July19th
Little Grey Girlfriend has a new album out and we’re having a party to celebrate! Join us on Friday night at Arlene’s Grocery (95 Stanton St, NYC) — 7:30 PM — $10 cover to hear the whole album and some old favorites.
Don’t miss it! When else will you get to see my hair in a mohawk?
July1st
Getting my classical on… Here’s a clip from last month’s performance of “Jubilate Deo” for soprano and violin (by Vince Peterson, with Adam Waddell on violin). Enjoy!
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May14th
Better late than never… here are some production stills from February’s production of I Am Jim Thompson at the Wings Theater — all photos by Ale de Vries
with Jimmy Helms
from left: Daniel Bonthius, Elisabeth Ness, Sarah Fischbeck, Jimmy Helms, Steven Sun, myself, Jenny Lee Anaya, Jan DiPietro
April7th
Don’t miss the third and final Choral Chameleon season concert – and my last appearance as a Chameleon – coming up next Sunday April 18th!
An evening of metaphor, fables and fancy — lessons of adult morality told through children’s fairytales and stories. With the WORLD PREMIERE of Such Beautiful Things, an oratorio based on “The Traveling Musicians” by the Brothers Grimm, with music by Jeffrey Parola and libretto by Tony Asaro; as well as Conrad Susa’s Hymns for the Amusement of Children; Irving Fine’s Alice in Wonderland Songs and John Rutter’s Five Childhood Lyrics. This is choral music like you’ve never heard it before!
Sunday 4/18 — 5 PM
Fourth Universalist Society – 76th & Central Park West
Tickets on sale here.
February16th
On Easter Sunday 1967, Jim Thompson, an American businessman credited with revitalizing the Thai silk industry, mysteriously disappeared while taking a walk in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. To this day he has not been found.
A Workshop Production
Music by Mark T. Evans / Lyrics by Eric Kubo / Book by Zac Kline
Directed by Blake Bradford with Musical Staging by Clare Cook
February 18, 25, 28 at 8 PM; 19, 20, 26, 27 at 7 PM
at the Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher St
Tickets $20 / $15 students with ID, available here.
February5th
Hot off the presses — video from last Sunday’s Second Avenue Songbook series featuring the songs of Tony Asaro and Rob Shapiro. Here I am singing Tony’s song “Half Empty Bed” from his musical-in-progress, GOING NOWHERE (with Vince Peterson on piano).
January27th
Almost as cliché as touting Shakespeare’s way with words is to say how clever Sondheim’s lyrics are, or how complex (but moving) his music.
But, being entrenched in his work this week, I can’t avoid it: Sondheim really is genius. His songs are gifts: perfectly packaged, with taste and class, and with new surprises for the singer (and, one hopes, the listener) each time they are opened. As a text-lover, I relish working with his lyrics even before I go to the piano. Each bit of punctuation is carefully selected and has as specific a meaning as it does in Shakespeare, so that the thoughts are practically thought for you and by the time you’ve finished the song you’re not quite sure how you arrived at this new place, but it was entirely logical and right. At least, that’s how “On the Steps of the Palace” feels.
And then what if you are
What a Prince would envision?
Although how can you know
Who you are til you know
What you want, which you don’t?
So then which do you pick:
Where you’re safe, out of sight,
And yourself, but where everything’s wrong?
Or where everything’s right
And you know that you’ll never belong?
…
There’s a lot that’s at stake,
But you’ve stalled long enough
‘Cause you’re still standing stuck
In the stuff on the steps…
I could (and do) analyze this the way I would a Shakespearean monologue: look at the line endings (“know” twice in a row, why the word “envision”, wrong vs right); the alliteration (stake/stalled/still/standing/stuck/stuff/steps); the long run-on lines with no punctuation, and then what feels like a comma after every word. Tonight I’ve been pacing back and forth in my apartment, turning on each punctuation mark and clarifying the thought patterns for myself. The neighbors must think I’m crazy.
This week I am rehearsing for next week’s benefit performance of Into the Woods, funded by a grant from the Sing for Hope Foundation. Though I’ve long wanted to work on Cinderella, and did the show in college (playing the old women: Cinderella’s Mother, Little Red’s Granny, and the Giant), my work is seriously cut out for me. (In fact, I really should be, you know, DOING it instead of writing about it.) I am facing the big monsters of Expectations (but it goes so perfectly in my head!) and learning to let loose while still underprepared – something perfectionists aren’t known for being the best at. But I tote my trusty kaleidoscope to rehearsal with me, and remind myself that I sing songs and tell stories for a living, and babies aren’t dying… and isn’t all this process stuff FUN?
January17th
Two gigs still to come this first month of 2010: 
First off, I’m back with Little Grey Girlfriend this Wednesday night, January 20th, at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Only $5 cover gets you a FREE copy of Cells Planets! We’re on at 9:30 – come early for a game of BOCCE upstairs.
Then on January 31st I will join a host of great singers in an evening premiering the works of Tony Asaro and Rob Shapiro, at the NYU Grad Musical Theatre Writing building on the Lower East Side. I will be premiering a song of Tony’s from one of his musicals-in-progress. Don’t miss it!
November23rd
Photo Flash article on Miracle on 34th Street at BroadwayWorld.com!
November14th
Well, even with the best of intentions, the past two weeks of rehearsal have passed by in an absolute blur (and without a post from me)! I find myself sitting in the house of the John W. Engeman Theater, mic’ed and listening to the beginning of sitz probe/sound check. Half-finished set pieces are everywhere, as are actors, technicians… bagels, and packets of Emergen-C. After such a short rehearsal period, there is still a fair amount of show-building to be done in tech, and those of us with other roles to understudy are still grabbing moments on the train and in breaks to go over lines.
As a recovering perfectionist, this short rehearsal period has been a great lesson in trusting and allowing the process (I can make anything into a lesson in trusting the process, can’t I?). With so little time between a first read and opening night, things need to be learned extra quickly — but the learning process remains the same. “We should be further along; we open in a week” is as true as “Look at this great work; we only started rehearsing a week ago!” But each time through gets a little clearer, a little smoother, and as we add each layer it will all begin to solidify. (…right??)
So what an instructive two weeks, in general. I am learning so much — professionally (remembering what it’s like to be in a show, to be an actor, to not [have to] be in charge; learning how to understudy) and personally (finding my boundaries the “hard” way). There is only so much I can ask of myself before I get overwhelmed, or miserable, or sick… and no good reason to feel any of those things! One finds one’s limits, I suppose, by testing them… then the challenge is to follow through on honoring them.
Pictures, etc to follow next week when we get into costume!
