I typically take quote notes in my script, and since I was sick-o last week, my illness-addled mind caused me to forget my script at rehearsal twice. (Yes, I still worked on my lines from a digital copy, but I did feel pretty useless without it!) Anyway, that just means you get several days' worth of fabulous quotes. And, I was at my first fight rehearsal for this show on Sunday there are some super 'special' ones. "It's like having a statue of David in the middle of the room. It's hard to concentrate on anything but his ass." "I'm like a turtle" "Start decanting the Crone onto the floor." Conversation: "It's a sweaty fight. I'm so sweaty!" - response: "I put on essential oil." "My phone can always find the word 'cock'" "A sorceress never reveals from up here." "Maybe it's your shoulder blade you bony wanker." "Actually, can we hit Morgan in the face?" "There's no warmer welcome than utter confusion." "I just realized when I wrap my leg around you I get that whole push-up bra effect for the whole audience." "It let's us know from behind that you're going in." "At least it's cleared from your crotch." I'm sure I missed a bunch of others because, well, I was doing some work. And we were laughing uncontrollably at times - if I haven't said it before, you can quote me on it now: Nothing says comedy like the Salem witch trials!
Previews start August 9th! Get all the details at www.BabesWithBlades.org "It's really serious. Squirrel!" "You're an equal-opportunity creep." "'She's literally my sugar-mama.' - 'I got plantations you don't even know about.'" "Just don't sit on the parchment." "The only place where the dime hasn't dropped yet is right here." "It's that geometric mathological stuff." "She wants to be sushi when she grows up." And my personal favorite: "Is it easier to be here or on your knees?" Previews start August 9th! Click here for more info & tickets. I entitled this pic: Torturing Bocephus
Photo credit: Steve Townsend Babes With Blades Theatre Company Looking at my facebook wall, you'd think all I care about is Babes With Blades and iGive...strange how that's almost true! These 2 companies represent almost all the things I'm very passionate about - empathy & story-telling, and taking action...the idea that every small step toward good, is a huge leap away from bad. Luckily, I'm able to play a big role in both, and can combine their powers together to uplift each of my passions! Theatre Passion:
I love theatre for its ability to place the participants (creators & spectators alike) into someone else's shoes. As an actor, I am afforded the opportunity to occupy someone else's skin for a production - to understand their motivations, their fears, their hopes, their struggles, everything that led them to this moment in existence. It's an amazing experience! And the reason we do that, is to allow the audience to have a similar experience vicariously. It's been said that "You can't hate someone who's story you know." I beleive in the power of theatre to share more stories with more people, and eliminate the ability for people to hate. With BWBTC specifically, the goal is to increase the number of stories featuring complex female characters - attempting to balance the scales of exactly whose stories are being shared on a regular basis. A tall order? Yes. But what else would I want to spend my time on? Philanthropic Passion: Rob Grosshandler is the founder of iGive (& my boss!) and he describes his business model as a three-legged stool: Have fun, Make money, Do good. For the stool to stay upright, you have to have all three in place. I just love that! And that's part of why I love my job, but I also love using iGive as a member. I (obviously) use my online shopping to support Babes With Blades (passions unite!), but the fact that anyone can choose a cause they are passionate about and support them with their everyday activity is a wonderful thing to me. Some folks criticize it as 'passive charity', making it 'too easy'; "if there's no sacrifice involved, did you really give of yourself?" I couldn't disagree more! Making the act of giving & being charitable easy and a part of everyday life should be celebrated. It certainly doesn't take the place of showing up at the food pantry, or lending your skills to building a house, or volunteering at a shelter, or fostering a puppy...but not everyone has those abilities or that time all the time. Making 'giving' a part of what you do everyday...that helps create a foundational change in the way you look at those everyday activities. Thinking that everything I do could be something positive for the world around me...what could be better than that? There's a lot of "new" going on in my life, but right now I want to concentrate on new theatre. New works. New art. I have nothing against the classics and I love the tried & true, but before they became what they are, they were brand new. Someone took the time to create, develop, collaborate. And then they had the balls to share it. Holy Fuck. If you've ever done anything new (and you have, trust me!), you know how scary that proposition can be. With the creation of new works in theatre, there are many obstacles to completion, much less success. In reviewing my resume I'm seeing more and more "world premiere" and "regional premiere" shows. I've also been involved in many workshops & staged readings of new works - some that went on to great success & some that went back to the scrap heap. Not everything new is gonna be the 'next big thing' or really great, or even any good. It doesn't matter. What matters is that people keep writing, and growing, and learning, and that we keep trying. Who knows what play being written right now will be the next Classic of 2114... Opening soon is LeapFest 11 by the fabulous folks at Stage Left Theatre. They incubate new works with social & political themes. The first time I worked with Stage Left (where I'm now an Artistic Associate) was on a great show called "MisAmerica" during LeapFest 5. It was a dark comedy about a shoe company trying to make a splash in newly liberated Iraq and the send up of both marketing and American arrogance was fabulous (and jarring to some, which political theatre should be. If everyone agrees with you, you're doing it wrong!). It went on to production at Raven Theatre in 2005 and I was lucky enough to flesh out the role of Gina a bit more. Another fabulous new works development program that I'm lucky to be a part of is Fighting Words. Babes With Blades Theatre Company's mission is on exploring complex roles for women and plays that incorporate stage combat in the telling of the story. My first show with them, "The Last Daughter of Oedipus" came through their new works program (so new, it wasn't even called Fighting Words yet!) and I've since worked on 3 more graduates of this fabulous program. The company chooses a handful of scripts that meet our criteria and we workshop them over the course of the year. The work-shopping includes 1 internal read and 2 readings that are open to the public. After each reading, the playwright is provided with feedback and time to make any changes or edits they deem worthy. Not every show goes on to full production, but we like to think they go on to greatness just by being in existence! Right now, we're raising funds to support this particular program (and offering some fun perks in exchange for your donation, too!) in case you are interested in helping create the new: http://igg.me/at/bwbtc/x/7190975 Even if you can't chip in any money, consider sharing to your fb, Twitter, or blog? Every little bit helps and our goal is to change the world...one play at a time! So April 2014 was an epic month for me. Huge. Busy. Crazy. Big, even.
April 1 - Moved into a new apartment & started tech for L'Imbecile (was smart enough to take this day off work!) AND remembered to call Human Race Theatre to schedule an audition slot. April 2-11 -teched & previewed L'Imbecile, quite possibly the most physically & emotionally draining show of my career thus far. April 10-12 - visit from my family - Mom, sister & 2 nieces stayed with me in the new place! Mom saw L'Imbecile and we all went to see Lyle Finds His Mother at Lifeline theatre. Good times! April 12th - officially opened L'Imbecile - YAY! April 13th - recovered & prepped to be away from the iGive 'office' for the coming week. April 14th - started understudy rehearsals for Miracle on South Division Street with Theatre at the Center (8 hour rehearsal day, plus about a 90 minute commute each way). April 14th (seeing an overlap here?) - Audition for Human Race Theatre. April 15-19 - continued understudy rehearsals, bringing my laptop with me so I could work on my lunch hour, then logging into iGive again when I got home. April 17-19 - perform L'Imbecile 4 times in 3 days April 20th - Easter Sunday! Had a Babes With Blades company meeting (which evolved into an amazing brunch!) and followed that up with a fundraising strategy session. April 21st - a morning off! Sort of! A late rehearsal start time meant I could do some serious iGive work right? Wrong! My computer decided to die (virus? maybe. general weirdness from being 5+ years old? probably) So I dug out an old laptop that I stopped using years ago because it was so slow & out of date (at least it can access the internet, which my work computer no longer liked doing!) April 22-23 - more understudy rehearsals & work on a slow computer April 23rd - Callback for "Witch Slap!" - I got the part I wanted, yay!!!! April 24th - get oil change (commuting means taking care of the vehicle is especially important!) April 24-26 - Perform L'Imbecile 4 times in 3 days April 25-27 - more understudy rehearsals & work on a slow computer April 28th - Work meeting followed by seeing "The President" at Oracle (great show!) April 29-30th - tech rehearsals for understudy show (and work on a slow computer - are we sensing a theme?!) Thanks to my work for being flexible (and letting me order a new computer which should be here next week!), my awesome new roomie for making breakfast potatoes & smoothies to share & my carpooling castmates. And sincere apologies for any and all missed birthdays, bar mitzvahs, show openings, performances, post-show drinks and other social engagements I may have not observed in the last month. I'll get back to more regularly scheduled (bite-sized) posts soon...Happy May Day! This past year has been an interesting change for me in terms of the Chicago Reader theatre reviews. For nearly all 10 years I've been in Chicago, I could count on the Reader to point me in the right direction - whatever they liked, I knew I'd hate. Whatever play they tore to shreds, I wanted to buy a ticket! Not only were their reviews the exact opposite in taste for me, but many of them were downright mean-spirited. If they didn't like something, they'd make fun of it and tear it down with venom. To me, this was not the way to critique anything - spite does not make right! In the last year, however, as I've read reviews of friends shows posted to facebook (I've long ago stopped reading the Chicago Reader myself for any real reason!) - I've noticed myself agreeing somewhat with the short articles. They liked some things I liked. They had issue - and respectfully pointed out those issues- with some of the same things I did. Have they matured? Have I? Does it matter? They posted a pretty nice review of L'Imbecile today - and I'm certainly going to re-post it to everyone I know! http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/limbecile/Event?oid=13007150 More quotes from director, cast & crew during "L'Imbecile" rehearsals for the upcoming Babes With Blades Theatre Company world premiere - got your tix yet? Trust me - you've never seen anything like this before! "Yeah - there's a monkey next to you and you have to deal with it." "Instead of a heart, do her eye." "I'm always ready for a food pass." "The arc of seduction." "You're Pepe Le Pew, you're unstoppable." "Hold it in longer than I just did." "I thought there was an audible." "Have the instinct of the stealer." "Then I realized it would get sticky all over my laptop." And apparently I just need to buy the whole album, because Imagine Dragons are speaking to me with their music right now! Theatre is a team sport. It's collaboration taken to an extreme. L'Imbecile is taking this to a new level for me! A typical play meshes the ideas of: Playwright, Director, Lighting Designer, Sound Designer, Props Designer, Set Designer, Costume Designer. Let's throw in a Dramaturg, if there's budget & availability, and maybe an Assistant Director. Stage Manager keeps it all together and usually has some creative input with the team. On a typical Babes show, we add the Violence Designer. And on this Babes show, we've also added a Style Consultant. That's a dozen voices in the actor's head while trying to simultaneously create & navigate a new world on stage - not to mention the actor's own instincts, experience, ideas, and understanding of the material. Everyone wants to do great work and everyone wants to put out the best possible product to the world. Theatre is a fleeting art and this is the only time this same group of people, at this place & time will create this experience. "Let's make it the best possible!" is everyone's goal, which means passion is strong. No one wants to be the weakest link and no one wants to let anyone down...No pressure, right? Needless to say, this has been a farily high-stakes and sometimes frustrating process for me. Remembering that I can only control my personal contribution is an ongoing struggle for me and patience with myself has never been a virtue of mine (working on it though!). Last week we had our first 'stumble-through' of the whole show...and yesterday I spoke out loud the fear "I honestly am not sure if everything will be ready." when talking about pending previews (April 5th isn't that far away!). Then, we had rehearsal last night - working various scenes, some things went well, some things felt 'eh'. Then we ran Act 1 Scene 1 - which was a bit of a surprise to the cast and probably the best thing that could have happened. No one had time to worry about all the voices in our heads and instincts & talent & training & rehearsal skills kicked into gear. And I left rehearsal with joy & hope & confidence, knowing that "It all turns out well." To everyone involved in the show - thanks for rocking it out together! |
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September 2018
Kimberly Logan
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