When Nerd and Stage meet...

As I mentioned in the last blog, I will be taking a journey "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

This made me think about how my theatre career has often intersected with my nerd world...and I am not just talking about theatre people in Chicago being total nerds...because they are. Seriously, my broadsword certification class had two "Buffy" scenes, one "Dragonheart", and two "Game of Thrones"...the last being the exact same scene.

With "MacSith", I discovered, I continue my nerd/theatre melding. I have sampled from many of the geek food groups...I realize that I have MANY more to go: Battlestar...Marvel...maybe even (gulp) D.C., but I think I am off to a good start!

"Lord of the Rings"/Frodo-A-Go-Go
 There is photographic evidence SOMEWHERE that I make a lovely blonde, but it has been lost...

This fully improvised parody of "Lord of the Rings" was the second professional show I did in Chicago. I was the understudy for all the females, but this included the "Sam" and "Frodo" characters. My proudest moment was when I actually got to go on for two weekends as "Legoland", blond wig and all. The fact that one of those two weekends coincided with the weekend they won ALL the Academy Awards was just icing.

Steampunk/Sherlock/Sherlock Holmes: The Last Adventure
It was a long break between nerd shows, but when it came again, it came big. For me, "Sherlock" is the show that all others are measured against, and that is a hard bar to reach. We performed just as the new series premiered in England and the movies were starting, so it could be said we came in on the ground floor, and we did a pretty darn good job. Not to sound too hipster, but we were doing Sherlock and Steampunk before it was cool!

The Cast.

Corsets are FUN!

Irene and the King of Bohemia

My Little Pony/L'Imbecile
I'm sorry, I was Pinky Pie. The photographic evidence proves it:

Aww, the Three Courtiers...

Star Trek/Klingon Christmas Carol
You have not know challenge until you have to memorize Dickens...in Klingon. For months, I spit and twisted my tongue and slathered my face in adhesive and it was awesome. This was nerd heaven, and it brought up all sorts of lovely memories from when I was a kid.

Klingon's Angels

Me and the targh...

Buffy-verse/Broadsword Class & SPT
When choosing a scene for our Broadsword SPT, my partner and I looked at a few scenes, but settled on the big Buffy/Faith fight from the end of Season 3. Not a full play, but close enough. And we passed our certification test, so YAY!

Star Wars/Mac Sith
So here we arrive at the present day. Star Wars and Shakespeare, in one glorious mash-up. We'll see how much saber-swinging I get to do, but, in the meanwhile, it is Force-pushing and witch-ing it up. And some pretty awesome Jedi Warriors...

And with that, I shall wish you all a very good night!

If 13-Year-Old Me could see me now...

...Man, I wish I could go back in time and tell an anxious, picked-on, teenage me that, one day, you WILL get to combine your two loves and people will come and pay to see it...

Middle school was not easy. Not that it is for anyone, but kids can be extra mean when you pick an extra-curricular activity like acting, and it isn't made much easier when you like things that are considered "nerdy". Like Star Wars. And Star Trek. And Fantasy.

Nope. The first half of Middle School was NOT fun.

Then, your mom goes into the office to file the paper work because you will be out of class for the first part of one certain day, and the office lady looks at the calendar.

"Oh, but she'll miss the field trip they have scheduled that day!"

And your mom gets to respond: "No, she IS the field trip."

Because the field trip is a viewing if "To Kill A Mockingbird" at the local community theatre, and yours truly is playing Scout.

And I don't think I am blowing my horn TOO much when I say I knocked it out of the park.

Yeah, middle school got ALOT easier after that day.

But, let's take small side trip: Westgate Mall...Waldenbooks...a 10 year old Star Wars fan uses some of her PRECIOUS allowance to buy "Heir To The Empire."

My love affair with the Star Wars EU exploded and I never really looked back. I stuck through the good times and the bad times, (Callista that blonde, whiny, wimpy, B...(looks at young co-stars possibly reading this) um...yeah, never mind).

I'll be honest: I had lost track of the EU (this was before the internet was as prevalent as it is) and so didn't even know the "Hand of Thrawn" books were out until I saw a friend reading them during a rehearsal. I made a comment about how much a certain farm boy and a certain red head just needed to get over themselves and get together. He snorted in derision and the subject was dropped until Tech week when he called me over and whispered "I hate you for being right," and showed me the end of a certain paragraph at the end of a certain chapter (page 481-82...not that I have it bookmarked or anything...shut up).

Stupid thin walls between greenroom and theatre; I wanted to scream in joy and I couldn't.

To make a long story short (TOO LATE)...Fast forward 16 years.

A local company is remounting a production, and are holding auditions:  "MacBeth" set in the "Star Wars" universe.

Um, YES PLEASE!

If nothing else, I figure I can pick up the Lightsaber the director owes me from backing the Kickstarter from the original run. So I sign up for a slot, show up, do my Rosalind, speak the speech, swing a lightsaber in a fight, and head on my way home.

Then the e-mail comes in, and 13-year-old me screams in joy...

More to come as we go into rehearsals, but I cannot begin to say how excited I am to be a part of this production and working with this company. These are good folks, and this is a great cast, and I am looking forward to helping transport the Bard to a galaxy far, far away...