Guthrie Theater

When I was 17 I went to a summer Pre-College Program at Carnegie Mellon. My family had been through a lot the year before so when I received a package from my dad I was more than touched. He gave me a beautiful 9x12, green, hardcover book filled with blank pages. On the first page he wrote:

May this journal hold a record of your many moments and thoughts and dreams, both inconsequential and momentous, during this first of your many adventures to come.

Over the next decade I filled the book with my acting work; notes, thoughts, lists, quotes and, mostly, photos. Images have a profound effect on my sense memory, so it has become one of my most effective practices to create a little scrapbook of my character. I thought I'd share my Third scrapbook. Some of the images are from my life and some are from other peoples' lives.

Here's Grandpa Jack (actually my Papa Lyman who passed away earlier this winter), my organic cheese-making sister Zooey and my hippied-out momma bathing in a lake.

On the left is all my character, Emily Imbrie: trapped, reaching, hiding, overwhelmed... I've also become quite attached to Tori Amos' Boys for Pele album for Emily, so there's some Tori in there.

On the right is my scene with Third. Walking to the bar late at night through a familiar neighborhood. I've also added some lyrics from Hey Jupiter:

Hey Jupiter nothing seems the same
So are you blue, are you gay
Thought we both could use a friend to run to
And I thought you wouldn't have to be
With me, hiding

A picture of an actual ex-boyfriend that reminds me both of Third and Tony.

The New England college town where I've decided the show takes place.

On the top left, a portrait of my parents and the sort of useless protests my sister and her partner attend. On the bottom, my sister's beloved partner who I can't stand and my daddy (actually one of my acting teachers from Circle in the Square). And in the middle, a painting of me - trapped in someone else's image.

And, finally, on the right is all about my life away from home with my boyfriend Richard. Calm, older, orderly, normal... a true fantasy for Emily.