What's New?

Oh goodness. It's been a while. My apologies.

Here's a quick run down of what I've been doing since my last update.

After Love Valour Compassion! (for which I was nominated for both an IRNE award (didn't get it) and a Norton Award (outcome pending) I had the wonderful pleasure of performing in Apollinaire's outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. True story: I had not read this oft produced classic until our first table read. But now I get it.

I've done a lot of shows in Boston, but I have to say I'm not sure I've been in any play that was so unabashedly received by our audience. We had patrons come see the play five, six times. Over and over again! By the end, the park was full to bursting. I didn't know where we were going to cram everyone!

I blame the design team and our ensemble. Danielle, the director, managed to construct this behemoth of a set fabricated for the production alone and for a play with essentially ten to twelve "leads", every single person was god-damned fantastic. That play (along with LVC!) is nominated for both best ensemble and best production at the upcoming Norton awards and I can't disagree at all. It was a truly an amazing production to be a part of.

THEN I did a little show called Golden Girls: The Musical. The Brain Child of Michael Gaucher, it was my first time doing full drag and it was a hoot and a holler. I learned how to not just walk in heels, but to dance and sing in them as well. I don't mean to sound haughty but I think I may have been born to play Blanche Devereaux. I'd like to think Rue McClanahan would be proud.

I went straight from six inch fuck-me-heels to playing Bob Cratchitt in Central Square's delightful production of A Christmas Carol. Such a fun show, I'm scheduled to return to it next Christmas. Directed with the Bohemian Goddess herself, Debra Wise I had such a blast performing nightly with an incomparably talented and warm-hearted cast and crew. Christmas Miracle indeed.

Speaking of Miracles, I put on my directing hat once more and directed a production of Lucas Hnath's The Christians, a smartly written and smartly performed show by some of the best actors I could imagine in those roles. Starring Christine Power, Allison McCarthy, Armando Luis Rivera, Arthur Waldstein, and headlined by the indefatigable Michael Poignand, and with a full sixteen person choir directed by David Reiffel, this show was such a blast. Unlike the previous script I directed, which was a very difficult project to parse together, everything came together to make this production so seamless and easy. The script was masterful, my actors were not only enthusiastic but brought so much skill and deftness to very nuanced and tricky roles. I couldn't ask for a better team, and the Set designed by Danille Jacques literally looked as if you'd walked into a church. The effect was overwhelming. I couldn't be more pleased.

Which brings us up to the present. We have three more performances of The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, a fever dream of a play starring Becca Lewis (otherwise known as one of the best actors in Boston). Also played at Apollinaire, this show has been so much fun to do. It's a party and everyone's invited. We've had very good write ups and the audiences seem to be greatly enjoying themselves. If you have nothing to do this weekend you can catch our final performances. I highly recommend it.

There's of course more coming up the pipe, but I think I'll wait to talk more about that stuff in subsequent posts... oh who am I kidding? It'll probably be another year before I update this again. But I'll see you then! Thanks for reading!