Check this page often as info will change regularly. And hey--if you ever want to catch me in a something, be sure to e-mail me as that is the surest way to get the most up-to-date info. I do my best but it's a lot easier to send an e-mail reply than to update an entire page, let me tell you!!!
April 16, 2000: OK, I'll admit it...I'm too
lazy to revise this whole page so instead I'll give
you an update here....then you can read on to see
where I was at in January 1999.
I'm currently not in anything...and loving it!!!
Two-and-a-half years of back-to back plays had really
taken their toll on me and I needed a break BADLY.
I've gotten new headshots and an agent, so I plan to
just go that route for now and see what happens...and
I'm mainly concentrating on getting to LA by
midsummer or fall...at which point I'm going to be
running around like crazy taking classes,
auditioning, lining up an agent, just getting my name
out there. It's kind of scary because I'll no longer
have the security blanket of people offering me roles
because they're familiar with my work, which has been
the case for the past 3 years here...but it's time to
move on.
And I'll tell you who helped confirm that resolve for
me...Nancy Lee Grahn. She's currently Alexis
on GENERAL HOSPITAL and before that was
Julia on SANTA BARBARA (more about
her/Julia on my tv page), and
has always been one of my "acting idols". I flew out
to LA to take a class she taught on breaking into
acting....and let me just say that if you EVER see a
class she's teaching, run, don't walk, and take it!!!
Basically her philosophy is "If you build it, they
will come." In other words, if you believe in
yourself, believe and recognise you have something
unique to bring to the table and cultivate it, and
keep plugging away at getting yourself out there, it
will happen...and I think she's right. I happened to
describe the point I'm at now as a "scary place" and
she rode me until in essence I was forced to have a
positive visualization of a meeting with a casting
director...and that was a real and needed
breakthrough for me. So now, I'm really more eager
than scared to get out there and start plugging
away...and if--no, strike that--WHEN I make it, I
will be sure to thank her for pointing me in the
right direction at a time when I really needed it.
=)
Now, for the updates:
The Sweetcorn Playhouse, alas, shuttered its
doors at the end of October 1999 after one final
special performance of sCARRIE, which
closed at the end of August after running for well
over a year (and I never missed a performance!!!).
Corn Productions has already found a new
home--the Cornservatory at 4210 N.
Lincoln--and seem to be doing well last time I
dropped by. Sweetback is renting other spaces
for the time being, including a highly successful
revival of Rudolph The Red-HOSED
Reindeer last December in which I once again
played Rudolph.
Nomenil's production of LOVE
POLLUTION was cancelled due to Courtney, Nomenil's co-founder, co-writer of the play, and one of its stars, breaking her ankle at a rehearsal...and she was irreplaceable in every sense of the word. They plan to remount it sometime this year. They did put on what I consider to possibly be their best work yet, WOMAN ALIVE, at the (late) Sweetcorn Playhouse in September 1999. It was based on a series of women's "self-help" books from the early 70s and it was HYSTERICAL!!! They're such a creative and innovative group...I wish them all the best. =)
The other two shows I was in last year were both Sweetback shows and adaptations of movies. April's JOAN CRAWFORD GOES TO HELL was a sendup of MOMMIE DEAREST in which I played the adult Christina and narrated the play from my typewriter....let's just say that if Diana Scarwid had seen that play I would probably be lynched right now!!! =P September brought VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, which I did the preliminary adaptation for as well as acted in. I got to play my ultimate dream "camp" role--Patty Duke as Neely O'Hara!!! =D I enjoyed playing that role immensely because finally, FINALLY, I got to play someone who WASN'T NICE!!! =P To see the poster, click here. I also did a TV-themed Diva Night in which I played two small screen dream "camp" roles--Kimberley on MELROSE PLACE and Linda Gray (yeah, I know the part was named Hilary but no one ever remembers that!!! =P) on MODELS INC.
And now, here's where things stood in January 1999:
I work with two theatre companies on a regular basis--CORN PRODUCTIONS and SWEETBACK PRODUCTIONS. Corn Productions is the home of Tiff and Mom, a series of plays about a dysfunctional mother/daughter duo from Berwyn and their friends. In general, the men play women and the women play men. Sweetback is best known for their hysterical sendups of movies and movie genres. Both theatre companies share the newly opened SWEETCORN PLAYHOUSE at 5113 N. CLARK STREET in Chicago (just south of Foster between Carmen & Winona). All plays I mention take place here unless otherwise indicated. You may have heard about it as we were on the front page of Section 2 of the Chicago Reader a while back due to a neighborhood woman who saw publicity shots from Superpussyvixens Go Faster! Kill! and Female Trouble in the window, misguidedly thought we were a "porn playhouse", and tried to have us shut down. But that tempest passed out of the teapot and we're UP AND RUNNIN'!!!...well, perhaps not for long. Some #$%#%#%$##%^ developer bought the building and wants to raze it and put up a 30-unit loft complex with a Gap on the first floor. So we may have to find a new location by May...but most of the local residents seem opposed to such a sterile monolith being erected so maybe we'll get to stay longer...in any event e-mail me for updates and also if you'd be willing to lend your support should we need it.
First of all--the future. Let me say that I am VERY excited to be working with Nomenil Productions again!!! I haven't gotten the chance to work with them as often as I'd like due to being so busy with Sweetback & Corn, but I finally was able to schedule them in! They're great to work with and their stuff is highly original, highly entertaining, and very out there. In their play THAT'S THE WAY IT IS,BY GOLLY, for example, which ran from 1996-97, I played Pattie, who as a child was kidnapped from a living nativity scene in which I played Baby Jesus by the oriental servant of a man-hating lesbian. Because my "mother" was such, I had to be raised as a girl. When I turned 16, the truth came out while we were having God over for supper (he wore a lot of gold lame') and I wound up in heaven (whose gates were guarded by a crossdressing Raggedy Ann & Andy) pregnant with the new messiah who was born stillborn. Like I said, very original, very funny, and very out there. This new play is tenatively entitled Love Pollution!: A Technopopera and, as is typical with Nomenil, it's VERY unique & VERY hard to describe. Suffice it to say it is basically about the battle between love, nature, and science...with a LOT of other campy ironic nonsequitors thrown in!!! I've heard the music in advance & it's EXCELLENT. I'll be playing Tiny Townie, one of the "love rebels", which means I get to do a lot of singing. It's scheduled to open in mid-May at the Mary-Arrchie Theatre at 731 W. Sheridan in Chicago. (Less than a block from my place!!!) It's a good thing we have so much prep time as I just found out my costume basically consists of a wig and a G-string. Needless to say I am checking out gym memberships PRONTO!!! E-mail me for updates and info.
I am currently appearing in the biggest hit of my theatrical career to date--Sweetback's sCARRIE:The Musical!!!, a musical send-up of the movie Carrie, in which I play the title role. It opened in early June of 1998 and is still going strong seven months later, albeit with plenty of cast changes. We sold out the first two months, and got rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune, Gay Chicago, Lesbigay Radio, Windy City Times, and New City....and the latter's critic normally hates EVERYTHING!!! In addition, we did 2 promo appearances on AM1000, are currently having a feature article written on us by Uncut, a film zine, and made the Best of 1998 Theatre lists in both the Tribune and Windy City Times. Also, I was on the cover of the Tribune in August!!!
The play itself is VERY funny, with classic moments from the movie interspersed with such original numbers as "I Hate Carrie Whyte", "Bash The Little Piggy", and "You Can Pray". The adaptation and musical numbers were masterminded by my friend, the brilliant David Cerda (to go to his homepage, click here ). The only thing that sucks is getting the $^%^%% blood off after each performance!!! (Thankfully the directors live upstairs so I have access to a shower!!!) Anyway, people have TRAVELLED to come see this show & so should you!!! It's every Saturday at 11 PM at the SweetCorn Playhouse. Tickets are $10; for reservations call (312) 409-3925. Email me for more info.
With David writing & Sweetback producing, I just wrapped up a holiday run of Rudolph, The Red-Hosed Reindeer, a bitchy campy cynical gay retelling of the classic holiday special in which I played Rudolph. Only, in our play, he was a transvestite instead of having a red nose! In addition, Mrs. Claus was a pill-popping, booze-swilling manic-depressive, Yukon Cornelia was a big ol' bulldyke (or was she?), the elves were stereotypical gay shallow showtune-loving gymbunnies (who got to do a number called "Wannabe An Elf?" which was new lyrics to the Spice Girls' "Wannabe"), Herbie the dentist elf was a misfit because he "wasn't gay enough" (he wore thrift store clothes and let his gym membership lapse!!!), Coach Comet was a pedophile who liked to invite young fawns to his office--located adjacent to the shower area, King Moon Racer apparently wandered in from a bus-and-truck company version of Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, and the Abominable Drag Beast of the North terrorised everyone with his/her renditions of overdone drag numbers like "Over the Rainbow", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", and "New Attitude"! "There's Always Tomorrow" started as the sappy ballad from the show, then transformed into a punk number complete with slamdancing, and there was a perky new number entitled "They'll Hate You If You're Different!". And all those things you always wondered about the original special were addressed, like that doll on the Island of Misfit Toys who had NOTHING WRONG WITH HER (Charlie-in-the-Box: And Dolly here, well, she...well, she...well, I'm not sure WHAT'S wrong with her--but you can bet she's a FREAK,TOO!!!). Needless to say, it was a blast, we did a promo appearance on LesBiGay Radio, and we sold out virtually every night--even with extensions!!! We're thinking of doing it again next year, so check back here for updates.
Also with Sweetback, I did the first two
DIVA NIGHT!s last year. This is a
(well, we
try to make it) monthly audience participation
showcase where you can get onstage and perform your
favorite scene from a movie or tv show--all you need
is a scene & a wig! (And to call to register first.)
In the first installment, for example, I was Joan
Crawford in The Best Of Everything, Neely
O'Hara
(the Patty Duke part) in
Valley of the Dolls, Vida in Mildred
Pierce,
and
Mary in The Women. The next one took place
Sunday, August 16th, 1998 & had an Elvis theme as it
was the 21st anniversary of his
death. (I remember hearing the news while riding on
the el with my mom going to visit dad at work and now
people born
that day can drink legally. Scary!!!) I did a scene
from
Days of Our Lives as Elvis-obsessed Susan, her
twins Sister Mary Moira & Thomas, and that mean,
mean, mean,
mean, mean KRIS-Ten Blake! The third one is
supposed to have a TV theme, but we have yet to
finalise a
date...but I guarantee you this is the
most fun you will have in AGES so be a part or
check it out! It's free to participate; $5 for
voyeurs...e-mail
me for more info.
In May of 98 I wrapped up appearing in Corn's
SPIN/OFF.
It was a series of potential TV pilots &
commercials (all spoofs, of course). If you ever
wanted to
see what E/R would be like if it was run by Joan
Crawford, you got your wish in "ICU"! Other
highlights
included "Trisha Pray's Christian Comedy Hour", in
which we
learned, among other things, that Samson & Delilah
have
their own stand-up comedy act, "Mandy: Country Butter
Woman", who roamed around the Old West solving
problems with "the better butter", everyone's
favourite audience participation game show, "What's
My Discharge?", and of course, "Martha Stewart's
Guide to Nuclear War" (I wrote and starred in that
one!)
It was a lot of fun--shame on you if you missed
it!!!
In the past with Corn, I've appeared in their
Halloween show TIFF & MOM: TALES FROM MOM's
CRYPT, in
which I played an eight year old midget, a babysitter
who overdosed on poppers, and Jasmine Montgomery,
Berwyn's answer to Mommie Dearest (she was also in
"ICU" in Spin/Off), as well as their
Christmas show
TIFF & MOM: A VERY BERWYN CHRISTMAS, in
which
I was
too many different parts to mention. "Bonnie
Franklin", "The Olsen Twins", and "Tori Spelling" all
put in cameos. Both were well-received & hysterical.
With Sweetback, I was in SUPERPUSSYVIXENS GO
FASTER!!
KILL!!, a send-up of those "BAD GIRLS!!!"
exploitation flicks of the 60s. I played
Linda, an obnoxiously sweet/hysterical bikini-clad
kidnap victim that you just wanted to SLAP!!! (The
Reader's review called me a "sex kitten"!!!)
I
started out as an understudy in the real live version
of FEMALE TROUBLE so at one point or
another
I was
Wink, Dribbles, Butterfly, Concetta, and the kitchen
sink. Both were tons o' fun & you should be ashamed
of yourself for missing 'em.
I started out as a theatre major at Columbia
College
in Chicago & graduated in 1995. Among other things,
I was Bob in Beyond Therapy, the Son in
Six
Characters in Search of An Author, various
roles in
Lovers & Other Strangers, Drew in
Eastern Standard,
and Emmett in Forensic & the Navigators
(an
obscure
early Sam Shepard one-act); I also directed
productions of Sure Thing, It Had to Be You, &
Vanities (I would really like to do
Vanities with all
men sometime!)
I am also in an independent film called TOTALLY
CONFUSED, which is being considered for
pickup by
Miramax and has played in film festivals in NY, LA, &
Berlin thus far. It finally came here in October as
part
of the Chicago International Film Festival. It dealt
with
Wiley, a twentysomething who was dealing with coming
out,
and his best friend Johnny, who may or may not have
feelings for him. I played Patrick, a sweet
drugged-out homeless GenXer who was Wiley's first
male
pickup. At least that's what I thought. When
I got
to the first night's showing, Gary Rosen, who
co-directed
it & played Wiley, rather sheepishly said that some
of my
scenes had been cut...but that STILL didn't prepare
me for
seeing the final version. ALL of my scenes had been
cut,
except for one where I was browsing in the background
of a
record store while Wiley & Johnny were having a
conversation. To add insult to injury, in the
credits I
went from being "Patrick" to "Boy In Record Store"!!!
Needless to say, I was NOT a happy camper!!! Yes, I
know
the phrase "My scenes ended up on the cutting room
floor"
is a common one for actors...but most of them, unlike
me,
have other films in which they didn't!!! Oh
well...it IS still a good film (even without me!!!)
and I
highly recommend it & wish Gary & Greg the best of
luck
with it.
I also write. My first play, I LOVE PSYCHO
MUTANT
KIMBERLEY!: A BITTERSWEET GENERATION X GAY LOVE
STORY
ran in 1994. It was a one-act that dealt with two
guys who thought they were soulmates but in the end
all they had in common was their love of Melrose
Place. My next play, THE BITCHES OF
HALSTED: A
GAY
meloDRAMAdy, is basically what Melrose Place would be
like if it were set in the Chicago gay community. It
should HOPEFULLY be coming soon to probably the
Sweetcorn Playhouse--I'll keep ya posted or e-mail me.
Finally, I was an extra in the movie
HERO in
the
crowd watching as Andy Garcia tries to jump from the
Drake Hotel. You can't see me & the film's not worth
sitting thru anyway.
Well, there you have it--my theatrical career to
date. Thanx for reading & e-mail me if
you
have
any questions or comments.
© 2000 laken44@yahoo.com<
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