Blog

It’s been many weeks since I’ve actually had a moment to sit down and blog about anything.  Needless to say, I have my reasons and I can sum it up in a new word……I’ve been “Ediefied”

Grey Gardens has been a very challenging experience on so many levels; as an actor, a singer, and having to start the whole process being so sick at the very beginning of rehearsals with a mean and relentless bronchitis that would NOT let go.  Our whole cast and crew had it, and we were stumbling through as best as we could to stage the piece in only three weeks of rehearsal.  Truly a challenge!

Everyone worked so hard, the atmosphere was always positive (with the exception of my “Patti Melt” one afternoon) and we opened the work on March 21st with a very supportive audience.  After receiving very positive reviews, we are now playing through June 2nd, and continue to experience a roller coaster of audience reactions from tears to scowls.  My cast mates and crew are a magnificent bunch, and I find myself somehow marching forward through a very demanding performance schedule with fortitude and sheer grit which brings me to the following…..

As a child, I fell in love with Gus Gus and Jaq the two mice in Disney’s animated film of Cinderella.  They were the sweetest most adorable things, and my favorite moment in the movie was when they have to save Cinderella by getting a key up a long staircase and slide it under the door so she could escape and be allowed to try on the glass slipper that the Prince had found at the Ball.  All I can say is that every week I feel like Gus Gus when he looks up at the stairs and just falls backwards and passes out at the thought of the task at hand.  Playing Edith/Little Edie feels like that moment for every performance, but I am very proud of the work, and when I finish a show, I have such a sense of accomplishment.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have already attended a performance, and a thank you to all who will be coming to see it.  It is one of the most challenging roles of my career, and an honor to be a part of such a complex multi-faceted theatrical event.  All I have to do is keep getting the key up the stairs!

Happy Spring and love to all.