Natalie Mendoza, Show’s Lead Actress, Turns Off The Dark Today
Yesterday, I had numerous pieces of information to add to the Spider-man information load, piles of excerpts to quote as sources including the real list of actor
Actress Natalie Mendoza : ARACHNE in Spider-man NY
Christopher Tierney’s injuries, which were far greater than reported in most of the press. Primarily, I was most concerned about the media and what seemed like a whitewash of La-La-La-HappyFace. (Yes, I meant that. Insert smiley here.) Headlines such as “Stunt Actor Walking Again”. That skip right over little items like: Except for luck, and a quick tuck-of-his-chin, this actor of the snapping-tether-30-feet -down-to-netherworld, would’ve been a parapalegic…Let’s not start listing the metal pins that are stringing the actor’s skeleton together right now… not just yet.
Because: This Post Is ARACHNE’s Dramatic Solo, Spotlight On
It was this actress whom I did not name, but who I wrote a post, yesterday. This talented exceptionally talented young woman; she would have to be, she won the leading role after how many auditions and callbacks, I wonder?
Yes, it was Natalie Mendoza, and I refrained from naming her. I don’t know why, at 8 PM, I tossed out all my other prepped posts, and instead, decided to post about her. Before that…as I concentrated on her Twitter page, a nagging voice in my head kept trying to revert me back to what I had began writing. Or rather, was it intuition?
What I thought I was doing was reaching out to her, via Twitter, to ask how the Hollywood Actor Prep community might lend some emotion support to her and injured actor Tierney.
Because I Understood. Don’t we all, Us Who Are Actors…Dancers…Singers…?
I knew.
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- This lead Broadway actress, who, when cast in this particular Broadway show, had won the biggest acting role of her career.
- She beat out hundreds, maybe thousands of other actresses, for this leading role.
- Most likely, she had been training, preparing, for most of her life up to this point.
- She even helped develop the character with the director, down to Arachne’s look
- She had been through (I almost used the word backbreaking!) rigourous, blistering, muscle aching, gravity-defying, rehearsals for months…
- Natalie Mendoza sang for Oprah during rehearsals
- Did a fashion shoot for Vogue as only part of the publicity for the Spider-man show
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I knew she was a Broadway queen-for-a-day, but only for about a day. Then, where the heck was she?
Realized That The Real Arachne Hadn’t Yet Returned to Spider-man Turn Off The Dark.
Was she resting up for opening night, until Previews end? Ready to take on all the demands acting in this show requires, and for the real theatrical run.
But, I knew that no actor, no matter what size role, would miss a Broadway performance unless they absolutely couldn’t move. Really and truly. This was her big break, the break of her acting career.
The audience, the press, the most well-known theatrical stages in the world… This actress wasn’t making a choice to rest! (Yeah, sherrrr. Like: Ha. Ha.)
Natalie Mendoza Wasn’t Appearing In Spiderman On Broadway Because She Physically Could Not.
I write that the near certainty of “it takes one to know one”.
Up early, I went on Twitter as usual. Two actors had tweeted me about the news item from the Arts Section of The New York Times. (Shoulda been front page.) And only there, as yet.
Natalie Mendoza, lead actress of Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark had done just that. She had decided to walk in the light, save her own life, do what is the obvious sensible thing to do, and leave the damn show.
Walk away from the part of a century, maybe; every actor’s out-of-reach brass ring at the carnival, her own dream come true. After Oprah and Vogue, for G-d’s sake!
Her heart must be broken in a million pieces.
(More shattered than Christopher Tierney’s vertabrae.)
For more about this actress, and this show:
Hollywood Actor Prep Post about Natalie Mendoza’s concussion and other actor’s injuries in Broadway’s Spider-man.
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Best,
Dana
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