Bay Area Premier of "Leni"

Today, I'm off to California's Bay Area for the opening weekend of my play Leni currently in production at Aurora Theatre Company. I began writing this play in 2002 and completed the current version in 2006. You can read more about the play HERE.

Director Jon Tracy was interviewed about Leni this week on KDFC's State of the Arts. You can listen HERE. Also, Oakland Magazine featured the production this week with an article HERE. I'll be away from the blog for a few days, but in the meantime, wish me luck! I'm so excited to see this new incarnation!

Martha Brigham (left) and Stacy Ross (right). Photo by David Allen.

Statera Foundation Kickstarter ART Giveaway

Hello dear readers! As you know, I'm the Creative Director of Statera Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to gender equity in the theatre arts. Our foundation is hosting a Kickstarter campaign through the month of June and we're already half way to our goal of $10,000. Please take a look at the campaign site to see our video and learn more about our efforts for gender balance in the arts.

Here's the exciting part. When you donate this this very grounded and worthy effort, your name will be entered to win an original art commission by me! Yes! When you win, you and I will collaborate on a piece of 16x20 or 18x18 inch artwork especially for you and your space! Donate today and help us make big national change for gender justice and equity for theatre artists everywhere!

ENTER TO WIN

Statera Kickstarter Art Giveaway from Statera Foundation on Vimeo.

Gender Equity is Possible

Here's a crazy statistic: The 1908-1909 Broadway season saw 12.8% of plays written by women. Fast forward 104 years to the 2012-13 Broadway season, which saw only 10% of plays by female playwrights. LESS representation over a century - not more.

Many of you know that I'm the Creative Director for Statera Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to gender equity in the theatre. Statera is working to change these dismal statistics. Today we launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 for our upcoming conference on gender parity in Denver, Colorado. We're also raising money for our advocacy initiatives and programming.

Gender equity in the arts is possible. You can help by donating to our Kickstarter campaign and sharing on social media!‪ Check out the video below and please consider donating HERE.

Statera Foundation Kickstarter 2016 from Statera Foundation on Vimeo.

#iamstatera

Statera Conference | Gender Parity in the Arts

As many of you know, I'm the Creative Director for Statera Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving women in the theatre. We are hosting our first conference next week in Cedar City, Utah. If you are an actor, director, technician, stage manager, arts administrator, arts educator or women's advocate, please join me at conference. It's going to be life changing! You can get all of the details HERE and see our incredible line-up of speakers and facilitators HERE.

While regular registration is closed, there are still a few slots left and late registration is available right now! Register today by following the link below:

http://www.staterafoundation.org/registration/conference

INAUGURAL STATERA CONFERENCE | JUL 31 - AUG 2, 2015 

Join us for the inaugural Statera Conference 2015 in Cedar City, Utah from July 31 to August 2, 2015. Meet with theater professionals from all over the country for three days of networking, socializing, experience-sharing, theatre-going and more! The Statera conference is all about gender balance and our goal is to take action to bring women into full and equal participation in the American theatre.

The goal of Statera Conference:

The goal of the Statera conference is to take action to bring women into full and equal participation in the American theatre. We will gather to initiate and support action by individuals, organizations and institutions whose stated goal is to work towards gender balance in the arts.

Why are we meeting in Cedar City, Utah? 

We have strategically chosen to meet in the center of the country as a way of engaging both coasts as well as the wide swath of regional theaters scattered across the states. Cedar City, nestled in the middle region of the country, is called Festival City for good reason. The rich arts community is in the midst of great growth with the building of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts, which will include the Southern Utah Museum of Art as well as the new outdoor Engelstad Theatre at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Cedar City is also home to the Neil Simon Festival, Off the Cuff Improv Center and various art galleries, with access to Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks in just a short drive. Cedar City's great artistic growth make it the perfect place for Statera's inaugural conference.

Who will be there? 

We're excited to announce that Mary McColl, Executive Director of Actors' Equity Association, will be giving our keynote address. You'll also have the opportunity to attend small group breakout sessions moderated by noted professionals, attend world class theater at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and network with people from every corner of the theater profession. The conference is open to men and women alike: administrators, designers, educators, technicians, advocates, spouses, etc. The goal of this conference is to initiate and support action by individuals, organizations and institutions whose stated goal is to work towards gender balance in the arts. All are welcome!

Closing Night at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

Last night saw the closing performance of "Sense and Sensibility". It was a tearful goodbye. I have absolutely loved every one of our 36 performances and could happily continue doing this show forever.

Today is also my final matinee for "Into the Woods". The summer season at the Utah Shakespeare Festival is over today and most of the actors will return home to Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Washington DC, Dallas and beyond. The plays were marvelous, but the thing I will miss most is the spectacular company of actors and technicians. Never again will this wonderful group of people be reconstituted. I have nothing but love, gratitude and appreciation for the summer I'm leaving behind.

Here are some of my back stage snapshots as 

Lady Middleton from "Sense and Sensibility".

And here are some snapshots from my time as 

Granny (and the Giant and Cinderella's Mother) in "Into the Woods".

I will miss these two ladies.

Backstage at "Into the Woods"

Today, I wanted to share a little back stage look from the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  I took these photos during an intermission of "Into the Woods" this week. Since Utah Shakes is a repertory company, this backstage space also houses two other sets. This year it's "Twelfth Night" and "Sense & Sensibility".

I love being backstage and wanted some photos to remember this experience, as it is so different from the front-of-house experience. This dark, beautiful, transitional space is well known to technicians and actors, but less known to audiences. So today - a little peek at where I've been spending most of my summer hours.

Blog Doldrums

Hi friends. I realized this week that working full time and odd hours while taking care of two small children does not mix well with regular blogging. My apologies for the gaps in posts. While it is always my full intention to every weekday, I have fallen short.

Life, however, has been full to the brim with wonderful work in the theater, auditions for upcoming seasons, time with my family, birthdays, visits from extended family and general summer-time merry making. Most of my free hours are spent on stage or in the room pictured below. I have four weeks left in my contract and then I'll be home in Dallas. Until then, I hope to get back to my beloved blog very soon.

Opening Day at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

Its finally here! This week, we open our shows at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Today will be the opening performances of "Into the Woods" and "The Comedy of Errors". My husband and I are both in "Into the Woods", he as Cinderella's semi-drunk, absent father and me as Red Riding Hood's Granny, the Giant and also Cinderella's Mother. I am over the moon to be a part of this beautiful production and this stellar cast. Here are some production shots of our show followed by my own back stage photos from Instagram. Here we go!

Production photos taken by Karl Hugh.

Actors pictured in the above photos: 

Tina Scariano, James Sanders, Bree Murphy, Brian Vaughn, Melinda Pfundstein, 
Bri Sudia, Natasha Harris, Molly Wetzel, Jack Greenman, Deanna Ott, Misty Cotton, 
Peter Saide, Samantha Allred, Kyle Eberlein, Jason Michael Spelbring.

Ready to take the stage during our last preview performance...

Granny, as designed and rendered by the very talented Bill Black...

Probably the coolest prop I've ever held onstage: the skull of the Big Bad Wolf...

Final Dress | Sense & Sensibility

Tonight is our final dress rehearsal for Sense & Sensibility at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. We begin preview performances for paying audiences at the beginning of next week! Here's a look at my costumes for the show:

I cannot tell you how much fun it is to have a beautiful period costume, created from the ground up, just for me. Even my wedding dress didn't fit this well! The designers, artisans and crafts-people in the costume shop at USF are mind-bogglingly talented. This show is going to be so beautiful. Wish us luck!

And here is a production shot from last night's rehearsal:

Pictured with me are Bri Sudia (center) and Cassandra Bissell.

Sense & Sensibility | First Dress

Tonight is our first dress for Sense & Sensibility at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. I always love seeing the actors in costume for the first time. No matter how much you prepare for a role, it can never really be complete without the costume. And when the story takes place in another era, as does Sense & Sensibility, the transformation is usually even bigger. Tonight, the Regency Era will reign supreme in a parade of beautiful gowns and dapper waist coats. Wish us luck tonight. We rehearse today and again on Friday. This adaptation is a world premier and opens on June 24 - a week from today!

Here's a little bit about our production from director and adaptor, Joe Hanreddy.

Into the Woods | Utah Shakespeare Festival

I spent most of yesterday in a dark theater in technical rehearsals for "Sense & Sensibility". A tech rehearsal is when the producers, stage managers and directors collaborate to add all of the technical elements of a show: lights, sound, music (sometimes in the form of a live orchestra), props, scenery, costumes and storytellers. Today, I begin tech for my second show "Into the Woods", where I play Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella's Mother (an apparition who appears at the base of a Hazel Tree).

I've have loved working on this Sondheim musical. The cast is outstanding, the music is sublime and the direction is lovely. The show has also got me thinking about fairytales and their origins. Most of them come into being well before the Brother's Grimm decided to write them down. I love the dark undercurrent and the sense of real and gruesome danger that awaits the characters. Sondheim's telling is very entertaining, but it also strikes at the core of what it means to be human in a world that doesn't always end "happily ever after".

For information about this production and the many others on offer 

this summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, click HERE.