Finding My Voice

Exactly what it says. The girl who has proclaimed "I can't write!" on a weekly basis is ... well ... writing.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Tagged.

With apologies to ~D, whose tag I never did respond to ...
Marissa got me via email, so I'm doing this via blog.
Marissa has no known online presence, so I can't link to her at all.
That just seems weird, somehow, in my little culture here in LA where if we don't actually have web sites ourselves, there's a blog, or a profile, or something.

Technology. For better or for worse.

I digress.

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Actor
2. Database Manager
3. Invoice Processor
4. Operations Assistant

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. "Hello, Down There"
2. "When Harry Met Sally"
3. "Pillow Talk"
4. ok, it's not a movie, but does the entire 1st season of "Green Wing", which I will buy on DVD the moment it's released, count?

Four places you have lived:
1. New Orleans, LA
2. Metairie, LA
3. Los Angeles, CA
4. .............

Four TV shows you love to watch.
1. "Green Wing"
2. "Gilmore Girls"
3. "Lost"
4. "Veronica Mars"
(limiting this to four was tough)

Four place you have been on vacation:
1. London
2. New York
3. Philadelphia
4. Toronto

Four websites I visit daily:
1. www.arktheatre.org
2. www.myspace.com
3. www.celluloidcurtain.com
4. www.google.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Thin-crust pizza
2. Pasta
3. Chocolate chip cookie
4. Medium rare steak

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Florida with my hubby
2. Anywhere that it's sunny
3. London
4. Somewhere with no known recurring natural disasters

Four friends I am tagging who I think will respond ...
1. Hal
2. Susan
3. Patty
4. ~D (though it'd be more than fair if she just said no ...) ;)

Friday, March 24, 2006

Worlds, cont'd

What is with the ice dance drama this year?
I kind of remember a tiny bit of drama in 1994, with the triumphant return of Torvill and Dean, and the shock that they only got the bronze. And of course, unlike today where you can look at a breakdown of scores and see exactly what was scored and how, the scores just were what they were.

But man. Drama.

Poor Nora Hoffman of Budapest was warming up with her partner, Attila Elek (omg, I just realized, that being from Hungary, he really is ... Attila the Hun ...) ahem. But I digress. Anyway, they collided with Japan's Nozomi Wattanabe and Akiyuki Kido and she was injured. She hurt her back and her elbow was sliced by Nozomi's skate. In spite of this, in keeping with rules of the game, they could not skate later in the group; they had something like two minutes to get medical attention and then get back out and skate. She was so amazing, never once looking like she was in pain, blood seeping out of the bandage on her elbow. The moment the dance ended, she collapsed to the ground, but wow. Times like this you realize just why this is a sport and not merely an art.

Just as a side note. The UK's Scottish ice dancers, Kerr and Kerr. I'm sorry, but is anyone else weirded out by the fact that they're brother and sister?

How gorgeous was the performance by the Canadians, Dubreuil and Lauzon? They totally broke my heart at the Olympics, if you recall, when Marie-France fell during the original dance and they had to withdraw. This after making such a huge sacrifice to train the way they did (picking up and moving to France). To then come to the Worlds in their home country and perform so beautifully ... I remember when they withdrew in the Olympics one of the commentators had said what a shame it was that we wouldn't see their free dance, as it was so amazing. And that was true. I'm glad they made it to the podium, though I was really rooting for them to get the gold. (Belbin and Agosto got the bronze).

The pairs. I have to say, I'm starting to come around to the Chinese skaters; in particular, the gold medal winners Qing Pang and Jian Tong. I think they really do find the balance between the athleticism and the artistry. And of course, not only my opinion, as they did in fact win. Zhang and Zhang came in for the silver, again, and Russia's Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov the bronze (up from their 5th at the Olympics). Inoue and Baldwin came in fourth, which I think must be even harder than fifth. So close. I think maybe next year they can make it. (Interestingly, I just learned that he was actually a singles skater for many many years, and eventually realized he wasn't going to make it with his inability to do a quad jump, so switched over to pairs skating.)

And the ladies. Sasha Cohen did exactly what she did in the Olympics: first after the short program, and then have a lousy free skate. And once more, the bronze. But that cute little Kimmie Meisner did an "awesome" free skate pulling herself up from fifth after the short to a gold medal. Yup, world champion, 16 years old. (It's awesome!) From 6th at the Olympics to this. Japan's Fumie Suguri took silver, which had to be particularly thrilling after coming in 4th at the Olympics.

Another season over. Onwards.

More Figure Skating - World Championships

As much as I love figure skating, the Worlds right after an Olympics is a tough sell. I mean, if you think about it, it's two "best in the world" titles right after each other.

So, with less than my usual enthusiasm, I began watching the World Championships last night.

Obviously, I'm not the only one with waning interest: ESPN is barely covering it. They only gave highlights of the mens' and pairs' short programs.

With the absence of gold medalist Evgeny Plushenko, the Swiss Stephane Lambiel was able to reclaim his World Championship, with relative ease. French Brian Joubert, who came in a disappointing 6th at the Olympics, gave him a serious run for his money, ultimately taking the silver. And American Evan Lysacek had the free skate of his life, moving up from 7th after the short program to take the bronze. (Very similar to what he had done in the Olympics, actually.)

Jeffrey Buttle and Johnny Weir were both off their games, coming in 6th and 7th, respectively. And my boy Matt Savoie (hey that rhymes!) came in a disappointing 11th. (But any opportunity to see him skate is a good one.)

Onwards to the rest of the competition. Interesting to see what will happen in the dance category, as Belbin and Agosto are going into the free dance in an incredibly disappointing 4th place - their original dance was beautiful and flawless, so who knows quite what that's about? No matter how hard they try to keep it fair and objective, there will always be a subjective piece of figure skating judging.

Oh, and kudos to ESPN for having Kurt Browning as a commentator. Huge thumbs up.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Why I love this show.

This show is HAZARD COUNTY, for the one person who might be reading this and not actually receive an email on the subject.


Sure, I've spent my life doing a lot of theatre. It's ranged from god-awful to brilliant.

Even just in my five and a half years here in LA, I've done ... 16. (Of those, one was an actual honest-to-God pay-me-real-money Equity contract). The rest, theoretically, I do for the love of the art.

And yet, of that list of 15, only about a third were shows I was passionate about going into the project. And of that small list, only a small percentage were the experience I wanted them to be.

I thoroughly appreciated the opportunity to be Mistress Quickly in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR and - while not perfect, a good time had by all, including (it seemed) audiences. ON THE VERGE took a more literate audience, so it didn't find its way with the general public ... but it was such a beautiful journey. With my "sisters" Shelley and Kathi, we bonded so closely during that rehearsal process that come opening night we freaked a bit - not because of nerves, but because we felt that what we created was ours, our own personal little treasure, and we didn't want to share it with anyone else! (I've never felt that before, or since.)

Those experiences, and other good ones, even added together don't come close to this show. Even if I added in my best experiences in New Orleans (I should mention that there are over 60 productions in my many years of working onstage) ... they still wouldn't add up to HAZARD.

I love the script. I don't begin to claim that it's perfect, but it's so rich and layered and so genuinely southern. Allison Moore truly has a gift for dialogue - the detail (probably unperceived to the audience, which is OK) is so rich. Now, to be fair, I cursed her name a lot while I was getting off book, but it was so worth it.

I love the cast. This has been the easiest show I have ever done. There have been no dramas or personality conflicts ... everybody came to the party prepared. Everyone was ready to work - and still keep it fun.

I love the director. OK, so I'm married to him. :) But his work as a director just gets better and better.

And the cast, as a unit, genuinely loves the show. There are just enough laughs to keep it from being too heavy to have to live with night after night; but it's rich enough to stay interesting.

If you live in LA, please come see it. I don't want to set this up as too much hype; your mileage may vary. And that's OK. But for me, I've just don't know if I've ever been prouder of my work as an actress. So don't come see it just because it's another show that I'm doing and you feel some obligation. See it because this one ... is special.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Figure skating Pt 2

OK, here is it, the way-too-overdue commentary on 2006 Olympic Figure Skating. Grab a cup of coffee, make yourself comfy. (OK, no, really, this is so late after the fact that it won't be terribly detailed ...)

Pairs. The Russians, Tatyana Totmiyanina and Maxim Marinin (say that three times fast!), for better or worse, basically had to show up and skate clean, and would get gold. Voila, they did. End of story. They've skated a little cautiously since 2004, when he dropped her on her head ... and frankly, who wouldn't? Maybe they were a little preordained to win this event just for coming back after that pretty horrifying moment, but given the field of pairs skaters, I had no big problem with that. I'm just not in love with the Chinese pairs skaters, two of which (whom?) came in second and third. Now, I was deeply moved by Dan Zhang and her resilience ... she took a nasty fall, one which they thought would cause an end to the program and instead, she shook it out and they skated back onto the ice and finished their program. The Chinese pairs skaters, as a group, have come a long way since they were all jumps and no artistry, but I feel like they still have a long way to go. Compared to the pairs skating greats of the past, no one makes me feel they way I did watching Gordeeva and Grinkov or Brasseur and Eisler. But that's just me. I do like the American teams; I do feel that Rena Inoue and John Baldwin got the short end of the stick and are being judged a little harshly. Yeah, he's a little cocky, but he's also so madly in love with her that it balances out. I also think that Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem will be in the top 10 next time around. They're still a young pair but they're lovely to watch, so I think they have an exciting future.

The men. OK, so my personal favorite in the entire mix is Matt Savoie, who ultimately placed 7th. He is the most underrated, undersung competitor possibly in the history of US Skating. Many of the commentators have expressed as much - and yet, all we kept hearing about were Johnny Weir and Evan Lycacek - even after the short program when Matt was way ahead of Evan. Matt's just got it all - the athleticism and the artistry. Why international judges can't see that, I have no clue.

Johnny is Johnny - "he's here, he's Weir," and all that. He can be a lovely skater to watch. But perhaps my favorite comment came on Olympic Ice the day after the free skate, which Johnny blew bigtime. He had said in an interview that he had missed the bus to the arena, and his whole evening's focus went downhill from there. Scotty Hamilton turned to the camera, and said: "OK. You're on Olympic competitor. The *only* thing you have to do ... is show up to your event on time."

The gold medalist, Yevgeny Pushenko, was another one who only had to show up and skate clean, which he did. But as technically proficient as he is - and boy, is he! - he skates with no soul. There are many who do agree with his gold medal but question the number of points he racked up, so many light years ahead of his competitors.

Stephane Lambiel is an on-again off-again skater, who was clearly on; and Jeffrey Buttle is good but I really would never have predicted a medal. Even after watching both of his performances.

The ice dancing. Never as popular or interesting as it was this year. Besides the Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto bringing home the first silver medal in ice dance ever (and the first medal of any kind in 30 years), there were so many other little dramas! No one ever falls in ice dance ... and yet this year, the original dance, they were all over the ice. It was crazy. I don't think anyone's ever seen anything quite like it. And of course, who could forget the Italians: Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio. They came out of retirement to be able to participate in the Olympics in their home country. They were first after the compulsory dance, which clearly thrilled them to no end. Then, in the original dance, he dropped her. Well, at the end of that skate, they literally stared each other down for around 30 seconds before taking their bow. Then the next time we saw them, for the free skate, they DID NOT SPEAK TO EACH OTHER before the performance! It was crazy. They totally ignored each other backstage, her staring daggers into him. And yet, they went out and skated a lovely performance, coasted into 6th place overall, and immediately defrosted the ice between them. (She claimed in an interview that she was never mad at him, that they were both just mad at themselves ... yeah, right.) And in the heartbreak category? The Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon. They had uprooted their lives to live and train in France, all for this moment ... and a fall in the original dance injured her to the point that they had to withdraw from the free skate. She sent him to the warmup anyway, and asked him to please touch the Olympic rings in the ice for her, one more time ... which he did. It was so moving and heartbreaking.

And lastly, the ladies. Sue me - after Michelle Kwan backed out, I was rooting for the Russian. I'm sorry. I mean, Sascha Cohen is a beautiful skater, she really is. But she annoys me. I can't help it. I think Kimmie Meisner is going to be a force to be reckoned with, as will Emily Hughes, as well as some of the also rans in US Figure Skating - like Alyssa Czisny, Katie Taylor, and Bebe Liang. And a personal favorite, Stephanie Rosenthal. She may not make it to the international arena, but there's something about her - much like another favorite from times past, Tonia Kwiatkowski - that I just really admire.

But back to the Olympics just past. I really didn't expect Shizuka Arakawa to walk away with the gold - but the reality was, she was the only skater to skate a free program cleanly. And I think the chips just fell out accordingly. I really have no major issue with it. It'll be interesting to see how the next few international events go - Japan's Mao Asada, who wasn't allowed to go to the Olympics because she was too young - will be kicking ass and taking names. And Turkey's Tugba Karademir is another one to wach. And the winner of "my favorite name of a female figure skater"? That goes to Kiira Korpi of Finland. I just like saying it.

Onwards to the Worlds.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Figure Skating Pt 1

Figure Skating.
I'm a huge fan. That's an understatement. It probably started with the Olympics back in the 80s', really solidifying with my being able to identify and root for skaters at the '92 Olympics. And in '94 who wasn't paying attention to Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan? Then I started watching the US Championships and any other event I could catch on TV ... and then I got to see a few live performances. And I gotta tell you, sometimes there are skaters who I watch on TV, and never really "get" why they're so popular or award-winning ... and then you see them on stage, as it were, in a room where you can literally feel the energy ... and suddenly you just go "oh." Ding. Lightbulb moment. Tara Lipinski was one (though I *still* do this day think if Michelle Kwan had skated last eight years ago, she'd have that gold medal). Todd Eldridge was another.
Anyway. I've rubbed off on my poor husband, who is hardly the fan I am, but can identify skaters if not by actual name at least either by country or some other identifier. Cute little Katy Taylor of Texas he refers to as "the girl who wants the pink hummer." (It's accurate, but funny.)
Drama leading up to the Olympics. Michelle Kwan's injury caused her to miss the Nationals; she petitioned to go anyway. I think that was the right thing to do (there is certainly precedent for it), and I was extraordinarily impressed with the graciousness with which the rest of the ladies handled it. Especially Emily Hughes, who was the skater getting bumped. But one after they other, they all said that Michelle's long history had earned her the spot, and that they fully supported it. Beautiful.
Then a little drama at the Olympics as Michelle realized her injury just wasn't healed enough ... and she withdrew. The whole thing, again, so incredibly classy. Interesting, as I remember a ladies figure skater (I think it was Kristi Yamaguchi, though I can't swear to that) once saying that the competitions were so fierce and nasty that you'd never actually dare to leave your skates unattended. Sabotage. Seriously. So I was very impressed with the graciousness of everyone involved.
Less classy - the ice dancers whose families were writing letters to their senators to attempt to PREVENT Tanith Belbin's expedited citizenship. So tacky. For those who don't know, at the time that Tanith first applied for citizenship, the process took a certain number of years - I think eight? Since that point, they number of years for the waiting period has been reduced by several years. So that realistically, had she *waited* a few years to apply - she'd already be a citizen! So it was on that basis that she was trying to get it moved up. Talk about missing the big picture: the better Belbin & Agosto do, the better for the entire US ice dance team. Geez. Luckily, she got her citizenship, and the US got their first silver in ice dance. But I'm getting ahead of myself. :)
So. The Olympics. One of the things I love about the Olympics being on NBC is that we get the commentary of Scotty Hamilton. While I admit that Dick Button has certainly grown on me over the years, I just love love love Scotty's energy, attitude, and sometimes very quotable comments.
This year they started a little daily show on USA called "Olympic Ice", hosted by Mary Carillo (NBC tennis expert, I'm told), with Canadian gold medal pairs skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. Appearances by Scotty and Dick as well as many others. At first, I was deeply disturbed by the fact that this program was being hosted by a woman who clearly DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FIGURE SKATING! Plus the whole thing ultimately felt a little corny. But after a few days, the program found its legs, Mary's dry sense of humor is just my speed, and the whole show stopped taking itself seriously and embraced its wacky side and ... well ... I'm a huge fan. From the segment known as "push Dick's button" to referring to the show by its initials "O.I." which evolved into "Oy!" ... well, it was just "cracklin' good television." Seriously. I hope it's back in four years. Or sooner.
Oh, and seriously, if you ever catch David Pelletier making a bet on who's taking a medal in a figure skating event? Go put money on it. He called both Jeffrey Buttle AND Shizuka Arakawa.
More later.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Blogging and tech don't mix.

Good lord, tech is exhausting.

Hard to find time to blog. And I have lots on my mind! I know it's less topical now, but I have lots o' commentary on the Olympic figure skating! Yay!

Anyway. HAZARD COUNTY opens in a week (hint hint) ... so I'm brain fried right now ... but:

Here's a quickie. So to speak.

Michael Sullivan was interviewed on KPCC yesterday, offering commentary on Mardi Gras. Random? Nah, my friend Mindy who produces there called me because they wanted to interview a local and couldn't reach anyone on the phone. I have no idea why Michael was walking down Bourbon Street with his cell phone within earshot, but luckily he was! I haven't even had a chance to listen myself (I had to go into a meeting), but it is on their website ... just scroll down to the item titled "Lean Tuesday".


(Hm. I just tried to listen and couldn't. If anyone can tell me with what software I, on my PC, can listen to a RAM file, I'd appreciate it. Windows Media won't play it.)