A Healing Side of Oklahoma City

Well, I found my peace in Oklahoma City at the National Memorial for the Oklahoma City bombings that happened back in 1995. This was truly one of the most stunning memorials I have ever seen. If you ever take a trip to OKC, you've got to check it out, but do it at night. It is truly spectacular and extremely moving. I had my camera, but I just couldn't bring myself to take pictures. It somehow felt wrong so the memory will be in my mind. When you visit, it is well worth the trip.

Oklahoma City certainly played some havoc on our company. We had so many people out with injuiries, illnesses and what not so it was quite interesting. Our wonderful Elphaba, Victoria Matlock is out with an injury for a while, so Colleen Sexton and Marcie Dodd have been going on for her....both terrific.

Nope, I still haven't gone on as Madame Morrilbe. I'll tell ya what...I'm in the wrong company LOL All the other Madame Morribles seem to go on all the time. LOL I'll just patiently wait my turn ; ) And if I know ahead of time, I'll announce and hopefully all of you can come!

We're now in Columbus, OH and we've already found some great places to hang. But my highlight here will be being the first in line to buy the new iPhone from MAC. Yes, I will be one of those techie dorks waiting in line for hours to be one of the first to own this fabulous new piece of equipment. I can't wait!!!

Anyway....that's what's up for now. Stay tuned.....more to come when I get my iPhone LOL

From Heaven To Not So Heavenly

I must say, it's quite a shock to go from the mile high city of Denver to the 90 degree heat of Oklahoma City, OK. OK for who is what I want to know : )

But Denver was truly glorious. I took a lovely hiking trip in the Rocky Mountains, saw the Denver botanical, ran a 5K and in general enjoyed the beauty of this amazing city. This big ladybug was on display at the gardens.

We did say goodbye to our good friend Josh Lamon as he made his last performance as Boq. But we welcome in Brad Weinstock! It appears the next few months will continue to bring more and more turnovers in cast members. It's a given when you're in a long running show, but it's always sad to see your friends go away. But we wish them all the best.

I was quite busy in Denver in another way too. I finally finished my second book and will have it ready for purchase in the next two or three weeks. If you'd like to reserve your copy today, click below

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Wow! Long Time...

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. For those of you waiting on tender hooks (I'm sure) thanks for your patience. It's been a whirlwind for the last month as we've moved from Houston to Dallas to Denver. Then, without warning I took a side trip to Los Angeles. The company whisked me to the LA company of Wicked to stand by for Madame Morrible. Here's what happened...Carol Kane was on vacation. Her understudy Linda Kerns was on. And the other understudy was injured. So they wanted to make sure that there was another Morrible in the building in case (heaven forbid) something happened to Linda. The great news was....nothing happened to Linda. I did NOT go on as Morrible but I did get to perform as the Midwife for the last three shows of the week. So I guess I can now add The Los Angeles Company of Wicked to my resume. Yippee. It was actually very surreal to be peforming in the show with an entirely different company. They were wonderful to me and are a very fun company!

But I must admit, I'm glad to be back with my own peeps. In fact, I flew in just in time to perform in our Broadway Cares Benefit here in Denver. We raised over $50,000 for the organization and even sold four Wicked Walk ons. So we'll soon be hosting some new Wicked cast members. For you true Wicked officiananadoes, can you spot the winners????

We're about to have somee big cast changes to. We're saying goodbye to Josh Lamon, our incredible Boq. He will be greatly missed. We're also saying goodbye to two ensemble members (both Fiyero understudies) Geoff Packard and Kyle McDaniel. I'm looking forward to meeting the wonderful folks who will take over their roles.

I'll be better with keeping up in the future! But for now, enjoy this shot of me in the LA company with the Witches Mother Gina Starbuck (and in my very own brand new Emerald City costume oooooohhhhhh) and posing with my fellow benefit performers. We were called the Manhattones and sang give Manhattan Transfer songs in the benefit.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you

A special note to all of blog readers and fans. You guys have been great to come to the stage door and visit! Thanks for all the goodies and kind words. Particularly I'd like to thank the Witches of Oz creators Aundrea and Adam. They are providing a great forum for Wicked fans to gravitate. And my interview is going to posted on their site soon.

One of the things they did ask me was "What is appropriate fan etiquette in terms of meeting cast members?" I thought this was a great question and one that I thought I'd answer here too. So here are some guidelines for meeting us.

First and foremost remember that we are people...just people. We are not the roles we play on stage. We are real people who of course appreciate kind words, but also very much appreciate our privacy and maintaining a distance from strangers.

When you're at the stage door, it is totally appropriate to ask for an autograph and even sometimes a photo. But ALWAYS ASK! Most of us are more than happy to sign things and pose for shots. We are not so happy about someone randomly clicking off the flash for 10 minutes while we sign autographs. Asking for a photo at the stage door is perfectly fine. Photographing any part of our private life including our animals, our families, etc is NOT appropriate, particularly if we then find it posted on a website.

As for gifts. It is very kind of you to use your time and money to make us things. However, we often feel badly because a lot of the stuff either doesn't reach us, or we feel badly that you've spent so much money on something for us when you don't even know us personally. I can't speak for everyone, but I would rather get a nice letter from you than a bag of chocolates. Or even better, simply email me through this blog. I try to write back to everyone who writes me.

And finally, always know that we appreciate your support and energy, but we ask that you keep everything in perspective. We are simply people who have chosen to be on stage, in front of the public eye, but we also value our privacy greatly. I hope this info is helpful.

As for happenings....Wicked's in Dallas...a perfect spot for two-steppin' which we did Sunday night. Also, this theatre and the folks who run it are so wonderful and supportive. We had a fabulous opening night party at a beautiful home on a lake...just delightful! We also said goodbye to our precious Sunny Yokoyama. She is a bright spot in our cast and will be missed greatly. Other cast changes are coming up. Those of you who are fans of Josh Lamon, be sure to catch him before he leaves June 3. In a long running show like this people come and go and it's often like losing a family member. But they all go off to do other wonderful and delightful things!!!!

Houston Happenings

One of the things I love about touring is that you get to see friends you'd never get to see otherwise. Houston presented two wonderful opportunities to catch up with old friends. I got to visit my favorite 10th grade History teacher and got to see a friend who used to be a writer in the writers organization I created with two friends of mine in NYC. It was great to catch up with these folks. I also got the chance to do another press opportunity. I was on a PBS radio station promoting the show, my job understudying and my book, The Organized Actor. It was great fun. I also won 2nd place in our Wicked poker tournament and won $75! That was cool, especially since I'd only played poker one other time. Pretty exciting! Tomorrow I'm excited to be interviewed by the folks at Witches of Oz. Be sure to visit the website to see my interview and video clip. As we gather ourselves up again to more to Dallas, we thank Houston for being so great to us! See you in Dallas.

Howdy Houston

I guess now that I'm in Houston, I need to ask "How y'all doin?" and kick my boots in the air.

Well, We're'all doin' fine down here at the Hobby center in Humid Houston. They certainly seem to be Happy people down here. Mostly, Houston is Huge and you need a full tank of gas to get from one Hill to the next, cuz there aren't none to be found. BUT, no complaints here. We're rehearsal free!!! After several weeks of rehearsals pretty much everyday...we've finally got some time to rest and relax. This morning though I did a press event with Josh Lamon (who I've already raved about in this blog). It was for one of the top radio stations in Houston where we got to meet 50 Wicked fan winners, answer questions, pose for photos, etc. It was great fun and photos will be posted soon. I love to do press events. People are always so excited to meet you and it's a chance for us as actors to say thanks to our fans and also to pass on some (hopefully) inspiration to young actors who'd like to be in Wicked. By the way, for those of you who read my blog and are indeed interested in pursing a career as an actor, can I do some shameless self promotion here and say...get my book The Organized Actor! You can find it at theatrical bookstores, universities and on my website www.organizedactor.com.

Anyway, here's a cute shot of me and Josh...more photos of the press event to come.

We've had lots of excitement at Wicked lately, with several understudies going on and doing a bang-up job of it! Coleen Sexton our Elphaba standby rocks! Geoff Packard and Marcie Dodd made their debuts as Fiyero and Nessarose respectively and Laura Woyasz went on a few times recently as Glinda. It's always fun to see understudies go on because each person brings something special to the roles. What an incredibly talented bunch of people are in this show! HOpefully soon, I'll be on as Madame Morrible too...keep checkin' back. I'll have pictures when I do go on!!!

Till next time....

Fabulous Florida

Saying good bye to sunny Tampa was no problem since we're now saying hello to Miami! Of course, you can't be in Florida and not see Mickey so I took a detour to visit DisneyWorld. Got to see Cirque de Soleil which I'd never seen before and WOW! is all I can say. The best fun though was playing miniature golf at 11:30 at night in the middle of march and not even needing a jacket. sorry for anyone reading this who is still immersed in winter. But it's hard not to gloat. We're in this fabulous new theatre...in fact Wicked is only the third show to play here so that's fun. Had lots of fun today when the automation decided not to work and Glinda's bubble was stuck on stage. So we delivered Elphaba on the ground and somehow still managed to get the green baby into the green spot light in time. It was great fun! Never a dull moment around here. Till next time....