[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Barbara Brownell’s solo play Finding My Light.
Barbara Brownell is a familiar face and not just because of her decades of performances in L.A. theatre as well as on Broadway. She has also graced our television screens as well as our stages. With guest roles in many many shows over the years, most memorably as Hawkeye’s girlfriend in Mash.
It’s interesting how the familiarity of her face and the sweetness of her smile puts an audience at ease immediately and as she opens up her world for our entertainment, we feel that all important connection. Barbara has a story to tell. One of transformation through light and love, self discovery and perseverance.
Becoming an actress in the time that Barbara Brownell began was hardly an easy road. Without much support from her family and always feeling that there was more to the world than what was offered her, she fell in love with theatre and miraculously got work almost immediately…on Broadway! From there her work took her everywhere she dreamed of, New York, then Hollywood. But each step she took seemed somehow bathed in something more than luck, more than talent and hard work. There was a light that followed her. As an audience it’s clear to see. Her face beams, shines, draws us in and beguiles us. But for Barbara, the search for herself and, in the end, the miraculous discovery of who she truly is was a magical journey she never knew she had to take.
Like the very best solo plays Finding My Light is utterly engaging from the very first moment Barbara steps on stage. Her acting abilities are obvious, but it is her authenticity that I find to compelling. I think it must be what made her so irresistible to directors and writers over the years. She has that indefinable ‘something.’ That power to entrance, that warmly funny stage presence that keeps you fascinated by everything she says. It’s a great gift for a storyteller to have, particularly if it’s their story they are telling!
Finding My Light is a wonderfully written and beautifully acted profoundly intimate play about being yourself, no matter who you turn out to be. Barbara is an enchanting and skillful actress full of funny and heartbreak memories of her extraordinary life and her path to truth. I loved this show. Every minute is as good as the next and as she plays all the characters in her life, good and bad, that brought her to this place, we share in her revelations, her defeats, and her unexpected deeply held joy. What a wonder theatre is!
If you have the chance to see Barbara Brownell’s Finding My Light, I highly recommend that you bring your friends and family. She’s a real joy to watch and her story is inspiring in ways that are perfect to share with those you love. Bravo!!