I have been having such a fantastic time rehearsing for Alone Together! Honestly, we all laugh so much. The actors I get to share the stage with are a riot and come up with so much for their characters!

We've only just gotten off book for act one and are finally diving into act two! The craziest news? Closing night is already sold out! Yup. Tickets for the last performance are gone, Gone, GONE! Guess that means if you're interested you should let Oil Lamp know and hurry up and buy your ticket!

The BHOF Legends show went wonderfully! All the performers had a blast and the audience loved us. Brittny and I ended up vixening for the show too (picking up costume piece left on stage by the burlesquers) and it lent itself to some fun improv opportunities. Our extreme conservative cheerleaders were confused by and oblivious to a lot of what was happening on stage. I think my favorite clean-up improv bit we did was after a group of boys sang an ode to "apple juice" as they took shots of whiskey. As we cleaned up the glasses, spills, and spit we commented on how gross boys were for spitting and that it did NOT smell like apple juice.

Our sketch was an absolute blast. We covered N'Sync (I Voted That Way), Eric Carmen (Bachmann Eyes), Fergie (Reagan-liscious), and Jay-Z (99 Percent). The crowd lost it when we started rapping. I guess there is just something unexpected and ridiculous about cheerleaders rapping, especially about politics.

I'll try to put up a new picture or two if I get any from the show. I don't know who was photographing, so I'll keep you updated.

Now on to the next show!

Showing our stuff to Vaudezilla went wonderfully! They're always so open and give ideas and feedback that shape our sketches into something I am immensely proud of. It was also a night of seeing what everyone else is bringing to this show and, once again, I am beyond impressed. I laughed, I hooted and hollered! And this wasn't even fully in costume! March 16 is going to have one hell of a show!

I also had the opportunity to see a few shows since I last wrote. On Thursday Jen and I caught the Women's Club of Evanston's annual Benefit Show, whose proceeds this year are going to the Institute for Therapy Through the Arts (that's a mouthful!). The show kept us laughing until our sides hurt and I'm so happy something like ITA (the people getting the proceeds) exists. Listening to Jen talk about it was absolutely fascinating. She told me about a stroke victim who had lost use of his left side entirely but had been a pianist prior to his stroke. They set up a piano for him to play with his right hand and a mirror. The reflection made it look like his left hand was moving and because his brain interpreted it this way, eventually he regained some use of his left hand! Amazing stuff.

Then last night I caught opening night of Beau Jest at Oil Lamp. Another night filled with laughter! I may be biased because I have worked with the company before and am set to start rehearsals with them soon, but it is so refreshing to see very intimate yet very professional spaces like this one. Having performed in converted warehouses, large auditoriums, storefronts, black boxes, and various other theatres, it is a difficult line to walk to create a space like Oil Lamp has. The building had been a cafe before they bought it and there are still some left-over elements of that cafe, but nothing feels out of place. From the moment you walk in the door it feels like a family gathering.

<3

I'm very excited at all the new year has held already and all that I'm working to make happen the rest of the year. Tonight we start group rehearsals for Vaudezilla's BHOF Legends Challenge and I can't wait to show them what Brittny and I have come up with. We're using our Conservative Cheerleader characters again with a throwback to Republicans that have fallen out of the spotlight. Did I mention we rap and use ribbon dancers? I think this may be my favorite sketch we've written for Mitzi and Bitzi.

Then next week rehearsals start for Alone Together. I have to say, the first read-thru is one of my favorite rehearsals because there is so much more life to a script the second you hear it out loud. Suddenly there is so much more to it than my imagination ever came up with. 

Speaking of more than my imagination came up with, I'm kind of ridiculously proud of this website. I've been taking code classes at Codecademy.com so I could actually do the coding for the site. While I didn't do all of it, I easily manipulated the base code in a many places and am very happy with the result. I'd done little code editing projects in high school for fun but this is the first time I really had a grasp on it. It's not nearly as daunting as I'd thought it would be. Hop over to Code Academy and try a few lessons! They don't take too long and you learn a lot!

Till next time <3