Working on North Star

How many years have I been working on North Star? Since 2015 when my helpful intuition woke me up in the middle of the night demanding I write the show!

Here are some numbers for North Star.

• Seven years of writing
• 10 years working with voice coach Dr. Jan Eric Douglas
• 24 months working with busy director, Sean Daniels
• It took 2 1/2 years just to master singing all the arias and other music
• 1000+ hours of rehearsals
• 100’s of hours working with 12 vintage suitcases (some needing multiple repairs since throwing them around is rough on them!)
• Three broken ribs (ouch!) 
• One sprained ankle (note to self: do not leap over suitcases – it’s only funny once)
• 2021’s most embarrassing injury – golf elbow – from flinging suitcases
• Two pairs of dance shoes
• 27 versions of the script (and counting)
• Three sets of knees pads
• Five original dances by Movement Director Maya Orchin
• 14 musicians on 12 songs, including 5 songs I wrote myself
• Two cat supervisors who “supervised me” and insisted on sitting in the suitcases when not in use (so helpful!)

I had planned to perform North Star at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2020, and 2021. Of course, like the rest of the world, the pandemic played a part in how everyone’s life worked. As the pandemic was ramping up in February and March 2020, I was working to put the finishing touches on my album. I followed New York’s plan to stay in place at home and spent my time working on fine-tuning the show with Movement Director Maya Orchin. 

2021 looked promising, but alas COVID struck again. Undaunted, well slightly daunted, we persevered.

Creating anything creative during a pandemic is interesting and working on North Star with an entire team of people over Zoom, FaceTime, phone, text and email over the last year has proved challenging and rewarding and fun. 

Thanks to technology and a committed creative team, I’m super excited to be moving forward for 2022 with shows in New York and Los Angeles in March 2022 and Edinburgh this Summer August 6-13. Hope to see you there!