I Made Out With Him Anyway....

These ladies blew me away last night. I was asked to sing at the end of this hilarious 2-woman show/confessional @ King King in Hollywood:http://imadeoutwithhimanyway.com/liveshow/

Last Sunday and this upcoming Sunday I'll be singing in this also hilarious night of sketches:
http://www.trueblood-online.com/cast-crew/kevin-alejandro/kevin-alejandro-in-christmas-quickies-at-whitefire-theatre/

And all over LA I'm caroling with the Tinseltones!!http://www.nikkitomlinson.com/Tinseltone_Carolers/MEET_THE_CAROLERS.html

But first, one last stop of the year tonight at the Children's Hospital for a Coachart session--to make some holiday cards!

3 producers sessions in the past week!!! Shake it Up, MODERN FAMILY, and 90210.
It's all happening.

Can someone just do my Christmas shopping for me? Um thanks.

Fuel to my Fire.

It's been a somewhat successful year, with constant acting jobs since January, and averaging at about 2-3 auditions a week, including the fact that I'm finally getting many guest star/series reg/recurring calls. Won an award, got paid to write an article for a popular blog, was called back a few times this year for the principal in 2 major Broadway productions, starred in 2 hit shows in LA--both of which got extensions, and even got a new agent after he saw me in one of them.
And yet, I WANT MORE.
I'm in the beginning stages of creating my own content, with a deadline of February and this energizes me immensely. I'm collaborating with a few sharp & funny chics who I look up to and we are delving in!
Although the year is coming to a close, it ain't over yet folks. After all, I was just called in for a lesbian murdress guest star in a new Cinemax series. It's still rolling along. And 2011 is my year. To quote from a classic corey flick The Goonies:"It's our time, our time down here!"

Good News Ya'll!!

Just won "Outstanding Performance By A Lead Actress/Musical" for [title of show] from StageSceneLA's Best of LA Theater Awards 2009-2010

AND

as part of the ensemble:"Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast" for Side by Side by Sondheim!

Yesssssssssss.

Had our closing weekend of [title of show] and Jeff Marx, creator of Avenue Q showed up, which is so rich considering that we sing "this is where it all started for the folks of Avenue Q!"

Got a bit teary in the closing line which is literally : "this is the last line of our show." Then we shared some bubbly and continued on over to Formosa for party and drinks.

Sunday was very out of sorts for me, seeing as that was the first Sunday I've had off in LA since February...so I felt that I needed to be somewhere doing something and so just headed up to the Greek and Griffith Park....

What's next? That seems to be everyone's favorite question. There are a few things that I'm trying patiently to wait and hear from....a few good things in the works.

We are not done folks, this may only be the beginning.

They say if you put it out there.....

• Just found out today that my team leader, Ray, from Habitat for Humanity will be heading a trip to Sri Lanka in June 2011. This is a 16 day build and I MUST be part of this.
• Series regular on a smart sitcom.
• Create new & inspiring project for kids in CoachArt
• Get back on Body Ecology full time=mucho healthy
• Book workshop of new musical in NYC

I'll start with that for now.

Facing Your Vampires...

Article I meant to post:

http://www.lastageblog.com/2010/08/10/facing-your-vampires-in-title-of-show/

Missing India...

Can't believe it's been a year since the build....

thinking of you, my Bawana family. Planning on seeing you soon!!

The Q in Quirky.

The other night after a performance of {Title of Show} a critic came up to me and told me that I "put the Q in quirky."

Thank you kind sir. I will take that. Yes I will.

TOS!

Title of Show has been my life for the past month and we finally OPENED this weekend.

Whew.

And while I SHOULD NOT be reading reviews, a little part of me is curious, and well dammit here is a good one:

http://stagescenela.com/html/_title_of_show_1.html

Our preview performances were sold out and it was really cool to finally have fresh eyes on the piece. We got to play off one another more...and work with the timing a bit.

Although I can always improve upon what I'm doing in the show, I can say I'm proud of what I've put into it...but I need to work on letting go of all the little vampires that are telling me I may suck. Die Vampire Die.

Ch-ch-changes

Side by Side by Sondheim went out with a bang this weekend! Great audience turn out on the final night, closing with a festive cast party at my home. It was the perfect kinda cast party where pretty much everyone there was involved in the production (maybe just one outsider). This is the most proper kind of cast party with a small cast like ours--retelling geeky musical theatre stories about backstage happenings and private jokes within the cast. It just isn't the same with significant others/randoms there looking lost or bored on their cell phones.

Lots of changes have happened in the past few weeks of my life--along with my show closing--my good friend & neighbor moved away to San Diego (I've known him since the day I moved in 6 years ago), an LA friend is moving to NY, my parents are selling their house and moving to Georgia(!) and now a roomie is moving out (though I really am excited about that one! Good energy is coming in and is much needed on that particular front:) Change is part of life. And with these I can feel it's for the best this time. Sometimes when there's so much of it happening at once I can get overwhelmed, but I can really say I got this.

Next up: just got cast in the short film HELLO that will be shown at the Talent 1 Media (TOM) Film Festival. The cause is a serious one: to prevent human trafficking, but the subject matter of the film is a funny one: facebook stalking. It's going to be loosely improvised and the script is pretty damn funny. They didn't go ethnic this time. Wait, the guys producing/directing are asian so maybe they did. Get it?

Oh-this is cool: Coachart.org asked me to represent them at an upcoming UCLA event. I've been volunteering with them for a few months now and gotta say I am flattered. I have a couple of sessions this week and am looking forward to being inspired as usual:) http://www.coachart.org/

Quake.

Um, have you ever been on stage during an earthquake?

I HAVE.

In the middle of singing "Gotta Get a Gimmick" during yesterday's matinee, I literally thought I was getting dizzy/sick on stage, which if you've never felt it, is a terrifying feeling. I looked stage right at Morgan, for some support and she was leaning up against the pole. Apparently she also thought she was coming down with something.I look behind me and our poor pianist was so shaken up, literally, and the light above him was swaying. I could see that the audience was trying to decide if they should flee or not. Well, we kept on keepin' on.

So I'm adding it to my special skills. Ideas on what to call it? "performs even through natural disasters", "belts through earthquakes"......hmmmmm

Creative Coalition Dinner

So I was asked to help out last minute by my good friend Linz for a Creative Coalition event held at the Luxe Hotel last night. I show up in my semi dressy attire and am thrown into the task of running the press line. Paps over here, check in over here, if you could do an interview here, and I'll show you cocktails over there. Very interesting to see front and center how certain actors handle themselves. Ron Rifkin, Alfre Woodard, Penn Badgley, Tim Daly, Morgan Fairchild, Nia Vardalos, Lea Thompson....all very warm people and genuinely interested in the organization.
I actually got a pic with Bill Nye the science guy. Somehow we started singing '8675309' and he asked me who sang it. I never remember who sings that one. So he pulls out his iphone and I help him look for it on itunes. Too funny
I went up to Nia and had to tell her how we use her photo in Side By Side By Sondheim for a quick bit on "nothing that's grim, nothing that's greek" and she starts cracking up. She asked where I was doing the show and even said she was familiar with the theatre. Come on Nia, we've got ya a comp.
It really is impressive---the whole idea of National Lab Day. All about teaching kids to create and not only consume. Check it out: http://www.nationallabday.org/

Promise to post the Bill Nye pic soon!

GLEE!

So I went to producers (again) last week for Glee. Robert @ UDK is always so cool when I go in. I haven't mentioned it since I'm superstitious and, well, I am pretty sure we would have heard back by now for this particular role: singing a duet with Neil Patrick Harris. Yep. They had me sing Daydream Believer---in the Monkees' original key. So I could easily picture it: me and NP doing a little Brady Bunch dance to this song while Matt Morrison smiles over my shoulder.
I can picture it. Can you?

Cheer up sleepy Jen,

You'll go in again.

Win Win!

So the reviews have started to come in, and although I used to refuse to read them at all, I have now succumbed to the ego feeding machine. Well, ya'll, it's good stuff.

http://http//stagescenela.com/html/side_by__side_by_sondheim.html

http://http//blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/stage-news/stage-raw-extropia/#more

Also, a little icing on my cake was that Renee Zellweger (along with her boyfriend Bradley Cooper) came to our matinee this past Sunday. They hung around after, she came up to me and was so kind and warm and complimentary. We chatted for a while and they told us they loved the show. I told 'em to tell their friends cuz we wanna get butts in seats!:)

AND in honor of Steven Sondheim’s 80th birthday (March 22), for a limited time, the Attic Theatre is offering $15 seats to those who call and order tickets through the box office. Just say “Happy Birthday Steve!” when ordering. http://www.attictheatre.org/

It's almost Opening Night, Ya'll!

We've been blowing up the internets.

Side by Side by Sondheim opens this Friday night, March 12th and I've had to explain to a few friends:" ok this is a musical revue. I will be singing and sometimes dancing." A few of my friends have never heard me sing so I feel the need to remind them of this since I know they're not the biggest of musical theatre fans, and I don't wanna send them running down Washington Blvd. But this is Sondheim, folks.

I remember when I was about 12 years old listening over and over to the cassette of the original (british) cast recording of Side By Side. I might have been obsessed. Might.

Now I'm living the dream, and to make it sweeter, in the steps of two of my favorite 80s tv characters: Alice & Vera (yep, Linda Lavin & Beth Howland). They originally performed two of the songs I'll be singing: The Boy From & Getting Married.

Alice trivia sidebar: my mom went to college with Celia Weston who was Jolene Hunnicut from '81-'85.

http://http//www.agendamag.com/blog/2010/02/21/attic-theatre-to-present-side-by-side-by-sondheim/

http://http//losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/Cast_Announced_for_Attic_Theatres_SIDE_BY_SIDE_BY_SONDHEIM_312_418_20100303

My So Called Nostalgia.

Shameless self promoting is the bomb.

Check me out this morning on Playbill.com:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/136854-Ashman-Blake-Duke-Donohoe-and-Sarando-Set-for-Attic-Theatres-Side-by-Side-by-Sondheim

I Don't Care About Your Band.

I kinda feel like I have to get this.

This purchase will closely be followed by sharing vodka presses and boy stories with said author.

girl friend for sale.

Whatever happened to real girl friends?
At the risk of sounding cynical, which is not at all where I'm standing, I have to say that making girl friends, or even guy friends past the point of yer twenties can be a bit of a doom and gloom scenario. Not to take away from all the entertaining folks I have met at this juncture, but really. I tend to stand biased on the close friendships I have up to this point in my lifetime. And really, the new people, they rarely even remotely stand up. Why is this? Romanticism? Idealism? Nostalgia? Yes and yes....and maybe only a couple of people in my life past the point of 2004 can meet my former passive criteria of simply being real, somewhat comfortable in their own skin, and self deprecating.
Why does it have to be this way? Why can't ya meet someone who has the same sense of humor, similar paranoia's, similar crushes on Sienna, Anthony Bourdain, and Sedaris and just call it a day...
I don't need to know all of yer idiosyncrasies...or exaggerations of the truth. Just be the best version of yourself.
And we'll take it from there.