Goodbye Heidi, Hello Dillman!

By FeliceSkye Hutchinson

We wrapped The Heidi Chronicles directed by Steven Mazzola in mid-October and now here we are one day away from opening the final production of our season, the world premiere of The Brian Dillman Conspiracy. Or - Brian Dillman Must Die: Die, Brian Dillman, Die! I can’t believe it!
I had a lot of fun working on Heidi - my production duty for this show was costumes which is right up my alley. Luckily I like vintage and had a few things in my own closet because the show calls for clothes from 1965-1989. The show was also an awesome challenge on the acting side as I played five very different characters ranging from a very butch lesbian to a very pretentious news anchor. The real challenge turned out to be costume changes – during one performance I was getting ready for the wedding scene, equipped with dress, shoes and wig I was darting through the greenroom when luckily was reminded by my ensemble mate Jashima that we weren’t on that scene! Thanks goodness I had time to change! I totally had a blast on this show and working with Steven Mazzola was a pleasure.

And now – as I mentioned – we are one night away from opening night of our final show The Brian Dillman Conspiracy, a new play written by Chris Stezin and Directed by Richard Washer. We had a staged reading at the Arts Club of Washington in October and got a great response from the audience.

It’s been such a wild and interesting process working on a new play – dialogue being tweaked, added and cut one rehearsal to the next by the playwright and dramaturg so we can be sure that the story is clear and compelling. It reminds me a little of an independent film I worked on where we were getting new scenes daily. The character I played actually got written in, which was very cool – and I think it made me better prepared for this process.

This play is full of dark humor and has more than its fair share of dudes in fedoras, Zippo lighters and psychedelic toads. It’s sure to leave you in stitches. I know I’ve gotten a couple during the rehearsals. We open tomorrow and I’m ready to end the year with a comedic bang! Then it is off to the real world for this ART graduate. Finishing the full Conservatory program will be bittersweet. I’ve learned and experienced so much. I’ll be leaving the nest fully prepared and more confident than ever. I’m so excited—I can’t wait! Of course like so many of the other alumni I’ve met during my training – I’ll be back.