Paula is LOVING every second of playing in London Below. Read the tumbler here or:
“Starting right now, you can be whatever you want to be: a man or a monster, a hero or a god.”
I’m a big fan of following your dreams, and as it turns out, my dreams have most often come true when I’ve followed my fandom.
After the success I’ve been lucky enough to see with ElfQuest (my producing partner, Stephanie Thorpe and I created a fan trailer for this 35 yr old global comic we’ve loved since we were wee that garnered tons of press, the first red carpet at the SAG building, a number of packed comic con panels, and now even the film/TV rights), I wouldn’t have been surprised if that was my one golden ticket.
So when I saw Michael (our Richard’s) posting online about auditions for a production of Neverwhere, 99% of me thought I didn’t stand a chance. I’d loved this story for years, but I wasn’t a company member, plays take so much time when I was overextend a bit as it is, and how lucky would I have to be to play another of my top 5 fandom roles. Nightfall and Door? No, too much to hope for.
And yet… to be crazy enough to pursue acting as a career for any extended amount of time, one must love the journey as much as the goal, and even the auditions offer a chance to play in other worlds. I couldn’t pass it by.
Imagine being the guy next to me in an aisle in Target when Scott, our director, called to offer me the chance to play Lady Door. That alone might make a funny short film.
So now I find myself with the amazing opportunity to play nightly in London Below. To slink into the skin of a girl I’ve loved for years. Door’s world is one full of danger that she had, up until recently, felt she had an edge over. Her cunning, charm, position and powers held the dark at bay, coloring it instead with wonder and adventure, but now that her family has been taken from her and the only truly safe place she’s ever known has been rendered “un,” she’s struggling to make sense of it all, to define herself, and to survive. Friendship, possibly love, and even hope might be found within the struggle. Or not. Part of that is left up to you.
Now surround her with a menagerie of some of the most amazing characters brought to life by actors who nightly make my jaw drop, pepper in a heap of adventure, danger and thrills, oodles of heart, and a rather healthy dose of humor and it is just DELICIOUS!
Thank you, beyond words, for this opportunity, Sacred Fools, Scott Leggett, all of our producers, Neil Gaiman and Robert Kauzlaric.
And yes, Universe, I’ve learned my lesson. I will let my fandom be my compass (I’m winking at you, JJ Abrams!) ; )
How about you… man, monster, hero or god, what shall you choose to be?