`Lost' in a lifetime of loving the theater
I love everything about theater. I love watching it. I love performing. I love working behind the scenes. I love the creativity behind it and the emotions and I love meeting other incredibly talented actors and actresses and directors and crew.
This love led to me auditioning for and appearing in “Lost In Yonkers” with the Chico Theater Company. It's amazing to watch David Bristow and Annaliese Kuhn direct and co-direct the play and it's a thrill to be in it.
It's the latest “stage” of a lifelong obsession.
I was bitten by the acting bug when my mom almost physically pushed me out the door at 15 to audition for “The Human Chess Game” in my hometown of Monterey. She wanted me to get out of my shell and, having performed in plays herself, she knows how much it helps people and how fun it is.
“The Human Chess Game” doesn't exist anymore, but it was really cool. The theater would install a massive chess board in a plaza in downtown Monterey. The actors were the chess pieces and we would move around the board playing “chess” and performing choreographed fight scenes.
I participated in this play for two summers. I played Lizzie Borden during the second summer, which was super fun. I was hooked. I was in the ensemble for “Cabaret” in high school and played Snow White in “Into the Woods” my senior year. I mostly got that part because I have fair skin and had dyed my hair jet black.
I started acting on and off in Monterey and worked the spotlight for a couple of shows. It was fun being behind the scenes as well. For the Western stage performances the spotlighters sat up on a very narrow platform high above the stage.
It's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights!
I was part of the ensemble in “Billy Elliot” in Carmel and performed in “Fiddler on the Roof” at Chico Theater Company in September 2023. Currently I'm in “Lost in Yonkers,” playing Gert.
My love of appearing in plays came, of course, from watching plays.
I remember my mom took my sister and I to see “Phantom of the Opera” when we were in high school. That is my favorite production. I've seen it eight times and the power and beauty behind it is phenomenal. I also became obsessed with “Les Miserables,” which I attended for the first time during a class trip to San Jose when I was a sophomore in high school. It is such a sad story but moving and beautiful.
During my senior year in college I studied abroad in London. For our theater class we were required to go to a different play every week and write about it. I loved every minute of it. We saw “Crime and Punishment” in a very rundown theater in a bad neighborhood of London. The show took place in a small room with folding chairs. We also saw the musical “Kiss Me Kate” in a large and grand theater and saw Oscar Wilde's “Lady Windermere's Fan” with Vanessa Redgrave. So amazing.
I dragged my husband, who is not a theater fan, to see “Rent” in San Jose and “The Book of Mormon” in San Francisco. Both phenomenal shows.
When I lived in New York City for grad school, I also tracked down every play I could find starring a celebrity. I saw Matthew Broderick in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and got a photo with him afterward. He was nice but seemed very shy. It's interesting how actors can be very shy and quiet in real life but absolutely come alive on stage. I am very shy and have social anxiety, so I love being in my happy place on stage where I get to be someone else.
I also saw a show with Kim Cattrall called “Private Lives” which was about a divorced couple who both get remarried and end up in the same hotel in rooms next door to each other on their honeymoons with their new spouses. Cattrall can do absolutely anything, from playing the randy Samantha Jones in “Sex and the City” to this show, which was awesome. Afterwards at the stage door she walked right up to me and said hello and I was so star struck I could barely respond back. She was much shorter in real life than how she looks onscreen. She was so friendly and I got a photo with her as well. That was one of the best experiences of my life.
The last show I saw in 2012 before graduating was “Glengarry Glen Ross” with Al Pacino. I was awed by his performance. I couldn't take my eyes off of this legend. I ran out to the stage door during the curtain call and got a spot right next to the ropes and red carpet. When Pacino came out I remember he was wearing a big coat and was very energetic, spinning around and performing for the crowd. I was able to snap a photo of him and myself and some lady photobombed us.
I'm so blessed to be involved in this world I love so much.