Every performance reminded me of the maze that Harry Potter had to deal with, or like Alice going down the rabbit hole--you enter and hopefully you end up unscathed and after each performance I felt like "YES!!" we had triumphed once again.

For those of you who have performed it, seen it or maybe done excerpts for your acting class...my character Vanda has so much shading and nuances and I tried to bring all of them out. Sometimes the audiences would be screaming and hysterical...sometimes they were quieter and listening...all in all the ones that saw it on Valentines Day will have a Valentine they will never ever forget.

Eric Bohus and I

This play, about an audition that goes way way w-a-y beyond any audition you could possibly imagine has just two characters in it. Our director, John Sbordone, brought me in to do this with Eric Bohus, this wonderful actor who gave me so much support... so much understanding... input... and innovative thinking that it was easy to let go and just try things because I never felt judged. He reminded me so much of my late friend, Larry Kert in his voice and mannerisms and it turns out one of the things Eric had previously done was the same role that Larry originated in West Side Story portraying Tony in the European Tour of the show. Ooh! And as I said from a bustier garters and panties that showed off half your "arse" to getting a review that appeared in several news divisions: �Getting to the climax of the play is no simple matter, requiring superb, nuanced acting. Annie Gaybis, probably this region's supreme dramatic actress, is Wanda/Vanda. However sublime her Eliza Doolittle cockney-street-urchin-to-high society princess may have been (Um, I did 'Pygmalion' for them a few seasons back), her 'Venus In Fur' clearly eclipses it. She attacks this dream role with gusto.�

 
I felt like I had gotten a report card with straight A's with that review...and hearing through notes and flowers from the audiences that by George "got it" and some even came back to see it a second time.
 

With our director coming into each of our dressing rooms each and every performance to rev us up and allowing us to explore who we were to each other and to find the sexual tension that develops between the two characters. He made it a very safe and comforting environment...I'll tell you one thing I am someone who is not a person who curses...and Vanda/Wanda is someone who almost can�t finish a sentence without a curse word thrown in for good measure...after this play... I won�t ever have to curse again...she did it all for me or better yet, David Ives implemented this into one of the best characters in modern playwright history. It was a challenge and I am still smiling as I am writing this to you..."We did it!"