Sneak Peek

We had our first preview on Friday, another one last night, and we'll rehearse for a few hours today before doing one more this evening. They're going rather brilliantly! These audiences have been smart and generous and laughing and applauding throughout the show. We open officially on Friday. We hit the point a couple of days before our first audience where suddenly it was time. No more playing to a big empty theatre trying to guess where reactions would be and even forgetting the play was funny. There's only so many times the director and designers can laugh. I love these preview audiences!! They are helping us the right pace for the play, feel what's working and what needs a tweak, AND we all know there will be that show where the folks out there sit on their hands and stare at us the whole time barely breaking a smile. The shifting shape of live theatre:)

The play is Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw. It's about rules and breaking them, parents and kids, ideas and real life, social class, romantic relationships.....just a few little light concepts packed deliciously into a story about a wealthy middle class 1909 English family whose life gets turned upside down when an airplane comes crashing through their greenhouse and a handsome aviator and mysterious Polish woman enter the scene.

My character is Hypatia, the daughter of said wealthy middle class family, who's a rebel wearing a lot of pink. The biggest tragedy of my life so far is that nothing has happened to me and everyone talks too much for anything to happen. The airplane crash changes that.....

I've been called by my castmates a "buttercream geisha" as well as a My Little Pony. I do get to gallop around the stage on a couple of occasions......

Here's a sneak peek of my costume, courtesy of our genius costume designer Maggie Morgan

I get to wear that! And have a blonde wig styled like that! (Appropriately Edwardian). This is definitely one of those dresses that as a little girl would have made me want to be an actress even more.

The play runs through Oct. 10 at South Coast Repertory. If you find yourself in the area, please come say Hi.