Confessions of a Single Parent (Actress)

Another opening night has passed. And despite the number of shows you mount, each one has its own unique flavor. Some have me on edge and others feel like I am ready to tackle the world. No matter my personal level of angst of calm, the show must go on. The process leading up to opening night can last 2-3 weeks. That schedule includes a single day off and lots of homework. Homework includes learning the lyrics, remembering the harmonies, blocking, lines, and if it is a new space that you have never worked learning where everything is. And if you have a single line or scene on a film you may have to learn the lines in the trailer on the same day that you are shooting. And because this is a marathon not a race, you continue to audition for future projects so that work continues. Now place this on top of having a family and you realize the process includes being completely unbalanced and chaotic in the midst of sheer joy and adrenaline. Several days during the process, once everythi...

Some things wake you up and lead you to write. That happened today. I started this blog to have a conversation about what being a working actor looks like on the tapestry of being a single parent. Well there are many times that the village you have created simply comes down to a single villager, me. My daughter is working on publishing her first book and she is 13. Now as exciting and cool as that sounds, as she grows into a writer and she continues to develop her abilities as an artist, I realize that she needs a new village. She told me the other day as we were pulling an all niter filled with stress, heated conversation, and eventually finding her voice that she needs to take classes in creative writing and possibly be more social and join a book club. And then she went to bed. And it sent me to bed for a wonderful sleepless night. I quickly started researching options in Philly and Chicago and many of them are already closed for the summer or require me to split myself into 2. ...