN'S CREED II last night, and I hafta tell ya, I can see how people get sucked into this. I wasn't even playing, I was just watching it like a movie. Florence in 14somethingorother - yes, climb that building! Ooh, punch the guy!

Perhaps I'd better go do something slightly improving. Or at least pull out one of the New Yorker Magazines I brought with me to counteract the Agatha Christie I read this morning. Is it sad that I read the book already knowing who the killer was, as I own many installments of David Suchet's POIROT on DVD? Gonna go with noooooo...

I must fly. My parents have just returned from a trip to Wal-Mart (glamorous days here in Breck), where they acquired GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!! Farewell!

Snowpocalypse!!!

2010-02-10T19:27:00.003-05:00

It snowed like mad today, just madly it snowed!!! I watched it all from my host stand at work. One of the servers and I felt really sorry for the poor guys who were shoveling the snow in front of the building our restaurant is in (they were at it for ages, trying to keep it from piling up, and the building has a huge plaza in front of it, not just the sidewalk), so we took some coffee out to them. It was really gratifying to see them all smile and then shout, "Coffee break! Coffee break!"

Last night, I saw VENUS IN FUR at Classic Stage Company. It's David Ives' new play, and stars Wes Bentley (of American Beauty) and Nina Arianda. I saw her in a few shows last year when she was in her final year at NYU, and thought she was fantastic, so I bought a ticket. Then she got ridiculously good reviews, so I was even more excited. She. Was. So. Excellent. Wes Bentley was good, too - he got better as it went along. To be fair, the play is all on the female to rock it out or not. It could so easily have been done horribly, but she was perfect. So excited for her, especially as this was her first thing out of grad school, and she was non-union. People should go see it - only 90 minutes, and really fun. Really, really funny at times. Even the ol' blue-hairs that surrounded me in the audience were laughing. Really, I thought if I stopped going to Wednesday matinees, I'd wind up surrounded a a crowd that wasn't triple my age. :) At least no cell phones went off. Oy.

Stayed up till three last night packing. I did begin packing at 1:30am, and then was half-packing, half-watching SOBBIN' WOMEN: THE MAKING OF SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. Don't be hatin' - that movie is so good. Yes, yes, I'm a total snob and will tear YOU'VE GOT MAIL or LOVE ACTUALLY or (God forbid) a Sandra Bullock feature to pieces, but I LOVE 7Brides. The men are all such good dancers, and many of them were legitimately straight! Burly baritones? Come ON! I'm a sucker. Plus, they all wore such colorful shirts and swung axes about the place. Yes, I do have better reasons that this is a good film, but are those reasons so WRONG? Howard Keel, people!!! It's just like Omar Sharif - put Omar Sharif on camera reading a Chemistry textbook, and I'm bound to like it. Or William Powell. Or - be still my heart - Cary Grant. Howard Keel can steal me from my small Western town and hide me away on his mountain farm any day of the week. Russ Tamblyn is a bit short for me (imdb tells me he is 5'9" to Howard's more satisfactory 6'3"), but as he grows up to be Riff, the leader of the Jets, I'll overlook this fact and invest in some hearty, mountaineering flats. Anyway, the point is that I was watching a lot of lovely dancing, and not folding at the speediest of paces. So I have MORE packing to do. Not much, but some. Woohoo, two week vacation! Check ya latah, New York. Colorado --> London --> Krakow --> London --> NYC! Krakow will only be for a couple of days, but it'll be my first foray into Poland, and I'm jazzed to visit my friend Stan in his hometown!

I used many exclamation points in this post, and employed my CAPS LOCK a number of times. You're welcome.

Technical Wizardry

2010-02-10T01:32:00.003-05:00

My website is LIVE!
www.amyjojackson.com

Go visit it! And then click on the YouTube links and watch my new videos of performing at Don't Tell Mama(SWEET LIBERTY and IT'S OH SO QUIET)!

Yes, today was all about shameless self-promotion. I'm attempting to get off the computer so that I can go pack for Colorado!!! Wahoooooo!

The Wintry Mixer

2010-02-06T13:26:00.002-05:00

Last night, cherubs, I had a soiree, which was - let's face it - simply THE social event of the season! Seriously, though, it was insane. My brother said he lost count at 65, so earlier today, I sat down and started making a list of all the people that I remembered being here...I'm up to a hundred and nine. Over a hundred people were in this very apartment last night. Sweet sassy molassy! I felt like the social queen of New York City!

I had so much fun, as did many other people, I believe! I knew just about everyone there, or was introduced to most of the ones I didn't know. There were a ton of BoCo kids, as well as Bats from The Flea (but from TWO shows, now, and both with big casts - KASPAR HAUSER as well as THE GREAT RECESSION), kids from Festival 56 (the stock company I spent the summer with), couchsurfers, and kiddos from my acting class. All in all, it was a divine gathering. So many amazing people all in one place. I was so happy.

I take great pride in naming my parties. Here have been the Lady Jo Soiree titles from the beginning:

A Festival of Classiness (my housewarming party)
Oscar Hauser (an Oscar party for the cast of Kaspar)
Kaspar They Love Be Fancy (fancy dress cast party, taken from a lyric)
There Will Be Cake (my bday party. yes. there was cake)
The Grand Autumnal Ball
The Wintry Mixer (it's a triple entendre!)

The next one will be something marvelous and spring-esque. Huzzah!

Hindsight Does Its Thing

2010-02-05T01:02:00.003-05:00

I'd like to be able to tell the me of five years ago that in not too long a time, she will be capable of many more things than she ever imagined.

And I'd like to remind my present self that I'll probably be able to say the same five years from now.

Onward!

I Hear In My Mind All of This Music

2010-02-03T23:54:00.004-05:00

The gig at Don't Tell Mama's ended up being really fun! I was getting over a cold, but my voice decided to hang in there, and I was able to belt enough of my face off to make it through both songs unscathed. We each also had to do a bit of patter in between, and I was pretty pleased with how mine came off, considering I'd never really done patter before. Performing on the bill with four other people (I went last, shaZAM!) really made me realize how much I wanted to put together my own cabaret show. I've been talking about doing one for seriously like three years. I had several ideas - all Beatles songs, all Regina Spektor songs, all female pop & folk singers, all old broad showtunes (that was was going to be entitled, "Life Begins at Forty, But I'm Only 23!")...I still like the idea of the Regina Spektor cabaret. One friend also suggested I do a cabaret show in character as "Lady Jo," which is, of course, the title of this blog! Lady Jo is really just a slightly more outlandish version of myself. She's me with my hostess hat on! She calls everyone "Cherub" and "Honeypot." I think it'd be grand to bring her out in full force onstage. We shall see. That's gonna take some serious work.

Had rehearsal for DASH DEXTER all day today. I'm pooped! It was great to see a lot of friends I've worked with in past, and get to sing with them again!

Miss Jo is off to put on A BIT OF FRY & LAURIE while she tidies her room before crashing, face first, into the 854 pillows she has on her bed. That sounds like hyperbole, I know. Maybe it is...but I still got me a lotta pillows!

Fantabulous February

2010-02-01T23:11:00.004-05:00

I promised myself that I'd be in bed by 11:30 tonight, and seeing as how it's 11:12, that means I have to make this SHORT and sa-weeeeet.

DASH DEXTER had its first music rehearsal earlier this evening, which was fun and delicious. My stuff is pretty easy musically, as most of the role is text-based. Can't wait! Rehearsal all day Wed/Thurs, with the reading Thursday night!

I got the first draft of my website in from my designer yesterday, and a mini-draft today. I'm so excited! It's getting so close! I also realized how fascinating it is that little tiny things can really affect how I feel about the site, and about how it conveys who I am. I've had some great back and forth with the designer, and I'm really excited to see how it all turns out. Shouldn't be much longer. I shall then be a highly snazzy individual, let me tell you.

Tomorrow night I'm singing at DON'T TELL MAMA'S, which, now that my cold seems to be letting go of my voice, should actually be fun! We'll see if I can belt all the way through both of these songs tomorrow afternoon. Regardless, it's abated enough that I won't be croaking, which, of course, is all to the good. For the curious, I'll be singing "Sweet Liberty" from JANE EYRE, and an old chestnut I haven't pulled out in public in nearly five years - "It's Oh So Quiet," as sung by Bjork. Very excited about it. I've missed it so!

Also, I'm going to Colorado on the 11th. I. Am. So. Excited. Gonna hang out with the fam, maybe SKI, definitely watch a lot of movies and do some serious frivolous reading (meaning, not plays...though, let's face it, I'll probably bring some plays with me anyway), all while holed up in a beautiful cabin in Breckenridge. Sometimes life is just gorgeous.

Geeking Out, And Not Over The iPad

2010-01-27T23:55:00.003-05:00

Janet McTeer, the goddess of my theatrical idolatry, is coming back to Bway in GOD OF CARNAGE (she was in the original London company). It will be DELICIOUS to see her in something contemporary and hilarious. I'm so obsessed with her that I will probably cry like a baby anyway (I didn't wait to talk to her after MARY STUART the first time I saw it because I was crying too hard to have been able to say anything). So excited. AND Jeff Daniels is coming back, but taking the other role. I am in nerd actor Heaven!!!

The class with Sigourney and Andre De Shields was fabulous. Got some interesting feedback and an amazing hug from each of them. Sometimes I feel so fancy.

In other news, my apartment remains untidied. This is getting ridiculous.

Words, words, words...

2010-01-25T10:34:00.005-05:00

The Agee workshop finished yesterday, and we went through all the material we've been working on. Oh, it's such a cool piece. I still have all the music looping through my head - my life is being accompanied by the low hum of an upright bass! I think if I could choose one instrument to provide the soundtrack for my life, it might be a bass, though for exuberant occasions, a trumpet would do nicely.

I got the script for DASH DEXTER, the reading I'm doing at MTC next week, and I love it. So funny, so silly, so smart. And I have a great supporting role! I can't wait to get cracking on it! I'll be working with a few people I haven't met, and a few dear friends, which is a grand combination indeed!

And TONIGHT - I'm doing the masterclass with Sigourney Weaver! Woohooooooo! Full speed ahead to fun town! The people that Jim shortlisted all got together yesterday and worked through our pieces. So much fun. I know so many talented people! HA! At The Flea, we usually get to see one another do readings and plays and such, but not often pieces of our own choosing, so this was lovely. I always find it interesting to see what speeches people pick for themselves. It was great to get the opportunity to see everyone do something classical as well, since we're always doing world premieres of very contemporary plays down there.

Well, I must be getting on with my day! The weather I'm witnessing outside my window looks horrifying. I usually have a very clear view of New Jersey (I live waaaaaay West), but through the fog and rain, they're looming, gray shapes with no real definition. I think I'll keep the errand running to a minimum this afternoon.

The Queen of the Workshops!

2010-01-23T00:17:00.003-05:00

So many things to discuss here.

First of all, I am watching Conan's final Tonight Show appearance. I've been following the whole NBC saga with great interest. Poor Conan. It's really not his fault that his core audience gets the bulk of their media from their computers. Anyway, Tom Hanks and CoCo were a hilarious duo.

I have to get to bed soon, as I have rehearsal in the morning for the Agee workshop I mentioned in a previous post. It's winding up - just tomorrow and Sunday before they go away to gestate and develop the material. The music is SO much fun to sing, and really eerily gorgeous. Stephanie Johnstone is the name of the composer, and she is one sharp cookie. We put some more stuff together with the actors last night, and that's pretty much what we'll be doing tomorrow and Sunday as well. Woo!

So, today I found out about two things that'll be keeping me busy the first week of February! On the 2nd (a Tuesday), I'll be making my DON'T TELL MAMA'S debut, singing two songs in a set with three or four other singers. I have to pick my pieces by next week, and I'm very jazzed! I'll post more info next week. If you can't come, fret not, for in this digital age, I shall shortly thereafter be posting it to Ye Olde You Tube. Woo!

The other project is a reading of a new musical called DASH DEXTER that'll be done at MTC on the 4th. My marvelously talented friend Kris Kukul wrote the music (he was my music director on KASPAR HAUSER last year), and asked me if I'd be involved. Gordon Cox is the playwright. I don't know much else about it yet, other than that it's a comedy (hurrah!). I'm excited! Anything with Kris Kukul is a guaranteed good time.

I picked up a shift at my restaurant today, and one of the managers came over to me to tell me that we were "shopped" (meaning secret shoppers who fill out reports to turn in to corporate) on Tuesday. "Apparently," he told me, "they thought you were the manager on duty. They said a Caucasian woman with short blonde hair, about 5'8" was running the floor very efficiently and with authority," (or something like that - I've yet to read the report, and I can't remember his exact words), "and you got 100%! That's amazing. I don't think I've ever gotten 100% on a shopper's report,and I'm actually a manager!" I asked if they noticed that there didn't seem to be a host, and I guess they said that "she was also answering the phones and stayed primarily at the host stand." We both had a good laugh over that, seeing as how I am THE HOST, and was therefore doing MY HOSTESSING DUTIES, which include answering the phone and staying primarily at the host stand. Hilarious. We also thought it was funny that they calculated my height at 5'8", since I'm just under six feet. With the boots I was wearing that day, I was at least 6'1". Anyway, how delightful to know that someone took me for the Boss Lady! It's all of the Mary Stuart and other Queenly Roles that I've been working on for the past year. :) That and the fact that I always look like I know what I'm doing (I get asked for directions on the street in almost every major city I visit). Ich weiss nicht!

To bed! I must be awake to sing on the morrow! More anon!

What Keeps Me Up Till 2am, You Ask?

2010-01-18T15:05:00.004-05:00

A Glimpse Into the Life of an Internet Junkie
(I'm not THAT bad...)

When I open a new tab, Google Chrome kindly provides links to my most visited sites. From most visited on down, they are:

1. Google (Hey, stuff doesn't look itself up)
2. Twitter (...yep, true story)
3. Weather.com (Every blessed morning)
4. Facebook (I'm surprised Twitter beat this,actually)
5. YouTube (I like to call a lot of what I watch "research")
6. IMDB (This legitimately is research)
7. The Flea (Ye Olde Bat Cave)
8. Playbill (Keepin' up with the B'way)

Chrome automatically opens to my Gmail, which is why that one doesn't feature. That tab is always open.

There you have it. I'm a slave to social networking.

A Haunting Offer

2010-01-17T11:31:00.004-05:00

I am on every blessed discount ticket email list, and that's lovely! I like knowing what's happening around town. It does also mean, though, that I get email blasts for some of the creakiest things around. Newsflash, Theatermania - I don't care how deep the discount is, I only want to go see CHICAGO these days if I have a friend in it. I just don't see how something that's been running since '96/'97 or so can still have any relevance. Not the show, mind you! Just the specific production. It was directed with an audience of nearly fifteen years ago in mind. We're a very different New York than we were then. Just sayin.

Anyway, along those lines, I got an email this morning, offering me discount tickets to PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I wanted to share the tagline, because it is too good to keep to myself:

Can't resist THAT! The savings belong to ME? Woo! Hilarious.

New Things A-Cookin'

2010-01-15T00:58:00.003-05:00

I began a new project this evening! Hurrah! I was contacted by a composer who'd been given my name by a friend and colleague (of KASPAR HAUSER and another Liz Swados project, WOMEN OF VALOR). She approached me about participating in this exploratory workshop, and the project sounded interesting (plus, I'd heard good things about the theatre company already). The subject matter is taken from James Agee's LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. He and a photographer, Walker Evans, went down to the rural South during the late 1930s, and stayed with families of sharecroppers. The images are somehow both brutal and beautiful. They're certainly compelling, at any rate.

Anyway, I'm one of eight singers in it (holding down the Alto fort, loud and proud as ever), and tonight was our first rehearsal.

I love first rehearsals. I love walking into a room full of strangers, or with semi-strangers, and digging in immediately. The first music rehearsals. Plowing ahead, creating sound and shaping space where there was only silence and stillness before. When you get to know people through their work first, I find it's a more profound way of knowing a person than you get to experience much of the time in everyday life. Then you also get to know people backstage, and on breaks, and see their ridiculous, hilarious, performing-monkey sides. I dunno. I love creative types.

So, this is really an exploratory workshop for the playwright, composer, and director to see what it is they've got, and help them assemble it a bit. Then they'll hopefully do another workshop a bit later. The music is stunning. Well, we've only learned one piece thus far, but it manages to have a down-home, folksy feel, as well as an overall unsettling eerie quality. Well. A cello scratching as a bass line for us to sing on top of will do that. We're singing this song in a round, which goes through three times in slightly different styles, and THEN, the fourth time around, each person re-entering goes up a half step. There are four parts on this song, so you are singing as loudly as you can, plugging your ears against the person next to you who is a half-step up or down, and praying you're still in (or out of) tune. It's quite disconcerting. So. Much. Fun. I LOVE this kind of thing! The darkness of it really appeals to my sensibilities, but also just changing as we go, based on what happens when you get a bunch of people who all have crazy, imaginative brains together in the same room! Perhaps it comes of having spent so many years doing THE MUSIC MAN and CHARLEY'S AUNT (and those are wonderful, don't get me wrong, and I LOVE them...), but I find it exhilarating to be in this close to the ground floor with a piece of material. It's one of the things I've taken away from working at The Flea this past year. New work is WAY fun.

Oh, speaking of The Flea, cool news - I've been shortlisted for a masterclass a few weeks from now that is being taught by Andre DeShields and Sigourney Weaver! There are about 15 or 16 of us that were chosen from the pool of Bats (the resident acting company at The Flea is called The Bats), and we have to go in and do our pieces for Jim (Simpson, Artistic Dir). He'll pick about 4-6 people to then work in the class. Obviously, I'm hoping like CRAZY to be chosen, but I do think it's way cool to be on the shortlist! It's prime grad school audition time, so my monologues are ready to GO! Sigourney ftw!

This has been long and rambly. I hope it makes sense, and that it doesn't sound too pretentious. I'm just excitable. I'm also sleepy. Let's hope this accounts for some of it.

My Friends are Talented!

2010-01-12T02:16:00.007-05:00

Had such an amazing evening. I went to a concert tonight, all of music composed by my friend (and fellow BoCo '05 alum) Jon Gealt. He had a lineup of a bunch of our amazingly talented friends from school, as well as various amaaaazing singers he's come into contact with over the years. Let's just put it out there - it was very BROADWAAAAAAY! (For those of you who don't know many musical theatre people, I'm sorry, because there is such a specific voice I'm using in my head to say that, along with a ridiculously over-the-top sensibility that isn't quite as stupid as it sounds when I type it. Trust that you'd know it if you saw it. You'd have to. It makes itself known.) Anyway, listened to the concert, then hung around for an hour or so and chatted with so many wonderful old friends from college. What really struck me, too, while watching it, was the incredible support and sense of community that was in the room. Of family. Actors are a very clannish, loving bunch, and it was just so evident that everyone in the room was obsessed with how great everyone else in the room was. We were all there to cheer on Jon and our singing friends...and everyone sounded incredible. Quentin Earl Darrington? FORGET IT! He had this lyric at one point that went, "Will you marry me?" You could feel virtually everyone in the room silently mouth, "Yes, PLEASE!" I know RAGTIME just closed yesterday, but get that man back on Broadway STAT, okay? Ridiculous. So good.

Anyway, after the socializing, a bunch of us went to SPLASH, an infamous gay bar that I had somehow never made it to. Monday evenings are "Musical Mondays," where they play video clips of old musical numbers, stitched together by a DJ the way club music would be played in...oh, I dunno. A club? Anyway, as I walked in, it was Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur singing "Bosom Buddies." My friend Saum and I determined that Mame would be a good show to win a second Tony with. Then we danced over to a table. Oh, it was as gay as I'd anticipated. They played Liza, they played Dreamgirls. They played Liza, they played Dreamgirls. Then the live performances started, I listened for a bit, and then finally had to head home, happy as a clam. Such good people.

So, I have to post a few fun photos from my photo session at The Met with RL Procter. He and I shot a bunch in Central Park this past September, a few of which you'll be able to see on my website, when that goes live. The Met was a fun challenge - a lot more people wandering around than in some areas of the park. Anyway, we had a ball, and I'm sharing a few of my favorites! Hopefully you enjoy them as well!

I'm feeling happy and inspired. We love both of those things. I have a lot of friends with amazing things happening for them in 2010, and I think amazing things are going to happen for me as well. Which is exciting, exciting, exciting. Good things in 2010: The Year of Living Dangerously.

By the way, amusing side note - I realized that was a movie when I named my year after it, but, in a big ironic twist, did NOT realize at the time that it was a movie starring Sigourney Weaver. Those of you who know why this is funny know why this is funny. Let's just say that I love her, and I am encouraged, by her example, to live in a brave, bold, powerful fashion. Dangerously.

Lady Jo is off to bed now. The hair is going to get the re-platinum treatment tomorrow!

Dreaming of the Emerald Isle

2010-01-09T01:54:00.003-05:00

Chilly night + Old-fashioned hot water bottle = Bliss!

When I went to Ireland a couple of years ago, I stayed in this great hostel on Inis Mor (one of the islands off the coast of Galway). It was chilly in late September, so they had a bunch of hot water bottles for us to use if we wanted. I spent most of my evenings curled up in the lobby, reading mystery novels and looking out over the ocean, cuddling a "hottie" as my Kiwi friends called them. I just got one of my own this past month, and it brings back such glorious memories! The hostel I stayed in was called Manister House, incidentally, and I recommend it unreservedly. SUCH friendly staff, delicious breakfast, and a chance to really socialize with the other guests. I was going to stay two days, and got talked into staying five!

Strangers

2010-01-07T00:32:00.003-05:00

Last night, my brother Aaron, his boyfriend Michael and I were riding the A home from the restaurant that they work at near South Street Seaport. We got on at Broadway Nassau, and were sitting on one of the shorter benches that only has room for three people. Mikey had just returned from his Christmas/New Year's sojourn in Northern Cali the evening before, and I hadn't seen Aaron since Christmas, so the three of us were chatting and laughing up a storm. Not about anything too special - some exciting news here and there, but mainly just our usual excited jabber. Around Canal or Spring Street, a young man who had been sitting across the aisle and a little bit over from us stood up as if to leave, and then turned to us.
"I'm so sorry," he said, "I don't want to interrupt, but I just have to say that the three of you have such beautiful spirit!"
We were a little taken aback, but said thanks.
He continued, "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, it's just that I couldn't help but be drawn in by you all. Your energy is so great. I'm working on this album, you see, and I've been doing everything I can to avoid it. And I'm sitting here on the train, trying not to think about it, and then I see the three of you...and you've really inspired me. You're like...it's like the three of you are the same person! It's really beautiful! It's like you're the same person, somehow."
"Well," I said, "They've been together for about four years, and he's my brother."
"Oh!" he said. "Well, that explains - the smile, yeah, you've got the same smile! Yeah, well, if you happen to ever see my face on an album called 'STRANGERS,' y'all will know it was you. Your spirit shines bright!"
At this point the doors opened to the West 4th St station, and he disembarked, wishing us a good night, which we wished him back.
It's strange to explain the incident like that, but especially difficult to convey just how touching it really was. I was quite moved. Those boys are two of the closest people in the world to me, and for someone else to pick up on how much we all care for one another and love being together was really special. I don't ever want to forget that.

I needed a lovely thought to end the day on, so I'm putting that out into the world.

Byronic Daydreams

2010-01-06T01:21:00.000-05:00

So, I've had a few conversations with people (mainly women) recently with regards to a certain topic I feel very strongly about. This issue goes waaaaay back with me, to the age of about twelve or thirteen, and perhaps other people's differences of opinions on this matter can be traced to their more recent familiarization with it. I just want to get the word about about something that seems to me to be absurdly obvious in every particular.

I am talking, of course, about Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Bronte's JANE EYRE, and his obvious dominance as the most perfect male character in all of literature.

Forgive me if I get girly for this post. It must be done.

Many women will go the easy route and vote for Darcy, of Austen's PRIDE & PREJUDICE. A fine choice, I suppose, but seeing as how everyone has jumped on that bandwagon, it makes me all the more inclined to say, "Rochester for me, please." Naturally, there are scads of delightfully attractive fictional characters (Gatsby? Newland Archer? Dean Moriarty?), but I'm talking primarily about 19th Century British Lit, because that seems to be the most hotly contested area. Plus, I picked Rochester years ago, so it makes sense to compare him to his contemporaries.

I've loved JANE EYRE ever since I was recommended it in middle school by my seventh grade English teacher, and it has become more alive and different for me with every reading. Perhaps Lizzie Bennett is easier to identify with, but I love how incredibly quiet and smart our little Jane is. Lizzie is outspoken - for those of us who are actually quite shy, it's refreshing to find someone in literature who thinks more than she speaks.

Now, as to Rochester - COME ON!!! Who couldn't find that man attractive? Allow me to post here a snippet from Ye Olde Wikipedia on THE BYRONIC HERO:
"The Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad, and dangerous to know".

Additionally:
The Byronic hero typically exhibits several of the following characteristics:
a strong sense of arrogance
high level of intelligence and perception
cunning and able to adapt
suffering from an unnamed crime
a troubled past
sophisticated and educated
self-critical and introspective
mysterious, magnetic and charismatic
struggling with integrity
power of seduction and sexual attraction
social and sexual dominance
emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness[citation needed]
a distaste for social institutions and norms
being an exile, an outcast, or an outlaw
"dark" attributes not normally associated with a hero[citation needed]
disrespect of rank and privilege
has seen the world
jaded, world-weary
cynicism
self-destructive behaviour
a good heart in the end

This, as we know, describes Rochester completely. Allow me to digress for one moment to discuss Charlotte's sister Emily's creation, Heathcliff (of WUTHERING HEIGHTS), who is also considered a Byronic Hero. Umm...While I find him to be decidedly attractive and alluring in his own way, as he is meant to be, he ultimately does not have Rochester's generosity or heart, and while WH may be an overall better novel than JE (I can't believe I just typed those words. What sacrilege!), Rochester will always have my eternal devotion.

All I'm saying is, he's an ideal man. IDEAL! He's passionate, but not clingy, educated, but not snobby, has a past, but is trying to look forward, and manages to be both dashing and rugged simultaneously. I don't know what I would do with an actual Byronic Hero in real life - slap and then ignore him, probably - but on paper, he is what I want down to the letter. Darcy almost makes the grade, but Rochester is more take-charge, more knowing, and more powerful. Plus, let's face it, he makes a fabulous entrance in the novel. He has more than a note of mystery, of mysticism. How grand.

That's really all I want to say at the moment.

Oy, but it's cold!

2010-01-03T18:26:00.000-05:00

I don't have a lot to say today, so I'll put my feelings in the form of a poem:

Bitter winter winds
Whip in frenzy round my ears.
Frostbite, don't you DARE.

~Lady Jo

The Year in Shows

2010-01-02T15:14:00.000-05:00

Since I worked all of New Year's Day, this glorious January 2nd is my first official day off in AGES. Well, there was Christmas, which was wonderful, but this is a day all to ME! I had a dialect coaching session, finished my statement of purpose for my final grad school application, and am about to work on some monologues before taking a long, cold walk. I might go see a show tonight. Alone time. I've missed it. I also slept an obscene amount last night, so I'm finally feeling more myself!

So, goodbye GREAT RECESSION, and hello, Great Unknown!

Many actors often identify particular times of their lives with whatever project they were working on at the time. This time a year ago, I was KASPAR HAUSER. Ahh, yes, ten years ago I had just been cast as Fiona in BRIGADOON. When I was dating so-and-so, I was working on such-and-such. When I broke my foot, I was doing this program. In the spirit of that, I'm giving you an idea of what my life was like this year based on what I was working on. As you can see, there was a lot of time spent in TriBeCa and in rural Illinois.

2009: A Year in Shows:

KASPAR HAUSER - The Flea
Began rehearsals Dec 2nd, 2008
Ran Feb 12 - March 30th, 2009
CLEANSED - The Flea
Workshop that rehearsed May 18 - 21st, 2009, with the performance on the 21st
HENRY IV, PARTS 1&2 - Festival 56, IL
June 09- Aug 09
THE WIZARD OF OZ - Festival 56, IL
June 09 - July 09
THE LARAMIE PROJECT - Festival 56, IL
July 09
THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Festival 56, IL
July 09 - Aug 09
THE GREAT RECESSION - The Flea
Rehearsed early October 09
Ran Nov 20th - Dec 30th, 2009

Not bad! Throw in two recordings (one of them is my first Original Cast Recording!), a bunch of private dialect coaching, one gig as a production dialect coach, two workshops with Larry Moss, my first mention in the New York Times, and I call it a pretty great year!

Brief Musings on the New Year...

2009-12-31T16:09:00.000-05:00

Goodbye, Two Thousand Mine. Drum roll, please - Twenty Ten for the Win!

I'm giving the coming year a title: The Year of Living Dangerously.

I am not implying that I will be skydiving or participating in rodeos. Merely that I'm going to attempt to live bravely this year. To do things I don't want to do, but that will be GOOD FOR ME! I am taking myself seriously in 2010. So there we have it. The Year of Living Dangerously.

And now, I am going to brave the crowds on my way to work. Talk about danger. Oy!

Wanderlust Strikes Again

2009-12-28T01:55:00.000-05:00

Just found out that my dear friend who stayed with me for the past three weeks is now at home in Utah with swine flu. She was feeling unwell a few days before she moved out last week. Oy. Just hold on, body, just hold on!

I've recently been getting really, REALLY keen to travel again. I got to go to Chicago for a week this summer coming back from a gig, but the last time I went out of the country was in August 08, when I went to visit my best friend Hannah in London, and then to Edinburgh (where this photo was taken). I JUST WANT TO TRAVEL AND WANDER EVERYWHERE!!! I really am thinking about trying to make a trip to Krakow and Prague happen this spring, depending on how my gigs go. I have a pal who lives in Krakow, and I keep hearing it's amazing. I buy travel books and take fantasy trips in my head. Luckily, I am able to sometimes make them happen. Come on, Trans-Siberian Rail Road journey! One of these days...

The Last of the Three Show Days

2009-12-27T02:41:00.000-05:00

I have eaten waaaaay too much fudge in the past couple of days. WAAAAAY too much.

Just had the last three show day of THE GREAT RECESSION, the show I'm doing downtown at The Flea (www.theflea.org). While we're used to them now, it is a bit of a relief to know we're only going to have one and two show days until we close. 3pm/7pm/10pm show schedule is rigorous, and we're all feeling it. Those guys that did COAST OF UTOPIA or THE NORMAN CONQUESTS marathons must've been monsters by the time they were done! What stamina! I mean, our shows are pretty short, but three understudies were on today! One of the girls twisted an ankle during the last show, and as she usually is jogging and exercising until she collapses and dies(I think it's safe to say with confidence that it's a dark piece), so one of the other ladies in the cast had to go on for her in that role. Ahh, the joys of live theatre!

Right-o. Must be off to bed. Brunch with the parents and lil' bro in the morning, then off to a matinee, then off to my day job to make some cash for Ye Olde Bank Account. I work at a restaurant across the street from Radio City Music Hall. I can't wait till the Rockettes stop dancing. Four to six shows a day? Really? That's a lot of hungry tourists. With strollers. After the holidays, all will be a piece of cake!

I think I'll have sausage tomorrow at brunch,
Lady Jo

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T11:42:00.000-05:00

Cherubs ~

This is my first blog post. An obvious and dull statement, but a fact all the same. I figured I'd start a blog because, hey, all of the cool kids have been doing so for years! Hey, I'm on Twitter. I'm part of this generation!

Later today, I'm going to be singing at a Christmas Eve mass at a church in the village, along with a couple of kids from KASPAR HAUSER (a show I did last spring at The Flea) and my lil' brother Aaron! Delightful! If we can only remember all of the verses to "We Three Kings" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," everything'll be gravy.

I'll keep this short, so that I might spend time with the fam during this holiday season (and my two days off)! I'll leave you with this Christmasy haiku:

Carol of the Bells:
Happy songs in minor keys
Make me want to sing.

Adieu.