I find that creativity shows up almost every day in my life. Whether it’s navigating traffic in Los Angeles, cooking dinner, organizing my schedule for the day, facilitating a problem solving session, building a character idea for an opera, or thinking about how to approach my performance career. Creativity is defined as “the ability to … Read more
Weirdly enough, I actually really like it when things go wrong on stage. These moments are the most memorable, and the best to recount as war stories later on. Probably my favorite performance mishap is when I was playing Mad Margaret in Ruddigore in 2006, and on opening night all of our lighting cues got … Read more
I was taking my time getting ready for a grand entrance in the ball scene of My Fair Lady. The intermission had been determined to be placed just before the big reveal in order to have enough time to get all gussied up for Henry Higgins. He was supposed to fall madly in love with … Read more
“Don’t move a muscle,” said the stage director. “Don’t even blink.” I was standing on a rehearsal stage in Salzburg, staring lifelessly into the auditorium. Mechanically, I lifted one arm, jerking my fan away from face in a single robotic movement. Then I began to sing, “Les oiseux dans la charmille…” I was singing the … Read more
The brilliance of live theater is that anything can happen on stage. The first time I played La Traviata’s Violetta in its entirety was in a shoestring production. The production team had spent what little money they had on getting some nicer period costumes for me. Act one had gone very well, which honestly, is the … Read more
Have you ever watched a perfect game where the athletes never fumble a ball, miss the net or mess up a practiced strategy? Probably not. That scenario would be highly unlikely. The same holds true in music. There have been moments where I have seen performers, including myself, fumble the pass. With the play interrupted … Read more
In my first leading role I ever sang, I sang the title character in La Perichole by Offenbach. In the first act, she is a street performer with her boyfriend, singing in the streets to make money to eat. Our costume designer put some very fun sandals on me that had leather straps that crisscrossed … Read more
Picture a bleak place where the only thing that pervades your senses is the overwhelming presence of shame and an uncontrollable hysteria of inner-guilt. For one seemingly eternal night in my childhood that was what I experienced riding home amidst the dark backseat interior of my parents’ car. Everything seemed to loom larger than life … Read more