Summertime – Coming to a loft near you!

Summertime is not just the season we’re so eagerly awaiting (how’s Spring treating you so far?). It’s also a beautiful, unusual, dream-like play about love in all its forms, and it’s the second show I’m producing with my dear friend, Jenn Haltman. This probably isn’t news to you because we’ve been showering Facebook with word about the fundraiser. The play will be going up this May for two weeks! Jenn and I had such a good time with The Understudy last year that we decided to take on another beast of a play, by one of my favorite playwrights Chuck Mee. We’ve also given ourselves a company name: Between Two Boroughs Productions. Of course, many conversations need to be had as we discuss our hopes and plans for the company’s future, but for the moment, we decided to start with a name. And a website. And a Twitter account. And Instagram! And what’s that? A Facebook page, too?! Okay, okay, sorry about that. Promote I must! Apologies, back to the blog.

It’s a funny thing about producing. I never envisioned myself doing this. When I was younger, I figured that if I ended up behind-the-scenes, it would be as a stage manager. Perhaps because of my star turn as the Pippin stage manager when I was 16. But a producer? It turns out that I do have a particular set of skills that fits the job, but it honestly never crossed my mind until we decided to take it upon ourselves to make a show happen last year. And when you get to the heart of it, that’s all producing is: making a play happen, making something out of nothing. Obviously, it’s no easy task. You need a team of talented people just as game and driven as you are. When I’m surrounded by the people on our creative team, I feel like we can take on any obstacle. I’m excited for you to see what they can do.

Of course, at the end of the day, I’m putting in all this work so that I get the chance to act. In Summertime, I’ll be playing Tessa, a girl who’s completely closed herself off to love. The teaser video we made will give you a little taste of the goofy humor. I had so much fun filming it (just two days after I got back from Japan) with these talented guys. Josh, Hubert, and Will are only three members of our insanely talented cast. Plus we had the help of the always hilarious Christopher Scheer, because who else would you ask to play a game show host?

You’ve likely already seen the Indiegogo campaign all over Facebook, but indulge me while I share it here as well: http://igg.me/at/SummertimeBK. If you’re interested in donating, the fundraiser is live through April 8th. I know we went through this process together last year, but I promise this is going to be a fantastic show and an entirely new adventure for all of us. I truly cannot wait to start rehearsals with this amazing group of people on April Fool’s Day. No joke.