Just did a fun overnight as a jazz club guest on this Swedish film about singer Monica Zetterlund, who worked with jazz greats including Bill Evans and Tommy Flanaghan. Hair, makeup, and wardrobe were stellar - here's the look they put together for me. The musicians were really outstanding as well, playing "What is this Thing Called Love" and "I'm A Fool To Want You" for hours.
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I have a part as a cantankerous musical director in the video component of Michou Szabo's live dance piece.

THE WILD HEART - THE MILL MICHOU SZABO
Thursday April 26-Sat April 28
Gavin Brown's Enterprise
620 Greenwich St, New York City
Timeout New York Listing
Facebook Event Page
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Just finished shooting STALLED, Gilli Glatt's 1960s thriller about murder and betrayal in an elevator. We spent week and a half on location, and on a gorgeously reproduced version of the elevator (original wood panels, anyone?) under the supervision of AD and Art Director Ali Glatt on a soundstage at NYU. Cast and crew ate a record number of oreos. Cast: Lauren Sowa, Justin Osterthaler, Penelope Thomas, Caralyn Stone. Stunt Coordinator Turner Smith. DOP Paul Ellington.
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Thanks to Steve Ryan, I have a small spot as a randomly seductive mom in his fundraising trailer for his Meatloaf-impersonating character,THE LEGENDARY POT ROAST. Help Pot Roast go to Vegas and give them some gravy on Indiegogo.
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Auditions, callbacks, scene study class with Deena, filmed a mock reality-show segment for choreographer and Cunningham Studio friend Michou Szabo, prepping another track for Fauve Museum...lots of adventures here; as magical and uncertain as ever.
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Angela Liao and I are in a 30-second commercial spot for The Huntington Learning Center, directed by Greg Slagle of Kinetiscope. Check it out!
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Movement in C Presents
Salma Allam Dance Theater
BAMBOO STICKS
a dance theater piece about limbo

Saturday, January 28th
8:00 PM
Brooklyn Music School
126 Saint Felix Street between Hanson Place and Lafayette Avenue (in the BAM Cultural District.)

$10 in advance, $15 at the door.
SalmaAllamDanceTheater@gmail.com

Written, Choreographed & Directed by: Salma Allam
Performed by: Salma Allam, Rachel Monahan, Cathy Richards, Penelope Thomas, Therese Whelan.
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Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference from January 6-10! One of my favourite, exhausting, and exhaustive events of the year.
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We've started rehearsals for Salma Allam's new piece, and it's great to be working with her actors and dancers again twice a week in Tribeca.

Just filmed a commercial with Kinetiscope that will air in several states in early 2012...look out!

FauveMuseum's new album will also be released in early 2012, and we have plans to play live again this winter.

Open class for Deena Levy's scene study course will be next week, and I have the pleasure of playing a closeted entertainment attorney in Cathy Celicia's Anything for You opposite Casey Hildebrand.
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Having a great time recording Tom Doncourt's FauveMuseum material for the second album. We've been working at Studio 853 and enjoying the old-school ambiance and great staff.
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Concert Video: Click Here!

Tuesday October 4th, 7:30 PM

at TheaterLab NYC
137 West 14th Street MAP

Psychedelic, progressive , orchestral, alternative? All of the above!
Original! Arrangements created largely by Chamberlin tape manipulating keyboard.
Tom Doncourt - composition and keyboards.
Penelope Thomas - vocals.

Bob Klein opening. Wine and cheese reception.

$10
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Art Angel has just put up a podcast in which I read Anne & Currie's work. Click here to hear the podcast.

"Based in London but working across Britain and beyond, Artangel commissions and produces exceptional projects by outstanding contemporary artists. Over the past two decades, the projects have materialised in a range of different sites and situations and in countless forms of media."

Anne Carson’s poem Cage a Swallow Can’t You But You Can’t Swallow a Cage, was written with Bob Currie during their residency in honour of Roni Horn. Music: Sigur Rós member Kjartan Sveinsson composed a musical response to the poem, which was performed at the Church of St Paul the Apostle in New York last year, by The Hilliard Ensemble. A clip from this performance, courtesy of Q2, introduces the piece.

Additional performers: Michael Clemow and Penelope Thomas.
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I am so happy to be joining Rupert Wates and Friends at the Indy Fringe Festival for performances of Joe's Cafe.
Featuring Rupert Wates, Stacey Lorin and Penelope Thomas.

Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival @ IndyFringe Theater
719 E St Clair St., Indianapolis, IN 46202 (United States) -Map
317-721-9458

Saturday, August 20, 2011
Set: 10:30 PM

Sunday, August 21, 2011
Set: 4:30 PM

Monday, August 22, 2011
Set: 7:30 PM

Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Set: 6:00 PM

Friday, August 26, 2011
Set: 9:00 PM

Saturday, August 27, 2011
Set: 3:00 PM
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Movement in C Presents
ROSES ON THE FLOOR
Friday, July 29th, 2011
8:00 PM
Salmagundi Art Club
47 Fifth Avenue between 11th & 12th Map
$10 cash only
Reservations: SalmaAllamDanceTheater@gmail.com

Performed by: Salma Allam, Rachel Monahan, Cathy Richards, Penelope Thomas.
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More auditions (oy! the stories I could tell you! sharing nervous hallways with hip hop dancers and babies trying to be cast in diaper commercials!), learning material for performances in July, August, and September, and an open class doing a scene with Peggy Choi as the finale of a great five months of scene study with Rachel C Smith at Deena Levy Theatre Studio.
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It's a month of various exciting tidbits:

- just finished presenting a scene from David Rabe's Hurlyburly with the fantastic Brett Coady in Rachel C Smith's acting class at Dena Levy Theatre Studios. This marks the first time I've ever thrown pistachios in someone's face.

- looks like I have a singing gig in the Indianapolis Fringe Festival at the end of August...details to follow!

- one of the recording projects I did last year may have some live shows in NYC; I'll keep you posted on that one, too

- cattle calls for musical theatre with mascara, hope, spanx and long waits. One day I will write a bluegrass song about said cattle calls.
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I am so happy to be singing for Legros Cultural Arts again this year to celebrate Support Women Artists Now or SWAN Day.

I'm singing 2 songs at this event...

Thursday, March 31, 2011
Women in Arts Networking Event
Shetler Studios
6:30pm
244 West 54th Street
Penthouse #1
Guest Speaker: Janet Foster-Casting Director, Charm Peake-Entertainment, Renee Myvett, Esq.
and more....
Donation: $15.00
Refreshments will be served.

Click here for details and the EventBrite invitation.
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March 24, 2011

This evening was a blast! Click here to see an excerpt of La Vie en Rose from the performance.

Women in Music
Club Groove
7:00pm
125 Macdougal Street Map
New York, New York Subway: ACE BDF to West 4th
Featured Vocalists: Noreen Crayton, Flor Bromley, Penelope Thomas with pianist Veronica Garcia-Melendez, Greta Herron,
Cover: $15.00
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Friday, March 11 · 8:00pm - 9:30pm
Salmagundi Club 47 Fifth Avenue (between 11th and 12th streets)Map

Movement in C Presents
Salma Allam Dance Theater
THINGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME: A DAUGHTER'S JOURNEY

See Salma unravel her mother's legacy one tarot card at a time. For those of you who didn't get a chance to join us in the fall, we're performing the piece again with new elements (you thought that polar bears and astrology were a perplexing combination: wait 'til you see the bellydance and Scientology) and would love to see you.

$10 (cash only). Reservations: SalmaAllamDanceTheater@gmail.com

Featuring Salma Allam, Rachel Monahan & Penelope Thomas.

Click here for the facebook event page
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I cannot fully describe or highly enough recommend Deena Levy's 'More Than Acting' Workshop, co-taught by Rachel C. Smith and Chris Santangelo.

The most-excellent Salma Allam was my first connection, and then I learned that a friend from high school in Toronto made a documentary about Deena and her work. With all those ringing Canadian endorsements I thought that it might be a sign from the muses. True! This has been a sustained inspiration: just started a 5-month scene-study class with Rachel C. Smith.
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Vocal director and composer Shellen Lubin got Cynthia Enfield and I together to record some backing vocals for Steven Chera today at Shelter Island Sound with producer Steve Addabbo. We had a productive afternoon of ooooos and ahhhhhhs.
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Just finished shooting this short film by Kelley Dunlap and Andrew Soltys. I played Aimee, the mom of a fourteen year-old Lily, played by Kathryn McNamara, and the daughter of Joyce, played by Sharon Talbot, with Matthew Minor as Lily's cousin Mike. Thanks to all for a great experience on NYU Soundstage A and for the cupcakes.
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Salma Allam Dance Theatre
Things My Mother Taught Me: A Daughter's Journey
See Salma unravel her mother's legacy one tarot card at a time in an engaging new work of dance theatre.

Friday, November 5
8:00 PM
Salmagundi American Art Club
47 Fifth Avenue (between 11 and 12th Streets) MAP

$10 (cash only)
RSVP to reserve tickets: SalmaAllamDanceTheatre@gmail.com

Performed by Salma Allam, Ljuba Castot, Rachel Monahan, Penelope Thomas.

Go to the event page on facebook - log into FB before clicking here.
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Floanne & Friends - Come Celebrate a Decade of Me in NYC
I'm joining the celebration as a guest vocalist to open Flo's set of beautiful French songs.

Flûte Gramercy
40 East 20th Street, New York City
Tel. 212.529.7870
2-drink minimum.

Click here to see the Event on Facebook

Visit Floanne's website
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It's a time of re-grouping, re-considering, re-imagining. I'm keeping most of these updates simple and just listing events, but today, I'm feeling bloggish and philosophical.

Seeing and hearing other people perform has been great: Laurie Anderson in Philly last weekend; Cynthia Enfield rocking out her readings of the Sarah Bernhardt piece written by Tony Marando; Floanne Ankah's evening of French Cabaret...all beautiful reminders that artists are alive and kicking in the raging, smoggy heat and the slow slow economy.

There are some REALLY interesting possibilities for projects in the fall and winter. Stay tuned...

Voice-over assessments at both The Edge Studios and Marla Kirban have been promising, but moving in the direction of focusing on that is officially on pause for the summer. Delivering copy about fried chicken and peanut butter and the hefty cost of producing a demo have inspired me to trust that I really do like 'art' and want to put resources toward that -- as challenging and perpetually uncertain as that is.

I'm wrapping up ten months of music theory classes with bassist Mark Wade at the Singer's Forum...ready to go back into technique classes and use all that knowledge on my feet. Tom Doncourt and FauveMuseum are back in rehearsal, working on new material, and Tom tells me they'll need vocals again any minute now.

As I slowly recoup from the back injury, I'm celebrating the two-year+ anniversary by slowly getting moving again. Occasional floor barre with broken ballerinas, eight splendid minutes of cardio at a time, and a new option of back-injury-specific yoga are all very humbling, very sore, and sometimes inspiring as well. I'm hoping to re-emerge as a double-threat before menopause.
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Dance writer and all-round variety performer, David Vaughan, and Merce's favourite class pianist, Pat Richter, traditionally perform a few songs together at the Merce Cunningham Studio Faculty Concert. I joined some of the women in the Company as last minute walk-on for their rendition of Maurice Chevalier's "The Love Parade." It was my first time in a love parade.

Saturday June 12th
8:30 pm
Merce Cunningham Studio
55 Bethune Street
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Salma Allam just premiered a new trio,Bound By Love, and re-mounted her winter work Eternal Bleeding with dancers Jenny Levy and Kara Walsh. I'm honoured to have read and sometimes sung her text for both pieces.

Friday, May 28, 2010
Salmagundi Art Club
47 Fifth Avenue (between 11th and 12 Streets)Map
Tickets $10
Reservations: Email Salma Allam Dance Theater
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Tuesday, April 6 at 7:30
Featuring: Anne Carson & Daniel Mendelsohn
Curated by Bianca Stone & Adam Fitzgerald
QT - Queer Text Literary Series

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street, between Rivington and Delancey
Map

I joined Anne, Currie, and special guests in a reading of excerpts from Anne's new translation of Antigone: Antigonik Usually their special guests are rock stars, but this time we had Lili Taylor and several amazing writers, translators, and broadcasters in the group.
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Many thanks to Chantal Legros for organizing such a lovely evening in support of SWAN Day (Support Women in the Arts Now) with vocalists Teresa Nash, Lynn Sherr, Aminah Cole, and me on Tuesday, March 23 at Houndstooth Pub, 520 8th Avenue.

Amiah opened the evening with a lovely rendition of My Funny Valentine; Teresa did two songs from the musical she's toured over the past few seasons, Hot Mamas, and finished with great covers of three R&B classics (making those insanely high notes in Loving You actually sound like they were in good hands); I sang Mean to Me, Cry Me a River, Wouldn't It Be Loverly, Ne Me Quitte Pas, and Bye Bye Blackbird and had one of those nights where I was just so happy to have the chance to make music; and Lynn Sher closed the evening by performing five original songs: House on a Hill, Kaleidoscope, Done With Danny Boy, The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down, and Double Down.

For more information about Legros Cultural Arts, visit their website
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January 29 & 30, 2010

We just finished a performance at Salmagundi Art Club featuring Satisfaction by Cathy Richards and Eternal Bleeding by Salma Allam.

This was Salma's debut as a choreographer, and the 40 minute piece dealt with the loss of her grandmother. I was honoured to read (and sometimes sing) the the text she wrote. It's always a joy to work with dancers: Salma, Jenny Levy, and Kara Walsh were fantastic.
It made me miss the exhilaration of moving, but I never miss the exhaustion.
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The Whitney, November 2009
for Roni Horne

Anne Carson, Currie, Kjartan Sveinsson, Olaf Arnalds...and me. Yes, if world-class poets, Icelandic rock stars, and the most sociable and sweet guy about-town (I'll let you figure out who's who from that list) want me to perform with them at a major art venue, I will.
Check out photos of the event on The Whitney website
Everything about this process was fantastic. As I did preliminary research about the text -- looking up the names of obscure Scandinavian fish so I could say them with conviction -- I had a moment of gratitude. Cold, salt-water gratitude.