Non-Equity Jeff Award Nomination - Ensemble - Play

Very proud to announce that the cast and ensemble of Jane: Abortion and the Underground have been nominated for a Non-Equity Jeff award! This is the first time I've been part of a cast that was nominated for a Non-Equity Jeff and I am very honored and humbled and blown away.

To be honest, this show was a bit of a challenge for me to get into - it was outside of my comfort zone of staying within the four walls of the stage space, I played multiple characters in this show - I believe the final count was 7 - had a 5 page long monologue and had to pretend to perform part of an abortion on stage with my fellow actor and good friend, Jamie Redwood. While many of us felt challenged by putting on this show, what was amazing was that those challenges really seemed to bring us together, it was the best selling show Idle Muse Theatre Company has had to date, and it seemed to really resonate and be important to the audiences that came to see the show. I am so grateful to have the cast's work recognized and celebrated and am so grateful to our director, Morgan Manasa, and Idle Muse, for giving me a place to be challenged, a place to be frustrated, but also a place of safety for all of those things and a place where I can be trusted and supported to make resonant art and be encouraged to work through my own artistry and challenges along the way. I can only say that I feel immensely lucky that I was a part of this ensemble because the work and tenacity of my fellow cast members and colleagues is really what garnered this recognition.

In further Jeff nomination celebration, not only was Idle Muse recognized for Jane: Abortion and the Underground, but Idle Muse Theatre Company's own Artistic Director, Evan Jackson, was also nominated for New Work for our production of The Last Queen of Camelot!! Which is very meaningful because getting to play Guinevere in our Spring, 2023 production has been one of my favorite roles to date and I never would have had the experience if it weren't for Evan working to adapt the show into the script that I really love, casting me, directing me and trusting me to bring Guinevere to life.

I am so grateful and proud to be an Idle Muse Theatre Company member and am excited to see where Idle Muse goes next! This recognition from the Non-Equity Jeffs will hopefully bring us further recognition as we continue to grow in the Chicago theatre community!