Judy Steinle – The Actorvist

So far everything that I have read for the Chinese Zodiac Dragon and for the astrological sign of Cancer have been about 85% positive! There are some things to heed during the later part of the year, but isn’t that always the case?

I am truly looking forward to the upcoming year, but you can’t look forward without looking back.

Thank you to the many, many people that helped to make 2014 so incredible.

First, thank you to the amazing cast and fellow staff for Jesus Christ Superstar!! You were so wonderful to work for. You thought me so much about myself and what I still need to learn. You were fun and I loved watching you shine on stage.

Thank you to my WVLOMT family that always makes me feel welcome whether it is as a staff or cast member.

Thank you to Bill Starr. You are such a great person to work with. I adore you and thank you for all of your encouragement, advice, and friendship. Thank you for the opportunity to bring your vision of Bobby Child to life.

Thank you to the cast and staff of Crazy for You! When I felt like it was too much for me, watching you all work so hard made me dig deeper because I didn’t want to let you down. I hope to work with all of you again and again and again.

Thank you to Jen Maggio and Myra Diamond for allowing me to be a part of A Chorus Line even though I missed auditions. It was another fantastic experience working for both of you.

Thank you to the cast of A Chorus Line! You are such beautiful wonderful souls and I was very lucky to share the stage with you. I am so glad no one actually got a case of the sexy ebola.

Thank you to James Kopp and the cast of Super Villain! I have never laughed so hard during the process of putting a show on its feet. It was a joy to get to do another play. I hope I get to do more. Like James is always saying, “I ain’t in my 20’s anymore.” To you young’uns like, Haley and Gaby, thank you for always pretending I am! hahahahahaha!!

Special Thank You’s to Aaron Weisberg, Kevin Brownstein, Valerie Valenzuela-Misra, Ronnie Misra, Judy Steinle, Mike Brothers, Andrea Furtado, Michelle Elrick, Ms. Rhona McFayden, David Lamcke, Amanda Vogel, Emily Goes, Gabby Au, Susanna Wagner, Elizabeth Lawrence, Nancy Kwong, Cameron Kwong, Riley Kwong, Emily Pye Christine Ormseth, Amy Root, Samantha Carson, and Tammy Mackenzie. You have all offered help and support throughout the year and it meant the world to me. There’s no particular order, so don’t read into it. LOL!

Most importantly, Thank you to my munster and my BFF’s (the T.P.B. and J.S.) for never making me feel worse that I never had time to hang out. You are the other half of my life that keeps me going. So much of my heart belongs to you all for keeping me sane and grounded and well rounded. Without you fabulous people, I would be lost. I love you.

So 2015, bring on Life! I have my arms open ready to hug the hell out of you. I am excited for what’s to come. I don’t make resolutions. I feel like when I need to change something about myself, I don’t need to wait til the beginning of a new year. I just want to continue carrying on like I have the past three years. Theatre and friends! That is all I need.

May you all have SAFE and fun and wonderful New Year celebrations.

For the world, I shall still wish for peace and coexistence. It is the same wish every year. I will still hope that mankind will finally open its eyes and hearts to one another.

I wish you everything you want in 2015.

Now let’s go get it!

eggswannalive

I spent my 4th of July working on Jesus Christ Superstar and Pippin and a couple of sewing projects while Perry was at work.

I had to make sure to get my concepts on paper, check out when I can interview another person for the Assistant Director position, write out choreography, character, and costume ideas for JCS. I know that if I don’t do this now, I will probably forget what I was thinking.

I’ve been thinking about how I could best go about explaining my directorial debut. Aside from simply blogging about it, I think I will try and record some of the rehearsals with either audio or video devices. For now, I think I should get this first while it is in my head…

As I was compiling my notes for JCS, I began to think about the emails and Facebook messages I’ve gotten from people excited about the auditions and the show itself. I am so happy that people are excited for the show and for my first project in this capacity. I also get just the tiniest bit nervous because that little voice in my smarts-holder starts asking questions. The big one is “What if you can’t pull this off?” or worse “what if the people don’t like working with you in this role?” Gah!!! Shuddup, party-pisser! Its gonna be awesome, because I am Roarsome! I have a shirt to prove it. So there! Thanks Sarah! Anyway, back on track…

Then I began to breakdown the characters and who sings what and I see that while there are many solos to be had, what happens if I get a TON of people to audition and I don’t have parts for them? What’s really playing with my head is what if I have way more good people that are friends than I have parts? How do I tell my friends that I can’t/didn’t cast them? Not only that, what will the backlash be? I suppose I could just make it a REALLY large cast! Kidding. That would be absurd.

Seriously, though. I very nearly had a panic attack while I was sitting at the table holding a glass of water, thinking of the next thing that I had to write down.

It amazes me how quickly and randomly the brain works. I was just looking through the perusal script as I was listening to the soundtrack when BAM! my thoughts take a 90 degree turn at 341 mph and I see my glass start to shake in my hand. For a split second things get a little unfocused because I go in that daydream kind of headspace where I am not really focusing on anything, and I just see all these people being angry with me. So my breath starts to catch and then I hear one of those screaming firework things and it pulls me right out of it. So… thanks for scaring the shit out of me Mr. Neighbor Guy!

You see those eggs up there ⇡? Imagine feeling like that…

ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

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But let’s think about things I shan’t be stressing over…

I think I have the majority of my staff!! Woot woot!!

So as of this moment, this is the unconfirmed dream team that will help make JCS frakkin’ amazing!

Music Director: Jean Narunsky

Vocal Director: Judy Steinle

Costumes: Sue Howell (I was just kidding with her saying that she had to build all the costumes from scratch. She didn’t even bat an eye and she said “Oh, I can do that!”)

Stage Manager: Emily Pye!! (She is all kinds of amazing!)

Set Design: Stephen Wathen

Light Design: Mike Munoz (There will be no smoke machines.)

Still figuring out Sound, AD, and Tech Director, but I shall keep you posted on that.

The next thing that I need to do is to find out what the budgeting looks like for this show. I think I have some ideas on how to save some dough without compromising everything that I want. So that calls for a meeting with my Producer ladies, Nancy Kwong and Liz Dale.

Well, now that I am super excited again, I think I am going to go back to work on my “stuffs.”

I think I wanna knit now and listen to a podcast.

It’ll be a nice way to wind down!

If you have any advice on how to let a friend down easy so that I am prepared for auditions, I would LOVE to hear it. All suggestions will be helpful. Even the totally looney ones! Leave a comment below with your ideas. Cheers!