'cash for gold' now viewable here

The short film I wrote, produced and star in alongside Navid Negahban has enjoyed a solid year and a half of traveling around the country to festivals, and not often but sometimes my schedule has allowed me to travel with it. I have met some of the most wonderful people on this little journey, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It's a ton of work, but most things worth it are.

MORE INFO AT WWW.CASHFORGOLDTHEFILM.COM

I can't say enough about my dear friend, fellow producer and our director, Robert Enriquez. He's just one of the most talented, heart-centered people I've ever known, and without him this film would absolutely not exist. Thank you, buddy, for challenging me and making me see the possibilities bringing this little story to the world would create. I love you.

And now, I'm so thrilled to say that you can watch the film online for free. I hope you enjoy what you see and that it makes you smile a little, cry a little or maybe a little of both.

xxd

'a delicate balance' begins rehearsals in los angeles

Yesterday we had our first read-thru with the company and designers at The Odyssey Theater. I'm so glad to be re-teaming with director Robin Larsen and to be working with this terrific cast for the first time. ADB will mark my fourth play with Robin (the Ovation Award-winner "Four Places" I produced rather than acted in), and it's almost exactly two years to the day since we did "The Fall to Earth" at the same theater.

We open April 26th. Once tickets are on sale, you'll find them HERE.

'cash for gold' heads to florida film festival

Cash for Gold will be spending some time in sunny Orlando as an official selection of the Florida Film Festival. Recently named one of the "Coolest Film Festivals in the World" by MovieMaker Magazine, the FFF takes place this year from April 3 - 14. I'll post screening dates here when I have them.

You can see the trailer for the film and more about the cast and creative team HERE.

'cash for gold' gets terrific screening slot at Hollywood Film Festival

I can FINALLY announce that not only have we been invited to make our festival premiere at the very sparkly Hollywood Film Festival, but they've also given us a terrific screening time! We'll screen among the Shorts Program #3 at the Hollywood ArcLight on Friday, October 13th at 9:15 pm. Sweet.

I'll be there with the rest of the cast and director, and I'd love to see and/or meet you! Tickets are available on sale now, here. It's a great block of shorts and could sell out fast, so get your tickets asap. I can't wait to watch  these shorts with you.

See you at the theater!!

"cash for gold" claims internet real estate

 Director Robert Enriquez talks actor Navid Negahban and me through a shot.

The short film I wrote last year and star in is about midway through post-production, and this morning we launched the website! You can see more about "Cash for Gold" including production pictures like the one above and current news by visiting the site SO CLICK HERE NOW. We anticipate a finished film in May 2013. "Cash for Gold" co-stars the terrific Navid Negahban and is directed by Robert Enriquez. There's also more info about the film in prior posts on this blog.

Looking forward to bringing it to a festival near you!

get inspired by: new plays in l.a.

Last Saturday, I had the extreme pleasure of doing a staged reading of Day Trader, a new play by the very talented Eric Rudnick. Eric did a bang-up job putting together a wonderful cast of actors to perform his terrific play about power, greed and making it in Hollywood.

I'd followed Bruce Greenwood's work since he blew me away in Atom Egoyan's haunting The Sweet Hereafter; Gregg Henry and I have kicked around in the same circles for awhile, and I've loved watching him play really good baddies like the one he played on The Riches; Amanda Kaschak and Mackenzie Astin kick ass onstage with me in Caught every weekend; Jennifer Carroll was new to me and perfect in her part.The six of us had the great pleasure of bringing this as-yet-unproduced-but-not-for-long play to life in front of an audience that clearly digs new work. How fun it was to bite into Rudnick's smart and stinging dialogue, which has it's own very specific sizzle and snap.

The purpose of a reading is usually at least two-fold:  to let the writer hear how the story and its characters land with an audience, and to introduce the play to more people, ideally some who will be interested in seeing it move forward and have the power to help it do just that. I'm sure that Saturday's reading did both. It certainly generated a long and animated discussion between writer, cast and audience alike over beers at The Village Idiot down the street.

Producers and directors interested in learning more about Eric's work can ping him directly at his email. 

This is one I expect to see a full production of in the future, and when that happens, I hope I'm lucky enough to be part of it again.

"This is not an age of doing, or even thinking. 

This is an age of hanging on - for which one needs claws."

--Day Trader

"four places" nets 3 LADCC awards including best production

With Mark at Jerry's Famous Deli, 1:21 a.m.

The accolades for this gem of a play keep coming. On March 14, the team of "Four Places" received three more awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, including the biggie for Best Production. The award will sit alongside its kin from the Ovation and recently-announced Garland Awards. Folks have been asking me what I'll produce next, but I'm not ready to give details, yet. I'd like to revel in this one a bit longer. Thanks to everyone who supported this beautiful play, written by the wonderful Joel Drake Johnson, and congratulations to my fellow producers, John Perrin Flynn and Matthew Elkins and to director, dear friend and frequent collaborator Robin Larsen. So continuously proud of our cast, Tim Bagley, Anne Gee Byrd, Roxanne Hart, and Lisa Rothschiller Ragsdale on their win for Best Ensemble. A dream cast if ever there was one. And thank you to all of our designers and technical and house staff at Rogue Machine and publicist Judith Borne. You all did a marvelous job keeping that show running through its many extensions in 2010.

The party continued early into the next morning with heaps of corned beef and chicken soup at Jerry's Famous Deli on Ventura Blvd, in a booth not unlike the one in the play....

uh, yeah, there's a little bit of theater in L.A.

When my then-boyfriend-now-husband and I moved to L.A. from Chicago, I was pretty sure I was kissing legitimate theater goodbye. The rap about Los Angeles theater being all bad showcase projects had jaded me before I even landed at LAX. I'm sure I'd even muttered some of it myself, before I knew any better.

I'm not often this glad to have been 180 degrees off the mark. Los Angeles' theater community is as vibrant and varied, as talented and troubled as of that in any of the major market in the U.S. It's nowhere near perfect (another post on that when I'm less hung-over), but when it's good, it is top-notch. Chicago taught me my first lessons on living a life in the theater, and L.A. continues that schooling.

Congratulations to all of the nominees at last nights' Ovation Awards. Congratulations to all who toil and triumph, persevere and prosper onstage in the land where the screen would be king. Just being a part of this community makes me as proud as winning Ms. Ovation herself.

Congratulations to you wherever you live, so long as you make theater that truly means something to you.