Tony Nomination Predictions! [Edit and Actual Noms]

In honor of the Tony Award nominations being announced tomorrow morning, here is who I think will be nominated.

* denotes probable winner

Best Play
The Anarchist by David Mamet
Grace by Craig Wright
The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg
Lucky Guy by Nora Ephron
The Nance by Douglas Carter Beane
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christpher Durang*

Best Musical
Bring It On: The Musical
Chaplin
A Christmas Story, The Musical
Hands on a Hardbody
Kinky Boots
Matilda The Musical*
Motown The Musical

Best Revival of a Play
An Enemy of the People
Golden Boy
Macbeth
Orphans
Picnic
The Trip to Bountiful
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf*

Best Revival of a Musical
Annie
Jekyll & Hyde
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Pippin*
Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Norbert Leo Butz - Dead Accounts
Alan Cumming - Macbeth
Tom Hanks - Lucky Guy
Nathan Lane - The Nance
Tracy Letts* - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
David Hyde Pierce - Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Tom Sturridge - Orphans


Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Patti LuPone - The Anarchist
Laurie Metcalf - The Other Place
Amy Morton - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Kristine Nielsen - Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Holland Taylor - Ann
Cicely Tyson - The Trip to Bountiful
Fiona Shaw - The Testament of Mary
Sigourney Weaver* - Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Bertie Carvel - Matilda The Musical
Santino Fontana - Rogers + Hammerstein's Cinderella
Rob McClure* - Chaplin
Billy Porter - Kinky Boots
Stark Sands - Kinky Boots
Matthew James Thomas - Pippin
Anthony Warlow - Annie

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Stephanie J. Block - The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Carolee Carmello - Scandalous
Lilla Crawford - Annie
Valisia LeKae - Motown The Musical
Patina Miller* - Pippin
Laura Osnes - Rogers + Hammerstein's Cinderella

**Award-winner predictions may change after the actual nominations are announced

Tell them you Love them...

I've been quiet on here lately, mostly because I've been incredibly busy with work and classwork.

However, in light of what happened in Boston on Monday, and what is happening in Watertown and Cambridge right now (the coverage is on my TV as I write this)...
Please tell the people you love that you love them every day. In some way.

Am I scared right now? Yes. I have friends and family in and around Boston - everybody I know is safe right now - but I'm still scared. When I woke up this morning and saw what was going on, I couldn't believe it, and I immediately texted the people I could from that area, and I'm glad that they're okay. But there are other families who have been affected, lives lost that didn't need to be, and that makes me scared for all of us.

So tell them you love them while you can, and while they can hear it.

Documentary a Week: Strictly Background

52-Week Challenge: Documentary a Week

Week Six: Strictly Background
Directed By: Jason Connell

Summary (from IMDB): For decades, film and television audiences have watched their favorite stars with little thought or concern for the people standing behind them. All of that is about to change as “Strictly Background” explores the charm and determination of some of Hollywood’s hardest working actors, professional “extras.” Turning industry convention on its head, this humorous & heartfelt documentary follows ten background actors as they navigate their way on and off the set. Both a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood and a character-driven film, “Strictly Background” is a dynamic exploration into the pursuit of stardom and the real life struggle to stand out.”

Phil’s Rating: 5/10 - As a person heavily involved in theatre, and expecting to somebody have something to do with movies or television, I thought I would check out this documentary. However, as is usually my problem with this kind of documentary, they have chosen the “oddest” and “quirkiest” people to be featured - not the most successful or most driven to succeed. While their stories may have been interesting (and, to a certain extent, showed that nearly anybody can be a background actor), the people they show are very specific types, some of whom don’t want to be seen as a “type.” Also, some of the advice they give is just plain bad, so don’t go into this documentary expecting to learn anything about the way Hollywood really works - they are skewed views to each person, and most of these people are actually not what I would call “successful” background actors

[sidenote: This is posted a few days late. My schedule last week was crazy, but I did watch this last Friday.]

On Writing

There's something about writing that just lets me get it all out. Even with the heaviness of the piece I've been working on lately, by working on it instead of my homework, my stress from the weekend it all gone. And I feel like I can actually breathe for a little while...

Documentary a Week: "Dear Zachary"

52-Week Challenge: Documentary a Week

Week Five: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Directed By: Kurt Kuenne

Summary (from IMDB): ”A filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend’s ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.” 

Phil’s Rating: N/A - After learning about my Documentary Challenge, a friend suggested that I watch this one. This somewhat-flawed documentary interviews the friends and family of a murdered man. However, I’m not exactly sure what this documentary is trying to prove. Yes, it does a little bit of exposing flaws in the larger system, but it doesn’t really try to fix those flaws. So, I’m not sure what the point is, other than as a memorial to a friend. I felt very strange watching this, because it felt like I was looking into a life that I shouldn’t have been seeing. A life that isn’t mine to judge or put a rating on.

See my previous reviews here.

On Bravery and Creativity.

"We put our art out for others to see like laundry on the line. We expose ourselves to the core. It takes great courage to be an artist." 

- Gwen Fox

I've been trying to put myself out there more often recently. As a person, a friend, and as a theatre artist, educator, and practitioner. Tonight, in my Acting/Directing Styles class, we had to do an Autotheatre project, which required us to take 15-20 lines of verse (from anything) and bring them to life.

I chose to use the lyrics from "If You Could Come Back Home" by William Fitzsimmons, and made it about the end of my last relationship. It was something I needed to do for about fifty different reasons, but mostly to say goodbye to him and just let it all go. And I did. The piece let me bare my soul in ways I haven't been able to in the past couple of months, maybe years. And now a weight has lifted from me that I've been ready to get rid of. So, farewell to that.

But I have to say that the work of my classmates, peers, and friends was truly outstanding. The way that each of them were able to turn simple words (like the lyrics to a Sara Bareilles song, or "The Road Not Taken,") and make them alive, and - more importantly - personal. Each of the other thirteen pieces were able to transport me, as an audience member and an artist, to a new plane, a new dimension, and a new reality. The parts of their lives that they were able to admit and profess, were incredibly moving.

I want to be more courageous. And I think this - my last semester - will help me do just that.

On The Job Hunt

Since returning from my theatre Fest last week, I have begun the insane process of job hunting for after I graduate. My roommates think I'm crazy. All three of them are former graduates of this program, and one of them - yes one - is working regularly in theatre right now. One of the others has some irregular theatre work, and one hasn't stepped foot in a theatre for work since last July.

I know too many graduates of this program just sitting around Philadelphia not working in theatre, and that's not okay with me. I will not become part of them. I cannot let myself. I have a passion. I have a drive. And I will do whatever it takes to become a functioning member of the larger theatre society. Not just in Philadelphia. I am ready to go anywhere it takes.

Now I just have to prove it to the places I'm applying...

The Theatre of Happy Endings

Somebody once told me about a project their student theatre group did, called the "Theatre of Happy Endings," in which they took classic tragedies and gave them happy endings. Like Oedipus - instead of blinding himself imposing self-banishment upon himself, they found a way to keep Oedipus in the town.

Well, that's kind of what I'm trying to do with my life right now - not that I'm expecting my life to turn into a tragedy, rather, I'm preventing it from becoming one. This, here, NOW, I need to make my life better, happier, more likely to succeed.

It's not easy for me, not at all. Because, when I was younger, I thought my life would turn out to be like Friends or Sex and the City or something like that, but that's not how life works. I don't have my Manhattan apartment with my five closest friends; I don't have the successful career, the multitude of men, the limo that picks me up to take me to the club. And I may never have either of those, and isn't that damn scary?

I'm graduating with my MA in five months. In fact, commencement is just 117 days away. Insane. And yes, I have another three weeks after that to complete my Comprehensive Exam and my Orals Thesis project, but still. What?

Where am I going? It's frightening to think that I'm going to be moving somewhere where I may not know anybody - again. Wasn't doing that in undergrad and grad school bad enough?  Not to mention the fact that I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing. No clue. I've been firing off Cover Letters and Resumes, I've been in meetings and interviews and meeting with people about potential interviews, but nothing is definite. Nothing is certain. And I realize I might never have that group of friends that will just go cavorting in Central Park with me, or that I can sit around with sharing martinis and margaritas every night, or who I can meet for a quick afternoon lunch at Starbucks on 8th Ave.

To me, the scariest thing in life right now is being alone through any of this. And I realize I'm not alone, but my best friends are currently in Westport, San Francisco, and Harrisburg. And I'm in Philly, so I rarely get to see any of them. (In fact, the last time I saw one of them was Christmas 2011.) And that hurts me just a little bit. I have made a ton of friends while in grad school, but they can't compare, in all honesty. But I am simultaneously terrified and excited by the prospect of being alone, an unknown in a new place. The ideas of anonymity and obscurity both turn me on and make me nauseous. Because - who am I?

And I think that's what this blog is for. To discover who I am and what I really want from life.

And to find my happy ending through this crazy theatre life.