Back in July 2013 we had a reading of my play Carmilla. It proved a thrilling experience, which led in turn to a lot of improvements in the text. Now, I’d like to introduce you to some (albeit not quite all) of the wonderful folks who took part!
Amelia Gotham read both Laura and Carmilla at different times. I first saw her in The Turn of the Screw at the Visceral, a part for which she won an award. She has since won another for her role in Sherlock Through the Looking Glass. She wowed me at the time and wowed me again from the first word she uttered. Honestly she leaves me in a bit of awe.
Vanessa Cate read Carmilla and the Countess. She’s been in many shows, the first I saw being Hamlet. But since then she’s also starred in, directed and written numerous plays including Urban Death and Fragments of Oscar Wilde as well as A Down & Dirty Christmas Cabaret and the upcoming Kamikaze (a one woman show). She’s got an amazing stage presence as well as an unusual gravitas for someone her age. Plus a wicked sense of humor that radiates from her like heat!
Amir Khalighi read the part of Captain Martin (and if you don’t recognize the name from the novel–well, I’ll explain later). He’s a wonderful actor I’ve seen in such plays as Much Ado About Nothing and Whore’s Bath. Now he’s directing a show coming up about the poet Rumi, titled Rumination. He played a crucial role in organizing the Reading, even offering up his home as possible location. We didn’t have to go that far, but the offer meant a great deal.
Mark Hein , who read the part of Fontaine (Laura’s father) has become a good friend. He’s been a teacher at Pierce College, a performer in dozens of plays, most recently in To Kill a Mockingbird and before that in Urban Death. He’s also directed lots of plays and will now be directing another! He has a quiet power on stage, and it doesn’t hurt that he understood in his bones pretty much precisely what I trying to do with the script!
Douglas Eames came recommended by a film director friend, and I was very much impressed. He portrayed Colonel Spielsdorf, the “vampire hunter” of the story and in many ways the spiritual ancestor of Van Helsing (Dracula was published a full quarter century after LeFanu’s work). He captured the rather tricky ‘air’ and manner of how I re-imagined Spielsdorf (as an SS Officer in 1938) extremely well.
Lili Bordan played Laura at one point and the rest of the time she played Madame Perradon (for which she is actually far too young and glamorous). Had the enormous good fortune to see her in The Shawl by David Mamet and we had a lovely conversation about theater and acting afterwards. Having expressed interest in my play, she ended up invited to the reading where she did a splendid job! Really. I was very impressed (but then, having seen her work, I was not surprised).
Sebastian Munoz is an actor and director I’ve seen before, mostly as a director for shows like Attack of the Rotting Corpses as well as Captain Dan Dixon vs. The Moth Sluts from the 5th Dimension (which was really too much fun!). His most recent performance that I’ve seen was one of an ensemble in a Poe-laden work in North Hollywood simply dubbed The Raven. Honestly I was thrilled to see it! And it hasn’t surprised me how many of his shows have ended up extended! He did a very fine job in the important role of The Peddler.
To be fair, several others helped out as well, some of them doubling for various roles. But these folks played the major roles. Others who helped out included Tyler McAuliffe, Redetha Deason and Stephanie Bergman Kalighi (the latter two beautiful women Amir and Sebastian have the incredible good luck to love and be loved in return). Tyler read Mr. Fontaine, Redetha the Countess, and Stephanie also read the Countess. Everyone did a fine job with reading, but more importantly they gave invaluable feedback. Revisions that followed–which made the play better in quite tangible ways–arose from their shared perceptions and thoughts.
Cannot thank any of them enough!
theatreANON! 