Friend Friday – Meet Erin Schlabach

(http://sherri NULL.machighway NULL.com/~heidiros/wp-content/uploads/497602558_l NULL.jpg)Erin is elegant. In fact, I think she looks like royalty. But she is also as funky and as silly as they come. Meet her and you’ll think she’s a little shy and serious. Scratch just slightly beneath the surface and she’s funny and quirky and brimming with original and ground-breaking ideas. She also just likes to randomly pick people up now and then. Yes, actually lift them off the ground.  Or jump on them.

I met Erin in a hand analysis workshop. It was just for the day. We sat next to each other on a couch. I liked sitting next to her. At the end of the day, I said something like, “Let’s have tea. I just LIKE you.” Or maybe she said that. I’m not sure.  In any case, the desire was mutual.

Next thing I knew Erin was leaving for London to get her MFA in Lecoq-based Actor Created Theatre from Naropa University. (The whole program took place at the London International School of Performing Arts (http://www NULL.lispa NULL.co NULL.uk/)). Doesn’t that sound cool? I remember wishing I could go. It sounded like such a grand adventure.

And it was. She had a life-changing time. When Erin returned from London a year and a half ago was when she and I really got to play. It was a friendship courtship that just quietly snuck up on me. We spent more and more time together in a little group of lovely friends. We finally had our first outing by ourselves going to see a reading of Antigone by Anne Bogart’s SITI company (http://www NULL.siti NULL.org) at the Old Getty. I loved our conversation and our artist date.

One thing you should know about Erin: She is a DEVOTED artist. She sees at least 3 or 4 performances any given week—dance, theatre, new work, you name it. She is hungry and curious. And she has a crazy strong work ethic. She’ll do what she envisions.

She and her wonderful beau, Jones Welsh are Co- Artistic Directors of the Company Leonix (http://www NULL.leonixtheatre NULL.org). Leonix is devoted to creating original performance work based on community need and reform. Every show they do has a core burning question. They debuted their first work, Crossing the Bridge, in Los Angeles, Seattle and Indiana last year. It was great work. I remember sitting in the theatre thinking, “I’m seeing the first production of a company that is going to SOAR.”

Their company is currently developing a piece about war veterans called The War Within. The idea for the piece originated when Erin read an article that said that 1,000 war veterans had attempted suicide at VA hospitals that month. It led her to ask–as she puts it–” what obligation society has to assist returning soldiers and their families, how we respond to their need for healing and how we can facilitate forgiveness that a soldier may need from themselves, their family and the society that sent them to war.”

Erin also teaches workshops in Clown Development, Movement Theatre Devising, and Movement for Actor (http://www NULL.makingfacesproductions NULL.org/).  I took the clown class and loved it. It’s not the clowning of balloons and squirt guns, by the way, but discovering your own innocent, mischevious, wide-eyed inner clown and letting her play.

Definitely check out Leonix. Join their Facebook Fan Page (http://ow NULL.ly/1tuU3)! And definitely check out a class with Erin. You’ll benefit hugely just spending some time with this wise, kind, passionate woman and the work that she creates.

Big fat love.