I’m in the final week! I can’t believe it’s already down to days. The last few weeks have been crazy. Since coming back from spring break, life has been pretty overwhelming. I honestly think I’ve hit my limit at points and am in the midst of one of the craziest times I’ve had doing theatre (or anything for that matter). But I can see the end in sight – thank god.
An Off-White Afternoon
I couldn’t have enjoyed working on this show more. We had a fantastic ensemble of people working on the production – the actors were talented and very focused, the writer, Eric Meyer, was terrific to work with giving us insight into the play and allowing us to find our own realities within the situation and characters he created, and our director, Colleen Sullivan, was a joy. I think she may be one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with. She has great instincts and clear ideas about the play, but is very open to and encourages exploration with her actors. Rehearsals were playful and engaging. We were constantly trying new ideas and discovering more about the play and the characters, even during the performances, which I think is the key to good work. The show was a huge hit and we’re actually thinking about performing it more either this summer or next year around the city. I’ve put up some pictures from our rehearsals and from the show below this post.
Lampoon Live!
I did it! I made it to Saturday Night Live! Well, not really, but it was close. Our sketch comedy show was this weekend and it went really well. This was the first time Lampoon has done a show this big and one that is considered a main stage show (meaning we get full financial and technical backing on the production). I had a blast working with the cast and we were all really enjoying the show (both on stage and watching from backstage). Our sketches ranged from political satire to television parodies, to historical sketches. I played Hillary Clinton in a couple sketches and Samantha from Sex and the City as well. Pictures to come!
Song Night
This was a blast. Song Night was a total hit with audiences and all of us were really excited about our performances. I ended up singing two solos - You Don’t Know Me (Ray Charles) and Breaking Down (from the musical Falsettoland) – as well as three duets – Dos Vedanya (Pink Martini), Kiss You Off (Scissor Sisters), and Sometimes I Wish I Had A Gun (Mink Stole). We also ended the show with a disco medley in which I sand Disco Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn). The show had a ton of energy and even though it was a bit long (over thirty songs!), the audiences stayed with it the entire time. I am so glad I took this course – I’ve learned a lot and have grown as a performer from it.
Trojan Women
The city of Troy has been destroyed… finally. We performed three shows this weekend and all went very smoothly. It’s been a long haul for this show- we’ve been rehear
sing a lot. I love the cast I’m working with and we’ve really created an interesting piece – it is very barely staged and most movement is driven by impulse so the show changes every night. But it’s a very draining play – as a chorus member, we’re on stage the entire time and because we are the women of Troy, the emotions are high and the circumstances are very extreme. Friday night was particularly tough as I went from performing that straight to Hamlet – talk about a long, depressing evening between the Greeks and the Danes. Though the production itself wasn’t one of my favorites, I really enjoyed taking that class. It made a huge impact on my acting, but also affected my life in larger ways. The focus of the class was on staying in the moment and acting from physical and emotional impulses rather from your mind. The ideas behind it are simple but not so easy to carry out. I’ve already noticed the work carry over into my other shows and work in acting classes. I hope to bring the exercises from this class into shows and classes I teach in the future.
Hamlet
We opened Hamlet last weekend with two performances – one inside and one outside. Overall I think it went well. I was really nervous about it because we didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse the week of and when we did
rehearse it was not running so smoothly. I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t had more time to give to it. It’s such a challenging play and a difficult role to take on. I’m happy I did it and feel that it was worthwhile but it was a stretch to pull off. I saw the guys’ show the other night and it was fantastic – very very different than our interpretation though. We had a show Friday night and then one on Saturday – that performance was a bit different. Each cast (male and female) was split in two and paired up with the other group. So in my Saturday cast, I worked with half girls and half guys (whom we’ve never rehearsed with before). The show was really interesting – it was extremely different as the characters had been interpreted differently by the male actors. We had to go with improvisation to explore the relationships and dynamics of the scenes as we went along. It was strange to perform in this way and I think, should we do it again next year, we’ll try another structure for the combination performance. I’m relieved to be finished with Hamlet. Despite the stress of it all, my first full length Shakespeare show was a fun.
Comedy Night
Stand-up comedy… much harder than it looks. Most of the focus of the work is actually writing and fine tuning the routine. It’s been interesting to learn about the structure of stand-up and really difficult to apply it. Last night we performed at a bar in the lower east side of Manhattan and tonight we bring the show back to Sarah Lawrence for two nights. I was really nervous about how my set would turn out. I was still making changes to it up until the hour before I went on. We had a great audience though and people seemed to enjoy the show. Everyone completed their set with no major glitches. We meet for class today and will talk about/fix any problems that need attention. Overall, I feel good about it. I’m surprised at how my routine has changed throughout the process but I am proud of how it turned out.
Puppetry Night
The roaches in the shoe store are coming along. We perform tonight and tomorrow before Comedy Night. Every time we run it we find more details or problems to fix. It’s a frustrating process and feels funny to have worked so hard on a ten minute piece. I am happy with it though and feel I’ve gotten out of it what I wanted. We’ll see how tonight goes.
Theatre Outreach
My students from the school in the Bronx came to campus on Wednesday to perform the pieces they have been working on with us. They all did such a great job and despite having very little time to put it together, they seemed ready and excited about performing. I was really proud of them for their work. It’s hard enough to get up there in front of your peers but especially hard when it’s a piece you wrote and created. We had a picnic outside and the kids played around the quad. I hope I can do this again next year in some form. It was frustrating to see how much potential is there but how little time and resources are available to encourage their talents. Now that I have a better sense of the way it works, I can structure the classes more effectively.
Curtain Call
Classes are wrapping up this week. Many of my classes ended in a performance so after tomorrow, things should be easy. We have another episode of Radio Drama tonight and tomorrow (after Comedy Night) and then I’m done with shows for the year!
This year has been a whirlwind and I’m ready for the summer. I’m looking forward to recharging for next year. This summer I’ll be working in Baltimore and rehearsing for our first show with Standing O – the theatre company Ron Giddings and I are starting. I’ll also be back up in NY for a week teaching comedy/comedy writing at a writer’s workshop with my comedy teacher. If you’re still with me, thanks for reading. Enjoy the summer!!!
An Off-White Afternoon
I couldn’t have enjoyed working on this show more. We had a fantastic ensemble of people working on the production – the actors were talented and very focused, the writer, Eric Meyer, was terrific to work with giving us insight into the play and allowing us to find our own realities within the situation and characters he created, and our director, Colleen Sullivan, was a joy. I think she may be one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with. She has great instincts and clear ideas about the play, but is very open to and encourages exploration with her actors. Rehearsals were playful and engaging. We were constantly trying new ideas and discovering more about the play and the characters, even during the performances, which I think is the key to good work. The show was a huge hit and we’re actually thinking about performing it more either this summer or next year around the city. I’ve put up some pictures from our rehearsals and from the show below this post.
Lampoon Live!
I did it! I made it to Saturday Night Live! Well, not really, but it was close. Our sketch comedy show was this weekend and it went really well. This was the first time Lampoon has done a show this big and one that is considered a main stage show (meaning we get full financial and technical backing on the production). I had a blast working with the cast and we were all really enjoying the show (both on stage and watching from backstage). Our sketches ranged from political satire to television parodies, to historical sketches. I played Hillary Clinton in a couple sketches and Samantha from Sex and the City as well. Pictures to come!
Song Night
This was a blast. Song Night was a total hit with audiences and all of us were really excited about our performances. I ended up singing two solos - You Don’t Know Me (Ray Charles) and Breaking Down (from the musical Falsettoland) – as well as three duets – Dos Vedanya (Pink Martini), Kiss You Off (Scissor Sisters), and Sometimes I Wish I Had A Gun (Mink Stole). We also ended the show with a disco medley in which I sand Disco Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn). The show had a ton of energy and even though it was a bit long (over thirty songs!), the audiences stayed with it the entire time. I am so glad I took this course – I’ve learned a lot and have grown as a performer from it.
Trojan Women
The city of Troy has been destroyed… finally. We performed three shows this weekend and all went very smoothly. It’s been a long haul for this show- we’ve been rehear
sing a lot. I love the cast I’m working with and we’ve really created an interesting piece – it is very barely staged and most movement is driven by impulse so the show changes every night. But it’s a very draining play – as a chorus member, we’re on stage the entire time and because we are the women of Troy, the emotions are high and the circumstances are very extreme. Friday night was particularly tough as I went from performing that straight to Hamlet – talk about a long, depressing evening between the Greeks and the Danes. Though the production itself wasn’t one of my favorites, I really enjoyed taking that class. It made a huge impact on my acting, but also affected my life in larger ways. The focus of the class was on staying in the moment and acting from physical and emotional impulses rather from your mind. The ideas behind it are simple but not so easy to carry out. I’ve already noticed the work carry over into my other shows and work in acting classes. I hope to bring the exercises from this class into shows and classes I teach in the future. Hamlet
We opened Hamlet last weekend with two performances – one inside and one outside. Overall I think it went well. I was really nervous about it because we didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse the week of and when we did
rehearse it was not running so smoothly. I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t had more time to give to it. It’s such a challenging play and a difficult role to take on. I’m happy I did it and feel that it was worthwhile but it was a stretch to pull off. I saw the guys’ show the other night and it was fantastic – very very different than our interpretation though. We had a show Friday night and then one on Saturday – that performance was a bit different. Each cast (male and female) was split in two and paired up with the other group. So in my Saturday cast, I worked with half girls and half guys (whom we’ve never rehearsed with before). The show was really interesting – it was extremely different as the characters had been interpreted differently by the male actors. We had to go with improvisation to explore the relationships and dynamics of the scenes as we went along. It was strange to perform in this way and I think, should we do it again next year, we’ll try another structure for the combination performance. I’m relieved to be finished with Hamlet. Despite the stress of it all, my first full length Shakespeare show was a fun.Comedy Night
Stand-up comedy… much harder than it looks. Most of the focus of the work is actually writing and fine tuning the routine. It’s been interesting to learn about the structure of stand-up and really difficult to apply it. Last night we performed at a bar in the lower east side of Manhattan and tonight we bring the show back to Sarah Lawrence for two nights. I was really nervous about how my set would turn out. I was still making changes to it up until the hour before I went on. We had a great audience though and people seemed to enjoy the show. Everyone completed their set with no major glitches. We meet for class today and will talk about/fix any problems that need attention. Overall, I feel good about it. I’m surprised at how my routine has changed throughout the process but I am proud of how it turned out.
Puppetry Night
The roaches in the shoe store are coming along. We perform tonight and tomorrow before Comedy Night. Every time we run it we find more details or problems to fix. It’s a frustrating process and feels funny to have worked so hard on a ten minute piece. I am happy with it though and feel I’ve gotten out of it what I wanted. We’ll see how tonight goes.
Theatre Outreach
My students from the school in the Bronx came to campus on Wednesday to perform the pieces they have been working on with us. They all did such a great job and despite having very little time to put it together, they seemed ready and excited about performing. I was really proud of them for their work. It’s hard enough to get up there in front of your peers but especially hard when it’s a piece you wrote and created. We had a picnic outside and the kids played around the quad. I hope I can do this again next year in some form. It was frustrating to see how much potential is there but how little time and resources are available to encourage their talents. Now that I have a better sense of the way it works, I can structure the classes more effectively.
Curtain Call
Classes are wrapping up this week. Many of my classes ended in a performance so after tomorrow, things should be easy. We have another episode of Radio Drama tonight and tomorrow (after Comedy Night) and then I’m done with shows for the year!
This year has been a whirlwind and I’m ready for the summer. I’m looking forward to recharging for next year. This summer I’ll be working in Baltimore and rehearsing for our first show with Standing O – the theatre company Ron Giddings and I are starting. I’ll also be back up in NY for a week teaching comedy/comedy writing at a writer’s workshop with my comedy teacher. If you’re still with me, thanks for reading. Enjoy the summer!!!
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