Wearing Many Hats...

I very distinctly remember the year 2005.  The year was distinctive for many reasons, but mainly because I hit my stride career-wise, and in the height of things, I was juggling 6 different gigs at once.


It was a crazy time, but enormously satisfying.  I was teaching multiple classes of acting and public speaking, directing two different  plays at the same time (not recommended), writing a book, and privately coaching about 5 different clients during this time period.


To say I was busy is obviously an understatement.  Each day I kept post-its by my alarm clock to tell me what day it was and where I had to be.  Yes, it was insane, overwhelming, at times stressful and mind-boggling and yet I thrived. In hindsight, the balance of my life was completely out-of-whack; I had no social life or relaxation time to speak of.  But I believe everything happens for a reason, and eventually I made up for it!


I think balance is essential.  I really do.  But I also discovered that I'm the type of person who needs to have multiple activities going on all at once in order to stay interested.  Boredom kills creativity.  Like a shark, I need to constantly keep moving or I lose interest in myself.


So now, 7 years later, I'm back to the juggling act.  I'm not quite up to 6 gigs (nor do I want to be), but I am once again, writing (of course I am), coaching, directing and teaching.  And loving every minute of it.  And though it takes some effort these days to do so, I find ways to make time for the special people in my life.  My friends are very high on my priority list; so I make time to meet for coffee or a brew and keep in the loop.  Finding the balance of work and down-time.


I do not feel overwhelmed quite yet, though I anticipate I will as the play I'm directing goes into tech, the deadline for my writing projects get closer, and my students demand more of my attention.  But the thing is, I've done this before, and I can do it again.  And this time around, I'm really learning to enjoy the ride.  


It's going to be a great summer!

Interview on BroadwayWorld.com

I got a gig writing for the Portland theatre scene  for BroadwayWorld.com.  Pretty cool, huh?  I'm not going to do reviews; I'm not a critic, nor do I want to be.  So my articles will mainly focus on what's going on around town, and interviews with notable people in the theatre.

My first interview is already up on the site.  I talked with solo performer Eleanor O'Brien who is a delightful, delicious artist who is about to head out on a Fringe Festival tour with her show, Good Girls Guide:  Dominatrix for Dummies. The show is saucy, salacious, lovely and poignant all at once. So is Eleanor.  She is amazing, and if nothing else, I'm a huge fan of her courageousness on stage; not to mention a fan of the woman herself.

Hope you enjoy the interview.  It's a fun read.  Looking forward to writing much more about the wonders of the Portland Theatre Community.

If you have any specific requests as to who or what you want to read about, feel free to email me with your ideas!  Thanks and I'll see you at the theatre!

Opening Night!!

Just a quick post to announce that my newest play, Rx will premiere Wednesday night, April 25th.  And once again, I'm so sorry to say, I won't be able to attend.  The good news is that my work is being produced across this great land of ours.  But the bad news, I can't always be there to see it. 


Rx was a commissioned piece written especially for the high school theatre students of Pittsburg, Kansas.  This is the 3rd year in a row they have commissioned me to write an original piece for them.  Rx deals with the pervasive use of prescription drugs among teens.  I'm very proud of this piece. 


A big thanks to Greg Shaw, the cast and crew of Rx and my girl Kristi Alarid who lent me her brain and taught me so much about all sorts of prescription meds and their effect on people.  And she was able to put it all in terms I could understand and not use a whole lot of medical jargon as she was explaining it all to me.  THANK YOU KRISTI!  You are a walking, talking encyclopedia and I'm so grateful to you!


For those of you in the Portland area, I will be having a short play performed on May 12th.  If you're interested, send me an email and I'll give you all the delightful details, including the fact that I'm acting in it as well as having written it!  Oh my goodness...this should be interesting. But it will be worth seeing, because it's directed by the extraordinary Jane Bement Geesman and features the outstanding talents of Kristin Olson and Morgan Cox.  These babes are the best!!


Creativity abounds!  I feel lucky.  I feel grateful!  The weather here in Portland has been gorgeous; good things are happening and I am so very happy to be here! Yay!

Getting Unstuck, Creatively Speaking...

I committed to this script-writing challenge for the month of April, called Script Frenzy. The challenge is to write 100 pages in the month of April, and hopefully have a first-draft of a play by April 30th.  No sweat, right?  Ha!


I started off great.  Worked diligently for the first 9 days of April, and then on April 10th...something happened.  Well, actually...nothing happened.  I stopped writing.  Why?  Well...in a word...life.  I let life interrupt me.  It's known to do that from time to time. And you know what Mr. Isaac Newton said, right?  A body in motion, tends to stay in motion, but a body at rest, stays at rest.  Because as soon as I stopped, I found it very difficult to start up again.  And now I'm way behind and there are only 2 weeks left.


When a friend of mine suggested a hike in the glorious Columbia River Gorge, I knew it was exactly what I needed to free my mind.  And, if you've been following this blog at all, you know of my love for waterfalls.  I have a very emotional and visceral response when getting up close and personal to these magnificent creations of Nature.


We had the trail to ourselves; just me, my friend and his two wonderful dogs. We hiked along for awhile, the mist intensifying as we made our way up and down and all around.  We heard the water falling before we saw it, and then there she was.  In all her majestic glory.  And I stood up on a boulder, and let the mist encompass me.  I felt amazing; I felt all my stress release in that one moment; I turned to my friend to thank him for bringing me to this spectacular place, and found, not surprisingly, emotion rising in my throat.


Much, much later in the day, after I finished rehearsing for my play that's going up next month, I sat down and wrote 5 pages of my script.  It was midnight, and I wrote without stopping. 5 pages.    Is it any good?  I have no idea.  Does it make sense to the story I previously created?  I have no idea.  If I read through it, I think I would become blocked again.  But it doesn't matter if it's good or bad.  What matters is that the momentum has picked up once again.  I will worry about the quality of the writing when it's time to rewrite and revise.  


For now I'm just thankful to the beauty and wonder of Nature. For freeing me up...I'm so grateful to be living in such a stunning place and whenever I seek solitude, friendship, wonder and awe, it is literally in my very own backyard.  Who would have ever thought this city gal would become a Nature girl.  Yet here I am, and the better for it!

A Peculiar Dream...

I usually remember my dreams upon waking, but if they aren't note-worthy, they wash away from my thoughts like the tide going out in the ocean.  But last night...hmmm...a strange and evocative dream came my way. And when I woke up, it took awhile to shake it.  It was slightly disturbing, but not in a violent or gruesome way.  Then I fell back asleep and the dream continued.  That rarely happens to me. It was like watching a movie.  And I had put the dream on pause, and when I went back to sleep, I must have pushed the play button.


Of course, the longer I am awake, the less I recall the specifics.  I was talking to my mom this morning, because she had played a role in the dream, and I was trying to tell her about it.  But my words were disjointed; I was stumbling and fumbling with language.  I couldn't seem to be specific as to what had unfolded in my subconscious mind.


Even now, as I try to write about it, I find myself faltering.  All I know is life in my dream was changing at a dramatically fast pace.  In my dream, I had to leave the life I was comfortable with to forge into the vast unknown.  I was scared; there were people in my dream who wanted to harm me. But there were crowds of others, strangers, who wished me well.   It was dark, pitch-black; throngs of people in my midst trying to flee as well from a horrible existence.  It sounds like George Orwell, doesn't it?  That's the sense I got from it. I was trapped in my own version of "1984."


In my dream, I received a text message from an unknown caller.  One word appeared on the screen..."Courage." In the dream, I was being forced to leave my belongings and my home behind.  Where was I being herded to?  I do not know.  Courage...


When I put this down on paper, it seems like such a simple metaphor.  It's easy to see the parallels.   But in the moment, last night and again early today, the dream itself was truly haunting.  I felt a bit discombobulated this morning.


By the end of the day today, I'm sure those feelings will be gone.  That's how dreams work.  Since it's April 1st, I considered the dream to be an April Fool's joke from my subconscious.  But somehow I doubt that.  There is a real message here.  I know I need to pay attention.  But I also know I cannot let it bog me down.  And as usual, I move forward... 


What are the dreams you remember?

Trodding the Boards Once Again...

I was an actor long before I called myself a writer.  I trained and I studied, and I'm still shelling out money to pay for graduate school, and yes I have a degree and everything that says I presumably know what I'm doing when I get up on stage.  So why haven't I gotten up on stage in ______ amount of years?  Because...well...because now I'm a writer and I don't have to.

I switched things up about ten years ago and I found as I got older, I liked being on the other side of the footlights.  I liked being behind the scenes as a writer, director, teacher and coach.  I still like it.  And sometimes I'm amazed when I recall the things I did in front of an audience.  It took a lot of courage and I suppose there was a time I felt fearless.  And then that feeling went away, and I metaphorically took out the cozy sweater with patches on the elbows, and the pipe and I sat behind my computer and wove my tales that I would allow others to tell onstage.  And I was comfortable with that.

Until now. GULP!

I have the opportunity to present a short play that I wrote a few years ago.  I love this piece.  It is so....ME.  And since it is so me, I have decided (with the director's blessing) that I will return to the stage and be part of the cast. Oy vey.  Just saying this out loud sends a flock of seagulls flapping their wings furiously inside my belly.  Do I really want to do this?  Yes.  No.  Yes. Is the return to acting just like riding a bicycle?  Yes. No. Yes.  No...I don't know.

First rehearsal is this weekend.  I'm tickled at the thought of performing again. Petrified at the thought of performing again.  But I'm going through with it.  I need to test my boundaries every now and then and push myself outside my comfort level.  That sweater with the patches is getting way too comfortable...so I'm challenging myself to return to my roots and see if the ol' gal still has it in her.

Let me know what you think.  Tell me I'm crazy.  Tell me I've lost my mind.  Or tell me to break a leg.  I would love to hear from you.

Keep Laughing If You Can...

"Comedy, is tragedy plus time."

~Woody Allen

It is very good to have a sense of humor in this life.  Otherwise, the world could really beat you down.  Translating that sense of humor into your creative life is even better.  I completely agree with Mr. Allen about the passage of time helping to illuminate the levity in certain situations.  We, as individuals, are constantly experiencing crises both large and small.  Some are of tragic proportions; others,  minor slips in the passages of our lives.

Depending upon the circumstances, we might be able to laugh at things that once seemed catastrophic.  Other times, the tragedies we have endured, can never be lightened by time.  Their memory may become bittersweet, or bring tears to our eyes, but some can often make us laugh when we recall an event we once thought was tragic and now is truly laughable.

Like the time I lied to my 2nd grade class and told them I had won a sweepstakes and I was going to have a walk-on part on a popular television show. My entire family and I were going to fly to Hollywood, California and I was going to be a star.

I basked in the attention.  I was glowing.  Until I arrived home to see my mother's stern face.  She asked me if I had something to tell her.  I said "No."  She said, "Really?  Because Mrs. Palouso called to congratulate us and wish us a safe trip to California."  Oops...Mom was pissed!

Of course, she made me go to school the next day even though I was convinced I was going to die from stomach pains.  She insisted I tell the class it was all a ruse...a flat-out lie...a call for attention.  I had made the whole thing up.  I could swear I saw my teacher smile as I copped to the truth.  I don't think my classmates were too mad.  I think they thought it was funny.  I thought it was tragic.  

But all these years later, I think it's hysterical.  I mean, let's put perspective on it, right?  At 8 years old, this was tragic.  To have to apologize to my entire 2nd grade class?  To have to stand before them and admit fraud?  I'm surprised I didn't grow up to be a politician!  But no...I am a writer.  So it's not surprising that my personal history includes making up far-fetched dramatic stories such as that one.

Comedy.  Tragedy plus time.  So if you're going through some difficulties right now, hold on.  Grin and bear it.  Because one day, you might be able to laugh at your sorrow.  And if nothing else, it might make a really good story!