Leigha Horton :: Greenroom
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A little eyeliner in non-traditional places goes a long way toward making me look like Guido from junior year of high school. Desperate to make positive steps toward finding a believable Feste, I drew on a mustache/goatee combination and hung out in front of the full-length mirror for a while last week.

I discovered that the combination of facial hair, the right clothing, pulled back/parted hair, raised shoulders, and Rat Packian moves make me seem, oddly enough, less ridiculous than I seem at rehearsals. So I’m studying me some men; men movements, men speech patterns, men gestures. If men are doing it, I am studying it. Right now, I’ve got the Sammy Davis, Jr. Show on the tube and what I notice most is no arm movement above the elbows – his upper arms are totally plastered to his torso. Unless he’s dancing.

Dudes – being a man is HARD – and all of you XYers reading this have had your entire lives to learn how to not look like schmucks. I’ve only got a few weeks left… any essential tips? And don’t pull a fast one on me – I don’t want to learn how to “walk like a man” by watching Willis teach Arnold in an episode of Diff’rent Strokes, because we all remember how THAT turned out.

DUDES. There is a ukulele in my living room and tomorrow it will be joined by an autoharp. My place is being overtaken by the Ridiculous Instrument Brigade.

Here’s the scoop: I’m in the middle of rehearsals for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night over at Theatre in the Round. It’s set in 1960s Cape Cod, and seeing as my character, Feste, is a complete anachronism of the era (since when have we kept paid comedians about the house?), my director has created an alternative. An alternative that is going to be, by far, one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done onstage.

I, as Feste, will be playing him/her as a Drag King a la one Mr. Murray Hill. I’ve never played a woman playing a 60s era male hepcat comedian before. Oh, and did I mention that through the singing parts I will be accompanying myself on the ukulele and autoharp, both of which I don’t yet know how to play? And we open in a little over a month. So, um, I’m a little nervous. I’M COMPLETELY FREAKING OUT.

Totally waiting for the admission of hidden cameras and everyone to come out laughing, but it’s just not happening…