what's it all about, eh?

CURRENTLY READING: Flaubert’s Parrot, by Julian Barnes
CURRENTLY DOING: Wind in the Willows, and freaking out about spring/next summer work

"Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty, even for a moment, it is enough."

Jeanette Winterson

That quote hangs on my living room wall, thanks to a good pal. Like me and my new husband (2 week anniversary!), she is a theatre artist.* Stage work is that thing that hurls us past.... What I cherish about theatre is also what I lament: its brevity. There is no play DVD you can rent for years to come. If there is, it is a flat and nearly lifeless shadow (think Plato’s cave) of the actual experience of watching a story unfold before you with actors who are right there. Movies are made for the screen, and the good ones use that medium in order to transcend it. Plays are made to be put on their feet in a space with YOU.

As a tiny rebellion against The Transient, I am here to try to pin down (like a butterfly) the especially lovely theatre I encounter, whether as an actor or audience member--the briefly beautiful.

I have no interest in reviewing...I am more of a collector. I wish to collect my theatre experiences, and maybe illuminate something about the general experience of being a non-celebrity professional actor along the way. We exist, I swear! And happily, at that. We carve out our strange little livings in ever-shifting ways. I often look back at my path and shake my head. How is it that I got from there to here? When the heck did I learn all these things that are now second nature? How did a weekend staged reading for no pay (in NY) turn into my first professional gig (in TN) turn into a national tour (from DC)? Delightfully, I don’t really know. Maybe it’s a pre-requisite in this artform that you revere Mystery.

At any rate, may you enjoy a stroll now & again down my little ghost-lit path.




*theatre artist: noun. one who makes, revels, deals in and explores the world through, you guessed it, THEATRE.

P.S: I ought to mention that I take a multi-disciplinary approach to my art. Meaning, I feel that anything I encounter can help me as an actor and creator. I consume as much art as possible! I say this to explain why some seemingly random things might appear here in the future. Everything is relevant, friends. That's my motto, at least! Blame it on my schooling.

P.P.S: Lest it seem I take myself and my work a bit too seriously, I'd like to point out that my profile pic is essentially mooning you. Heh.