SayconTalks PODCAST: Saycon Sengbloh on culture, lifestyle & entertainment behind the scenes, wellness and more!
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Saycon Sengbloh and Liam Tamne in cell pic above!
Tuesday night I was in a showcase at Birdland in New York City featuring songs by Scott Alan. He gave me a call to fill in for Kenita Miller who had to join the tour of the Color Purple on an emergency. Over the weekend I learned my verse to “Never Never Land” and sang it along with Merle Dandridge, Nikki James, and Crystal Hall. All wonderful singers indeed! Also, funnily enough I met the West End “Fiyero” from Wicked, Liam Tamne, who sang beautifully in the showcase and is vacationing in NYC. We took a cell phone pic together.www.saycontalks.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC6JG0tZdFQ
Check out the clip on Youtube! -
As I reviewed my pics from the summer of love (HAIR), I came across some shots taken while in Detroit. For a couple of days I left “Hair” rehearsal at the Public theatre (with permission of course) to film the pilot, “Prince of Motor city.” Described online by the Futon Critic as:”A drama pilot about a Gothic family soap inspired by “Hamlet” that centers on Billy Hamilton (Warren Christie), a young Harvard philosophy professor forced to return to Detroit to take over the family’s auto company after his father’s death.” It starred Daniel Zacapa, Aidan Quinn and Rutger Hauer, “Friday Night Lights’” Benny Ciaramello. My scenes were with Benny (pictured above) who was not at all excited to work with me lol. Since my co-star was pretty ufriendly I spent lots of time chatting up the the DP (director of photography) John S. Bartley, who sat with me during lunch for a chat, he actually worked on a New Zealand or Australian production of Hair ages ago! In “Prince of Motor city” I played “Roz”, a fun and flirty girl who works in the Hamilton Motor’s factory.
The show was cool because they took real cars and tricked them out to perfection to create a realistic new brand of car from the show’s car brand “Hamilton Motors”. I wish ABC would pick it up already! But there will certainly be more shows in the future! -
Happy New Year to all! It is 2009 and May it be Happy, Healthy, and Wise! Whether you brought the year in celebrating loudly in the streets or cozy on the couch watching Dick Clark I hope your celebration was good and that your year will be even better! I had a wonderful holiday trip to my hometown, Atlanta, GA. I was able to see my family and party with old friends and it was great for my heart! I’ve got to get home more often! I’m quite sentimental and am speechless to how gorgeous my mom, nephew and nieces are!
Kisses,
Saycon -
I’m happy to announce that I was interviewed by Marti Cummings for his new Youtube talk show for MGC Productions! Click or copy/paste below to see the interview, Parts 1 & 2! Its short and sweet in a midtown coffee shop! Enjoy!Interview Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=590buCMgIQ4Interview Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y42QBM8E0ko&feature=related
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I recently sang with Lachanze at Joe’s pub! That was fun stuff! The band the audience and all the singing was fabulous! I had a great time! And I look forward to gigging again with a band of my own! Enjoy these pics from that evening! Live at Joe’s Pub December! -
Hello,
I’m happy to announce that I filmed an episode of Law & Order. I was told that my episode would air on December 3rd–by an official letter from the creators of the show– but I got several calls and texts saying people saw it already!!? Go figure? Sometimes they do holiday repeats and maybe you’ll catch mine on Dec. 3rd as I was told. . . I played “Nurse Pelzer” and had scenes with the two new detectives played by Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson. Its a cute little scene with the detectives and my sleeping patient (in the picture above awake!) and I felt just like my Mom–Deborah, who happens to be a nurse in real life! There is certainly more to come!Love,
Saycon Sengbloh! -
I’ve been floating on a cloud this week as I saw my country the United States of America show up in record numbers to vote for our President-Elect Barrack Obama! This FIRST, is one that astounds a nation which at one time supported slavery and Jim Crow. So many people of our nation were so emotional for so many reasons and we are reminded of so many FIRSTS that have happened in American popular culture: in music, sports, literature, science, architecture, and visual art. African-American FIRSTS in entertainment have been particularly inspiring to me: Halle Berry winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, Outcast as the first Hip-Hop group to win Record of the Year at the Grammy’s, Phylicia Rashad’s Best Actress in a Play Tony win, and my own personal first as the first black woman to perform Elphaba on Broadway: Saycon Sengbloh!There have been dynamic FIRSTS in politics that continue to occur each year but this time was different. The office of the President of the United States of America, the identity of the First Family, seemed different! Because with so many negative representations of people of color presented, with advertisements that rarely use children of color or women of color as the American example somehow–outside of politics–this election has made many people who have doubted themselves feel “good enough”, feel “welcome”, feel “Yes We Can” be fully American. Yes, 42 years after the civil rights movement we are still in need of encouragement, boy has slavery done a dosey on our collective self esteem! Obama’s movement has made many people in this country feel:”Yes We Can” begin to get beyond the difficult parts of our history and let people know that we can look at people for who they are. And love them and respect them beyond the color of their skin!
I have gotten so many letters from girls and boys who were so excited and proud to see a Black woman performing one of their favorite characters, “Elphaba”, in the musical Wicked. I was in Wicked for nearly 2 and a half years and I learned so much during that time.. .it wasn’t always easy and I was so busy in my own experience of working at the Gershwin theatre that I didn’t truly imagine so many kids would be inspired. Oh, but the letters flew in, the artwork the fan sites, all the love that said “We’re so proud of you!” and “We can do it too!” I found out over the years that these things have meant alot to young people of color. Barack and Michelle Obama have inspired us all and I hope to inspire in the way that they have! God bless America!
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Halloween was fun but voting will be even better!
Hello people after 3 weeks away, I’m getting back into the mix of writing this blog, “Saycon Talks”. Oh so much has happened between now and the last time I wrote. I hope everyone had a great time on Halloween, I celebrated several times. First at a charity event at B.B. Kings NY I dressed as a little devil, I even met Captain Crunch and Chewbacca from Star Wars. The next day I met with my friend Maia to to take her kids trick or treating, I’m away from my nieces and nephews and so it was fun to do that with her, this time I had a more tame leopard ears and tail! Later I met my good friend Justin for a party for some “Gossip Girl” stars. After seeing him as “Angel” in the Broadway cast of Rent Justin had a full beard and military garb dressed as revolutionary Che Guevara! At this event party goers went all out! My favorites were “Brad & Angelina” complete with babies attached to their suit and dress lapels. And I also loved “Elliot” dressed in a red hooded sweatshirt who came to the party on a bike with E.T. and Reeses Pieces in a basket attached at the front! So Authentic!!!!I got up the next morning to join friend and poet/writer Aquaila S. Barnes and do my part to help the Obama campaign to victory in Pennsylvania! We got a rental car and with a bag of chips and Mapquest directions on hand, we set out on our journey! Like many people I didn’t know that my voice would count but I found that the people of Southwest Philly were happy to have the encouragement of individuals like our selves knocking on their doors. “Southwest Philly for Obama” was so organized, and full of vigor, I can’t help but think back to the days of the civil rights movement and the level of organization it takes to reach people and get them involved.
The feeling at the grassroots level was amazing, a video of Michelle Obama streamed over the loudspeaker and lots of information was available to help. We walked on foot as we canvassed the neighhborhood making sure no voter would be disenfranchised, providing information about rides and locations to their polling location and instructions for the voting machines in the booth. I’ll never forget meeting a super skeptical man and a newly registerd young man living right next to each other–talking with them was really deep! I look forward to Tuesday November 4th, the day that I get to cast my vote!!! Go OBAMA!!!***SAYCON TALKS settings were adjusted to allow comments from all, so please feel free to make comments and forward this article to 5 more people!!!
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Hello Friends,This past weekend I found myself nursing a cold when a call from an old friend came. The opportunity was here: I had the wonderful chance to see Fela the musical! Well, I tell ya I washed my face got dressed and headed down to 37 ARTs. The thing is, not only is this the story of one of my favorite musicians but my friend and *YEA brother Sahr Ngaujah was its star! This show was inspiring and brought tears to my eyes and rhythm to my gut. He did a wonderful job and all his years of creativity and world travel certainly informed his instincts as an actor. Its always good to see friends from back home. I saw not only Sahr but his beautiful wife, Ayesha, as well, they were a site for sore eyes! If you love Afrobeat you’ll love this show. It closed on Sunday but hopefully a tour or Broadway production will be in its future! Special thanks to J.Kyle Manzay for tix!*YEA- Freddie Hendricks’ Youth Ensemble of Atlanta
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