This is my second rodeo with Milwaukie’s Chapel Theatre, a charming venue in an old church. The festival concept is SO cool, and all about community building. Local playwrights submit short 10-minute plays, directors apply to direct, and actors submit on-line auditions. So none of us have any idea what play we’ll be in or who we’ll be working with ahead of time. This season they accepted 10 out of 52 submitted plays.
The Card is a dark comedy about three people who work in the same office. Two blank cards are being passed around – one is a congratulatory card for a co-worker who will be leaving the office for a promotion and the other is a sympathy card for another co-worker whose mother passed away. Someone thought she was signing the congratulations card when it was actually the sympathy card, and chaos ensues.
My character, Harper, is “always happy, extremely happy, all.the.time” and therefore quite disliked. Fearless leader (and prop expert) Drew Dannhorn directs. My fellow castmates are Rhona Klein and Pam Quinlan. Rhona also wrote a play featured in the festival, and Pam is a Portland-based stand-up comedian.
The Chapel Theatre website has a full list of all the plays both evenings. If you come see The Card, hang around and say hello after the show – I’d love to see you!
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
I had to have a conversation with my voice teacher recently about a yucky, sticky topic: throat gunk. A plethora of mucus on my vocal folds during rehearsals for the holiday show seriously compromised my ability to sing. A mastermind partner in my Wishweaving Circle had the same issue as she was in the studio recording her audio book.
If throat gunk has impacted your vocal quality, check out the 10 minute video above for advice on how to deal with it.
Two main takeaways:
*If you’re hoarse, don’t sing and limit your speaking.
*As long as you’re not dealing with a sinus or bronchial infection, guaifenesin (I used the Walgreens generic version of Mucinex tablets) will be your new best friend. I also use a saline sinus rinse from time to time.
Whatever holidays you celebrate this time of year, I hope you’ve been healthy and enjoying the season so far. After the Thanksgiving week COVID misadventure, my husband and I, and Linn the cat, had a quiet and lovely Christmas celebration.
Here’s my Christmas dinner Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe because it was awesome. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!
Chicken Cordon Bleu a la Voice Teacher Laura
-Two large chicken breasts, halved/fileted horizontally
-Melted butter with garlic powder, salt and pepper
-1/2 pound thinly sliced ham
-1/3 pound thinly sliced provolone cheese
-An egg or two with a bit of olive oil, whipped with a fork
-Flour, about 1/2 cup
-Bread crumbs (I like Progresso’s, Italian seasoning) mixed with grated parmesan cheese, approximately 1 ½ cup bread crumbs with three over-flowing tablespoons cheese
Pound the chicken pieces with a meat hammer, covering with plastic wrap before pounding to reduce splatter.
Brush seasoned melted butter onto the chicken piece.
Add folded pieces of ham and cheese.
Roll up each chicken piece with the seasoned butter, ham and cheese, and secure with toothpicks.
Roll each piece in the egg mixture, then the flour, then the bread crumb mixture. Put in a baking dish and bake, uncovered, at 375 for about 40 minutes.
I like this with bearnaise sauce (from a packet), Uncle Ben’s https://www.bensoriginal.com/ wild rice, and steamed Brussel sprouts. A lively and tasty combination.
Happy New Year! May your inner and outer voices be completely aligned and ring out with confidence and joy throughout the year 2023 and beyond.
God’s blessings to you and yours.
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
The That Holiday Feeling show I was in with the NW Senior Theatre was an absolute blast, until over half the cast got sick, and many of us tested positive for Covid, including yours truly. So, I spent Thanksgiving week sick in quarantine in my bedroom. One saving grace was reading Brenda Novak novels I’d gotten from the library. She’s one of my new favorite novelists, and I think I’ve read almost every book in the Silver Springs series. https://brendanovak.com/
Theatre people have a “the show must go on” attitude that I understand and respect. But, please, not when cast members are symptomatic and come on in and infect fellow cast members anyway. This bugged me when I worked in the corporate environment as well, years before Covid, and one sick person would come to work and infect the entire office. Surely we can be smarter than that now.
Rant over.
The illness threw me off my routine, and I haven’t been meditating like I usually do. Even just 12 minutes a day makes a huge difference in my sense of feeling grounded, centered, and connected to higher wisdom. Hence, the title of this post.
Yet, I can say with the energy I do have right now – there’s a huge project coming up I can’t say much about right now. Maybe come January it won’t need to be so much of a secret.
Other news is I will soon be releasing a single of a song I wrote called Cat Nap Blues. My muse was our cat, Linn, and the band Ten O’Clock Hill made all of this possible. They introduced me to the legendary Dean Baskerville, who mastered the recording right here in Oregon. We don’t have details yet for the release date. Preliminary plans are to have a mini benefit concert in Newberg, Oregon, to support Hazel’s House https://hazelshousepdx.com/, the shelter where George and I adopted Linn.
Keep posted – more details will be coming soon!
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Hello Portland Area Students, Friends & Colleagues,
Here’s a warm invitation to the Northwest Senior Theatre holiday show: That Holiday Feeling, which yours truly is in. I even have a solo! Or, more accurately, a duet. Another singer and I combined our solos for what may just be the most interesting (and most likely only ever) mash-up of Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer and Cool Yule you’ve ever heard!
The 14 of us (John and Chick are missing from the above photo) and our gifted musical director, pianist extraordinaire, Tracey Edson, have been hard at work – and play – in rehearsals with the intention to make you laugh, shed a tear or two, and perhaps get goosebumps from time to time. 😊
Come on out and join us! Rise Church, 10445 SW Canterbury Lane, Tigard, OR.
Here’s a quick hello to wish you a fabulous autumn, my favorite time of year. Fall reminds me of school starting, homecoming, bonfires and football games (because I played clarinet in pep band in high school, not because I follow the sport!) When the tree leaves start changing colors, it always feels more like the beginning of a new year to me than when January rolls around in the middle of winter.
Exciting news…I was interviewed by the delightful Paula Vail for her Elevating Your Life show.
The show will be broadcast on KMET 1490 am radio on Sunday October 23rd, 2022, at 8:00 am Pacific time, with a reach of 3.5 million listeners. You can also watch the 27-minute interview on Paula’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/jVLKIwvr1mA.
I’m rehearsing every Monday and Wednesday for the NST holiday show, and it’s been a blast! Some of these songs are tricky with complex harmonies, so they’re keeping me on my toes (figuratively) for sure! The three performance dates will be at 2:00 pm, Rise Canterbury Church in Tigard, Oregon, November 16th, 18th, and 19th – that’s Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I already lassoed my husband into box office duty on Saturday, when he can attend the show along with my two best friends. I really think it’s going to be an awesome, fun show. Come join us if you can. https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5580801
And…one last thing! I’m giving my eBook, How Abella Found Her Voice, away for free in exchange for a review on my website. (I can’t put it up on Amazon – the video files are too large.) Between now (whenever you read this) and Friday, October 28th before midnight, simply send an email to [email protected] with FREE ABELLA in the subject line, and I’ll send you the link to the eBook and where to write your review. The PDF version is 36 pages, won’t take long to read, and you can write a review after reading just a few pages here and there.
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose.
Your local Transformational Voice Teacher is finding herself in a bit of a time conundrum these days. I’m rehearsing for a holiday show, co-writing a screenplay, and will be recording a professional music video later this month.
I will no longer be sending my newsletters every other Friday morning, but I have a feeling you’ll love what you’re reading even more!
For now, I invite you to listen to my podcast interview with the truly engaging Michael Vickers https://www.michaelvickers.com/ about how to free your authentic voice and find your power.
Love Your Voice and Voice Your Love,
Laura
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
