Leigha Horton :: Green room
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We have garnered a few reviews now for Twelfth Night at Theatre in the Round – and since I’m proud of our work and thoroughly respect audience feedback, here is a tidy list for your perusal:

St. Paul Pioneer Press (My character is part of the “Rat Pack”)
AOL City Guide – Top Five Picks of the Week
Matthew Everett – In My Humble Opinion (Twin Cities playwright)
Chris Kidder – Fringe By Numbers (Twin Cities playwright, director)
Lavender Magazine, Arts and Entertainment: On the Townsend (more of a preview than a review, but I’m called hilarious and therefore this gets linked)

“…and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.” Kidding, kidding. There are some great praises and valued criticism in each of the reviews. Matthew Everett’s is definitely my favorite on the whole – yes, he says very kind things about my portrayal of Feste so he gets extra gold stars on his paper, but I feel his review was exceptionally thorough and well-founded.

And of course, I wouldn’t be doing my job as an active promoter of this work justice if I didn’t urge you to come out and see the show for yourself… so, uh, come out and see the show for yourself. You’ll be glad you did. For real.

Holy Hannah, last night’s performance was a tough sell.

I am the first to admit when there’s an even remote possibility that it’s my fault, or when the cast as a whole seems a bit off – but for the most part last night we put in a dang good show, and the audience just wasn’t having it. Sure, there were laughs here and there, and at one point I could see that one of my lines thoroughly delighted a woman in the audience; but overall, it just wasn’t grabbing them.

The backstage charades commenting on their cadaverous nature were a hoot: there were pantomimes of pulling teeth, slitting throats, in addition to desperate goofy dances. In the green room there were lamentations about waiting for the rigor mortis to set in, and suggestions of streaking across stage between scenes, or perhaps some strategically placed fellatio – ANYTHING to wake them up. Alas, we plodded onward as scripted.

It makes me wonder if audiences truly understand the power they have to make or break a show. We feed off an audience’s energy so that we can reflect it back upon them, and last night they sucked all of our energy out of us…they were the black hole of funny. I thoroughly believe they had a combination of the Friday Night Sleepies and overwhelming dread of the show ending and having to go back outside (a -9 standing temperature with -35 degree windchill will do that to people).

To top it all off, Monday night I came down with a nasty cold-slash-cough – and have been doing everything in my power since then to fight it, of course to no avail. My throat was dry, I couldn’t hold in all my coughs, and my concentration was spotty. The singing was going generally okay, though, until I totally botched the last song; leaving Dan-the-Rockstar-Guitarist out to dry (my continued sincere apologies, friend!). So any joy the audience would have walked away with quickly turned to pity. Um, oops.

I call a do-over.

To end on a positive note, here are some great reviews from last week:
St. Paul Pioneer Press (I’m included in the “Rat Pack”)
AOL City Guide – Top Five Picks of the Week

Well find me some peacock feathers, ‘cause I’ve got some strutting to do.

We couldn’t have asked for a better opening night – our cast brought it home beautifully, and the audience was the Best. Audience. Ever. They laughed and laughed and laughed…and at the actual words in addition to the low-comedy bits. They were completely hopped up on goofballs, and we luhved them for it.

It set quite the standard, that’s for sure. Yes, yes, there were some mishaps – in my opening scene while I was dressing and singing, I misbuttoned my shirt without realizing it until I tried to put on the tie and it wasn’t working (I was able to fix it, though, before the song ended – which is good because audiences obsess about things like that); our Maria ate it, twice, on one of her entrances – but she and the others played it out like pros (I didn’t get to see it, but I was downstairs in the greenroom and heard the fall above me, followed by the outpouring of audience laughter); I know I’m forgetting more – but damn, it was good.

After the show a family friend said to me, “It was wonderful! And I didn’t know you could sing like that!” Frankly, neither did I. Baby’s all growed up! Honestly, there were a couple of things I didn’t know I could do before starting this role. This show has been an incredible experience, and I am so honored to be surrounded by such talent. From our fantastic director, David Mann; to the brilliant cast; to Roxanne, our stage manager that is the most competent SM I’ve ever worked with; to Don, the catchy-tune composing Ph.D.; and Dan the kick-ass guitarist; to the entire design and tech crew…every single one of these people stepped up to create a fantastic piece of work.

Well done, good chaps, well done.

Oh, and as for yesterday’s post – I woke up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. feh. But, to combat this minor world injustice, I stayed in my monkey PJs until 2 pm. Take THAT, Saturday morning!

For the last two weeks I’ve been putting in 14-hour days. Tonight is Opening Night. I’m so excited we’re finally openisgnqxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx WHAT? WHAT? I’M AWAKE!

I am SO sleeping in tomorrow. Morning can just forgettaboutit – ’cause I ain’t rousing till noon. NOON. Do you hear me, morning?

The Monster of Phantom Lake Premiere
Filmed in black and white, The Monster of Phantom Lake is a throw-back to the B-grade science-fiction/horror movies of the 1950s.

I am thrilled to report that the premiere date and location for The Monster of Phantom Lake are finally confirmed! Mark your calendars for Thursday, March 9, 2006 and join us at the lovely Heights Theater for a 7:30 pm screening. Running time is 90 minutes, so bribe your babysitters accordingly.

The director and cast (and my parents) will be present, and DVDs of TMoPL that include outtakes and director’s commentary will be available for purchase onsite after the show. For those of you out-of-towners not able to make it to Minneapolis during the snowiest month of the year, I will post an update in the near future about how the DVD can be purchased online.

Heights Theater
3951 Central Avenue NE
Columbia Heights, MN 55421
tel: 763.788.9079

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night opens next week at Theatre in the Round
1960s Cape Cod is the setting for this production of Shakespeare’s dark, witty comedy of romantic confusion. The drunken Toby Belch torments Malvolio, while cross-dressing Viola finds herself caught in a love triangle. Twelfth Night’s tale of madness, love, and mistaken identities makes for a charming evening, rich with Shakespeare’s poetry and prose, and featuring some of his finest low comedy.

I am playing the part of Feste, and will be dressed as a Drag King and singing regularly throughout the show. Luckily, the director has brought in a guitarist to accompany me onstage, so I have been relieved of my auto-harp duties and will only be playing a few chords on the ukulele (even though I actually learned how to play the song that it accompanies). Performing Shakespeare while singing, and accompanying myself on instruments I’ve never touched before this rehearsal process, is a bit like patting my pia mater and rubbing my stomach, so I find great relief in our new guitarist.

Anyway, we open NEXT WEEK, so come see!

Previews:
Wednesday – Thursday, February 8 – 9, 7 pm
Tickets: $5

Performances:
Fridays – Sundays, February 10 – March 5, 8 pm
(EXCEPT Sunday, Feb. 12 + Sunday, March 5 – 2 pm only)
Tickets: $20*

*I have unlimited vouchers for $2 off per ticket for every member in your party – contact me for details.

Theatre in the Round
245 Cedar Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
tel: 612.333.3010