a good dose of inspiration.

I’m a real New York actor. Why? I’m working out of town. That’s right, I’m back in the Washington DC area performing in the world premiere of Jason Gray Platt’s Crown of Shadows: the wake of Odysseus at Round House Theatre. It’s great to be back at Round House working with Artistic Director, Blake Robison, on a new play. It’s a useful gauge to work with Blake again to see how much I’ve grown over the past two years and I feel excited by the development. I feel more confident and able to get what I need out of the rehearsal process. I also feel more content and calm- not as anxious to offer all my thoughts to everyone. Something I’m sure everyone appreciates.

The work has been satisfying and challenging. I was able to employ new and extremely effective memorizing techniques that I learned in my class with Scott Miller. Exercises that help build character and intention while learning lines in a meaningful and productive way. Jason, our playwright, has been a wonderful collaborator. I am so impressed by his ability to listen- both in rehearsals and to our discussions- and to translate that to constructive edits in the script. He has a strong voice and the poetry of his language is exciting to work with. I look forward to collaborating in New York together.

I am so thankful to be learning from two inspiring women in this process. Jessica Burgess, my director for Cherry Smoke in 2010, has helped develop this script with Jason over the past few years and served as production dramaturg. She workshopped the play at The Inkwell, a theatre company she founded to develop and foster young playwrights. Jessi has passion and vision that inspires me to find the positive in every work I encounter.

I am thankful to again be working with the wonderful actress, Deborah Hazlett. We played mother and daughter in The Cherry Orchard together at Everyman Theatre. She is an inspiration both onstage and off. Her dedication to the craft and the thoughtful way she approaches her character development and her life as an actress inspires me to stay in this crazy business and to be true to my own goals and vision.

Now to do all of this in Brooklyn!

learning to breathe

I was out of control. Why were they laughing at me? I was on the verge of hyperventilating. I looked at Katie. She looked terrified, too: her fingers pulling at her jaw, her eyes bright and wild. But it reassured me – we were in this together. I started to slow my mind and breathing down. All of a sudden it was over. We had no more words, the scene was done. I sat down exhausted and Scott asked, “How was that?” “I have no idea what just happened. That was awful,” I replied. My classmates laughed in disbelief. “That was amazing,” they said, “the best thing you’ve done!” I was dumbfounded.

It was the second to last class of Scott Miller’s ten-week course, The Art of Integration. Months prior, I had uprooted my life and acting career in Washington, DC and moved to Brooklyn. I was eager to direct my motivation to go to grad school into individual study, especially as I transitioned to a new theatre community. I had loved Scott’s class at my NYU callback last March and wanted more, so I looked him up.

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finding a home

Official New Yorker: four days and counting. I arrived in Manhattan in a heat wave making me very much doubt my decision to leave the cool lakes of Maine, but it felt poetic since we moved out of DC in over one hundred degree heat. It’s comforting, in a way, to be embraced by such an extreme and to feel prepared to handle it. I am prepared!

I planned my move to be here in time for PTP/NYC’s 25th anniversary celebration, a full day of play readings written, directed and performed by Middlebury alumnae. I was overwhelmed and inspired to witness the talent of generations of artists all sharing and demonstrating a similar passion, education and professionalism.

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a private production

Time to break the many months of internet silence, my friends. Last summer I decided to apply to graduate school to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting. Experiences started to accumulated that made me feel that I was not as capable to live up to the high standards I set for myself. There are many technical tools of the craft that I need to learn and master to be able to perform to the best of my potential ability. I have experienced disappointing rehearsal processes that made me wonder what else I could contribute to make the process of exploring a play as challenging, vital and satisfying as possible. What other tools do I need to guarantee that my performance is as clear and honest for the audience as possible?

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dipping into the Inkwell

Right before our first rehearsal started for Clementine and The Cyber Ducks by Krista Knight as part of the 2010 Fall InkReading Series, the company was told that the focus of the InkReading process is to develop the playwright rather than the play. What does it mean to focus on the playwright – our director joked that we do Pilates and create a nutritional plan with Krista- instead of the play? I have done many new play readings during my time in DC, but they have mostly been day-long exercises with a specific theatre company focused on hearing the play aloud to determine whether it is worth producing. I have not had many opportunities to contribute to the development of a play and give feedback that could potentially alter the final words on the page. I am a novice at the craft and therefore the specific instruction to shift focus from play to playwright confused me. Read the rest of this entry »

welcome to a midtown haven

I had the pleasure of spending a day last week at the New Dramatists’ home in midtown Manhattan rehearsing for and then performing in the New Playwright Welcome. Every year, ND selects around eight playwrights to join the company and be nurtured by a seven year residency. This year’s class includes Annie Baker, Daniel Beaty, Madeleine George, Sibyl Kempson, James McManus, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Betty Shamieh and Francine Volpe.

James McManus, the lovely author of Cherry Smoke, invited me up to New York to perform the opening scene of his play at the welcoming event. Read the rest of this entry »

let’s table it

It is a pleasure to work with a director who highly values the importance of table work. Table work, for better or worse, refers to the process at the beginning of rehearsals when the director, actors and other interested members of the company sit around a table and talk about the play. I know theatre artists have diverging opinions of the value of table work, some think it’s a waste of time to sit around and talk about a play when discovery happens on your feet as you make choices and respond to scene partners. Other people need to talk in excess, asking subtle- and sometimes annoying- questions about the actions, motivations, and events on the page. I think there is a happy medium.

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lessons in comparison

I’ve spent the past two months in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, friends, located inside the black box of Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. It has been an honor and challenge returning to the classic American play by Thorton Wilder as Emily Webb in Our Town.

I first played Emily at Brown Ledge Camp as a fifteen year old camper. Last spring, I was thrilled to be cast in the role for this season and eager to tackle the character again, this time with a little more understanding of the craft. I must say, it has been more of a challenge than I expected, especially playing the young Emily in Act One.

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reading the fall away

I’ve had a satisfying close to 2009: a year full of stimulating theatre and collaborations, fulfilling travel and rewarding times at home. The Picture of Dorian Gray was an incredibly challenging and growing experience. The cast had a great run together and the Round House audiences loved the show.

Since we closed in October I’ve been busy working as a standardized patient at George Washington University Medical School, where I get to utilize my acting and teaching skills helping medical students develop their communication and technical proficiency for when they work with real patients.

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sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll and a little Wilde

This past month has been one heck of a ride. Tonight we open The Picture of Dorian Gray at Round House Theatre and I must say I’m a little sad about that. Opening means that rehearsals are over, our playwright goes home, we say goodbye to our director- the amazing Blake Robison- and the cast is only together for three hours a day instead of eight (or twelve). I’m going to miss the luxury of just working on theatre- stimulating, challenging theatre- and will return to the day jobs. But what a run we’ll have!

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