Happy Halloween!

Arrrr, matey! Me n me first mate here, we be wishing you all a Happy Halloween!

It's been a crazy few weeks, juggling classes and auditions and daily life. As the leaves turn gold and the wind blows cold, I simply thrill to the sense of change that's in the air. Keeping positive, learning as I go. The light in the darkness. We have to keep hopeful, positive and buoyant.

I'll be hanging with my buds in midtown. My friends, Carl and Michael always host a lovely Halloween gathering by their hearth. Yes, they have an actual working fireplace in the their apartment! And it's such a treat to be in the warmth of their company on these chilly nights.

May your Halloween night be an absolute delight! And may this time of harvesting be plentiful for all!

Taking the Plunge

The last 24 hours have been pretty incredible. I just feel like I'm vibrating!

First off, last night I went to see The 39 Steps with my friend, Wayne Henry (Pepi Pisano from Johnny on a Spot), and it was BRILLIANT! Truly, anyone who wants to see high quality work on Broadway should head over to the Cort Theatre, because this show is exceptional!

4 actors bring about 150 characters (so billed) to life in Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece about an average fellow in London who gets mixed up with a beautiful spy and begins a wild goose-chase to clear his name of... murder. Hitchcock even gets his famous cameo in one of the chase scenes! Hysterical!

What's incredible about this piece is that it's basically a trunk show. There's no set - just bare brick walls - which reminded me of the show I did this summer Off Broadway at Cherry Lane, Kaboom - and the props are minimal. But what is there is brilliant! There's great use of the red velvet curtains that open and close the show, and there are simple pieces of furniture like a moving door that gives you a sense of being in a cavernous mansion.

The show is brilliantly brought to life by the stellar cast who are all tip-top with crystal clear characters, various dialects and precise physicalizations. Plus the lights and sound and the music (gorgeous!) all create the proper mood. Very Hitchcock! Great style! Mmmm!

(L-R: Sam Robards, Arnie Burton, Cliff Saunders, and Jennifer Ferrin)

One of my favorite scenes was when the hero makes a daring escape on a train, which consisted of a few trunks, but the cast made every part of that train real - from the individual cars, doors, windows, tight squeezes... to the great chase on "the roof." Really exceptional!

And I said to my friend, Wayne, "This is why I love theatre! You have to commit 100%. You can't do any of this half-baked!"

(me and Wayne backstage on the last show of Johnny on a Spot)

And that brings me to Part 2 of "Taking the Plunge."

After last night's show, I went home and worked on my scene from The Dark at the Top of the Stairs for today's master class in film directing at Columbia University. The director for the scene was a 2nd year grad student named Sally Liu, and she had found my name in the casting files for Columbia and asked if I could do this scene for her. We only had 2 days to work on this scene, so it was intense work, especially for this highly emotional scene where 2 sisters are coming to each other with their troubles. Just getting 10 pages of text memorized in 2 days was a challenge, but I was excited to take it.

We presented the scene to the class this morning, and the professor, Emmy Award winner, John Erman, gave us amazing adjustments. He had us improvise the scene and actually flipflopped the characters a bit, which made me discover the softer side of my big blousey character. He also was very kind and complimentary and encouraging and showed the director how she could achieve what she wanted with the scene by trying a few different things like improvisation. He also mentioned how important it is for a director to dig deep, to help an actor "plunge into the pit" of an emotion. It was brilliant work! I learned so much! And I feel so honored that I have worked consistently with directors this year who have helped me to "take the plunge," to be big and bold in my work and to trust my instincts, to just go for it!

Like the hero says in The 39 Steps, When you are thrust into a situation, you often can amaze yourself with your own inventiveness, or something of the sort. :)

So here's to the next step! And the next!

What's next?

This question is always asked of an actor and it always blows me away. You can be in the midst of a nice run for a play or a musical and people will still ask, "What's next?" I guess it's human nature to look ahead, and I myself am usually in that mode, wondering what's around the corner, but I guess because I've been so busy, juggling 3 different plays since July, I feel like I've just come from a fabulously full feast, and I'm still savoring it all. Yum! :)

Of course, I'm not one to idle, and I've got a bunch of auditions and acting classes already lined up for this month into the next. A lot of scenework from scripts for TV, film and theatre are being sent my way, so I'm getting to delve into all that, learning, growing, stretching as an actor, and I just love it!

I'm also catching up with my friends and family, laughing and listening and sharing stories and adventures.

When I can, I'm going to dive back into book 5 of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. HBO's True Blood series is based on these books, and I'm enjoying both of these vampire tales. Fitting for this time of year.

I can also finally jump into my friend, Tina's book, Under The Sun: The First Five Years of the Essential Herbal, which is gonna come in handy this Fall and Winter. Heck! It's great for any time of year! There are so many fantastic recipes and natural remedies, and the personal stories are a treat unto themselves!

I'm also cultivating my monologues, new and old, reading and rereading works from my favorite playwrights: Theresa Rebeck, David Hare, Beth Henley, and Don Nigro. Until I can study with her, Karen Kohlhaas' monologue audition book is a godsend in this department! I can't recommend it enough!

Musically, I'm opening my ears to all kinds of music, listening to songs that catch me, knowing I'll be working on my songbook for musical theatre auditions too.

Plus I'm still busy booking gigs! I was called in to do voice over work for TransCanada, and had a ball playing the bitchy office worker who always stirs things up.

It wasn't too far a cry from my character in Johnny On A Spot, and I actually got the audition based on a recommendation from one of my Johnny castmates, Robert O'Gorman (pictured above from left to right: Ellen Zolezzi, Robert, me, and Mark Manley).

Robert has an incredible voice - deep and gravelly and imbued with humor. He also booked the voice-over gig (of course), and we had fun catching each other as we took turns in the recording booth.

I just got a call to do a scene from The Dark at the Top of the Stairs for John Erman's master class in film directing at Columbia University, so I'll be diving into William Inge's emotionally provocative piece. I've been meaning to read more of Inge's works anyway (with a yen to read Picnic), so this'll be great fun!

Before my evenings get booked up, I have plans to see more theatre. August Osage County, The 39 Steps, and Billy Elliot (which my Kaboom director is working on), are on my list, to name a few.

And I'm jumping into a sitcom/comedy class next week.

So what's next? PLENTY! :)

Still in a Whirl

These past 3 months have been incredible, because I have been working fulltime as an actor. It really is a milestone, because so often artists find themselves "between gigs," but since July I've been fortunate to be going from one show to the next, and this is the first time I've been rehearsing for one show while in the midst of performing another.

It has been such a wonderfully wild ride, and there have been so many cherries on this cake... like getting to work with Broadway greats like Ray Wills from The Producers and being directed by the amazing BT McNicholl, who's currently resident director for Billy Elliott on Broadway. Just working with these phenomenal folks really helped me step up my game for Kaboom, Michael Small's new comedy that premiered Off Broadway at the exquisite Cherry Lane Theatre. It was such a blast to work on a new comedy that gave me such room to play and grow with a zany character like Kandy (above left).

Then there was Johnny on a Spot, which closed this past weekend. What a tantalizing treat to dive into a period piece like this one where there were 25 fully fleshed-out characters! You could tell Charles MacArthur loved the vibe of the newspaper men of his day, because there were only 3 women in this show, and even then, us gals were hearty! There was Ellen Zolezzi (left) who played the loving yet wise-cracking secretary, Margery Beddow (center) who played the ballsy madame with a heart of gold, and me, the steel magnolia who would give Scarlet O'Hara a run for her money!

The fellows were all wonderful! Mark Manley (above) played my Uncle Willy and I loved how we incorporated pieces of our characters' personalities to show the family resemblence. No one could throw a temper tantrum like my Barbara, but Mark sure gave it a go with his dotingly befuddled but just as much a foot-stamping uncle.

Kevin Kolack was a sweetpea and played a newspaper reporter as well as the super trooper who would haul me off at the beginning of Act 3. As I said, my character was a trouble-maker and quite the hellcat, but the audiences seemed to love her, and if they were really into it, they'd even give us exit applause as Kevin hauled me offstage.

I made such great friends with all the cast and crew and will sure miss them.

The coolest thing about this past weekend is that my Dad flew out from CA on a surprise trip. He made it to the theatre just in time to catch the final performance of Johnny and he also got to see the staged reading of SIN which I did the very next day.

Sin was a little mind-blowing because I got to perform with one of my childhood acting heroes, F. Murray Abraham. I had seen Mr. Abraham in the film Amadeus when I was a kid, and I was so moved by his wicked yet devoted performance as Salieri. It was beyond a dream come true to be acting onstage with him. I played "the only demon cursed with a sensitive soul" and he played Satan. Yeah, pretty cool. :)

And the rest of the cast which was nothing to sneeze at! There was the beautiful Marilyn Chris, the hysterical Alvin Epstein, Paul Hecht and Mary Rose Synek, all of us directed by Robert Kalfin, who helmed the original production of Yentl, one of my favorite stories...

I just feel so fortunate to have worked with all of these incredible people and to have been able to share these joyous performances with my family (on both coasts) and my friends. My cup runneth over! And I am ever so thankful!

Theatre Stories

It's the closing week for Johnny On A Spot and everyone's been very sentimental. A lot of Broadway shows are closing or have closed as well (Xanadu, Legally Blonde) and I imagine those casts are feeling just as sentimental.

Last night, some of our cast members were talking about their first Broadway experiences, whether they were shows they had seen or participated in, and I just marvelled at the universal experience theatre inspires in others - that sense of joy and awe.

Dale Carman told me about seeing Funny Girl at the Winter Garden, and how he and his partner arrived late, so they made their way through the dark, feeling along the walls of the theatre until they found their seats, and then they were absolutely dazzled by the rich red lights when the show started. I imagined how Dale must've felt seeing Barbra Streisand on the stage, a young woman ready to take the world by storm.

Margery Beddow (pictured above with Dale) remembered seeing Barbra sing at at a club. I think she said it was called "Bon Soir." And she said that even then Barbra spoke of herself as an actress who sang. "And when she sang... wow!"

Margery herself has an incredible history of performing on many a Broadway stage, and her list of credits is a mile long! I loved hearing about when she came to Manhattan as a ballerina and had a nice career in that field before joining Bob Fosse as one of his dancers and assistants. To hear her talk about her audition with Bob is just so darned cool! She wrote a book about it, called Bob Fosse's Broadway, and Wayne Henry, who is hilarious as Pepi Pisano in "Johnny" brought the book in for Margery to sign. We all goggled over the pictures of her and Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Just incredible! Margie said Gwen taught her the role of Lola for a regional production of Damn Yankees, and Margie also understudied Gwen on Broadway in Redhead. Truly, they look like sisters!

I'm just beyond thrilled that I've been able to work with these incredible people, and of course it makes me think of my first Broadway experience. I was a kid when my parents took me to see CATS and then The Phantom of The Opera. And now I'm working with all these Broadway people! So cool!

Things are coming together in such a fascinating way... I feel like how I felt when I was waiting in the wings with Christopher Fitzgerald (who's now playing Igor in Young Frankenstein). We were at the NY Musical Theatre Festival gala and were both award recipients of the NYMF Award of Excellence. It was such a magical moment, getting ready to take the stage...

All these moments seem to be building up to something. They're all incredible pieces of the puzzle!

Next up:
I'm doing a staged reading with F. Murray Abraham whose work I've admired since I saw his Academy Award winning performance for Amadeus. I'm reprising my role in this 2nd staged reading Mark Altman's play, Sin, sharing the stage with Marilyn Chris, Alvin Epstein, Paul Hecht and Mary Rose Synek. Robert Kalfin directs. Playbill.com has the scoop. :)

Portraits of Artists

"To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!"

~ James Joyce

I love in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway how John Cusack's struggling writer keeps going back to the question, "Do you love the art in the man or the man in the artist?"

That sense of integrity was never clearer than in Paul Newman's works as an actor and humanitarian. He and his wife Joanne Woodward always made me think of me and my longtime sweetheart, especially with the sentiment, "I have steak at home. Why go out for hamburger?"

Paul Newman will certainly be missed. His work lives on.

It makes me appreciate the people around me. I have been so fortunate to be surrounded by such wonderful people who happen to be artists. :) And the internet makes it that much easier to connect with folks from all over the world. That never ceases to amaze me!

My childhood friend, Kara Herold, who is taking the documentary film to a whole new level, will be showing her piece, Bachelorette 34 at the Mill Valley Film Festival. I can't wait til she brings this film from San Fran to the Big Apple. Rock on, Kara!The Herb Sisters, Tina and Maryanne, are in the midst of a wholesale fair in PA - kind of like the major wholesale events that are held at the Javitz Center, but this is in Lebanon, PA. The Sisters are showcasing their incredible soapworks. I am so proud of them!

And this week is the closing week for Johnny On A Spot. Gosh, I'm gonna miss that crew! It has been so magical to do this show, to be growing as an actor, listening to my fellow actors and going with the ebb and flow of the audience's responses. Whether it's laughter or a gasp - one audience member even said, "Uh oh" when my feisty character is told "no" - everyone has responded to it very strongly.

(Pictured with Carter Roy)

One of the things I've loved about this show is the length of the run - 5 weeks! Some Broadway shows don't even last that long! But The Peccadillo Theatre Company has really given us the chance to spread our wings. It's been lovely!

The Pleasures of PA

I woke up this morning to my favorite classical radio station, WQXR and heard an ad for visitPA.com. That made me smile because Pennsylvania is truly one of my favorite places to be!

I grew up in the desert between Los Angeles and San Diego, so when I was hired for the Shakespeare troupe for the PA Renaissance Faire, I had no idea I'd be going into a world so lush and green! It was so very different from my little tumbleweed town of Hemet, CA, but I immediately fell in love, not only with the place but with the people.

I met my fiance, Rob, at the PA Ren Faire. He was cast the comic villain, Cardinal Synne (the handsome fellow center in the pic above), and we performed in many of the stage shows, not to mention the interactive "street work" (think improvisational Shakespeare). I also met my soul sister, Tina (tada girl on the left), who was working with her sister, Maryanne (far right) at the Faire's herb shoppe. These two wild women were quickly dubbed The Twisted Sisters because of their hysterical sense of humors.

We all left the Faire after a few seasons. Rob and I moved to NY, and the Sisters started their own businesses, evolving into The Sibling Group.

I recently got to visit Tina in her woodsy paradise, and it was such a thrill to see her at work. I'm a big fan of her magazine, The Essential Herbal, and it was so cool to be right where it all happens!

Tina was showing me around, taking time to literally stop and smell the roses and caress the leaves. She even did some quick harvesting of some St. Basil on the fly.Maryanne lives right down the road from Tina, and I got to see where she makes her incredible handmade jewelry for her Torchsong Studio.The jewelry is really exceptional and each piece is unique. I HAD to get a bracelet and came home with a piece that looks like her "Blue Nebula."
It was such an immense pleasure to be around the Sisters, laughing and talking about all sorts of stuff, from old times to world events. These gals are such incredibly BIG small business owners and their works are treasures indeed!

A Period Piece

I'm in week 3 of performances for Johnny on a Spot Off Broadway at the Theatre at St. Clement's and this is such a neat time because everyone has started to let loose and play. When a show is "going up," starting previews and those first few performances, there is so much everyone onstage is thinking about: lines, movement, costume changes, getting a feel for the audience. And in a physical comedy like this one, all manner of things can happen! The stage gets wet in Act 2 and that leads to some interesting foot work! I try to jump over a desk to start a catfight with the hero's secretary, and the other night I almost fell! Thank the gods for Mark Manley (the mustached fellow in the picture), who plays my uncle. He has a ton of dance training and I immediately felt his hands grab my waist, supporting me in a dancer's lift. What a man!

That's the cool thing with this cast: There are 16 of us and we utterly support each other! Every night I give Kevin Kolack a giant hug after he carries me offstage in Act 2, slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes! Kevin was a firefighter in Indiana for about 10 years and here he is in NY, making films and working onstage, making his dreams come true just like we all are! It is so wonderful to be part of this community!(left to right: Robert O'Gorman, Carter Roy, Christian Rummel, Michael Lopez, Mark Manley, and me)

There are moments backstage when I wish I had a camera. It is so incredible to be performing this period piece from 1942 in an establishment that was probably around during that time! Brick walls surround us, emphasized for Joe Spirito's gorgeous set design, and as I look at us all in our costumes, the guys in hats and 3 piece suits, the girls in the stylish frocks, I can't help but marvel at the magic of theatre and the opportunity we all have to be transported!

I've noticed so many smiling faces in the audience when we take our bows and I want to say thanks to each and everyone who has taken this ride with us and have expressed their joy. Boogie woogie on! :)

A giant leap!

There's a story my Dad passed onto me, and where he heard it from, I can't recall, but it's a good one and I have to share it with you:

There's a frog who's hopping along and falls down a hole. He ribbets and calls out to other frogs who come to look down at him. They shout at him, but he can't hear what they're saying, so he takes it as encouragement and starts hopping, aiming to jump out of the hole. The other frogs get more and more emphatic with each jump he attempts, and it spurs the little frog to keep leaping towards his goal until he finally bounds out into the open.

When he gets to the top, the other frogs say to him, "We can't believe you did it. We kept telling you to stop!"

"Stop?" the little frog says. "I thought you were telling me to HOP... to keep trying... so I did!"

And I love this story, because it teaches that we are the power in our world. We can leap beyond all limitations! We just have to keep trying and look beyond 'em. :)

In my life, I'm actually blessed with an abundance of cheerleaders, and I am so thankful for the ease of communication that makes this possible. Whether it's daily phone calls from my sweetheart, Rob, as either of us bounce about Manhattan, or weekly talks with my little bro, Sean (imaging him in the bright sunshine of CA), or daily IM's with Tina, thinking of her in the wild woods of PA, or IMing with my Big Apple soul-sibling, Carl, I am so grateful for this loving community. Rock on, y'all! :) Much love and many blessings! :)

We're all taking steps every day that will lead to leaps and bounds.

Art and life - 100 years in the making

It was 1920 when women were given the right to vote, though it was 1848 when votes for women were first seriously proposed in the U.S. Can you believe it took over 70 years before this was finally legalized?

As a young woman, I wish I'd been more conscious of this fight. I can't believe it's not taught in schools! It took the HBO film Iron Jawed Angels to make me realize what the women of this country went through to get the right to vote and that their protests of picketing the White House and staging marches and demonstrations were considered "radical." I pay tribute to these fighting spirits and to all people who work for a better present and future.

Funny Food for Thought

A few years ago my coach, VP Boyle, told me to dive into comedy and watch everything I could on this art form since I seemed to have a knack for it. This came as somewhat a surprise because I'd come from a strong dramatic background, having played everything from Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker to Agnes of God. But I also played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors and Gooch in MAME, so the fire was always there.

Now I feel like a comedy archeologist! Delighting in that great freedom of spirit, that fearless sense of "going for it," the bouyancy, the timing and quick-thinking, enjoying the work that has been coming my way.

The last show I did, Kaboom, was a fast-paced physical farce, and it was so cool to talk with my director, BT McNicholl, about some of the founding fathers of physical comedy like Buster Keaton and The Marx Brothers. Can you just imagine them signing the Declaration of Indepence?

Now I'm in the midst of Johnny On a Spot Off Broadway, which crackles with that 1940's fire. And I'm keeping my eyes open, devouring everything I can, enjoying the music of comedy.

I saw the 1939 film, The Women last night on the Turner Classic Movie channel and was amazed at the diversity of the piece. From Rosalind Russell's His Girl Friday firecracker delivery to Paulette Goddard's winking bad girl who aids Norma Shearer's heart-breaking phoenix.... what great stuff!

And of course I'm watching Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, these ground-breakingly gifted comediennes. Their recent Palin/Clinton parody on Saturday Night Live was brilliant!

Endless food for thought!

Shining City

A few years before 9/11, I remember driving into Manhattan with my sweetheart, Rob, and there was this perfect moment where the afternoon sun simply glinted off the city, making it look golden. The view from NJ was particularly spectacular, and I felt like that moment summed up what Manhattan was to me: the golden city where dreams come true.

I thought I had captured that moment on film, but I can't seem to find the photo, so here's one at sunrise by Joel Altschuler:
9/11 was a horrible day. I could see the smoke from midtown while firetrucks zoomed downtown, none of us ever dreaming the towers would fall. I remember that day with such horror and despair, but there was also an intense "coming together" of the people. We all did what we could to help each other through, and I must pay tribute to the brave men and women who lost so much in that disaster. May we never forget. And may healing and harmony emanate throughout.

Opening Night!!!

Mel Brooks has forever taken over that sentiment for me, because I can't help but think of the song in The Producers whenever I think of the term "Opening Night!" It's a great song and totally captures the excitement and anticipation of opening a show.

We opened Johnny On A Spot last night Off Broadway at the Theatre at St. Clements, and we were blessed with such a lovely audience! Lots of laughs and wonderful warmth! I even got some "exit applause" on 2 of my big exits. Gosh, that was cool! I had had the same experience in Kaboom - where the audience gave me kudos after my first scene - and it's just such a gift! Talk about generous spirits!

After the show, we went to Cascina for the cast party. It's a beautiful Italian restaurant on 9th Avenue. What a blast! I'm still on Cloud 9! And of course the cameras came out! Here's a pic of me, our director Dan Wackerman, and my co-star Ellen Zolezzi:

And my best guy friends, Michael Kane and Carl Einbeck, came to share in the jubilation: It was such a joyous night and it was lovely to share it with the cast and crew and Peccadillo supporters.

As I marvel at my journey, I look to other artists in the field who are making also their dreams come true and I salute you all! 2 artists in particular have caught me eye because of their tenacious spirits: Jill Santoriello (composer, lyricist and book writer of the new Broadway musical, A Tale of Two Cities) and Susan Blackwell of [title of show]. Reading their stories on Broadway.com helps to fuel the fire of making my own dreams come true!

YES, WE CAN!!! :)

The cast and crew of "Johnny on a Spot"

We had our last preview for Johnny On A Spot yesterday, which has given us time for some good growth. Thank the gods for previews because hopefully that lets the audience know it's still a work in progress. With remnants of the hurricane blowing into Manhattan, our Saturday night show was surrounded by buckets of rain, but we still had an audience. God bless 'em! And I'm always reminded of that Bill Murray line from the film Tootsie where he says he wants an audience "who just came out of the worst rainstorm in this city's history. These are people who are alive on the planet until they dry off. " And that was our lovely group. :)

It is so cool when you can feel a show coming together! Everything from the set to the costumes to the pacing and acting... it is definitely a group effort! And this cast and crew have certainly been working hard to make it happen!

It's a large cast - there are 16 of us! - and everyone is a pro!

There's Margery Beddow, who plays the town's madame, Pearl, and she is a hoot! She also has a ton of incredible stories to boot! She came to the city as a ballerina and ended up working with Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon whom she understudied in RedHead and who taught her all of Lola's pieces from Damn Yankees.

Margery also worked with Mark Manley, who plays my Uncle Willie, and she also worked with our lovely costume designer, Gail Copper-Hecht, who was a performer prior to turning her creativity to costuming. Gail played Gloria Upson on tour in the non-muiscal version of Auntie Mame and then Sally Kato in the musical, MAME. She can still do Gloria's "I can't tell you how pleased I am to make your acquaintance" speech which is hilarious!

Ellen Zolezzi plays the "gal Friday" role and definitely brings a lot of spirit to the show! She's pictured above with Robert O'Gorman, Dale Carman, Mark Manley, Jerry Coyle, Carter Roy, driector Dan Wackerman, Marc Ginsberg and Kevin Kolack. Kevin was a fireman for 10 years in his home state of Indiana and he hoists me over his shoulder in Act 3 with ease and grace. He is a super trooper. :)
Backstage with the boys: Marc Ginsberg, Michael Lopez, Dale Carman, Kevin Kolack, and Louis Sacco (who also plays the voice of Johnny).

Michael Lopez (pictured above with Mark Manley) plays our cautious Chief of Police and a very funny salesman from VT. He and I were both doing the Fringe Fest while in the midst of rehearsals for Johnny.

Our cast is rounded out beautifully by Bergin Michaels, Christian Rummel (above center), Wayne Henry (above left), hilarious as an Italian bodyguard who is more buffoon than bodyguard, and the marvelous Raymond Thorne.

Kudos to our incredible sceneic designer, Joseph Spirito, who worked night and day on the set with his lovely wife. Also hats off to lighting designer, Jeffrey E. Salzberg, and our awesome stage managers, Scott Earley (also in charge of sound design) and Liza Baron (pictured below).We have a special performance tonight for subscribers then we run Sept. 11-Oct. 4th. Thurs. - Saturday nights at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets are $20, which is pretty affordable considering how movie tickets are over $10: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/2772

Come get a taste of old-fashioned 1940's style and comedy! :)

Johnny On A Spot - In Previews

I can't help beaming: Johnny On A Spot has started previews off Broadway while Equus with Daniel Radcliffe (brilliant in the Harry Potter films) has started previews on Broadway. I actually walked by the Broadhurst Theatre this week on the way to the Theatre at St. Clement's, and it all just made me feel... energized. Times Square can often be a challenge to get through, but lately I feel like I have magic slippers on that allow me to move along The Great White Way with ease. It is an absolute delight!

Inspiring Presences

As I've been zooming around lately, making my dreams come true by donig a great deal of work in the theatre, I must tip my hat to some of the wonderful people who help me make this all possible:

My fiance, Rob, has been on this life ride with me for many moons. We met at the PA Renaissance Faire when we were both cast in the Shakespearean acting troupe, and he immediately caught my attention with his wicked sense of humor. To quote Jessica Rabbit, "He makes me laugh," and that humor has been a huge asset in life as well as art. Though he left the biz years ago to go into graphic design, his understanding of the "music of comedy" has been a great help to me since that's where I've been getting most of my acting work lately, so I must give kudos to my great love who is also my comedy coach. :)

My friend, Tina (pictured with her daughter Molly), whom I also met during my time at the Ren Faire, lives in PA, and we chat everyday on IM, providing much needed "visits." My day just isn't the same if I don't see her online. She's the one who got me blogging in the first place! And she's always an inspiration to me, having created her own business, The Essential Herbal, working to make this world a better place not only by doing work she loves to do, but by going "green" before it was trendy to do so, respecting nature's bounty. Congrats, Tina, on your 7th year of success!

There are also a ton of people who have shaped me through my life: my 8th grade English teacher, Marcia Cloyd, who always believed in me and still keeps in touch with me via email. Gotta love the internet! My friend, Lisa Terrell, from high school, who is an ICU nurse and forever inspires me with her bravery in life and in the ER. My NY friends, Carl and Michael and Ataman, who are just too dear for words! My own brother, Sean, who is an incredible musican (drummer/guitarist/songwriter for SMUG and drummer for Hippie Cream). He always reminds me that art is persepective: all we can do is our best as we put our art out there. My sister-in-law, Lani, who is an incredible working mom and endless fount of love and passion. And my own parents who always made sure to cultivate my artistic energy with dance/gymnastics/voice lessons and came to just about every show I did in CA. They've also made a few guest appearances here in the Big Apple. Hoping they'll be able to catch Johnny On A Spot.

Speaking of which, almost every cast and crew I've worked with have become a 2nd family in the midst of production and rehearsals. That's the amazing thing about theatre and the arts - there's a great sense of bringing people together. It truly is a community!

Much love to all of you "inspiring presences." :)

Everyone has a story

As I watched the Democratic Convention last week, I was happy to get a glimpse of Barack Obama's life story. Like many people, I didn't know much about him, though that didn't deter me from being absolutely blown away by some of his speeches early on in his campaign. In fact, I had originally been a Hillary supporter, but after I saw Obama speak, I knew this was the person who could truly be an amazing Commander and Chief. Every time someone threw some garbage his way, he handled it with great poise and calm, and I believe that's what this country needs in a leader.

Watching his story and watching history take place, made me think about my own stories and the people who brought me into this world (like my Dad and grandparents pictured left). My Mom had done some genealogy research when I was a teen, and she made a huge family tree, tracing our roots back to the Goddard and Daniel families of the 1600s! The Goddards were mostly from England and the Daniel family was actually the Scottish Daniell. Both families came to America and men from both sides ended up marrying Cherokee women. The families settled in the middle of the country, but moved west in the 40s.

The current play I'm working on makes me think so much of my family, because it takes place in the 40s, which my grandparents and great-aunts and uncles always had such great stories about. I have a feeling they'd enjoy Johnny On A Spot, which has some delicious history itself in that it opened on Broadway right before America became involved in World War Two, so it didn't get a chance to play long. In fact, this production is the first Off Broadway production to happen since then!

It was written by Charles MacArthur who wrote a ton of plays including Twentieth Century and The Front Page which became a film of its own title and was later remade as His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. Johnny On A Spot crackles with that same fast-paced wit and has a huge cast of characters! There are 3 women and 13 men! Isn't that wild? Usually it's the other way around, and I appreciate that Mr. MacArthur lets the ladies take the limelight.

I play Barbara Webster, a feisty little southern belle who I'm sure modeled herself after Scarlett O'Hara! She is an absolute whirlwind of a character who comes onstage and simply stirs up trouble. And I have to laugh, because as a kid, I used to watch Gone With the Wind whenever it came on TV, and I just loved it! I think my parents had even taken me to an actual theatrical showing of the film where it played with an intermission. And what little girl didn't want to be either Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz or Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind? Well, I have to simply marvel because I've gotten to play both these character types this year when I sang as Judy Garland in Hell's Belles and now as Miss Barbara Webster in Johnny On a Spot.

So Johnny opens this week for previews! Wowza! And it's my first lengthy run Off Broadway (5 weeks), so it's really a time for celebration! Yahoo!

Last Dance

Yesterday was the final Fringe show for Kaboom, and it was a blast! So many friends and family filled the audience, and there's always something especially cool about the audience for a final show. It's almost like everyone's there to see what "parting gift" they might get in the way of an inside joke or a magical mistake or some last minute zaniness from the actors on stage.

Well, we had such a moment in Act One when a sound cue was missed. Our tech folks were in a tiny brick "booth" off stage right with no visibility except for a teeny little monitor, so its no wonder! But it happened on my cue of knocking on an invisible door, so I just said, "Knock, knock, knock," and the audience erupted in laughter! So we went right along with it and had a laugh ourselves, enjoying that connection with the crowd and the magic of live theatre.

It all went too fast really. With only a few weeks of rehearsal and 5 performances spread out over 2 weeks, by the final show, we all felt like we were just getting in the groove!

My stage partner, John DiDomenico (pictured with his wife at the cast party), reminded me that if we were on Broadway, it would've been only our 5th performance of the week! And Ray Wills followed this up with the fact that we still would've been in tech rehearsals if we were on Broadway. But it's all good! That's what's so interesting about Fringe festivals. You have a super short amount of time to rehearse and perform, so you just throw yourself into it and do your best.

I had read somewhere that Christopher Plummer comes to his first rehearsal with the script already memorized, and while that's not quite possible with a show that's a work-in-progress, I can see why he does it. That way he can savor absolutely every moment of the ride, of discovering the evolution of the characters and their journey.

Kaboom was a blast! I would do it again in a heartbeat!

When the show was over, we went to Daddy-O's in the Village to celebrate. Got lots of cool pics. Hope you dig em!

The cast and crew give kudos to our writer, Michael Small.

Michael Small and his lovely wife, Cindy (right).

Our director BT McNicholl with John DiDomenico outside Cherry Lane Theatre (on left). And Our associate director and choreographer PennyAyn Maas (on right).

Our awesome crew: JonMarkPonder (asst. dir), David Premack (sound), Amanda Gwin (asst. stage manager), and Devan Hibbard (our sensational stage manager).

The Kaboom guys backstage: Tyler Hollinger, Ray Wills, John DiDomenico (back) Jim Barry and Fred Rose
Kristen Cerelli and I share a hug backstage (above).

Some friends and fellow artists from PA and NJ came to join in the fun!
Thanks, Carolyn, Chris, Jayne and Dwayne! You guys rock!
And many thanks to my super troopers who've come to see just about every show I've ever done in the Big Apple: Robbie (my sweetpea), Carl, Michael and Ataman.

A big thanks to all my friends and family who've been a part of this ride. I love you all!

Hope you all had a blast!