A Brief History...

Last night was the first rehearsal for the new show I am working on - A Brief History of Cross Dressing in the Civil War. It is being produced as a part of the Another Sky Festival at the Metropolitan Playhouse in NYC. My girlfriend wrote and produced the show, and she is also directing it. I am in her cast this time around, and I will be making my New York City acting debut in this show. It's somewhat of a romp through the historical Civil War, following five women who actually did pose as men in order to fight in the conflict. The show looks at the impact they made to the war, as well as what they had to go through in order to keep up their disguises in a world of men.

I am one of two men of the eight-person cast. This means that my fellow actor and I have lots of different roles to play, often switching back and forth as quickly as we can. For my part, it's been a while since I've been called upon to be zany in a show like this, and I'm looking forward to breaking out all of my ridiculous accents for different soldiers. The atmosphere for the first night was a fun mix of excitement and terror; we only have about two weeks to put up the whole show. It was also a supportive environment, and I'm hoping that we will really have the chance to cut loose and play around. Oh, sure, we may not have a lot of time, but I hope that won't prevent us from finding all there is to be found.