Leigha Horton :: Green room
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While relatively tedious to compile, I’ve come to love these year-end reviews.  They remind me that I actually make a living at my craft, no matter how insecure I get during the course of the year about my abilities or accomplishments (or seeming lack thereof).  Lists like these remind me that I am doing what I love, and am being rewarded for it.  Lists like these remind me that my career choice bought me passage into my very first house, all on my own, and keeps me there.

Because let’s be honest – there is always a point (or five) in the year when I panic.  I think, ohmygod, they’ve finally realized that I’m a total fraud and NOW I WILL NEVER WORK AGAIN.  EVER.  This happens regularly.  Without fail.  And then I end up inexplicably landing another incredible gig and think, oh, well, okay – maybe I’m not that bad.  It is a joy and an honor to be so lucky.

Without further ado, my performance highlights of 2011:

January
Continued part-time work at the Science Museum of Minnesota on the Science Live team – performing live science demonstrations and science-related short plays for museum audiences.

Marketplace Events spots – third year running.  Ty Pennington and me on national TV and radio urging you to attend home shows across the U.S.  TV commercials aired on HGTV and ABC and their affiliates.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus.

VOs for General Mills, but I took very poor notes about this, and have no recollection of what it was for.  My guess is that it was, perhaps, some pickups for the 42 spots I did back in December for Progresso Light Soups, Yoplait and Yoplait Light Yogurts, and Big G Cereals national TV spots.  Note to self in 2012: take better notes.  Recorded at Babble-On for Shout! Creative.

February
Script workshop and stage-direction reading for public presentation of Carson Kreitzer’s new play, Behind the Eye, as part of The Playwrights’ Center’s Ruth Easton series.  Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and commissioned by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for a world premiere in April.

Not much else to report other than travel to Florida.  It was warm.  I remember needing that.  Oh yes, and travel to Madison, WI, to teach museum-theater techniques to institutions across the U.S.

March
VO for the trailer of TRIUMPH67, an independent feature-length film that went on to become the official selection of the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival.

Spent the day in studio at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), recording the voice for a sultry character in The Winner, a pilot for Minnesota Stories – a new program dedicated to showcasing Minnesota writers.

VO for Target – a short film about inclusiveness called You Make Us.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus.

April
Table-read of a new script by Patrick Coyle at The Jungle Theater.

The Winner, recorded in March, airs twice on Minnesota Public Radio.

May
VO for Cadillac.  With Laurence Fishburne.  I played his talking GPS.  Recorded at Babble-On for Fallon.

I bought my very first house, all by myself.  I think this is what officially makes me an adult, but I’m still not quite sold on that idea.  The only reason I’m including this here, amongst my gigs, is because those VO gigs are what made this possible.

June
Script workshop and stage-direction reading for public presentation at the Playwrights’ Center of Scratch, a new play by Shira Naharit.

Started rehearsals for Minnesota Middle Finger, Ben San Del’s Minnesota Fringe Festival entry.  Yes, Fringe is in August.  We started way, way early because of everyone’s insane schedules.  I think when all was said and done we only had 12 rehearsals.

July
VO demos for Hormel, recorded at Modern Music/Fischer Edit for BBDO.

Co-wrote and produced a short satirical 1950’s-style educational film, The Wonders and Worries of Nanotechnologyon behalf of the Science Museum of Minnesota for The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net).  Film + Production by Teddy Media.

August
2011 Minnesota Fringe Festival, and my performance in Ben San Del’s Minnesota Middle Finger with the incomparable John Middleton and Tim Hellendrung.

VO spots (more, again) for Marketplace Events home shows with Ty Pennington – TV and Radio.  Continued airings on HGTV and ABC.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus.

Three-day script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center of Outcasts of Eden, a new play by Andie Arthur.

Served as host/barker for the AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion at the Minnesota State Fair, on behalf of AFTRA.

Cast in kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva Las Roots! to be presented at Intermedia Arts in October 2011.

September
Cast as both Anne Bonny and Mary Read in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s next major exhibition, Real Pirates, as well as cast in the publicity crew for advance event appearances.  Exhibition opens mid-February 2012.

Attended the 7^th annual Ivey Awards – Minneapolis/St. Paul’s version of the Tonys.  Very, very swank.  Very, very inspiring.  I know I said that last year, but I still mean it.

VO spot for General Mills – radio spot for Yoplait Yogurt in the NYC market.  Recorded at Audio Ruckus for Shout! Creative.

October
Cast in The Peanut Butter Factory’s next production, Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries – a two-person show with Adam Whisner to be presented late winter/early spring 2012.

Went on a three-day writing retreat to northern Minnesota with the company of kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva Las Roots! to create character and storyline.

VO narration for short documentary Does Every Silver Lining Have a Cloud?, a look at the effect of nanosilver on the environment, created by the Museum of Life + Science in Durham, North Carolina, on behalf of the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net).  Recorded at Babble-On.

VO for the National Marrow Donor Program’s annual council awards ceremony recognition film segments.  Recorded at Aaron/Stokes for Blue 60 Pictures.

Script workshop and stage-direction reading at the evening performance of Sarah Gubbins’ new work, The Water Play at The Playwrights’ Center.

Performances of kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva Las Roots!at Intermedia Arts.

November
Performances continue of kaotic good productions’ The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva Las Roots!at Intermedia Arts.

Got my eyes did.  Yep.  Lasik.  No more contacts or glasses.  This changes everything on stage and in the recording booth, for the better.

Spent the day at the Hennepin County Courthouse, serving as a key witness in Faegre & Benson’s mock trial program.

December
VOs for Marketplace Events Home Shows with Ty Pennington – fourth year running!  Recorded at Audio Ruckus.

Appeared on Kare 11 News morning program as Anne Bonny, marketing for the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Real Pirates exhibition opening February 2012.

Script workshop and stage-direction reading at the evening performance of Kira Obolensky’s new play, Vasa Lisa at The Playwrights’ Center, co-presented by Ten Thousand Things.  Workshop in preparation for a late-spring full production by Ten Thousand Things.

Epilogue
2011, you treated my career well, and for that I thank you.  2012, we’re going to roll up our shirtsleeves and till this soil for continued growth.  My last major career goal was to make my living as an artist, which I have been doing for the last few years; it’s time to dream bigger dreams.  And then run to catch them.

A few weeks ago I voiced a cab-stealing, tiny-dog-carrying Manhattanite for Yoplait Yogurt, thereby effectively extending my car-themed run of VO work (did you miss the Cadillac commercial with Laurence Fishburne where I’m the voice of his talking GPS?  Good GOD, go listen!  It’s ridiculous!  And wonderful!  But mostly ridiculous!)

Getting cast for this spot provided a funny realization – there were two spots – one for California, one for New York – and I was cast as the New Yorker.  Funny?  Funny how?  Funny because I was raised in San Diego.  California.  It ultimately made perfect sense as the client was looking for two different voices, and the Californian was the mother of teenagers (doubtful I could pull that off convincingly).  But funny the dichotomy of self-perception v. the perception of others.  Gotta say, I kinda love being considered a believable non-native New Yorker.  It reminds me of the last time I was there, and constantly being asked for directions, even by local kids.  I was in it.  SO in it.

All in all, the session was a delight.  Spending the morning with the boys from Shout Radio Productions/Shout Creative ranks high on my list of good ways to wake up.  And by “boys,” I mean “incredibly talented and accomplished adult men who are also super fun to work with.”  Love those guys.  Love, love, love.

Now – some audio that’s good for your bones:

Yoplait “New York Strong” by Leigha Horton

And yes, I know there’s 10 seconds of general silence at the end with just traffic noises in the background – that’s left open for local tags (“Yoplait is on sale now at your local [insert grocery store name here]”), and I presently have neither the patience nor the…well, just patience really…to edit that ten seconds out.  Too busy carrying my tiny dog around.

Since last writing in August, I’ve participated as a performer in a 3-day script workshop at The Playwrights’ Center, served as the public host for the AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion at the Minnesota State Fair, recorded eight TV and radio spots for Marketplace Events home shows around the U.S., been cast in kaotic good productions’ next show in Minneapolis The Cooking Show con Karimi & Comrades: Viva la Roots!, been cast in the 2011 Playlabs series at The Playwrights’ Center, and been cast in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s next large-scale exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship.

All of which I intend to write about.  Really, I do.

But today I need to share something far more immediate and pressing, and I shall preface it thusly: I would rather spend quality time with the hideous giant spider in my garage than plan, shop, and execute an ensemble for some fancy event.  Ensemble as in clothes, not as in performance group.  “But she dresses up for a living!” you say.  “This should be easy and fun for her!”  And to that I say, “Nope. It’s overwhelming. Also? Tedious.”

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy a good dress and the tiny victory I feel in all the compliments that come with it (hell, I live in dresses in the summertime, but that’s because they’re complete outfits unto themselves – no planning required), but the process of figuring out an ensemble all by myself takes up valuable time that I’d rather spend doing something else.  For the love of god, anything else.  And now you understand my personal crusade to canonize all good costumers everywhere.

So the fabulous Ivey Awards are on Monday night.  Yesterday, I obtained an ensemble.  And could not, would not, have done so without the tireless determination of The Most Divine Miss Emily Taylor and her most appreciated stylist tendencies.  Sainthood is most certainly yours, my dear.

So, you know Laurence Fishburne?  Morpheus from The Matrix series?  Dr. Raymond Langston from the CSI: shows?  Well, he just happens to be the spokesman for Cadillac.  And it’s no wonder; the man is smooth.  So, so smooth.  Take a listen:

Smooooooth. Sure, sure, it’s awesome that he’s got some killer underscoring from The Black Keys, but let’s face it: the man needs no help from anyone. 

So you can imagine my mind-blown excitement when I got called in to voice his GPS for the new Cadillac radio ad “Shield/What Doesn’t it Do?”  The spots are now playing in New York and LA…I imagine they’ll work their way inward soon, but just in case you would prefer not to be surprised in your car, I offer the file for your personalized listening pleasure:

Teleportation mode initiated, indeed.

A few weeks ago I was invited into the recording studios at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) to work on a pilot program, Writing Minnesota.  I was joined by the immensely talented Patrick Coyle, Charles Fraser, Michael Booth, and Tena-May Gallivan to record a scripted version of Charles Baxter’s The Winner.  I voiced the sassy seductress/Other Woman, Lorraine.

Writing Minnesota will air Friday, April 15, at noon and Sunday, April 17, at 6 p.m. on Minnesota Public Radio News stations across the state – listen live (91.1 in the Twin Cities), or stream online.  UPDATE 4/16/2011: Writing Minnesota is now available for online listening!  You can listen to the whole program or just Charles Baxter’s The Winner here.

And now, a peek inside the studio at MPR:

The last time I was in this studio was for a piano performance by Koji Attwood while he was in town for the Walker Art Center’s Baryshnikov: Solos with Piano

Who knew MPR transports their artists to and from studio sessions via pneumatic tubes?

Koji’s piano.

Could this be yet another Neumann condenser mic?  Why yes, yes it could.  I’m sensing a theme here.  As demonstrated by the lighting, you can see that the heavens also approve.

No separation between mics meant my stomach growling could ruin Charles’ take.  I’m neither confirming nor denying whether that actually happened.

Nuemann condenser mic + windscreen.  This beauty deserves representation from all angles.  HOT.

Hanging up the headphones for the day.

Voiced-over a two-minute film for Target last week, entitled You Make Us.   In addition to being live at www.target.com/diversity, it’s also hanging out on YouTube.

Turns out this is what I sound like at 7 am.  Waitwaitwait – let me rephrase that – this is what I sound like when I’m awake at 7 am.

John Lukas, engineer extraordinaire at Babble-On Recording Studios, and I are embarking on a new, terribly exciting audiobook series together.  Our very first session consisted of testing out various microphones and accompanying audio gear to obtain just the right sound.  The story, in pictures*:

The engineering studio and the recording booth beyond, taken from the fancy sofas that I never get to sit on when I’m in session.

The headphones I use in the booth to hear both myself and John when he talks to me from the engineering studio.  I initially took a picture of them because John said the last person to use them was Topher Grace.  Yes, that Topher Grace.  He was in recording some promo pieces for his new movie, Take Me Home Tonight.  In case there was any concern, I can now assure the world that Topher Grace does not have head lice.

Shotgun mic.  This was our first try, and ultimately decided against it.  Not that it didn’t sound good, mind you.

Super-duper ultra-fancy expensive mic.  Gorgeous, and did I mention expensive?  We ultimately decided against this one, too.

The winner.  A Neumann condenser mic.  André, John’s boss at Babble-On and an all-around fantastic fellow, told us after the session that he’s used this mic with me before on a couple of occasions with great results.  Nothing like the joy of many minds coming to the same conclusion independently.  We’ve so got this.

This is a windscreen that we decided to ditch because we didn’t need it due to mic placement – as John so aptly put it, “just one less thing up in your grill.”

I think we toggled back and forth between a couple of pre-amps, and ultimately chose to go with this puppy.  Honestly, I’m really not sure, but the light was on when I came out of the booth, so I assumed this is what we used.  I mostly just took the photo because the light is a killer blueish-purple.  How nice of me to then covert it to black and white, right?  Whatevs, it’s become my special light and I am now very protective of it.  Okay.  Fine. Here:

Happy now?  Sheesh.  Moving on.

The first book we’re going to record.  May Futrelle was on the Titanic and survived, her husband Jacques Futrelle, also a famous novelist, did not.  I studied up on them during my stint in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition portraying Nurse Evelyn Marsden.  There’s no way I’m letting 200+ hours of Titanic research go to waste.

I’m working from a gorgeous first edition, printed in 1911.  The illustrations are divine.

John at work, editing out the page-turns and working his audio mastering magic via The Fastest Digits in All The Land.  Holy cajones does that guy fly!

The ultimate goal is to get these distributed via Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.  Of course we’ll let you know when they’re available, are you kidding me?  Until then…you’ll just have to settle for the joy in the anticipation.

*all shots were taken on a whim with my iPhone.  So, you know, don’t judge me on quality.  Dammit Jim, I’m an actress, not a photographer.