Lightbulb Over Head Blog

Recently, I was inducted into the company of “Box Full of Wasps Theater Collective” to be a part of the creation and performance of a piece based on the book Mike and the Magic Cookies, by Jon Buller. I’m very excited to be reconnecting with Jenna Freed, the Creative Director of The Collective and the Director/Conceiver of the show, and Emily Floyd, the Co-Creative Director who is also performing with me. I spent my first year at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School with Jenna in the much beloved Purple Group of 2004-2005 and spent my time in the Acting Practicum at Playwrights with Emily. Both are creative minds I trust and admire and I am extremely thrilled and honored to be working with them.

O-Cast© is blasting ahead at full throttle. The pilot trilogy (Episodes 1, 2, and 3) have been completed and the cast assembled to read through it last Thursday. I simply couldn’t stop beaming. We are so blessed to have so many phenomenal performers on this project and they all make me laugh, which assailed my biggest fear of the script not being funny. Let’s just say I don’t think we have to worry about that. It was such a treat to watch them bring Bryan’s and my work to life before our very eyes. [For a cast list see the O-Cast© tab at the top of the site]

We are also humbled by a fabulous group of designers, including another Purple Group 2004-2005 favorite, Ellie Famutimi who will be doing our costume design. I knew she was the woman for the job as soon as we started writing. She’s no stranger to bringing archetypes to life and and her work is always stunning. I’m so excited to see how she realizes these characters. Mary Catherine Moore, our set designer/dresser, led the group through a discussion of what would be on their “dilapidated Olympian thrones” which left us all intrigued and in stitches.

To top everything off, Rachel Mann, our Director of Development, walked us through the plans for “The Olympian Orgy” at Sin Sin Leopard Lounge. All proceeds from the event will benefit our production and are considered tax deductible donations. The event will be fabulous and will not only showcase our promotional photos of the cast in costume, but will also premiere some video of the characters as well as our opening animation sequence. We’ll be hosting artists who will be painting and drawing live during the event and raffling off the fruits of their labors after midnight. We also have several other raffle donations in the works including mounted photo-poetry pieces by Leah Johnston and some tickets to various theatrical events around the city. The owner of Sin Sin is ecstatic to host our party and secured sponsors who created our very own “Shots of Immortality” which will be passed out for free at the event as long as supplies last. There will also be other half priced drink specials. We’ll also be having our very own all-$1-bake-sale featuring a cake by The Neon Squirrel Cake that promises to be a hit! The party is on September 10th, 2009 and starts at 8 PM. Here is our teaser promo art and party blurb:

Attention mortals! Come party like a God at the Olympian Orgy at Sin Sin Leopard Lounge on Thursday, September 10th at 8PM! Dionysus will be serving ambrosia as Apollo’s DJ’s, artists and photographers rule the night. Dance with Aphrodite and win great prizes at Hermes’ raffle at one of the hottest spots in the East Village to benefit the upcoming web series O-Cast!

It is really incredible to think that this whole thing started about a month and a half ago. Bryan and I were restless and sitting in his room in Bushwick wishing we had a way to express ourselves. Now we are heading up an army of incredibly talented artists who all deserve a platform to showcase their talents. I’m so proud and so humbled by all of it and the best part is that there is so much more left to come. My brain feels like a million sparks are going of at once, and it’s a great feeling. I’m learning so much about the production side of things which is very new for me. I think we’re all learning a lot from the project and it promises to be a very fulfilling project.

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I’m watching Bridezillas on the WE network and wondering how the hell these women get a man to marry them. I mean really. They are screaming at the top of their lungs and making their husbands suffer incessantly. For that matter, how can their friends stand to be around them? I can’t imagine having the gal to throw the tirades I’ve seen these women throw over wedding cakes, fat bridesmaids, and any number of trivial facts.

Where’s the love? One woman told her husband that he would have to fall back in love with her after the wedding was over. Good luck getting him to the altar.

I don’t mean to imply that I want to be married today or even next year. That’s a bit like putting the cart before the horse considering I haven’t found a groom yet. However, this program does make me think, Where in God’s green earth are these people finding each other?

I understand how bitchy women end up with men for a night or a few weeks, but how can people propose to them? Even if she’s the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen, it’s the rest of your life. Find someone just a bit more mellow. The sex could be magnificent but if you can’t hold a conversation, then you’re not going to make it very long. Call a spade a spade and hold out for what you want instead of caving to what that harpy is nagging you for. Grow a pair guys! Come on!

Coming off of the train wreck I call the end of my last relationship, I’m having a hard time getting out there again. I don’t like going out to bars and clubs. I stand by my belief that you’re not going to be in the right condition to meet anyone of substance in that situation. Plus I get nervous and sweaty and start using comedy as a defense mechanism. People have been known to call me a “female Jack Black.”

So where do you go when you’re a young actress living in NYC? Some people meet at work, but most of the guys I work with are gay, so where does that leave me? If they are straight they’re taken. Plus, I wouldn’t want to have anything happen to the chemistry of a professional ensemble due to sexual exploits and their occasional post coital awkwardness.

Once upon a time, I had a close friend tell me that men probably didn’t find me attractive because I’m assertive and funny.

“Men want someone they can take care of,” he said.

I’ve spent so much of my life haunted by that sentence. At first I was saddened and hurt by it. I obsessed over how unfeminine he must have thought I was. Now that I’ve matured I’m angered by this sentence. What’s wrong with a self assured woman? Just because you’re confident doesn’t mean you’re not a woman. This is 2009.

There has to be somewhere for the modern woman looking for a meaningful relationship to go. I’m not starting a manhunt or anything, but clearly I’m not doing any of the right things. I’ve heard that you don’t look for love and that it finds you, but sitting in my apartment certainly doesn’t do any good.

A friend of mine wants to go speed dating, but I’m not quite sure it’s for me. I don’t like the idea of paying a company to set me up on dates. I just wish love was natural instead of the “industry” it has become.

"Eat Your Heart Out" by Leah Johnston