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)