PMT Spring Showcase Debut

On April 17th, 2009 we performed "Act 1, Scene 1" for our first live audience.
Man were we nervous beforehand.  Though we both have had plenty of performing experience, this was the first time being responsible for all artistic choices, and what bold choices they are: two minutes of mime to open, a song in French, an entire suitcase of props to contend with as well as a homemade cut out of Marilyn Monroe to be build on stage.  Wild Red enters with a ratty half afro and Lillibelle has doll lashes, cheeks, and lips drawn on...

Would it translate? Would be be able to fully embody our alter egos? Would the audience laugh?  As the show began, Wild Red kept nervously teasing her hair until Lillibelle took away her brush and Aquanet.

The stage manager called us to places.  Lillibelle did one last OCD check of the prop set up and it was lights, music, action.  Wild Red stepped unto stage, paused in shock at the standing room audience, and Lillibelle booty bumped her all the way onto stage, getting a giggle from a girl in the front row.  

We were off.  Once the laughter started.  There was no stopping us.  Hams by nature, we pulled out all the stops. By the time we tossed off our last big kick and dropped to our knees we were greeted with a wall of applause and a sea of smiling faces.

We got off stage, hearts pounding, lungs screaming, and let off an ecstatic sigh of relief.  We had done it.  We had made an audience laugh and smile; we had had a blast; and we could hardly wait to do it all again.

The Birth of a Comedy Duo

On Feburary 12th, 2009, Elizabeth Burwell walked through the door of studio B at PMT Dance Studios where Rachel Sattler was taking herself through a basic ballet warm-up.  

Rachel had been renting a weekly hour slot in the dance studio for some time in order to try and kick start her choreography aspirations.  The truth was, though, many days she spent her hour with "dancers block", just listening to music and stretching rather than creating the master pieces of her dreams.

Elizabeth wasn't sure she was going to turn up to the studio that day.  Rachel had offered that she could join, but Elizabeth was tired and hungry.  She had been in NYC for nearly 6 years, done countless auditions, and though she had done several various dance projects in her time, she hadn't had fun in the studio for a long time.

But, she walked through the door on that fateful Thursday afternoon and surprised Rachel.  They both chatted about what was currently inspiring and frustrating them about dance.  Elizabeth had been listening to Ediath Piaf recently and liked a song called Milord.  So they put it on, and Rachel taught Elizabeth how to polka.  They polkaed, laughed, and left the studio that day with both a lighter step and the seed of a grand idea in the back of their minds.  So went the first day of what would soon become the MerryMakers.