I’m a south Louisiana native who spent over ten summers in the mountains of North Carolina who went to college in Long Island and lived in Brooklyn for five years. I don’t really know where to call home. My momma lives with me now, so it is easier to call “up here” my home. But, not really.

Some people, bless their hearts that are already blessed, consider the church their home. People like my dad and my family members and some friends really do consider their place of worship a second home or their home away from home. And, I respect them for that. When traveling to Europe, my parents would take a whole ton of pictures of one church. And, I’ve noticed I do the same thing when I travel.

So, while I am grateful for my home and my neighbors, “up here” a home is so much more than just your home. It is your neighborhood and what you see every day. Since, as an artist, a lot of my life is up in the air and I’m all over the place and I never see or do the same thing on a given day, the only place that really is my “landmark” or “you’re almost home” is the Cornerstone Church.

The following photographs pay homage to my landmark. Please don’t judge that I’ve not yet even set foot inside. Just seeing its magnificence and knowing it is there is good enough for me. For now, at least.

Before I jump into this, I should also let you know that we were talking about improvisation based / live theatre comedy characters. I damn well know that for television and film (for the most part, Saturday Night Live aside), that the characters we “create” are really just different aspects of ourselves, be they slightly bitchier, more “white trash”, more vulnerable, more elitist, or whatever the case may be.

Instead of taking this critique with a grain of salt and asking myself, “What does she really mean?” or “How can I use and grow from this?” I took it to heart and thought she was telling me that I sucked. In retrospect, my characters started becoming (sorry, folk who don’t like cussin’) half-ass, for lack of a better term. While my character work suffered, I didn’t let it affect my acting career trajectory. I joined my current improv troupe Lunatic Fringe, continued performing stand-up comedy, my one woman show “Wayward Souls” was accepted into a solo artist play festival and I performed a children’s play (“The Golem”, coming back in April to various New York Public Libraries) where I played a variety of …characters. Again, all is 20-20 in hindsight, but I noticed the characters I created on the spot during improv rehearsals and performances lacked oomph and the oh-la-la. I went from being “too charactery” to being a “wimp”.

Because I got really busy playing a recurring whore on Boardwalk Empire (again, a character!) I had to say bye-bye to Lunatic Fringe for over a year. When they asked me to come back last June to cover for a performer, I was over-joyed. I remembered that Deb McGlean, director and performer and my other co-improvisers had never told me that my characters were “too charactery”. Nor did they tell me that my characters were just a “half-ass hippie” or “Oh, you’re doing your Dad again there, Brooke!” or “hello! take a risk you wimpy idiot!”. They didn’t need to – I was already telling myself all of that stuff and beating myself up unnecessarily. When I performed with Lunatic Fringe in June as my guest appearance, I felt the show was great and I was glad to be “riffing with the peeps again” but I noticed that my personal characters during the improv “scenes” were somewhat lackluster. That just isn’t my style.

Here we come to the current day in age. Deb McGlean and the Lunatics again asked me to cover for a performer in January and when I went back to rehearsal, I guess it was really the new year and the feeling of no-judgement with my troupe (Bless their hearts!), all of these characters just started coming out. I felt like I was a pot of gumbo overflowing. And, some of the characters, I will admit are crazy and out-there but I don’t give a rat’s fat butt if they are “too-charactery”. Because what’s worse? Too be safe or to take a risk? That age old question rings true with the performing arts, with the visual arts and with life.

Are we going to tell Theresa Guidice or Donald Trump or Abby Lee Miller that they are too charactery? No. I’d be afraid that Theresa would throw a table on me or that The Donald would…wait for it…fire me. I’d be afraid Abby Lee would eat me alive. I’m a big girl, too. I’m allowed to make that joke (albeit a cheap shot). We also wouldn’t tell them this because they are reality television stars and [real] people [to an extent, hence my fancy brackets]. With the infusion of reality tv, I feel that as a live and sketch video performer my characters have to be somewhat outrageous. Not for shock value. But, because this is honestly how I view life and people in general. I always aim to make my characters an expanded part of myself that I hide or celebrate and make sure that they have heart. If they are larger than life, so be it. Plus size is the new pink. As with my characters, I’d rather run into a larger than life person on the street than a quasi-person any day.

A sample of some of my characters: Nadia Leudtke, a bitter Russian run-way turned print model who is doing a video submit for J-Date, Rowena Singh, a Southern girl turned Jersey girl with high hopes for her beloved daughter Precious the Pomeranian who is submitting home video to Toddlers & Tiaras, Khloe Kardashian Odom giving young girls relationship advice and Lisa Alicia a mid-Western musical theatre geek with a slight speech impediment and a dream who’s submitting a video audition to an NYC based casting agency…

Characters in “their” environment riffing to camera

Character driven – improvised (unscripted) situations.

Performing again in “The Golem” a children’s play teaching children about bullying through Jewish folklore. Produced in conjunction with Urban Stages and will be performing at various New York Public Library venues in April. Check back soon for updates and details!

Thank you and Happy 2012 !!!!!!!!!!!

I am so glad for “Bunny” and its continued success. This past spring it was at Tribeca Film Festival, The Michael Moore Film Festival and aired on San Fransisco’s KQED.

For more information on “Bunny” at Woodstock, please visit: http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/festival2011/details.php?id=22953