Tuesday, August 31

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Travelers,

There is a wonderful Chinese Proverb that says "A Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." In 2007 I took the first step in this journey. I went to my first audition for theatre, not Opera. For those of you who don't know, I am a classically trained opera singer. I had the pleasure of studying with very talented and famous people, who taught me integral knowledge of music, performing, use of language and emotional commitment to text! Roles such as "Cio-Cio-San" in Madama Butterfly, "Violetta" in Traviata, "Rosalinda" in Die Fledermaus, and "Fiordiligi" in Cosi Fan Tutte were some of my favorites to perform. "How could you crossover", you ask? "Why would you stop singing Opera?" I am no longer in my 20's and I really didn't want to sing Wagner!! Plus, I am a funny person....and most of the parts I was singing were tragic! Also, performing is performing....whether one is singing opera or portraying a Shakespearean Character or rendering a monologue, enacting a comedic part with physical comedy or enacting a tragic part with pathos. One learns from various classes, teachers, live performances and life experiences. It has become very clear to me in the last four years that all we do connects and helps us become better at our craft of acting/singing/performing. And to be honest, I have always wanted to sing Musical Comedy professionally. Who knew most of my jobs would be straight plays? Wow, what fun I have been having....But I digress....In 2007, I started auditioning for various roles with various companies in New York City. I was very fortunate to meet wonderful directors, producers, casting directors, and other actors and I got jobs!! In fact my first job was in Tony and Tina's Wedding, lots of improvisation and lots of hilarity and fun. Next came Tale of the Allergist's Wife, another comedy where I was the lead. There was no music. Gosh it is hard to learn lines when one is used to marrying the words to music. I had to develop an entirely new way of approaching memorization! Luckily I have wonderful singing and acting teachers who help me constantly to perfect and tune my techniques! Sorry, I am digressing again....

Yesterday was the first day of my present journey, which is why I started this blog. I am going on the National Tour of Fiddler on the Roof for the next nine months, I will be "Golde". This is really a dream come true for me. I am so very excited and thrilled to be working with outstanding people. Our director and music director, company manager, stage manager and all of the cast are top notch. It is a thrill to be in the same room with so many talented people. We have already started staging the big company numbers. What a fun show this is.

My main reason for having this blog is that I won't have much spare time on this trip. I already miss you all as I have been on the road since last April. Again, for those of you who don't know, I went to the UPTA in Memphis, TN in February and proceeded to get four jobs! Thanks to wonderful directors and producers I have had a fantastic spring and summer, performing in three different cities, in four different shows. I was also offered two more jobs this fall which I sadly couldn't take as I will be on the road as "Golde"!! So since I find that time is fleeting and there are never enough hours to call and write all the wonderful people that I know and love, I figured this would be fun. I can share some of my experiences and keep in touch at the same time with lots of people without having to send out email blasts, which can get to be too formulaic. We will be on a bus traveling all over the country. I will probably discuss eating, (for those of you who know me, you know how much I love to eat!), sleeping on a bus, doing laundry at odd hours, theatre etiquette, hopefully funny happenings along the way....

I will also be letting you know where we will be performing. Since I know people all over the country and we will be in most of the contiguous United States and Canada, I would LOVE it if you can make it to a performance. Please let me know so that we can meet after the show. We will have an 8 piece orchestra!! Heaven! No tracks on a CD player that doesn't work....that was another show....we ended up singing a capella!

Okay, I think I have to end this now. Stay tuned, there will be more entries. I apologize in advance if I don't report each day....I am old you know and I do get tired, but I will try and at least add a tidbit or two each day. We are attaching this to my website, so you can view pictures of past performances and there are mp3's with me singing as well as videos of work I have done in clubs, on TV and on the Web.

Good night and as a dear friend always tells me...."More Later!"