I have been working on the creation of a character inspired by the legendary Barbra Streisand for the last year at The Susan Batson Studio. THE WAY I AM is my one-woman show, developed with Susan Batson, Carl Ford, Lil Malinich and Audrey Davenport. The play starts inside the teen Barbra’s bedroom in Flatbush, Brooklyn. She’s a loud young girl from a Jewish family living in a poor neighborhood with her mother. This is the story of a girl breaking the rules to create her own way through a fierce dedication to truth. We meet pregnant Barbra following her rise to celebrity status through the success of Funny Girl on Broadway. She is ready to become a movie star and fighting against the expectations of Hollywood that wants her to get a nose job. She stands strong in her pursuit of truth and never gives up in her fight against clichés and superficiality. She developed the reputation of being a perfectionist, and was more appreciated as a singer than as an actress. Determined to create stories she believed in, Barbra has written, produced and directed her own films, including Yentl, The Mirror Has Two Faces and The Prince of Tides. She achieved legendary status through her work, yet her need to lead a private life and the longing for her father remind us that she is human.
