review for my latest show

ok, ok, so my part of the review wasn't stellar...it actually hurt my pride a bit because i am used to good reviews, but the review itself was very good. check it out


Northern Exposure
by Lauren Snyder
The Crackwalker reviewed October 28, 2006

To most Americans, Canada is that strange nation to the north whose major exports are beer, hockey players, and Degrassi High. Our idea of the country is that of a colder, more rural United States where everything and everyone's a bit cleaner and a bit nicer. But Judith Thompson's play The Crackwalker, produced by New World Theater, shows a different side of Canada by focusing on the desperate denizens of Kingston, Ontario, circa 1979. The result is a harrowing, powerful tale of economic depression and mental illness. Therese is a mentally challenged manipulator and compulsive liar who makes her doughnut money by servicing gay men and sleeps on her friend Sandy's couch. Sandy, a rage-filled, emotionally damaged woman, is married to Joe, an abusive, womanizing gambler. Joe's friend Alan (who is seeing Therese) is a twitchy former addict with a tenuous grip on reality.

Sandy and Joe fight and make up as they try to establish a better life for themselves. Alan and Therese get married and have a baby, against the wishes of her social worker and with the misgivings of Therese, who previously had a baby taken away from her. Though Therese is no longer working as a prostitute, she is not bright enough to take care of a child or to realize that Alan is mentally ill and should not be responsible for her or their son. Even the relatively stable influence of their friends cannot stop the tragedy that is to come. The reality of the events portrayed onstage is helped along by the theater space itself. The Access Theater is on the fourth floor of a building that evidently houses another performance space above it; at several moments during the performance, there were loud banging noises and voices raised in anger coming from upstairs. One could imagine them stemming from arguments among other tenants in Joe and Sandy's apartment building.

Tattered, mismatched furniture is easy to do on a small budget, but period costumes are not; design consultant Frankie Keane picked out some cute vintage duds for the ladies. Thompson's gritty script mimicked regular conversations in its language, rhythms, and the ebb and flow of conflict. Two characters would be at odds with each other but then talk themselves into agreement through their mutual ire against a third character. These transitions occurred so naturally that it was hard to remember who was mad at whom, as sometimes happens in life. The strong writing is complemented by the strong acting on display by the cast of non-union actors. Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez brings a long-simmering bitterness and a great Canadian accent to the mostly reactive role of Sandy. Her physical confrontations with David Wesley Cooper, who believably plays the mercurial Joe, are fraught with danger and sex. Karron Karr doesn't always succeed with the very stylized slang that Therese speaks, but she underplays her character's mental handicap even as she nails her mix of naïveté and sexual sophistication. Kelly Miller rises to the challenge of Alan, who changes from eccentric but lovable to psychotic and frightening within the course of the show. On Broadway and Off-Broadway, Irish playwrights are now all the rage. On Off-Off-Broadway, most produced scripts are written by new local playwrights and Shakespeare. While it's important to foster the talents of young New York writers, importing plays like The Crackwalker can only add depth to the city's cultural offerings.

see photos and the actual review at www.offoffonline.com

My New Show

I'm playing a mentally challenged Canadian prostute.
No, I'm not kidding...
No, it isn't a comedy...
Just see the show. It's good and it will make you feel icky afterwards...but in a good way... :)


NWT is staging one of the most acclaimed Canadian plays of the past 25 years. The Crackwalker, directed by Robert Zick Jr, is a plunge into Kingston, Ontario’s underworld of drugs, sex, mental illness and murder, where four local down-and-outs struggle to live, to love and to make a better world for themselves with tragic results.

Judith Thompson’s first play (premiered at NYC’s Hudson Guild in the early 1980’s) is a visceral exploration of the ugly realities of society’s castaways, where the “Crackwalker” waits to crush anyone unable to walk the fine line between sanity and destruction.

Access Theatre
380 Broadway, 4th floor(btw White St. & Walker St., TriBeCa)
New York, NY 10013
October 26 - November 12
Wed. - Sat. @ 8:00pm, Sun. @ 7:00pm
Gala*, Friday, October 27 @ 8:00pm
*Wine & cheese reception with the actors to follow the show!
Tickets: $18 at the door, $15 in advance
Gala event with reception $25
For advance tickets, call TheaterMania at 212-352-3101 or reserve online at www.newworldtheatre.org
Directed and Designed by Robert Zick Jr
Design Consultation by Gerard J. Savoy
Costume Consultation by Frankie Keane
Stage Managed by Leia Garcia-Benedini
Illustration created by Elizabeth Anderson
Featuring: David Wesley Cooper, Karron Karr, Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez and Kelly Miller
Visit us at www.newworldtheatre.org.
New World Theatre is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas

sorry for being out of touch

i know there's a lot of you who may feel a little neglected. believe me it's nothing personal.
i recently started a new day job...and it's really kicking my butt. it's with a finance company. my boss is cool, but it's been a tougher transition than i thought. it's like learning a new language. i'm just starting to catch on to what things are about and stuff. i have a constant feeling that i'm disappointing him and i hate that.
and then i've had rehearsals every night for the crackwalker, one of the most challenging shows i've ever been a part of. it's great and the end result will be very moving, but it's also a lot of work and very tiring.
and we've had had a series of house guests staying with us for the past few months. it's been fun and all, but it's nice to have the apartment back. just in time to start cleaning for the halloween party...