Getting a Shot!

This was one of the payoffs of my performance in yesterday's Broadway Bullet Showcase! I just found it on line today after receiving my first email blast from the show. It's not the best photo in the world, but it's definitely me. They didn't post everybody's picture on line - I'm only assuming because not everyone dressed up. I guess most singer/songwriters opt to play it cool and dress like bums for shows. Not me! I still fall into the musical performer category. I dress to be seen and photographed!

Mission accomplished!

Bullet Close to Broadway!

Tonight I attended "Broadway Bullet" which was a showcase of Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway performers. I even got to sing a little in the Open-Mic portion of the show. They invited people to bring in original material, and many did just that. I would have liked to have featured my "Just A Little Bit Famous" song, however I don't have any sheet music for it and so my voice teacher suggested that I bring in "Leather" by Tori Amos.

"Who doesn't love Tori Amos?" I asked the crowd.

The show was a great opportunity for me to see what other people are out there composing. I had no idea that so many people would bring in original stuff. Some of it was ok, some of it, so-so. It allowed me to see that there is a reason people like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim are still so lauded. Not just anybody who calls themselves a song writer or composer can make great music that appeals to the masses! This shit is hard!

My rendition of "Leather" was ok. Unfortunately I was one of the last people to go on in the Open Mic and they didn't tell me until the last second so I had no time to prepare the painfully straight accompanist who was completely oblivious that this song even existed.

So there I was up on stage explaining how to play the song to the accompanist while the impressive James Barbour entertained the crowd, somewhat at my expense.

Oh well. James Barbour is pretty friggin' great. I saw him in Urinetown a few years back and he was hilarious, so if anyone's going to poke a little fun at me, I'm glad it's someone like him.

Finally I was ready to begin and I thought that I had almost redeemed myself, until the accompanist was thrown by the ending, thus resulting in a somewhat anti-climactic finish. [Sigh] Can't win 'em all, I guess - but I had hoped for a bit better.

Anyway, it wasn't completely awful. Apparently they'll be doing these shows once a month now, and now that I know what to expect, I anticipate making a triumphant return to their stage with ORIGINAL material in hand. Let's shake it up a bit, shall we? And next time, let's really kick some ass!

Here's some more pics of the event I snagged on my phone...


Adam playing an original piece from his musical...

The cast from the Prospect Theater's production of "Honor"

I ran into my old friend David Shih, who was a member of the "Honor" cast, as well as their emcee for the evening

Open Mic winner, Allan Harris

Footin' the Double Bill

I'm fortunate enough to live in a part of town that is racked with movie theaters, but given the high price of movies and my dedication to other extra-curricular activities, I often find myself skipping out on heading into a movie theater to see current films. Sure, I watch movies, but usually on TBS or on Netflix.com. Over the past few years, going to catch a flick in one of my local theaters is something I seldom do. This is somewhat inexcusable considering that I have a Triplex theater right around the corner from my apartment.

Tonight I decided to do something crazy and take myself out to the movies. I really enjoy going to the movies by myself, and since my boyfriend was doing a gig in the Bronx, I decided that tonight would be the perfect night to take in a couple of Oscar-bound films.

After witnessing Kate Winslet make off with not one, but two Golden Globes for her performances in Revolutionary Road and "The Reader" my interest was peaked. The former was playing at the Triplex, along with Doubt - and since it was highly doubtful that Meryl Streep would suck in that film, I decided to make it a date with myself.

As a performer it's important to watch whatever I can to keep myself informed of the art that is out there. Even though Revolutionary Road was probably one of the most depressing movies I've seen to date, no one can argue that Kate Winslet didn't deliver a magnificent performance. Meryl Street was as always a tour de force in her role. In fact everyone was a force to be reckoned with in Doubt. I am an enormous fan of John Patrick Shanley's work, and since I didn't have the opportunity to watch the stage production of Doubt, the film was a nice consolation.

It was an entertaining evening of gut-wrenchingly magnificent films. I'm a little sadder now than I was at the start of my day, but happy that I got myself into the theater.

A Great Change of Range

This morning I returned to my voice teacher with a couple more songs under my belt - but my first order of business was figuring out a good selection to sing for an Open Mic that I just learned about yesterday called, "The Broadway Bullet." I learned about it from an email I received from the New York Musical Theater Festival. Right now I am loving their mailing list. The event sounds like it could be a lot of fun: surprise guests, featured artists, and an Open Mic to top it off!

They are inviting people to bring original material, but unfortutately I don't have the sheet music to any of my songs as of yet. I was hoping that my voice teacher would be able to help me in that arena, but there just wasn't enough time. Instead he suggested that I sing one of my old cabaret standards, "Leather" by Tori Amos. It seems to me that the musical theater community is just as in smitten with Tori as they are with Sondheim, so why not? It's a great, sexy song and I enjoy singing it.

Once we settle on my "Bullet" selection, I wanted to get back to what I had been working on over the past couple of weeks, namely "A Way Back To Then." I had been practicing the non-belty belt exercise all week until I finally got the hang of it. The proof was in the pudding - when I got to that section of the song, it came out just right. My teacher was even more encouraged by this development. "That's where the money is," he said. I sure hope he's right. I could use some extra cash right about now. Wouldn't it be great if cold hard cash just came spilling out of my mouth every time I opened it to sing? That would be something special, however until such miracles occur, I'm going to have to find other more realistic ways of amping up my cash flow.

I felt great after my lesson and came away with a few more pieces of music. I really want to expand my repetoire, and if I keep this up, I should be able to expand my range as well.

Later this evening I tried to apply what I had learned in the Made-Up Musical. Despite the below-freezing temperatures outside, we had a nice house and we managed to heat up the place with song!

As soon as the stage lights went out, my boyfriend and I headed straight up town for a birthday party that a couple of old New Jersey Shakespeare Festival friends of mine were having. I have kept in touch with several of the people that I've met through the festival over the years, and it was great to reconnect with a few of whom I hadn't seem in a while. I'm doing my best to check off my New Years resolution to reconnect with old friends. Especially those in the theater community. After all, there's no people like show people...

Practice Makes TMUM!

I have been doing The Made-Up Musical for a little over a year now, if you can believe it, and in all this time I have only had about two, or maybe three rehearsals. TMUM is one of the flagship shows of the Magnet Theater, but we very rarely have the opportunity to rehearse! The reason for this is mostly due to the many conflicting schedules of the various cast members. In a cast as large as ours - it's understandable that everyone has a million different things going on at any given time, and finding a common ground for everyone can be quite a chore. However, it has become apparent that the show's creator wants to take things up a notch - and this can only be done through some good ol' fashioned face time outside of the show.

Tonight, all but three of the TMUM cast came together for a real reaheasal. We discussed the future of the show and where we would like to take it. Right now I feel like the show is more imrov with music, rather than a fully realized improvised musical. Everyone else seems to agree and in the coming months, we are all going to do our best to change that.

After a group discussion we dove on into doing tagline songs and just drilled the structure into our brains until we were blue in the face. Hopefully all of our practicing will payoff in tomorrow night's show!

New York State of Mind

After a glorious visit to our nation's capital to witness the Inauguration of our 44th President, we returned to New York in high spirits.

Once back at home, I got a bit of reading and writing done for my Trudy Carmichael project that I'm cooking up. The conversation about writing musicals last night spurred my imagination and motivated me to start putting some thoughts and dialogue down on paper. Just like Obama said in his speech, "It's time to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again."

Inaugurate the Great!

We got quite the early start this morning: 5:20 in the a.m. and within an hour we found ourselves immersed in sleepy, but nevertheless enthusiastic metro commuters at the Greenbelt Station. It was quite the mob scene, but thankfully everyone remained relatively calm and we made it through the turn-style in fine style within 20 minutes.

Thanks to our early start, we caught a train into downtown DC without further incident, which allowed us to reach our destination almost two hours early. The bonus of this? A surprise celeb spotting! Hard to tell, but that little white-haired man on his cell is none other than every one's favorite journalist, Anderson Cooper!!!


We had arranged to watch the swearing in ceremony as well as the parade from the safety of an Architecture firm. This was the view of the parade route from the office window...

After all of the festivities has died down, my boyfriend and I took to the streets once again and had some dinner before returning to our own little Inauguration party back at the firm.

During the party, which was rather tame, I had a chance to sit down with a good song-writing acquaintance of mine. I had hoped for an opportunity to sit down with him to discuss the process of composing music and writing musicals, for quite some time, and it just so happened that such an opportunity arose this evening. I asked him to shed some light on his methods and how he sets stories to song and gets things in motion. It was quite helpful to me to hear what he had to say about composing musicals, because that is something that I want to do so very badly. It just seems like such a daunting task.

In talking to my friend, I learned that like so many things, the learning is in the doing - and you just have to start somewhere. Write what you know.

DC-tripping!

This morning my boyfriend and I met up with a slew of fellow improvisers and politically minded folks in front of the Upright Citizens Brigade and boarded a bus bound for Washington, DC.

Our much anticipated trip was finally under way and within four hours we had arrived at our destination! After a quick lunch in Tenleytown, we hopped the Metro to have a romp around the Capital.

One of our first stops was the steps of the Library of Congress. Beautiful building - unfortuately it was locked up tight for the MLK holiday.

The city was all abuzz with anticipation of our 44th President's Inauguration. On every street corner, you could find big hulking men, bundled in their coats (maybe it was all the layers uner the coats that gave the "hulking" impression) selling an array of t-shirts, hats and buttons bearing Obama's face in every patriotic color, Presidential pattern or Democratic design one could imagine. I admired them for their tenacity and creativity, however I opted to support the Smithsonian Institutiom by purchasing a commemorative Inauguration T-shirt in the "Roanoke Gift Shop" on the second floor of the National Museum of the American Indian. I think it's a worthwhile organization to support - plus I was being environmental because the t-shirt was fashioned out of organic cotton! I also ended up becoming a member of the Smithsonian for an additional ten dollars. It's a good cause and I was running out of ideas of what to do for my Broadway-bound assignment of the day. When in doubt, support the arts and/or institutions of learning.

The Museum of the American Indian is only five years old, and is breathtakingly beautiful. It's right down the road from the Capital building, and I managed to snap a few pictures of it on our way out...

One would be remiss to leave out the always-photogenic Capital building eagerly awaiting the Inauguration of a President who actually knows how to spell "Inauguration."

Revving up My Resume

Today I did some brushing up on my old business resume to prepare for the new job search that lay ahead. I also did some writing for my one-woman show idea. Once again, I am determined to keep on course - bump in the road or not.

Also, my website which I began working on needs a lot more content & development. I spent a couple of months designing a graphic for my main splash page which became quite involved. It consists of a nest of baby robin birds that hatch out of their eggs when you roll over each of them. Once this became the central focus of my site - I sort of lost steam & direction on the rest of my site. I put it on the back burner, but now is definitely the time to bring it back to the front.

In other news, I leave for DC tomorrow morning for the Inauguration of our 44th President. I'm so excited I can hardly sit still or hold a thought in my head. Change is coming for our nation, I am in a very big transitional stage of my life as well. A lot of people all pinning all of their hopes on our next President for a better future. I'm right there with them, I suppose - but more importantly I'm pinning my hopes & dreams on myself because I am the only one that can really make them happen.

Rockin' Out

This afternoon's ETV rehearsal was great fun. Apparently my song selection was one of the most involved that the band had decided to take on. Impressively enough, they don't work from sheet music, they all just play everything by ear. How cool! I wish I could do that! Why, oh why didn't my mother get me guitar lessons when I was a kid???

My first song of choice was Laura Brannigan's "Gloria" - however it was summarily rejected die to the lack of guitar. Well, they want guitar? I'll give 'em guitar!

As it turns out, we are going to do the full song from start to finish with ALL five or six of the guitar solos included. Hey, it's their party. Some of the other band members joshed that I had been coerced into selecting "Magic Man" because of the fantastic set of solos contained within the tune.

Well, none of it is true. I selected that song, I'm proud to say, of my very own volition. It's a great song! In fact, someone else had expressed interest in singing in, but I made the request before they did - so I nabbed it just in the nick of time!

Our rehearsal went very well. I'm really excited for the show in February. There's just nothing like singing with a live band backing you. And you never know who will be listening either!

Singing My HEART Out

Tomorrow is to be my first rehearsal for ETV, which is a veritable rock n' roll concert of rock star-wannabees from around the improv community. I've finalized my song and now all that's left to do is learn the damn thing. I'm singing "Magic Man" by Heart and I hope to do it justice. I really heart that song!

I printed out a handy lyric sheet for myself and played the song dilligently over and over again on youtube.com. I'm not sure if we're going to do the entire song from start to finish with all of the instrumental breaks, but I sure as heck wanna do my part.

All of that "Magic Man" practice left me primed to sing my heart out in tonight's Made-Up Musical. Second show of 2009 and last TMUM of the Bush Administration. Things are looking up!

As reality set in about my recent partial layoff from my day job, I began to panic a little. AAAHHHH!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO???

I mean, tit's certainly no secret that being an actor in this town doesn't exactly come cheap. There are voice lessons, dance lessons, headshot sessions, acting and audition classes. Everything costs a ton of money and we're expected to get it done and pay for it all without resorting to a life of crime. If I don't get something to supplement my dwindling income, I might just be forced into a life of petty theft!

...Unless...

My boyfriend, in a moment of Zen told me that I should "consider every mistake a gift."
This made me think that I should embrace my newly found freedom and do what I've been trying to do for the past two years: find another job! I suppose that I got a little too comfy in my current position, and the stability and flexibility of the job was hard to leave.

Now I actually have an excuse to move on and get out. My boss has been really good to me over the past five years, and I suppose that the pangs of guilt I felt over the the thought of leaving her company also kept me from moving forward and pursuing a position elsewhere. However now I have an excuse for leaving and what's more, I'll have the support and understanding of my boss.

I hit the net hard today and made a list of jobs and auditions. I even signed up to take a test to work for the Census Bureau - why not, right?

I'm not going to let this bump in the road completely throw me. I know that these are tough times, but I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggonnit - someone's gonna hire me!

Spring Hasn't Sprung

Even though I'm in a little bit of a financial slump, that's still no reason to sit around and brood about it. I still have my college Student ID and that's something to take advantage of at times of financial strife such as these.

I have been trying to get reasonably priced tickets to Spring Awakening for ages - since it opened over a year ago - but to no avail. Well, now it's closing and I thought that I might try my luck at snagging a Student Rush ticket. BLAST! Foiled again!

This afternoon, I naively approached the Box Office window at the Eugene O'Neil Theater to inquire about such a ticket. "Sorry," the box office attendant replied, "Those tickets go on sale at ten in the morning as soon as the Box Office opens, and by that time there are kids lining the street for a set of tickets. They sell out immediately."
"Oh," I said - my heart sinking. Although, what was I thinking? Of course those tickets are going to be scooped up at the crack of dawn!

The least expensive ticket they had was 87 smackaroos. 87 dollars!?!? Tempted as I was to spring for the ticket to "Spring" Not at a time like this. Since the rest of my week is pretty much planned out, I had to turn that ticket down, and unfortunately Spring Awakening is a show on Broadway that I'm not going to get to see. At least not right now. Maybe I'll catch the touring company - or better yet, JOIN the touring company!

Feelin' The Pinch

Just as I was about to schedule another session with a headshot photographer - my boss at my day job informed me that after a meeting with her accountant, she would have to make a few cutbacks. It seems that my salary is one of those cutbacks. Literally cutting it in half.

Oh crap.

So now I am having to put off my headshot session and hold onto my cash just to make sure that I can make ends meet. Ah, the life of a starving artist sure ain't pretty. I haven't been starving in a good while, but it seems that if I don't come up with a plan - I'll be subsisting on a diet of saltines and ramen noodles before long. ...I hate saltines.

So I spent a good amount of my remaining work day looking at job listings and taking down information. By the end of the month, I'll need to find something, anything to keep me afloat. My safety net has sprung a leak, but I'm going to remain optimisitc that it's nothing that can't be fixed with a little bit of persistence and ingenuity!

Monday Songday

Today was a slow and hazy Monday. I feel like people are a little slower to come out of their post-holiday haze and join the rest of the world. Or maybe it's just me. I had a really nice weekend at home with my family - and now it's time to get back to work.

Today I devoted myself to practicing the new material that my voice teacher gave me last week. I really want to get a few songs ready to go in as short amount of time as possible. Auditions are starting to pop up and I want to go into them with some fresh new material!

An Historic Occassion

This afternoon my mother and I attended a walking tour at the historic Laurel Hill Cemetery where people of note throughout our country's history have been laid to rest. It's one of the few cemeteries in our country that's an honest to goodness historic landmark. Who knew?

Today's tour featured the famous abolitionist John Brown who interestingly enough didn't make Laurel Hill his final resting place, however many people who knew him well are buried there.

It was quite a cold day for a tour, and some of the tales about the individuals quite chilling - but we hung in there like a couple of champs. (There were several others who opted to head back inside before the tour had officially ended.)

I was glad that I stuck around because near the end of our tour we came to the grave of Pierce Butler who was at one time married to a woman named Fanny Kemble. As it turns out, Fanny was not only a successful star of the British and American stage, but also an abolitionist. She was introduced to the barbaric practice of slavery when her husband Pierce inherited land and slaves from his grandfather in Georgia. This caused considerable strain on their marriage and she eventually divorced Pierce as a result.


Fanny kept a diary of her stay on her husband's plantation which was later published, "Journal of A Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839". I plan on seeking it out and reading it.

I'm always interested in learning more about strong female characters throughout history. You never know when one story may make a terrific story line for a one-woman play... or maybe even a musical.

My Family's Political Party!

This afternoon, amid the ice and snow, my boyfriend and I boarded a New Jersey Transit train to Philly. Long train rides are always great opportunities to catch up on some light reading, so while my boyfriend napped on my lap, I continued to read "Anne of the Thousand Days." Great play. I think I've found a good audition piece in it too!

The reason for my return home was for my parents' annual "Post New Years Day Party." This year, it also happened to be a Pre-Presidential Inauguration Party" so my mom had decked the halls with all manner of things patriotic, i.e. - red, white and blue streamers, balloons, confetti, Obama/Biden posters, Mardis Gras beads, even a big latex Hillary mask. It was pretty awesome!

Usually these parties are attended by more family friends than members of the family - but ever since my Grandmother's passing this past May, my parents have started to make more of a concerted effort to bring members of my extended family together. My mom and I are only children and so our immediate family is sorta on the small side. It doesn't hurt to get to know some other branches of the family tree a little better. Get back to the roots!

It was really heartwarming to see so many folks venture out in the crummy weather to attend our little celebration. We have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. I just hope that things don't have to get much worse before they can start getting better.

HELL-o Again TMUM!!!

This evening I returned to the Magnet Theater to perform my first official Made-Up Musical of 2009. After being away from it for a while, I was yet again filled with both excitement and anxiety. Every time I take the stage for that show, I have somewhat of an out of body experience. Whenever I tell people about what it is that I do in this show, I always hear the same response: "Wow! Sounds terrifying!" - and quite frankly, it is!

Usually they follow up those three little words with something like, "I would hate doing that."
Not me. I friggin' love it! I live for the rush that washes over me when the pianist starts composing a song in need of a lyric. I love it!

Tonight's show was filled with fun and a lot of great and supportive energy. Our suggestion came from a girl who grew up in Daytona Beach and regaled us with tales about scary bikers and Hell's Angels-wannabes during "Biketober", as well as the crotchety old folks who resented the hoards of Spring breakers. This proved to be great fodder for our 50-minute musical. We even managed to work in a Hells' Angels "Summer Nights" parody. What can be better than that, I ask?

We also had a couple of new players in the show tonight, and we all gelled really nicely. I'm not sure whether or not I'll be playing again next Friday, but we all turned out a really great show tonight - one of which we should all be proud!

Singing Out!

I had a very productive voice lesson today - even though I actually didn't do a whole lot of singing. I view my teacher as a co-conspirator in my plans to take on the theater world. Now that it's a brand new year - it's time for some new game plans.

The first order of the day was adding a few more songs to my book...funny ones! Not necessarily haha poop-your-pants funny, but, nice light-hearted, good ol' "that's amusing" kinds of songs. I want to spice things up a bit - enough with the sweet and sappy ingenue crap - I want to do some fun charactery stuff!

My teacher handed me a pile of new music - both legit and "chesty" to work on for next time. We also discussed the possibility of composing some original pieces. My teacher is big on original compositions and arrangements so, he told me that if I had some ideas that I wanted to bring into him, he would be more than happy to aid me in fully realizing the ideas. How cool would it be to bring in an original composition of my own for an audition? I would love that! Anything to set myself apart from the pack, ya know? But hopefully in a good way.

At the end of the lesson, we worked on "A Way Back to Then" and ironed out some trouble spots and I had a bit of a vocal breakthrough! My teacher ran me through a small section of the song on my nasal twang "Neeeooo, neeeeoooo, neeeoooooos" to help me override an area that was filling my chords with uncertainty. Happily the trick worked! Hopefully after running through this section of the song as a vocal exercise every day, it will strengthen some weaker parts of my vocal anatomy and help me stretch my range over this coming year.

2009 is gonna be a great year for singing. Can you feel it?

Seeing Stars

As expected Gypsy was amazing! I took my boyfriend on a date to the show, and for someone who is not generally a Broadway Theater-goer, he really enjoyed the show and was quite pleased that I chose him to be my date.

What can I say? Patti Lupone is an unrivaled star of Broadway. Even from our less expensive seats in the nosebleed section, she still managed to reach us with every big note and subtle nuance of her performance. She's an effing powerhouse. 'Nuff said.

This revival reminded me of just how much I love this show. I know just about every lyric to every tune. I was originally introduced to the musical in '93 with the televised version of Gypsy which starred Bette Midler. She too could sing the shinola out of the assortment of show stoppers laced throughout. My dad even picked up a cast recording of the made for TV movie - and I played it on my stereo just about every other day before going to bed. aahhh...Those were good times.

Watching the show, I couldn't ignore how much some of the themes of the show especially resonate for me today. All of that "yearning to be a star" and "trying to keep the dream alive" stuff really hit me hard. I came very close to crying a couple of times - to be honest.

I don't know, the whole show just made me think about my life when things were simpler and a bit more hopeful. I would sing along to my "Gypsy" CD alone in my room, pretending that I was a star and hoping and believing that one day, I really would be one.

After the show, I returned home to practice a piece of music that I'm going to bring into my voice lesson tomorrow. The song is from the musical [title of show] and it's called "A Way Back to Then." Once again, art imitates life. Argh! I can't seem to escape these recurring themes!

Watch the video below to see what I mean...

Broadway Tix and Vocal Trix

This afternoon I went to the box office to purchase two $27 tickets to Gypsy for tomorrow night's show. I've been meaning to see Gypsy ever since it opened - but the time to do so got away from me, so of course it wasn't until the week of its closing date that I kicked my butt into gear to get tickets.

I'm especially exited to see Patti Lupone live on stage again. The last time I saw her was a few years ago in Sweeney Todd. That revival of the show remains one of my most favorite productions, to this day.

This is going to be amazing!

Just Photo Shoot Me

Tonight I conducted a little photo shoot in my boyfriend's living room for my one-woman Trudy Carmichael comeback!

I needed holiday themed photos so I opted to do the shoot in his apartment so that I could take advantage of the "holiday tree" which has yet to be taken down. (I suppsose that's partially my fault.)

The shoot involved three costume changes and a myriad of props and fake alcoholic beverages to suggest different holiday celebrations. If we are to go in chronological order that would be: a "First Night of Hanukkah" party, Christmas Eve Celebration and New Year's Eve Gala. Other elements will be added in later to enhance my surroundings with the help of Photoshop.

I realize that since I'm make several references to the holiday season, that these pictures and their involvement in my show makes my time line for putting up the show a bit more pressing. I'm going to apply for another "Test Drive" slot at the Magnet, however I need to get this show up by March at the latest to keep my pics from losing their shelf life - otherwise I will have to take pictures of myself at Valentine's Day, Passover and Easter Sunday Parties.
...One second thought, that idea ain't half bad.

Backing Vocals

My boyfriend's roommate has been working feverishly over the past couple of months on a solo show which is to feature his own songs, composed entirely from scratch. Pretty neato, huh? As I understand it, this show which is being produced by Ars Nova, (color me jealous) - is going to be a comical cabaret of sorts. All envy aside, I am quite excited about the show and really proud of my friend for landing this sweet gig.

Tonight as I was on my way out the door to catch another friend's show for the Magnet Theater's "Test Drive", he asked me if I could give him a hand with one of his compositions by laying down a track of background vocals. Sweet!

The entire process took only a couple of minutes. Apparently I am a "one take wonder."

Broadway Countdown to Closing

Several Broadway shows have had to close over the past few months thanks to the dismal state of our ever loving economy. I've decided that before all of the shows go the way of the Dodo, I'm going to do my best to stock up on some tickets and see a few more shows that I have been meaning to see.

I logged into my Theatermania account this morning to do some research and find tickets for Gypsy, starring the incomparable Patti Lupone and Spring Awakening. According to the websites, they are offering $27 Balcony seats for Gypsy and $25 Student Rush tickets for Spring Awakening. I only have until the end of this week to see Gypsy because it closes on January 11th!

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that there are still seats available at these modest prices. For a starving artist in need of some shows, these two really fit the bill!

Refriending Faces

It was quiet day back in the office, since several people are still riding out what remains of the holiday season. I took advantage of my down time by reaching out to old friends from school and previous theater gigs via facebook.

One of the nice things about welcoming in a new year is looking back on the old one and remembering times with friends and people with whom you may have fallen out of touch over the past year. One of my resolutions is to reconnect with old friends - especially those who are working in the theater community. Since joining the ranks of the improv community, I have shamefully fallen out of touch with some theater friends. I want to change this. Aside from strengthening the bonds of friendship, who knows what creative endeavors we may set out on together.

In the coming year I am doubling and tripling my efforts to get back into the theater community. I will be like a journalist embedded who embeds themselves with the troops overseas. Like them, I'm certain to face a remarkable amount of resistance, but hopefully a lot less blood will be shed.

Getting Retro-spective

Every first Thursday of the month, my boyfriend hosts a variety show at the Parkside Lounge aptly called, "Variety Underground." Since today's "VU" fell on a holiday - the assumption was that the show would be canceled this month. Not so.

So, with little or no time to book a bunch of acts, he decided to take advantage of the free space and use it as a studio to tape a retrospective or "clip show" for The Spotlight.

We set up a couple of cameras and some lighting equipment and sat down to interview each other about the show and its many incarnations over the past couple of years. All of our footage will be edited down for a very special "Spotlight Retrospective" to be aired on MNN in the next month or so.

I enjoy being a part of this project (even if there is a little bit of nepotism involved.) It's up to me to prove that even if I weren't the girlfriend of the host, I would still be the number one choice for musical improviser.