ActorQuest - Kristin Huffman Goes Inside 'Company' 12

In November, Kristin Huffman made her Broadway debut as Sarah (flute, piccolo and sax) in John Doyle's production of Company.  The actress, with a new series of tales that go inside the making of Company from an actor's perspective, starting at the Cincinnati Playhouse and on to New York, continues her stories about a 15-year career that has led her to the door of the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

This is the twelth story about the "Making of Company."  If you haven't read the others, go back and do so and then rejoin us here!

I am going crazy.  This time I really mean it.  Certifiably crazy.  I am actually writing this story so I don't email anyone or call anyone right now and ruin my whole life.  This is the most tense week of my life.  Seriously.  The week I got married?  Easy.  The week I was in the Miss America Pageant.  Simple. This is the week that the Broadway producers have given us our initial offers and we are countering with our own offers.  Well, our agents are countering.  If I tried to do this myself in my state of mind I would end up with three cents and a bus ticket for the entire run.  I am lucky that my agents, whom I have spoken with about two times a day and emailed fifteen times, are bound by fiduciary ethics to keep quiet about my state of mind or the whole deal would be off. 

I know I should be excited and I am!  But I am not a patient person.  This requires some 'wait and see' tactics.  To keep myself distracted, I have come up with at least four ideas for my career once I have been on Broadway for a while. Two different "One Woman Show" ideas.  A CD of original music concept.  Ideas for getting my stories published on websites like BroadwayWorld.com and in other publications. And of course the book idea of 'behind the scenes' making of Company that has been my obsession for a good three months. 

I have also listed three houses for sale at my real estate company and added in ten more students to my piano and voice studio, plus I scheduled a recital for them all. I have sent out at least 149 emails to people who can help me with these projects - in the last three days alone - including John Doyle - who I sent three emails!  And then I worried about sending all three of them.  I have called my father and mother at least 52 times in the last week on a variety of topics.  The latest call was just to calm me down, but most have either been health related or new idea proposals. They alternate answering my calls.  My mother's latest advice was to sit down and "read the Bible." Dad, the minister, would never suggest sitting down and reading the Bible. If fact, I heard him laughing in the background at that one. They are leaving the country next week, to go to Cozumel on vacation, just to get away from me.

This "going crazy while you are waiting for them to decide your future" thing is something they don't talk about in the Broadway Handbook.  They don't tell you that you can and will lose your mind if it goes on too long.  When it is your Broadway debut, they don't tell you that you almost get to the point were you scream, "I will do it for free!" and then your agents hit you with a bat to sober you up. 

In the middle of the night, I have been waking up with new worries about my health and how that may affect my Broadway debut. For instance, I have had a ringing in my ears for a month. I thought it would go away but the bells and whistles have only gotten louder.  Now I am worried that I will go deaf before October. And NO, it's not earwax this time. I think it's actually from playing that damn piccolo.  I have already planned how I will just read lips on stage to get through it all.  Last night I was really dizzy and worried that I was going to have a stroke.  So I took an aspirin to fend it off.  I scheduled a gynecology exam for next week, because last year I had some cyst problems and I want to know if I am going to die now instead of waiting till it's too late to worry about that.

The neurologist I saw on Friday gave me a different migraine medicine and said that the side effect was weight loss.  THAT is a side effect?  But he also said that you get a tad forgetful.  I would like to forget that I worry so much.  The doctor also said that if the ringing in my ears didn't stop we should do an MRI.  What? And find out I really DO have a brain tumor? NO thank you.   So I will see a good ENT on Thursday and he can just give me something for the thing that is making my ears ring.

Now my back hurts.  I can't really straighten up very well, but I have a lot to do today so I will take some Advil and trudge on.  Maybe what I really need is a tranquilizer.

First three photos by Fred Rose (Note by Kristin Huffman - "unflattering and insane photos of me!"); with Elizabeth Stanley in second photo and Keith Buterbaugh in third