Okay, Okay. There have been lots of great stuff happening. I am skipping that list to go to the main event: I am actually working (under a deadline) on my musical AKA my one-woman show. After decades of talking about it, I am actively doing it. For real, for real. My friend the acclaimed solo artist and teacher Arlene Malinowski, who also helped me form some of the early stories I had written, summed it up thusly: You just need to find someone to put their foot on your neck! I found that …
Moving forward, taking chances with the solo show! (I have a title!)
After my last blog of self-reflection and bemoaning over my lack of action in showbiz at my advanced age of 54 years, I have decided to submit my one woman show in a solo festival. If I make the cut it will be produced, mounted and given all the bells and whistles (production, stage managing, marketing, a theater) that I have only dreamed about. It will become a reality! And it is kinda scary, but not too scary. I feel good about the work. I have a great team: Arlene Malinowski (the Empress of …
The Adventures of Permanent Lifestyle Change Girl: Performing the Fat Piece
It's been a couple of weeks since the evening in which I performed a reading of the Fat piece from my solo show. I was nervous, I was uncertain. It had only been a fantasy for so long, a work in progress, my biggest obstacle in the long running marathon to complete my solo show. The writing is the hard part - until you think of performing it live in front of people. The many drafts have been edited, critiqued, undone, reconstructed within an inch of its life and still it seemed "not ready," but …
The Adventures of Permanent Lifestyle Change Girl: Straight from the Woodshed -The Fat Monologue
Tonight's the night! I'm going to do my first ever reading of the "Fat Piece" in front of a live audience - ever. I am reading as part of "Story Jam", a story-telling live music show produced by singer, performer, writer Stephanie Rogers and held at The Wilmette Theater. I'm a bit frightened in an excited way. I've been working on this particular piece off and on for decades, steadily for months. I have had invaluable guidance from solo show writer and scholar Arlene Malinowski who has been …
Something is stirring…
I'm getting ready to get ready for my gig du jour, which happens to be a fundraiser for a wonderful Chicago creative institution: Chicago Dramatists. Their Blue Moon gala will be a smaller event than, say, the one we did last weekend which had close to a thousand guests or the one last month that had a $1250 ticket price! Hiring a big band like mine for their event is a big deal - a change of pace for them and I am honored that they think we will help raise the level of their event. We will …