Meet Carmen on the 8 Sided Forum!
Apparently, Carmen and our very own Shawn MacAulay spent several years terrorizing the Seattle theater scene together before moving to Los Angeles. I only met her myaelf a few months ago, at the birthday of a mutual friend outside my theater circles.
Some folks might describe Carmen as Chicago's female Woody Allen, and they've got a few handy points to back them up. On the one hand, Carmen will systematically explore every eccentric side of a relationship until everyone is laughing in disbelief, and it's that compulsive sense of exploration that makes her characters so complete. On the other hand, Carmen has a deep creative hunger that drives her constant entrepreneurism and filmmaking efforts. Recently, she wrapped on a hilarious webseries called The Real Girl's Guide to Everything Else. See Shawn MacAulay on a personals website Carmen developed in support of the show, right here.
Ask me, and I'll tell you that if you're thinking of Carmen as quirky comedy girl, you're missing her exquisite sense of grace. With so few actors today embodying grace and elegance, that's not a quality I care to overlook. In her life and in her art, Carmen moves with a warm, smiling patience that speaks to a deep sense of womanly well-being. If her mannerisms are peppered with funny little neurotic ticks, I'll bet you it's at least partly because she knows you love it. What's left, I suspect, is there because she has the courage to feel the things she's not ready to feel.
Compulsive exploration is what I'm talking about. Grace in the face of the unknown. When I cast Carmen as Mariko, it's because Carmen is a woman willing to stand right on the emotional brink, look down into the abyss, and start making choices. If you're casting Carmen Elena Mitchell as a clown, you're not seeing the composed, quiet warrior within her.
Carmen, we welcome your impeccable sense of humor and your ravenous hunger, as well as your profound courage and grace.
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