Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Melissa has publicity issues.

Boston Pride Committee emailed me recently asking me to submit a press kit. I used to have a press kit, back in 2001, but it's been so long, I'm kind of forgetting how to do this promotion thing. I emailed back my myspace page, but I guess that wasn't quite what they were looking for. :)

I called up my best friend Han Yu, brilliant artist, designer & webmistress - so talented! And she's designing my press kit. I realize that most of the people who know me and my music now, know me because of the fabulous work she's done for me on www.melissali.com. It is a little outdated, but it's so beautifully designed.

Paris G is sharpening her skills as a photographer, and I'm pleased to find out that she would be willing to take my publicity shots, which might end up on my new album. Speaking of Paris, it was great doing the True Colors performance at Glam with her and Gillie. That was a pretty crazy night, and quite literally when we were backstage during the auction, we both suddenly didn't want to go on. But Evelyn (our mentor and our True Colors director when we were in the troupe) wasn't there and we all knew that if she were there, we would have gone on without question. And we did. We got up on that stage and did our best because we knew Evelyn would have been proud of us.




Melissa Feb 28

Monday, February 26, 2007

Judy Tan says "Your Mother"

hi there! this is Mother. not your mother. i will be playing the role of Mother Wu in Surviving the Nian. i must say, blogging is a strange experience. blogging is at once writing to no one in particular and everyone in the world. very weird, but exciting nonetheless, because i'm writing to potential audiences of Surviving the Nian!!!

but perhaps even stranger is the fact that i am a 26-year-old playing a 50-something-year-old mom. the closest thing i've given birth to is my undergraduate senior thesis, and if that were a child, god save us all.

it won't be the first time that i will be playing Mother. besides being caregiver of my younger (by 12 years) twin brothers growing up, i was a mom in two past staged readings of STN. and, under the miraculous direction of first eugene tan and then patrick wang, i began to embody Mother Wu. and, really, patrick can make a chicken play Mother Wu, he's that amazing. i feel totally confident and comfortable that he will be directing me on stage. part of being an actor, i've learned, is to completely trust your director, even more than your better judgment (since mine always turn out to be wrong anyway). it's in that letting go of yourself that you discover your character. it's a terrifying experience, but exhilarating, too.

currently, i am a graduate student at Univ. of Connecticut. although i'm not studying acting, i'm studying something close to it--psychology. i'm in my first year in a ph.d. track in social and health psychology. prior to grad school, i've worked at fenway community health (holla!) as a research associate. prior to that, i got my BA from mount holyoke college (holla!), where i continued my voice training since graduating from the "Fame" high school, laguardia h.s. of music and art and the performing arts (last holla, i promise). it's been crazy how i went from classical voice training to psychology to musical theater on the side. i must say, though, that when people asked the two-year-old me what i want to be when i grow up, my answer was, "a singer" and an actor, although i didn't know it at the time. here's to making dreams come true in Surviving the Nian!





Judy Feb 26

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

How do you solve a problem like Melissa?

Last night as I hosted The Jaded Lounge at Jacque’s, which was awesomely good fun BTW, I realized as I was introducing Melissa that talking about her can be hard.

Lesbian folk musician
Chinese American Singer Songwriter
Award Winning musical writer
Chick with Stick straight hair

You see how there is a problem?

I settled on “super musical theatre inflected lesbian folk stylings of Merissa Ri” but that’s really not good copy.

The audience loved her though.
But they loved me more, but only because I had prizes to give away.




Becca D’Bus Feb 20

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Melissa Li -- now Award Winning also!

I had had an inkling of what I was going to say when I was in the shower last Wednesday morning. But then 24 hours later, when I was on that stage accepting the award, I found myself shaking when I realized I was standing there alone. Abe was waiting by the stage for me to speak first.

What was I going to say? I wanted to be sincere, and I wanted to say all the things I had planned to say, but I also wanted to make it short and sweet.

I remember I thanked the foundation, then Abe, then my mother, and then my cousins. I remember trying extraordinarily hard not to cry - from being nervous and touched at the same time - or not to be distracted by the reverb of my voice in the room. I just remember thinking here's my chance to show Abe how much he's meant to me these last 4 years, and thinking here's my chance to show my mother and my family how their presence also meant the world to me. I don't know if I succeeded, but I was glad that I at least got a chance to say a few words acknowledging them in my first award speech ever.

Abe was charming on stage, as always. I knew he had practiced his punchlines in advance but they were great nonetheless. I'm glad he let me go first because it's always hard following Abe. I kind of wish the afternoon never ended. I'd never imagine that things would work out so well between me and my mother.




Melissa Feb 19

Monday, February 19, 2007

Survivng the Nian -- Now Award Winning!

So, now we should do that thing where every time we mention this show we say “award-winning musical Surviving the Nian!” Why? Because Melissa and I (Abe) trekked through the blizzard to Manhattan, where we were awarded the 2007 Jonathan Larson Musical Theater Award! I was so overcome with emotion and pride, I bet I gave Melissa a dozen new reasons to be embarrassed for me!

My Big Love Roberto was there with us, as were my super-talented cousin Alex and one of our Board members, Bill Kelly. Also, Melissa’s Mom and two cousins were there, but I’ll let her give you the dirt on that.

Roberto and I arrived in time to celebrate Valentine’s Day on 2/14. We stayed at the fabulously fun and funky Gershwin Hotel, had a massive Japanese Valentine’s dinner, then we saw Wicked. Stephen Schwartz who wrote the songs for Wicked was on the panel that chose us for the award and I’d always wanted to see the show. Hell, basically everything I’ve ever written can be boiled down to The Wizard of Oz! It was unbelievably spectacular!

The next morning we went to the posh 21 Club for the awards luncheon. Tony Corey had done an extreme wardrobe makeover on me, so I don’t think I embarrassed anyone with my outfit. Wait! What am I talking about!? I was
wearing a necklace and earrings bigger than most chandeliers! The maitre d’ appeared quite shocked. I guess he’s not used to seeing jewelry that glamorous during the daytime.

Anyways, when they announced the award, Julie Larson, Jonathan’s sister, said such lovely, great things about Surviving the Nian. She said that plowing through hundreds of musicals to choose this award, they can all blend together and seem the same, but that this year there was one that stood out as completely unique in it’s songs and story, Surviving the Nian!
My heart shot up into my throat when I realized she was talking about US!

Melissa made a beautiful and gracious acceptance speech and I talked trash as usual. People kept reminding us that this meant lots of producers in New York and around the country will be interested in Surviving the Nian! But our friends in Boston get to see it first!




Abe Feb 18

Friday, February 16, 2007

From the trenches of read throughs

What an amazing read-through we had. It felt great hearing most of the characters (but we missed Judy!) read the whole script. It took the story and project out of our (Abe and my) heads and gave the characters real voices and faces. There was a lot of momentum in that room tonight, and I can't even express how unbelievable it felt - here
was a room full of designers, actors, producers, assistants, all working on my show, this show I've been writing for 4 years.

The worse part of that night was that it was the third night I had been working non-stop. Two nights before it I had stayed up until 6:30am writing, then had to wake up at 11:00am for a conference call, and the night before that I had stayed up until 7:30am writing, and napping until 11:00am again. Then, at the read-through I had to sing the whole show beginning to end. Sometimes when I do crazy things like that, I truly feel my lack of skills as a singer - I was losing my voice by the end.

Abe rubbed his head against director Patrick's furry coat. I am often embarrassed for Abe, and I say that lovingly.



Melissa Li, Feb 14

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

First Read Through!

Melissa and Abe met with most of the cast for a first read through of the rehearsal script for Surviving the Nian. Some of the people in the room will be posting their thoughts on it this week. Stay Tuned!



Becca D’Bus Feb 12

Monday, February 12, 2007

Poking around with Kristen Porter

Abe and I visited Kristen Porter at Pathways to Wellness last Thursday and it was an amazing learning experience. She helped us make our script more authentic, and she explained the technique of quick in-and-out needle techniques to relieve headaches, which I think Abe is writing into the latest version of the script. She also told us a little bit about liver qi stagnation, which is a diagnosis of people who are restless, and move from place to place, never settling.

My vision is getting a bit blurry as I'm writing this. It's now 7am. I have spent the last 24 plus hours working on the rehearsal script, the version that is being read at the read-through today. I am nervous and prepared to cringe at any unfinished or unpolished sections. Must hit the sheets. Write more when I am fully functioning.



Melissa Feb 9th

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Kicking things off

Hi, this is Melissa, the playwrite of Survivng the Nian.
These are super busy times, and my head is buzzing. Here goes!

My first entry in a blog ever. I had an extraordinarily intense conversation with my mother yesterday. She thinks that I'm making a huge mistake in my life by not currently having a full-time job and not having any solid plans after the musical is over. I'm slightly afraid of full-time jobs because last year, when I had one, it felt like a huge waste of time. The entire year.

This conversation stemmed from unpaid parking tickets that she had the pleasure of receiving notice through the mail (since it's her car). Does anyone want to pay my parking tickets for me?

I'm meeting her tonight to talk out plans for next year. She wants me to move home, but I know she will murder my cats. I am also currently thinking about applying for food stamps.



Melissa Feb 6