SoooOOOooo...Firstly, I should be in bed. I'm tired and I am fighting off a cold. Secondly, I was right! I have been wandering from room to room wondering what to do with myself since the show closed. Don't worry though, I have a to-do list that I am chipping away at and I'm connecting with friends who haven't seen me, except as kilroy above the edges of my script for 4 months.

Perfectly healthy, right?

In any case, I am plotting and planning my next move with this show. We got great reviews and there seems to be a lot of promise with what we've created, so check back frequently. Odds are I will have wandered back into this room and begun writing again...

:)

So the show is done and inevitably, I have become the proud recipient of a ridiculously hard-hitting summer cold. My eyes feel hot and my head is so stuffy. I say inevitably because I don't know about the rest of you performers out there, but when my body knows that the end of a run is coming, it starts ticking down the time I have left before it shuts down. It's almost like it knows when a break is coming. So, lo and behold, Friday morning comes with the reading of reviews and the massive exodus of the contents of my sinuses SO, I got the lotion tissues and got ready to ride it out. It's a little harder to ride out at 36,000 feet, but we had plans to go to a wedding out of town this weekend where we had an absolute blast (thanks Michelle!)...It was worth it. Got home, took a 5 hour nap, woke up, and started (as predicted) wandering from room to room wondering what to do with myself.

I'm looking forward to this next couple of weeks. Following up with thank you notes and post-mortem sessions with the production team members...I think it will be helpful. Thank you again to Midtown International Theatre Festival for being such an amazing, supportive environment for my first creation. Keep following the blog, because one thing this run taught me is that the show will keep going and for that I am grateful. I'll update very soon!!

Well, this has gone by TOO QUICKLY!! Here we are (thank you Andrew Byrne... :) ) one show from the end of this run. It feels really surreal. My brain is telling me that I should be keeping my journal current on all of the things that are happening so that I never forget these moments, but my body is telling me in every spare moment, "Sleep. Sleep. Sleep." I'm glad that I'm not in my early 20's anymore for many reasons, one of which is the fact that I now (mostly) listen to my body. In fact, my body also told me to eat the spare piece of apricot, sugar plum, blueberry and black plum tart that was in the kitchen. What? I had to cook for my cast! There was one extra piece and I am part of the cast, so it was mine. Alllllll mine......

Great, now they know what they're getting. Oh well. I don't think they read the blog anyway. :) If they do they'll all know and they'll still have to wait till Thursday when we have our FINAL performance. You know when I'll have time to journal about all this stuff? After we close when I'm in that post-show down phase where I walk around the apartment picking things up and putting things down and forgetting why I walked into rooms. Am I the only one who does that? It happens when I'm distracted and processing emotions. My husband always has a little smile on his face and watches me as I walk around. After about an hour of it he'll say something cute like, "You don't even know what to do with yourself now, do you?"

Um, no. I'm not sure what happens next. I've only planned for this far, so I don't know at all. I do know that I'm going to a wedding in Florida next weekend for a dear friend who has finally found her prince. :) He's sweet. Also from a far-away land. Just like mine.

Well, I'm still in show mode, so I'll say this much. I cannot read ANY reviews of the show until it's done because it would make me too nervous. I'll spend the morning after closing with a bloody mary clutched in my paw and the URL(s?) under my clicky little finger. Maybe I'll ask Liza to come over and read them with me. She not only plays my best friend, we are very close, both in relationship and proximity.

I'll even make her breakfast AND a bloody mary. :) Maybe she'll help me pack again. That girl is all-knowing and all-powerful. Who KNOWS what I'd do without her sense and smarts and friendship.

Oh, now I'm getting all sad-faced about the end of the show. I'm going to miss everyone so much.

I don't want to get too melancholy, so I'll end with another story. This one is really really good.

I just totally wrote out a story about my very first love, the boy from Germany whom I met when I was 17, but that's too personal for the internet. It's also not as funny as another horror story...

O.K. Here goes...

When I was about 18 years old, I did a community production of Mystery of Edwin Drood. I was in the chorus and so I helped the audience vote for who the murderer was at the end of the show.

O.K. Store that in your brain and fast forward. Please join me again in the food court of the mall for a little adventure...I was working at the restaurant and this guy came up to me and gave me the weird look. You know, the "I might know you" look. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me. It was maybe late November early December.

This was my current situation with guys: I had a boyfriend in Germany who agreed that if we needed to, we could see other people because we lived across the ocean from each other; I had just ended (on Halloween...well, ended for the first time) a relationship with an older R.A. whom I met during a study group with his roommate at his apartment (he was adorable...and a little hung up on this other girl who had a boyfriend...oy... we had a messy on-again, off-again relationship for a few years. Mostly off...with a bit of making out...I broke it off with him over email when he sent me his new address. It was back in the early days of email...messy...did I mention, messy?)

So anyway, boy at the food court came up after eating and slipped me a note that said something like, "I remember you from the show at the Playhouse...can I talk to you later?" It had his number and name on it (turns out I knew his sister pretty well in high school...), and I was in a very WTF mood, so a few days later I called and chatted with him. He asked me out on a date and we went to Perkins and had dinner together and talked a lot. He seemed nice. A little intense. Very interested in me. He said that I'd worked his section during Drood and he'd noticed me and how pretty I was. He said it was kind of awkward for him in the moment, because his girlfriend was at the show with him, but he never forgot me. Me? Well, how sweet.

In any case, it was a pretty successful date and he called me a lot after that to chat and stuff and wanted to plan another date with me. I had made a bunch of Christmas cookies that I wanted to deliver around to my friends, but otherwise I was pretty busy, plus, I started to get a sort of funny vibe from him, so I asked him if he just wanted to come with me on that jaunt. He was excited to come with me and met me at my house where we got into my car and he went with me ALL OVER Duluth delivering Christmas cookies...even to the home of the R.A. with whom I had just ended it...I was nothing if not people-pleasing at that point in my life...

There were a lot of guys on that delivery route that I kind of had the hots for, so it was nice to be with a guy that seemed to like me that might make them jealous (hahahahhahahahah...o.k. I'll admit...my young naive thought-process was a little bit skewed at that point. I was just laughing so hard I couldn't type...). Anyway, to be honest, I was a little bored of my company towards the end of my date and sort of thinking in my head about what one of the guys for whom I'd had the hots had said to me when I gave him his cookies when something drew me to full attention.

"What?" I asked of the guest in my car, for it had registered that he'd said something red-flag worthy. He said, "I said I think we should be together forever."

I gripped the steering wheel. I got really warm. I wanted to roll down the windows and let in the -20 degree north winter air. "Um," I said, "I'm kind of in a place right now where I'm kind of dating around. I don't know if I can be with only one person." What I meant was, I don't think I can be with you. As I discuss in the show, I wasn't dating around (I am terrible at that...I mean, utterly miserable...), I was pining around which is much different. I certainly wasn't ready to settle down at 18 years old. Oh wait, he'd said something else jarring, so I steered myself back out of my thoughts and into the conversation.

"I just don't see why you'd need to be with anyone else when I know that you and I are meant to be together forever."

"Um. I...well..."

We sat in silence on our SECOND DATE as I pulled around the corner to my home on Peabody St. and towards his car. I said that I couldn't commit to being with one person, gave him a peck on the cheek, shook his hand and wished him a good night and happy holidays. He called a few more times, and I kind of blew him off.

I ran into him about 6 months later, right before summer and he told me he had just gotten married a few weeks prior to that to someone he'd met at some kind of party earlier in the year.

Woah. So, he wasn't looking for a girlfriend, he was looking for a wife. Well, I dodged that strangely trajectoried bullet.

That was a weird one. And on that note, 4 days till our closing show. Goodnight!! :)

The Home Stretch...

What a week! Things are ramping up for opening night (day!) on Saturday. I am ridiculously proud of the cast and team that I have on this project. I mean, it's kind of awesome how it's all come together. Everyone's so kind and generous and happy to be involved. Me too.

I just wish I could get a little more sleep, but I have to say, when something this big is happening, it's a bit hard to turn off the ol' brain at night. I'm doing my best. :)

To take my mind off of it and to zone a little bit, I'll give you guys another guy story that wasn't put into the show.

I was in a messy messy relationship with someone who's name I absolutely can't mention, so I'll call him...ummm....Zach...Uh, yeah. Zach. The story isn't really about him anyway, which would irritate him greatly, but oh well...some of his story is actually in the show...

In any case, he had just broken up with me and I was depressed and working in the mall food court. For those of you who don't know, I worked for MANY years at an awesome fast food Chinese restaurant in the mall which is now closed. I was having a busy Saturday, thinking about all the crap that was going on in my life and ruminating about how I would probably always be alone, when some guy came up and ordered some food. He had an accent, which always perked my ears up...Many of you know my first boyfriend was German, I went to a few formals with a lovely Norwegian gentleman in high school and I ended up marrying an Australian...I guess it's sort of a "thing" for me. Hee Hee...

I couldn't tell where his accent was from, so I (newly single) was daydreaming about who or what he might be and where he might be from...and suddenly he was in front of me again. Maybe he needed more sweet and sour sauce? That must be what it was...I asked him if I could help him and he said that he'd like to take me out to dinner and a movie that night!

WHAT THE HELL? Seriously!?? That kind of stuff NEVER happens to me.

I have to say, I was still pretty depressed about my ex, but I said yes, with the condition that I could go home, shower and change and meet him back at the food court at 5. He agreed. Said he'd be waiting right by my restaurant and that he would see me later.

I can't even remember the rest of my shift, besides the fact that I told EVERYONE AT THE MALL who I knew, that I had a date that night...with a guy who had an ACCENT! At the end of my shift I raced home (well, I always raced home...I have that problem in cars...) told my mom and sister about it and changed and ran back up to the mall. He took me to dinner at Applebees (this was Duluth...there weren't too many options...plus, it was just a first date...) and we sat and talked.

Well, it turns out he was Italian. His job was peculiar: people bought planes through his company and he was paid to fly them back to Italy. He was on his way back with a plane when he was grounded in Duluth by weather and had to stop. He was from a family that was famous in Italy for their photography equipment. Think: the B&H of Italy. He was wealthy and cute, in a professorial kind of way. He was older than I was. I was, I think, 20 or 21 at the time and he was probably in his mid-30's. He was intrigued that I was in school to be an actress and I probably said too much about my recent breakup...I invited him to my improv show later that evening, but he said that he had to check in on something at the airport and couldn't make it...Then, as he was sitting there and talking to me about his job, he INVITED ME TO FLY BACK TO ITALY WITH HIM. He said that he was headed straight back with this plane and then had about a week in Italy before he had to turn around and come back to the U.S. He'd be glad to fly me over and have me as his guest and then return me to home in about a week.

Um, what?

I mean, WHAT?

You have to understand: I was 20 years old. I had no idea what to do. It sounded like the best adventure I could ever possibly have. I mean, ever! The saddest part was that I couldn't wait to rub it in the face of my ex. In any case, I told him I'd consider it and let him know...

After dinner, we went to see a terribly crappy movie (Spawn I think...), during which I did my best to keep from falling asleep. (I'm bad with that and movies...ask my husband...) I repeated my invite to the show, which he again declined, but we exchanged numbers and I promised him I would call him the next day to set up another dinner before he left town.

I drove downtown to the Holiday Center for my improv show on CLOUD NINE! It wasn't so much that I'd been invited to Italy, it was more that someone liked me even though the cute boy that I had thought was the best I could do (oh, 20 year old Kelly, come here, let me give you a reassuring hug...it gets better...you're worth it...hang in there...) had dumped me in the middle of quite an intimate moment and showed no signs of wanting me back...Oy.

I won't lie, I did rub it in the face of my ex at the show and consulted all my girls about whether or not they thought I should go to Italy. I'll admit, at this point, I could see merit in the argument that after he set the autopilot, there was the distinct possibility that he could rape me and shove me out over the Atlantic Ocean to plummet to my death, but what were the odds of that happening, really? (I think I was too sensible even at 20 for my own good...)

I went home, talked with my mom about it. She said, go. I said, really? She said, yes. I said, I'm going to obsess about it a little more. She said, o.k.

I called him the next morning and set up another dinner date that night. I spent a goodly portion of that day with my ex talking it out. Ugh. What a horrible experience. I wanted to patch it up at least a little bit because he and I (of course) had to work with each other on-stage and I wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings. I wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings? I was so delusional. He broke up with me during...well, anyway...that was sort of back in my whole people pleasing days where I didn't want to say a bad thing to anyone. I was a big fan of being "friends."

So, I left my ex's house and went to meet the Italian gentleman at Perkins this time, where he asked me again if I wanted to go to Italy with him.

I looked him straight in the eyes, smiled sweetly, and said, "I really appreciate the offer. I'd love to!"

Just kidding. The first sentence was the same, but then I said, "I don't think I can." I told him some sort of crap about not being able to miss school and starting rehearsals for a show (that was true, The Betrothed)...but what was going on in my head was, I don't know you. How could I take this chance?

I know I made the right decision, but sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I'd said yes. Maybe now I'd be married to a 50-something Italian guy with lots of little bambinos and a killer red sauce recipe.

Or maybe I'd be dead on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

I guess we'll never know...which I don't mind...I don't regret my decision one bit.

He kept in touch with me for the next couple of years via postcards (in one he actually told me I looked like Helen Hunt...I don't see it, but thanks!) and the earliest incarnation of email, and I kept in touch with him as best as I could at 21 or so...

Everything happens for a reason, and I think he was to remind me that even if the cute, talented, funny guy didn't want me anymore, at least someone did.

On that note, I leave you, readers to mull over your pasts and think about anything you wonder about. Come check out the show this weekend. It's going to be a blast....

Music Rehearsals and a FLASHBACK!!

Well, things are humming along with the show. We have blocked it and tonight is our first run OFF BOOK! Hooray! We're really ramping it up at rehearsals and it looks very distinctly like this show is going to completely kick butt and take names. As we've been singing through it, I keep realizing just how great the music is and how wonderful it has become through the interpretation of these really amazing actors!!

I was thinking the other night as we were talking through a scene alllllllll of the dates that I went on that were so very super weird that I DIDN'T put into the show. Sequel? Nah, maybe those ones are meant to be left in the dark.

Ok, I'll give you one. But ooonnnnnllly because you asked for it. It's not kissing and telling, either, because, in fact, we never kissed. Is that giving away the ending? I don't think so. Let me start at the beginning.

I was in a show in high school, Taming of the Shrew, I think. I played a lady of the court (fancy way to say that I was an extra...). It was such a fun show and I got to work with so many great people. Anyway, I got to be friends with one of the guys in the show, so when it came time to find a date for the Sweetheart Dance (my high school's version of a Sadie Hawkins dance), I asked this guy. Let's call him Chris.

After I asked him, he started paying a LOT of attention to me. He would "run into" me on my way to class and want to chat me up at my locker.

O.K. Here's the thing: I won't lie. I had asked him to the dance as a friend because the boy I TOTALLY HAD A CRUSH ON (let's call him Jim) was already going to the dance with another girl...maybe his girlfriend...I had blinders on. I can't remember. All I remember is that I had made up my mind to go, so I asked Chris, who'd been nice enough to say that he would take me. I didn't mention it to him at the time because I was worried that if he knew my real reason for going, he wouldn't go with me. (which wasn't very nice, but I was 15, so what are you going to do...). In any case, Chris was following me around and trying to TALK TO ME ALL THE TIME (the nerve! You'd think he'd thought I had asked him because I was actually interested in him...ahem...um. Wait.), so I was avoiding him. Like you do. Still, we were going to have to go to the dance together. Fine with me. It was a means to an end. I mean, I could put up with anyone for a few hours if it meant that I'd be at the same dance with JIM! Swoon.

So the night of the dance came. I was 15 and couldn't drive alone, so his family dropped him off at my friend's house where we were having a remarkably grown up dinner for a bunch of 15 year -olds. There were 6 of us there, and my girlfriends all knew how I felt about this guy, so they managed to seat us at the opposite ends of the table. He looked nice, and had brought me a corsage, but was saying weird stuff during dinner (the kiss of death to a 15 year-old. As an adult, I now realize he was probably totally nervous about the whole evening...) and kind of freaking me out. In a strange and awkward moment of weirdness, my girlfriend who was hosting the dinner at her house found out right before we were supposed to leave for the dance that her dog had been put to sleep (the timing could have probably been better...), so while we were waiting to see if she would in fact be coming to the dance with us, we were making small talk in the entryway of her house. Chris told me, sort of out of nowhere, that my feet were very proportional to my body. Uh. Thanks? Weird. Anyway. That should have been a red flag. It was a little bizarre, truth be told. So, my friend with the now dead dog comes down and we head to the dance.

When we got there, I figured I owed Chris at least one slow dance before I tracked Jim down and hung around him (and his girlfriend? what was wrong with me??) all night, so we slow danced. Now, Chris was a year older than me, but I've been taller than almost every guy I was EVER IN SCHOOL WITH until I was about a senior. I have been my full 5'11" since I was about 16, so you can imagine me with heels and this guy who was maybe 5'7"? Seriously.

So we're dancing and I'm scanning the room for Jim and Chris is looking at me. Staring at me intently. I feel so awkward, I won't even meet his eyes, so I look up at the ceiling. The dance was held at the Greysolon Ballroom in Duluth, Minnesota and the ceilings there are really ornate, so I thought I'd look up at them to kill some time. From the strained silence between us, I hear Chris say, "Did you know you have very attractive nose hair?" I practically got whiplash as I looked down at him, "What did you say?" said snotty, 15 year-old Kelly.

"I said, did you know you have very attractive nose hair?" says Chris.
"What does that even mean? Do you mean that as a compliment? What are you even talking about?"
"I thought it was a compliment. You do. It's nice."
"I don't...I'm not...that is just...you know what? I need a soda. Excuse me." At which point I stomped off to the "bar" that was set up for us and found my girlfriend and told her exactly what had happened. She and her boyfriend laughed and laughed. I was completely mortified. "What do I do?" I asked.

"You're going to have to go hang out with him, Kelly. You brought him here. Where's Jim? Have you asked him to dance yet?" said my friend. I left grumbling all the way back to the table where Chris was waiting. I was still looking for Jim and Chris still only had eyes for me. He was staring at me with his head in his hand like a puppy dog, and I kept vacillating between shooting daggers at him and trying to be polite. Oh the brain of a 15 year old. Finally I saw Jim. It was like the crowds parted and there he was. His girlfriend was just walking away and there was my window. I looked at Chris, told him I'd seen a friend that I'd promised a dance to and rushed away. I went up to Jim and asked him to dance and he said yes and we danced. It was magical at the time. (An interesting side note: he never broke up with his girlfriend, he never even knew I existed in that way, we were just FRIENDS!.....UNTIL college when he saw me play a lesbian in a show and made out with me when I walked him to his car. WHAT??? I digress...)

After dancing with Jim, I floated back to Chris and began the penance of waiting out the remainder of the dance with him. We sat there for what felt like years until finally, midnight rolled around and my sister came to pick us up. We drove him home, where at that point, I think he got the message that I wasn't interested and shook my hand good night.

As we were leaving his neighborhood, this woman only a few houses down from him ran into the street after our car yelling for us to stop. We almost didn't, but figured something must be wrong. She pulled open my sister's driver's side door, and begged us to call 911 because her husband was in a diabetic coma (WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD THAT NIGHT???) and she had no phone. SO we went back to Chris's place and banged on the door. We knew he was up since we'd just dropped him off, but there was no answer. Apparently, I'd made an even better impression than I'd thought. :) Luckily, we knew some people who were friends with my parents that lived just down the street and we woke them up out of a dead sleep and had them call the ambulance.

After that, I looked at my sister and said, "Please take me home before anything else happens tonight." She drove us back to our parents' house and I went to sleep wanting nothing more than for the night to be over.

I think even at that point, I knew that some day I would have to write all of this stuff down and laugh about it. Better yet, I made it into a musical. I wonder what song would have come out of that one if I'd put it in the show: "You Have Very Attractive Nose Hair...For a Sophomore!" Um, no.

Tonight we did a music rehearsal that went really well. We've only been rehearsing for about a week and a half, and already the tunes are almost show-ready. It's great to see how wonderful the cast is and how it's all coming together. Everyone's really in the groove of the show and making it come alive.

It's so weird to think that this thing that was in my brain (and Bobby, Blake, Jason, Andrew, Alan, Steven and Phillip's) even mere months ago is now a living breathing piece of theatre. As one of my friends said to me the other day, it's part of the canon now. It EXISTS. :) I hope I'm not repeating myself, but it's just so astonishing to me that this is happening, and at the same time, it feels perfectly normal.

The songs for this show are so very good. I just can't believe that they are as good as they are. I'm not saying that to discount the talent that is involved, I'm saying it because to have gone from just essentially a play that I wanted to make into a musical to having found SEVEN DIFFERENT people to write the music and to STILL have it come out feeling like one show feels like kismet. And victory. And perfect. Everyone's talent is so great that I'm not surprised in hindsight, but I'm sure that it could have gone differently, and I'm just so blessed that it didn't.

As I sit here on this hot June night, I'm sort of transported back to the days when I lived in Duluth...high school and college. Maybe it's because I'm reliving all of my old flames through this musical theatre journey in my show, but maybe it's also because I feel like my younger self again a little. I'm looking at this business and this career...this life with such open and hopeful eyes. I don't feel the emotional wear and tear of ten years in New York City. I feel so optimistic about where this show has come from and where it's going. I can't wait.

I'm also remembering those days of college because it was so FREAKING HOT today. If I was back in Minnesota, I'd drive quietly down to Park Point or The Deeps in Lester River and swim to cool down. I'd never been night swimming till we lived in Minnesota and there's something very refreshing about it...I think I'm going to go to sleep dreaming of dark water and cool rivers and the Big Lake.... :) Good night!

So here we are on the cusp of the start of rehearsals. I don't know about you, but I'm THRILLED! I mean, it's here, it's coming...in a month and a half it will be in front of a live audience.

I can't wait. I mean, I completely can't wait. It's a little ridiculous.

I was thinking today of the people who have already mentioned to me that they'll come to see it. My parents, for one. Now, many of you might think that's a relatively unremarkable thing. Well, it's not. I'll tell you why: my parents have never seen me perform since I was in college which was *ahem* years ago. They haven't even seen me do stand-up since 2003, which was sort of bizarre anyway, since it was kind of an impromptu set at my Grandmother Hauser's funeral lunch. Per request...I should mention that...my family wanted to see it, and I obliged. I won't lie. It was bizarre, but successful. I (please forgive me for this, Grandma) killed, actually.

In any case, my parents have bought plane tickets to make their way to New York to see this show. That's almost more scary to me than the whole rest of it. Kind of like when you're singing in front of a dark audience vs. in a small room with a bunch of people you know. It's remarkably easier to do it in front of the people you don't know. At least for me.

Oy. In any case, I'm still ridiculously excited. Right now, though, I have to run...

More later...

Good news coming!!

Here we go! We are go for MITF in July...things are really happening. Almost all of the music and re-writes are done. People (you too!!) are getting invited and there is excitement in the air. After almost 2 years of writing and 8 years of thinking about it, the show is about to become a reality. Keep checking back for more updates. Things are bound to get stressful, too, so you might even hear from me with some recipes and stuff. Yay!

Wow. I mean total wow. Last night I went to see Composer/Lyricist Bobby Cronin (who contributed two songs to date for our show. Yay!) at the Metropolitan Room. First of all, he's brilliant and writes such great material. Second, it was the first time I've met/seen him in person and he's just a joy of a person. So very positive and kind and passionate about what he does. I think that's important in this business. To have passion can push you when you can't find any other reason to do this stuff.

In any case, I went with a friend to see the show and support Bobby and his work, and he had his talented cast perform the two songs he's written for the show so far. The rush I got when actually hearing material performed that will actually be in my show and accompany the book what I wrote was euphoric. I mean, I was tingling from head to toe! These SONGS would be in MY SHOW!!! EEEeeeeee! The performers were awesome and it was just cool. It was the first time that I saw the show's name in print, too. Shivers! Bobby also listed me in the special thanks section as the book writer for the show. So very special! My heart was full and it put me in the best mind frame to progress with this next time period for the show...when we deal less with the creative and more with the "How do we spread the word?" part. The good news is that after the performance last night people from the audience (who saw me wave when Bobby gave me a shout out in the audience!) came up to me genuinely interested in getting more info about the show. They wanted to see it. Um, EXCITING!!!

Like I said, it was really nice, because lately I've been feeling really isolated dealing with the part of the process that is more coordinating and less creative. Switching back to creative, we're meeting today to talk about the Next Things. I'm looking forward to it.

Saturday we rehearse for our reading (with MUSIC!) that will be on April 6th. Details to follow. I'm on cloud nine.

And so it begins...

So, I'm writing a musical. Well. To be clear, I'm writing the BOOK for a musical. I don't write music and I'm no good (in my estimation) at lyrics, so I've written a book for a musical that I've been thinking about for YEARS.

Sometimes I'd like to say I just thought of it and poof! here it is, but frankly, this idea has been roiling around in my head for years. Probably five or so. Certainly the last two. In any case, here it is and here I am, and here's a blog that's a little bit about me, a little bit about it, and a little bit about the process. I can't tell you more about much of anything yet, because I'm still learning and it's still in development, but this blog is going to have info about the show, and about my journey toward the show. It's going to be a place to connect and a little bit of an outlet.

It may occasionally have recipes because that's how I diffuse stress, so forgive that in advance, please. In any case. Here I am. My name is Kelly Nichols, and I am an actress, singer, now writer (oooooh!) who lives in New York City. That's it for now, but more as things develop.