Archive for May, 2009
The Best Acceptance Speech EVER
Thursday, May 28th, 2009Words of Wisdom
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009Some inspiration for a dreary Chicago day:
“I think any actor who makes it through and when I say makes it through I don’t mean making millions and millions of dollars, but they keep at it. {They say} ‘for the rest of my life until my dying breath I am an actor’ — they are warriors. There is no other industry, no other profession where a person has to get up every morning and prove they can do their job. It’s like you’re interviewing for your job every Monday and not knowing if you are going to have it at the end of the day. If you really want to be an actor and not a novelty then studying is the name of the game. And we study not only by going to class, but by going to see theater, going to see films and watching and reading and listening to others’ experiences. Also, being open to what is going on in the world. If we don’t know what’s going on in the world or what happened in the past, then we are going to have a limited amount of material to mine from it. As actors that is what we are constantly doing; we are mining, mining for history and emotions, and that’s important.”
A Navy girl reflects…
Monday, May 25th, 2009
“Oh my GOD! You were in the Navy!?!?!” This is what I hear from my fellow thespians whenever I disclose that I spent 6 years of my formative early twenties serving in the United States Navy. The next couple of statements are usually, “And now you’re an actor! How on earth does that happen??!?! How was it!!? Did you hate it!!? Did you love it!!? But, you’re a liberal!”
It’s funny because I don’t really think about it that often. But, on days like today (Memorial Day in case any of you live under a rock), Veteran’s Day, and 9-11, I can’t stop thinking about it. How do I juxtapose being a veteran AND an actor? Honestly, in my case, I can’t imagine one without the other.
The Navy taught me so many invaluable lessons. Some of them came easily. Some of them I learned kicking and screaming. I learned that I could push myself past physical and emotional barriers that I thought I had. I learned how to handle myself in a crisis. I learned how to think less about myself and work for the good of a team. I learned how to follow the rules while maintaining my individuality. I learned how to be tough. I learned how to lead by example. I learned how to continue to be creative in a creatively stifling environment. All of these lessons can be applied to a life on the stage.
Some of my proudest and happiest moments are from when I was in the Military. Surviving and succeeding in bootcamp, passing my first physical readiness test, being nominated for Sailor of the Year, winning Volunteer of the Year, serving during 9-11, singing at funerals and memorials, working for Habitat for Humanity, traveling the world, falling in love for the first time…all rival and/or surpass any theatrical highlights…first lead, first cabaret, first good review, one-woman show, etc.
The way I see it is an actor can only portray what his/her experiences and/or imagination will allow. I lost 6 years of my young theatrical life, but I gained a lifetime worth of amazing experiences that few in the theater have. I also was able to challenge my commitment to theater. I joined wanting to be an actor and six years later, with no exposure to theater during, I still wanted to be.
On days like today I hold my head up high. My service to this country is one of the few things I allow myself to be truly proud of. I remember all the amazing people I met that did the same. This is a day to truly honor the sacrifice that our countrymen/women make for this country. Whether it’s just a four year tour, a life-long service, or heaven forbid a loss of life. No matter what your political affiliations, our military is to be celebrated. These are good people trying to do their part and I am honored, thankful, and DAMN PROUD to be among them. Happy Memorial Day everyone!
I just wanna dance!
Sunday, May 24th, 2009I was on Paul Russell’s Answers for Actors blog today and he had posted this bit of fun.
It’s a dance mix of “I Just Wanna Fuckin’ Dance” from Jerry Springer: the Opera (sung by Alison Jiear)! This song has a special place in my heart since I was lucky enough to be part of the American Premiere of this amazing musical. The memories and stories from that time could fill a book, but I’ll just say if any of you are reading this that I am thinking about you today. I love you all and was so glad to share that experience with you!
Director David Zak, Choreographer Brenda Didier, and SOME of the huge cast of Jerry Springer: the Opera at the non-equity jeff awards after winning Best Musical.
Me and the INSANELY talented Ryan Lanning trying to out-skank each other.
What’s on the Queen’s IPOD?
Friday, May 22nd, 2009I was curious what songs Obama/staff decided to put on the ipod that he gifted her. These are the songs that were loaded into the ipod.
-“Oklahoma!,” OKLAHOMA
-“If I Loved You,” Jan Clayton, CAROUSEL
-“You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Jan Clayton, CAROUSEL
-“There’s No Business Like Show Business,” Ethel Merman, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN
-“Once in Love with Amy” (WHERE’S CHARLEY?), Ray Bolger
-“Some Enchanted Evening,” SOUTH PACIFIC
-“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” Carol Channing, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
-“Getting to Know You,” Gertrude Lawrence, THE KING AND I
-“Shall We Dance?” Gertrude Lawrence, THE KIND AND I
-“I Could Have Danced All Night,” Julie Andrews, MY FAIR LADY
-“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” Rex Harrison, MY FAIR LADY
-“The Party’s Over” (BELLS ARE RINGING), Judy Holliday
-“Maria,” WEST SIDE STORY
-“Tonight,” WEST SIDE STORY
-“Seventy Six Trombones,” THE MUSIC MAN
-“Everything’s Coming up Roses,” Ethel Merman, GYPSY
-“The Sound of Music,” THE SOUND OF MUSIC
-“Try to Remember,” Jerry Orbach, THE FANTASTICKS
-“Camelot,” Richard Burton CAMELOT
-“If Ever I Would Leave You,” Robert Goulet, CAMELOT
-“Hello, Dolly!” Carol Channing, HELLO DOLLY
-“If I Were a Rich Man,” Zero Mostel, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
-“People,” Barbra Streisand, FUNNY GIRL
-“On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever),” John Cullum, ON A CLEAR DAY (YOU CAN SEE FOREVER)
-“The Impossible Dream,” Richard Kiley, MAN OF LA MANCHA
-“Mame,” Charles Braswell, MAME
-“Cabaret,” Liza Minnelli, CABARET
-“Aquarius, Ronald Dyson, HAIR
-“Send in the Clowns,” Judy Collins, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
-“All That Jazz,” Chita Rivera, CHICAGO
-“One,” A CHORUS LINE
-“Tomorrow,” Andrea McArdle, ANNIE
-“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” Patti LuPone, EVITA
-“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” Jennifer Holliday, DREAMGIRLS
-“Memory,” Elaine Paige, CATS
-“The Best of Times,” George Hearn, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
-“I Dreamed a Dream,” Aretha Franklin, LES MISERABLES
-“The Music of the Night,” Michael Crawford, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
-“As If We Never Said Goodbye,” Elaine Paige, SUNSET BLVD.
-“Seasons of Love,” RENT
They’re all songs from musicals! I think that’s pretty cool. I wonder if she’s a musical lover?
The scoop on Harmony
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009I don’t have much theater stuff to talk about right now because WE’RE MOVING. Ugh. I think it’s in the top 5 of my absolute least favorite things to do. I get stressed out because there is so much to do and then I get paralyzed because there is so much to do and I don’t know where to start. So most of my blogging urges have been fulfilled on my other blog. My home design blog. Yes. I am fully aware that I’m a weirdo that has too many blogs, but thanks for pointing it out. 
Because we’re moving I gave myself a break from auditioning. Well the move date has been pushed back so I don’t have an excuse anymore. So I’m back at it again next week. I’ve submitted for a lot of plays and I’m REALLY excited about it. I love plays. I never get to do them. The last play I did was in 2006. It was Angels in America and I was blissfully content playing one of the coolest parts in theater: Hannah Pitt.
I love plays because they don’t stress me out as much as musicals do. All you have to do is tell your story truthfully. It’s still a heck a lot of work, but you don’t have to worry about hitting the right note or fear you’re making a mockery of the dance steps. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE musicals! And I feel very lucky that I’ve gotten to do so many of them. I’m just excited about the possibility of doing a play…that’s all.
Next up for me: Cousins Grimm (A musical ) directed by Scott Ferguson. We start rehearsing this week. I’ll let you guys know more about it in another post.
I’m also really excited about a cabaret that will hopefully happen this upcoming year with me and some KICK ASS chicks! I can’t wait to share the news. But I have to wait until it’s official. I hate waiting!
That’s it for now folks. Just a quick shout out…thank you guys so much for visiting my blog. I’ve been shocked at how many visitors I’ve been getting. You guys make me feel all special and stuff! For serious…thanks!
P.S. Wish me luck on finding a gosh dern apartment!
Thanks L.A. Times!
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009Just taking a moment out of my evening to thank the Los Angeles TImes blog for linking to my blog! HILARIOUS. It’s the “actually has real vocal talent” link. Thanks for letting me know Mark. 
Go see some theater Ya’ll!
Saturday, May 9th, 2009Things have been quiet around here! It’s because I’m moving! ACK! In the meantime here are some shows that you should check out! These are the shows now playing that my friends are in. Go support them!
PLAYING NOW:
Altar Boyz
Noble Fool Theater
4051 East Main St St. Charles
Broadway’s smash hit musical returns to Chicago! With angelic voices and divine dance moves, five small-town boys believe they’re destined by God to speak the Holy Spirit through hip-hop. This charming Christian boy-band (with one nice Jewish boy) will alter your mind and raise your spirits as they look for their big break in New York while saving souls along the way. Destined to rock the masses of all denominations!
Thru - Jul 12, 2009/Box Office: 630-584-6342/www.noblefool.org
Crazy For You
Theatre At The Center
1040 Ridge Rd Munster
The high-energy musical Crazy for You features music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and won three Tony Awards including Best Musical. The production features classic Gershwin songs such as “Embraceable You”, “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, “I Got Rhythm”, and “Someone to Watch Over Me.” In this show-stopping hit, a stage-struck son of a New York banking family is sent to Deadrock, Nevada to close down the local theater. But when he falls head over heels for the theater owner’s daughter, he finds himself putting on a top-notch production to save the theatre, but also to keep his dreams of romance alive.
Thru - Jun 14, 2009/Box Office: 219-836-3255/www.theatreatthecenter.com
Curtains
Drury Lane- Oakbrook
100 Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace
A “play within a play,” Curtains takes place at Boston’s Colonial Theatre in 1959. It’s the opening night of “Robbin’ Hood of the Old West” and new musical could be a smash hit, if it weren’t for the show’s incredibly untalented leading lady. When she is murdered during the curtain call, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi is summoned to conduct an investigation. The lure of the theater soon becomes irresistible to the stage-struck detective and he finds himself just as dedicated to making the show a hit as he to solving the murder.
Thru - May 17, 2009/Box Office: 630-530-0111/BUY TICKETS ONLINE
Evita
No Exit Cafe
6970 N. Glenwood Chicago
Theo Ubique Theatre Co. presents its boldest work to date! Following the successes Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers of the Night, Belle Barth: If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends, and the Jeff Award-Winning production of Cabaret, Theo Ubique has fused its trademark “cabaret theatre” with the rock opera Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber. We invite you to return to the poignant music and story of Eva Peron, seen through the eye of the revolutionary, Ché Guevara!
Thru - May 31, 2009/Box Office: 773-347-1109/ www.theoubique.org
Hedda Gabler
Raven Theatre
6157 N. Clark St Chicago
Ibsen’s masterpiece depicts a woman’s inevitable road to tragedy. Hedda has recently married a kind and reliable yet unexciting scholar. She is visited by two old acquaintances: a female schoolmate and another scholar. The former has saved the latter from an unsavory lifestyle, helping him find success as a writer; Hedda is resentful both of his talent and her schoolmate’s influence on it. Out of jealousy and boredom, she proceeds to destroy each of the people around her, and finally herself. Is Hedda a heroine, a villain, a victim… or all of the above?
Thru - Jun 27, 2009/Box Office: 773-338-2177/www.raventheatre.com
High School Musical
Marriott Theatre In Lincolnshire
10 Marriott Drive Lincolnshire
It began as a smash hit Disney movie. Then the soundtrack climbed to the top of the Billboard charts. Now Troy, Gabriella and the rest of East High are ready to sing and dance in this special hour long fun-tastic musical that captivates and entertains like only Disney can!
Thru - May 18, 2009/Box Office: 847-634-0200/www.marriotttheatre.com
The History Boys
TimeLine Theatre Company
615 W. Wellington Ave Chicago
The recipient of more than 30 major awards, including Tony and Olivier awards for Best New Play, The History Boys follows a rambunctious group of clever young men as they pursue higher learning, games, sexual identity and a place at university under the guidance of three wildly different teachers and a headmaster obsessed with results. Set during the 1980s in northern England, it is a hilarious and provocative play about the anarchy of adolescence and the purpose of education — specifically, how history should be taught.
Thru - Aug 2, 2009/Box Office: 773-281-8463/www.timelinetheatre.com
The Millionaire Farmer
CLOSES TOMORROW!
BoHo Theatre @ Heartland Studio
7016 North Glenwood Chicago
Cursed at birth, the fairy maiden Anna is banished to earth to be raised by a farmer. Only by marrying her true love – a poor fisher – by her eighteenth birthday can the curse be broken and Anna be reunited with her mother. But her adoptive father has come into a mysterious fortune and now refuses the match. With the deadline approaching, Anna discovers that she has the help of magical friends, and that there are wicked forces manipulating her father. Can Anna find Contentment and break the curse, or will she succumb to the awesome power of Greed and Hate?
Thru - May 10/Box Office: 773-276-0458/www.strangelooptheatre.org
Once On This Island
Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W Belmont Ave Chicago
Ti Mouna, a black peasant girl, rescues, nurses and falls in love with Daniel, a mulatto from a wealthy family. When Daniel is returned to his people, the island gods guide Ti Mouna on a quest to test the strength of her love against the forces of prejudice, hatred and death.
Runs through Jun 28/Box Office: 773-327-5252/BUY TICKETS ONLINE
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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Chopin Theatre
1543 W. Division Chicago
Jean Brodie is in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all of her pupils are the crème de le crème. The Brodie Set, as her students at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls are famously known, hang on Miss Brodie’s every word as she - with reckless abandon - dismisses the standard curriculum in favor of lessons in things that she most admires: subjects as wide-ranging as Giotto to Hitler to her own romances. When Ms. Brodie begins an affair with one teacher to distract from her affair with another, and a false love letter falls into the wrong hands, the headmistress puts Miss Brodie under review. Her considerable bombast is the only thing that saves her job, until a fatal error in guidance and the betrayal of her favorite student become more than Miss Jean Brodie can overcome…even in her prime.
Thru - May 16, 2009/Box Office: 773-278-1500/ www.signalensemble.com
Red Noses
Strawdog Theatre
3829 N. Broadway Chicago
It’s the 1300s, and a quarter of Europe is dead from the plague, pestilence is everywhere, and humanity is convinced this is Armageddon. A priest receives a command from God to gather a group of believers, teach them and send them off into the world to be clowns among men.
Thru - May 23, 2009/Box Office: 773-528-9696/www.strawdog.org
Rose and the Rime
CLOSES TONIGHT!!
Chopin Theatre
1543 W. Division Chicago
Originally developed by Nathan Allen with students at Hope College, Rose and the Rime was selected by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival to perform at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on April 17, 2008. This nationally recognized new work will receive its first professional production at The House.
Thru - May 9, 2009/Box Office: 773-278-1500/
Seussical The Musical
Drury Lane- Oakbrook
100 Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace
Join the mischievous Cat in the Hat as he narrates the story of Horton the Elephant and his friends as they embark on a fanciful journey from the Jungle of Nool, through the mountains and across the ocean, to help a young girl named JoJo bring harmony back to the tiny planet of Who. Along the way, meet zany Dr. Seuss characters including the tiny Whos, harmonizing birds, a sour kangaroo, and some trouble-making monkeys!
Thru - May 16, 2009/Box Office: 630-530-011/BUY TICKETS ONLINE
Tommy
Circle Theatre
7300 West Madison Street Forest Park
After witnessing a brutal crime, young Tommy is so traumatized that he is rendered mute. As his life meanders on in post World War II England, he suffers abuse from sadistic relatives and neighbors. Tommy’s life is saved, however, when he falls in love with pinball and achieves super stardom as a pinball wizard!
Runs throug July 19/Box Office: 708-771-0700/www.circle-theatre.org
EVITA, EVIIIIIIIIITA!
Friday, May 1st, 2009If you know me at all you’ve probably heard me rave about Theo Ubique Theatre Co.’s work, specifically Fred Anzevino: the director of most shows and the Artistic Director of the company. Theo Ubique is housed in the tiny No Exit Cafe in Roger’s Park. Their shows are minimal, but incredibly rich. Fred never puts more on stage then what NEEDS to be there to tell the story.
Their current critically-acclaimed show, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, just garnered 7 jeff nominations and starts it’s theatrical extension this weekend!
Maggie Portman acts the living crap out of the title role. She is phenomenal, both glamorous and earthy at the same time.
(Yes I DID just say the living crap.)
Chris Damiano is fantastic as the revolutionary Che Guevara. His voice is gorgeous and he certainly has charm to spare. This guy is oozing with talent.
Jeremy Trager plays Juan Peron with such enviable strength, but it was his lovely and nuanced tender moments that kept me riveted.
Additionally, Michael Wheelwright is hilarious and spot on as Augustin Magaldi and you can’t take your eyes off of Jenny Lamb, whether she’s carrying a prop onstage or delivering the heart-wrenching “Another Suitcase in Another Hall” as the Mistress.
Fred’s direction is superb, the choreography (Brenda Didier!) is genius, and the music sounds sensational. The other 5 ensemble members play everything from soldiers to aristocrats. They are outstanding and their voices are so full that you don’t miss the huge chorus that this show usually employs.
Have I convinced you yet? Can I stop gushing now?
Go see it!
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Directed by Fred Anzevino
Music Direction by Ryan Brewster
Choreography by Brenda Didier
Costumes by Jill Van Brussel
Set Design by Nate Crawford
Light Design by David Heimann
EXTENSION: Performances run May 1 through May 31, 2009 - Friday through Saturdays at 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 7:00 pm. Each ticket is $30 (Does not include dinner or beverages)
DINNER PACKAGE: Pre-Show dinner of Argentine cuisine available and recommended for the full theater experience. Total price of each ticket is $54 (Includes service charge, dinner, tax, and show, but not beverages)
GET TICKETS ONLINE: http://www.theoubique.org/index.html
BOX OFFICE: 773.347.1109
“This Evita is the theatrical equivalent of a coup d’etat.“
- Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times (Highly Recommended)
“Stirring, spirited, and accomplished.“
- Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
“A completely different yet no less brilliant way of looking at and hearing this musical masterpiece… an achievement on every level.“
- Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City Magazine
*****
A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens