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 …
nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger
That is the opening line of a piece from my one woman show that I performed at the January Story Jam series in Wimette, Illinois. Wilmette is a mostly affluent, predominantly White suburb of Chicago. I entitled the story "nigger," which tells the story of the first time I was called such by a White person. I have to admit that I had some reservations about presenting a story about being called a nigger to a mostly White audience - for about a minute. Hell, I told the world that I weigh 300 …
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 …