Be My Valentine, Signature Theater

Last Friday I went to see David Henry Hwang's The Dance and the Railroad at the Signature Theater.  It was - it is - EXCELLENT.  What, specifically, was excellent?  Off the top of my head, I'd say the writing, the performances, the direction, the set, the lights, the sound . . . please just go see it already.

More broadly, if you're not already familiar, please acquaint yourself with the Signature Theater.  Beyond the stand-alone excellence of their productions, they provide the opportunity to get to know the work of important playwrights - like Mr. Hwang - more deeply, via their mission and programming philosophy. 

Also, on a related note, I heard on the radio yesterday that the Signature theater had the highest rate of actors of color in their productions - this in a climate in which only 23% of actors performing on NYC stages are not white. 

High-Five, Signature! I love you.

Summer Recap

It was a HUGE Summer.  Here's what I did from June - Now:

• Played an Irish ghost (and my violin for the first time since High School) in the bi-lingual, western, epic, romance Dia De Los Muertos
• Made my directing debut with What The Time Traveler Will Tell Us at Incubator Arts Project.
• Took a 3 week run in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (for which I wrote what might be my new favorite play of mine - a song about Warren Buffett called "The Sage of Omaha").
• Booked a VO for Citibank and had a great time recording that - I love being in the booth!
• Booked a principle role for The Onion News Network's second season and can't say enough good things about everyone I encountered during my day of work there.
• Took a 10-week writing class at ESPA with Tanya Barfield and got somewhere between 66% and 75% of my first full-length fictional (as opposed to Neo-Futurist) play written.
• Finished the first draft of the four-episode web series about the early life of Benjamin Franklin (re-writes, which I have been procrastinating, begin today).
• Let's not forget the (minor) earthquake and the (not-so-minor) hurricane Irene.
• Oh, and I'm pregnant (which has involved both being pregnant and keeping that mostly a secret until very recently).

It's been a great, busy, tiring, exhilarating few months.  Here's hoping I can whip my fall into a similarly delightful froth . . .

But what I really want to do . . .

is act. Ha. You thought I was going to say "direct," didn't you?  Well, although acting is my first love, lately I've been having a great time directing and I am very excited to tell you that this Summer I am making my directorial debut with:

What The Time Traveler Will Tell Us August 4 - 13 Incubator Arts Project St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery 131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue) New York, NY 10003 http://www.incubatorarts.org/index.html

I describe this play as a one-man-show performed by two guys; as Mike Daisey-meets-early-Will-Eno. About time travel.

The writers describe it as "among other things, a live demonstration of time travel. It is the story of a man who breaks through the barrier between universes on a futile mission to cheat death, and of a woman whose reality is fractured by sudden awareness of an event that never happened. It is also the story of a loving grandfather who we might be remembering wrong, two murders (only one of which actually occurred), and, of course, toast."

Toast is delicious.  If you're in NYC, I really hope you'll come see what we've made - I think you'll like it.