I’m so happy! One great night with a dream audience reminds me of who I am and why I never give up my art. I performed at Northalsted Market Days, a street festival smack-dab in the middle of Boystown in Chicago. In past years, I had brought in my seven or ten pieces as I was on the main stage that usually caught the attention of hundreds of festival-goers as they walked through the festival. This time, however, I was on the much smaller “Jazz/Cabaret” stage so I brought in a trio and I …
A Great Big Diva!: Never too late to make that dream happen!
I am finally fulfilling a dream I've had for decades: writing & performing my own one woman show. It will be funny (of course) and it's a musical but I will also share a couple moments of heartache as well. I am collaborating with a monstrously talented writer in L.A. named Andrew Barrett and it's been an amazing experience. (all thanks to my "angels:" former Young & the Restless Head writer P kay Alden and her husband Vern Nelson) my producers: Ira Antelis and Tom McDonald. Still, I …
The Solo Show. Nothing in life worth having comes easy.
Planning for this one-woman show is a somewhat daunting experience. But, it beats me talking about it for decades and doing nothing to make it happen. Dreams remain dreams because making reality happen is so much harder! But it's worth it. There are so many elements to prepare before we even get down to the performing part! And the whole while I am pushing down my own feelings of self-doubt and honestly, it is not easy to let go of the ownership of this work. I don't mean the practical ownership …
Random Thoughts from A GREAT BIG DIVA
Random Thoughts from A GREAT BIG DIVA: It's so scary to produce an original piece of work. People have asked me: "Why are you doing this? (My one-woman show)" I have only one answer: Because I have to. I am compelled to do this work. I have tried to ignore it for years - ever since my days at University. It's something that has never gone away. But it was safe in my head, in my notebooks and computer. Now I will put it out there, and that's scary as Hell, exciting and crazy! It (I) will be …
Choose Love. Choose Hope.
We must not let the horrors of humanity ruin us. There is so much negativity buzzing around us, so much hate and lack of empathy - yet there is more than a small bit of good still out there. We create it every time we show empathy for others. There is no sense in what has happened in Las Vegas. We must feel the shock, the horror of it. There is only the choice to pray (for non-believers, prayer can be a meditation or wish of goodwill), hope, and search for the goodness in all of us remaining as …