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.

I’ve also had the opportunity to participate in several readings this fall, which have been a great way to work with new artists and further develop relationships with theatres in town. I performed in an evening of adapted Philip Roth by Derek Goldman at Theatre J, as an opening event for the 2009 DC Jewish Literary Festival. Also at Theatre J, I read as Rachel in End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer, directed by Shirely Serotsky.

I was thankful for the chance to return to Arena Stage, my first employer in DC, to work with the wonderful Ellen McLaughlin for a day on her new musical in development, Inconnu, with music by Peter Foley. Up in Bethesda at Round House Theatre I participated in two readings, a new adapation of Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier by the acclaimed writer Jeffrey Hatcher, directed by Rick Corley, as well as Blake Robison’s new adaptation of Alice McDermott’s novel, Charming Billy, directed by Mark Ramont.

Hopefully some of these plays will be chosen to move into production in the 2010-2011 season. My most recent staged reading was part of Washington Shakespeare Company’s Tuesday Reading Series: a new work by local playwright, Stephen Spotswood, called Fire Burn, which was directed by Jessi Burgess. I really enjoy the reading format and opportunity to work with lots of wonderful artists in a condensed amount of time, hopefully I get to work with all of them on a longer project in the near future.

The edgy, funny and insightful writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has exposed the subtext of Oscar Wilde’s novel by thrusting the characters into the sensational art scene of London in 1988- and thus enters the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. This show has presented quite a few challenges for me, all of which have been exciting and fun to surmount. I play five different women, learned a few new accents and worked to make the others better, appear naked on stage for the first time (that’s the big one!), had input on a new play and gained the confidence to play “the most fabulous person in the room”, among other things. I need to thank my amazing company for creating a safe and supportive environment for me to feel vulnerable in- a necessity for this show- and in turn giving me the confidence to pull it all off.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Big Love on HBO, Marvel Comics) directed by Blake Robison running at Round House Theatre Bethesda until October 4th. Hope you can make it!

Three months of commuting to Baltimore had put a strain on my social life and I felt disconnected from my good friends in DC. I was invited to two summer weddings, which I had planned not to attend due to Bruise Easy, but when the chance to attend them arose I was eager to do so. So I started turning down offers: offers to audition and an offer to perform. It felt somewhat liberating, and a little scary, to allow myself the time to control my own daily and summer schedule.

I am still a little dumbfounded at what people do with all these extra hours in the day, but it is relaxing and energizing to do so. I am going to attend both Vermont weddings (yeah!), visit and work with my parents at home in Maine for a week, train with Synetic and get in shape (there go quite a few nights!), and travel with my boyfriend in the Middle East for two weeks in July. Not a bad summer at all. Of course while still working my day jobs. And then Dorian Gray at Round House starts in August and the rest of my 2009-2010 season planning is in full swing. Life is good.

Our company, including several long-time Everyman company members, has grown to be a cohesive and responsive ensemble. I have great faith and trust in my fellow actors and am eager to see how the show will grow now that we are confident in the production and have the chace to play within the moments.

It is a haul driving to and from Baltimore every day, but luckily I’ve been carpooling with other DC actors in the show and we make it fun. Please do see the show if you have the chance. I think we have a funny, tragic and insightful production of a beautiful play to share and I hope to share it with you. Not only is the show poignant as our own gorgeous cherry trees bloom around the tidal basin, but also as friends and strangers deal with the loss of property and change in lifestyle.

I feel blessed to have worked on such wonderful productions and with such inspiring companies over the past year. A sense of camaraderie and mutual support makes me feel at home in this community. My non-theatre friends joke with me when I tell them that every new cast I work with is full of more wonderful new friends to be made and grow with. It’s true! I have not met an artist here that I don’t admire and enjoy and it is an honor to work with them and learn from them. I am eager to see what the new year brings; hopefully a chance to continue building relationships and create new ones, play roles that challenge and excite, and show an uncertain nation that art is necessary and alive.

The first day of rehearsal the entire company and staff joined together to introduce themselves and share memories of past CC seasons. Many of the cast members are reprising their roles, some going on their fifth year, and welcomed us newbies with open hearts. The veterans spoke of community, stability, family, artistic integrity and exploration. They shared what is means to return to this production every year as actors who have little pattern aside from change and as people returning home to friends. I already feel very much a part of them. I am eager to celebrate with audiences the sense of redemption, charity and forgiveness that Dicken’s so aptly penned and still remains so powerful today (ten times a week!).

Ford’s A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas December 2nd-December 28th, ten shows a week at Shakespeare’s Lansburgh Theatre in downtown Washington DC (Ford’s Theatre re-opens after renovations in 2009). Tickets.

I hope you can see the show! We run until November 9th Thursdays through Saturdays 8pm and Sunday matinees at 3pm in the Rosslyn Spectrum in Virginia right across from the Key Bridge.

On Friday August 8th the Russian army invaded Georgia. When I returned to rehearsal on Wednesday our director, Paata, announced that the company would no longer be working on Caligari and they would now be remounting Host and Guest, a play the company previously staged based on a Georgian epic poem about the futility of war. Quite quickly the fall changed for us artists involved. Not all the actors cast in Caligari were cast in Host and Guest and of course the process will be very different for those of us filling the shoes of roles already created. I will be working on the production and am eager to see what sort of response we will receive for this choice. What sort of impact does political theatre really have in the nation’s capitol? Will Senators and Congresspeople come to the show as Paata hopes? No matter the government attendance or audience response this was a necessary decision for our company’s leaders: to present an anti-war staged poem full of Synetic’s physical grace, power and unique storytelling, told by a company comprised of Russians, Georgians, Romanians and Americans. A company that demonstrates the power and beauty created by diverse collaboration rather than the oppression of it.

Thursday July 17th at 9pm, Friday the 18th at 6pm, Saturday the 19th at 2pm and Sunday the 27th at 7pm, the last day of the festival. We perform in The Forum at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Center in Chinatown at 610F St NW in downtown Washington DC. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the venue or online at CapFringe.

UPDATE: Audiences voted The Fiddler Ghost as the “Best Dance Show” of the 2008 Capitol Fringe Festival! Thank you for the support!

I was cast in a very clever spoof of Macbeth called MacBro written by Chris Graybill and directed by Jessie Gallogly, one of the festival’s associate producers. The play center around Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s brother, who is currently writing an expose which is not endorsed by his sister. Our cast of five had a great time recreating various stages of Madonna’s life, I got to play the Witch who resembled her “Like a Virgin” phase. We had a lot of fun creating together and our play was well received by the audience, mostly due to Chris’s clever writing and our total acceptance of Madonna’s genius.

We closed the first act and I was then able to watch Act 2 and half of the shows. I was very impressed by my fellow actors, my good friend Caitlin Dennis rocked her show, and the playwrights. I thought Kathleen Akerley’s dance-theatre dealing of the Mexican wall issue was especially unique and inspiring. We had a great day and it was exciting to be a part of the Source Festival. Many thanks to Jeremy Skidmore, the festival’s producer. I am excited to see the renovated space come back to life again!