Archive | May, 2013

Reading Redux

20 May
Tactical Reads with The Vagrancy

The Vagrancy’s Tactical Reads of Megan Breen’s “My First, My Fist” at Studio/Stage in Los Angeles

It seems that Spring is the time for Readings! And I’m thrilled. It’s been a while since I’ve done a reading, let alone so many, but they are back– in droves. Perhaps there is just a creative resurgence? Screenwriters, playwrights, poets, aspiring and otherwise. Or, maybe it’s just coincidence. Who knows.

But in the last couple of months I’ve done a staged reading with my new artistic home, The Vagrancy, as part of their Tactical Reads series (which pairs female writers with female directors), a living room table read of a friend’s screenplay, a staged reading of a beautiful play, Tree of Fire, at Occidental College as part of Incarceration Awareness Week, another living room reading of a friend’s original webseries, and then this Wednesday I will be hosting a reading of my very own first ever full length play! That’s a lot of readings.

Readings are great because with little commitment you can keep your acting muscles moving, you have the opportunity to play parts you might not normally be cast in, you learn about writing and workshopping, you can be a part of a project from its inception, you can meet other cool actors but also directors and writers, and the list goes on.  And, as I always like to say, you never know where or when these seeds you plant will begin to sprout =)

 

Tracing the Steps to Dublin, Ireland

13 May

249152_10152848957415078_1092115165_nSometimes you don’t know where life will take you, the adventures and opportunities that arise. That’s what’s fun about tracing the steps, especially in this biz. You spend so much time planting those seeds, that by the time one sprouts you forget where it came from. I had an amazing life adventure meets acting opportunity (best of both worlds!) moment recently and when I sat down to think about it, I realized the steps that took me there.

About two and a half years ago I saw a show, a short play festival at this little black box theater in Boyle Heights I’d never heard of if it weren’t for the fact that my boyfriend was in the production. The festival was wonderful, the people I met were even more so and when this company was having auditions for their next festival I jumped at the chance. I got in and got to work with some of these awesome people I’d met at the show and then some. I continued hanging around… One night, at some theater event or afterparty I was talking to the producer of the fest and expressed my interest in directing as well as acting. I don’t know how it happened but by the end of the evening I was slated to direct year two of that original festival I saw two and a half years ago.

And then, bam, last October was my directing debut with this wonderful company. The festival did very well and it was a lot of hard work and fun. A few months later, I get a call that six of our short plays were accepted into an International Theater Festival in none other than Dublin, Ireland. Holy crap. And not only that, but since not all actors could commit to going, would I be interested in attending as an actor. Um, YES PLEASE!

A few months after that call, I was on a plane on my way to performing for the first time on an International stage. I  got to perform in pieces I’d directed just months prior, working across talented actors I’ve grown to love. Not only that, but I got to do it in IRELAND! 

The week was magical. Getting to do what I love with people I love and exploring a great new city across the seas was more than a dream come true. And it all happened because I saw a little festival a couple of years ago.