Penny Thloloe from Kasi Ballet (www.kasiballet.com) was here from South Africa for a fundraiser on February 22nd at our home. She had been working very hard for a very long time, and I felt it was time to bring her here for a break. I suppose it wasn't much of a break, because right away we started working towards the fundraiser, which turned out to be a magical evening. So many friends helped with organizing and cooking and bartending and so many people gave so generously of their time and their support for Kasi Ballet, and I am very grateful to all of them. We launched the "Adopt a Dancer" program, and I am proud to say that we funded the ballet lessons of 7 dancers in Alexandra for the upcoming year and we will be updating the Kasi site with a new sponsor list shortly.

To date, we have raised over $25,000 for Kasi Ballet, with over $13,000 coming from that one evening!

I have also been singing and playing a lot more saxophone these days, and will be out getting my feet a little wet again this weekend playing a gig with some old friends and I am very much looking forward to it.

I keep peddling my shows when the opportunities arise, and sometimes they do arise from the strangest places...:)I must say, at the end of every day these days, much more often than not,I look back and realize I've had a very good one. The "Bird" has been singing like crazy lately, and I think I've finally started listening.

Well, it would seem that the European dvd market has gone the way of North America...while the distributors approached by the movie company that wanted to make a dvd of Bird and the Waterfall thought the show was great, very compelling in their words, they are concerned that the only dvds selling now are horror films and reality shows. I would like to point out that I think reality shows are horror films, so we're really talking about one genre here:)

So for now, my little "Bird" is going to take a breather and wait for some sanity to come back to the entertainment business. Time is nature's way of keeping everything happening at once, so you never know what's around the corner and being the eternal optimist I am, I have no doubt that B@W will find it's way when the world is ready.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to bringing Penny Thloloe here in February to do some awareness raising for Kasi Ballet. Keep in touch!

Cheers!

Bill's talented and very hard-working son Darren also sings with both Bill and the Paul Revere and the Raiders Band opening the show on the road. Paul Revere embodies what it means to entertain. It will be a sad day when the likes of Paul Revere and Bill Medley are no longer here for us to learn from... My heart is happy, it was a dream to sing with a legend like Bill and what a fabulous way to get myself back in the vocal groove again...

In between that kind of frivolity I've been woodshedding, practicing...getting ready to record in September and October with an old friend of mine(more on that later)....hopefully there will be some new music to download by Christmas/Channuka...Festiva...whatevah!!

Over the summer I did a photo shoot...we are in the process of updating this site with the results of that day. I'm thrilled with the photos, done by Camille Fortin of Jonetsu Photography, and hopefully in the next month there'll be a more recent physical representation of myself these days on these webpages:)

Summer has been slow for the movie biz in the entertainment world,as usual, but in September I will be pushing forward with B&W, hopefully with a local film company I've been speaking to...

Kids are back at school fulltime in a couple of weeks and I have 3 huge canvasses needing a coat of paint or ten...Happy Autumn! I'll be in touch....

Cheers!

We have begun work on a website for Penny Thloloe and Kasi Ballet. The site address is www.kasiballet.com and the cover page shows Penny in a spectacular feat of athleticism and artistry. It should be fully operational in the next couple of weeks and I encourage you to check it out every so often to see this wonderful story unfold.

Until next time, all the best to you!

Yes that's right, it's time to meditate and cool my heels...this is the hurry up and wait period of a show. You go go go go go go until you're about to drop and then...nothing! Well not nothing, but things sure slow down while DVDs go out and people have to find 2 hours to watch the show.

Meanwhile, relaxation being something I'm not that good at, I have a little more time to work with Penny Thloloe and the Alexandra Project. Actually, Penny is no longer with Ballet Afrika, having decided that it was time to start her own school, Kasi Ballet. "Kasi" means "little fish". I am very excited at how people are coming forward to help, and will have and update here soon on that.

I've also gone back in the studio to start work on....yes that's right I'm a glutton for punishment...A sequel!! Also I am recording a few new tunes for myself to sing, and will be adding them to the "music" section of this site, hopefully in the next couple of months, although we all know how that can stretch...

Anyway, life's great, and until next time, Cheers!

No award this time, but congrats to everyone from the show who won awards for other work this year, and of course to everyone else as well. I am grateful that the Applause society thought to include a newcomer like me in their celebration of acheivement. Considering the workshop only ran three performances, I'm also grateful to all the cast and other people who went out of their way to support it's nomination.

Last night we finally had a screening of the DVD for the cast...there was much whooping and hollering, a few tears, laughter in all the right places and I couldn't be happier with everyone's reaction!

Also, I received an email from the Applause Musicals Society ( www.applausemusicals.com )to say that "the Bird and the Waterfall" has been nominated in the "Outstanding New Work" category for an Ovation Award. The awards are this Sunday, January 29th, and of course I'll be updating this site after that. A big thank you to everyone who had a hand in making the nomination happen.

That's it for now, and as always, thanks for checking in!

It's been awhile since I've updated, but there wasn't a lot to say...To all the cast wondering what's going on regarding the DVD: I had it all done and thought all was good, but in fact the dubbing company recorded the disks compressed to mono...not good. Luckily only a couple of disks had gone out, so I contacted the recipients, and will hopefully be getting new disks off to them today. Again, live and learn...check, recheck and triplecheck!

I am hoping to arrange a private screening for the cast members sometime late in January at the Kay Meek centre, and to that end will be following this update with a personal letter and invitation to the cast et al. I will address the issue of personal promo copies then. I did contact the union by email regarding the cast DVDs about 2 months ago, and have not yet heard back...they must be very busy.

I will be away after Christmas until January 9th and when I get back I will begin shopping the DVD to theatres, movie companies, you name it, they will see it!

SO! Have a great Christmas, Channukah, or Festivus for the rest of us, as Seinfeld would say, and I'll be back in 2006! Thank all of you whose hard work, dedication and support helped to make 2005 a very special year for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well, at long last the DVD's are done! I can't tell you how pleased I am with what everyone brought to this show...to all cast members and the creative/production team, a huge thank you. I will be making an appointment to go see the Equity reps next week hopefully, and finalize the wording on the agreement I need in order to release the DVD to you for your individual promotional purposes.

I am very excited about how this enormous creative and fiscal venture is turning out, and I believe it will serve to create new career opportunities for everyone involved.

Take care and I'll be in touch soon!

Thanks for checking in!

The editing process for the DVD has already begun, and a finished film should be ready at the end of August.

I'd like to take this time to thank all the wonderful people who took a chance on a dream with me...everyone in the cast, the creative team and crew. All the wonderful people who came to see the show, who told their friends, who told their friends, and who actually took the time to write such lovely things about it to me...I will be posting some of their emails when I get a little more energy back...the last few months have been incredibly challenging, but as I said to the cast, this is just the end of the beginning.

PRODUCTION STAFF:

Philomena Sondergaard--Stage Manager

Tess Rafferty--Apprentice Stage Manager

Kirsten Brandt--Director

Michael Creber--Musical Director

Shelley Stewart Hunt--Choreographer

Shawna Parry--Asst. Choreographer

Richard Berg--Production Manager

David Lee Cuthbert--Lighting Designer

Jesse White--Costume/Set Designer

George Widule--Audio Consultant

Mark LeCorre--Audio Design/Sound

Rob Sondergaard--Production LX

CAST:

Danny Balkwill--Reed

Will Blunderfield--Ensemble

Lauren Bowler--Ambrosia

Joani Bye--Ensemble

Shannon Chanmpion--Dance Ens.

Nicola Correia-Damude--Ensemble

Christopher King--Varnel

Kiara Leigh--Miss Love

Steve Maddock--Ash

Marcus Mosely--Ensemble

Deanna Overland--Ensemble

Nicol Spinola--Dance Ens.

David Steele--Neville

Danielle St. Pierre--Acacia

Vincent Tong--Ensemble

Heather Weglo--Dance Ens.

Sylvia Zaradic--Rose

That's it for now! I have to say that rehearsals started Monday, and I couldn't be happier with everyone...This is a fabulous cast, great singers, actors and even better attitudes!

We're going full speed ahead with the show "Bird and the Waterfall". We now have a scenic designer, George Dart and a costumer, Jesse White. Now I just have to find the right fit for filming and get a sound genius and we're good to go!

The dates of the performances are July 14-16, 2005. That's right, only 3 days! So mark your calendars and check this site out every so often for updates...Thanks and have a great day!

Gloria Steinem once said that a woman does not have one life, but rather lives her life on many levels; the daughter, the teenager, the young career woman, the mother, the teacher, the nurturer, the grandmother, the old crone...and the same can be said to be true for men, althought the integral difference is that women's role adapting is more universal, all-encompassing and complete. Instead of continuing along a path with all these aspects as diversions, they tend to envelope us, often to the point of taking over our lives for the period each stage inhabits. Thus we become not one person with several attributes, but several people housed in one casing. That is the story I use to explain my artistic schizophrenia.

Throughout my life I have been told to focus, focus, focus. It sounds so simple, but in practise I have found it impossible to place all my creative ovi in one basket.

The music feeds the art which feeds the theatrical which feeds my soul, which feeds my children and partner and around and around it goes, although not necessarily in that order.

The biography on this site tells the story of part of that journey. The part it doesn't tell is the story of motherhood that has taken over my life for the last 12 years. Without going into too much detail, there were circumstances that made it impossible to continue with my career after the birth of my second son(I have two gorgeous boys, age 12 and 5).

Now that my youngest boy is in kindergarten, it is time to get back to the business of my career, and to use that dreaded word "focus" on the new show I finished just before he was born.

"The Bird and the Waterfall" is based on the Buddist teaching that in every person's life the truth(the Bird) is always present if we can just shut out the sound of our parents/siblings/friends/society(the Waterfall) and listen to our soul--another take on the concept that "God is within". I started exploring the concept of a lie that is followed to it's logical conclusion...logical within my life experience anyway.

The show wrote itself, really. I had learned many lessons from the staging of "Alice in Modernland", and from that experience came a certain fluidity and acceptance of the process, that allowed music and story to come out in an organic and unforced way. I am very proud of the piece, of both pieces, but for now, my personal "bird" is telling me to concentrate on the "Bird and the Waterfall".

To that end, I am in the process of staging it at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver, British Columbia, early this summer, to culminate in a three show run only. The main purpose of this staging is to see where there are "holes" if any, and to film the show to shop within the industry as a DVD for home theatre use, to shop also as a "Concert Theatre" event for touring in Europe to start, and as a stand alone CD in the manner of "Jesus Christ Superstar" which only became a movie and theatrical venture after the initial success of the album.

I learned after "Alice" was blown off it's theatrical tracks when 9/11 happened and half the theatres on Broadway shut down, that it was fiscally irresponsible to stage a show, with all the cost that incurs, and not have a viable representation of what the show was about at the end of the run; something that could take the show to the next step without having to go back to the beginning and start over. In staging Alice, the film was secondary, an afterthought, and therefore the quality of what we got filmwise reflected that. "Bird and the Waterfall will be approached as a film first, a kind of LP music video from the perspective of a theatrical presentation. I also think that the age of home theatre is such that there is an incredible forum to enjoy a marriage of the theatrical and the music that have both been such strong aspects of my life.

To that end, I have been fortunate to secure the great talents of Kirsten Brandt, who directed "Alice" at the Sledgehammer theatre in San Diego, which she was the Artistic Director of for the past 6 years. Her husband, David Lee Cuthbert, who designed lights for "Alice", is professor of Lighting and multi media studies at Santa Cruz University, and recently designed the lighting for Billy Crystal's "Seven Hundred Sundays" on Broadway, will be designing the lights for Bird and the Waterfall. Local musician extrordinaire, Michael Creber will be the Musical Director, with some of the best players in Vancouver rounding out the band, and Megan Straight, a local choreographer, by way of New York and several critically acclaimed dance companies, will help us move people's bodies onstage. Richard Berg of "Uncle Randy Productions" will be our Production Manager,and George "the Guru" Widule is in charge of sound and recording coordination.

I am in the process of finding the right film crew/director, set/scenic designer, and costumer and will update this site accordingly.

This is an enormous undertaking, and would be impossible if it weren't for the support of my partner, William Park, and my wonderful friends, who have ridden beside me for so many years on this fascinating rollercoaster.

If you are reading this, I thank you so much for taking the time, and hope that you will be interested enough to come back every so often to see how it's going, and hey! Come to the show!

That's all for now, take care and have a great day!