Lauren Weedman the Great! A Solo Performer's Performer...

Lauren Weedman is a funny, funny woman. She's also whip smart and insightful.

Last year I produced one of her shows out here in Santa Fe for a few nights. Her show was called "No, You Shut Up" and the audience(including me) was laughing so hard that we could hardly catch our breath.

This summer she is doing her new show up in Portland that has been commissioned by a Rep Theater. I think it's her 9th show or 10th.

In a perfect world, Lauren Weedman would be more famous than Louis CK and the like. But we don't live in a perfect world. But here she is in all her glory in a clip from one of her shows "BUST"

Why a Solo Show is Great for Business (even if you're not an actor!)

People come to me to do one person shows for many diverse reasons. I notice that different kinds of people come to me in waves.


Because I have been doing this work for so long, I have had waves of people doing solo shows for various reasons.

In the beginning and because of my own training I suppose, I almost got actors exclusively as clients. And there are still many many actors who have become aware of the fact that solo performance is an empowering way to showcase ones' talents. This is one of the reasons why Fringe Festivals and Solo Performance festivals are popping up all over the globe. Solo Performance IS the new paradigm of theater and the fastest growing in the world.

Because I live in Santa Fe, not NYC, LA or San Francisco , I get a unique cross-section of non-actors who are driven by alternative reasons for wanting to find a specific and powerful expression for creating and performing a show. Many are woman who want to feel their voice is being heard in a deep and creative way in the world.

In the last ten years I have worked with a shaman who wanted to express her spiritual journey, a former sex worker who was now a therapist, many business people and several cultural creatives doing interesting projects in alternative markets.

When people tell an interesting and powerful story in this forum, huge amounts of energy get stirred up. It's why I tell people it is a shamanic process. You literally cannot offer a show onstage to a community of people and not change and be changed.

It is a great way for like-minded people and people who can benefit from your business services to find their way to you.

I must say that particularly for people who do work with people; therapists, teachers, healers of one kind or another..the balance of sharing one's own story onstage attracts business.

It is a new paradigm. In a way, it is exactly how my path has played out. From solo performer, to teacher/facilitator to healer/director. It has all been how my brand has been formed. Not in a contrived way, but in a very organic way.

Solo shows are a wonderful, expressive and fun way to connect with your natural clients. It is putting yourself out there in a HUGE way.

And so the form continues to morph and expand....


Happy Spring to All! Love, Tanya

Monologues to Change the World/ Israeli and Palestinian Peace Monologues

I am very excited that I have hired Bruce MacIntosh to help me by organizing and posting all my videos from shows over the last ten-twelve years.

Yesterday, he put up about 24 videos from 2 shows I did with young woman from Israel and Palestine at a peace camp. Each one tells their powerful and true story.

We worked with these girls writing and performing their monologues in 3 languages (Hebrew, Arabic, English) in 3 days. Yes, from the time they sat down to create their monologues til the time they stood in front of packed audiences here in Santa Fe, we had three days to facilitate this.

It was wild and amazing and ultimately very empowering for the girls, many who stated on their camp forms that standing onstage with "the enemy", being deeply heard, receiving flowers and standing ovations together was the highlight of their time in the US.

Please check out the videos below as a sampling of the work.

On this same You Tube channel (Tanya Rubinstein) you can sit back and listen to some powerful stories from the heart of Jerusalem and Gaza.

This December I will be traveling to do monologues with this same population of people on the soil of the conflict...in Israel and Palestine.

What Makes a Great Therapeutic Monologue Facilitator?

As many people are expressing interest in training in the Therapeutic Monologue Process I offer, I thought I'd write a bit about what it takes to be a great facilitator in this work.

Successful facilitators need to do a great deal of preparation in order to facilitate the process. The first step is going through the process of writing and performing a therapeutic monologue in front of an audience. No one who has not walked through the process themselves has the “inner authority” to facilitate in my opinion, even if, as a therapist or other healing professional, they have the ability to hold space for others. Then, they need to facilitate a group under supervision and receive detailed feedback about their in the moment relationship to the participants and their stories. In an ideal world, the facilitators would have a strong background in acting/solo performance themselves, personal writing, be trained as a therapist as well as having a direct experience with their own Divine Nature. That, however would be an unusual person. All people I have trained as facilitators who are attracted to this work have at least some of these qualities or backgrounds. It is also possible and quite desirable to have two facilitators working together, one with more of a writing/theater background and one with more or a therapeutic background to collaborate. Knowing or having touched one’s own Divine nature supersedes the rest of the qualities. This direct experience prepares the facilitator to not buy into the victim or perpetrator story. This background allows the facilitator to sit and listen deeply and open heartedly yet without painful attachment  to people’s traumatic experiences which may include everything from rape to wartime experience to the loss of a child. It does not make the facilitator callus, but rather compassionate. This is not about dogma or imposing any belief systems on the group. Rather, it is simply the faith in knowing that something bigger than oneself is holding the energy of the group. From this place of deep knowing, an infinite container is created that can hold and transform any story from pain to wisdom, trauma to acceptance . This ability to create this container from a place of spiritual knowing is the facilitators greatest asset and indeed a necessity to do the deepest level of healing work.

My Cousin Rusty...a monologue by Tanya

www.TheSoloPerformanceCoach.com

This is a show I wrote and performed in ten years ago! Can't believe it's been so long. The show was called "Pregnant Pause" and this monologue was about a family member and his reaction to his girlfriend's pregnancy.

More Solo Performance Tips from The Solo Performance Coach

The pitfalls to watch out for when creating a solo show (hint: self-indulgence tops the list) xoxo, Tanya

What Are You Waiting For? Do Your Solo Show Now!

At least three times a month, I get a call from somebody who is interested in working with me on a one person show. More often than not they start out the conversation by saying something along the lines of " I've been working on my show for years but cannot seem to pull it together" or "I've been thinking about doing this show FOREVER, but have no idea where to begin"

I totally relate to this. In 1984 I knew in my bones that I would do a solo show. But I had no idea where to begin. My path was circuitous. I dreamt about doing a solo show, but kept putting it off. My performance career had become boring to me despite the fact that I continued to be cast in many shows. The material of the plays themselves were just not interesting to me. They felt stale and contrived. I longed to use all of me; my voice, my concerns, my passions, my humor, my life and my ability to perform to create something unique that felt truly "my own" as an artist. At the time I did not know this consciously, but I wanted to expand and take up more space I wanted to take my place in my life as well as on the stage.

In 1992, I began journaling daily. Then I joined a few writing groups. "The Artist's Way" was a brand new book at the time. Morning Pages and Artist Dates became part of my life. Tentatively, I was finding my writing voice. I always was confident in my acting ability, but did not know how I would find a way to write what I really wanted to express.

Slowly at first I eked out the words. I wrote and wrote and began to uncover nuggets of gold. Finally, an experience arrived that matched my insides in terms of what I really wanted to say.

And so, after many years of living with a burning and haunting desire to do a solo show, I wrote and performed "Honeymoon in India"


One of the reasons I do the work I do is to assist people in short circuiting the time on this process. By quite a bit. We work together in my studio, and within four days, you have the raw material for your show.

All of my own experiences with this form are grist for the mill. At this point I have worked on over one hundred solo shows. I'm able to take you straight to the heart of your story. The most essential story. The one you have needed to tell for your entire life.

There is no need to wait. If the strong desire is inside of you to write and perform a solo show, I can guarantee you that it will not go away. No matter how hard you try to get it out of your mind. It will remain and grow bigger. And the longer you put it off, the more it will drive your crazy!

Because your SOUL knows. It knows what it knows. And if you were meant to take this journey, just do it.

Your Soul will thank you and you will be able to rest at night without thoughts of your undone show swirling in your brain.

Best of all, your life will expand. Because when you stand up on that stage and take up that much space, power and energy, things really won't ever be the same.

Don't believe me? Check out one of my favorite solo performers, John Legizamo in the video above. Wouldn't you like to be that engaged? That alive?

Yes, it is possible.

Queer Voice Monologue

From a Queer Voices Monologue Show I facilitated in Santa Fe some years back with the college of Santa Fe. GLBY students each wrote and performed a 10 minute piece over the course of a week-end.

Spalding Gray video

Here is a scene from Spalding Gray's seminal work, Swimming to Cambodia. I met Spalding a few years before he did this show at the Wooster Theater Group.

I saw an earlier  show at the Brattle Street Theater in Cambridge, Ma. in 1984. It changed my life. About twenty of us sat in the audience. He came onstage in his usual way. His voice and style was already established.

He spoke openly about his mother's suicide and masturbating at Walden Pond to feel closer to the Spirit of Thoureau. I was hooked. From that night on, I knew that solo performance/contemporary storytelling was my path. Who knew how far it would lead me.

I love you Spalding. You were my first and the best of the best. Your generosity onstage set the bar.

Creative Empowerment: The Right and Need to Create Your Own Work

I am sitting here in a cafe in my hometown of Santa Fe...pondering.

What do we crave? What do our Souls need? What is the highest path as an artist?

The answers are different for all of us. But, I do see certain patterns in common...either for better or worse no matter what the medium.

My medium is solo performance. It began almost 30 years ago when I met Spalding Gray and saw him perform an original show.

At the time I was studying acting and didn't realize it consciously, but I was already feeling confined.

I had performed in classical plays for years by then. I began as a young teen. Shakespeare, Molier, Albee, Pinter, the Greeks were already in my repertoire. I loved the experience of pouring my own emotional experience into a character. It was amazing. But the stories I was telling were not my stories.

I could relate to some. Many..not so much. Including the pinnacle. When I was twenty seven years old, I was in the Pulitzer Prize winning play "The Kentucky Cycle". It was a well done production, but less than satisfying. I has the realization "If this is the BEST, contemporary American theater can offer me and I am still not getting the experience I was desiring, I need to create my own work.

So, I did. I took the leap. The terrifying, exciting and HUGE leap into the world of creating my own work and helping others create their own work. It was raw, it was hilarious, it was heartbreaking, it was true, it was hard.

And I was hooked.

That was twenty some years ago.

What has my life been since?

It has been authentic. It has been hard. It has been joyful.

Mostly, it has been ALIVE. Vitally and unapologetically alive.

My medium is solo performance. Some will call it indulgent. Some will call it narcissistic. Sometimes it is. But not the way I strive to work with it.

I call it generous. I call it intimate. And I call it fulfillment in the way that conventional theater never could be.

My favorite musicians are always also composers. I'd take a rendition of one of Sam Llana's songs, straight from his own Soul and life over a polished Broadway voice or pop icon calling it in any
day.


My own guide has been "do the most intimate work in alignment with your own soul as possible"And, you will find your true audience. The one who resonates with you.

Be bold. Risk failing. Be true. Be who you are. Put it on a stage and let yourself shine.

Finding a Director/Coach

OK..right off the top. Full disclosure. I am a director/coach who specializes in solo shows. Yes, I know you know. I just want to put out there that this could just be interpreted as a self promoting discourse so you hire me. Well, maybe that IS partially true. Yes, I am being glib. But here's the deal. You must not do a solo performance without a director.

It takes many people to create an excellent one person show. Almost all the greats develop their material closely with a collaborator/partner/coach (I am thinking Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Mike Daisey...all directed by their partners/wives)

Solo performances are the most likely of ANY forms of theater, in my opinion to fail. That's right, I said it. Why? Because of the self indulgence problem. Because one works in too small a container and one is generally too attached to the story. Because one believes that a story, their story is enough to be art. Because they love their own story.

Please do not, do not, do not fall into this trap. A good story must transcend the storyteller. A story must find the the pathos, the Universality, the belly laughs, the irony, the perspective, the Silver Lining, the loopy characters, the mystery, the poignancy, the connection to the bigger world.

So, who are you searching for when you are on your quest for a director? Traditional theater director? Someone with a back-ground in improvisation? A writer? Another solo performer?

There really is no formula. However, there are things to look for in a person you are considering working with.

#1. Have a conversation with the person. Do you like her energy? Is she a good listener? Most importantly, does she ash you interesting, provocative questions about your story/vision? Do you leave the conversation more inspired? If you do, that is a very good thing.

#2 Talk to other actors he/she has worked with before.

#3 Does she have a script or video of her own work as a solo artist or of another script she has worked on?

It's important that she resonate with your vision. This is about chemistry and synergy and it is an un-predicatable quality. Like a new lover or friend, you need to feel that there is a creative connection between you. I would say avoid anyone who seems rigid, domineering, or controlling. Ultimately, this is your show and it is important that you are working with someone who is there to support you. In other words, avoid big egos.

Some coaches/directors whose work I recommend (besides my own of course) are (in NYC: Cheryl King at Stage Left Studios, Jo Bonney, Jean Michele Gregory, Theresa Giambacorrta)

Remember that unlike a conventional director, you are actually writing and developing a script with someone. This is a much more complex process and in my experience, it is super important that your director both has a good sense as a writer/editor and of compelling storytelling/acting.

It's a big job and the right person can make or break your show. In the end, make sure that they have your back. Then you are safe to go onstage and really SHINE!

The "Business" of Acting and Finding YOUR own way..

This week-end my fourteen year old daughter Chloe was in NYC for a teen Broadway Intensive workshop. There were days scheduled with casting directors, acting teachers, vocal coaches, dance instructors and even a Master Class with some of the Broadway cast of "STOMP"She attended with her best friend since kindergarten, who is a singer.

Both girls study at the New Mexico School for the Arts high school. Chloe in acting and Sam in singing. NYC was different. Chloe reported experiences with cutthroat stage mothers, casting directors who were mostly concerned about "type" over originality and that intense vibe that one only gets to experience in NYC studios.

The experience was good for Chloe. She has more information on which to base her choices of what kind of actor she wants to be, what kind of path she wants to forge. And the various costs of various paths...Because we all pay in one way or another for our choices.

Her whole experience made me reflect on my own training, my own dreams of youth and how some of them played and some of them did not. And how some of them changed.

When I saw Meryl Streep in the t.v movie "The Holocaust" when I too was 14, I decided that I wanted to be an actor. Her performance rocked me to the core of my humanity. I asked my mother to sign me up for acting lessons in the DC suburbs which she did.

My first teachers were wonderful. I felt "seen" and "whole" for the first time in my life as I embarked upon the deep emotional journey of an actor. I thrived playing in the deep end of the ocean and my happiest times were spent in rehearsals for shows in a darkened theater. I instantly loved Shakespeare, Albee, Williams, O'Neal..I was cast in show after show and attended a summer camp for the Arts during high school at Goucher Collge where I studied with a truly amazing teacher, Pat Vitalglian.

My experiences in college was mixed in terms of teachers. I had a great one, Matthew Vakey at Carnegie Mellon and another great, Ron Jenkins at Emerson. Both continued to instill my love of the art. Both were deeply supportive in terms of developing my craft.

But the ugly shadow of competitive, one size fits all acting had also begun to creep in. At Carnegie Mellon, I had a female teacher who "went after" all the Freshman and Sophmore girls who were vulnerable in any way. She told one girl, Diana that she couldn't stand the sight of her and to get out of her classroom until she lost some weight. She told another girl that she would never work because of the size of her nose.

And one day, she pulled me aside and said that I was too unattractive to be an ingenue and too pretty to be a character actor. And so that at 18, I might as well give up on a career now. Because there was not a "place" for me. And I did give up for a while. Her words penetrated my deepest fears and deepest wounds. I began to get suicidally depressed. By summer I decided that I wasn't going back to school the next year. I went to NYC for a year and began to study with the late, great Bill Hickey at HB Studios. Bill confided at me that he would never teach at any of "the League' drama schools because they were all this way when I told him the story. I got into an abusive relationship to validate my worth and attractiveness.

I was running my life based on  the thought that I was not good enough to have my dream even though I knew that I was talented as an actor. The "business" of acting already felt brutal to me and I had barely begun.

Then I decided to go back to school in Boston.And I met Spalding Gray...a man who was creating his shows and touring with them. A man who had stepped entirely out of the system. From the moment I walked out of the theater after seeing him, I knew what my new dream was. To create and perform solo shows. In time the dream also included helping others create.

Deb Margolin, an early and well known solo performer who also teaches at Yale called solo performance "Outsiders Theater'. I agree with her wholeheartedly. No matter how the culture sees us, those of us who are drawn to solo theater, in some way, identify as outsiders.

I do not know what my daughter's path will be. An insiders path or an outsiders. Or an in-between. As artists, we all find our own way. And pain and failures along the journey can even lead to our deeper calling. That is what happened with me.

I met some amazing people and just kept following an inner voice over an outer voice. Isn't that what outsiders are here to do?

You can have your art. You can have your career. Do it the way you want to.