#devinneverwhere

Hunter

Okay so it's been like 2 and half weeks maybe since we've closed Neverwhere and I'm still holding on. So I've decided to officially close this part of my life and say goodbye to Hunter and London Below in my own way.

Dear Hunter,

I don't know where to begin. I had one of the best journeys of my lil life getting to step into your shoes. I was so afraid to that I couldn't never even come close to such a woman, and now I'm so proud of everything I've accomplished with you. I went from never even touching a staff to having Serpentine become an extension of my left and right arm. From being a bit timid to stand tall at times, to rooting myself fully and truly. Letting myself fly, letting myself be ugly, and selfish at times. But letting whatever was be my guide, my truth. My heart, mind, soul, and body has stretched (literally and figuratively) beyond what I thought it could; reaching and grasping and have me wanting more always. I will always want more because I got to play a woman like you. Demand more, expect the best, give more because I now know I can.  I will never be able to full articulate how much I've learned and have grown these past 5 months; how grateful and open I feel; how touched, how brilliant, strong, inspiring, honorable, and beautiful because I got to play such a woman and a such force. There aren't too many roles like this, and I will miss being you. What a journey. Truly. Thank you.

Love and Honor,

Devereau

And for the everyone else who came on this journey to London Below with me...

A moment for some serious gratitude. Thank you to EVERYONE who come this journey with me. My friends, loved ones, acquaintances, and people I didn't even know, who spent their time when they didn't have it and/or the money when they didn't have it; those who shared their hearts, those who showed up just at the mention of Neverwhere, those who had no idea what Neverwhere was, those who were skeptical about LA theatre and still showed up anyway, those who showed up when sick (or healthy, those who showed up once, those who showed up SIX times and more, those who shared links/emails, those who stayed after the show just to connect and talk with me, and those who just believe enough in good art to support me throughout this run, support this cast/crew, and mostly importantly support good art. This has been THE best production I've ever worked on. I've owned every bit of this and sharing this with you all has been heart-expandingly incredible. Here are just some of the faces I've managed to capture (with my staff Serpentine, and to those who I didn't get, thank you still. My family and friends, thank you for your support, now and always, I love you. HUGE thank you to Alex Webster and Tierney Nesbitt, for coming all the way out to Los Angeles from Sarasota Florida to see me do my thang! And a very special thank you to some incredibly brave and bold artists Neil Gaiman, Keegan Michael Key, Hugo Schwyzer, and the love of my life Ryan Nance. Thank you for your art and thank you for witnessing mine. 

Love and Honor,

Neverwhere Memories (set one)

Backstage Life

Some of the best memories didn't even happen on stage. They were the moments before the show, the preshow routine/ritual, fig newtons, quote of the day, singing to 90's pop, random Beatles' tunes, vocally warming, intermission chats, Vine-ing during the show. All of it.  All the stuff the audience never saw, that only we the cast shared. For all the moments of panic and stress, and laughs, and tears, thank you to my beautiful castmates for sharing your selves on this journey with me. Getting me through each show safely and lovingly. For inspiring me and helping me be the best Hunter and Devereau I could be. Thank you for keeping me afloat, lifting me when I couldn't, giving me advice and love, and letting me love you too! This was the best show I've ever worked on... I miss you guys! 

Pictured (top to bottom, left to right)

~Donnelle as Crrrpppprrlll

~Marz (Father Abbot) mid-show

~ Earl's Court fun during a photo shoot

~ I love me some Angel Islington (Carlos)

~Sylvia and Door (Paula) meet, but only backstage

~Goodbye hugs on closing night (Yonie and Marz)

~Donnelle as the beast and Richard during a production photo shoot

~A moment with Lady Door and Richard (Michael)

Neverwhere Memories (set one)

Backstage Life

Some of the best memories didn't even happen on stage. They were the moments before the show, the preshow routine/ritual, fig newtons, singing to 90's pop, random Beatles' tunes, vocally warming, intermission chats, Vine-ing during the show. All of it.  All the stuff the audience never saw, that only we the cast shared. For all the moments of panic and stress, and laughs, and tears, thank you to my beautiful castmates for sharing your selves on this journey with me. Getting me through each show safely and lovingly. For inspiring me and helping me be the best Hunter and Devereau I could be. Thank you for keeping me afloat, lifting me when I couldn't, giving me advice and love, and letting me love you too! This was the best show I've ever worked on... I miss you guys! 

Pictured (top to bottom; left to right)

~Hunter and Lady Door (Paula Richard) we have a secret...okay the secret is that we took this picture with no pants on....

~Croup (Ezra), Hunter, Master Longtail (Juila)

~ Vocal warm up with Richard (Michael)

~ Preshow fun with the Marquis (Jonathan) and Richard

~Natasha Norman stepping in for Donnelle! with Julia and I

~ Josh stepping in as the Angel Islington

~ Intermission hotness with Sylvia and Vandemar (Bryan)

~the Marquis and Hammersmith (Bryan) 

Neverwhere Memories (Set 1) April 28, 2013

I think this might be my favorite memory of all...meeting Mr. Neil Gaiman himself...

So, hmm, where do I begin? Yeah. Okay, so you know how there is that moment when you meet a huge hero like figure and you find out that they are not so great in person? You're a little let down but you understand?...

Yeah that's literally LIGHT YEARS yes LIGHT YEARS away from Neil Gaiman. So I step off stage, a little nervous. Side note- I've had the extreme joy and pleasure to perform and meet some of my playwright/author heroes, in the past and they, sadly at some point are not as much as I hoped they'd be, maybe it was them, maybe it was me, but just not what I would have liked- so yes a little nervous that it could very well be that moment. Now I already had so much awesome Neil support and energy, from him sharing of my production photos to him sending me a Happy Birthday Hunter tweet, I figured if he doesn't come, its okay, I totally understand, he's already given so much love...but then we get the official "yes, he is coming" "yes he is here...." oh my f*cking god...

Then I manage to work my way through the crowd of fans waiting outside the theater after the show, and finally greet him. As nervous as I was, I managed a calm, collected, grounded "thank you so very much for just being here, this means more than you know." He replies by warmly taking both my hands, looking into my eyes and says "you were wonderful, just wonderful..."

Then of course after that moment, I fell apart completely. First off I've never had such a prolific, brilliant, amazing artist and figure, be so unbelievable beautiful and open with me. Making contact and connection from the first moment, meant the world to me. What a beautiful person Neil is. One of those people that just makes the world better by being here. Truly. I'm probably not doing this moment justice, but I felt so equal and comfortable, he made everyone so comfortable so happy, so excited to share and connect with him. He talked almost every single person who stayed behind, he signed books and took pictures with joy and pleasure. We had him come back into the theater and take photos with the cast and costumes and set, oh the BEAST, he took a picture with the beast! Amazing! 

Even more amazing-ness: He signed my book! Like a geek, I totally asked him to sign my book and address it to Hunter. Again with pleasure, he signed away. 

Now here's the kicker, so this amazing man has been at the theater for about 6 hours at this point. He had dinner with our director before the show, then saw the show (which was 2:45) then stayed for picture. I was so sure he was beyond exhausted. But as ballsy as it was, I asked him if Hunter could by him a drink....AND HE SAID YES! Even thinking about it now I squeal with joy. I felt like the coolest person ever! So he stays and chats with everyone for another hour or so. Unbelievable. I was soaring the entire night! Another side note- I had friends who flew all the way out from Sarasota, Florida to come see Neverwhere, and they got to meet Neil. So to feel like I made that happen made it all even better. 

I honestly can't describe how incredible was to have had him there that night. It was such a beautiful night.

Thank you Neil, for giving us your heart and art always. Thank you for creating such beautiful strong characters to step into. Thank you for all the support. Thank you for the love. Thank you thank you thank you. You are a hero, a prolific figure, a fucking incredible artist, but you are also one of the most down to earth, brilliant and beautiful people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. I'm so hoping for more opportunities to cross paths again...

Love always,

Hunter...

    Pictured (Top to Bottom)

~Me and Neil!! eeeek! :) 

~Neil, Lady Door (Paula Rhodes) and Hunter ;)

~Neil and the Cast

~Neil and The Beast

~Neil and Scott Leggett (our fearless leader)

~Neil with Lamia/Jessica (Cassandra Vincent)

~Neil with Donnelle Fuller

~Neil signing my lil sister's book with Ryan

Memory 6 "The Fans of Neverwhere" A huge Thank you to the fans...

When I signed onto doing this show, my first concern was how am I going to do this role?! The dialect was intimidating, the stage combat was mountains away from me, and also how am I gonna keep up with all these other incredible brilliant artists beside me? So as you see loads of things to start with. And then I began to research and read Neverwhere and got completely lost in its world of magic and power. After telling my friends and other fellow artists that I was involved with this production, I soon began to realize that not only does Neverwhere have a huge following, but Neil himself has a huge following, and that since I'm playing Hunter, I not only have all the other things on my plate, I felt a huge responsibility and fear of meeting the expectations of the fans. I realize that with many novel-to-stage/novel-to-movie adaptations, the subject is so very sensitive and prickly for people in such an inexplicable way; so I had to brace myself in very different way. Unlike a lot of friends, I was very new to this world, only coming into it once I was cast in the role. However once I jumped in it, there was no going back, but would that mean I would still be accepted by the many many devoted followers? 

Okay so were are few days from opening and there is still that little fear of will I be the Hunter that captivated myself and so many others before me? I'm headed to my car after one of our last rehearsals that night and I'm pulled aside by my assistant director, Natasha. She quietly asks me what was different about tonight. I told her that something was different I didnt know what. "...tonight you were the Hunter I always imagined in my mind when I read Neverwhere" she tells me. That made my night and week. To already feel like I was on the road to something as great as Hunter. And getting that before we opened gave me such confidence to push and work towards making her even better and more clear in my mind. 

And then we finally opened. Of course performing for my family is one of the biggest honors I can have, nothing like seeing, hearing, and feeling their love support and energy out there, while they cheer you on. 

But performing for the fans....NOTHING beats performing for the fans! I remember right after we opened, Neil shared a couple of production photos of me as Hunter and told fans to check out the show on Facebook. One was the day before my birthday. What a gift! Best gift ever! I woke up to over 300 shares of the photos, thousands of comments about how much people loved the photo of me, how much I looked exactly like the Hunter they envisioned, how much they wanted to see it! And one was after he had seen the show and shared it on Tumblr. Again more comments and shares and feedback that I never thought was come my way from playing this role! I was definitely soaring! To get such incredible feedback from the fans! Unbelievable!

Then of course there were so many beautiful moments where people came to see the show just because they were fans, and stayed after the show to talk to me and share their love for the work we've done or to just geek out about the show. Nothing beats performing for the devoted enthusiastic. It was such an honor to feel like I did Hunter justice in their minds and hearts, and then be able to meet and connect with some (sadly not all) of the people who came was amazing!  Again, a huge thank you to the fans who supported us in the run of this production. You all took this experience to a new level. 

Here are a few photos of some memorable nights when the fans showed up and stayed to chat after the show

Top to bottom (all pictured with Serpentine, my staff :)

* I met these two lovely ladies Tosca (left) and Nicole (right) in our last week of the run. Tosca and Nicole are both writer/director/actors as well as huge Gaiman fans. Tosca had already seen the show but insisted on seeing it again so she brought Nicole. I felt an instant connections with these awesome ladies. We sat and joked and geeked out about the show, and art, and Neil. It was great, especially because I made a great artistic connection, looking forward to working with them

* About halfway into the run I met Isaac and Anna. They were huge huge fans, stayed about 30 minutes after the show just to speak to me! It was so touching, not to mention that was my first autograph as Hunter. It was rad! We connected about the most random and interesting things, we ended up closing the theater that night we stayed so late! Again always so amazing to meet strangers who have so much in common and connect. We still email each other too! :)

* After our first weekend I stopped over at the faculty bar, for a beer and met Trevor (left). He told me how huge of fan he was, that he even auditioned for the show, and that he totally had plans to see it. After he finally came to see the show, he gave me a signed unproofed copy of Neverwhere! "I was so impressed, and I thought it only appropriate that Hunter have a special piece of Neverwhere..." he said... Freaking rad right?!!

*My little sister Stella and my brother in law Brandon came to see the show about halfway into the run. They halfway flipped out, I could hear their laughs and reactions, not just to me but everything. She's a huge Gaiman fans, so geekin out with her afterwards was the best. Her favorite part of the show : Marquis de Carabas (Jonathan Kells Phillips) and rightfully so, the guys' got swagger!

*It's always awesome finding flyers for your show in a place you usually go to (i.e. local bar) but you didn't put them there...:) and more importantly you know none of the other castmates did either :)

Memories from London Below

Opening Night! (Set One)

Easily opening night of Neverwhere was the best opening night I've ever had. Like I have mentioned so many times with Neverwhere, nothing short of pure magic has come from this show. Opening night: magical. I arrived super early at the theatre that day to prepare and soak up all the wonderful buzzing vibes before the call. Setting all my stuff up, I couldnt help but wonder "how will the world accept this show?" I mean Im under the impression "do good art and mostly likely all good things will follow" but the idea of people not truly falling in love with something that is and was so incredibly fall in loveable, was a bit overwhelming. At some point before I went on stage, I silently gave hugs to each person backstage, took a moment to myself and said "remember to do good art," and "oh yeah its opening! of course they'll love it!"  And yes they did, most of the audience from that day forth did. As I came on as Hunter, nothing but pure joy vibrated out into the room, into the world, into the universe. I was so damn proud to be apart of something so special and beautiful, and I got to show off all my crazy stage combat moves for the most first time! Super rad. 

And well the craziness that took part afterward...Fish 'n Chips, aged scotch, dancing and party til 2 or so. Crying, laughing, enjoying every compliment, and story, and bit of love that came our way. Such an amazingly beautiful night. Oh and if you want to know, yes that last picture there is of myself and Lady Door mixing emergen-c and scotch...because of course thats what you do on opening night?...good lord.

Pictured Top to Bottom

*Lady Door and I in the dressing room with opening night butterflies

* my set-up for Hunter, Rat-speaker Spinderatta, and Sylvia (minus the whiskey)

* Natasha Norman (Assistant Director) and Old Bailey (Marz Richards) gift giving

*Scott Leggett (Director) and his opening night gift

*Tracy, Sean and I after the show

*Terry fixing an opening night bouquet of roses

*A cheers to our fearless leader

* Our fearless leader and fearless producer, Henry Dittman

Memories of Neverwhere "TECH Week" Set 2

Talk about the longest and best tech I ever had. No fuss or drama. Quickly working, no wasting anytime, completely productive. Along with being the best production I've ever been in, the tech weeks were pretty awesome. Finally getting to see what Neverwhere looked, sounded, sometimes smelled, and felt like. To finally and fully transition in London Below was great. Some of the best moments of tech were (in which some are pictured) include the day after my huge house party, when I didn't think I could make the day, just hearing the first few moments of the show (Door's first moment and Richard's first moment) and immediately jumping out of my headachy slugging and right into Slyvia and Hunter. By the end of that day we managed to get pretty far into the show, and celebrated at the local Faculty Pub across the way. Another awesome moment, meeting the beast for the first time while leaving rehearsal. That thing is huge! And I could finally get the scope of what I would be dealing with for the show, so that was pretty awesome! Another moment was Lady Door's (Paula's) birthday. A few days before we opened we celebrated with her at the theater. We surprised her with balloons and cake and lots of love. She was most definitely surprised and super grateful. And lastly one of my favorite moments of tech, was just walking outside on a break and seeing our producer David Mayer put up our banner for the show. It made my heart swell, and chest puff up a bit. Somethings random as they may be, tend to make the experience much more real. And that was one of them.

Pictured top to bottom left to right

~My awesome amazing partner Ryan and I having a celebratory drink at the Faculty with the cast.

 ~Me loving my station in our dressing room

~Lady Door (Paula Rhodes) and her cake

~Hunter and Croup (Ezra Buzzington) making silly faces

~Sir David Mayes proudly hanging our banner

~Lady Door after her surprise in the dressing room

(Pictured: Cassandra (Jessica/Lamia), Carlos (Islington,Gary) Jonathan (Carabas), Michael (Richard), Paula (Door), and Bryan (Vandemar)

Day Six "Nevermind, Dick....I'll come down for it..." 

Feb 15

SF North 

Today we worked the opening sequence. From the sound of it, the score for the entire show is going to be incredible, especially the opening sequence. I love that moment as an audience member (or even an actor) when the opening music of the show is perfectly in line with what I think the show is; or when its just a really cool song! 

I worked on Sylvia today. I'm going in the direction of making her a little along the lines of Emily Blunt in Devil Wears Prada-ish; atleast the type of repor that her and Richard share feels very similar to Emily's character and Anne Hathaway character. She is your typical misunderstood high strung executive assistant: skilled and extremely talented at what she does, works way too hard and never really gets the credit. Her tragic flaw: perhaps she may not be the funnest person to office chat with, also she totally uses her sexuality to her advantage.