http://www.castillo.org/donut-play-2014/

For more info on the upcoming play, check out the link above!  It's a great cast, an exciting and relevant story, and totally the kind of theater I can get behind. 

I've been in NYC for one month now.  And I still feel like I just arrived.  But I also feel so...at home.  I don't know what it is, or why it is, but I am so comfortable in the big city...while also being completely out of my element at all times.  20-something is the perfect age to become a New Yorker.  But of course, I've only been in the city for a month which still qualifies me as a tourist. 

Focusing on what I've been working on:

Currently I am a Production Management Intern with NYTW.  The current production running is the American Premiere of Caryl Churchill's newest work, Love and Information .  It's a brilliant show consisting of 57 (or so) scenes, some of which are only 20 seconds long, with none of the same characters, in all different locations.  The technical for this show was insanity. You try creating 57 different locations and then quick transitioning between all of them. The designs for it, beautiful.  I cannot get enough of the original music made for the show, and the set design is so simple yet so perfectly fitting.  It's brilliant, but also a tough show to love.  If you want to see a romantic narrative that whisks you away into the dream world of theatre, go see Bridges of Madison County.  But if you want to spend a night thinking in the theatre about whether love and science are different entities, if they compliment each other or drive each other apart, and see 57 unique answers, then Love and Information might interest you.  The show will jolt you, LITERALLY, with bright lights and loud music, to make sure you don't fall asleep or stop thinking.  It's a thinker, not an entertainer (but don't think it's not entertaining).  And it's been receiving great reviews, like the one when you click on the button....

In the spirit of Upcoming Work, here is a link to New York Theatre Workshop's website and what shows I will be working on until June.  Cheater's guide:  NYTW developed shows such as RENT, Once, and Peter and the Starcatcher.  They're dedicated to creating new works that inspire and challenge us all.  A lot of their work revolves around giving new works some of their first public readings, and providing rehearsal spaces to those who are creating new theatre. 

http://www.nytw.org/default.asp 

Yes, I will be working on Caryl Churchill's new piece that is premiering with NYTW.  Yes, Caryl Churchill is a playwright that completely changed my view of theatre when I first read her play Cloud Nine.  Yes, I will probably get to see her, take creepy snapchat photos of her, and if I do meet her, I will totally be a huge fanboy and maybe cry a little bit.  Yes, all of my dreams are coming true and I am so incredibly lucky and thankful.

Cheers, to good luck and big dreams!

 #hashtag  is all finished now.  It feels like it was centuries ago when we took down the set, yet I still can't believe that this incredible experience is gone now.  I can't believe my college experience is gone now.  I'm graduated, with a BFA in Directing. But I'll talk about that later.

I am so grateful that Wesleyan gave Dan and I the chance to create #hashtag.  I could not believe the audience reaction we received.  There's this moment before a director watches a first performance, where he or she fears that the audience won't laugh.  And often times, there will be this tense aura around a director as we watch the audience from the back row.  I sat there, clutching the playwright's hand, unable to control this tense aura as I sensed every breath from that audience around me.  And I was shocked.  

The audience not only laughed, but they gasped.  They awwwed.  They whispered profanities under their breath.  There were beautiful moments when the audience could tell what was coming next, and you could feel their dread as they watched the train crash approaching.  And I was giddy about it.  Dan and I knew our audience: college students.  And college students loved all the drama and relevancy of the play.  Even my professors mentioned that they received insight to the culture that we are developing as a generation.  

A big congratulations to Dan Kelly for being bold enough to write this relevant piece of work, for submitting the piece to KCACTF and being declared a runner up with this new play. I can't wait to see the next work you create Dan. 

Once again, I thank the people who made all of it possible.  I can't thank them enough.    Thank you cards, free pizza and coffee don't quite cover the payment I owe you, but it's all I can give.  I hope the experience helped you as an artist as much as it helped me. 

And last but not least, thank you to  Nebraska Wesleyan University.  There went four and a half years of my life, thousands upon thousands of dollars, and all I can say is: worth it.  Money well spent.   

At least I'm saying that now, before the student loans have come into effect. 

Well, peace out girl scout.  Tune in next time when I actually do something with my degree...if it ever happens.  Cross your fingers.

<3 Leigh

Beautiful photos taken by Brittney Gossett

    It's the final countdown for #hashtag !  Tech week is greeting me with the usual lack of sleep, and night terrors of what still needs to pull together to get the show up on its feet.  Yet despite the slight director panic I always face, this time everything is pulling together beautifully.  

    For those of you interested in what the show's about, you can follow all the characters on twitter and begin to discover who they are.  I LOVE the detail the actors have brought to these characters

Sara - @SSKrazy2010
Paul - @Paulz2thewall
Robb - @HeartROBBr
Zach - @ZackInShadows
Adam - @AdamsApp13
Quinn - @fanficquinn

    I have a feeling this show will be particularily difficult to let go once it's finished.  I'm so proud of all the work that's been put into this show from everyone.  I can't wait to see what this final week of rehearsals brings.

7:30pm - December 9, 10, 11   2013
@ Nebraska Wesleyan Studio Theatre
48th and St Paul, Lincoln Nebraska
Admission will be free to the public 

The next project that you can look forward to:  #hashtag  A Comedy in One Act

Dan Kelly is a great friend of mine; an incredibly talented friend who works as a director, an actor, and more recently... a writer.  A year ago or so, Dan approached me with a play he wanted me to look over and give some feedback on.  After I read it, I told him that it needed to be, had to be, done.  I had never been so excited over a student written play, and I felt instantly connected to it.  And somehow...one way or another... here I am getting the opportunity to direct the first workshop of the play here at Nebraska Wesleyan University.  

I feel like this is exactly the kind of work that I want to create in my future.  One of the greatest things about theatre is that it's always changing, moving, shifting to fit with or grind against our times.  I want to be one of the people who creates that  new theatre.  I want to help give a voice to my generation in the world of theatre.  

And Dan Kelly's work fits perfectly into the new generation of theatre.  It's a story that follows a group of college friends, and what happens when one boy kisses another boy, who also happens to be his best friend.  Mere tweets begin to ruin lives, characters imaginations run away from them into thumping techno sex nightmares, and everybody seems to be talking but no one is listening.  It's a world that is controlled by Twitterverse, Pinterest, Facebook, dating websites, and whatever else is on the internet that tells us to post, to tell everyone how we're feeling, to update, to create profiles centered around you and who you are and who you want to be, without ever asking you to listen or to learn.   And the real questions at the end of this is, that still haunt me are, what really matters?  Who are your real friends?  What is this world that we have created?

It's a show I'm looking forward to, and you should as well.  #BFAproblems #socialmediaishard #hashtag

7:30pm - December 9, 10, 11   2013
@ Nebraska Wesleyan Studio Theatre
48th and St Paul, Lincoln Nebraska
Admission will be free to the public  :)

       Yesterday we closed a very unique and unforgettable production of You Can't Take It With You  by Kaufman and Hart.  It's hard to say goodbye to such a lovable family.   And I'm so proud of all the work everyone put into this production.  

       All I can hear is Martin Vanderhoff (Grandpa) saying, "How many of us would be willing to settle when we're young for what we eventually get?  All those plans we make... what happens to them?  It's only a handful of the lucky ones that can look back and say that they even came close." 

       And I just know he's talking to me, to all of the young and confused and scared theatre students out there.  We wonder if we're crazy for even dreaming of becoming an actress, a costume designer, to be in the chorus of a Broadway musical, a director.  And we make all these plans to move to New York, to move to LA, to meet people, to starve, to couch surf and do this crazy thing called theatre.  He's saying to us, he's shouting and shaking us by the shoulders, that we could be the lucky ones!  We could be a part of that miraculous handful... if we just don't give up.  If we don't give ourselves a time limit.  If we fight for it hard enough, we don't have to settle in the end.

       If there's one thing I learned from this show is that I could be one of the lucky ones.  I just want to come close.  


Special Thanks: To the cast of You Can't Take It With You  for being a part of this crazy family full heartedly, to Bob Donlan for going above and beyond designing one of the most beautiful shows I've been a part of, and my own family and friends for being my crazy inspiration for doing theatre.


A link to a review of the show: