Another Favorite from the NLBP video vault

Double whammy of emotions here... first this song is very beautiful and truly represents my Barn Playhouse intern company as I am sure they've gone on to do amazing things since we've been away from the Barn. Secondly it makes me miss everyone and really makes me wish I had stayed in contact with more people :(

Random Theatre Ranting- non related to reviews

I have a bit of time to kill before I have to head to school for a meeting so I have some reflecting to do... not related to shows or reviews just general thoughts. The next review I will be posting will be for the Milford Area Players production of The Foreigner which opens on Friday.

Yesterday I was looking through my livejournal from NEC for nostalgia's sake. I drew a relevant connection between how nervous I was that certain people from Carriage Theatre Ensemble did not liking me and how nervous I was in the interim time after I left the New London Barn Playhouse and that they were going to forget about me and etc. In both cases the key thing I realized about myself was that in both situations I was overanxious for no reason which may of course have lead to people formulating a negative image of me that I was obsessed which at the time I may have been but am not anymore. What I realized was that I was wicked insecure about myself in both cases and I should not have been so insecure about myself. I also might have been too concerned about what other people thought of me. I was like that for the first two weeks at the Barn Playhouse too before I got to know everyone I was working with. I remember one of the many late night chats I had with Will Porter after rehearsal for Annie Get Your Gun and he told me that I shouldn't compare myself to other people. Of course we had many late night chats and I couldn't pinpoint which one that was exactly but that particular conversation helped me to realize that I really needed to stop being so insecure about myself. Thinking back to that particular conversation made auditioning for the plays senior year a little bit easier. I don't really know if insecurity was really a big issue when it comes to moving on from the Barn Playhouse...what I think was the bigger issue there was the fact that I thought people were going to forget about me and obviously that hasn't happened.... memories haven't been forgotten either nor will they be. At this point where both situations are in the past I realize how foolish that I acted. I have gained a new sense of maturity recently and realized that it pointless to focus on such trivial things for such an extended amount of time. In what I am calling my revitalization period I am trying to focus more on important things.. like what is happening on the here and now with school,work, keeping current friendships strong, meeting new friends and my relationship with my boyfriend instead of trivial things that don't matter such as pushing people away from me because of being so focussed on stuff related to the Barn. As I said no one I worked with has forgotten about me or the memories we had that summer and it was stupid for me to worry about that and drive other people crazy in retrospect. Looking back on borh of these situations I realize now that what I really should have done is look at the big picture because I honestly think I was really quite shallow and narrow minded. Instead of stressing myself out about such trivial things I should have stepped back and realized that people do like me and care about me. I think that is the thing I really had a lot of trouble realizing. The people liking me part relates to the Carriage Theatre Ensemble issue because at that time I thought that there were three girls in the theatre troupe I was picking up bad vibes from and thought did not like me. Looking back at those livejournal entries I realize that my issue was my own immaturity about not being able to confront those particular people about how I was feeling. The more mature thing to do would have been thing would have been to talk to them about it instead on constantly worrying and living with the fear that they did not like me. The people caring about me part I have already talked about in regards to thinking that people from my Barn Playhouse intern company forgot about me which obviously hasn't happened. Distance between a majority of us is great as we are all spread out but the memories from our summer at the Barn are non-withstanding and will always stay with all of us.

So with this awareness I have gained by comparing these two situations I realized that in order to mature one thing I need to do instead is stop worrying about pointless things. In the long run it is not worth it.

Dream job and a variety of talent

Browsing through the wrier's block questions on livejournal I came across a question called what is your dream job and do you think you will ever acheive it? Here is my answer-

If you have been following this blog for a long time or a short time you can tell that I am truly passionate about the arts espescially threatre. Every since I could remember I have loved going to see plays especially musicals. My ultimate dream like i'm sure many people would have would to act on Broadway... that would be a vast impossibility due to my very limited acting resume and the fact that I don't have a lot of training in singing or dancing. I interned at a theatre two summers ago in New London NH and still keep in touch with quite a few of my coworkers. I suppose I could live my dream vicariously through them because they have gone on to do quite amazing things national tours, off-broadway shows etc. Whole singing and dancing my not be my forte the main reason I have started this blog was to share with people the reviews of local shows that I go to see. I am hoping to somehow make a career out of that. While I may not achieve the goal of living in NYC as that would be my ultimate goal I want to bust out of this small town of Amherst NH and move to an area such as Portsmouth or Boston where there is more of a theatre secene.

So that is my dream when it comes to theatre.... I hope there is some way to achieve it at some point.





This weekend was the annual Pumpkin Festival in Milford. I haven't gone to it much because of being in school. This was only the second time i've gone to it since I've been out of school Last night was the third annual talent show and I was blown away by the variety of talents that all the participants had. There was a variety of singing, dancing and other talents by local youths. The funniest number was Daniel The Latte Boy performed by Julie Harris and Daniel Schwartzberg.
The show opened with a rock band from Milford called The Natural Twenty which did a cover of the song Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. Brought me back to Strictly Music junior year at SHS.. I think I still have that cd somewhere too. My two favorite numbers in the first act were Only Hope sung by Emily Getchell Lacey of Milford Marrisa Russell of Londonderry who played the piano and sang Human by John Mclachlin and Aly McKnight and Andi Aiken of Amherst who sang For Good from the Broadway Musical Wicked. Other acts in the first half included Conor Sandin of Brookline beat boxing, Emily Langdon of Milford doing some acrobatics, Andrew Krotroubus of Lydenborough playing Cello, Daktoa Barron of Amherst glow stringing (was that supposed to be sticking?) and Denis Riendeau of Nashua singing Somewhere from West Side Story. After a 20 minute break the second act opened up with Albert Francis and Glen Cavanaugh of Milford doing a cover of Twist and Shout by the Beatles which made me want to get up and dance.. don't know why I resisted that urge. There a vast variety of genres covered singing wise as Caitlin Gillam of Amherst sang At Last by Etta James Sarah Tello of Milford sang I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapman Carpenter Taylor Morin of Hudson singing All The Way by Celine Dion and Patrick Quinn of Milford cloased off the night with excellent charm singing Sway by Michael Buble. Other acts in the second act included juggling by Chris Merra of Amherst, Amanda Shaw of Amhrest performing a self-choreographed dance, Kristopher Brown of Hollis playing the piano, Shea Vacarro of Wilton doing acrobatics and the musical comedy number Daniel The Latte Boy which stole the show performed by Julie Harris and Daniel Schwartzberg of Amherst and Bedford.

All in all it was a very much enjoyed talent show. Congratulations to all the winners! I look very foward to next year's talent show.




Upcoming Performances
The Foriegner Milford Area Players Stay tuned for the review I am going to write for the Nilford Cabinet
Seasonal Help NEC Carriage Theatre Ensemble

and tomorrow I am pretty sure I am going to go see The Laramie Project 10 Years Later at Yellow Taxi Productions in Nashua.

Reccomondations

So my boyfriend and I are planning another trip back to the city in March. We are planning to taking my friend Rachel to a show as part as her 21st birthday present. Her birthday was actually last month and we were originally planning the trip for Christmas time but budget and work schedules got in the way. We are considering letting her pick the show but I am looking for people's opinions. I am leaning toward Bye Bye Birdie but I have no idea how well that's been doing or what else is playing right now.

So blog readers... I leave the floor open to you to make suggestions.

Woyzeck in one word... Riveting

Yesterday in celebration of my new job Matt and I ventured up to Henniker to see the Open Door Theatre Production of Woyzeck. For those who read this blog who do not go to New England College the Open Door Theatre is a summer theatre offering at NEC which is opened to alumni and community members. Favorite past open door productions include Judevine Weinsburg,Ohio and Much Ado About Nothing. The thing that always impresses me about these shows besides the obvious talent among my friends in the show and other alumni is the variety of versitile characters that they play. Some people play multiple characters throughout the show.

Woyzeck is based on a true story which was written by Georg Buchner, a German playwright in the late 1800s. It is set sometime in Eastern Europe sometime in the 20th century... couldn't make heads or tails if it was set during a war or not. It is a story of a deeply troubled man who ends up killing the one person he loves. The murder doen't happen till midway through Act 2 but is foreshawdoed in Act 1 Scene 3.
I was at the edge of my seat during most of the production easily hooked on the inner turmoil of the main character Woyzeck played by Eric Doucet. Though this play is mostly a drama there are a few scenes which add in bits of comic releif. I found this play to the be the most powerful and thought provoking to previous Open Door Shows I've seen second of course to the 2006 production of The Diviners. Woyzeck is in a relationship with Marie (Keri Bresaw) and thier relationship is rather pivotal to the show especially since Marie is cheating on Woyzeck with Sergeant Majaor (Zach Shea). Woyzeck catches on to the infidelity and eventually ends up killing Marie. The murder is the most tragic part of the whole play.
The last paragraph of the director's notes in the program says " Woyzeck is a decent caring human being , a compassionate man set adrift in a world where no one else is decent,or caring or compassionate." Eric Doucet did a fantastic job with capturing the essence of this truly troubled character.

Congratulations to director Glenn Sturart Cast members Keri Bresaw, Eric Doucet,Kevin Guimond, Jennie Leonardl,Russ Rattery, Zach Shea and Greg Stuart and crew Jackie Hawkes,Joe Paredez Elliot Greer and Monica Boore on a truly wonderful production.


Happy Birthday to my fellow thespians who had birthdays in August and the early part of September <3>

Rachel Kepnes, Jesse Einstien, Andrea Crocker, Tess Amadeo Vickery, Dashiel and Levi Morger, Matt Forbes. Christina Giordano, Jay Johnson, Maggie Politi, Zach Shea, Sarah Mitchell, Shawna O'Brien, Rachael Claborn, Lindsey St Louis

Upcoming Productions I will be viewing (budget and schedule dependant)


October 16th-25th The Foriegner Milford Area Players
October 30th-November 1 Seasonel Help New England College Carriage Theatre Ensemble
Nov 19-22 Edges Clark University Musical Theatre
December 5th Holiday Spectacular Concord City Auditorium

My most recent Milford Cabinet Article

The Rehearsal Process
By Janine Leffler





Now comes the grueling part… the rehearsals. It’s time to develop each character and blend them together with other characters in the production while intertwining the props and costumes. The rehearsal process definitely has its challenges, but the biggest reward for any group of actors is putting on an entertaining performance for an audience.

Rehearsals begin the minute the play is cast and go until the final week before the production. The actors spend the first week of rehearsals getting to know their characters and seeing how their characters relate to other characters in the production. Early on, they have their scripts in hand and have a prompter there to assist when they forget their lines. A lot of time is spent by the actors perfecting their characters; part of this process involves memorizing their lines.

Most of the actors I talked to in the Milford Area Players fall main stage production of Larry Schue’s The Foreigner usually practice their lines at home on their own time. One method that Dave Kulvette who plays Charlie Baker finds it to be helpful is to make cds of his lines so he can study them in the car on his commute to work. Kristen Lawson who plays Catherine Simms finds it helpful when her husband goes over her lines with her so that way she knows at what point in the script to come in. When it comes to character development one common challenge seems to be development of an accent. Once the character is more developed and the actor is more used to the character’s mannerisms, the accent almost becomes second nature.
A rehearsal typically lasts about three hours and usually consists of fine tuning a particular scene in a play and working on blocking. Blocking is a term which refers to the movement and positioning of actors on a stage during a play. When asked about blocking Tom Partridge said “It is important to see how everything fits together and where people fit on the stage. You want to make things look. natural.” After certain about of time the actors have to be off book which means they have to have their lines memorized and are not allowed to refer to their script during the course of a rehearsal. Throughout various parts of the process props are integrated into the rehearsal and costumes are usually integrated close to the end of the process. Director Tom Partridge said ““Props come in at various times, depending on when needed or available; costumes usually do not come into use until the last couple of weeks before the play depending on the play itself.”

The members of the cast and director Tom Partridge are in agreement that the show is coming along well. All members of the cast are looking forward to entertaining audiences.
Be sure to mark your calendars for October 16th-25th at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Souhegan Valley in Milford. Showtimes are 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for students and seniors. Stay tuned next time for a review of The Foreigner.

Surprise!

Last weekend I went to New Jersey for a family function and I got a last minute surprise when my aunt's sister invited to go to a play with her her husband and her granddaughter Marissa. Usually I am not a fan of straight play and have more of fan of musicals but this play was the best play I've seen in awhile I have never laughed so hard.. not in a very long time.

The theatre we saw the show at was The Shakespeare Company of New Jersey located on the campus of Drew University ..a college I had never even heard of before. The play was called Noises Off. I am not sure how many people actually read this blog and how many people have heard of this show but as I said it is the funniest play I have seen in a very long time. It is a play within a play about an acting troupe who putting on a show. The first act is the final dress rehersal, the second act is the first preview of the show and the third act was their actual first performance of the production. It was really interesting concept. Those of you who are fans of the show and subsequent movie Sex and The City should take note that one of the actresses in this play, Lalia Robbins who played the character Belinda Blair. I do not know what character she played on Sex In The City. It would have been neat if I had gotten to meet her but unfortunately I didn't have a backstage pass like I did at HAIR. Overall it's a great play. The whole cast had really awesome chemistry. I highly reccommend it to anyone who is looking for a great laugh.



Upcoming Performances
October 16-25 The Foriegner Milford Area Players. Stay tuned for my next Milford Cabinet article all about the rehearsal process.
October 29-November 1st Seasonal Help New England College Carriage Theatre Ensemble Production