2006-04-25 - 10:34 a.m.
I just wanted to say how proud I am of Nya. I know I say it a lot, but I really am. She�s now in another show at the theater she�s become involved in. It�s called �Floss� and it�s been a regular weekly production for over five years now (with a rotating cast, obviously). Basically, if you know the Corn Theater, it�s probably because of this show.
What�s particularly impressive about Nya being in �Floss� is that it�s mostly a dance show and Nya had never really done dance before (as she�s put it: �I�m a triple threat, except I can�t sing or dance�). So she found the early run-throughs incredibly awkward and physically exhausting. But over the course of the rehearsal period, she learned to perform the routines respectably and without twisting an ankle.
Not that she�s transformed into Martha Graham now, of course. But learning to do something you couldn�t do before and then to do it up on stage for other people? I think that takes a lot of balls. I�ve seen the show already, but not with her in it. This coming weekend, her mom is coming to town to visit (I should write more about how that whole thing is going soon) and we�ll both go see her in it on Saturday.
It�s funny; various obscure relatives (and even not-so-obscure) have different informed-third-hand ideas about how things are going for her with regard to comedy. At least they�re mostly overly positive. Nyla, she has a play being performed by the Second Theater City! She�ll have a television show very soon! Yeah, well. If only things were that simple. (I think it was Mel Brooks who said: death is easy; comedy is hard!)
But, again. I�m so unbelievably proud of her for the real progress she has in fact achieved. We�ve only been in Chicago a short time and she�s steadily moving ahead. She turned a random encounter with a theater group into an opportunity, been in two different shows (one of which she wrote material for), taken classes at America�s comedy epicenter, and learned to successfully perform dance moves that she was previously nervous about.
She even figured out a way to justify the fact that the character assigned to her is supposed to be a dance instructor and yet isn�t a very good dancer (well, I think she�s wonderful of course). And this is mostly for her own internal reasoning; her individual character only comes up in between-act improv interactions with audience members. But her character has to make sense to her and she made it work.
As she doesn�t have a show tonight, her feet won�t be so battered and abused. But I think she deserves a foot-rub anyway, because she�s just the best in the world and my absolute favorite.
� 2006 Geoff Gladstone
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