Another Opening, Another Show, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darlings, let me tell you, when you are in the business, you have to go where the work is!!! And tonight I am participating in a Play Reading group, with an opening that promises to be iconic. For the initial project is none other than the now classic "The Bad Seed," and, yes, girls, I am reading the part of Rhoda!!!!! There are some who have said for years I was born to play this part. Hell, I knew it from the instant the m ovie TV debuted on "The Late Show," back in 1963, when I was 8!!!!! So, Heaven help us, here we go!!!!!!

Girls, I have been doing exhaustive research, physical and emotional research for this role. I have studied Hallee Hirch's portrayal of Jenny Brandt in the "Law And Order" classic episode classic, "Killerz;" I have skimmed the William March novel, and the classic Maxwell Anderson script. I have retreated within myself to see what it is like to exist within an emotional vaccum. Have I killed anyone????
No, but I have certainly thought about it. I plan to play Rhoda in all her sociopathological glory. NOT as a repressed lesbian, as some have suggested. THAT distinction belongs to Miss Fern, and I am not playing Miss Fern!!! Miss CLAUDIA Fern, I mean, not her sister Octavia or butch sister Burris, who are referenced in the novel, but not the play or film!!!!!!!

There is no doubt, in my mind, that Rhoda will kill and kill again. Just because Mary Bell and the James Bulger killers have not does not mean they are any more or less maladjusted than at the time of their crimes, as Jon Venables' (one of Bulger's killers) recent history and reincarceration prove. Which is why I never bought the defense used in Jenny Brandt's case; just watch the last moment in that episode, and you have the answer right there!!!!!

The trick to ME playing Rhoda is not to let things get too out of hand, from a camp perspective. I intend to play her as written, not as a Charles Busch manifestation. So I am going to try and avoid Patty McCormack's calculated exaggerations, though I hve no doubt, as in the case of "Presents!" or "Good morning, Miss Fern!", some will creep in. I want to give a chilling portrayal of an emotionally disturbed individual, and I am bringing all the skills of my acting technique, subject knowledge, and personal memories from the past to bear on this task.

So, wish me to break a leg, darlings!!!!! And IF things should go beyond this reading, I will be sure to inform all my girls, because I will want you there! Bring on a TONY award!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, I have to iron out my pigtails, girls!!!!! See you at the Fern Day School Picnic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!