Heather Ehlers | Photo: Gary Dean Ruebsamen
Theater School Faculty Heather Ehlers performed her one-woman show, SPIN for enthusiastic audiences at the Electric Lodge in Venice Oct. 27-30. She takes the show to The United Solo Festival at Theatre ROW in New York for one more performance on Nov. 12.
SPIN was 15 years in the making according to Ehlers, who wrote, produced and staged the production herself. The play focuses on a number of key episodes and relationships in her life–with father, boyfriend, husband and lover–and takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster ride from The San Fernando Valley where she was raised, to Denmark, New York, and back to her current home in Los Angeles.
But the places that matter most are the deepest recesses of Ehlers’ heart, from which the story both emanates and radiates. Alternately harrowing and funny, it is the intensity, bravery and technical mastery with which Ehlers performs that make SPIN an unusual theatrical experience. While the people and events in SPIN are thoroughly personal to Ehlers’ life, with slight twists or turns, her cathartic spiritual journey magically becomes our own as well.
A professional actress for more than 25 years, Ehlers’ many stage credits include Born Yesterday, Paradise for the Worried, Educating Rita and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Ehlers earned an MFA degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program. For the past 10 years she has taught Movement for Actors at CalArts.
For Ehlers’ full bio and other information, check out the SPIN website.