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Let me first say that I have greatly appreciate all the advice that the women of the theatre community have given me as I prepared and develop the role of Drag Queen Fury Tisiphone. But one thing has become clear to me in the process. Women do not agree on the proper way to walk in heels. Moreover; no one can tell you how to walk in heels. They may be able to show you if they are: 1) wearing the same pair of heels, and 2) a physical therapist.
The best advice I found was a British article sent to my cast mate Gwen, which gave the very good advice to walk heel to toe. This too, was disputed as to whether or not it was good advice, but since getting my shoes I have also found it impossible to walk any other way. The swinging of arms and hips is also a necessity, but fortunately this two is unavoidable in order to move in the shoes.
If you are lost as to what the shoes look like, there is a photo of them a few posts down. Three of
us wear the shoes, two of us male and one female. Lee might have different insights. But what I can say is: for someone who is only 5’9”, the experience of being 6’2” has been fantastic. In theatre men tend to be either very tall or very short (with the exception of Catalyst Theater’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in which most of the cast was in the 5’8” to 5’10” range.) But there is an inherent power in being able to either look everyone on stage either straight in the eye or down to the eye. I have spent much of my development as an actor cultivating the technique of projecting a larger size or power on stage, but with these shoes I can let that go and just focus on the very difficult task of being a women (not that I will pull this off, but I am trying to be as honest with it as I can.)
So far Rough Magic has turned out to be one of the more interesting acting challenges I have had in my time in DC, both physically and mentally. But there is much fun to be had in this show, from every actor and in every role – it’s definitely not to be missed.-Dispatch from Grady Weatherford
The heroine of our story Melanie (Tracy Lynn Olivera) has a unique magical ability. She can bring the characters of literature into our world. Over the next several weeks I will be introducing you all to the characters that people the world of Rough Magic and the actors who will bring them to life. Since this is a play with a dramaturg at its heart it is only right and fitting that you all get to experience the kind of digging that the actors have to perform in order to understand just who in the heck they are bringing to life on stage. Today we look at The Furies. As the tag line says for Rough Magic says, "creating a modern tale of thrills, chills and drag queen furies." What do we mean by drag queen furies?Wikipedia as always provides the bare bones of what we are talking about when we mention these creatures of myth.In Greek mythology the Erinyes (Ερινύες) or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female 
personifications of vengeance. When a formulaic oath in the Iliad (iii.278ff; xix.260ff) invokes "those who beneath the earth punish whoever has sworn a false oath. The Erinyes are simply an embodiment of the act of self-cursing contained in the oath" (Burkert 1985 p 198). They were usually said to have been born from the blood of Ouranos when Cronus castrated him. According to a variant account, they issued from an even more primordial level—from Nyx, "Night". Their number is usually left indeterminate, though Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto ("unceasing," who appeared in Virgil's Aeneid), Megaera ("grudging"), and Tisiphone ("avenging murder"). The heads of the Erinyes were wreathed with serpents (compare Gorgon), their eyes dripped with blood, and their whole appearance was horrific and appalling. Sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird, or the body of a dog.We too have three furies, but as you may have come to expect from a Rorschach production ours are not Virgil's furies. Melanie has brought the Furies into our world and now they are drag queens working as singers at a club in Manhattan. For the purposes
of our story though the one you need to keep your eyes on is Tisiphone, as played by Rorschach Theatre's own Grady Weatherford. Melanie comes to Tisiphone for the kind of help only a fury can supply. Did I mention that our furies are performers? Here are some of the first shots of our furies as they strut their stuff in what I believe to be Rorschach's first non-severed-pig's- head dance number ever. Grady is backed up by Rorschach vet Gwen Grastorf and new comer Lee Liebeskind. I hope this taste of what is to come whets your appetite for the bizarre as much as it does mine. Costume designer Frank Labowitz has promised to deck our furies in all the glitz and glamour befitting the spirits of vengeance, as they sing and dance their way into your heart. Or at least make an attempt to grab it still beating from your chest.
Here is the cast and crew for our next bit of wonder and brilliance Rough Magic:DIRECTOR: Jenny McConnell FrederickFEATURING: Company Members Tracy Olivera (God of Vengeance and JB), Grady Weaterford (The Hairy Ape, Rhinoceros, The Illusion, and many more) and Jason Linkins (joining the five timers club with this production after appearing in Master and Margarita, Scarlett Letter, Behold! and Monster) and also featuring Diana Cherkas, Danny Gavigan, Gwen Grastorf (Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards), Cesar Guadamuz (Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards), Lee Liebskind, Dustin Loomis, Ghillian Porter (Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards) and Vaz Santosham DESIGNED BY: Eric Grims (Set), Andrew Cissna (Lights), Frank Labovitz (Costumes), Matthew Frederick (Sound), Debra Kim Sivigny (Props), Andrew F. Griffin (Asst. Lighting Design) ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Ryan Taylor DRAMATURGY: Rachel Miller STAGE MANAGED BY: Megan Reichelt, Cecelia Cackily(Asst SM)Caliban has escaped from Prospero's island after being imprisoned for 500 years. On the run from his sadistic and powerful master, he finds himself in modern-day New York where he joins forces with a dramaturg with magical powers and a love-struck lifeguard who might be the child warrior fated to save the world. Taking his cues from many of today’s most popular comic and graphic novel writers like Neil Gaiman (SANDMAN), Bill Willingham (FABLE) and Warren Ellis (PLANETARY), Aguirre-Sacasa, a writer for Marvel Comics and one of America's hottest young playwrights, melds a very real New York with Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, creating a modern tale of thrills, chills and drag queen furies. And the first read is this Sunday evening. So once again the wheels will be turning on another Rorschach Theatre production of a show you will see nowhere else.Until then I will be running pictures of various animals dressed as Santa. Today a Moose.
Let me first say that I have greatly appreciate all the advice that the women of the theatre community have given me as I prepared and develop the role of Drag Queen Fury Tisiphone. But one thing has become clear to me in the process. Women do not agree on the proper way to walk in heels. Moreover; no one can tell you how to walk in heels. They may be able to show you if they are: 
us wear the shoes, two of us male and one female. Lee might have different insights. But what I can say is: for someone who is only 5’9”, the experience of being 6’2” has been fantastic. In theatre men tend to be either very tall or very short (with the exception of Catalyst Theater’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in which most of the cast was in the 5’8” to 5’10” range.) But there is an inherent power in being able to either look everyone on stage either straight in the eye or down to the eye. I have spent much of my development as an actor cultivating the technique of projecting a larger size or power on stage, but with these shoes I can let that go and just focus on the very difficult task of being a women (not that I will pull this off, but I am trying to be as honest with it as I can.)
