The Week of Almosts

Callbacks without castings: good for my ego; ineffectual for my resume. sigh. Two weeks ago I was unexpectedly called in for an audition at The Children’s Theatre and ended up making callbacks the following week (not bad for my first audition there, eh? More! More!). I haven’t heard back from them, so am assuming I ultimately was not chosen for the part – but the callbacks were an honor nonetheless.

In addition to that, I had been specifically requested to hold a date for a Target radio commercial voiceover – they indicated I was on their “short list.” Ultimately, it turned out that whoever was on the shorter end of their list got the gig. Still, it was momentarily exciting… my hopes are that next time they’re looking, they’ll go back to that short list. Hell, at 5’2”, few people do short better than me.

Next week shall be The Week of Definites. Because I’m short.

Next-to-Worst Audition. Ever.

Two weekends ago I auditioned at The History Theater for their fall production of The Orphan Train. After some consideration, I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed fair to extend the metaphor to daily-newspaper-movie-review obnoxiousness, and call the audition An Orphan Trainwreck. Upon checking in, I realize that I can hear the auditioners in the rehearsal room. This is not good for two reasons - it means that a) I'll be listening to the auditioners and gauging myself against them; and more importantly, b) the other auditioners will listen when I’m auditioning and gauge themselves against me. This thought rattled my cage a little.

After I've found a little corner to go over my monologue and song in my head, in walks the real-world incarnation of Darth Maul - one of the meanest and most immature people I've ever worked with. Ever. Truly, in the past 15 years of acting, there are only five people whom with I’ve ever had problems working…of those five people, she wins, hands down, for Most Evil. Consider this point in relation to Point B of Paragraph Two.

So now I’m going over my monologue and song in my head, listening to the other auditioners, and thinking about how “Vader” is a funny thing to nickname a mean girl (but how Darth Maul isn’t funny and neither is this girl who is now in the room with me). Then Teresa gets called in for her audition. Teresa is the person who is scheduled immediately before me. Teresa is also the person who goes into the rehearsal room and proceeds to audition using the same song that I am going to be auditioning with for the very first time. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I get into the audition room and meet the director, choreographer, composer, and accompanist. They’re all lovely. But then I recognize the choreographer, and proceed to quickly acknowledge our connection. Bad move. Turns out she left my present talent guild about a month after I started there, on bad terms. So now I’m immediately associated with bad terms. Dear Leigha, meet your new friend, Losing Battle.

Overall, the day did everything it possibly could to freak me right the hell out. Despite that, the song and monologue actually went well. But just to finish things off, I almost got mugged on the way back to my car. But I didn’t actually get mugged, so score one for Horton. Take that, stupid day.

And because I’m the total dork that I am, I literally gave myself a pat on the back when I was driving home.

Giving Them What They Asked For

The Monster of Phantom Lake (my first lead role in a feature film) is back by popular demand! Please join me this Wednesday, May 17th, at 7:30 pm at the stunning Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights. We've received loads of great press (check out the TMoPL website for links to reviews) - so here's your chance to pretend you're from Missouri and insist on seeing it for yourself!

Also, by coming to this screening, you might be helping us land a distribution deal. We've got a producer in L.A. who is interested to see audience reaction; so while you're watching the movie, he'll be watching you. Oh, the horror!

"The Monster of Phantom Lake" returns to the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights, Minnesota!

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 - 7:30 PM, $5.00 at the door The Heights Theater 3951 Central Avenue NE Columbia Heights, Minnesota 55421 www.heightstheater.com

We've recently been discussing wider distribution with a producer in L.A. who, unfortunately, is unable to come to the screening. He has asked us to videotape audience reaction to the screening as a way to help him get a better feel for the movie. For this, we would like to absolutely pack the theater with moviegoers so please, BRING EVERYONE YOU KNOW! The more, the merrier, the better our chances of securing a meaningful distribution deal. The film is family-friendly, although children under 5 might be frightened. We will be selling DVDs & posters after the show and much of the cast & crew will be in attendance.

Here's a little snippet of an article that was published in the Flint, Michigan paper "The Flint Journal" regarding the recent Flint Film Festival held last month:

"... the best of the features I saw was 'The Monster of Phantom Lake,' a hilarious parody of grade-D horror/sci-fi films of the 1950s ... the film is full of cheesy dialogue, improbable plot turns and a dead-on performance by Josh Craig as a stuffy 'man of science' who has none of the right answers but can strum a rock 'n' roll song on his handy guitar.

According to the film's Web site, a 'Phantom Lake' sequel already is in the works, with Craig reprising his role as 'Professor Jackson ... from the university.' Here's hoping we'll see it in a future Flint Film Festival."

It's only five measly dollars, so bring friends and buy them some popcorn while you're at it. Can't wait to see you Wednesday!

It's Alive!

Remember this?:

On a different note, I’m still desperately wanting you to hear the Lipservice podcast wherein I’m interviewed by fellow actor Steve Hendrickson – it’s really sweet. Alas, the Lipservice website is undergoing a some changes and I’m not yet allowed to link to the podcast location. Grrrrrr. Soon, though. It has a little audio-treat at the end – a clip from the Twelfth Night song recordings.

Documents have been declassified, permission has been granted, and here is your briefing:

You can now listen to the podcast in two ways.

1. Go to Lipservice Talent Guild. Click on the Podcast star. Then click on “listen…” The quicktime file (along with the rest of the site; so don’t worry, it’s not your computer) takes some time to load on the page. 2. Or you could skip the Lipservice site all-together and quickly download it here.

The entire episode is about 11 minutes long, and I’m there for roughly the second half. Therefore, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to boycott all Tom Cruise movies because he's gone off the deep end and no one should be expected to support him and his nasty Scientology habit.

Ahhhh, gotta love those non sequiturs - they just feel so good sometimes. Look - a bunny! I like cheese. What's that on my shoe?

Revelations of the Ten-Legged God

Tomorrow night I will be at the Mixed Blood Theatre performing a reading of The Book of Shin, a new screenplay by Michael Maupin. Here’s a blurb from the official press release:

High schooler Jason Bock is planning another summer of sleeping in and avoiding his parents – that is, until he and his snail-collecting buddy Peter Schinner are drawn into inventing a new religion, which leads them to dangerous and unexpected consequences. So goes “The Book of Shin,” by Michael Maupin, a screen adaptation of Pete Hautman’s novel Godless, which won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

ScriptNight, a public reading series of Minnesota Screenwriters’ Workshop, will present a staged reading of the screenplay at 7pm Mon May 1 at Mixed Blood Theatre. The reading is made possible through a special arrangement between Screenwriters’ Workshop, Michael Maupin, Pete Hautman and his agent.

Please feel free to come down and take a listen! I haven’t yet read Godless, the book on which this screenplay is based, but the story conveyed by the screenplay is quite wonderful. Hooray for wonderful young-people’s literature and their screen adaptations! It's no Flying Spaghetti Monster, but hooray nonetheless!

In Your Ear

A week or two ago fellow Walker Art Center colleague, Reggie Prim, and I walked through the OPEN-ENDED (the art of engagement) exhibition presently on display in the Walker’s Target Gallery. While we would like to say that our visit was to fully immerse ourselves in the artworks, it wouldn’t be an entirely honest representation of our intentions. We walked in, scanned the room for the Catherine Opie photographs of icehouses, bee-lined for the accompanying listening-station, grabbed the headphones, giddily pointed to the didactic on the wall that bears our names, and gave each other big goofy grins while listening to our recorded voices. Reggie and I had both narrated ice-fishing stories written by Minnesotans that accompany the photographs – you can now hear the narrations at the gallery listening station through June 18th, online (scroll down to “Art on Call Stops for OPEN-ENDED,” then click “play” to hear me on tracks numbers 2 and 3), or via telephone (dial 612.374.8200, then enter 1026. To skip the quick interview with Catherine Opie and get directly to yours-truly, press 1 – not that I would recommend doing such a thing).

In Your Eye In the very near future the main leighahorton.com site will no longer say “coming soon.” I’m so excited, I could shout. The web-monkey has come up with a killer design, and it will have a bunch of downloadable goodies including my headshot, resume, and voice-over demo. Sometime after that main roll-out, sections for production-photos and press will be added. Yes, yes, I could shout.

In Your Future I’m still desperately wanting you to hear the Lipservice podcast wherein I’m interviewed by fellow actor Steve Hendrickson and share a clip from the Twelfth Night song recordings – it’s really sweet. Alas, the Lipservice website is undergoing a huge re-design and I’m not yet allowed to link to the podcast location. Grrrrrr. Soon, though.

In My Dreams I got cast at the Guthrie! Details to follow.

In Reality Kidding about that last one.

Celebrity Face Match

I can’t remember who alerted me to this crazy little gem, but I uploaded my headshot to myheritage.com and it did a scan based on facial features and structure. It then returned the following celebrity face match: 67%: Nicole Kidman 66%: Cate Blanchett, Aishwariya Rai, Hillary Rodham Clinton 65%: Gillian Anderson, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Lopez 64%:Anastasia Myskina, Angelina Jolie

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I find my likeness to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Aishwariya Rai equally laughable.

Go play. Then share.

The Waiting Game

The Waiting Game sucks. It is a bad game and I don't like it. The only thing I have ever liked about waiting is Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” – one of the best songs on the planet. Ever. But that’s it. Okay, okay, there are some other things that are good to wait for, because the waiting makes the experience that much richer, but I am tired of waiting for things right now. Lord, looking back on my last few posts, I’m sensing a theme here. Let’s not have a therapy session right now and deconstruct what all this means, okay? Let us instead get to the task at hand: So what is the task at hand, one might ask? I shall tell. I auditioned again last night (yes, it was only last night - bugger off) at callbacks for Gremlin Theatre’s production of The Petrified Forest over at The Loading Dock. The fact that I was even called back came as a huge surprise - I first auditioned last Wednesday night at 9 pm, which made me the last person they saw after two days of auditioning actors, and which I thought gave me a slim chance at best. Lo and behold, on Saturday I got a call (my caller ID displayed “GREMLIN” – how’s that for disarming?) – I answered to discover that I had made callbacks for the role of Gabrielle. Not bad, especially since I wasn’t waiting for the call.

And callbacks went swimmingly. The director was intelligent, pointed, and humorous and the only fellow reading for Squire was hauntingly good. I felt powerful and effective in my performance, the energy with the other actor was palpable, and the director’s feedback was insightful and promising. All of which, of course, furthered my investment, which is NOT GOOD. This is when the disappointment starts to matter.

Just a few examples of why it’s bad to be invested before the proverbial chicken-egg has hatched: I felt really good about Columbia, yet we all know how that turned out. Or how about two weekends ago when I auditioned for a feature film and the casting director went gaga over my performance and highly praised my audition right there on the spot, only to tell me again over e-mail that I did a great job, and oh, by the way, here are the names of the two people we’re calling back for the role (my name wasn’t on that list).

I’m not bitter. Really. I’m just trying to illustrate a point about the dangers of getting invested in something before finding out if I’ll even be involved.

I’ve been painting tonight to try and keep my mind off of it. Not bad with the right music and the thunderstorm lighting up the night sky. Not bad at all.

Collecting My Pieces

Things are gonna change, I can feel it. (thanks, Beck) And no, I’m not implying soy un perdedor, it’s just that every seven years or so I hear that first sentence over and over in my head for weeks on end. This is one of those times. First and foremost, and because I’ve had several people ask me in social settings that quickly turned very awkward, I heard back from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism last week. Turns out that I have way too much potential in acting, and they think that I shouldn’t waste my time with diversions such as journalism just yet. Well, not in so many words, but, you know. Um, yeah. The only thing remotely funny about that terribly disappointing letter was that it was dated April 1st. Yes, April Fool’s Day. I was tempted to send it back with a note: “HA-HA – very funny guys! That was a good one! Okay, you can send the real one now!” Honestly, I’m extremely uncomfortable sharing this information publicly. It sucked and it hurt. On the other hand, I feel that it’s appropriate because my acceptance to, or rejection from, Columbia would drastically change a lot of things in my acting world. Moving on.

With the above in mind, I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching. And a lot of compiling of press clips.

I’ve decided that I need to stop f*ing around when it comes to my acting career. Performing has always gotten the short end of the stick because I’ve always stumbled into one diversion or another – the promise of some new amazing career that will fulfill my basic and intellectual needs while still allowing me to perform. Sitting down with my stack of newspapers and weekly ‘zines and compiling all the articles in which I’ve been mentioned/reviewed into one press book has been extremely reaffirming. I have no negative reviews, and 28 pages so far that include reviews from the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, City Pages, Pulse, Lavender, Montreal Mirror, and the McGill Tribune among others – with a stack of about 20 more periodicals to weed though. The ultimate goal of this staggeringly narcissistic exercise (what’s worse? – doing it or writing about it?) is to start creating some great press kits to send along to The Guthrie, Children’s Theatre Company, The Jungle, Ten Thousand Things, The Penumbra, etc., etc., etc. Hell, I even ordered personal business cards a few weeks ago. They came in Monday’s mail, and they’re totally sweet.

So I’ve got some messages for the emotional freeloaders in my life: stagnancy, bugger off. Self-doubt, get the hell out of my house…if you insist on continuing to live here (which I know you will), you’re going to pay rent already.

WANTED: Benefactor.

Splice (my name) Here

Thursday night, Dan, the Twelfth Night guitarist, invited me to join him for a swanky shindig over at Splice Here to meet friends of his, the in-house sound designers. I had e-mailed them my voice-over demo a week or two prior, and it was a pleasure to finally meet them in person (especially since they had seen Twelfth Night and didn’t recognize me at first - damn that grease-paint mustache!) – anyway, they’re great guys and I’m hoping to work with them on some voice-over projects in the near future. That evening made me realize that I can’t just sit around and wait for work to come to me. I need to actively get my voice-over demo (*cough* new link on the right side of this page, above the calendar *cough*) out to folks at the local media production companies, introduce myself, make sure they know that I’ll work quickly and professionally to make their project sparkle…yes, SPARKLE! Know any contacts at any of those places? It’d be nice to go in with an introduction from a mutual friend/colleague. Not necessary, but very, very nice.

Now for the mini-quiz. Before Thursday's soiree, I had my first post-college singing lesson. Dude seriously kicked my vocal chords. I walked out of there tired and happy, and with a voice weak from the workout. All I wanted to do was grab my iPod and sing along to some tunes with my newfound breath and focus – but, alas, my voice was too tired to work any further, so I resisted the urge.

At the lesson I was given my first assignment, the goal of which is to assist in establishing appropriate audition repertoire – and this is where I need your help. I am to ask at least five people (of varying degrees of relation to me) the following questions:

1. What is an adjective (more than one is fine) that best describes my appearance and personality?
2. What jobs could you see me doing (any job – could be astrophysicist, window-washer, neuropsychopharmacologist, princess, you name it)?
3. Name a famous person (more than one is fine, alive or dead) that I remind you of, both in appearance and personality.

The point of this exercise is to find out how people view me – that way I can walk into an audition with material that fits that impression (rather than my vision of myself). This will keep a director from having to make a huge leap to see me as believable in the character I’m about to portray in song or monologue. So please be honest - being "nice" just for the sake of not hurting my feelings is not going to be helpful. If I remind you of Liza Minelli, fess up. If you could see me being a garbage collector, I want to know.

So there we have it – I’m looking for quiz answers and media production contacts. Feel free to respond in the comments, or if you’d rather keep it private, you can e-mail me or use the Contact form that is also on the right side of this page beneath the calendar. In return, you will get my undying gratitude. And good karma. Mmmmmm, good karma… Thanks, friends.

When the Scripts Were Just Little Babies, and Other Flights of Fancy

Within the last five days, I have been asked by two separate writers to give readings of their new scripts – one’s a stage play and the other a screenplay. Very, very cool. The Book of Shin, a screenplay by Michael Maupin, is an adaptation of Godless by Pete Hautman (winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Young Adult Fiction). The reading will take place in early May and will be open to the public – as soon as I get final details, I’ll post them. The story sounds fantastic, and I hope, HOPE this movie gets made with lots and lots of money behind it. And talent. and me. Hhhokay, moving on…

I was just notified of Justin Maxwell’s stage play this morning, and know nothing about it except that I was requested by name and that it will be held at The Playwrights' Center. Justin and I e-mailed a couple of years back when he was interested in working with the Ministry of Cultural Warfare on a conceptual/interactive/web/theater project that I couldn’t quite grasp (see, I still can’t), and then met in person when I did a reading at The Playwrights' Center that he moderated last year. After all this time, I’m honored that he remembered me; I’m really curious to hear what he’s cooked up.

And finally, and nothing to do with new scripts, I am starting formal singing lessons this week. I’ve been getting more and more musical roles on stage (and this last one seriously rocked the freaking casbah) but I need training; and from that, confidence; if I am to continue to grow as a performer. If there’s one thing I learned in this life, it’s that I’m never done learning – so lessons it is.

I think half the battle with singing onstage as Feste was just believing in myself. Especially after years of people indirectly telling me that I couldn’t do it. Now I’ve raised some eyebrows and have proven to myself that I belong in a damn fine house; I just need to learn how to build it so that the roof doesn’t fall in on me. My goal with these lessons is to end up with some engaging, appropriate, polished audition pieces for my repertoire – and then knock ‘em dead at auditions. Mint, please.

More updates, with links, to come. Until then, we can dream, can’t we?

On the Up-and-Up

A couple of weeks off is definitely enough time to get into scads of trouble… here’s what I’ve got my mitts into these days: Saturday, March 25 (through June 18) My disembodied voice will be on the wall at the Walker Art Center as part of its newest exhibition, OPEN-ENDED (the art of engagement) – just find the photographs of skyways and icehouses by Catherine Opie and nearby will be a listening-station where you can hear me read an ice-fishing story or two by local authors (this was from a public reading that I did for Opie’s residency in 2002; recently re-recorded in the studio over at Undertone by my friend, Mr. Tom). This, friends, is the one time where snowpants = sexy.

Monday, March 27 Filming a short PSA for Foster and for equality. It’ll be broadcast on the web at some point in the near future; link to snarky political statement to follow.

Getting interviewed for the April edition of the Lipservice Talent Guild podcast. It’s like my Lipservice quinceanera! Except I’m not 15 and I’m not Mexican. Okay, it’s like my Lipservice Bat Mitzvah! Wait - not 13, nor Jewish. Damn. What coming-of-age celebrations do they have for Irish/Hungarian/German/Russian Americans besides getting blitzed at prom? On second thought, don’t answer that.

Tuesday, March 28 Public reading of The Lost and Found, a new screenplay by James Byrne. Someone recently dropped out, so I will be reading several roles. Come watch me use funny voices so you can tell them all apart! Kidding, Mr. Byrne. 7 pm at The Varsity Theater in Dinkytown if you’re looking to hash up some college nostalgia; be ready with your joneses for coffee and exercises in futility.

Sunday, April 2 Screening of The Monster of Phantom Lake at the Faux Film Festival in Portland. I have family in Portland. Family, if you love me, you probably shouldn’t go to this. Our very special screening is called the B-Movie Massacre for a reason. There will be improv comedians “improving” the script, as it were. B-Movie? Check. Massacre? Check.

Saturday, April 8 Callbacks for a new low-budget (but paid) feature-film, The Completely Remarkable, Utterly Fabulous Transformation of a Regular Joe. I’ve read some of the sides and I’m already getting invested in it… I hate it when I do that. Getting invested is not acceptable unless I’ve been cast. Gah.

Wednesday, May 17 The Monster of Phantom Lake returns to The Heights Theater – back by popular demand! You’ve asked for it, and the people who can make it happen made it happen. So for those of you who had to leave early to shoot a basketball game and didn’t get to see the end, or were out of town, or were in a show, or, ahem, said you’d show up and then didn’t (you know who you are; and you should know that you’ve earned yourself the title of Chump for that little stunt) – you’ve got another chance! Cast the weight of Chumpiness aside! Redemption in the form of pure entertainment can be yours!

Saturday, June 3 I’ll be wearing my best Appropriate for Children Disguise while reading Pinocchio the Boy: Incognito in Collodi to a bunch of youngsters as part of the Walker Art Center’s Free First Saturdays program. I will be reading the book aloud, playing several characters - come watch me use funny voices so you can tell them all apart! Not kidding, Mr. Byrne.

August 3-13 The Minnesota Fringe Festival returns. And so does the Ministry of Cultural Warfare. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Some of you have recently been surprised to learn that I’m part of that company. Part of it? Hell, I’m Foster’s slave-driver (Write me a script! And make it good!)…seriously though, he’s the Artistic Director, and I’m the Executive Director and Stage Hog, which means he writes the good stuff, and I make sure people see me in it. Here’s a photo of an, um, elated Foster once he heard our name announced at the Fringe lottery! So what is MoCW going to present at Fringe this year? It’s a surprise! To us, too!

Summary While I shared all of the above so that I could be instrumental in getting you away from the computer and into an active role as part of the arts community, I also did it to prove to myself that I’m a working actor. Sometimes I freak out about stagnancy. List compiled = freak-out averted. Mostly. There are some awfully obnoxious gaps between the April and May gigs, and again between June and August. Perhaps those would be good times to go to New York and San Diego, respectively. Yes. Freak-out officially averted.

Post-Show Blues

Twelfth Night closed with a bang on March 5th – overall, we had a fantastic run of shows; and an even more fantastic closing weekend. It could very well be that they were my favorite cast to work with. Ever. Not counting Reid and Nathan, of course – but those guys are my guys, so I get to hang with them more often than not. Often when shows come to a close, I am ready to be done with them…it just feels right to move on. But this time around I find myself missing these amazingly kind and funny people. It makes me sad to think that the same group will never hang out in the greenroom together again. Sad-almost-to-the-point-of-tears-sad. Yes, The Post-Show Blues have pulled up a chair and made themselves comfortable. Tacky, really, since they weren’t invited in the first place. But alas, here they are. I hate them.

But then I was quickly consumed with the hype of The Monster of Phantom Lake premiere at The Heights Theatre, which was a certified blast. I don’t know how one goes about getting a blast certification, but one was definitely obtained. Honestly, I was highly apprehensive about the screening; I would have much preferred to take a Valium, show up late, and sit in the back corner and watch everyone – but I realized the evening wasn’t about my acting (which, in this film, I can safely say is pretty terrible), it was about celebrating this silly-yet-enchanting movie that we made. And celebrate we did. I had loads of family and friends there – and I keep finding out daily about more friends who were there, but who I never saw (the glasses didn’t go with the vintage dress). It was reassuring to be surrounded by 250 people who were excited to be there and quick to laugh. The positive reviews kept rolling in, and it felt great…

…but then my usually-out-of-town family went back to their respective homes, I got my apartment back, and I was unable to answer to the question, “what are you working on now?” without sounding pathetic.

But THEN I got to spend some time on Sunday with my main music men Dan and Don…and made super-slick recordings of Feste’s songs from Twelfth Night. Dan played like the pro he is, I sang my heart out, Don was the best cheerleader ever, and we were engineered by Kent, who worked on an album with one of my favorite bands (holy crap!). These guys definitely made my day.

And now here I am…reminiscing in the awesomeness of it all…and not foreseeing such levels of awesomeness converging again anytime soon. Who’s feeling needy? That'd be me, the one with her needy little hand raised. The only thing that could make this worse would be getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. Oh wait, I am getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. feh.

Monster Love

Just in time for the premiere of The Monster of Phantom Lake (and my first lead in a feature film) tomorrow night at The Heights Theater, we got a great write-up in this week’s City Pages! SCORE!

The Monster of Phantom Lake Heights Theatre, Thursday, March 9 at 7:30 pm

A glowing tribute to the creature features of the 1950s, this homegrown film from director Christopher R. Mihm works as equal parts reflexive comedy and straight-up drive-in shocker. When a scientist (Josh Craig) and his love-struck grad student (Leigha Horton) set out for a jolly weekend of "scientific experimentation," they're in for horrifying results. After a shell-shocked WWII vet stumbles into a lake that's loaded with nuclear waste, the duo, along with a group of rock'n'roll-loving co-eds, find themselves stalked by a leafy, slimy monster. In keeping with the low-budget tradition, the indelibly costumed creature is kept under wraps for most of the film, appearing only as the hand that reaches into the frame and grasps terrified victims. Craig demonstrates his mastery of Shatner-style pause-acting ("Wait a minute... Wait...a... minute"), while Mihm takes the audience on a jolly tour of tongue-in-cheek '50s sexism, hilarious innuendo, and plenty of arm's length slow-dancing. Featuring Mihm's original composition, "A-Rockin', A-Rollin', All the Way A-Ramblin'" along with a wealth of public-domain mood music (listen closely and you'll hear snippets from Carnival of Souls), this is an unusually warm and witty homage.

Be there, or be so TOTALLY square. Or out of town.

If it isn't the latter, lie.

Twelfth Night reviews

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.

Rough-Night Riders

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

Afterglow

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!

Opening Night

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?

All the News That's Fit to Print

The Monster of Phantom Lake PremiereFilmed 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

Gettin’ My Man Groove On

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.