Brittany's song

At the cast party for Fiddler on the Roof, Brittany took a song and rewrote the words to describe and fit our cast and experience with the show. She came over the other night and I had her play it again so I could film it.



Brings back so many lovely memories....thanks, Brittany. :)

RIP, Paul Newman

1925-2008

Here's a really good article about his life.

goodbye to Fiddler (part two)

Since I posted so many pictures and details about me, I thought I'd better go back and talk a little about the other scenes and performers, too.

Our Tevye, for instance, was truly brilliant. Such a wonderful performer to work with. People were yelling and cheering after just his first song, "If I Were a Rich Man."




Motel and Tzeitel, played by real-life husband and wife Darin and Jessica, were so cute together. :) They did a lovely job. I so loved working with Jessica, she's the best sister a girl could ask for. And Darin embodied Motel . . . I never could watch "Miracle of Miracles" without smiling happily.



My dear friend Cristina was one of the lead dancers in the show, and she was absolutely magnificent! This was her first show ever, but you would never have guessed.



Meredith, my other favorite sister (she played Hodel), has a simply gorgeous singing voice. I loved working with her, too.


The choreography in "The Dream" was probably my favorite in the entire show:




Yente was so funny (in real life as well as onstage). This picture is perfect:

Saying goodbye to everyone was the saddest...but at least I have plans to get together with a few of them soon!






We had standing ovations for all three performances. At the first performance, there were 460 people in the audience; second we had 560; and then we closed with 611. 1650 people saw us in just three performances. Wow.

Goodbye, my Fiddler family....
....you'll be missed.

goodbye to Fiddler (part one)

Second performance:
Went a bit smoother than opening night, which is usually the case. Nothing too momentous happened . . . my grandparents gave me a bouquet of tulips, which is so rare this time of year, and I love tulips! And my aunt, who's an actress, who usually tries to come to my performances but couldn't make it to Fiddler, had a huge bouquet of flowers delivered to me. That made my night.

Closing night:
Wow. What a performance! It was amazing. Singing our last "Matchmaker":




It was so fun, as it always is, but I felt a twinge of sadness when it was over, thinking of how never again would we perform that song.

I truly lived and breathed Chava on closing night. Each moment was so bright and truthful for me. From "Tradition":



To getting caught reading:


To meeting Fyedka:

To my sister's wedding:


And most of all, to my scenes with Papa:



I didn't expect to cry that night, I've never cried because a show was going to be over before. But the horrible, empty, aching finality when Papa disowned me....


....It hit me so hard. I started crying on my way off stage, and really lost it once I was off altogether. I realized suddenly that I would miss Chava, I would miss being her, she had grown to be such a part of me.

My tears quieted down, until the chorus began singing "Anatevka", when I started crying all over again.

For the goodbye scene....


...I was able to use that sadness quite well. In fact, I almost didn't make it through that scene without losing it altogether.


*PART TWO COMING SOON.*


(A HUGE thank you to my friend David for taking these AMAZING pictures!)

"How do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word. . . ."

Opening night went wonderfully! There were tiny glitches, of course (like my boot getting hooked on the lace from my skirt during the daughters' dance in "Tradition"; losing my apron; etc.) but that's what makes live theater so interesting and fun. :) Everyone did a fabulous job, we couldn't have asked for a better first performance. Waiting in the wing to go on for "Tradition", I could literally feel adrenaline rushing through my veins. And when we stepped onto the stage, singing that song, it was so hard not to have a gigantic, dorky grin on my face the whole time. It felt so surreal . . . we're actually doing this. "Matchmaker" was such fun to do, too. I love my "sisters."

We had a great crowd - they laughed in the right places and cried (or so I hear, anyway) in the right places. At curtain call, we had a standing ovation. It was amazing.

Cristina and I had a ton of friends (plus our families) in the audience . . . we figured out there were almost 40 people that we knew there. Afterward we quickly changed and came out into the foyer to greet them. We're so blessed to have so many people cheering us on and supporting us.

I don't have time to upload a ton of pictures right now (I leave soon for performance #2!), but here's a couple more to tide you over. . . .

Cristina and I before the performance, with flowers my mom had delivered to us:

Meredith (Hodel) and I glowing after the performance:

OPENING NIGHT...

...IS TONIGHT!

*eyes pop*

I am SO so so excited, and pumped, and ready. We are going to rock.

I share a dressing room with my sistah Meredith ("Hodel") and the three main dancers: Cristina, Brittany, and Lacy. We have so much fun together. And our dressing room is very cool...


More pictures to follow.

I can't wait for tonight.....!

"Oh,oh,oh look at my hair..."

My hair has been the bane of my existence this summer. (Okay, that's being slightly dramatic about it, but hey, that's what I'm good at.) I've been growing (and growing...and growing...and growing...) it out for Fiddler. I don't mind the length, but I haven't gotten it layered or anything and mine is the type of hair that doesn't take kindly to that. Long + unlayered = POOF. And extremely hard to get to look okay. I wear it up more often than not.

A couple of weeks ago when we were figuring out costumes for the Lentil Festival, I was digging through a bag of headscarves (which all the females have to wear). I found one that matched my outfit and put it on. It was so long it pretty much covered all my hair! I thought to myself, after ALL your pain and suffering, you are GOING to find a scarf that shows that hair of yours. Plus, this scarf was stiff and kind of uncomfortable. That's the excuse I gave, as I dug through trying to find another.

I found a more suitable one. And the other night, as he fit wigs on almost all of the other daughters, the hair stylist for the show said, "At least Erin has perfect hair!"

I merely smiled and said, "Thanks."

(note: yes, I realize from the pictures it doesn't look very poofy, and you probably think I'm complaining about nothing, but this is an off day! A day where it looks okay! Doesn't happen often, I promise.)

Fiddler exclusive!

I brought the video camera to Thursday night's rehearsal and filmed a bit of what goes on behind-the-scenes at rehearsal. Enjoy!

Part 1:


Part 2:

little bird, little chavaleh

Rehearsal lasted almost 4 1/2 hours last night, but we actually made it through the entire play. For the first time. Including tonight, we only have six rehearsals left. Yikes . . . it has a long way to go to be performance-worthy, but I guess it always feels that way around this time. Somehow, I'm sure it'll miraculously pull together at the last minute and we'll have an incredible show on our hands. :)

Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned this, but a few weeks ago, the actor playing our Tevye left for a new job he suddenly got in the Midwest. He won't be back until this coming week, with only a few rehearsals till performances. The few chances I had to work with him before he left were lovely because he's a very talented actor and plays Tevye wonderfully. Apparently he learned all of his blocking before he left, but it'll still be a challenge (for him and us) trying to adjust when he finally comes back. His understudy and the stage manager have been filling in for him during the past several weeks.

I realized during last night's run-through that my three main scenes in Act II (argument with Tevye, Chavaleh dance, and the disowning scene) are all right in a row. No breather time whatsoever. Whew. In a way that's helpful, because I don't have time to break concentration. But it also takes an enormous amount of energy and concentration. . . .