Volume
1 Book 9 Episode 5
of Living In The Bonus Round
the online diary of Steve Schalchlin
Life's a Beach (and
then you open).
Michele Mais
An Online Diary of the
1998 Laguna Playhouse Production
of THE LAST SESSION
featuring Jim Brochu, Amy Coleman, P.M. Howard, Michele Mais, Bob Stillman, Joey Traywick, Positoids, NuBiHes and lavish amounts of love.
Part Five: Michele Mais and her Psychic Friends...
Laguna Beach.
Early September 1998.
- POSITOID NEWS
- Jim just told me that the preview performances at the Laguna Playhouse are sold out. BIG TIME sold out. Apparently, word of mouth from the board of trustees is hot and now everyone wants to sample the goods, I guess, and see what all the talk is about... The Laguna Playhouse has about a 90% sold out subscription base, so non-subscription tickets will be at a premium if/when people find out about the show and start coming to see it.
- THE ORIGINAL POSITOID Shawn Decker is coming to Los Angeles on Wednesday and he's staying with me and we are going to assault the POZ Expo this next weekend because...
- Saturday morning (Sept. 12, 10am) I'm singing a concert at the Hollywood Paladium for the Expo.
INTERVIEW WITH MAISEY
Steve here: I stayed away from the rehearsals on Friday and Saturday, preferring to be up in North Hollywood with the cats. Besides, as usual, Jimmy has forbidden me to talk to the cast. But as your intrepid reporter...
I was not to be deterred!
Last Thursday, at the designer runthrough, I was able to sit and chat for a moment with Maisey, veteran of three Broadway shows and many other professional productions.
ON THE CAST:
"I love the cast. Bob Stillman
is an amazingly gifted musician.
And we all have our own private in-jokes already. I can crack a joke and wink at Amy. She and I are shopping buddies, too. You know how some people hate to shop and they just kinda lag behind? Well, she just says, 'Hey, look at this over here!' and off we go to do more shopping. Also, this is a VERY sexy cast!"
ON HER CHARACTER:
"And even though Vicki and Tryshia
are enemies, I think underneath they really love each other."
ON THE "TLS EXPERIENCE":
"This is one of the best experiences
of my life. It's always been a dream of mine to be in a band. I love the
idea of the recording session. and just recently started doing that. I
did a little backgrounds for Helen Reddy's new 'comeback' album, and then
this gig came up.
I was telling my mom, "Mommy, I really want you to see this show..."
A STRANGE HAPPENING:
"I have a friend named Jimmy who
was very sick with AIDS. He called me just before the end and I realized,
just after we hung up, that he was saying Goodbye. I immediately called
my mom and told her, 'Call Jimmy now. I think something's wrong.'
"But she was on lunch break and by the time she could get away, Jimmy was already gone.
"A short time later, I was at a psychic fair -- and this is a really weird story. i had my hair up like -- what did you call it? A possessed maypole? But I was walking along when suddenly this woman came up to me and said, 'You're pretty.' Then she very suddenly said, 'Who's Jimmy?"
"I got all these weird chills up and down my spine and I got tears in my eyes. She said, 'No, no, no, he's laughing. He's laughing and saying, 'No more pain!'"
I looked down to wipe my eyes and when I looked up again, she was gone. It was like she disappeared! The whole rest of the weekend, I never saw that woman again. I think she was an angel."
When I told this story at his memorial service and got to that point in the story, the whole audience did a quick gasp at the same time. Then I said, "No more pain. He's laughing."
ON HER AUDITION:
"I wasn't going to audition and
was even trying to make it difficult. First of all, I thought they would
probably bring out the NY cast and that they were only doing this audition
because of equity rules."
"I had that Helen Reddy recording happening that day, so I intentionally just "dropped in" at the audition thinking, 'If no one is here, I'll sign up but I'm not going to hang around all day. So I got to the lobby for sign-up and it was completely empty. I was the only one!"
"Then I walked in and saw Scott
Harlan playing the audition. We had a big ol hug. He and I had done ROCKY
HORROR where I had my big accident."
- STEVE HERE: When Maisey came in -- and I think she
was the first to arrive -- it was like the sun rose on her side of the
room. In my memory, I don't see her face so much as I see bright yellow
light coming from her direction. After she auditioned, I felt like we could
just call the rest of the audition off. She was relaxed, professional,
cool, and disciplined. And her voice is gorgeous -- a combination of smooth
and brassy R&B. Just amazing.
"And I thought, 'Hmmm they should know something by now. It's getting close to rehearsal time. So I phoned down to the Playhouse anonymously and asked if it had been cast.
"The woman who answered called upstairs and then said, 'Yes it has.' And I thought, 'Damn, I thought they liked me!'
I said, 'FINE FINE' and tore up the note and threw it away -- and the next day Andrew [Barnicle] called and made the offer.
I said, "I thought it was cast!"
He said, "It is! I cast you!"
Episode 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
The official stills by Still Productions
| Pics by Steve | Cast
pics by Steve | Fun pics
LA
Times Review | TLS fan
club page with pictures | L.A. critics
quotes page
"From
Hate To Humanity" | TLS
Fan Chat Room | BennyTour
fan pics
All photos and text are © 1998 by Steve Schalchlin.