Venn a featured stylist at Fashion Week in NYC
Lisa Michelle Venn, independent stylist at Redhead Studio, demonstrated the art of her craft as one of a handful of selected featured stylists presenting at “Hair Couture,” part of the Fashion Galleries New York Fashion Week that took place Feb. 7 to 9.
“Basically how it happened is they contacted me because they saw my Instagram and loved my work. So, they actually offered me a spot as a designer. … People came from all over the U.S. for this,” Venn says. “I thought it was a joke, I was flattered but ‘what?’ I didn’t believe it for months. … I was preparing myself, but thought this can’t be real. But it was real.”
Venn signed the contract and was sworn to secrecy. The company shipped inspirational photos and assigned her to the Glamour category.
“So basically they said I had sole creative license to do whatever like ‘Make it big and make it fabulous, put your artistic touch on it and design the look that comes to you.'”
The coiffure took 11 hours over three days; eight for prep time (wash, cut, and blow-dry) alone. The next day was texturizing and curling, and the final day “the build, which took seven doughnuts for structure, 700 grams of hair extensions, and the help of an assistant.”
As a featured designer, Venn walked the catwalk after her model, “which was huge!” As for her own prep, “10 minutes,” she says laughing. “I just threw it up in the bathroom … dressed and it was time to go out.”
The experience “was very humbling, but it was also very thrilling,” Venn says. “I love an artistic challenge and it really reminded me that I work really well under pressure, and that I love to design hair.”
Venn has already signed a contract as a designer for the spring 2020-21 show, which will take place Sept. 9 to 11, but turned down an offer as a feature designer at the bridal show in April.
“I wouldn’t mind little trips here and there. … I’d like to be a platform artist or feature artist,” Venn says. “But, I would never leave Redheads or leave Portsmouth.”
Shakesbeerience continues with more ‘Henry IV’ and ‘V’
“Henry IV Part 1” is fini. Next, coming to a pub near you, is “Henry IV Part II” and “Henry V,” courtesy of Seven Stages Shakespeare Co.
The company, which doesn’t run a traditional season, is well into the current run of Shakesbeerience, a monthly, lively reading of the bard’s work at the Press Room. It just presented the first “Henry” and will run the remaining ones sequentially. If you missed “IV,” it doesn’t matter. Each stands alone.
“We wanted to look at the trilogy in order. We did it at Throwback (Shakesbeerience Encore, 2019) but we did it very fast, back to back, and early in the a.m.,” Artistic Director Dan Beaulieu says. “So, we’re taking our second lap around.”
Another reason for presenting the trio is to get more people involved in the presentation and company. Seventy-two actors will take part in “The Henrys” over the course of three shows, 31 making their 7 Stages Shakespeare Co. debut.
Meanwhile the company is prepping for its first of five 2020 main-stage shows.
First up is “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” at the Firehouse Center for the Arts (March 13 to 29), the company’s first time presenting at the Newburyport venue (https://www.firehouse.org).
The show features Tobin Moss as Guildenstern, and Colin Prato as Rosencrantz, with Teddy Speck as the Player. Dan Mellitz and Christine April are creating the set, “more an art installation versus a stage set,” he says.
“We’re having a lot of fun, talking art, practicality and realism, which don’t get along necessarily,” Beaulieu says. “We’re very confident it’s going to be very good. It’s a great team.”
In conjunction with the play, the company is producing “Hamlet” for one night only at Sea Level Restaurant, in the same building, with the same cast as “R & G” and additional performers “so you get to see both sides of that story.”
There’s a lot in store this year. In June, it’s “Merchant of Venice,” location to be announced. Then comes “MidSummer Night’s Dream” another outdoor space selected, but TBA.
“We’re really pumped. It’s a space we’ve worked before, loved working at in the past, and are very excited to be coming back to,” he says. “It’s a place we started before we knew we were getting started.”
That’s followed by the “Tempest” in August, again selected, but TBA.
The last main-stage play is Lauren Gunderson’s “Book of Will,” back at the Wentworth-Gardener Historic House in late September, “the first modern female playwright we’ve produced on stage.”
Finally, there’s an all-day festival in the works, more on that one to come.
Jamie Bradley to appear in ‘Honeydew’
Jamie Bradley is appearing in the new film “Honeydew,” which happens to be the first feature film Sawyer Speilberg stars in, son of Steven, known as a theater performer in New York.
The offer to perform was totally unexpected, and not sought after, Bradley says. He’d worked “Loud Places” (now on Amazon) with Little Sky Films in 2016. Its director, Daniel Kennedy, is an original producer with “Honeydew, and one of its writers.
Kennedy, recalling Bradley’s performance in that film, called and asked if he’d read for a part, and introduced him to its director, Devereaux Milburne.
“When he contacted me, I hadn’t seen or heard from him since ‘Loud Places.’ It had been a year, a year-and-a-half,” he says. “I didn’t really think too much about it. … I was interested, but I didn’t really know what the project was.”
Bradley sent in a video audition and a few Skype calls followed. The upshot is he landed the role of Gunni, the “peculiar son,” who appears in a number of scenes. “I don’t know how to explain (the character) without giving something away really,” he says. “It’s a bit of a surprise plot.”
The first he heard of Speilberg’s involvement was the day he arrived on set.
“It was really sort of surreal. … We filmed it in the summer of 2018 in Conway, Mass.,” Bradley says. “I loved it. Everyone that was involved with the film was really nice, great to work with.”
“Honeydew” is currently heading to the European Film Market in Berlin, Germany, where the distributors will shop it for release.
“I’m excited it’s finally coming out. … You film for a brief time, then it takes a while to put the movie together,” Bradley says. “I haven’t seen the film, so I’ll be excited to, and excited for everyone else to see it.”
Bradley has two theater projects in the works. He’s currently in pre-production for “Stage Play,” a new G. Matthew Gaskell script, which he’ll produce and perform in at Seacoast Rep (April 22), and then “Urinetown,” which he’ll direct at the same venue (up May 21). “I think that’s all the big news.”
Shaheen acts in another Hasty Pudding first
Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding member Elle Shaheen, and other female members have marked another first for the theater troupe.
The first was being selected as HP’s first female members in 2019. This year female members performed in “HPT 172: Mean Ghouls,” the company’s first predominantly women’s production, which featured seven women in a cast of 12.
“Having female students as part of the cast of the show definitely feels like the new normal this year as opposed to last year,” Shaheen says. “The fact that women make up most of the cast certainly solidifies that we are here to stay and points to important changes regarding inclusivity within the organization and on Harvard’s campus. … This experience has been incredibly exciting.”
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