Hello There Everyone

My beautiful friends,

Is it too late to wish you a happy new year? Yes, 'tis just a tad shameful that you haven't heard from me since December, but I assure you that you have not been forgotten. The first four months of this year were insanely busy for me, but the storm has broken and so here I am. I sincerely hope that 2007 has been kind to you thus far and if it hasn't, that the tide will turn soon and bring nothing but happiness to your shores.

I just got back from vacationing in Sao Paulo, and had a truly lovely time. There are parts of Brazil that are just pristine... so beautiful... and the people are so warm. I'm sure it was quite amusing for them watching my sister and I and are our heartfelt attempts at Portuguese. And the food!!!! Oh my gosh, I've never seen an entire nation whose religion is meat. The preparation of it is like art to them. The steak was ridiculous... I can still taste it now. Ah, picanha... how I miss thee. I honestly think that the concept of vegetarianism would completely confound the entire population. Veganism would traumatize them because they also love their cheese!

Producing and directing The Vagina Monologues was the most ambitious undertaking of my artistic evolution thus far - taking charge of an extremely wellknown piece of theatre with a cast of 24 when I'd never directed in my life - but the experience solidified every ounce of faith I had in myself when I took the job. Taking on the role of either Producer or Director would have been a lot of work; doing both was something that some people told me I was foolish to even try. But directing was always primary goal and I knew that once I stepped into the Producer role, there was no way that I was going to be able to hand creative control to someone else. Not a chance. I had such a clear vision of what I wanted the show to be and so much invested emotionally in its outcome, that I never imagined doing it any other way but mine.

I won't get too in depth about the weekend of the shows, or else this newsletter would end up being about six pages long. What I will say is this: I had a dream cast and I am SO fiercely proud of the performances I was able to help shape and bring to the stage along with these incredible talented women. My time with them showed me the very best of womanhood - of human beings - and opened my heart and mind in a way that I couldn't have foreseen. That we were able to raise money for a shelter for abused Native women and their children was the cherry on top of an already delicious cake... What an interesting year and a half it's been. It took me in creative directions I never saw coming, and now I can't imagine myself without them. I took last semester off from auditioning to focus on the Monologues, but now it's time to try to do something acting again, which I absolutely love and have missed.

The one thing that has been on the backburner longer than usual, and it's time to take it off, is my music. There are SO many new songs waiting patiently to be finished, several finished waiting to be demoed, and all longing to be performed live. One thing I can promise you is that over the next little while, you will hear a lot of new writing demos. It's interesting that in the time that you've heard almost nothing from me, I feel that I've made my most significant steps forward as a songwriter thus far. Bigger than baby ones.

Peace&Progress,
Tanisha