Black Coffee

Hi.

I've missed you. All of you! My fam (especially my fam), my BFFs, my band, my favourite sushi restaurants...

My latest musical adventure comes to an end this Friday - Avenue Q, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical I've been performing in at the Sudbury Theatre Centre (about 3-4 hours North of Toronto).   As mentioned in my last post about Avenue Q, I got really lucky and was cast alongside a fellow Godspell alum (and great friend) for this show. Winning!

I only had one month between the end of the Godspell tour and the beginning of Avenue Q, so I made the most of it.  I enlisted the love and talents of some members from the Godspell band, and together we recorded a live-off-the-floor performance of my favourite jazz standard: Black Coffee.  

"Live-off-the-floor" means all instruments in one room, on one mix (well, that's what it means to me).  No chance to correct vocal blips or musical missteps once we walk away from the mics.  So what we ended up with are just beautiful, organic performances by Daniel Baerg on drums, Mark Laidman on bass and John Yun on piano and arrangements.  I like these people. I like this song. So here it is!

with pleasure,

~Lisa Michelle

My longest bio... Or shortest book ;-)

Over the last year, I've been asked a lot about my background as an artist. I've been a recording artist for about 4 years (I've released 3 R&B albums) and a professional (i.e. paid) musical theatre performer for just over 2. That's not a whole lot of career experience for someone my age, so the questions are usually: how did you get here? Or what were you doing before? 

I tend to envy the people who always knew who they were and what they wanted to be. Although I began piano and dance lessons at the age of 6, I wasn't aware of my calling until the 7th or 8th grade. I grew up in Mississauga and we took a class trip to downtown Toronto (kind-of-a-big-deal at the time) to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" starring Donnie Osmond. It was the first time I'd seen live theatre and certainly the first time I'd ever seen a musical. They sang, they danced, they splashed me with colours and lights and costumes... I was enchanted (and a crush on Donnie Osmond was born, but that's another story).  By the time the show was finished rocking my world, I certainly did NOT want to drive back to school that day. I wanted to stay with whatever it was that just happened to me . I wanted to be those people I saw on stage who appeared to be living and glowing in their purpose. It was right then that I knew I wanted to perform. 

So by 9th grade, I found myself auditioning for community theatre and high school plays alongside one of my besties. By 12th grade, him and I founded the school's first Drama Club with the support of one of our favourite teachers. 

I ended up at York University with hopes of getting my BA in English, then going to Teacher's college so I could then teach the thing that in reality, I wanted to do. I was too scared to enter a straight-up Theatre Program, so this was me compromising with myself. Well, York U went on strike very early into my first year. I don't remember the reasons or politics around the strike, but I remember feeling almost relieved. In my heart, I knew I wasn't where I wanted to be, so during the 11-week strike I got an agent and started working as an extra in film & TV. It certainly wasn't "acting", but I was on set almost everyday, surrounded by and learning from artists and filmmakers and crews. I got those same tingly feelings that I got watching Joseph all those years prior, so I knew that environment was feeding my passion and purpose.

So when the university's strike was over, so was I. I rushed out of there and applied for the shortest post-secondary program that would still give me a diploma. Even though I was now eager to begin my life as an artist, getting a diploma (in anything) was important to me. And my parents. So I ended up at Sheridan College for Advertising.

And because life is ever full of surprises and left turns and contradictions, I ended up loving the program! The teachers, the students and the classes were much more fun and creative than I thought they would be. Here I thought I was going to rush in and out of this two-year program just to get to the other side, but I ran into "possibility". I was actually relieved to have found something I loved outside of acting and performing because I felt I had a better chance of making a living in the Ad industry. There were plenty of jobs! There was salary, benefits and security! And no one ever got stage fright!

I took a job at an ad agency upon graduation and swiftly discovered that... nope. There is no way in hell I would or could sit at a desk for 60 hours a week. I need a microphone, an audience, some make-believe and some magic. 

I spent the next 5 years waffling back and forth between auditions and ad agencies before finally committing to life as an artist. I eventually left the advertising business for good, singing backups for local bands, writing and recording my own music, taking acting classes, and trying to convince agents that even though I had no performance training and little professional experience, I have always been an artist... it just took me some time to own it.

I used to lament the fact that I took the longest possible route to following my passion. If I had just gone to school for theatre in the first place, I wouldn't be starting my performance career so much older than my peers have. Where would my career be by now?

But truthfully, I love where I am now, personally and professionally. I met my husband at that first advertising job I took after college. I made lifelong friends at some of the jobs I 'hated'. And all the while, my passion never deserted me, even when when I thought I'd left it behind. 

To quote one of my favourite musicals: "Forget regret. Or life is yours to miss".

If you're still breathing, and you haven't yet taken your passion by the hand and let it lead you, it is still laying in wait. The path is still clear, and you are still able to walk it.

At least, that's what I've learned :-).

Xox,

~ LM 

Whatchutalkinbout Lisa!

I have no idea how I successfully packed for a 13-work tour. This was my thought as I was sitting on and swearing at my suitcase this morning, getting ready to leave for "Avenue Q".

Yes, I'm beginning a new adventure! A 6-week gig in Sudbury is perhaps a little less glamourous-sounding than a National Tour across 20+ cities. Ok, it IS less glamourous, but I assure you, I'm still as nervous, excited and anxious to begin this journey as I was on the last one. I've been blessed with a wicked momentum of musical theatre experiences as of late, but still consider myself very much a newbie to this world. 

As I write this, it's Monday April 7th, and I'm on my flight to Sudbury, which is about a 4 hour drive from Toronto. Home. Our first day of rehearsals for Avenue Q is on Tuesday, so the plan was to leave by bus yesterday afternoon and give myself time to settle in before getting down to business. Alas, I got a second callback for a REALLY BIG audition that I absolutely HAD to accept and it took place this Monday morning at 10am. So I shifted things around, and here I am. The audition went really well, thank you for asking! But now I have to do what performers do:  put the audition behind me and focus on the task at hand.  In this case, the role at hand.

My role? Well, if you are privy to the colour of my skin and the script of Avenue Q, you have already guessed that I am playing the role of Gary Coleman. Get your giggles out, it's true! Needless to say, this musical is a comedic piece, and comedy is well... new to me. In real life, I think I'm rather hilarious (the hubs may disagree), but I haven't really dug my teeth into a comedic ROLE - on stage OR screen - as yet. So I'm really looking forward to presenting this side of me for a paying audience. 

It also doesn't hurt that I get to live this opportunity alongside THE Michael DeRose!!!!! No big deal or anything, but he is just one of my BELOVEDS who TOURED with me in the cast of GODSPELL. You know, the same tour I posted over a dozen blogs about? The one that changed my life? If you read any of those blogs, you'll know it was the PEOPLE who were involved in that show, on AND off stage, who made that magical experience what it was. So Michael and I hit the roof when we realized we'd been hired together once again, for another piece of awesome work. I feel like I'm living a blissed life and I am SO grateful! Like, who do I owe?!?!? :-)

Ok, I've got to power off my device now before I get another glare from this flight attendant.

I love you. I don't even know who's reading this right now, but I know that I love you, lol! I've got so much to give, so why not?

Pray for my broken legs on this production... I'll do my best to keep you posted xoxoxoxo

Godspell National Tour: the final update!

The Godspell National Tour is now officially over. My heart is full and running over. And I'm not the only one. This will be a long post...

Over the past two weeks, we performed 16 shows at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Texas. We were then supposed to have our final performance of the tour last night in Tyler, Texas. But miserable weather conditions barred our route from Dallas to Tyler and our final show was cancelled.  We only found out on the morning of.

What that means, is that our final Godspell performance was on Sunday night and at the time, we didn't even know it was our last! It breaks my heart until I remember that nothing can change or take away what has already taken place. WE DID IT! It may be done, but it will always be OURS. I can still smile about that.

Thank you to our extended Godspell family, friends, fans and angels who became a part of our journey in loving & encouraging ways.

I extended this final Godspell post to include some of the thoughts and reflections from our cast & crew. Read it and weep (perhaps literally): 

***

"This whole experience has been like a magnificent Dream! One that I know when I wake up from it, I'll be laying in my bed at home, crying like a little baby."

- Jake Stern (Jesus)

"I'm going to miss seeing my family everyday on stage. Whenever we felt anything negative, we shed it off through performing our story about love.  The best part about the tour was creating this incredibly unique and heart fulfilling experience with this small group of people. Nobody will ever know what this experience was like accept for us. We will treasure it and keep it so dear to us for the rest of our lives. The good, the bad, the ugly, the cold- we lived and lived it in style! This experience will have a piece if my heart forever.." - Graham Parkhurst (John The Baptist / Judas)

"If I could describe in words the way this tour has impacted my life, I would. But I can't. I could never possibly do it justice. So much love, so much joy. This is not the end, thank you all." - Alex Baerg (Guitar 1)

"I will miss the laughs. Most of them at inappropriate times... But I have never met a group of people who could make me laugh so hard!!!" - Stacey Kay

"Since we started this tour my days have been full of belly laughs and smiles. I feel like we are all a part of something so much bigger than just this show. A community. There is an unspoken support and understanding that unites us, and to me that is so special. Years from now when you are all doing meaningful and marvelous things, I know I'll still have a place in this community. You are all the older brother's and sister's that I never wanted (seriously... I'm a bossy first born) but always needed. Thank you." - Rebecca McCauley

"Oh my heart I'm so sad... I'm trying to think of words to send to you and I can't even... How do you possibly explain how special this situation was? Maybe that can be my quote lol..." - Alessia Lupiano

"Thank you all for the love.  Many, many memories... It has been an incredible journey that will not stop here. The family connection will continue for many years to come. Thank you to everyone that made this journey possible... An experience that will never be forgotten. Love." - Janelle Murray 

"On this tour I found my soul, lost then wandering from city to city it came to rest at home. A family on the road, faith and adventure. My soul came alive and learned to love again." - Kirsten Upchurch (Swing Tech)

The quote above says: "The Artist must be sacrificed to their art.

Like the Bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give" - Ralph Waldo Emerson (added by Ivan Lo)

"Thank you Godspell Family - for the hope this work has brought to my life and those around us, the flood of memories I deeply cherish and more love and friendship than I could have imagined." - Lauren Karbowski (wardrobe lead)

"I got a gift. It came two years ago from one of the craziest auditions I've ever done. I sang every song in my book, jumped on a trampoline, sang like Sinatra, spoke like Katherine Hepburn and then I prayed...publicly. Then I smiled at Janelle and left the building.  Then I got the job. WINNING!  This experience made my heart bigger, it restored my faith, it made me redefine the word 'family' to myself.  I found the light in my world because of 15 minutes in a room. An arbitrary 15 minutes of audition that could have led nowhere. But instead, it led me to you.  Thanks for letting me play."  - Michael DeRose

" I can think of only one time where the performers were all immensely talented, the music was exhilarating, and the audience was completely breathless. It happened in an unlikely town called Petrolia [where we had our first run of Godspell].  Then we showed them, all over North America, our love for theatre, our love for music, and our love for each other. We sang about love.  I got to do what I love, with people I love, giving love to our audience, and getting it right back again.  I have one hell of an awesome job." - Daniel Baerg (Drummer)

"The Babel was explained, and we've been saved and prepared. Day is night. Lessons learned. The Lord has been blessed, and it was all for the best. Our gifts have been received and our light shines towards the new.  The Ol man has turned his final time, Alas. He was by our side the whole time. No more need to Beseech. It was a Beautiful city of men, with willows at it's gates... Every soul on and off stage, left their eternal mark on the history that is GODSPELL.  And as we take one more close look at the face  of our subject, we notice that Godspell has also, left a life-long mark on him." - Michael Hogeveen

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

www.ThisIsLisaMichelle.com

Godspell National Tour: Week 11

We've reached our final stop on the first National Godspell Tour! We arrived in Dallas, Texas on Sunday February 16th for a two-week run at the Winspear Opera House.

I couldn't think of a better way to close out this experience: a two-week stay in a great hotel and 16 shows at what is agreeably the most spectacular theatre we've performed in for this entire run.  The Winspear Opera House seats 2200 and is adorned with a six million dollar chandelier that raises into the ceiling at the top of each show. For real.

Winspear Opera House

Top Balcony view

Our first show at the Winspear was on Tuesday night and was rife with emotion and adrenaline as it was the first time we've performed Godspell with our understudy David Cotton. He came in for Michael Hogeveen a few minutes into the show, and did an amazing job! The presence of a new soul on stage heightened our focus, as we took care to ensure that this new audience received the same magic all our performances have bestowed. Mission accomplished. Check out this sparkling REVIEW!

Michael Hogeveen & David Cotton

So what's so great about being in just ONE city for two whole weeks? For starters, most of us have UNPACKED for the first time since October! We also hit up a nearby grocery store and requested mini-fridges for our hotel rooms so we can eat like happy, healthy people - hummus and veggies and fruit, oh my! It's like we've arrived in the land of milk & honey. (We were able to buy and refridgerate those too).

We're blissfully located right downtown here in Dallas: steps from the theatre, minutes away from restaurants, and a quick train ride to some really good shopping. I MAY have indulged in some retail therapy since we've arrived, but only because I'm going to need some TANGIBLE memories of my tour experience, right? ;-)

Speaking of which, I complimented an audience member on her sparkly, faux diamond ring as I was handing out kool-aid ("communion") during an intermission last week.  This was at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City. The woman later had it sent to me backstage to keep! Such a sweet gesture and one that I'll never forget:

My new Godspell bling

Lots more to do in Dallas between shows, and many of us have our plans laid and ready: trips to the aquarium, the art museum, the North Park mall, The Little Mermaid stage production (nothing like seeing another musical to stir up some inspiration) and who knows what else!

Rebecca & Stacey being themselves on one of the hotel's poolside canopy's

Jake in the Dallas wind, lol

Mark & Alessia in front of a giant... eyeball park?!

This family affair we call "Godspell" has almost reached it's end. That final scene where we say our goodbyes* just might get harder and harder as the days go by (*I was going to say "spoiler alert!" but I know you know how it ends). 

Anyhow, I refuse to get ahead of myself. We still have 13 more shows to knock out of the park and many legs to break.

See you next week for the final blog post! FYI, it will likely come out after our final show, which is not next Friday, but rather Tuesday March 4th in Tyler, Texas.

Until then.... Xoxo

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 10

It's the end of Week 10 on the Godspell National Tour.  I was feeling a little more homesick than usual these past few days.  We travel more than we perform, have no home cooking, sleep in different beds almost every night and live out of our suitcases.  Add to that the obvious difficulty of being apart from loved ones for so long, and you can see how even an extraordinary experience such as this can take it's toll. But that's just it. Touring is an EXTRAORDINARY experience.  It has it's cost, but it is unlike anything else I've ever done. And Lord knows, it's everything I've ever wanted to do. And it's Godspell. And it's us. :-)

Soundcheck!

Airport naps 

Party? Always.

Last week, I left off telling you about our time in Milwaukee. We celebrated our 100th performance of Godspell there! 

Our 100th Godspell Intermission :-)

Then it was off to British Columbia. Although I've never been to the province before, it was still kind of like being home, just being on Canadian soil. We flew into Vancouver, arriving quite late on Monday night and drove to the city of Vernon on Tuesday morning. The long bus ride took us through the mountains and treated us to breathtaking views. Like these:

We performed at the Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre shortly after arriving on Tuesday night, and all too soon, our trip to BC came to a close. There's been so many great city stops on this tour, but this is definitely one that I'll be revisiting on my own in the near future.

Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre

Wednesday morning we had another long drive to Seattle. We spent a night there before flying to Rapid City, South Dakota the next day. And here we are! In the most beautiful boutique hotel with uniquely decorated rooms. Life ain't so bad...

My room

Mark's room

We had our first show here in South Dakota already, at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Centre. Fun times! The crowd had as much energy as we did, so it was a beautiful exchange. We get to do it to the South Dakotans (Dakotians? Dakoes?) twice more with two shows and then... TEXAS!!!

You know what to do. See you next week, right here ! Love to all those who care enough about us to keep on following along! We'll be home soon...

Xox,

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 9

I won't lie. I almost forgot to write this blog today. It's Friday already??? Time flies when you've taken four flights in less than a week. After a 7-day hiatus, the Godspell cast, crew and band are back to put forth the last 4 weeks of a 13-week National Tour.

We left Toronto on Monday February 3rd, the beginning of Week #9.  Two flights and a shuttle bus later, we made it safely and soundly to our first destination: Newberry, South Carolina.

But not before earning free bottles of Jack for belting out a Godspell tune on the flight!

We jumped right in with not one, but two shows on Tuesday at the Newberry Opera House. It was a sweet little theatre conveniently located right across the street from our temporary home at the Hampton Inn.

Newberry Opera House

Inside the Newberry Opera House

 After the matinée performance, the kind people at the theatre had a southern-style dinner prepared for us: fried chicken, green beans, green salad, macaroni salad, mashed potatoes & sweet tea. Perhaps not the leanest meal a group of performers could/should choose for themselves, but hey... a kind gesture is a kind gesture. And it saved us both time & money between shows, so no complaints here.

We also had extra special guests in the audience: a group of new friends who had already seen our production of Godspell when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina before our Christmas hiatus in December. They loved it (and us) so much that they made the two-hour drive to come and see it again! They're a bit* younger than us (*tee hee) and will be putting on their own production of Godspell in March. We met them after our Charlotte show and again after this one in Newberry.  Both times they expressed how much we inspired them with our performance.  So sweet!

Some of us with some of them

Wednesday was another travel day... a very, long travel day as we had two flights to get is to Milwaukee and there were some lengthy delays and a layover in between.  But we're a funky bunch, so we tend to make the most of our down time.  For instance, Ivan was crowned "Sauce Boss" for dancing in a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant at the airport. He kept the crown on for hours. We laughed at him. He threw the crown in the garbage. A good time was had by all.

Ivan The Sauce Boss and our Wardrobe Queen, Lauren

We eventually made it to Milwaukee.  It is FREEZING here, but our hotel is beautiful and there are so many things to do in the city. We had yesterday (Thursday) off, so between our arrival here on Wednesday night and this Friday afternoon, our group has had quite the itinerary. Brewery tours, trips to the art museum, bar-hopping, live theatre ("Evita" and "In The Heights" are playing nearby), figure skating, good eats and...

Hotel-lobby-ping-pong

Mark Laidman, Alessia Lupiano and myself starting from tha bottom

We have our first show at the Milwaukee Theatre tonight, so hopefully everyone saved enough energy to do what we always do - bang out a kick-a$$ performance. 

That said, it's time for me to annoy the hotel guests next door with some tongue-trills (an obnoxious, yet effective vocal warm-up). 

Come back next Friday for another update!  And you might want to look for us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram if you haven't already, as there are always wayyyyy more stories and happenings with this tour that I couldn't possibly fit into each blog... or wouldn't dare too ;-).

Til next time ... Xox,

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour