I did some digging in my closet and i found this original ‘cybill’ script from 1996, episode #220 ‘virgin, mother, cheater’… complete with cover artwork courtesy of my 20 yr old self (including doodles about the dinner richard dreyfuss was planning to thank all the cast/crew of ‘mr holland’s opus’ for his oscar nom!) and decided: it’s contest time!

(if the winner wants me to sign it i will; but since all the current writing on it was from me 16 yrs ago i thought i’d leave it like that for now!)

How to Enter:

1.Twitter: Follow http://twitter.com/aliciawitty and tweet the following phrase EXACTLY (copy+paste)

“I want to win an ORIGINAL 1996 ‘CYBILL’ script from @aliciawitty’s Kickstarter contest! http://kck.st/awrockwood #rockwoodKS”

-    (1 entry)

2. Tumblr: just re-blog this post: http://bit.ly/Jwmkfq

-     (1 entry)

1 entry per person/per method

-    Results will be determined via random selection on random.org

The contest will end at the same time as the Kickstarter – Monday, May 21st

You must be a twitter follower or tumblr subscriber at the time of win!

Thanks to all my fans, you are all incredible, and GOOD LUCK!

first of all, i just have to say… i am blown away by what you have done with my kickstarter in the last few days!!

i launched it on monday and 48 hours later… not only have i FULLY funded my ‘live at rockwood’ album, but, thanks to you, i’m now finally on my way towards funding my first full length studio album too… which would be a dream and something i’ve wanted to do for a long time now.

drawing by aleksey nelipa; Live at Rockwood

as you know if you’re familiar with kickstarter… (or if you’re not, now you will be!)… the cool thing is that not only are you helping bring my music into the world, and getting to be among the 1st to hear it when it gets released next month… but also this is your chance to get some unique gifts from me to you in exchange for your awesomeness.

there’s one prize i wanted to mention in particular… the custom-written song!

it’s one of my favorites because not only does it allow me to connect with you on a personal level, but.. as if you didn’t know by now… i love writing music. and when it’s especially for a particular person… i love writing it even more.

i thought i’d share with you a song i wrote for one of my dear friends, whose name is myles, for his 40th birthday last month. he celebrated his birthday in palm springs with some close friends, and as a surprise ‘toast’, i played this tune (the karaoke version, without vocals) and got up and sang it for the party.

clearly, when you listen to the lyrics, it’s about some very specific events in his life and very silly. but i had a blast with it. and if ever someone deserved a song, it’s myles.

anyway, i wanted to share it with you so you could get a sense of what the ‘custom song’ could be. i would write and record it myself.. either just piano and vox or with some fun effects put in as i did with this one…based on a detailed list of facts/events etc that you would share with me.

it wouldn’t be uber-professional grade studio quality…no auto-tune or mad producer skillz at chateau a-dub… but it will be pretty darn decent!

besides birthday songs for you or someone you love… here are some other ideas for custom songs:

- a personal theme song

- a custom love song for a couple

- a proposal song for someone!

- a song for a cause you support

- sweet 16/quinceanera gift

- anniversary song for someone special

EVEN MORE FUN: if enough people- 10 of you- choose the custom song as your kickstarter prize, i will RELEASE a digital album of all of the songs, and donate the proceeds to a charity that we all agree on!

i’ve uploaded myles’ birthday song here for you to listen to…

and of course another example of my custom songs is my special ‘kickstarter’ theme song, which would most certainly be the opening track of that compilation album!

and most importantly… thank you so much for all you’ve done so far!  if you haven’t yet checked out my kickstarter, please do… at the very least my super dorky video should amuse you. or annoy you. either way.

with love and gratitude…

alicia

Los Angeles, CA (April 11, 2012) – Graham Ballou, producer and partner at Los Angeles-based Midway Films, announced lead casting today for its feature PASADENA, written and to be directed by Will Slocombe (CRIME FICTION, MULLIGAN, “Reception”). This is Slocombe’s third feature as a director, his first produced screenwriting credit. Production on the film begins in early May.

Peter Bogdanovich (“The Sopranos,” BROKEN ENGLISH, dir. LAST PICTURE SHOW) has been cast in the role of Poppy Turner, with Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Suburgatory”) joining him as his second wife, Deborah. Alicia Witt (”Friday Night Lights,” “Cybill”) will play Poppy’s daughter, and Ashton Holmes (”Revenge,” A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) Poppy and Deborah’s son. Also cast are Sonya Walger (“FlashForward,” “Lost”) and Amy Ferguson (THE MASTER, SOCIAL NETWORK).

Set in present-day Pasadena, the film centers on the eccentric Turner clan, an upper-class family torn apart by secrets revealed over a Thanksgiving weekend. Patriarch Poppy (Bogdanovich) has invited his black sheep daughter Nina (Witt) home for the holiday – her first visit in 15 years. Nina immediately clashes with stepmother Deborah (Hines), and competes with her siblings (Holmes and Walger) for Poppy’s affection – and money. Over three days, the family gradually disintegrates over who will get Poppy’s money – only to discover he’s broke.

Producer Graham Ballou said: “We’re thrilled by the response Will’s script has garnered – we’ve assembled a cast of incredible talent, and can’t wait to bring this story to life.”

Will Slocombe, who wrote the loosely autobiographical script, calls it “King Lear at Thanksgiving. But funny. We’re shooting in a beautiful mid-century home, the perfect setting for a 1% family like this to fall apart. On the surface, everyone is calm and successful. But, as the weekend drags on, they peel away the layers to get at each other’s raw nerves. It’s the kind of emotional terrorism that only families can inflict on one another.”

PASADENA is produced by Graham Ballou of Midway Films (CRIME FICTION, MULLIGAN, “Reception”) and David Mandel (DRIFT, MULLIGAN), with co-producer Kimberly Burnick (FUTURE WEATHER) and casting director Paul Ruddy.

by Mike Fleming, Deadline

source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/midway-gets-underway-on-pasadena/

Bogdanovich, Hines, Witt set for indie comedy-drama

Bogdanovich

Hines

Witt

Holmes

Peter Bogdanovich, Cheryl Hines, Alicia Witt and Ashton Holmes are headed to “Pasadena,” toplining the indie comedy-drama.Project’s produced by Graham Ballou of Midway Films and David Mandel, with Kimberly Burnick co-producing.

Will Slocombe is directing from his own script in his third feature as a helmer and his first produced screenwriting credit. Production begins in early May.

Set in present-day Pasadena, the film centers on an upper-class clan torn apart by secrets revealed over a Thanksgiving weekend with the black sheep daughter coming home for the holiday for her first visit in 15 years.

Bogdanovich will portray the family patriarch, and Hines will play his second wife. Witt will play his daughter, and Holmes will portray the couple’s son. Also cast are Sonya Walger and Amy Ferguson.

Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Alicia Witt drawn to rock and roles

Witt’s amped for gig

 By Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein

Globe Staff

Worcester native Alicia Witt, a musician and actress who has appeared on TV shows such as “Friday Night Lights’’ and “Medium,’’ and in movies such as “Two Weeks Notice,’’ is in town tonight for a performance at Berklee’s Cafe 939. She called us from New York yesterday to tell us that she’s giddy about her Massachusetts gig, and thrilled that performing live music has become a second profession. “Making music is so hugely a part of my blood.’’ Witt (inset) indulged us by answering our questions about her connection to Super Bowl performer Madonna. Witt played Madonna’s young girlfriend in the 1995 movie “Four Rooms.’’ Witt said that she and Madonna aren’t close, but that she has seen her a few times since the movie and that the pop star has always been charming. Tonight’s show starts at 8.

» Enlarge photo

Enlarge photo

Alicia Witt (With Mike Maven and Ken Yates)
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Where: Café 939, Berklee College of Music, 939 Boylston St., Boston How much: $12. To buy tickets: http://www.berklee.edu/events/detail/12015 /alicia-witt- young-pandas-ken-yates

Worcester’s talented, attractive, redhead actress Alicia Witt is performing a new role these days, and pouring her heart and soul into it.

Witt (who was a regular on the TV series “Friday Night Lights” and also has a recurring part in “The Mentalist”) has made five movies over the past few months that are in various stages of preparation, pre-release and release. But Wednesday you can see her in a different artistic milieu when she appears at Café 939 at Berklee College of Music, 939 Boylston St., Boston.

It’s a real-life part: Wittt as singer-songwriter. Also performing at the show, which starts at 8 p.m., will be Mike Maven and Ken Yates.

“I usually play a bunch of my original songs,” Witt said about what to expect at tomorrow’s concert during a telephone interview last week from her Los Angeles base. She’ll have a couple of New York City musicians playing guitar and drums. Witt will be at the piano.

“I’ve been playing the piano my whole life, but being a singer-songwriter in a band is a very different endeavor,” she said.

And she’s found that performing as a singer — especially when it comes to singing her own songs — is rather different than performing as an actor.

“Acting — playing a role — in a way, it’s very safe,” Witt said. “When you’re singing your own music, you’re really putting yourself out there. It’s definitely much more personal and much more vulnerable. You can almost hide behind a character if you’re playing one. A lot of my songs, even if it’s not something I’ve personally experienced, it’s a great way to communicate what you’re feeling and be much more expressive.”

The sight of Witt at a piano will bring back memories for some local music fans of a certain age who might recall a brilliant and precocious child performing piano at a couple of local nightspots including the former Clarion Suites in Worcester. The talent extended to other areas. On the TV show “That’s Incredible,” a very young Witt recited Shakespeare. In 1984, avant-garde director David Lynch cast her in his movie “Dune,” and later in his TV series “Twin Peaks.”

It’s been a stellar acting career for someone who is still only 36. Among other notable films are “88 Minutes” (playing opposite Al Pacino), “Two Weeks Notice” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” TV shows have included “Cybill,” “Law and Order” and a memorable appearance on “The Sopranos.”

Still, Witt, a classically trained pianist, never forgot about music, and, as she related in an earlier interview, found that songs started calling to her to be written.

“I’ve always written songs and dabbled in writing songs just for fun, but this thing all started coming out so seriously,” she said. “A friend said you need to start playing them some place other than your living room. Now I can’t imagine my life without it.”

She’s been performing them at venues across the country such as Hotel Café and Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles, and Joe’s Pub and The Living Room in New York.

She released a self-titled EP and made her first music video for the track “Anyway” (about a “toxic relationship”) that played on MTV and VH1.com. The songs can riff sharply, as in an angry sounding but cathartic statement about a broken relationship. Elsewhere, the feel is sometimes jazzy and poignant. There are a number of surprises, including Witt’s interpretation of Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al.”

A more recent iTunes single, “Me or New York,” has had good radio play and been described by Mike Mettler in Sound and Vision magazine as “an instant heart-grabber.”

Witt appeared on the cover of Sound and Vision recently, and it is a measure of how far she has come as a singer-songwriter that the story and Q&A with her focuses much more on the sound — i.e. her songs — than the appealing vision Witt always conveys in her movies (although there is a very good looking photo spread).

“When I’m working on a movie I’ve always got lyrics and melodies in my head,” Witt said last week. “I’m constantly writing.”

But don’t think that Witt is considering giving up the day job, if that’s what acting can be called in her case.

“No. No,” she said emphatically, then mentioned some of her new films that will be coming out soon.

“Joint Body” (about a parolee who finds kinship with a troubled woman who helps him re-evaluate his life) is already hitting the film festivals, Witt noted. “Away From Here” is “about to go to festivals.” Meanwhile, “Cowgirls n’ Angels” (rodeo trick riders) is being put together for release soon. And filming has just been completed for “I Do,” which tackles immigration. “I think it turned out really well,” Witt said. She has a pending appearance on “The Mentalist” early February.

The critically acclaimed “Friday Night Lights” (a drama based around a high school football team) ended its run February 2011. “That was so fun,” Witt said. The cast had such a natural rapport that “we just felt that we weren’t even making a television series.”

Performing your music live is one way to hopefully get an instant rapport with an audience. After one recent show, someone in attendance approached Witt and told her a song had “ ‘made me feel less lonely.’ ”

“Certainly if someone is moved by my music, it means the world to me.”

Being “out there” and vulnerable, however, can also mean the potential of slings and arrows.

Criticism?

“I wouldn’t take it personally because music is so subjective,” Witt said. “If someone were to say ‘you’re phenomenally under-talented as a musician,’ that would hurt a little bit. But I’ve been playing music all my life.”

Another difference between acting and singing is process — as in the process of building a career. With acting it can often be as simple as trying out for an audition and being hired or not, Witt observed. “With every connection I’ve made in the music business it’s someone listening to a song and introducing me to someone.”

Witt would like to make a full studio album, “but I’m still trying to figure out who I’m working with … For an album I want to make sure I produce the songs exactly the way I want them.”

She’s considering releasing a live album.

Of course, a big hit would probably help the cause, with “Anyway” and “Me or New York” showing promise in that direction.

“It would be fantastic if a song would take off. It’s amazing when a song takes off and people are humming it on large scale. It’s a massive, massive honor.”

Witt is undaunted about the challenges.

“It’s just a real labor of love trying to figure out how it all fits together,” she said. “I just try to have a really great time with it and see where it takes me.”

Her travels do take her back here, but her performances are usually in Boston.

As ever, therefore, the final question was — what about Worcester?

“That would be nice,” she said of doing a show here. But she’s not so familiar with the scene as she once was. “I don’t even know where to play.”

But she might entertain suggestions.

Witt’s music is at www.aliciawittmusic.com.

a friend just lost her husband and buried him in Minnesota… probably right below where i am now. yesterday, the day of the funeral, was apparently the coldest one so far this winter. i wanted to share their love story anyway though, because it is one of the truest and most inspiring i’ve ever known.

elizabeth met bill about 4 years ago and they fell in love almost instantly. they planned to get married; she had moved from LA to florida to be with him. and then, literally out of the blue, he started having strange symptoms… and they found out that he had a brain tumor. after surgery and chemo, the doctors weren’t expecting him to survive very long so they moved up the wedding to make sure that when he passed, at least they would be married.

but then a miracle happened… he started getting better. and the most incredible miracle of all… about a year after their wedding, they conceived. 2 years ago, their beautiful daughter was born (she looks just like bill). and up until he started losing his battle in earnest a few months ago, he was able to know his baby girl before he left. bill passed away last weekend, leaving behind an angel whose creation no one could have imagined would be possible a few years ago. so he lives on through her.

and through it all, elizabeth remained a pillar of indescribable strength and love. she is the proof that, when you fall in love for real, ‘for better or for worse’ knows no bounds.

their story sends shivers through me as i sit here writing it… i am moved to tears by the reminder of what love truly is, what it can be when it’s real and boundless. so many of us (i’m guilty) have settled for less… allowed unkind words or actions to become acceptable; remained too long in a situation where we either aren’t in love or where we aren’t loved the way we know we long to be; and let our head rationalize our way through staying when our intuition is screaming that it isn’t right. when i think of elizabeth and bill, i know that love isn’t any of those things. it gives me faith that it exists… the way i dream it; with give and take but never compromise. as elton john said, ‘it’s no sacrifice’.

may all those reading this take a moment in bill’s honor to treasure those we love… and to be grateful for a world where love exists when we believe in it.

a

as of two days ago i was planning to spend a quiet, grounded evening at home, setting intentions on my own, just me and the animals. then i unexpectedly got invited to join in a last minute vegas extravaganza. what exactly we will end up doing tonight i honestly don’t know for sure, as i write this at quarter of five. and the amazing thing? it doesn’t matter. i’ve figured out what 2012 is supposed to be… the year of strength and faith and staying serenely in control of where my heart is supposed to be, while surrendering any sense of knowing exactly what i have to do or where i have to go… embracing spontaneity and intuition, intuition, intuition. what if this was the year to actually listen to it with no apologies? what if for once, every single day this year, i trusted my gut each step of the way and didn’t doubt it, while at the same time allowing my path to be swayed by last minute changes and impulses? i’ve always been somewhat superstitious about new year’s eve, and i truly feel that that’s what my purpose in being here is, in so called ‘sin city’, as the changing of the year approaches.

there’s something else i want to take note of. yesterday i had the gift of attending the funeral for a very special girl who was dear to one of my best friends… her name was tahnee and she lost her lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis on Christmas day. she was 22 years old. born in 1989. so few years here on earth in this body, and yet she changed so many lives with her positive attitude and her laughter and her sense of humor, and the fact that she was determined to live every single day that she was given to the very fullest. i left the service yesterday just overwhelmed with the sense that.. there is so much pain in this world, so many miscommunications, so many careless exchanges, so much love gone lost thanks to unhealed wounds and unappreciated blessings and petty insecure jealousies that add up to nothing in the end. and this sweet girl could only be here for such a short time, and never once complained, never once felt sorry for herself, only felt grateful for what she had. if her life was brief, the least we who were touched by her can do to honor her is truly to learn from that… and to share with others. so i am sharing with you, whoever is reading this.

so this is me signing out for 2011… i am sending love, peace, and strength to all of you. thank you for being a part of my journey. thank you for allowing me to share my world with you. never did i imagine i’d be writing my annual year end thoughts sitting at a bar in a vegas hotel eating a salad and drinking a patron margarita. but that’s what life is sometimes. unexpected and perfect. here’s to a fearless, shining 2012.

alicia