Busy bookings!

This past month, it's been raining scripts! I've been juggling so many different versions of text and research. It's been a great test of focus, and miraculously, I've been booking gigs!
 
I booked a radio spot for Toyota, posted under Voice Overs on my Media page. I'm the excited caller. :)

I also just booked the role of Pat the Park Ranger in Sasquatched! The Musical, running in the New York Musical Theatre Festival July 9-14 at the Pearl Theatre. It's an incredibly cute show, and I'm excited to start rehearsing next month.

I got a call to play a devious debutante on the recording of Jerome Kern's "Roberta" this Fall.

And I just completed Heidi Marshall's on-camera class, which was AWESOME. I loved diving into a new script each week, casting my net wide, learning to trust my instincts and fine-tune my on-camera skills. It'll help with a web series callback I just got as well! ;)

Love love love this exciting time!

Bloomin!

I love this time of year! Everything's in bloom! And I feel like that too!

Last week I booked and recorded a radio spot for Toyota, working with the lovely Laurel Coppock. It was a great gig, giving me the opportunity to try a gazillion voices, finding the right tone for the piece.

I also booked more "concert performances" (backer's auditions) of Hell's Belles the musical. Seems we might be getting close to a sit-down Off Broadway.

And I was called back for "Sasquatched! the Musical" at NYMF.

My friend, Tina, joked that last year I fell in love with a shark in JAWS The Musical. This year... could be Sasquatch! ;)

Taking the reins

"If you don't take the reins, it's going to stay the same. Nothin's gonna change if you don't change it!" :) - Dolly Parton

I've been hearing this call to change the past few weeks. Someone even told me to "change your tactic," and I guess it finally got through, because I just kinda let everything go and opened up to possibilities. And you know what? I feel lighter. And things just seemed to blossom easily. I received 3 offers for gigs this week. REALLY cool! And I booked a BIG gig, a radio spot which I'll blog about after the fact.

I'm just digging the changes, ya know, that feeling of riding the wind. It feels great!

Writing for SNL at the PIT

Last week, I completed the "Writing for SNL" workshop at The PIT (aka The People's Improv Theatre). It was a blast! Taught by the brilliant Ali Farahnakian, the class was set up like a writer's room with Ali as the head writer.

We'd bring in a new sketch each week - lots of homework, kids! - and we'd learn from each other's examples as Ali helped us to fine-tune our ideas. It was incredibly fun and expanded my mind in a really neat way.

The cool thing was that the class gave me the structure I was looking for to start working on other short scripts. I'd had a few ideas of things I wanted to work on, going into the class. Now, I've got a bunch! The river of imagination is flowing! :)

I find myself writing every day, and applying the same daily discipline to my acting. When I started the class, Ali said, "A writer writes (and rewrites) daily." I immediately thought, "And an actor must act. A singer must sing!"

One of the challenges of living in a big city like NY is the need to pay the rent while doing shows. Even some actors on Broadway keep a day job so they can pay their mortgage. The key is to do it in your field. So that's my goal: Focusing on growing my art and repertoire every day. Because it makes me happy. :) And life's too short not to invest in what makes you happy.

                                  Rose Petal Pool by Rounder (Joanne Jovinelly/Figment)

Happy Easter!

Happy Spring!

Tweiss Productions

I have to thank Eileen and Sharon Weiss of Tweiss Productions.

I've been working with these tenacious ladies since Hell's Belles took the stage on at the West End Theatre on 86th Street, and it is always a pleasure to circle up with them.

We had a lovely private reading for potential investors last week, and it gave me such a boost to do the show again. Playing larger than life women like Janis Joplin and Judy Garland will do that for a girl, and I'm so thankful to these ladies for giving me the opportunity to do just that! :)

An Imitation

Have you every heard that saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? I'd like to think that applies to some of the acting the work I do, paying homage to Janis Joplin and Judy Garland in the musical "Hell's Belles." I'm doing a concert version of the show this Thursday March 21 at the new HA! Comedy Club. We've done several private performances, garnering support for the show to have an Off Broadway run. It's a lot of fun!

I've studied these ladies in depth, and it's an honor to slip into their guises for a song and a scene. One producer told me he saw Garland's entire career in my performance, and another producer delighted in my unbridled no-holds-barred expression of Janis.

These "imitations" are meant with great respect to the original artists.

However, a friend of mine recently had her work stolen, and that blows me away. She's a writer, and she created The Essential Herbal magazine. This print magazine (she also has PDFs for the digital side) brings together a fantastic community of herbalists, who in turn share their recipes and herbal adventures. Well, someone decided to steal these recipes word for word and re-issue them in an e-book, selling for a hefty fee.

I was furious when I heard about this. How could someone think they could just lift her material and publish it as their own? That is not only incredibly disrespectful but against the law!

Tina, always a class act, is now posting these recipes (with permission from her partners) for free on her blog.

"The truth will out!"

I marvel at Tina and am so glad she's my friend. I love the work she and her sister Maryanne do. We've been friends for a long time since we met at the PA Renaissance Faire. My husband and I were in the acting troupe, and Tina and Maryanne were vendors. It's been a lifelong friendship ever since.

                                                        (Maryanne, me, and Tina)

Tina's situation makes me think of something I constantly hear as an actor, which has really begun to resonate with me: "Bring yourself to the table," and to the role, because you are unique. Your experience is unique and informs the work you do. Embrace that!