how do we ever keep this secret?

ROCK N' ROLL!

Just finished the last scene in the "Allies" script. I sent the magical Foxfire a copy of Act I. I hear the ticking of the clock/I'm lying here, the room's pitch dark..

So, with every just finished comes a just started:

Just started putting together a readthrough for La Machine Infernale.


Times is tough. It's a fight to stay rockin and rollin. So fight on, and fear not, my bloggy friends.

legally blonde closing oct. 19th

Well, my year and a half with Legally Blonde on Broadway officially comes to a close in three weeks. I know certain people are jumping for joy that our fluffy pinkness won't be prancing about at the Palace any longer, but that's not really necessary. No show closing is a thing to celebrate; it most certainly puts good people out of a job.


In other news, the "Paper Planes" video is in the can. Fike Mox & I will be sitting down to start editing next Tuesday.

This week has been a bit of a bummer - maybe it's the dreary weather - briefly lit up by dance classes, a Guitar Hero callback, and a night at Ensemble Studio Theatre's "Close Ties,' w/ Daisy. Next week is jammed, and excitingly so - attending the invited dress for "Boys' Life" at 2ndStage on Wednesday (Man worked on their build), "Equus" on Thursday, show at the Bowery Poetry Club on Friday (plus PPAS showcase if I can make it).

to sunnier days,
Maggie

bucket list roles

1. Magenta in Rocky Horror
2. Miss Hannigan in Annie
3. Ophelia in Hamlet
4. Donna in a dreamer examines his pillow
5. Titania in Midsummer

And now, I can cross numero uno off that list!!!

Seanathon has called, and told me of a Halloween-night special midnight performance of Rocky he's been asked to direct. And invited me to play the domestic herself. It's in K-Town, so I'll be out of NYC for All Hallows festivities, but WHO CARES! MAGENTA! YAY!

the exploding white privileged townhouse

The reading that Kindred invited Daisy & I to participate in was quite fun. A little bit of gratuitous nudity in the piece (to illustrate that these radicals, while they make bombs, still practice free love..), but with every line punctuated by the word "man," how could it not be a blast?

Seems like we'll be doing a workshop in public sometime soon.


TheatreVision insists that all directors sign a contract guaranteeing you'll bring 15 audience members. And you have to attend an "orientation"...? This is kinda sketch. It's a non-paying gig, how exactly can they punish you if you don't bring an audience?


RTC was recently offered a space at Theatre Row for the Xmas season, so perhaps 2008 won't be a dead year after all! We're tossing different ideas about right now; I shall post as soon as a decision is made. Oh, in the midst of these troubled times, how lucky we are to play make-believe as our profession...and how lucky I am that this year's nasty failures haven't taken a permanent toll...

I'm feeling very hug-the-world right now.

xoxoxoxoxoxo
Maggie

disturbia

Currently waiting for Verizon to come by the Bread Job and install new phone lines. They've got an hour and fifteen left in the designated window. I am not particularly optimistic. My experience with these guys and the demons over at Time Warner Cable is equally wretched.

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Aussie has been mentioning her interest in starting a monologue group up for actor-practice. I need to keep my chops in good working order as well, and I told her I would be psyched to hang out, tweak, critique and help shape one-minutes, two-minutes, Shakespeares, contemporaries, etc. once a week. We could work out of the Commune in Queens (where Aussie, PJ, Sessoms & Miss Kim all live), or all throw down about 5 bucks and rent a TR or Shetler space. I'm more in favor of the rental; rehearsals in a house tend to be distracting. Anyone interested?

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Man is sound board op for King of Shadows down at Theater for the New City. I went to the opening with Sessoms on Sunday. Besides the room being downright frosty, it was a decent experience. The sound design (done by the delightful M.L. Dogg) was actually my favorite part - in fact, the design of everything was gorgeous. The performances were a little, er, confusing to me - a lot of the show seemed muddled, and very disconnected. I kept wanting to yell "Talk like humans!," but I don't know if this was the fault of actors, director, or writer...or if it was done intentionally.


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The first "real" theatre work I ever did in NYC, I was 17. I had an internship at Chicago City Limits, and I was submitting my ten minute play "Spoons" to every address I could find. The very prolific Theatre Studio Inc. Playtime series picked it up. I was stoked.

I wound up doing a bunch of things at TSI around that time - acting in several other plays, doing a few different runs of "Spoons." It wasn't particularly glamorous, but it was a really great, friendly way to get broken in to the theatre scene. I haven't been back to TSI since 2003, when I performed as Sudi in a show my friend wrote called "Sudi's Day Comes." I hear they got a new space, revamped their programs (they're caled TheatreVision now), and I keep seeing their calls for directors in Backstage.

So...I bit the bullet, and sent an email saying whattup.

I recieved a response pretty quickly, and I gather I will be directing a...something?...for the Octoberfest Bar-ometrics Pressures Festival. Rock n roll.

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In Other News:

-Congrats to Daisy for booking Theatreworks Christmas Carol tour!! Daisy definitely has the biggest rack of any Tiny Tim ever. I am allowed to say this cuz we is BFF.

-Please come check out RTC's Bal Masqué, to raise funds for our 2009 season. We have some really wonderful performances planned and will be silent-auctioning off a lot of cool shtuff - framed, signed David Bowie artwork, an original '79 Rocky Horror poster, tix to NY City Ballet, baskets of alcohol...come!

-I don't know what to be for Halloween yet. This is not good!

i've been working on a cocktail

Standoff with Bugs.
Hour 4.
Have killed one nasty hairy spindly water-centipede I found in Brother's room.

Have not killed any of 3 Roaches (or perhaps the same one, swapping locations throughout the evening to fuck with me), coming out and staring at me and twitching their antennae and looking generally huge and shiny and horrible.

WHY. WHY WHY WHY. Because I live in New York, yes, that's why. But really, my house is decently clean. Sometimes the dishes linger, but it's certainly not grounds for infestation.

I blame the new neighbors below. The bugs no longer have a big empty apartment to scuttle about in, so tonight, they're checking out the penthouse.



My pest problem aside, I am actually working on some projects worth a mention, since this is supposedly a blog about directing. On the directing front, Baby Bear Productions is a scant 2.5 weeks away from the Paper Planes shoot. On the writing front, been plugging away at the Heart show w/ Ms. Foxfire (met her at the US auditions; she's slated to play Brooke whenever that gets-a-goin again). On the design front, I'm doing costumes for a show called "What a Life," with a company I've never worked with before - and THAT is always exciting! And on the (GASP) acting front, I'm actually reading something aloud with MORE people that I've never worked with before. My friend Kindred (who brought me to a lovely goth-trash-rock show and encourages me to co-write letters to Guillermo del Toro with him) invited me and Daisy and some other folk to read a new play aloud next Friday.

And Gorey Stories co-author Stephen Currens dropped me a line last week, asking about the RTC production! I told him we've postponed, so we'll be meeting for a drink & discuss when he visits NYC in October.

Just putting this into the blagosphere, as a wish, since I've sent the letter (gloriously translated by Daisy's stepmom) to Pierre Bergè, asking for permission to perform it: La Machine Infernale.