When I make a wish I close my eyes and see a huge theatre with a big stage. I walk onto the stage and look out into the audience, who is in the dark. I am the only one lit. There, in the place where I do what I am meant to do, I make my wish.
And then I think of the people I have known in my life who would want that wish to come true for me. Family members come to mind first, then current friends. Then past friends, old friends, distant friends. Teachers, mentors, students, and co-workers. Lovers, boyfriends, crushes, the heart breakers and the heartbroken. People I've known all my life and people I've known for instants.
I think of them, one by one, and see their faces. Whether they know it or not, they want my wish to come true. Even if they have hurt me in some way, or if I have hurt them, they are part of my storyline, and so they are part of what leads me to the knowledge of what will help me grow.
And then, the lights in the theatre come up, and I can see the audience. All those people I thought of are there. A full house; hundreds of smiling faces. They live in my safe place, in my sacred temple, in my heart's home, and they want my wish to come true. They all want me to be happy, successful, in love, fulfilled, clear, and at peace. They all want to see me realize my full potential.
I thank them for being there. And they applaud me, because they know that is my favorite sound in the world.
I open my eyes, and I am the strongest version of myself. I am filled with courage and love. I have made my wish, not upon a star or into a fountain, but in the heart of every single person who has made me who I am today. I am unstoppable, I am alive, and I have touched the miraculous.
Showing posts with label theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theatre. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The Body Stories: Trailer and Website!
I am so excited to share this! It is my heart's work, my baby, my medicine, and my gift to humanity.
My project, created from scratch alongside Jeanne Joe Perrone, with Victoria Bennet, Melinda Graham, and Breanna Noel, has a beautiful trailer and website now!
Watch, learn, share, like, comment, and be inspired!
website: http://thebodystories.weebly.com
trailer:
Thank you to Yvonne Yu, our videographer, and John Wyffles, our designer.
Thank you to all who have supported us! Come on out on January 22nd to see our first rendition of The Body Stories!
Monday, October 10, 2011
The Body Stories
Alongside Jeanne Joe Perrone, a fellow Actors Studio Drama School MFA graduate and boundlessly inventive artist, I have created my upcoming theater production, The Body Stories. A year in the making, and a lifetime in my heart, we are now producing this physical theater meets live art show that lets our bodies tell their stories. After all, we believe our bodies know more than we do. We are scheduled to perform on January 22nd, 2012, in Manhattan, and we are thrilled to share this rendition of our work with you!
I struggled from an early age with body image issues. As a teenager in Brazil, the pressure from the media, the society I lived in, and the people around me skewed my perception of myself, to the point where I had three plastic surgeries by the age of 15, battled eating disorders, and underwent countless dangerous, expensive, and painful procedures in order to attain what I perceived as real beauty. Having survived my turbulent adolescent angst and violent insecurities, I arrived at adulthood with a new task: understanding my past and finding compassion for how I treated myself over those years. The arduous road ended at the expected destination: self-love and self-acceptance.
That I lived to tell this story is not something I take for granted. I know that body image issues are present in the lives of most teenagers and adults, especially women, and I feel in my heart that I have a responsibility to tell my story. I have found an artistic expression to my innermost scars with The Body Stories, and it is the most important piece of theater I have worked on to date. It is a message I am carrying because I have to; this story lives inside me, and it always will.
Jeanne Joe and I are driven by our love of theater and our need to tell these stories; that is our compensation. But, as you surely know, our production cannot go up on love alone. We are committed to creating this show with the lowest possible budget, with a goal of raising $1500 by November 1st, 2011. We are now requesting the contribution of our friends and families in making this project possible. Donations start at $10, and every penny helps us!
Your contribution is the lifeline of this production, and we are grateful for all donations of any monetary amount. Please visit our indigogo fundraiser website to make a donation and learn more about The Body Stories.
http://www.indiegogo.com/The-
Our gratitude for any and all donations is infinite. We cannot do what we do without your generous support. Please share our fundraiser campaign on your social media sites and help us promote this project.
To learn more about The Body Stories and find out ways to be involved, please feel free to contact us. If your body, too, has a story to tell, do not hesitate in reaching out to us. We are here to serve the material that already lives within us, and there are no limits to how much this project can grow.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
...On Directing WEIGHT
The day of a show usually goes like this:
Wake up, the first few seconds are normal, and then there is a sudden, sharp realization: I am performing tonight!
Excitement is followed by extreme panic.
For the next two minutes I wonder if it's too late to leave the country.
It is.
And then I remember: I love doing this. No, love doesn't cover it. I am obsessed with it. If someone said: Here's a theatre, but you can't leave it for the rest of your life, you have to be here every day, and for many days in a row you might not see the light of day, but you will create theatre with integrity, love, and purpose; I would say, Lock me up. Tie me down. There is nothing else I'd rather do with my life.
I have been doing this since I was four years old; performing, creating shows, making other people do what I want, making other people watch what I've created, and seeking, always seeking, an opportunity to bring a character to life. I am not a story-teller, I am a story-liver (as in, life liver, not body organ liver). Even when I tell my cousin's daughters a story, I do it as if I were acting out a play, taking on the character's voices and acting out all the actions. I usually end up a sweaty mess and, if the intention was ever to put the child to sleep, I fail at it miserably. They are as wound up as ever by the time I am done, because I am most alive when I am acting, and life is contagious. They love it. They need it. We all do. We all need stories to be lived in front of us; we ache for that exposure of the human heart.
Tonight the play I directed opens. How is directing different than performing? Multiply the above experiences by a thousand. And then put on the pressure to be the one who is calm, in control, patient, and knowledgeable.
WEIGHT was written by my soul sister, Kerri Campbell Evans. She showed it to me one day, and I had a vision. We looked at each other, and it was done: I'd be directing WEIGHT.
I have directed things here and there since I was a child; it's easy for me because, as my brother and cousins can attest, I like telling people what to do. But I have hesitated to call myself a director. I am so madly in love with being on stage, with communicating a character's soul to a live audience, that I often wonder if directing can be as fulfilling.
What I've learned is that it's fulfilling in an entirely different way. This play was important to me; I fell in love with the characters and felt a need to tell their stories. I saw my role: I would be the one creating the environment for my actors to bring their characters to life. I would give them what they needed, whether they knew that they needed it or not, in order to rise to their character's worlds.
In this life of odd day jobs here and there, I discovered two jobs outside of the theatrical business that I was suited for: teaching and tour guiding. So it made sense that I would fit right into my director's chair. I see the potential in people and then I make it my mission to guide them towards it. Because I know first-hand what that "a-ha!" moment feels like for an actor- the moment when the character clicks, when you understand something that could only be understood by living through it, when you feel with absolute certainty that there is a force much higher than yourself that takes you to this place of raw truth- because I know that this is what we live for, I have found it incredibly fulfilling to be part of the process that takes them there.
I am a mother tonight, watching my baby take its first step, speak its first word, and look out into the world for the first time, knowing that it is theirs.
I am so proud of my girls, and I am so excited to see our play, which we rehearsed in living rooms and pieced together bit by bit over the course of four months, being given to others tonight. That is the final step- giving the creation over. No matter how many times I do this, I will always feel the butterflies in my stomach. Like the early stages of falling in love, I cannot help but let excitement clash with nervousness, and hope that my heart's desire to love will be met with another open, willing heart.
Send your positive energy to our beautiful play and, if you're around, come support our magical journey.
WEIGHT opens tonight at the Strawberry One-Act Festival.
Hudson Guild Theater
441 W. 26th St. (btw 9th and 10th aves)
7:00pm
Wake up, the first few seconds are normal, and then there is a sudden, sharp realization: I am performing tonight!
Excitement is followed by extreme panic.
For the next two minutes I wonder if it's too late to leave the country.
It is.
And then I remember: I love doing this. No, love doesn't cover it. I am obsessed with it. If someone said: Here's a theatre, but you can't leave it for the rest of your life, you have to be here every day, and for many days in a row you might not see the light of day, but you will create theatre with integrity, love, and purpose; I would say, Lock me up. Tie me down. There is nothing else I'd rather do with my life.
I have been doing this since I was four years old; performing, creating shows, making other people do what I want, making other people watch what I've created, and seeking, always seeking, an opportunity to bring a character to life. I am not a story-teller, I am a story-liver (as in, life liver, not body organ liver). Even when I tell my cousin's daughters a story, I do it as if I were acting out a play, taking on the character's voices and acting out all the actions. I usually end up a sweaty mess and, if the intention was ever to put the child to sleep, I fail at it miserably. They are as wound up as ever by the time I am done, because I am most alive when I am acting, and life is contagious. They love it. They need it. We all do. We all need stories to be lived in front of us; we ache for that exposure of the human heart.
Tonight the play I directed opens. How is directing different than performing? Multiply the above experiences by a thousand. And then put on the pressure to be the one who is calm, in control, patient, and knowledgeable.
WEIGHT was written by my soul sister, Kerri Campbell Evans. She showed it to me one day, and I had a vision. We looked at each other, and it was done: I'd be directing WEIGHT.
I have directed things here and there since I was a child; it's easy for me because, as my brother and cousins can attest, I like telling people what to do. But I have hesitated to call myself a director. I am so madly in love with being on stage, with communicating a character's soul to a live audience, that I often wonder if directing can be as fulfilling.
What I've learned is that it's fulfilling in an entirely different way. This play was important to me; I fell in love with the characters and felt a need to tell their stories. I saw my role: I would be the one creating the environment for my actors to bring their characters to life. I would give them what they needed, whether they knew that they needed it or not, in order to rise to their character's worlds.
In this life of odd day jobs here and there, I discovered two jobs outside of the theatrical business that I was suited for: teaching and tour guiding. So it made sense that I would fit right into my director's chair. I see the potential in people and then I make it my mission to guide them towards it. Because I know first-hand what that "a-ha!" moment feels like for an actor- the moment when the character clicks, when you understand something that could only be understood by living through it, when you feel with absolute certainty that there is a force much higher than yourself that takes you to this place of raw truth- because I know that this is what we live for, I have found it incredibly fulfilling to be part of the process that takes them there.
I am a mother tonight, watching my baby take its first step, speak its first word, and look out into the world for the first time, knowing that it is theirs.
I am so proud of my girls, and I am so excited to see our play, which we rehearsed in living rooms and pieced together bit by bit over the course of four months, being given to others tonight. That is the final step- giving the creation over. No matter how many times I do this, I will always feel the butterflies in my stomach. Like the early stages of falling in love, I cannot help but let excitement clash with nervousness, and hope that my heart's desire to love will be met with another open, willing heart.
Send your positive energy to our beautiful play and, if you're around, come support our magical journey.
WEIGHT opens tonight at the Strawberry One-Act Festival.
Hudson Guild Theater
441 W. 26th St. (btw 9th and 10th aves)
7:00pm
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Oi! Ginger!
Long standing readers to Mostly Harmless will know I absolutely adore all things ginger. Especially Ginger Beer. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered this in my local Waitrose supermarket. It's come all the way from our colonial cousins living in the Land Down Under. Can't wait to try a bottle later tonight. Strewth!
And while on the subject of ginger-ness, my very own 'copper-top' in the form of LL (he gets it from his maternal Granddad) has been doing rather well lately. I have him every Saturday and in the mornings he goes to Gym club for an hour or so, where sadly (LOL) I can only join the other parents and watch from the balcony. He really enjoys it and while he's keen, he'll get all the encouragement I can give. They assess the kids about once a term to national gymnastic standards and I'm pleased to say that with some effort he's been able to progress, winning himself this lovely certificate.
And this afternoon we popped along to the Wycombe Swan theatre where they were having an open day, including guided tours from back stage all the way up into the lighting gallery. Excellent fun and was totally free. Now that's not bad is it?
Since I'm on a bit of a blogging-roll... I found this recently, all the way from the New England area of the US. I used to have one on the back of my previous car, which didn't make a great deal of sense in the UK but you should have seen the faces of puzzled on-lookers! Maybe I should consider it again..?
While I think of it, we don't change our clocks in the UK until 28 March. I checked here on the government website, since there'd been a total lack of coverage this past week. Sorry for any panic/confusion caused LOL. Spring is still due to start tomorrow though.
Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Reading
And while on the subject of ginger-ness, my very own 'copper-top' in the form of LL (he gets it from his maternal Granddad) has been doing rather well lately. I have him every Saturday and in the mornings he goes to Gym club for an hour or so, where sadly (LOL) I can only join the other parents and watch from the balcony. He really enjoys it and while he's keen, he'll get all the encouragement I can give. They assess the kids about once a term to national gymnastic standards and I'm pleased to say that with some effort he's been able to progress, winning himself this lovely certificate.
And this afternoon we popped along to the Wycombe Swan theatre where they were having an open day, including guided tours from back stage all the way up into the lighting gallery. Excellent fun and was totally free. Now that's not bad is it?
Since I'm on a bit of a blogging-roll... I found this recently, all the way from the New England area of the US. I used to have one on the back of my previous car, which didn't make a great deal of sense in the UK but you should have seen the faces of puzzled on-lookers! Maybe I should consider it again..?
While I think of it, we don't change our clocks in the UK until 28 March. I checked here on the government website, since there'd been a total lack of coverage this past week. Sorry for any panic/confusion caused LOL. Spring is still due to start tomorrow though.
Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Reading
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Quote Of The Day?
"Shakespeare's all right, but he's lacking on spaceships" - David Tennant.
Talking about missing Cardiff, the BBC production crew and being in Doctor Who while taking time out to co-star in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet with Patrick Stewart.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a131118/tennant-suffers-doctor-who-withdrawal.html
Talking about missing Cardiff, the BBC production crew and being in Doctor Who while taking time out to co-star in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet with Patrick Stewart.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a131118/tennant-suffers-doctor-who-withdrawal.html
Friday, May 23, 2008
Theatre
Took a trip out last night to see Oklahoma! at a local theatre. Had never been to a show at this theatre before despite it being practically on my doorstep. Quite remiss of me- it's a very good venue. Equally I can't believe I hadn't seen this Roger's and Hammerstein classic either despite my love of theatre. So two firsts in one night.
Admittedly this was an ameteur production by a local company of players although there was nothing ameteur about the production at all. Played out to a nearly packed out house, a good time was had by all.
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