Creating a successful one-woman show
I thought today I would give a history of my show, My Brooklyn Hamlet, for those of you interested in expressing yourself in this medium.
I was an actress in 1995 when my father took my mother’s life. The first few years I hid behind the characters I played and then in 1998 I just knew that the key to my healing was to give life to the very people I hadn’t yet forgiven–through the creation of my one-woman show.
My one-hour fifteen minute show started as an exercise in a top acting class in Los Angeles and then morphed into the final version it is now after years of tweaking text, showcasing scenes before an audience, perfecting dialogue, practicing my craft and finally performing in front of thousands of people.
I’ve taken scenes out, rewrote dialogue based on laughs I got or didn’t, put scenes back in and made sure there was a proper beginning, middle and end.
I remember in the beginning I didn’t know if my show would resonate with an audience because my story was so dramatic and yet it was the very personal nature of my story that made it so universally accepted.
If you are working on a show you want to tap into a universal theme–such as loss, betrayal, love, grief, forgiveness and then as one acting teacher told me—make it personal because God is in the details.
To see a two-minute trailer of my show go to my homepage at http://www.forgivenessandfreedom.com.
If you know an organization that might benefit from bringing my show to one of their events please contact me.
And if you’d like some help creating a show–let’s talk–I’m available for creativity coaching.
Inspired and Grateful,
Brenda
