theater

Greetings my friends.

I have made a play. It is called "The History of Water" and it is being presented at the 24th Street Theater as part of their Saturday Explorer Series... meaning that it's a cutting edge piece of theatrical joy that's recommended for ages 7 & up. Bring the family, bring your mom, bring you lover... there's something for everything in this erratic, dramatic exploration of the substance that makes up most of our planet, and most of our bodies.

The piece features performers Shaughn Buchholz, Lisa Dee, Andrea LeBlanc, and Patrick Ian Moore with musical accompaniment by JP Houston and a very special musical cameo by Artichoke's Timothy Sellers.

Today I did something I hardly ever do... I wore underwear. Why, you ask? Well...

I was having a theater-filled day with my main squeeze Patrick to celebrate the closing of the play (that he was starring in, that's right!) and one of the stops on our tour of Los Angeles theatrical offerings - right after seeing Del Arte's production "The Golden State" at the 24th Street Theater was the smash-hit sensation "Point Break Live" going down on weekends at Charlie O's Bar at the Alexandria Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on Spring Street. Aww yeah...

Now, if you don't know already... Point Break Live is a live theatrical version of the awesome classic movie "Point Break" in which the Keanu Reeves character is picked from the audience. I had been invited to the show by friends involved with the production (Bill and his wife Anne - who's sister is the producer of the show) so I was real excited to go. My friend Shaughn Buchholz had recently gone and gotten picked to play the lead role of Johnny Utah, so I had a general idea of what we were in for.

So, the underwear. The underwear was for the rare chance that I got up the nerve to "audition" for the role of Johnny Utah AND was the audience favorite AND got picked by the director to play the part. If all of that HAPPENED to happen, then I would need to be able to do costume changes backstage... thus, the underwear.

As for why I never wear underwear... that is for another blog post.

As luck would have it... I *DID* muster to courage to audition for the role, and much to my surprise, I got it. That's right folks. For a few hours tonight, my name was Johnny Utah. I had to wear a wet suit, was soaked, smacked, fondled, tackled, squirted, and otherwise abused much to the delight of the crowd. I did exactly as I was told and delivered a most monotone and deadpan performance, only speaking what was on the cue cards, and only moving when told to move. I got to hang from the ceiling in a harness, chase a man through the streets with a gun, yell a lot, and learned to surf in the mix. It was exhausting and awesome.

I highly recommend the show. Tobias Jelinek, who plays Bodhi (the Patrick Swayze character) and Jennifer Jean who plays Tyler/the Lori Petty character (and studied improv at Second City AND we've had the same teacher - Scot Robinson of The Lampshades) were friggin' inspired. And Christi Waldon who was my personal PA and helped me survive the whole show was absolutely adorable.  I will be eternally grateful and in awe of her energy. 

Great cast, great concept, a great friggin' time at the theater. Thumbs up, yo!  What's more... I got the whole thing on tape! Woo-hoo!

All in all, today was a very good day.  I'm exhausted, I'm inspired, I've got fake blood in my hair.  It's a wonderful life indeed.

I went to see Patrick in a play tonight. He's the lead in Tina Howe's "Museum" at PCC. He was great and it's always awesome to see him up on stage living the dream. Glory be!

I've decided to go "back to school" in a sense... even though I *am* in school (working on my PhD dissertation for EGS).... I am also going to take some classes at the 'ol Pasadena City College. It seems I'm on a journey right now, getting back in touch with my love of being an actor/performer. It started with the classed at the iO WEST that I took in preparation for the Road to Oprah tour, where I was going to be filmed a lot and wanted to get as comfortable with myself as possible as soon as possible, and I totally fell in love with improv, the training, the theater, and all these old ideas and dreams about being an actor came back.

When I was in high school, I was OBSESSED with acting. My big dream, since my first play in Kindergarten where I played the Queen of Hearts and got to sit on a throne and wear a cool dress, was to move to New York City and be a STAGE ACTRESS. I got into NYU (Tisch School/Playwrights Horizons Studio), moved to New York, and started directing. I did a couple student films (directed by my then-boyfriend) and cameo roles in plays for friends, and eventually abandoned being the performer completely.

This wasn't a bad thing. I got really into directing and became really good at it.... good enough to get an MFA at CalArts in directing, do some pieces at the REDCAT & 24th Street Theater and gain the respect and admiration of some awesome collaborators. Pretty good! Directing totally changed my view of the theater. I got real experimental and enjoyed coaxing amazing performances out of other people. It seems I was going through a phase where I simply couldn't handle the attention/disappointments/pressure/etc of being an actor. It terrified me. Directing was akin to being the great OZ... I could hide behind the curtains, pull levers, flash lights, and blow people's minds. I love it.

The performance desire was still there, though - suppressed, repressed - and eventually it started kicking its feet and demanding expression. I think that's where the boxing thing came from, and why I was able to so passionately throw myself into it. And the band... the band was a huge step toward my getting back in front of an audience, facing them, performing *to* them... not just beating the tar out of someone in front of them. Improv was another step. Now PCC is one more step. Step by step... someday... I'm going to be on BROADWAY, dammit! Or something like that.... we'll see where the passions lead me next.