May 2012

As always I have taken a hiatus’s from writing.  My career tends to take me in and out of new cities and routines quit often.  I was living in DC for three months doing, The Two Gentleman of Verona, at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington D.C. I am proud to say that this marked as my second show at the TONY award winning Theater Company. While I was in D.C. I was quit prolific, because writing tends to help me figure out my charactesr questions. Below is a poem I wrote about my character Sylvia’s thoughts on her first kiss to her forbidden lover Valentine.

Dec 16^th, 2011

 THE KISS

Kiss by the TIC TAC TOE and DOT to the DOT.

BLOT to the BLOT but take away personality from the by the book KISS.

Why aren’t happy endings ever familial, paternal, matrimonial love tied and wrapped up by BLISS.

Rather love can be archaic, sterile idea of duty and servitude void of romance.

I long for a place where the lambada is played freely and love is found in circumstance.

A place where TIC TAC TOE DOT to the DOT is not BLOT BLOT BLOT but caught in a picture of absolute, disarrayed, misconduct BLISS…KISS

I also wrote this poem about the character Sylvia in TWO GENTS:

Dec 18^th,

Sylvia Sylvia silent like an on looking tree.

Observe; Reserve, never to be disserved.

Why can’t I jump in and dive into life.

Instead of glide lady-like above the oceans Strife.

Sylvia Sylvia, Sylvia silent like an on looking tree.

Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia oh how I wish that I could BE. Just BE.

Manners, courtesy’s, language full of etiquette’

Twisting my tongue straight out of sense no tether to the truth

Or the fire which roars in my furnace, below my ,”should- do’s,” my engine

Getting dusty from misuse, my lips full of cobwebs with distrust.

Sylvia Sylvia, Sylvia silent like an on looking tree.

Oh how I wish that I could Be just BE.

Now that I am back I have been quit busy auditioning and have been on hold for many projects but I haven’t booked a paying job yet. I can taste it’s coming soon. As always I must get back to my three main side projects, but I haven’t yet decided which is most important to focus on. When you are you’re own boss and you are auditioning as frequently as I am you need more of a tunnel vision and less ideas. I am working on my cookbook, my cooking show and my one-person show. My one person show was actually selected to be a part of the LOS ANGELES WOMANS FESTIVAL in March 2012 but I pulled the plug last minute because I was asked to do an off-off Broadway show and was on hold for a few projects in New York City. It was a gamble but I stayed.

Life is always about choices and sacrifices but you have to make the ones that will support you for the long haul and not the short run.  This is why I have decided to marry JUAN CARLOS VINUEZA in 2013. Since my career doesn’t always fulfill me I am glad to have chosen a partner who always fulfills me emotionally and spiritually and who will be there through the thick and the thin. We have decided to marry  in Napa Valley, CA in September 2013. I couldn’t be happier to be back in New York and I am ready for whatever the future has to offer me. I hope its good! No Ill retract that. I know its going to be good!

this is a photo of my love and I at dinner at PER SE! GREAT PLACE. It was so nice down to the last detail. I barely touched my goose bumped arm when the staff came over with a case full of cashmere shawls to warm my shoulders. These kind of dining experience makes me feel alive and loved! My sister is visiting New York this week and she casually exclaimed that,” You haven’t written a blog in a while and I need something to distract me while studying in the library at law school!” This not only made me laugh but if made me realize that all artists are responsible for distracting people from their daily routine, when ironically all I dream for in the midst of chaos is a reliable routine! Funny how life works. This thanksgiving was bitter sweet because I not only was missing my mother, father, sister and brand new niece LUCIA in California but I am packing to leave my love and my brand new apartment in NEW YORK to do a show at the SHAKESPEARE THEATER CO of WASHINGTON DC. 

I feel so blessed to be able to once again have the opportunity to be on stage but these feelings are once again mixed with leaving those that I love..

“I am a spontaneous drug, a way for people to escape in life..Im sober and all alone, while the rest of the world is high off my expense!”- natalie mitchell 2008

I will now be able to focus on my cooking show, book and my yoga teachings…Thank god to being employed! THANK YOU THANKSGIVING!

So my show, “I am Worth 3o Camels,” has now wrapped. I am now feeling the let down of having a show end but is is being multiplied by the fact that I don’t have a job and haven’t worked or been given a job in long while now.

Since returning to New York I was lucky to have booked 3 commercials in 3 weeks. HA. I guess this is where I should be since more is happening for me here than happened for me in the 6 months of living in Los Angeles. I am excited to see where my one person show can go from here. I am re working and expanding on it so as to perform it again in either Los Angeles or somewhere else here in New York perhaps with the EPBB’s co. I feel alive here but as Niki Manaj states, “I believe that life is a prize but being alive isn’t to live.” As an artist I am constantly searching for more and looking for the things that I need to say to the world. A big subject of my show was the “paradox of choice,” leaves us un satisfied and never content. I’m not saying that we should all have arranged marriages and no options but there’s something to be said about having a ceiling even it is a glass one. We all needs cages in order to feel as free as a bird. 

On another note I truly believe we all have a path if we just let it happen naturally .I am constantly reminded of the track that I fell off of. I auditioned for the T-mobile girl and got called back but ultimately I didn’t get the role and now all I see is her face everywhere..Talk about frustrating, but then the other day I saw her poster on the subway and her face had been tampered with and i thanked god  i was anonymous and not her: FATE its a powerful thing..it can mean having kevin bacons face thrust upon yours or not: CASE IN POINT

“A young American girl on vacation is suddenly thrust into a real life drama when she is propositioned for marriage in Morocco for the price of 30 camels, and she’s forced to answer the universal question about the price of personal freedom and choice as it relates to marriage and love in any culture, including her own.  Come join in her journey of discovery as she also portrays different women in other cultures around the world, asking themselves the same question…”

WHAT: I Am Worth 30 Camels is performed and written by me (Natalie Mitchell)

WHEN: July 1st, 9pm; July 2nd 6pm; July 3rd 6pm; July 5th 6pm.

WHEN: 726 Broadway 5th Floor in the Walker Theater!

Lets say today was truly then end of the world, then I would be happy to say that I am home. According to some who believe in, “the rapture,” then the world should be over and I barely made it home to say good bye. It has been a long journey back to New York after a yoga retreat in Mexico, a drive to San Francisco, delayed flight in Kansas and now I’m Home?  I believe the question of, “what is home,” ?has fascinated people and philosophers alike for centuries and it continues to plague me…

I still can’t think of a better response, while in my transient life than to say the hallmark saying, “Home is where the heart is.”  I am in my mid twenties and I still feel as though I don’t have my “best friends,” yet but I also feel that is because my expectations are too high and what I am looking for does not exist.  I am so blessed to have my sisters, who are my friends, as well as Juan Carlos my boyfriend who is with me every step of the way and I feel like I’ve known him since the beginning of time. 

In conclusion I am HOME here in New York city ready for my next big adventure/Job, or the end of the world, whatever might come first! The world is my oyster, because as the Japanese say the world for disaster is also the word for opportunity and I have nowhere to go but UP… being unemployed and all.

I haven’t blogged in the last couple of months because it was Pilot season on top of the fact that I was involved in a Yoga Teacher training which I have just recently finished! Yeah! I realize that Acting and Yoga are the Yin and Yang of my life, for I wouldn’t need Yoga without Acting and I couldn’t Act without Yoga to center me. I therefor have spent less time socializing due to my packed schedule and my inner reflection.

My stay in LA has come to a close. Over the past three months I have learned to Love: The beach, Lake Shrine and hiking, but I do not feel as though I have any deep personal relationship here and I realize that as good as it is to self reflect and be alone the only reason we do that is to realize that we truly need others and that we cannot change our society unless me learn how to be one with it..flaws and all. 

This is a photo I took outside of Joshua National Park last weekend.  This is my sense of humor in a nut shell. 

Today I realized that it can be quit rewarding to TEACH.

I have been riding the waves of depression, confusion and pure happiness lately living here in a new city and constantly questioning,” is this the correct career  for me? Should I be an actor?”

I realized today that no matter what career you have if you are awake and living that you are always asking yourself that question.  In fact the people who don’t ask themselves that are simply stuck in a rut. Even if you find a career there are choices made every day to move your path in a different direction within that given career.

I know that I am a good actor, regardless of what jobs I get, but I am even more certain that I am a great teacher and coach because I know more than most what it is like to really want something and yet have many obstacles come in my way.

Success is measured by how you percieve it and how you present yourself. Therefor next time an extended family member asks me how likely is it that you will get this contract or another job like your last one all I have to do is say, ” I don’t know but that will not determine my sucess or my hapiness, because I am succeeding in my efforts.”

This following photo was taken in New York a couple of months ago when I was once again asking myself that question, “Am I stupid for wanting to be an actor,” and the cloud said it all, ” Look up and You will find all that you need and then some.”

“There is no such thing as boredom only boring people,” (Mr. Kauk circa 1995)  This is a little finger puppet I created while living all alone in Washington DC. I later watched the movie Naked Lunch which is based off of William S. Burroughs novel and realized that perhaps “weird images,” is the sign of genius. I don’t think that I am a genius nor do I think I could come up with the twisted things that Mr. Burroughs created but I do think that everyone has their own asthetic and people need to stick to it and not change just because someone else says that they are not what they are looking for.

I had an experience like that with my agents yesterday. They were telling me that I didn’t have enough boobs and that my hair was too dark..blah blah and they know what they are talking about for what they are trying to SELL but I also am a human and an INDIVIDUAL and no one person is exactly like me and that is exactly how I want it to be. 

KEEP STRONG AND CONTINUE TO DO FINGER ART!

 I haven’t blogged in quit a while because I was in Washington DC doing ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL at the Shakespeare theater company and my traditional, “August Burglary,” occurred. Last summer it was a slashed bag in Antigua, Guatemala and this summer out of my Shakespeare theater company housing right on capitol hill. In the time it took me to visit New York..eat some amazing cookies from MOMOFUKU’s and get on a bus back to DC I had my lap top..my flip mino..my camera..my recording device..all my jewelry…nice shoes..some nice dresses and my kitchen knives stolen. Needless to say I haven’t had a computer to blog on. I had a wash of calm come over me when all this occurred because I realized that I was not tied down by my “things,” and was happy to be unharmed and alive with meaningful relationships and friendships in my life. The older I get the more I truly understand that money cannot buy happiness. I also learned that not being “connected,” can give you a much needed break from the plugged in lifestyle we live. I also realized that the jewelry I had always worn defined me and I wanted to be NATALIE MITCHELL without needing all of the accoutrements. 

I Now live in Los Angeles. Once again I made a move and I feel a bit unsettled but I am trying to be comfortable with not having confort because that is the way of the nomadic artist.  I also put on my “positive,” hat and road my bike around my new home town and ran into very familiar things that made me feel at home….Its all around you as long as you know where to look…

HOME MEANS I LOVE LUCY