Dear Vloggers,
Fall has officially arrived, but the cool down hasn’t stopped us from blazing ahead with our first stage production since 2020! Our incredible cast of Sunday in the Park with George has been busy rehearsing for our return to the stage!
We had a great turnout at auditions, with a good mix of VLOGers and new faces. Congratulations to all cast! (click here to see the cast list)
If you haven’t signed up for a committee yet, there are plenty of ways to get involved! Please reach out to vlog@vlog.org to find out ways to get involved behind the scenes and in the front of house. As they say, work is what you do for others…art is what you do for yourself. So, let’s start putting it together!
To celebrate our season, we have a host of themed membership events (please see below for information.)
Excited to give us more to see,
Laura Kroh
October 30, 2022 - Reading of Rocky Horror Picture Show
November 18-20, 2022 - VLOG presents Sunday in the Park with George
December 15, 2022 - Caroling
February 10-11, 2023 - VLOG presents Iolanthe
June 9-11, 2023 - VLOG presents A Tale of Two Cities
Meet Four Theater Artists to Watch this Fall
From the New York Times on September 8, 2022 by Alexis Soloski, Elisabeth Vincentelli, Laura Collins-Huges, and Scott Heller
Bonnie Milligan, ‘Kimberly Akimbo’
“I grew up singing as soon as I could talk,” said Bonnie Milligan, who appears in the musical “Kimberly Akimbo” Matthew Murphy
When she was at student at Ohio State University, Bonnie Milligan would watch YouTube with her musical-theater-crazed friends and they would “do clips,” as she put it. “I need Audra, let’s go Audra,” Milligan said, recalling some prompts. “Give me some Alysha Umphress. Now we’ve got some Christine Ebersole.”
These days, Milligan, now in her mid-30s, is the one that fans might want to search for. They could be looking for one of her big numbers from the Go-Go’s musical “Head Over Heels,” in which she played the gloriously vain Princess Pamela, or for some of her uproarious cabaret duets, especially the ones with her friend Matt Doyle — do yourself a favor and check out their cover of the Celine Dion-Barbra Streisand epic “Tell Him.” It’s a safe bet YouTube will see more traffic when Milligan reprises the role of a gleefully brazen con artist named Debra in the Broadway transfer of the David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” which had a successful run at the Atlantic Theater last year. (Previews begin at the Booth Theater on Oct. 12.)
Music runs in Milligan’s family: Her parents met when her father, a pastor, started singing for the gospel group her mother performed with as a pianist. “I grew up singing as soon as I could talk,” Milligan said over lunch on a recent afternoon in Soho. “I’ve always been an instinctual singer. I would sing along to the radio, I would sing along to Celine or Mariah.”
It did not take much longer for her to discover the power of humor. “Around fourth grade, I felt a little chubbier and I felt a little different, so I started making fun of myself a little bit, because I didn’t want anybody to make fun of me,” she said. “I really liked making people laugh. It wasn’t always self-deprecating, but honestly, it’s how it started as a kid, which is so sad.”
Milligan knew she was talented, yet doubts crept in about having a career. Toward the end of college, a friend told her, maybe to help keep Milligan’s expectations low, that she wouldn’t make it as an actress because of her size. “I had been this super-confident kid that was like, ‘I know I’m different, but that’s what makes me special,’ ” Milligan said, “and it felt really hard to hear that quote-unquote truth.”
Fortunately, she eventually reconnected with her confident self, thanks in part to therapy, and threw herself into auditions. In 2018, she made her Broadway debut as a lead in “Head Over Heels,” and “Kimberly Akimbo” will give more theatergoers a chance to experience her precise comic timing, charisma and power pipes.
Word Mental Health Day - October 10, 2022
Whilst the pandemic has, and continues to, take its toll on our mental health, the ability to reconnect through World Mental Health Day 2022 will provide us with an opportunity to re-kindle our efforts to protect and improve mental health.
Many aspects of mental health have been challenged; and already before the pandemic in 2019 an estimated one in eight people globally were living with a mental disorder. At the same time, the services, skills and funding available for mental health remain in short supply, and fall far below what is needed, especially in low and middle income countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global crisis for mental health, fueling short- and long-term stresses and undermining the mental health of millions. Estimates put the rise in both anxiety and depressive disorders at more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic. At the same time, mental health services have been severely disrupted and the treatment gap for mental health conditions has widened.
Growing social and economic inequalities, protracted conflicts, violence and public health emergencies affect whole populations, threatening progress towards improved well-being; a staggering 84 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced during 2021. We must deepen the value and commitment we give to mental health as individuals, communities and governments and match that value with more commitment, engagement and investment by all stakeholders, across all sectors. We must strengthen mental health care so that the full spectrum of mental health needs is met through a community-based network of accessible, affordable and quality services and supports.
Stigma and discrimination continue to be a barrier to social inclusion and access to the right care; importantly, we can all play our part in increasing awareness about which preventive mental health interventions work and World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to do that collectively. We envision a world in which mental health is valued, promoted and protected; where everyone has an equal opportunity to enjoy mental health and to exercise their human rights; and where everyone can access the mental health care they need.
WHO will work with partners to launch a campaign around the theme of Making Mental Health & Well-Being for All a Global Priority. This will be an opportunity for people with mental health conditions, advocates, governments, employers, employees and other stakeholders to come together to recognize progress in this field and to be vocal about what we need to do to ensure Mental Health & Well-Being becomes a Global Priority for all.
National Coming Out Day - October 11, 2022
Another important celebration in the diversity and inclusion calendar, National Coming Out Day 2022 is an annual awareness day that recognises the process of ‘coming out’. Many LGBTQ+ people spend time ‘in the closet’ before ‘coming out’ to their family and friends, but some are faced with ignorance and homophobia.
National Coming Out Day educates family, friends and colleagues on the correct way to support their LGBTQ+ peers. In our latest post, we have supplied a helpful FAQ for NCOD and listed the top LGBT speakers for National Coming Out Day 2022.
What is National Coming Out Day?
National Coming Out Day is an annual celebration for the LGBT+ community, supporting them in the disclosure of their sexuality or identification. The day allows hundreds of people to celebrate being a member of the LGBT+ community or to openly reveal to their friends, family or colleagues that they are LGBT+.
The day champions the idea that homophobia thrives in silence, and so thousands of allies and members of the LGBT+ community group together to abolish the silence.
LGBT History Month
LGBT History Month celebrates the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Icons. Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources.
Have you renewed your membership yet?
Contact Us: vlog@vlog.org, president@vlog.org
The Village Light Opera Group (VLOG) and its membership are actively and enthusiastically committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This encompasses age, cultural background, education, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, physical ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background. We are actively committed to diversity in casting, and encourage performers, directors, designers, and crew of diverse backgrounds to join us. VLOG is committed to being a group that tells a diverse portfolio of stories which reflect the human experience and demonstrates the remarkable spectrum in our community. We are committed to creating a safe space for everyone. It is through diversity that we are made stronger, smarter, and more compassionate.
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