Goodbye February!

And good riddance!

February is quickly becoming my least favorite month of the year. I am not alone in my loathing (yes, I've jumped to loathing). The holidays are over, Valentine's Day does not count, especially when you're surrounded by a bunch of jaded New Yorkers who work in the service industry! The cold increases and more "wintery mix" delays the MTA and... well... life in general. Everyone walks around with their heads tucked down. And when it snows at work, it becomes hard even to enjoy the sensation that I'm inside a snow globe, because its tainted by the knowledge that my shift will end and I forgot my snow boots!

The one redeeming thing for this February was the Winter Olympics in Vancouver! Thank goodness February is the shortest month of the year!

Does it sound like I need a vacation?

"As You Like It"

When paying $11 for a ticket to the theatre, one might expect an $11 performance. Luckily, that was not the case at all! Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) 2nd year of The Bridge Project brings "As You Like It" and "The Tempest" to New York. The Bridge Project is a three-year, transatlantic partnership uniting BAM, The Old Vic, and Neal Street Productions. Last year was "The Cherry Orchard" and "A Winter's Tale".

Again, student-rush tickets make theatre possible! Orchestra seating provided an excellent view of this talented performance. Its wonderful to experience a Shakespeare play for the first time when performed by well-trained actors on a professional stage. The young actress playing Rosalind was absolutely delightful. So charming and enjoyable to watch. The actor as Orlando seemed a bit distant for my liking and his voice was so airy I never felt his strength. Overall, the play was a delight and the 3 hours flew by.

As I left the theatre (and had the longest trip home-- there is no fast way from Brooklyn to Queens) I felt stirred in a way that I hadn't in a long time. My heart was still in the theatre. I've felt this many times before. I cannot pinpoint the determining factors that will leave me with this feeling of want, but its a feeling of never wanting it to end because I want to be doing it. I cannot articulate this very well, but if you've felt it you know what I mean. You desire so much to participate in what you're experiencing that simply watching it, enjoying it and applauding it are not sufficient. You must live it! This is why we act!

For a moment... then its gone!

Our labor of love "Anything to Declare" had the first staged reading Monday, Jan. 25th. The performance was for many of us, our first time on a stage in New York, plus it was a piece we'd conceived and written ourselves. The audience received it, responded to it and applauded it, but I was so connected to the actors I was sharing the stage with that it could have been an empty house and it would have felt successful!

We enjoyed the rest of the evening, receiving encouragement to continue to develop the piece and more importantly we raised good money for Samoa, which was the point of the entire evening. A night when 8 young actors display work that they created together to raise support for someone/something they do not possess the means to support themselves... that is a great night for any artist.

I realized the euphoria of performing, then almost immediately following, the anxiety of trying to get the next thing. I couldn't stay out with the cast too late enjoying our success because the following day I had an audition for a regional theatre. Its that constant struggle to get those moments on stage and if they weren't so richly fulfilling, it'd be impossible to be in this business.