If the theme of my Jake Lipman blog is how my show business life is a series of funny juxtapositions, I have to talk about my love of solo shows. The very name sounds like an oxymoron, right? Solo. Show. A solo is something you do in privacy by yourself, and yet a show is public. And great solo show is deceptively simple, but profoundly affecting.
Like my conversation tonight with a fellow solo show artist. I had coffee with the amazingly talented actress/singer Sarah Aili. We met because I produced two sections of her solo show, The Glory of Love, in my production company's Plus One Solo Show Festival, and we talked about her application to be in the New York International Fringe Festival. She's launching a new website soon, but you can check her out on Twitter @sarahailimusic.
Sarah has an incredible voice and has the most joyful way about her. Her solo show is a funny, musical rumination on her singing and acting life, which pays homage to her grandmother's borscht belt singer days. It's honest and great theater, without any of the baggage people sometimes create in solo shows (and that ultimately give the genre a bad name).
I can't wait to see her show as she collaborates and develops it further and gets into the Fringe (I know in my gut it will!). And talking with Sarah about her solo show made me feel entirely reinvigorated to jump into my next project, my web series Smart Actress. Is the inverse of e pluribus unum also true?
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