Non-Equity Jeff Award Nominations for the 2025 Theatre Season!

2025 was a particularly good year for my artistic home, Idle Muse Theatre Company, with seven Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations in total! I am most excited to share that I am a part of three of those nominations! Production - Play - The School for Scandal, Ensemble - Play - The School for Scandal, and Performer in a Supporting Role - Play - The School for Scandal!!!

When our director and artistic director, Evan Jackson, chose this show, I think a lot of us had some reservations. The School for Scandal didn't read very funny on the page. I tried listening to a recording of it on the internet and found it agonizingly dull. Even in a private staged reading the company had done of the show, it didn't inspire a lot of laughter or style. It seemed a bit old, dated, and not all that "timely." I can, albeit shamefully, admit, I didn't really understand Lady Teazle, especially not her comedy. What was missing from my understanding was the stellar cast and production team that Evan Jackson was able to put together, along with his direction and the celebrity, fame seeking, rock and roll stylistic themes of the show!

We had an excellent team help to bring this piece to life, especially Vicki Jablonski, nominated for her fabulous costume design and assistant costume designer, Katie Fletcher, who built absolutely gorgeous, period-accurate costumes with a rock and roll flair, Jacque Bischoff, who, similarly, designed beautiful, period-inspired makeup with a modern, rocker twist (like with gem mouches!), L.J. Luthringer, who built a sound design that is now a coveted playlist to anyone that heard it, Mario Mazzetti, who coached our RP British dialects and always reminded me of the connective "R" between "Sir" and "Oliver," and Erin Alys, who designed intimate moments between Lady Teazle and her husband, Sir Peter, and her would-be lover, Joseph Surface, that so helped me to understand and effectively play as Lady Teazle! Also, Emma Rund did excellent dramaturgy, Jennifer Mohr helped to inform the style of the piece, Jeremiah Barr built a simple, but beautiful and effective set, Laura Wiley lit us fabulously, Tristan Brandon provided us with delightful props, and, of course, Evan Jackson's and Libby Beyreis' direction understood and refined the characters and their dastardly deeds in ways that weren't so easily picked up by the casual reader!

I am immensely proud to be nominated for Performer in a Supporting Role because I put a lot of work into the portrayal of Lady Teazle. I delightfully found myself doing things as Lady Teazle that would just come naturally to me while playing the character, but seem foreign to me as just Caty Gordon, like a little, accusatory twist of the finger, or a stylistic pose of splayed arms while exiting after an embarrassing confession, or a flirtatious understanding of body language and jargon that normally seem extremely foreign to the dork that I am in real life! I also got to wear all of my own jewelry and shoes for Lady Teazle, which I loved. It so helped me to truly feel like the character, as I had stories for each piece of jewelry and wore them with purpose, along with Dolly, my wig, so expertly designed by Vicki Jablonski, who, of course, was nominated for two Jeffs for this production, but the name, Dolly, came from everyone backstage telling me I looked like Dolly Parton when wearing the wig in my normal, after-the-show clothes!

Where did the Jeffs find that incredibly old headshot of mine? (Thank you to Laura Suprenant for her fabulous photography skills - my hair just isn't that color anymore! lol)

I am truly so grateful, honored, and ecstatic to have been a part of The School for Scandal and to have been challenged by it in ways that scared me at first, but then became second nature by the end! (Like pretending to pose for pictures in the opening of the show!) This show received so many nominations that I am so proud to be a part of because of the talented artistry of the entire team and the camaraderie, humility, and intense proficiency of the cast on stage. I would have been unable to play Lady Teazle to any degree worthy of a nomination without being surrounded by these talents, but especially due to Evan Jackson, Jacque Bischoff, and my trustworthy, ready-to-play, incredible scene partners, Erik Schnitger and Eric Duhon.

While I would say "cheers" in today's modern English, I'll instead say, in Richard Sheridan's Georgian English, "Bumpers, you rogues!"