Sascha: An Actress Prepares

Devising Auditions 101

2020-01-28T20:14:00.000-06:00

Maybe you're like me and you've never been to a devising audition before. Sure, you know how to memorize a monologue. You've been trained rigorously to introduce yourself, your piece, and then say thank you before leaving. You know where to set your eyes so you don't make the important people in the room uncomfortable. And you're certain that what you have to offer is different from everyone else, and hopefully that will be enough.

Devising auditions-- so I've learned-- definitely don't work like that. Now, let me clarify: I attend a Devised Performance MFA program with a prestigious devising ensemble theatre company. This does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that I know everything about devising. This weekend was the first devising audition I've attended outside of auditioning by myself for this graduate program.

A company from Chicago came to Philadelphia this weekend to resurrect a show they first produced a few years ago. The people running this ensemble company studied in Europe and have similar methodologies to what we study here in Philly. But, in case you didn't know, every single devising process on the planet is different from every other. No two companies devise alike. Everyone has created a different way of getting to the end result--a show.

This process takes time to create, and requires building a common language between bodies. For this reason, most devising companies are ensembles--they don't audition others to join them. Teaching others to work like them, after not sharing a common bond for so long is daunting and often fraught with pitfalls. Sometimes when companies are auditioning, they invite collaborators who have seen them work or seen their process to the auditions. Sometimes they invite only one person to come in. And sometimes, they'll get a whole new group together for a project so they can learn together. I would say this Chicago company is doing the latter.

This company originally split us into two time slots, with each time slot being two hours long. As they continued to accept submissions, they realized they'd need to adjust the timing. So each of these two hour slots was split into one hour slots. When I arrived (early, as we all know you should do) I learned that the time slots would hold about 20 people per group. That's right, in a devised audition you are there to show the director that you can create something from nothing with an ensemble. There is no auditioning alone!

And here's the thing. I knew this going in. I understood that I would be auditioning with other performers I hadn't met before. What I didn't understand, is what exactly that would feel like, and how it would function. Here's the basic run down of how the audition functioned:

1. Everyone circled up with the director in the middle of the room and we agreed that we were there to audition the company as much as they were there to audition us. We each had a say in how interested we would be in continuing a relationship at the end of the time slot.
2. We introduced ourselves with our name, our pronouns, and then our favorite brand of cereal.
3. We made eye contact with someone in the room (to prove that we could function as an ensemble of course) and switched spaces with them.
4. We introduced ourselves again, then switched spaces. We discussed not leaving gaps in the circle to learn how to work in close quarters together.
5. We introduced ourselves a third time, and then the director proved he could say all of our names correctly by memory.
6. Then we were asked to perform the history of the American Revolution in 30 seconds, individually. We were given 3 minutes to prepare somewhere in the room. No words allowed, but sound was.
7. We performed in a random order.
8. Then we were split into groups of 3, given the same assignment, and performed it again.
9. Then we were split into 3 groups of 5-7 and performed it again.
10. The audition was over and we were told we would hear soon about callbacks that evening.

After this audition I spent some time reflecting on the process. I'm one of those crazy actors that loves to audition. I get so excited to get into a room and show you what I can do. That's because I was always very good at cold reading from a script and interpreting a character. Or showing a monologue that no one else would think to do. I had to spend some time dissecting not only how different this process felt and how I felt about it, but I also wanted to ruminate on what I felt was successful about how the audition was run.

A few years ago, I would have thought the only important part of an audition was how I performed. These days, I'm taught to think more process oriented, and I'm encouraged to question everything. This weekend I proposed the question to myself: How would I have run this devising audition? What could have made it better?

I'm certain (certain) that every devising audition is vastly different from another, because every devising project asks something different of us. In this audition they were looking for 7 performers who would perform physically together on a platform that's around 3ft x 7ft. This is their technique. Give the ensemble a huge obstacle and see what engaging theatre comes out of it.

That means this company was looking for: very physically precise performers, who could use their body in multiple ways, and knew how to share space and give focus. There were other things like accents, singing, and characters involved. But generally speaking, you're looking for a specific kind of performer, probably of not too varying height, and they did specify preferring people of color.

What I learned from watching my entire group perform is that these 30 second individual pieces didn't seem to serve the audition well. Many people did the same things, and for those of us (like me) whose idea was taken by someone else early in the line up, we were forced to try and take a risk being different doing something we hadn't rehearsed. Yes, the director gets to see an individual body move. Could that have been accomplished with a less in depth exercise? Absolutely. Did individual creativity matter from a 3 minute rehearsal? My experience in ensemble work is that you're learning to create together. Being a great individual creator doesn't make you a great ensemble member. In my opinion, giving such a labor intensive creation exercise to be judged on individually didn't reap huge rewards, especially when auditioning for a show that is not improvisation based.

I did think the sections of being grouped off in small and large ensembles was very effective. Perhaps if we'd had the extra time from the individual round allotted to this section they could have witnessed some very creative pieces. Again, many things were repeated. Certain groups agreed on an abstract aesthetic, and some agreed to be more literal. When not knowing your fellow creators, it can be difficult to find consensus on the kind of work you want to present in a high stakes audition. With our 3 minutes to rehearse my experience was going with the first idea and trying to sell it.

Reflecting on the audition I don't know that a creative space was made in the room until the end group performances. There wasn't an opportunity through exercises to showcase physicality. Because people were trying to show they could work in a small space, most stayed central during their performance. The time spent saying names and switching places didn't translate into anything helpful when we worked in groups later. Repeating the same story (American Revolution) in every audition performance could have bred creativity to try something different, but with the time crunch created instead a recycling of things. There seemed to be a lot of missed opportunities, and I'd like to think that's because they had to quickly restructure the time slots to accommodate more bodies. What would I have done differently?

I would have capped the number of people auditioning. I would have accepted no one late to the audition. I would have started with group exercises and not focused so much on names. Perhaps some trust exercises, certainly exercises of weight sharing or building images. I would have put the individual performances at the end, and prompted it to be a different story overall.

Something about asking people to perform individually in front of each other before creating a space for the group felt counter intuitive. As if the individual comes first, and not the ensemble. I would have cut exercises to give space for others to grow. And I would have been clear about what I was searching for. If you're searching for an individual who can be abstract, then let them know. If you want a literal representation--that's important to create with in mind. If you just want to see who improvises well, explain how that informs the process of the show.

To be fair, I can't know for certain exactly what they were searching for in this audition. I've seen clips of the show and know the end result. However, the show could have been half cast and they were searching for a specific role, height, size, or attitude of attack in someone. Maybe they were casting the entire thing and looking at people who were similar to who filled the roles before. There's no way to know, and it's pointless to speculate.

What I care about is how to create a space for devisers of varying degrees of experience to come together in a short amount of time and show their best selves. Unlike in a regular theatre audition, we didn't get to prepare something ahead of time, and we had to audition one after the other seeing when someone else was taking an idea of ours before we had the chance to implement it. There was a different level of trying to stand out, and an anxiety of people searching for what to show of themselves. It was unclear if being incredibly physical was more important than being precise, or if being thorough was more important than being interesting. With so many questions in the room and no time to answer them, I learned that a room with that energy didn't give as much space for creativity, jeu (play), or risks.

And if there's no risk, there's no reward.

Looking back on it, I didn't not enjoy myself. But I'm in a program where I audition every week a new idea I have. Sometimes every day. And I know by now the difference between when my creativity is being squashed and when it's being pushed. I also know by now, that if you asked others at this audition they would disagree with me. That's the beauty of devising, I suppose. Everybody likes to do it differently. If you're lucky enough to find others who enjoy doing it the way you do, that's something special.

I think devising auditions don't happen very often, and because of that it's something without form. Even still--it needs to function. It needs to serve the purpose of seeing the best sides of your performers, by setting them up for success before they enter the room--and definitely when they're in it.

Grad School Year 2--Half Way Through

2020-01-20T21:06:00.001-06:00

This first semester has flown by, and tomorrow is the beginning of second semester of my second year of graduate school. The second year began with Translations. Which was really about devising adaptations of films and novels, and 'translating' them to the stage. We worked on Melodramas, Commedia, Balinese masks, Bouffon, and Cabaret.

We cover so much so quickly in this program, and most of it will sound like nonsense if you aren't a theatre person or even if you are a theatre person but you live in America. Our school is grounded in the pedagogy of Jacque Lecoq who started a physical theatre school in France. Mask work, melodramas, and critical, mocking pieces of theatre are not the norm here in the west. These are usually labelled as traditional, old, and definitely not for a contemporary art audience. I think if I had seen mask work a few years ago, I might not have understood it. Now, it's one of my favorite things about this program.

Here is a brief summary of the semester:

We were partitioned off into small 'companies' or ensembles that we worked within for 10 weeks. We learned the inner workings of how to communicate effectively, attempted to agree on a universally accepted aesthetic, and tried our best to make work that we found exciting, bold, and new. I felt we were successful, but this is generally a tumultuous time. Outside of school most of us hope to form companies, and when doing this we'll choose the people we want to create with, who have a similar vision, but hopefully enough difference of opinion to never become complacent. Inside graduate school however, they choose companies for you and this can make it difficult when working with people who want different things or whom you don't function well with.

I had an overwhelmingly positive experience and learned a lot about myself as a creator, more about what I enjoy making aesthetically, and even more about how I like to work and function in a group. I also can't stress enough that this was finally the point in the program where we learned what it really was to make fully fledged shows. Putting an entire show together from just a nugget of an idea, and sometimes no blueprint at all is really an amazing process. I've learned that this is a form of theatre that I find exhilarating and important. Six months ago, I hadn't really done this yet. Crazy how time flies.

My company translated the film Baby Driver to the stage, as well as the novel Oryx and Crake. We created a melodrama that was loosely based on a real life woman who operated a lighthouse with her family in New England. We learned to write musical scores, and play foley (Which means creating real sound effects on stage with items that wouldn't normally create these real sounds. Think: how do you make it sound like waves are crashing on stage? What does a shipwreck sound like? The slosh of a boat on water. No computers allowed). We learned how to function as an outside eye (Which, after much debate, is different from the role of a traditional director, but that's another story), and play a mimeur (A body that creates space on stage, sets a scene, and can be the inner desires of a character).

We did a crash course in Commedia Del Arte masks and Balinese masks. And then we started a very long study (which we're still in the middle of) on the bouffon. The buffoon, in English. These characters mock everything and everyone. They can be ugly and grotesque but they always think they're beautiful. Their truth is beautiful. They know when they've gone too far, and they always apologize. But their goal is to make the audience understand how hypocritically they live their lives. It's a daring and dangerous form, and few can do it well. When you see a master at work, it's something to behold.

Cabaret wrapped up the semester. I created a character who left modern society to live on her own in the wilderness. I sang Survivor by Destiny's Child. It was something else.

I stretched. I grew. I failed. I don't fully understand all that I've learned. However, that is the beauty of my school. You learn it all, and then you choose what to gravitate towards.

We start taking a pedagogy course in our second year as well. This is really helpful because we continuously review what we're learning and learn to teach it. So, often, it's an opportunity to go back over something you might not have understood the first time. It's a time for exploration and innovation in how best to teach the work. This is a course we'll continue as we go through the program.

This second year focuses on performing. We'll be performing our bouffon pieces soon, then taking a showing of our favorite pieces to New York. We perform a clown show back in Philadelphia. The final show of the semester is called Dares. The faculty here will individually dare us, and we create our own shows surrounding these dares. We can be in them or we can direct them, but they'll be devised by us. Last year, the Dares showing was the best thing I'd seen in the city all year, not just at the school.

There's a lot to look forward to. I think it's easy in this program to get so wrapped up in the crazy that you can't take a step back and savor everything that's being learned. It's a whirlwind, and sometimes I wish it would slow down so I could catch my breath and remember more. But some things can't be changed, and the pace is part of how this program functions. I'm sure I'll be running around just as crazy as I was last semester starting tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Graduate School Year 2 Begins! My MFA in Devised Theatre adventure continues...

2019-08-25T16:39:00.001-05:00

Ready or not, here it comes. Tomorrow begins chapter 2 of this new life journey I started a year ago. I wrapped up year one of graduate school in May. I survived the first year with a few scrapes and really looking forward to a summer break.

We put on our first show in March. It was really just the ensemble's favorite Friday Creation projects thrown together like a showcase of what we'd accomplished so far. I was pleased at the time with how it turned out, but like all things I look back on it (literally I watched the video) and thought--wow, we've come so far as a class since then. My pieces selected for the showing were from the creation prompts The Chase and One Place, One Event. I was incredibly proud of my ensemble for coming together and putting something up in such a limited time frame. Part of the pedagogy of the program we learned this year is to cram a lot of lessons into a short amount of time and to never stop generating material. I suppose the lesson is to do work, often, even if it's not good. Don't ever be afraid to produce work just because it might fail. That's never a good enough reason.

Border towns being created around churches before the border was established.

Quickly after that showcase, our ensemble took a trip to the northern borders of America. We crossed into Canada by train and saw a fantastic show in Montreal about the invisible borders between cultures indigenous to Canada and those there now. After just one night in the province of Quebec, we rented cars to head to Edmundston, Canada (province of New Brunswick) and Madawaska, Maine. These two towns are on opposite sides of a border that separates two countries. Yet their economies rely on each other for most things, and most people here have an Acadian heritage meaning they don't really consider themselves Canadian or American. They're so removed from the rest of their countries that they've grown very close together.

The project was to visit border towns and interview people about their experience there, and then to tell that story. The show was meant to be a foil to the national conversation happening about our southern border and the misconceptions people might have based on the national dialogue that every border is the same.

This is the bridge separating Madawaska, Maine and Edumndston, Canada with a frozen river running beneath it.

The train ride to Quebec

It was a fascinating experience. I had no idea that taking a trip like this could translate into a piece of theatre, and certainly no experience in making something like that come to fruition. But these are the joys of being part of an ensemble devised theatre program! Together we had some amazing experiences, met some fantastic characters, and managed to translate real life onto the stage! This was the seminal experience for me in my first year. Everything I learned lead me to the moment of accomplishment and pride I felt when we were able to stand together and say, "We built this." I spent my entire year taking part in making short theatrical bursts; 3 minute appetizers to sustain me until I could learn to create a main entree. And while the entree was still less than 20 minutes in length, and was only given a few weeks to shape itself into a main course meal, and was admittedly still unformed because of the trial that is ensemble devising--it happened. I learned from it. My confidence in myself and my ability to create theatre experiences from nothing evolved and reshaped itself into a new part of me that I will carry into year two!

Snow falling at night

A crane we saw tearing down a dilapidated house in the middle of down town Madawaska right before an accident tipped it over into the basement. No one was injured.

This summer was full of real life trials and tribulations. But I did ultimately have the opportunity to help create an independent study to fulfill a credit I'll need to graduate. We're allowed to take any class the university offers, but after a fascinating workshop we were able to take during the second semester there was a small group of us that knew exactly what we were interested in pursuing.

Five of us took a month this summer to take a class on Gaming Theatre. Our amazing Voice teacher actually runs her own company that creates theatrical experiences for non theatrical audiences in the form of interactive and playable games. Some of these are site specific works, others are educational in nature, and a few have been actual card or video games. She works with community partners and organizations to create these experiences to fill a need, and usually has several projects going on at once. She's a wealth of knowledge and we were dying to learn from all of her experience. We were able to do a broad reach into the background of interactive and immersive performance experiences, the history of game design, and the impact of agency in theatrical applications. We also created our own games, tested them (in small doses), and learned the road map to creating successful gaming endeavors. It was quite honestly my favorite class I've taken yet!

It's the specialty classes that have really made this last year so special for me. I was excited to attend graduate school to broaden my knowledge of the ways that theatre can successfully be done. I knew I'd learn skills I wouldn't even know about before, or maybe skills I didn't think I could do. And that's exactly what happened. My music theory course this last semester became a composition course where every single week we wrote new songs. In an ensemble program I was desperate to have complete control over a finished product and this class gave me that opportunity. I'm so proud of the new skills I learned in that class. This gaming workshop was similar and is something I'm incredibly interested in pursuing in my future going forward after this program.

This next year holds a lot of firsts for me. Cabaret, clown, commedia, buffon, and other new styles will be learned. I'll be making another mask, adapting movies and books, and trying on genres for size. We'll be given dares this year, and then dare to create our own. What I'm most excited about is that this year is more performance based. Instead of performing for our faculty, we'll have many more opportunities to perform for the community, including a New York showcase in the spring. This year I can see my future a little more clearly. Life after graduate school will sneak up on me fast, and I'm taking steps to test out what I think I'd like to do next.

First on the list? Try everything. And visit some new places to see how my art fits in. Here's to another year of ensemble training!

Mask Making and Circus School Taking

2019-02-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

It's a new year and the start of my second semester of my first year of graduate school. Even months in, it's strange to use those words. Graduate school was a dream for a long time, and it's crazy to look back and think about where I thought I'd be. Certainly not in a physical theatre/devised performance program! Mostly because at the time I didn't know such things existed. And yet nothing could feel like a better fit.

This semester is off to a great start! We've been working with the larval masks, which are large, full-faced masks with no eyes to see out of. So you're moving blindly through the space as you wear the mask. It's a huge challenge, but so exciting to get to release the control an actor feels from trying to express with their eyes instead of their body. We've also been playing with expressive masks, which are much more human looking, and therefore very expressive. These are also full-faced, but with eye holes. And with these we've begun to move towards costuming and props, which are new elements we didn't play with during neutral mask and larval mask. Learning to 'show the mask' (which means keeping the sight line of your eyes up and out towards the audience so they can read you) while not being able to see below your eye holes to the props you're using is an interesting dilemma. It reminds me of when I was first learning stage directions and the confusion of upstage vs. downstage. Sight lines are like a whole new language!

We've also begun a mask making workshop that's been taking a lot of our time. It's so exciting to start creating characters from the mask up. We plastered our faces and made molds in our first 4 hour session. Then we put clay on them and paper mached them with five layers for the second session. We just finished taking the paper mask off the mold, reinforcing the sides with more paper mache, and sanding the paper down to prepare for paint. It's a long process, and we could use a lot more time to do it, but I'm excited to see the finished product. Hint--my mask has 3 chins.

Yesterday we took a field trip to circus school where we walked beams, pipes, and wires. We learned tricks on the Aerial Slings (or silks depending on who you talk to). We tried our hand at trapeze, which I learned is extremely painful without calluses. And of course, we worked on tumbling and partner acrobatics. It was one of my favorite days of graduate school so far. We take acrobatics twice a week, which is always a blast. But the opportunity to use a new apparatus that we don't have on campus was so fun! My entire class agreed we'd love to take classes regularly on trapeze and sling, which we don't have access to on campus. It's a fantastic full body workout, and in some ways easier to see progress than in partner acrobatics and tumbling.

We have a trip to the border planned for Spring Break. Half the class will go to Texas to the Mexican border, and the other half of us are going to the Canadian border. We'll be going as researchers to observe stories, and then we're going to create a piece of theatre about it. Notice I didn't say write a play? We're going to devise a play, which (for those of you who don't know) means we work as an ensemble to craft a piece from the ground up with our bodies, voices, and usually improvisation. Sometimes we throw in text for inspiration, and in this case I can imagine we might use direct text from certain people we meet. Every devising process is different. But the one thing that holds true through all devising is that it doesn't stem from a playwright's words first. It is discovered. And then later potentially written.

In music theory we've moved on to writing songs every week this semester. First week, we used a piece of text that already existed to craft a melody with a pedal played underneath. Last week we were given a specific chord progression with the option of lyrics or no lyrics. It's terribly difficult for me to write a song with no lyrics so I challenged myself to do that last week and it went pretty well. This week we've moved onto the blues. We're using the Twelve Bar Blues, and we learned the blues scale. We'll see how it goes! The best part of class is listening to everyone perform their pieces. It's so invigorating being surrounded by talented individuals. Everyone is so different and their styles and voices always surprise me!

Off to class. Enjoy the pictures!

A Look Back at First Semester

2018-12-04T21:13:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that it's the last week of my first semester of graduate school. I know it's been a while since I last updated. I came to realize as the semester went on that part of what makes my program work is that everything is a surprise. The faculty work very diligently to lead the class into each lesson seamlessly without giving anything away in advance. It creates an atmosphere of discovery and adventure. By openly blogging about our creation prompts and lessons I felt like I could potentially reveal too much to others that might venture to take this program.

So I'm working out how best to record my adventures without perhaps giving too much away. I'd love to do a recap for myself though! This first semester starts with nature. We begin our exploration of the physical body through the neutral mask. This is a Lecoq technique with actual leather masks. It has a lot of similarities with Alexander technique. Finding a neutral stance, and learning your bad habits so you can put less stress on your body. By finding neutral it becomes more apparent when the performer makes a conscious choice to change their physicality, and that's the basis for good character work.

We took our neutral mask through nature. Starting in the ocean, landing on the shore, seeing the edge of a forest, entering the forest, traversing through the forest over obstacles, exiting the forest to reach a field, seeing a mountain, climbing the mountain, peaking and seeing over the edge, coming down the mountain (in various forms), coming to a river, crossing the river, entering tall grass, finding a desert, watching the sun set and the stars come out, then exiting. A long journey! The greatest lesson in the neutral mask through this journey is how to see. When you, as the performer, see what is ahead you allow the audience to see. This is the basis for everything we covered this semester. How does a performer create space. By making sure the mask (aka your face because eventually the mask comes off) faces out, and taking the time to make the gaze specific to the coming space, a performer can create the world before it is entered into. The eyes must always be out and seen.

Throughout this process the faculty was determined that we would be as specific and realistic as possible. We took a trip to the ocean and practiced turning around and seeing it for the first time. Where was your eye drawn? How did your breath change? What was the measure of time it took to see it all? We also practiced entering and exiting water of different heights. Dry sand to wet sand to shallow water to current catching to waist deep and then shoulders deep. How does the tide move your body? There was so much specificity to be learned. When we returned to the classroom it was our job to create this same physicality without set or props. Gaze, breath, and physicality. We practiced by breaking the process into steps. Walking on sand, the grabbing of the toes, and then an incremental walk into the water and the difference in weight distribution.

When we'd moved on from the original journey of the neutral mask we took it on different adventures. We did the same journey but called 'Cataclysms' where in each step something big changes the landscape. There was a hurricane in the ocean, a fire in the forest, an avalanche of rocks on the mountain, a volcanic explosion when you reached the top that carried you off, rapids in the river, a tornado in the grass, and a sandstorm in the dessert. How does the physicality change? And how do you keep your face completely neutral through these when not wearing the neutral mask? That was definitely the hardest part. The mask is always neutral, and it teaches you that even after it is gone, your mask should remain neutral too. The facial neutrality allows an audience to stop focusing on that area of the body for clues to how they should respond. Instead it redirects focus to the rest of the body and allows the whole to tell a story. So whenever you're traveling through the cataclysms you have to show a a change in space with your body, but not your face.

Another difficult skill to master is that the story is told by traversing space. It doesn't need to be a struggle. It can be very indulgent and uninteresting to watch a body struggle though space. Climbing the mountain even in an avalanche need not be difficult, because the neutral mask can only move forward. There is no thinking that needs to happen. You can search for the next foothold, but you can only do so if you can do it un-intellectually. Fun, right? The other challenge was how to recycle space. These journeys have to feel like they're outside of the room you're performing in, and performances often happen in small enclosed spaces. So without a proscenium to help you, how can you continue to cross the same space but make it look different every time?

We incorporate the neutral mask in everything. From there we traveled through different bodies of water. Water seeping from rocks inside a cave, sweating until dripping, then the drips trickle into a creek which becomes a stream which became a river. The river then had a dam which led to a waterfall which led to a larger river with rushing rapids that eventually led to the ocean. In these exercises we put our bodies in the space not as if we ourselves were in the water--but as if we were water itself. We tackled the elements. We became fire in all its different forms (ash, smoke, spark, burning), and air (hurricane/tornado force, gentle breeze, kite flying weather), and earth (mud, dirt, trees). In each of these forms we started with the breath of the element, and then the gaze. We found the physicality from these and as we physically became them we allowed our breath to create the voice we would use and then improvised language.

This spawned one of my personal favorite creations this semester (spoiler alert: the awkward party). My group decided to be 12 year olds having their first boy girl party and all the awkwardness that comes with greeting parents, being alone in a room with no chaperone, and playing a game of twister. It was fascinating creating scenes where elements inspired characters, but we used those elements to show our interactions. So air can stoke a fire to be bigger, fire can burn earth or earth can put out a fire. Water can put out a fire, or fire can boil water. So many choices! Suffice to say that everyone thought our party was incredibly awkward once all the elements ended up close together on a twister mat. I should mention this was at the same time that we were practicing 'clocking' in Jeu (Play). Clocking is when a performer turns their mask (face) out to the audience. So you're performing an action as if it's normal and then you face forward. This reads as a comment on the action. The comment is up to the performer. We ended our party with all of us in awkward positions on the mat and then turning to clock the audience, allowing them to feel part of it.

Jeu was a class that took me awhile to get the hang of (actually I'm not sure I ever did get the hang of it), but once I got going it was incredibly freeing. This class allowed us to explore body physicality through games. A lot of class we would put two people in the middle and they would start doing abstract movements until a game was established (even if the game was something as silly as I touch your foot and then you touch mine, or as intricate as basketball) and then once the audience could say what the game was the performers would abstract it again until a new game was formed. In this game the challenge was to try not to necessarily play a real game, and to try and create a relationship with your partner where no one person was leading. So it couldn't be a switch off between who would create the next game. Through breath and listening and repetition of movements the duo would decide simultaneously that they had the next game. Difficult to master but easier the more you do it!

We also played structured games. We played serious games of imaginary tennis with the only goal being to match what your partner was doing so you were playing at the same level. We played a game where you and your partner had to keep the same amount of space between you. So if one person moved forward the other had to move back, same with side to side motion. And if there was a mistake made that changed the space then you had to agree on the new space between you and play that game instead. We played a game where you had to create an object with your hands in space, play with that object until the audience could name it, pass that exact object to another person in the circle who played with it in the same way, and then they had to reshape that object into something else and do the same thing.

All of these games require you to not think. Thinking is the death of play. We played a game of who could die bigger. The weapons would change, but one person would be killed by another, then come back to life and kill the person who killed them, who would come back to life and it would go in a circle endlessly until it felt like the death was as big as it could possibly be. This class was sometimes difficult in the beginning because each time a new pair started a new game it felt as if the rules changed. I soon realized that the point of the class was that there was no rules at all and that doing something as big as possible was really the name of every game. Take risks, fail big, don't think.

This all feeds into our improvisation classes. In improv we often practice our next step of the neutral mask. We went from elements to colors to paintings to pictures to music and we're finishing the semester with animals. Improv is our opportunity to explore the physicality of these and discover how to perform them with a universal language. How can I be the color blue and have the audience know I'm the color blue? What is the dynamic of the color blue? The rhythm? The breath? How long does it last? What shade is it? A class like Jeu can really free up your body to tackle these questions. I once worked for one week trying to be a picture of a multicolor carpet in a Vegas casino. The script I wrote for this said, "Wa wa waaaa wow wowee woah winding willowy watermelon wildebeasts Welcome!" And that was normal.

In movement analysis we worked on different 'attitudes'. These are movements working with fixed point. Creating a stick in space, grabbing it, shifting it from horizontal to vertical, and back again. How do you release in a way that the audience believes you don't still have it? Can you leave it in space with your gaze even if your hand isn't touching it? Of course to get there we practiced throwing around real sticks a lot. Can you throw and catch silently? How do you cushion a blow? We moved imaginary tables and set them. We learned to juggle and do plate tricks. We became different forms of light (starlight, moonlight, sunlight, sun through trees) and then said Shakespeare with our movements. We practiced seeing and climbing walls. We became different materials with our bodies. How does honey leave a jar? How does it land on a new surface? Can your body become the consistency of honey even though you have bones and joints and fingers?

Mostly what we learned this semester is that having bones and joints and fingers and arms and legs makes being other things that aren't human very very difficult. But eventually in all of these explorations we dial back the material/color/element/picture and put the physicality in our bodies as human. Maybe you're 50/50. Or maybe you're 80% one and only 20% the other. Where does the human body take over? When does language become necessary?

I've really enjoyed leaving out language this semester. I thought it would be difficult since I've had a career in popular theatre. This means reciting a script first and physicality last. But this has been such an amazing experience to flip what I know on its head. When the physicality is focused on, it can inform the voice, and the words aren't necessary unless the body can't tell the story alone. And most of the time it feels like it can. I know we'll be adding words back in soon this next semester and that will be a challenge. A lot of times when we speak as these characters we create, it feels like we become a parody instead of embodying it wholly. Such a difficult balance!

Throughout all this we also had our marvelous voice class. We learned different resonators (chest, nasal, mouth) and worked on placement. We've practiced mimicking sound because once your learn placement for yourself it's useful to know if you can recognize placement in someone else and copy it. In fact, this class is where I learn the most pedagogy. We spend so much time watching each of us individually discover whatever the vocal lesson is that by the end you know how to do it as much as you know when you hear it or see it. This means I can tell where someone is placing their voice. Which is really useful.

In our music skills class we're rounding out the semester by writing our own songs. I really didn't know if it was possible to come so far so fast. Our professor told us we'd be writing songs by the end of the class, but it seemed so far off. I actually really like the song I wrote, and I'm looking forward to second semester of music skills where all we'll do will be writing songs. It's hard, but it's such a great skill to have!

I have one final creation showing this week, an evaluation from my professors, and then I'm off for winter break. I plan to do a lot of strength building to stay strong for second semester acrobatics. This semester was somersaults, cartwheels, and handstands. Who knows what next semester holds?

One Place, One Event

2018-09-08T09:11:00.000-05:00

Each week we're split into groups, given a general prompt, and then we spend time each day as an ensemble creating a piece of theatre that corresponds to the prompt. The first week was 'Creation of the world' and this last week was 'One place, One event'. In my first group we began by each creating our own 'world' to play in and we played as a group until we found several ideas that resonated. Then we expanded those ideas through play until we found an arc with a beginning, middle, and end. It was such a new experience for me, basically performing improv until an idea forms instead of forming an idea and then trying to create it. But like all new things, it got better with practice.

You can ignore parts of this post that will get into details that won't matter to anyone but me. Remember this blog is also my actor journal for me to remember and describe lessons, so I'm sure some of this won't be interesting for the average reader.

Now on week two it was exciting going in with the prompt and knowing that I could confidently create something. Week one we worked with no voices or props. It was about creating pictures with your body and using sound with no words. My group formed shapes along the walls in the room while I knelt in the middle. They slowly peeled themselves off the wall and began to walk in a rhythmic circle around me, beginning a syncopated pounding heartbeat with their hands until they were running. They stopped as one, put their hands into the middle of the circle onto my back and began to breathe with my movements. I went up and down until I was 'born' from the middle of the circle with a gasp. On my gasp the breath was taken from each ensemble member until they all fell down. I revived them with my breath again, and we began to make relationships. We mimicked movements and mirrored each other. Then one member makes the first sound. We then discovered how to copy the sound. Then we discovered touch and then play. The touch became violent until one ensemble member was shoved to the ground by me. We discovered violence. This member was then encircled again as I had been in the beginning, but when they broke out of the breathing circle and stole the breath from us we weren't able to be revived. The last moment was the sound of loss.

Writing this in detail it sounds very artsy, but in action we created life, relationship, sound, touch, and then cycled to death. It felt very powerful to use body without words and I really enjoyed the experience because the story line was very specific. There were other creations that were made of vignettes, and somehow each creation piece at some point included all bodies standing in a circle and then falling down (just like ours). So strange! On creation day the faculty all sits in and then critiques. The general feedback on week one was to simplify, be specific, and follow the prompt. We learned how easy it is to get carried away. My group had positive feedback and we were really proud of the piece, but the consensus was that we created 'the world' in the first 1/3 of our piece, and the rest was a continuation. That's a good example of how we could have simplified the piece. They also commented how each group had mostly depicted a human experience and that we had forgotten other elements.

So for week two my group took the general feedback to heart. We wanted to play with nature this time. In movement and improv classes this week we practiced this exercise of creating a place. My cohort created a park and we spent several class periods being characters in a park and learned to expand the room so it felt like there weren't walls, control voices so they felt the way they would outside, and focused on not stealing focus. We wanted to incorporate these lessons into our creation project so we picked the ocean as our place, and the event was the rising of the tide on a beach. It took a few days to solidify the best way to create waves with our bodies (and I have the bruises to prove it), but we finally picked four of us to stagger in a pattern on the floor with our bodies lying down straight like a log. We wanted to play with perspective so we began as if the audience was looking at the ocean horizon. We rocked slowly and made soft ocean noises. Then the rocking turned into rolling forward towards the audience with the sounds of waves crashing on the shore. At this point one of our ensemble entered as a child to build a sandcastle. Our rolling waves became bigger until we brought them to shore. Two of us became sea foam using our arms to replicate the tide dragging sand backwards, while two in the back became the crest of waves. We attempted to crescendo the sound as we got closer to shore, and built the tension towards the object of ruining the child's sandcastle until it had been completely swallowed by the ocean and the child ran off.

The other ensembles created a tree that was cut down, a cave where someone found gold, and the world before a volcanic eruption. Their feedback was that the place wasn't specific enough, and that the even took too long to happen or that there were multiple events and it was unclear. Overall the faculty seemed really intrigued by our piece, and said that the place was very clear. However, they as an audience had an expectation that there was danger to the child and that the event would in fact be more ominous. Professor Q said there are two types of theatre. One is when the actors know more than the audience and the audience has to figure out the story and catch up to the actors. The other is when the audience knows something the actors don't and the actor has to figure it out. If we were to do this piece again they wanted an exploration of what it feels like for the audience to know more about something than the actor. They wanted the beautiful moment of when our child would discover the danger they were in the same way the audience felt they were in danger. I found that so interesting! And something that hadn't occurred to me. We were attempting to simplify our event, so I hadn't considered something so big as drowning a child. But they said that our place was so big that the event ruined our crescendo. It was a let down. We needed to match the beginning with the end. It definitely made me want to explore the piece further. But I'm also excited to not roll around on my bruises anymore.

In other news this week we saw our first fringe show at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. It was called The Accountant and I'm sure I'll write more about it later. It had some spectacular special effects and a stunning sound design.

In movement analysis this week we worked on Lecoq's Seven Levels of Tension. This is one of numerous acting techniques and something that was fun to add to my repertoire. My graduate school faculty studied (for the most part) at The Lecoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris, so we'll be using a lot of these methods throughout my time here.
Levels:
1. Tired, lethargy, exhaustion
2. California, Cowboy, laid back
3. Efficiency, Neutral
4. Alert
5. Suspense
6. Passion
7. Hypertension, Tragic

We embodied each of these in class over the week, sometimes creating stories as an ensemble or in small groups. I'm excited to play with these more.

Our music theory class this week (our longest class at three hours) was a lot of work! We worked on scales, which I'm grateful I already know, finger placement on piano, rhythm, and solfeggio. We'll be performing the C scale and our own written melodies next class.

In voice class we're working on diaphragmatic breathing exercises and using sound on breath. I'm also finishing up reading Artaud's The Theatre and Its Double for seminar this Monday. I'm excited for this seminar class especially because we'll really be focusing on the history of physical theatre and the companies that have done and currently do it.

I've got a busy weekend ahead of me. Another fringe show to see, and several assignments to complete!

A Flying Leap

2018-08-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

My class is apparently the largest class since my MFA program was created. There are 19 of us total, and every single class we have to reintroduce ourselves to our new professors. It's amusing to watch them attempt to remember our names, but I admit that I can't wait until we don't have to play name games or stand in a circle and introduce ourselves anymore. We're in such a routine with it now as a cohort because we've done it so much. I believe we have one more instructor we haven't met. Thank goodness!

So I titled today's post based on an exercise we did in improv yesterday. 18 of us stood in two diagonal lines two feet apart and held our arms out in a zipper fashion so everyone was forming a cradle. Then one person ran from across the room and took a flying leap into our arms and attempted to jump far enough that they could reach the arms of those cradling on the far end. I was terrified because our arms were just held out on our own strength, not reinforced in anyway by the people across from or beside us. When it was my turn to stand in the front and catch it was really difficult to catch people because there was so much weight and momentum! And it was terrifying. But not as terrifying as leaping. I took a turn and the first time I went I shot like a bullet straight at the arms instead of lifting myself higher into the air. Professor Q gave me another shot. One of the things I've been enjoying most is when I take a turn in any class it gets analyzed and then usually there's direct feedback and the opportunity to try again. The next time I jumped too soon, but definitely made it all the way into the arms. I was given a third try and this time managed to springboard at the right moment and flew into my cohorts' arms. It was exhilarating! Writing this I can still feel the adrenaline. I was proud of myself for volunteering even though I wasn't sure I'd do it well. The fear of failure is something I told myself I wouldn't allow into my training for the next 2.5 years.

I received some really great advice my first time meeting some of the upperclassmen. I was told that since my class is so large I should take every opportunity available to have a turn in class. They said that there wouldn't always be enough time to have everyone take a turn, and it's up to me to make the most of my investment and really put myself out there. The lessons aren't repeated so if you don't take your turn, you miss an opportunity to practice instead of watch. They said even if I felt guilty to always be the volunteer to never give up my chance to participate.

I really took that advice to heart and I've volunteered in every class so far. It's true, there hasn't been enough time for everyone to have the chance to participate. It's felt really great to get up and play instead of being a bystander! And even when I wasn't sure I wanted a turn, I made sure I took one.

In addition to improv, I took my first acrobatics class. This semester we're focusing on handstands. That might sound simple to some of you but I've never been able to do one without a wall. I'm really excited to build up the strength to be able to do a handstand. We played a lot of awesome movement games and activities really awakening to our space and bodies. We also formed ensembles and did an exercise where one person in the middle of a circle was straight as a pencil and allowed the group to tip and push and pull their body in every direction, giving complete control of their balance and weight up. It was a good core strengthener and trust builder. I can tell I'm going to love this class and can't wait to focus on my physicality! I know I've allowed myself to get our of shape and there's so much I want to accomplish in this class that I can't wait to get to the fitness level to do it. I'm feeling very motivated!

I had my first class of Jeu (which means Play) yesterday as well. This is a class where we just...play. We didn't use words. We just walked in and started doing whatever we felt like until we were all playing one game, which yesterday just consisted of a lot of people dying. Eventually I think it will become a more guided class with prompts, but it was great to let go for an hour.

I also had my first voice lesson and I can tell I'm going to learn a lot this semester. It will be great to be taking private voice at the same time that I have a music theory class. On Wednesdays we have music theory for three hours. We'll be learning piano, music progression, ear training, intervals, composition, and a bunch of other things I can't remember. I'm really excited to get back into the music side of performance in a way that doesn't necessarily include musical theatre. I know I'll be getting training in that as well, but just having the opportunity to work on composing, sight reading, and ear training is going to be so useful in the future.

I see graduate school as the place that will help me fill in all the gaps I've discovered in my professional training. So far my MFA is proving to do just that. I'm so excited to focus on these holes and have the time and guidance to fill them. I'll be learning new skills every day, letting go of old habits, and strengthening myself in mind and body.

Today in Improv with Professor M we did an exercise where someone had to volunteer to stand in front of the class with us as the audience and just do nothing. Breathe, be present, be aware, make eye contact but do nothing. For some reason this was something I excelled at today. When trying to puzzle out why I felt ease when performing this task compared to some of my cohort I realized that it was because I feel very strongly that I belong. I feel comfortable and excited and ready. I mean, there was the part where I had to act like a giant ogre before I settled into breathing with depth and a neutral mask, but that was only to be expected, right?

I can definitely say I'm sore from these last few days. I have blisters and bruises and muscles that feel like jelly. Luckily my Movement Analysis class with Professor S was a great class to stretch and settle into the sore places. Today we focused on walking as different characters. How long does it take for your arms to move? Are they out of sync with your legs? What part of your body do you lead with? Professor S notices so many intricacies and loves to point them out and create characters of her own out of them. I can tell every lesson in that class is going to be very enlightening.

My creation piece from this week is coming together nicely and I'm learning a lot from the process. We were given the prompt 'Create the world'. We split ourselves into three groups on Monday and on Friday we'll perform our devised pieces in ensemble. Instead of talking about the prompt my group got on their feet and we each took a turn creating a space and leading the group in play to 'create a world'. Then we played further with the most coherent ideas that struck our fancies, and now we're almost finished composing. It's interesting to be at the point where in a normal show you'd worry about specificity. In devising it's more allowable to say that the chaos and messiness is almost the point and that the specificity could potentially take away meaning. I'm interested to explore this concept throughout the program. I'm sure different ensembles will think of this differently, and when we're studying different subjects in our classes I think our thought process will change as well. Watching a non-narrative show this week definitely affected our outlook.

Tomorrow I will play some more! For now, I'm off to bed for a night of rest and strength rebuilding.

A Graduate School Beginning

2018-08-27T20:11:00.001-05:00

I'm going back to my roots! Years ago I started this blog to follow my journey through undergrad and catalog my professional career. Today begins my journey into graduate school. This has been a long time coming. I remember writing a list of my top ten graduate programs in my freshmen year of my BFA and I posted it on the wall beside my bed. I'm very goal oriented. Needless to say, I'm attending a program that would never have been on that list because I didn't know anything like it existed. But we'll get to that.

First let's catch up to now. When I moved from Seattle to Austin I suspected I'd have many experiences to write about, but as it turns out Austin doesn't actually pay their actors a living wage. I suppose I shouldn't blame the city itself, but the funding of the institutions there definitely has a long way to go.

I completed two separate tours with the National Theatre for Children in Minneapolis and I worked in the box office of the fantastic Zach Theatre in Austin itself, but honestly I wasn't enjoying my time. The only regional work to be had through unified auditions was children's theatre and summer stock, and the shows in Austin couldn't pay enough to justify the cost of living and commute time. In the end I decided to take another stab at the URTA auditions. Unlike my first foray when I went to Chicago, this January I chose to audition in New York.

I had some strategy this time, now that I knew how to play the game. In Chicago you had the advantage of being one stop closer to the end of the schools' audition process. You could possibly be more easily remembered. However, I thought this time around it would be more advantageous to be the first in line. In the end, it definitely worked to my advantage! The schools were invigorated because it was the exciting beginning of the process. They seemed to listen more in the auditions (which resulted in more callbacks than my first time), and the callbacks had more energy and enthusiasm. I had 23 callbacks this year, and out of all the schools I strongly considered several classic theatre MFAs. I'd always thought that I'd want to attend graduate school only if it was free because there are so many amazing programs right now that are paying students to go. But throughout the callback process and the auditions at schools I couldn't help but feel like these programs were continuations of my BFA.

I've always felt like my BFA was the best education I could have received. I judged this on the fact that I was personally and professionally fulfilled after receiving it. I've worked so much, and my resume is so broad. When thinking about taking myself out of the job market for 2 to 3 years, I began to believe it was a waste to receive the same kind of degree. I could justify it if my original degree wasn't getting me work, or even if I felt like I was losing the technique in the echo chamber of professional acting. I know some people attend graduate school purely because they want more time to focus on themselves again without the pressure of the outside world and really get into the nitty gritty of method acting.

None of these scenarios fit me. Instead I knew that I was unhappy with the growth of my career. Regional theatres had offered me several exciting roles, but without more connections I didn't feel like I would continue to get enough work at that level. Children's theatre and touring shows were becoming tiresome because I felt like I was taking those jobs just to continue to get a paycheck as a working actor. I wanted to feel more in control of my career. I wanted the skills to create work, build a company, and the opportunity to find an ensemble to flesh out the brave new world I was imagining. I wanted to learn about funding opportunities and how to build my own tour. I wanted to network with people that were creating work not just acting in someone else's show. These are things I'd dreamed of doing, and yet I felt like I hadn't met the right people to show me the way. Seven years out of school with a great professional resume and I hadn't learned how to be more than extremely hire-able. It was time for me to take a leap of faith and choose a program that fit the niche I was trying to carve out for myself.

I struggled at first with my decision because I was leaning towards a program that was extremely unique -- Devised Performance. I craved that quality in my work and my career and I knew what I wanted, but I had voices of reason that reminded me to look at all the angles before making such a life changing decision. Based on my reputation there were those who I looked to for advice that weren't sure this program would be the right fit.

It's day one of my Graduate School Career, and I'm positive I made the right choice. There isn't another program out there that could come close to inspiring me the way I've been inspired today or push me the way I know I'll be pushed. I'm going to be challenged and stretched, I'm going to fail and fall, and in two and a half years I'm going to come out the other side with opportunities I'd never imagined for myself because I'd never known where to look. I'm so grateful I found my fit, and that I'm relearning what it feels like to feel inspired. It's been a very long time since I've felt this way, and it's going to be a crazy few years in Philadelphia!

Day One:
Today I had Movement Analysis, Improv, Creation, and Theatre History Seminar. Basically I spent the day stretching, rolling, falling, and catching. I played dead, led the blind, was the blind, fought the monster, became the monster, played at recess, and birthed a planet. I felt what it was to be silent and still, and found my forward motion. I also squatted too much. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow.

Aside from all the amazing fun movement work and creation I experienced today, my Theatre History Seminar jumped right into subsidized theatre funding in Europe and the models that we haven't managed to recreate in America. This is what I'm so very excited about. I can't wait to delve into what's working in other cultures and societies and learn how to mimic it in a way that can successfully fund a company here. I have so many questions, and even though the class was two hours there wasn't nearly enough time to answer them. I'm so ready to have the class every week! Our Theatre History is more about studying other groups and players who have a hand in creating work similar to what my program is about. So we'll learn about how others have successfully done what we're attempting, and see the different forms that can take. Today we watched Inferno by Romeo Castellucci. It was a performance done at the Festival d'Avignon which is a huge deal. It had a $4 million budget. I think I'll be digesting the performance for a while because I've never seen anything like it. Castellucci specializes in non-linear or non-narrative forms of theatre. Which means that when you watch the ensemble work on stage it leaves you with impressions. It's about images and feelings and doesn't necessarily follow the arc of a character or story. There were many vignettes and so much going on: live animals, small children in boxes, death and destruction. And no speaking. An hour and a half of silence vocally, but so many sound effects. I'm excited to see more examples of other work in the future.

Tomorrow I begin my private voice lessons. And acrobatics. Did I mention how stoked I am for acrobatics? I'm exhausted in the happiest way! Here's to a great first week!

Tour Life Recap

2016-02-16T14:48:00.001-06:00

When last I wrote, I was discussing the joys of tour life. My tour ended just a few weeks after my last post, culminating in something like 50-70 shows! Did I mention I got to spend most every weekend on the coast of the Carolinas enjoying seafood, local markets, good friends, and beautiful weather? My extended absence from this blog is credited to several things: touring, transferring to a new city, and preparation for the URTA auditions which I'll be expounding on in future posts.

I have to say that tour life agreed with me. I loved introducing children to live theatre and educating them about the importance of sustainability, electricity, and the environment. Many times in this career, an actor will choose to take a job because it helps them reach a personal artistic goal or headspace, or maybe for the money. Personal fulfillment and a solid paycheck are always good reasons to take a job.

This job I took because it's not often that I'm given an opportunity to affect change in a community in such a tangible way. A piece of theatre usually is performed with the assumption that an audience member who pays to see it is looking to be changed or affected or given a new idea to consider. However, the piece does not always culminate in this result, and if it did the actors are not likely to hear about it. But this tour was about educating the next generation of America with knowledge in a creative way and actually giving them the tools to implement their own change by providing each child with an energy efficiency kit to take home. All because great companies sponsor this theatre company to empower young people.

I also happen to love traveling, staying in a new place every few nights, and having my weekends off to explore new cities. If you have the ability to leave home (find a sublet to cover your rent), and love the idea of doing theatre everywhere then tour life might be for you!

If you're ever interested in tour life, have any questions about if it's the right choice for you, or want to hear more about some great companies to look into--leave me a comment!

Beginning Anew

2015-10-17T19:59:00.002-05:00

There's been a lot going on since June. I knew I was moving from Seattle to Austin, but making a public announcement had to come in waves, so it was hard for a while to write a public blog without talking about my plans. So I took a break.

Now that the move has officially happened let's get back on track!

I had a fantastic summer working at Mt. Baker Theatre doing their summer repertory season production of Other Desert Cities. I was reunited with one of my all time favorite directors, and had the opportunity to work with one of the most experienced and talented casts I had in some time. I enjoyed every emotionally charged moment of that show, and I can confidently say that I hope Brooke is a part I continue to play for the next 10 to 15 years.

After a 6 month contract performing and touring Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with Book-It Repertory Theatre, I really needed the adult content of Other Desert Cities and the actor challenge it presented. Not only is the show incredibly intimate with such a small cast and a one room set, but the theater decided to stage it in a black box setting, so the audience was all of one foot away from the actor playing space. It had been a long time since I felt as alive as I was this summer giving such beautiful and important writing a voice.

I also spent the summer being a tour guide, and for all my fellow actors reading this blog out there--if you haven't given it a shot you totally should! It was the most fun I've had doing a job outside of acting. Every day was a blast. I got to use my public speaking abilities, I got to entertain guests that paid me to entertain them, and I got to share great stories and food with strangers that became friends. Plus the company was amazing. I plan on being a tour guide many more times in my future.

I knew since around April or May that I would be touring this fall with The National Theatre for Children. I wasn't sure what to make of doing another tour at the time of me signing on, but I needed a job to get me out of Seattle for a while, and that was the ticket.

I started the tour about two weeks ago and I can say it's incredibly fun! It's always fulfilling to do theatre for children. But this show and this company are special because they do theatre with children. Our show is for middle schoolers and it's called The Conservation Crew, and we tour to schools in North and South Carolina to talk about energy conservation and why it's important for our changing world. What's unique is we get to use student volunteers and their suggestions to shape the show and make it a personal, memorable experience for them. And what's more, they all have the opportunity to receive their own energy conservation kit free of charge (donated by our sponsor Duke Energy) that's full of helpful appliances such as energy efficient shower heads, hot water gauges, LED nightlights, and CFL light bulbs.

Duke Energy also pays for a raffle, where schools can sign up to enter into a drawing that could win them $10,000. Basically, I feel like I'm creating social change through an established institution that wants to make the world a better place. And I'm learning from a great business model that happens to respect actors!

I'm happy I've done a tour before, because now I know what to expect with a lot of the schools and the kids. My first touring experience was a difficult transition between main stage acting and a transient show. Now I have the knowledge to tackle issues as they arise, and the patience to deal with the craziness of a school day.

The best thing about this tour though is getting paid to travel longer distances. We have the opportunity to visit big cities, and historic small towns. My tour partner and I are a great match because we love antiquing and visiting huge museums! And stopping at cheese shops, because cheese is really important.

I know I'll be taking this time to really reevaluate myself and what I want and where I want to go in my career. And honestly, there are much much worse ways I could spend my time figuring it out. But I happen to have a gypsy soul and there isn't a thing I'd rather be doing right now. Here's to the next 6 weeks!

Honesty is the Best Policy

2015-06-02T22:40:00.001-05:00

I've been sitting on some wonderful news for quite a few weeks now, waiting for the appropriate moment to share. Today I made the tough choice to put in my notice for my on again off again Seattle day job that I love. I put in my notice because it's official--I'm moving!

At the end of the month of June my year long plan will finally go into effect. I came back from Texas last summer starving for the opportunity to get out of dodge. I found it. And I've seized it.

I took my 6 month long contract with Book-It to tour the state in December, and as the show nears the end of its crazy long run, I'm proud to announce I will be moving to Bellingham, WA for the summer to perform a dream role of mine. Mt. Baker Theatre has invited me to play the role of Brook Wyeth in Other Desert Cities in their summer repertory season. I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with this fantastic company, and one of my all time favorite directors. Truly, it was perfect timing. I'm officially without a lease and will begin the adventure of being a traveling actor.

I'm also pleased to announce that after the end of this show in August, I will be moving back to Texas! I've had to put it off 7 more months than originally planned, and I'm so grateful to finally be on my way back south.

But the real kicker here is that my year of hard work and planning has proved worth it. I applied for the UPTAs almost one year ago, attended almost 5 months ago, and now I'm happy to report that I have signed on to tour with the Minneapolis based National Theatre for Children for five weeks this fall! This is only the beginning of an exciting foray into the world of regional theatre.

I'm so happy I moved to Seattle on a whim almost 4 years ago. These have been the greatest growing years, and the family and community that I've found here has shaped the person and artist I've become. It's because of all these people that I finally felt ready to move forward. Seattle was always meant to be a layover for me. I'm glad it was my first stop on the crazy journey that is being a professional actor. And who knows what the South might inspire in me? The greatest adventure of all is not knowing what will happen next. I might know where I'm going, but I don't know who I'll meet or what they'll teach me.

I smell freedom in the air! My wanderlust has taken hold, and I'm ready for the next great adventure!

Life on the Road: Lessons to be learned from a Touring Artist

2015-05-22T01:33:00.001-05:00

My tour of Washington included many murals.

I've been staying pretty busy with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I was cast in November, rehearsed all of January and opened in February. We started out with a few shows here and there but the pace has really picked up.

We left Seattle for the month of April to travel to Northern and Eastern Washington (and eventually a bit of Idaho) on what Book-It calls an expansion tour. It was my first taste of life on the road as a job. We'd previously been making mostly day trips in the Seattle area, and a few over night trips on several of the islands. Now we were leaving home with our bags and not coming back for three weeks.

Three actors, one touring van, and a sizable set took off to see the state! I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Tour life agrees with me. Many of the schools we went to were full of children that had never seen a live production before, and several of them had booked tours with Book-It Rep in the past and were really looking forward to their one annual theatrical performance.

Children's Theatre is an incredibly rewarding experience in many ways, but I think my favorite is getting to introduce the performing arts to young creative minds. After every show (of which we did two a day) we held 'talk-backs' where the kids got to ask us questions. I had the lucky opportunity to run these talk backs and I got to facilitate the answering of all the questions. Many of the children that hadn't seen theatre before were amazed at simple things like quick costume changes and remembering all the lines. Others wanted to know how long we'd been acting, how did we learn to do it, and was it too late to start? My absolute favorite part was seeing kids faces light up when they fully understood that acting was our job, and that it could be their job too.

One great quote from a question and answer session came from a one building school house in a very rural part of Eastern Washington. There were about 40 kids in attendance and after the show a little girl (maybe first or second grade) asked me, "Why is the Queen of Heart's so mean?" I play the Queen in our production, and she can be a very intimidating character so I was prepared to field the question. "Do you ever wake up on the wrong side of the bed somedays?" I asked, like I usually do. "No," the little girl said--which totally stumped me. Then out of nowhere an older boy spoke up and very simply said, "It's just how she feels." To which the little girl nodded sagely. And we looked around and realized that everyone understood that explanation! So simple. So cute. And so wise.

We had several especially fun performances, one of which was a school of about 600 students who were celebrating facial hair day. We came out onstage, and I looked up to say my first line only to see 600 or so bearded and mustachioed children looking back at me (clearly having forgotten that they had all drawn on their faces in colored markers) expectantly. That was possibly the biggest challenge not to break I've faced.

I have to say that this tour has taught me a lot about the different kind of theatrical experiences you can have in your professional career. Every show is different, and every company is different. But it's important to take lessons away from each production you do to help you on the winding path to success in this crazy business. Here are several lessons I learned:

Like getting a flat tire when you're supposed to perform in 30 minutes.

1. Doing a show without a stage manager is as fun as it is frustrating. We have no stage manager touring with us, which means that we're in charge of our own show. We run our tech, we make our own executive decisions about show adjustments, and we keep track of our own schedules. This can be very freeing, not having a person to answer to. However, I now know that I don't enjoy fixing my own props, sewing my torn costumes, or generally not having someone who is responsible for issues that arise. My 'mainstage' mentality has had to adjust to tour life quite a bit.

2. It's important to introduce children to live theatre not just so they can experience acting and storytelling, but also so they can learn audience etiquette. I'd never thought about what age children are when they learn how to be an audience member. Many students had to be told by the faculty that cheering was for sporting events and clapping was for when you enjoy something at the theatre. Other student audiences were so incredibly free with their laughter and vocal responses because they'd never been told they had to sit in silence respectfully--and that was a beautiful thing. Children's Theatre is definitely a lesson in audience engagement.

3. It's hard to be healthy on the road. Many hotels (surprisingly) don't have gyms or aren't in safe places to go for a run. Without a kitchen it can be difficult to make your own food, especially if you want it to be fresh food, not from a box. We were lucky enough to stay in a suite for a week that had a kitchen, but I know this isn't a normal accommodation for a touring actor.

4. SAVE. The whole point of touring is that you aren't paying for lodging, so you should be saving that rent money. If you're with a wonderful company who pays you per diem or a stipend for food you should be able to save most of that as well. Budget what you think you'll need for food before you leave. And get your fellow actors on the same page. My cast agreed to do mostly grocery shopping and very little eating out. I shopped before I left and barely bought anything while we were out. If you're smart about it, you can walk away with more money than you'd think. Also, just don't ever accept a touring job that doesn't pay for your food. That's cheap and you're worth more.

5. A positive attitude is a must in any professional work environment--but especially so in a small van or a shared hotel room. If you have something to vent about do it and then leave it behind. There's no room for an attitude.

6. Two shows a day for three weeks teaches you that water and a good warm up really are the most important tools an actor has at their disposal.

7. Take time to go out and enjoy your new surroundings. We visited parks, local hole in the wall restaurants, did some wine tasting, and even attended a guest lecture by Jared Diamond while on tour. The whole point of going on the road is to really experience all the places you're traveling too. That could mean walking in a corn field, checking out the mountain biking path, or going dancing at the nearest downtown hot spot. Take time away from the show to remember you like doing other things--you'll need the distance.

8. On the flip side of that, don't be afraid to stay in with your cast and watch Dirty Dancing and Boy Meets World. Relaxing is important too.

9. Do a tour. If you haven't done it and you think you'd like it--do it. And then get ready for all the other touring companies to call you and ask you to do theirs. They will because being a touring artist is a special skill. Not everyone enjoys it. Not everyone wants to be away from home for that long. But once you do one you can really set the bar for where your professional standards are. I lucked into a great one for my first touring gig. And I don't think I fully appreciated how great it was until I had other offers. You would be surprised at how many companies want you to travel 1,000+ miles a week for $300 or less. You'd be surprised at how many companies want to book you for an entire six months on the road with no vacation except your weekends. And you'd be surprised at how many give you pennies for a food stipend. Do your homework and be prepared to ask yourself some serious questions about what you think you'd enjoy. Not just what you can handle, but what you actually want to spend a significant amount of time putting yourself through.

10. Figure out the direction you want to take in your career. This is something I'm still juggling (obviously. And aren't we all?). Once you do Children's Theatre you have an in with a lot of companies. They'll see it on your resume and know that they can use you and your experience to help them get all that educational grant money they want. As they should! Educational theatre is incredibly important for the next generation of artists and theatre goers alike! But do you want a career of Children's Theatre? Do you want to tour for a significant amount of time? Do you think other companies looking for their next Shakespearean ingenue will skip over you for an audition because they see your last few credits are for kids? Do you want the money you can save by going on tour more than the opportunity to play a role that reviewers will write about even if you have to give 3/4 of your paycheck to your landlord for rent? Really put your business hat on and realize that Children's Theatre and being a touring artist will open new doors for you--and it's your responsibility to keep all the doors you're interested in open.

It's been a crazy 4 1/2 months of theatre for me. I've learned a lot. More than I think I usually do purely because this is the longest contract I've ever taken. By the end of this run I will have done 70+ performances of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. One more month to go!

But as usual, I'm enjoying this crazy theatrical life--and already looking ahead. I have some fun big announcements coming your way as soon as I'm clear to reveal all!

I can dunk in an elementary school gym!

The best BBQ in all of Eastern Washington is in the tiny town of Republic. GO THERE.

Sweet Briar College closing and Why Women's Colleges Matter

2015-03-04T23:54:00.000-06:00

Subtitle: How has attending a women's college helped me?

This is so important. Women's colleges matter. Today, as much as throughout history, women's colleges matter.

Sweet Briar College is closing their doors.

Why is this important? Who cares? There are thousands of colleges and universities in America; what does one less mean?

Sweet Briar College is one of the few women's colleges left in the country. Wikipedia (forgive me for quoting wikipedia, but it was difficult to find a list) states there are approximately 48 women's colleges still functioning as women's only institutions of higher education. Other articles say there were as many as 230 in the last 50 years. Sweet Briar was founded in 1901, and has been challenging, accepting, and encouraging young women ever since. It has made many top ten lists. They are a small liberal arts school in Virginia with only 760 students enrolled in this academic year and every one of them is a woman who will lose a home.

This is important to me because I attended a women's college. I did, and so did hundreds of thousands of other women throughout history. At one time, of course, they were the only way for women to attend college. What's more, for every woman in America and beyond that is looking at colleges, I want women's college to be an option for them all.

I chose to attend Stephens College after a rigorous and thorough search across the country of the best fit for my formative young adult independent years. I never intended to go to a women's college. I had an older brother, and grew up playing with mostly boys. I had as many boy friends as girl friends, and I'd never considered the idea that I'd ever knowingly choose to spend a significant period of time away from my male counterparts.

I'd also never considered the lack of equality in my life, how hard I fought for success in comparison to men, or what it was to appreciate women and being a woman through the eyes of women only.

I worked exceptionally hard through high school, knowing that I wanted to leave my home state for college. I had a great GPA, a long list of extracurricular activities, and enough volunteer hours and awards to make almost any school I wanted look my way. This is true for many women. When I attended my state theatre festival and auditioned for over 50 schools I was surprised at how many showed an interest. But after a long day of meetings, and several weeks of visiting campuses and pouring over websites--there was only one place that felt like home. Stephens. It didn't hurt that their theatre program was ranked #2 in the country at the time.

I remember making excuses for the inevitable questions--Why are you going to a women's college? Why do those even exist anymore? There aren't any boys there? How will you find your husband? And of course--you're studying theatre?

I remember telling people that Stephens was ranked #2 in the country. That the class size was small and intimate. That I would get more one on one time with my professors. That they had accepted all my AP credits and I could skip a lot of required classes. That the campus was beautiful, and I could get to class within five minutes. I remember saying "Well there are boys in the theatre department, of course." They were considered apprentices and not students.

The worst part is looking back and realizing that I knew I was making excuses. I hadn't yet reconciled myself to attending a college of only female students. But what I didn't realize was that I already knew deep down that Stephens was perfect for me. A women's college was perfect for me.

I had immediately felt wanted, respected, encouraged, and admired when I stepped onto campus. I had also felt the pressure of living up to a new set of standards and ideals. Not the kind you normally get when going to college--wake yourself up for class, try not to gain the freshman fifteen, higher education means all nighters and big lectures--get used to it. Instead I learned, along with the rest of my class, how to communicate with women, how to empower each other, how to look out for each other without depending on men, what it meant to depend on myself, and how to look at the world as if everything was in my grasp.

Because when a woman attends a women's college--that world is her's for those years. Every opportunity presented is only presented to women. Every experience is only experienced by women. And every opinion is validated by women. By sisters. And when she graduates she never learns to let that go. Women who graduate from women's colleges have a statistically high chance of succeeding in their chosen fields. Why? Because no one taught them to fail. A man was never given a position above them, and never took an opportunity from them. They have learned to believe in themself first and foremost. They have been taught that their opinion is important. And they have spent a significant amount of time in positions of power on their campus, giving them more experience than many women who attend co-educational institutions, and equal experience to many men.

Women's college taught me more about myself than I ever knew before--and most of it I didn't realize until after I graduated and was reintroduced to co-educational society. I spoke more confidently, I knew my goals and ideals, I made plans for my own personal happiness in my future. I interacted differently with romantic partners. I was more assertive about my expectations, and could more easily see and feel things that made me uncomfortable. I learned, in a way I had never fully understood before, the different ways that many women allow themselves to be put down. And more importantly, I felt I knew how to communicate compassionately and effectively with them and teach them what I had learned.

Women's college did make me a feminist. A word I had never associated with before. And a word that means and has always meant the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. I shied away from it for a few years until I realized that doing so was going backwards on everything my education taught me about how to be a strong, independent, brave, bold, thoughtful, passionate, and deserving woman.

And all of this is to say that Sweet Briar College closing is a sad and unfortunate event. It is not just women's colleges that are struggling at this time, in this economy. It is the small private institutions all over. But the reason that this closing is of such tantamount importance is that it takes away one more option from women who might never know how positive an experience attending such a school can be. These young women who will be unable to finish their degrees at this institution will be looking for a new home. I hope every one of them finds as good a fit as the first one they found. And I encourage them all to look at Stephens College, and any other women's college out there.

A women's education was the best education I could have given myself. Every excuse I made to people was true, and those were reasons I attended. But I took away even more reasons to encourage other young women to attend. Every woman having to leave Sweet Briar, I'm certain, has a similar story. They are leaving behind their sisters and their family. But they are stronger than many, and are prepared to make bold choices.

Unified Professional Theatre Auditions--Or the best weekend ever

2015-02-10T15:52:00.001-06:00

I did it. I flew across the country after months of planning, arrived in Memphis, TN for the first time ever, and successfully (and within the allotted time limit) completed my first UPTA audition.

I've heard a lot about the UPTAs over the years. Especially when I was in school, it was lauded as one of the best auditions to go to, over the NETC or SETC. Originally I believed that was because it was much closer to my midwest college, but after much research I learned it was because of many other factors.

I never did attend any regional auditions in college. I had plans to move to a market and build a resume. And I, truthfully, probably didn't trust my audition 'package' to get me anywhere. Now, a few years later I can say that waiting paid off. Here's what I learned from my UPTA audition:

1. The UPTAs are the most highly attended, and most difficult to get into of the larger regional theatre auditions. They also boast that they are the largest regional theatre audition in the country, with the most companies attending to offer paid year round work.

2. The reason it is the 'hardest' to get into is because of their new policy for 'qualifying'. If I had gone when in school, I would have needed an instructor approval and would have been on my merry way. Now, there's a highly selective screening process for pre-professionals, which (luckily for me) gives first dibs on attending to Equity and EMC candidates. Though, there were a ton of soon to be graduates there!

3. It pays to be a singer. But we all already knew that. For those of us that aren't singers (or as is the case with many of us, choose not to be interested in performing musical theatre though we may have the capability) there is much less opportunity for you here. Out of the 85 companies attending UPTAs this year, 30 were also casting non-singers. There was ONE group of non-singers on my day of auditions, and when I got on stage to audition there were approximately 15 auditors left in the audience. Though 30 companies had signed on to watch us, many of them either did not stay for my afternoon, or had called back so many singers who can act that they didn't feel the need to stay and watch us--actors who don't sing.

Beale Street

4. If you aren't a singer, most people don't care that you do Shakespeare. And they don't want you to do Shakespeare. (For the record, I didn't do Shakespeare, I chose a Restoration Comedy. Though I did whip out a Shakespeare monologue for a callback--always know multiple pieces! But I digress.) The majority of the companies staying for the non-singers were for touring children's theatre. Yes, I love children and doing theatre for them. Yes, I would prefer my resume read credits that don't all come from a beloved child's bedtime story book. However, there happen to be some really cool children's theatre companies out there doing great works of literature, or who choose to do children's theatre on a more sophisticated level. Basically--

5. I learned a lot about the different styles of children's theatre. Any profitable, long running theatre company has an educational component. Meaning--everyone does children's theatre. And most of all--it's important to do children's theatre. Because, let's face it, we can't be in this business just for ourselves, and if you are then at least think about your future in this business. There won't be one if we can't help the little tikes see how important it is to support our art. They're going to be making money some day, you know? Also, it's just a great communication and coping tool. I could write endlessly about why I think theatre for young audiences is important though.

6. But I also learned about some awesome companies that are interested in hiring me for not just children's theatre. Which is what I really wanted to happen at these auditions. The best of both worlds. I'm just so happy and excited about this.

7. Yes it does suck when the Texas Shakespeare Festival stays for every group but mine.

8. This is perhaps the most important lesson: your resume is just as important as your audition. Yes there were so many college kids attending. Yes, they do get called back. But regardless of how great your audition is--what you've done so far, how experienced you are in certain areas is what makes companies look at you seriously. I have Shakespeare, I have Sarah Ruhl, I have classical literature adaptations, new works, fringe festivals, and experience as a teaching artist. This experience above all else, is, I think, what resulted in a lot of my callbacks. But I like to think it was my audition...

9. I am young in the world of theatre. My resume is longer than some, shorter than others. I have known credits, and unknown credits. But what I do know is that I know people from very few places. I need to make more connections out in the theatre world to continue to work the way I want to--which is outside of one market. I want to travel, and I want to see what theatre is like everywhere. I want to know how different companies run their business, and what it's like to work on a beach as opposed to in a barn. I want to see what builds successful relationships with a community and most importantly I want to learn how to replicate all those things when the time comes.

Best BBQ I've had outside of Texas!

10. These auditions made me look at my market in a new light. I was able to compare my pay scale here to the pay scale that other companies were offering me. It's interesting how much people think your time and your work is worth. And far more interesting how much you think your time and your work is worth. And there's the other side of that coin which is just about how much they can afford to pay you and other actors on their business model.

11. I recommend the UPTAs to anybody looking to do contract based work, who wants to build their resume, or who is tired of living in one place. Hey, most everybody offers free housing! It definitely makes you look at the world of theatre differently.

If you have any questions about the UPTAs, my experience with them, or want to share how you felt about your own experience there, please leave a comment below!

And enjoy some sight-seeing pictures!

I found this written on an old building on the same street where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.

National Civil Rights Museum

Rosa Parks

Pride and Prejudice: A Holiday Extravaganza

2015-01-24T13:51:00.001-06:00

During Horse Girls I started rehearsals for Pride and Prejudice. This was to be the 4th iteration directed by the original director and adapter -- who is British. So really, we had the best insight! The actress who played Elizabeth was reprising her role for the third time, and the actors playing Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were performing the show for the second time. The entire cast was the most experienced cast I've worked with to date and it was a delight and a lesson every day of rehearsal.

We were performing the Christmas/Holiday show for Book-It Repertory Theatre's 25th season. We ended up selling out the entire run after our second week, and added a performance because of popularity. This was the longest running show I've performed, to date. It came in at just over 30 performances.

I had such a great time playing a character I've never had the opportunity to play. I love classic work, I love dialect work, and I love character roles. Most of my time in Seattle I've spent playing 'leading ladies' or 'ingenues'. This is the gift I've been given by Seattle, because this city has yet to type cast me. This time, I was being given the opportunity to play the slightly dour, very inquisitive, uniquely insensitive, and incomparably competent Mary Bennet.

I read 12 books onstage every night. By the end of the run I had read the history of Japan, the history of Jesus Christ, the history of World War II, the collected short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, several tales from the 1001 Arabian Nights, The Story of The 47 Ronin, two encyclopedias full of random pages about numerous subjects, several presidential addresses, and all about the inventions of Thomas Edison. I also got some great arm muscles from miming piano playing every night.

Mostly, I was reminded of the lessons I'd only recently learned during Frankenstein. And I learned some new ones too.

1. Performing a show night after night, and sometimes more than once in a day, can be the most rewarding experience. Even if I was exhausted I would still wake up the next morning and think I had the best job ever.
2. Always remember your training--warming up really is the most important thing you can do.
3. Supportive shoes can make or break a long running show.
4. Baking for your cast is always the right idea.
5. Dancing 300 year old dances teaches you that dancing then was no less exhausting than dancing now.
6. Layers upon layers of clothes onstage that make you incredibly hot is still my favorite thing. Maybe this is why I love classical shows so much.
7. Hearing a young or an old person tell you after a show that they love this book and you helped them want to read it or read it again never gets old.

I'm sure there were other lessons, but I can't think of any more at the moment. It was an incredible experience, and I made great new friends, and I'm grateful for my time spent on this wonderful piece of literature.

Reviews posted for posterity:

Broadway World

TeenTix

Seattle Weekly

Seattle Times

Encore

Heed the Hedonist

Push to Talk

Drama in the Hood

I'll post the pictures when I receive them. I had one week off between the end of this show--and the beginning of my next!

Horse Girls and girls and girls and girls

2015-01-24T13:28:00.003-06:00

I returned from my summer in the south reluctantly, but excited to start the projects I had signed on for. I submitted myself for the UPTAs in September. I started making my plans for the regional theatre movement I was attempting to start for myself.

The day after I got back, I had a photo shoot for promotional photos for the show. The reason I agreed to Horse Girls was not only the incredibly fun and challenging new script I had read, but because for the first time since college I was going to do an all women show! An ensemble based script, I was playing the lead Ashleigh, who was a preteen award winning equestrian. The director was a friend who had previously asked me to do a reading of the script a year before that I'd had to miss. Now, all these women were coming together to produce great work--at the perfect time. The subject matter starts fluffy but quickly turns dark. We ended up opening the show the week after a terrible school shooting in Marysville, WA. Because of this event, our opening night was poignant, tragic, and very real.

We drove out of Seattle to a ranch that had offered us their horses and land to take some pictures. We hadn't rehearsed and we didn't know each other (as is often the case with these things) and got to bond over an afternoon of horses and girl talk. I couldn't wait for the next two months with these ladies.

As Development Director at Annex Theatre (who was producing this show as part of their season) I was a staff member, and company member, and now a cast member. Another of the cast members was also playing my sister Lydia in Pride and Prejudice, and before we opened Horse Girls we were already spending our days rehearsing for P&P.

I also had the pleasure for the first time since moving to Seattle to act with another Stephens College alum on stage. We were delighted to be working together after our time in college and it really brought us back to our roots in creating plays by, for, and about women.

The rehearsal process was challenging and exciting. We were working with a new script, a young director, and a great team. It was an incredibly physical show, not only in the sense of stage combat, but also the idea of putting yourself back into your preteen body and working so hard to be 'grown up'. We sang, we danced, we yelled, we cried, and we told our story.

In the end the New York based writer flew into Seattle to help us tech the show, and we opened to sold out audiences. The run of Horse Girls sold better than any other off-night show in Annex history. With an all women cast! I've attached the reviews below if you'd like to peruse them.

Seattle Times

Drama in the Hood

The Stranger

I had the thought during the run of the show that not often does it happen that I'll get to spend two contracts in a row working with mostly female casts! It was a joy, a gift, and a reminder of how I started and where I came from at Stephens College. I was inspired in those weeks to continue to do all I could to work with as many women in this field as I possible.

Shortly after we opened, a New York premiere of the show was announced, with another Stephens Woman in the cast! The end of our run at Annex was sad, but we were all moving onto different shows and knew that we'd work together again.

I can say this show was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in my professional career.

Rewind 6 months: The Summer of My Discontent

2015-01-24T13:05:00.000-06:00

We last left off over six months ago when I was taking a bit of a life break to do some traveling and deep thinking about my career path, the city I want to live in, and some family matters. I ended up traveling from Seattle east through Idaho and Montana down to camp in Yellowstone in Wyoming. From there I headed south to Colorado where I stayed for a week in Breckenridge.

Now before I left Seattle on my summer trip of 2014 I had done a quick and dirty audition for Pride and Prejudice for Book-It Repertory Theatre (with whom I previously performed in Frankenstein). They then called me the night before I set out on my trip to ask me to do a callback, which of course I was unavailable for because I was leaving. I offered to push my starting time back a few hours the next day if they could fit me in because I desperately wanted to be cast. But unfortunately the timing didn't work out and they said they'd have to move onto callbacks without me. More fortunately it was at this point in my travels in Breckenridge that I missed a call from the director offering me the part of Mary Bennet/Miss Darcy. I immediately called him back and accepted the role for the upcoming December 2014 production!

The director left me with one tidbit of information that would help to inform the rest of my summer: if I had been near the end of my EMC weeks (of which there are 50, and I was not near the end) and wanting to turn Equity (which I would like to do eventually) then I would not have been able to be cast in the show. They had reached their budgetary quota of Equity actors for this show, and were no long able to take on more. The main reason for my travels in the summer of 2014 aside from seeing family and reconnecting with my roots, was about looking into some new markets. This phone call quickly taught me that I'm nearing the point in my Seattle career where casting (though already completely out of an actor's hands to begin with) was going to soon be based on my ability to financially fit into a theatre's budget. Moving on up in the world!

This got me thinking as I continued my journey south through New Mexico and into Texas in my Suzuki Forenza Wagon that this was the beginning of a new chapter in my career. I was ten weeks into my EMC program, soon to be 20 after Pride and Prejudice, and that would almost mark the halfway point in my 'professional but affordable' career. Now of course I have the option to not turn Equity immediately and to continue to gather weeks until a theatre makes me 'flip', so there's not necessarily a rush. But regardless, I had a revelation. There were many theatres I wanted to work for in Seattle that hadn't picked me up yet. But I was also incredibly unhappy with the weather and the cost of living. It dawned on me that it was very important for me to begin looking into other regional theatres, and new cities in places that I would enjoy living in more -- while these theatres could still afford me. This was my strategy: if I can get regional theatres to get to know me and hire me while I'm still cheap, they're much more likely to do so after I turn Equity. After all, a huge part of theatre is networking and who you know. And no one outside of the city of Seattle had heard anything about me.

So I set to work splitting my summer between family, friends, and travel. I visited Austin (mostly), Dallas, New Orleans, and even road-tripped to Florida. The one city I missed that I'd like to explore is Atlanta. I really enjoyed Austin, and made it a point to see several shows there, though the summer season was slow. I saw a show in Dallas as well, though New Orleans had nothing playing when I stayed there. I did get to talk to friends and alumni and made some great professional connections in all the cities and was able to compare market size, pay rates, cost of living, and generally if I'd enjoy living there.

I'll list my discoveries, and if you ever want any more details, feel free to ask.

Dallas:
Equitable or even slightly larger than the Seattle theatre market. They have more 'mid-size' theatre companies, which means more theatre companies that pay near the Book-It or Taproot level, and have the same quality of production. I find Seattle to be lacking in the mid size theatre category, which is the reason there isn't enough paying theatre in town here. Dallas also has the Dallas Theatre Center, The Children's Theatre, and several larger theatre's in the Ft. Worth area next door. Basically they were the highest paying city I visited, but they also had the highest cost of living and I'd have to live in the big bad city again.

Austin:
A smaller city, more equitable in population to Seattle. This city has a fringe artistic vibe. Everything created is brand new here, and there's a big excitement surrounding art. It doesn't seem to be a saturated market yet, but it also doesn't seem to pay a lot. I learned from friends that there are 3 or 4 good paying theatres in town, and the Zach Theatre reigns among them all. Regardless, I really enjoyed the city! It was bikeable and felt like home. It's also the closest city to my family, currently. The cost of living is lower here than Seattle, for the most part, and the location is between Dallas and Houston if I ever needed to spread myself in all directions. There's a ton of commercial and film work to be had in this city, and the pace of life is just so different from Seattle. Obviously, I fell in love with this city.

New Orleans:
This city was the cheapest city I visited by far. It's so ridiculously affordable to live here! They have a great small theatre scene, and of course their famous Fringe Festival that happens every fall. Again, the theatre schedule was slow in the summer, but I heard great things about the quality of work being done in this old, historic town. Again, not incredibly high paying for their performers in general, but some wonderful companies to work for and a fun place to live. I have a lot of friends that say they love to visit but would never stay, but I have to admit that I could totally see myself living in New Orleans. Every street was a new adventure, and the culture is so inviting and artistic! And I could bike everywhere, which I would recommend, because driving was scary.

All in all I had a fantastic summer seeing some great small theatre and relearning how much I love and miss The South. They're my people, and though I love to travel and I plan to live many places, I think I'll always go back there.

I also learned a lot about where I'm at in life. I have a great drive to do theatre professionally, and while I've been living in Seattle that has been my one focus. All of my jobs have been theatre related, and my entire schedule has been filled to the brim with acting, teaching, developing, and selling theatre. And I've loved every second of it. But I'm starting to feel like it's time to love where I'm at, and this city just isn't doing it for me anymore. Now, that's not to say I'll never return, because I would love to. I love most everything about Seattle. But right now I want to slow down and build my hobbies and try something new. I want to continue to do theatre and work for theatre in my life, but I need to put a little bit of life back into my theatre.

So the plan was hatched as I made my way back up to Seattle in September of 2014. I was driving back across the country to fulfill two more contracts I'd signed--Horse Girls at Annex Theatre and Pride and Prejudice at Book-It Rep.. I had no idea what would be in store for me, but I knew I had to make every last experience county because my Seattle chapter was coming near to its First (of possibly many) ends.

The Kilroys List 2014

2014-06-16T20:25:00.004-05:00

Big news today from the New York Times about supporting women in theatre. Women playwrights to be exact. And with plays written by women comes more roles for women. Now that this list will be an annual occurrence, we can all rest easy knowing there's a central location to find great work by, for, and about women in the country. And then, you know, PRODUCE IT.

I had a long talk today about the way of the world of theatre outside Seattle, and it really got my brain churning on the things I've been becoming complacent about. One of those things is just the act of starting a conversation. To have a dialogue with professionals and peers about our theatre culture and where we want to take it.

I have these discussions, but not as often as I should, and certainly not for as long as I should. I'm missing a challenge and a dream, and I'm going to spend my summer finding where it's at.

Some recent ramblings

2014-06-10T10:20:00.000-05:00

I've been auditioning a lot more, recently--getting back into the swing of things and keeping my feet wet. Though I'm taking the summer season off, I will be doing one last performance before my 'vacation' this Friday night!

After that, I plan on seeing shows, possibly taking some classes, and visiting some new markets to see what other American cities consider 'great theatre'! It's an exciting time.

Shows I've seen recently:
1. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
2. Don Juan in Chicago
3. Chaos Theory
4. End Days
5. Returning to Albert Joseph
6. The Lisbon Traviata
7. Truth Like the Sun
8. Gone Wild
9. Spin the Bottle

Writing that out makes me realize I've been seeing a lot of theatre recently--and it feels great! These are from the last two months or so, and on my budget I'd say that's pretty good for me. I can do better!

I haven't written in a while mostly because there's been a lot of social/cultural happenings taking front stage. Shootings, #yesallwomen, landslides, trips. It's been a busy time and I've been attempting to stay present to process everything. I have some great links I'd like to share at another time when I've compiled my list. For now, I can say that I've been looking a lot more carefully at the work that I want to do, and how I want to focus my energy, and what message I want to give. If you haven't had the opportunity to read the yes all women hashtag page on Twitter, I would encourage you to do so.

I've helped Theatre22 open their first Summer Pride Series show. I've helped Annex Theatre pick their newest season of shows. I've written and performed in Studio4Seattle's newest reading series. I've been keeping busy artistically, and it's nice to be dipping my hand in some pots that I don't normally have the opportunity to.

In other news the trailer for my web series House of Glass has been released! You can watch it here!

The series should be premiering this summer! I should have enough footage soon to finish my reel and that will be great. When I get back from the summer, I want to take off running. I've got big plans for the year ahead!

New Look Coming Soon

2014-05-09T10:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy Spring! At Studio4Seattle we've been working on writing and reading plays based around the theme 'what is art to you?' I even wrote one! Now we've put together a reading and our plays will be performed for the public. I love Studio4 events because they're never just one thing. We'll be doing readings, artists will be making art real time, musicians will be playing, and everyone will be mingling. There's really no better way to get artists together in one room and inspire them to keep creating!

If you're in the area and able--please come! It's open to anyone and everyone that wants someone to hold them accountable for continuing to practice their art.

I've also been auditioning a lot lately. Now that the summer theatre auditions are over and everything has been cast, all the theatres are auditioning for their next season! It's always an exciting time of year, and it's been fun to be auditioning more again. I've done 5 or 6 in the last two weeks, and that's a great place to be in. It also makes me realize it's time for me to make time to go back to class! Any class. Every class. I'm itching to jump back in.

The biggest news of last month is that I got NEW HEADSHOTS by the talented John Galfano! I have a whole story to tell you all on that end--but I'm going to wait until my agent and I have picked them and they've been retouched. I'll be revamping the blog and my website, so stay tuned for a new look coming from yours truly! I really can't wait to share the pictures with you all. They're by far the best headshots I've ever taken! I'll also be writing a whole post about why everyone should search for a photographer like John. But honestly, I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

Theatre22 has been hard at work. Rehearsals have started for the 2nd show in our season, and we're gearing up for summer pride time! The weather has been getting more and more bearable, lifting everyone's spirits. I've been having a blast working for this fantastic company, and I'm learning a lot of great skills to be used in my future should I ever choose to run a business of any sort. Can I say--it's a lot harder than it looks! But these talented and dedicated folks make it all run so smoothly.

I've also received the incredibly exciting news recently that everything I've ever filmed in Seattle will premiere this summer! I'm rejoicing not so much because I can't wait to see my footage (I'm actually very nervous about that) but because this will be the summer that I can FINALLY make a reel! One commercial, two movies, and one 5 episode web series will be coming my way! I'm especially stoked for all of the stunt and combat work I should be able to get out of the footage. I'd love to continue to be cast for very physical roles, and hopefully this will help!

Slow and steady I feel like I'm heading towards a great fall season of theatre and film.

Fundraising, teaching, acting, and how to be a woman

2014-04-11T10:39:00.004-05:00

I've done quite a few things in the last few weeks. One of the most important is I got a job! I'm no longer unemployed after my last acting contract. I had a big push from my agent and friends to go on unemployment. I learned a little about taking unemployment as an actor through my Nuts and Bolts class in college. While I recognize it can be a necessary if an actor is wanting to survive mostly on acting, and could quite possibly find a new acting job soon that will put them under a paying contract, it just didn't seem right to me in my situation.

When I think of unemployment, I think of the people who need it. I didn't need it. I'm fully capable of finding myself another job (which I have now) and I certainly don't need anymore time to sit on my couch to collect a paycheck. I'm very happy being up on my feet again!

I attended a TPS meet'n'greet the last week of March to discuss how the generals went, and how the organization Theatre Puget Sound can aide us as actors. It wasn't a very informative meeting for me because they spent a lot of time telling us about the organization, which most every actor in this region already knows plenty about. TPS gives the Seattle theatre community rehearsal spaces, audition spaces, an organized team to set up appointments, an annual general audition, and a website to find and post audition notices, open forums, and personal theatre artist pages with credentials. It's a beautiful thing. In the small time I stayed for the meeting though, we did discuss the market here and the advantages and disadvantages of having so much theatre in a small place, and we discussed the general consensus between paid and unpaid theatre work. The opinion wasn't decided when I left, but I hope to bring it up again in another forum.

Here is the auditor survey from this year's TPS general audition. There's a lot of great advice from those watching the auditions about what pieces to pick or not pick, how to walk into a room, and how to be prepared overall. Personally, it sounds like they were underwhelmed and it makes me a little frustrated with the theatre community here. If people aren't trained to audition well in school, then there has to be more audition prep availability in the city (as there would be in larger markets with theatre studios and private classes) to help improve an auditioner's audition. Personally, I've taken private classes and studio classes here. But there aren't many to take and I think it shows here that it's hurting the actors in the end. Many actors I know just don't think they need to be ongoing students of the art, and I think that attitude is another factor in poor auditions. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
http://tpsonline.org/newsletter/2014/04/02/2014uga-auditor-survey/

Theatre22's Party went off without a hitch! We had a wonderful time sharing our first fundraiser with our stellar donors, company members, and other interested folk. I ran my first professional silent auction, and I know so much about what not to do next time. Not that it didn't go really well--it did! But I now know a more flawless design and layout, as well as what questions need to be asked in advance. It's always about asking the right questions. I also feel great having some fundraising experience under my belt. I had know idea that it would be something I enjoyed so much. I really loved being the point person, obtaining all the information, and getting to do things exactly how I wanted them. Control freak? Me? It was also wonderful to be publicly announced as a staff member and artistic associate, and I can't wait for what's coming up next for this fantastic company. We're getting a space this next year, and the new season will be coming out soon!

In other news, I attended a teaching artist forum last night at Freehold Theatre (a local theatre that holds studio classes for further education). It was stunningly uninformative for a teaching artist, but I'm sure was very informative for those who are not yet teaching artists. I wish they would have polled their audience to ask how many of each kind they had, because in the end I didn't learn much. What I did learn was that there are many valuable and passionate teaching artists in this city that truly believe in the work they do. This work is not just about performing plays, but about instilling literacy, confidence, an understanding of vulnerability, and the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. I learned a lot about what should be part of a teaching artist's curriculum.

I've bought tickets to see a new show tonight about women in our society. How are women viewed? Why is beauty so intermingled with what it means to be a woman? How can we ensure that the women of the future are valued for more than an ideal of what a woman should be?

If you are so inclined, and have the time, I've linked three incredibly insightful articles about these subjects. The last is about the project I'm seeing tonight, and I listed it last because, while the subject matter is pertinent to this discussion, the article itself is not incredibly in depth and speaks more towards the show itself. Give yourself a break and take a look at these pieces by women about body image and how to move forward in this ridiculous society we've built. You'll have to copy and paste the link because blogger doesn't like to link things itself.

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/04/new-directions-bopo-movement/
http://dressaday.com/2006/10/20/you-dont-have-to-be-pretty/
http://miryamstheatermusings.blogspot.com/2014/04/can-women-support-each-other-is-it-too.html

Studio4Seattle: You are a Wonder

2014-03-26T00:52:00.000-05:00

Every Tuesday I attend a play reading group. I've been part of this group since its inaugural meeting around this time last year, and every time I go I come away with the most amazing feeling. This group is called Studio4Seattle , and honestly it's much much more than a play reading group. It's an open forum and meeting for playwrights, directors, actors, painters, singers, musicians, and artists of all types to meet and inspire each other to be creative. It helps us stretch and grow, and above all, to not become complacent. It's an encouraging atmosphere where every person has the opportunity to have a voice and be involved, but never has to feel the pressure of having to participate.

The group changes weekly. New people come, busy people don't. But everyone seems to come back again and again as time allows, and I believe that's because we've all stumbled upon (or possibly created) something incredibly special. There's a trust to conceive new ideas that I haven't found among other groups in this city, and we're all guided by the amazing David Nail who facilitates this trust with his vision for an artist collective.

This week we read adaptations (or maybe I should say 'arrangements') of a script previously produced in Florida, but originally written in England. It is a script that can be written for any number of actors and we've taken to playing around with how the story is changed by changing the number of characters and which lines they say. This is just one of the many exercises and experiments that I have had the fortune to be a part of.

I don't know how to stress this enough, but being an actor (or any type of artist) is hard. All professions are, in their own way. But one of the struggles of an actor is to consistently find work, to be working, to be seen and heard. And sometimes it's impossible to work based on type and demand. But one thing we can all do to make things easier for ourselves, is to create our own work. But this too, can be extremely challenging. A lot of the time it's difficult to feel inspired, to give yourself permission to take the time to create, or to feel motivated to create when you feel like you don't have time. EVERYONE should find an outlet that helps them feel inspired--because it is truly the most fulfilling and motivational feeling.

I urge all artists to push themselves to create, create, create, and if you can help yourself by including yourself in groups like these--do it. Don't be afraid. Make the time. And give yourself permission.

I'm so grateful for Studio4, and for the way I get to feel every Tuesday night after speaking and working with other artists who help to motivate me. It's such a beautiful experience.

My question to you: How do you motivate yourself? How do you make time for yourself?

I'm Having a Party!

2014-03-22T10:33:00.001-05:00

There are so many things to celebrate recently that I feel like I need to make a list! We know how much I love lists.

1. I'm the newest artistic associate for a wonderful Seattle theatre company called Theatre22. What does that mean? It means I get to learn from the best of the best how to run a small theatre company that wants to grow bigger. Paid staff? Equity contracts? A cool new space? Check it off the list folks, Theatre22 is here to stay.

2. Theatre22 is having a PARTY, and I want to share it with you! April 5. Come join the fun of celebrating this great new company. Did I mention there's a silent auction with fabulous gifts? And I'll be running it. So, seriously, go buy your tickets.

3. This Seattle casting site has listed my page of Headshot Photographers on their site. I mean...I feel famous. Or just really organized. And there's no reason for everyone to make their own list when mine is right up there on that navigation bar. Need new headshots? Click it!

4. The sun is out.

5. Have I mention that I'm the Development Director for Annex Theatre? That's the Gregory Award Winning Theatre of the Year for 2013. And they're about to start taking submissions for next year's season of brand new work. So get your playscripts in!

6. BIG auditions coming up. It's generals season, and I've just finished my first 'Equity Day' audition with TPS (thanks Book-It for the union status change!), and up next are the Village Generals and then Seattle Children's. Can you say time for some fun?

7. The sun is still out.

8. Thanks to a fantastic run of Frankenstein and my current unemployment status, I've been able to spend more quality time on me and the direction I want to go next. I'm looking forward to the research.

So basically, life is a party and everything is going really well in the world of Seattle.

The Play that was Frankenstein

2014-03-22T09:54:00.000-05:00

I started writing a few times during the production of Frankenstein. As my first 'professional'(I hate that word) experience, it seemed like I needed to write about it. I needed to get my thoughts out there in the world. But I was entirely too close to the experience, and there was a lot going on.

Instead, I'm writing about it now! Let me begin with why I hate the word 'professional' in relation to theatre. Since moving to Seattle two and a half years ago, I consider most of the work I've done professional. I graduated with a theatre degree from an amazing institution, moved here, and within six months was being paid for my work. I was offered so much work I had to begin turning it down within eight months. I started being called in for auditions by people who had seen me or heard of me by the end of my first year. All of that sounds great within that context, but I suppose the difference is in perspective. I wanted to see all my work as 'professional'. That is the level I aspired to be working at, and I was certain it was the level I was working at.

Then I got cast at Book-It Repertory Theatre. I was offered an hourly wage instead of a stipend. I worked enough hours for that wage to pay my bills. Suddenly, people that hadn't known my name were seeing me on a much larger stage working with a well-known company, and those people that had 'called me in' suddenly seemed like friends I went to play in the sandbox with. Granted--that's how I felt for much of the run. Wide-eyed, plucked from obscurity, and thrust into center stage so to speak. But I want to be clear, that in no way did I ever feel suddenly important. I did, however, suddenly recognize the difference between the work I had been doing thus far, and the work I was now being able to do.

The professionalism of my process and my ability was no different, but I was certainly affected deeply by the breadth of talent and experience surrounding me. The wealth of knowledge that comes from working with a company and a cast of theatre professionals who have made it their career and their lifestyle to work solely for theatres who profit from their shows, run smoothly on grants and a donor database, and are considered as known on a national scale was a completely different experience than just getting paid to do my work. That is how I used to consider professional theatre. If I was being paid in any capacity, I was doing well for myself. I was respected enough to earn some sort of profit, and my time was not being wasted. I suppose I had to have that mindset to continue to push myself forward. It was my way of being positive and optimistic about where I was in my career, and gave me that ability to continue to strive towards something. In a sense, the stipend work was the stepping stone to something greater, but it was also great in itself. I still be believe that a lot of fringe theatres do professional work or have a professional process. But having the operating budget, audience, and space is as important to the process of professional theatre as picking the right director.

Now I understand a lot more, and while I consider all the work I've done professional, I consider the theatre that I just ended a contract with a much more professional experience than any I've had the pleasure of working before!

I've had a fortunate year of professional work! Getting cast in a SAG film, and getting cast in a theatrical production that offered me EMC (Equity Membership Candidate) was not an opportunity I expected to have all in the same year. But I'm counting my blessings and moving forward in the hopes of more good fortune!

What I learned from Frankenstein:
1. Daytime rehearsals are the best thing to ever happen to a theatre graduate. It's everything you've ever wanted and dreamed of and hoped for. When you wake up in the morning and realize that going to work means going to do what you love for the day--that is a special kind of amazing.
2. Sometimes you have the astounding opportunity to work with a phenomenal director who happens to have the magical ability to choose a cast that gets along so well that it's unbelievable. That's how I felt anyway.
3. Every day is a new experience. One day of rehearsal for a new work (world premiere play) can be completely dedicated to one three page scene. This scene may get rewritten five times in one day. Yes, you must know and remember all the line changes. But you must also bring something new every time you do the scene.
4. I had the distinct fortune to work with a director who was also the adapter. This meant that when I, as an actor, felt something off about the scene, we were able to work together to create a different word choice or a completely new line if needed. I had the most amazing time because the director allowed me as an actor to try a scene ten different ways and still never told me that I had to pick one yet. This rehearsal process was the most freeing and creative experience I've had since college. I could come in and create anything, and if was stupid we'd scratch it, and if it was great--we'd try it again in that direction, just to see what happened next.
5. Safety and trust are the key to every great theatrical experience.
6. Bagels make you rehearse better.
7. Sometimes you will hate a costume piece. It will look fantastic, and will be exactly what everyone wants--but it will impede your ability to do a scene the way you've been rehearsing for five weeks. It doesn't matter. You'd better figure out how to make it work--and like it.
8. Sometimes it takes 23 years of your life until you are allergic to every kind of chapstick, and even if you desperately need that chapstick to survive a show in which you kiss someone in every scene you're in--thou shalt not use chapstick. And you will survive. Albeit, with chapped lips.

9. An all women's dressing room is something I have not experienced since highschool. It was grand!
10. Corsets are your friend. You must learn to breathe and move as one. And you must never eat before a show in which you must bend in your corset, because vomit is a real thing. See our promotional video here.
11. Enjoy every single day like it is the last day you will have the opportunity to do what you love for a living. Treat everyone with respect. Never be afraid to make a big bold choice. Always check in with your fellow actors, and don't be selfish. Love those you work with, and appreciate the work that is being done around you. Let it affect you and move you and take it with you when you are done, for it will help you move forward toward another great experience.

A list of reviews:

Anatomy of a Play: Meet ‘Frankenstein’s’ sound man
Crosscut, 2/28/14

The Curtain and the Monster
The Stranger, 2/26/14

Opening Nights: Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus
Seattle Weekly, 2/25/14

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus at Book-It Repertory Theatre
BlogCritics.com, 2/24/14

More Than a Tall, Green Monster With Bolts Through His Neck
TeenTix, 2/21/14

Nowhere to Hide at Frankenstein
Mode is Fashion, 2/21/14

Book-It conjures ‘Frankenstein’
Seattle Times, 2/21/14

Book-It’s Frankenstein Tells the Real Story
Seattle Gay News, 2/21/14

The Authentic Frankenstein Comes to Life at Book-It
Drama in the Hood, 2/18/14

Book-It’s ‘Frankenstein’ emphasizes gothic
Queen Anne News, 2/18/14

Theatrical Impression: Frankenstein at Book-It Rep
Catherine Blake Smith, 2/17/14

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Seattle Actor, 2/17/14

BWW Reviews: Book-It’s FRANKENSTEIN
Broadway World, 2/16/14

Take your geek to the theatre for Valentine’s Day
Examiner, 2/13/14

Actor finds Frankenstein is his dream monster
Examiner, 2/12/14

Hopelessly romantic: ‘Frankenstein’ at Book-It
Seattle Times, 2/9/14

Frankenstein: It's a Play About Chapstick

2014-02-01T21:51:00.000-06:00

It's been almost 3 years since I spent an entire day dedicated to rehearsing theatre that wasn't a weekend. It's been almost 3 years since I could call my job acting. It's been almost 3 years since I've felt as completely fulfilled as I have for the last 4 weeks.

I get to wake up every day and do what I love and nothing else. Now that's not to say that I shouldn't be doing something else on the side. I'd certainly be making more money. But I wanted to know what it would feel like to only do theatre. It makes me feel poor in money, but rich in soul. It's a truly beautiful thing.

The reason it's so beautiful is because I've been given the gift of an extraordinarily brave cast. Everyday we go to new places to uncover the heart of this amazing piece of literature. There's something incredibly redeeming about the characters in Frankenstein--their hope, perseverance through despair, and the ability to know love. It's one of the most challenging plays I've come across because of the sheer depth of the story. It's written to show every up and down because the plot is centered around love. I highly recommend rereading the book before coming to see this one. It will only enhance the play.

Now I've been MIA for a few months, and it's because I've been busy with this show. You'd think after a month of rehearsals I'd have a lot to say--and I do! But I don't want to say half of it for fear of ruining your personal reaction to the piece.

I will say that for me it has been a month of 'profound labor', as Victor Frankenstein would say. A month of death and despair. A month of love and discovery. But mostly it's been a month of chapstick. If you're interested in experiencing the amount of chapstick I've bought and used in the last month, I encourage you to come watch the show, opening February 15th. Remember to imagine running the scenes multiple times in one day and I'm sure you'll understand soon enough.

If you want to take a look at some promotional footage, you can see it here.

I can say that there hasn't been a single moment I haven't been having fun. And I couldn't be more excited to be opening soon and giving this show to the audiences of Seattle. It's been a great gift to have worked so hard with such a talented cast and crew, and I hope to do it many more times here and many other places. This show has retaught me what theatre is all about, and how important an experience it is to live through.

In other news, I've also seen a lot of shows and movies recently!
1. The Equation by Theatre 9/12
2. Black Like Us by Annex Theatre
3. A Great Wilderness by Seattle Rep
4. The Hounds of the Baskerville by Seattle Rep (which I saw in December but don't think I mentioned)
5. The Foreigner by Village Theatre

Of course, now that I'm not doing Fringe theatre I suddenly understand how unavailable an actor becomes when you want to see your friends' shows. Because of my crazy rehearsal schedule I can't catch everything I want to. But I'm so happy to have so many successful friends who are taking this theatre town by storm! Congratulations to everyone on their shows!