Instagram story viewer> @michdeef> Posts

Michelle Duffy

@michdeef

1.4K

followers

612

following

Actor. Budding Buddhist. DIY enthusiast. Recovering nomad.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

View from my kitchen as I prep my first fall soup of the season….. 🍲 ❤️🧡💛🍁 by @michdeef

5

0

2 days ago

Had the greatest time last night celebrating all things Chicago Theater at the 58th Annual @thejeffawards ! Got to reunite with my @paramountaurora Come From Away fam and kick things off performing with them, co-host the eve with the absolutely delightful and debonair James Earl Jones II, sing impossible patter with he and @corygoodrich and @kellyfelthous , then later a portion of Mike Mahler’s beautiful song (adding Janet) for the memoriam….watch our director @trentstork WIN for directing CFA and just marvel all night at the talent and hilarity and heart of this incredible community. So deeply proud to be part of it again (photos by soooo many people…..I had no camera) by @michdeef

84

12

19 days ago

#mood
#PSA by @michdeef

40

6

a month ago

My return to Chicago has been seriously chock full of blessings…none moreso, though, than being back in rehearsal rooms and sharing the stage with the phenomenal talents/humans in this theater community. I’m so proud to call it home again. This is a sweet little cherry on top of it all…. Most especially for Team CFA!!!! 🪑 🪑🪑🪑🪑🌎Thanks to the Jeff Committee for giving us all visibility and support. 💖 by @michdeef

49

6

2 months ago

21

2

3 months ago

I like that Mother’s Day exists in this space between spring and summer—- the space in which the world is coming fully alive again after a long cold nap and getting us ready for all the outdoor sunny fun and celebrations to come of summertime….. it’s my favorite time to think about my mom because she was so in her element here. She loved her plants and flowers and would be enjoying the last of the spring perennials while getting her summer colors into the yard and in hanging baskets on the deck (happy place!). In her younger days she’d be getting her first swings in back on the golf course, planning for the church’s annual strawberry festival, and helping my grandpa get his veggies and flowers into his garden as well. She LOVED to be outside and appreciating all the beauty nature had to offer and all the socializing and partying that could be done in it with friends and family. I love to remember her in every season….but this one is the sweetest. 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 Happy Mother’s Day to all. Xo by @michdeef

21

1

5 months ago

(Image from cover of Deborah Wiles’ book) I attended Kent State in the 80’s. My dorm was Prentice Hall, the parking lot of which was the location where most of the shooting deaths occurred. Every May 4th, classes would be canceled late morning to afternoon in commemoration and rallies and speeches were had on the lawn. It was moving and haunting to me and felt like this unimaginable tragedy that happened eons ago that could never happen again in my lifetime. Yet here we are again. Only worse. Protesters are once again being shot dead in the street, only it isn’t earth-shattering front page news because our society has become numbed to daily loss of innocent lives to gun violence, oppression, and fascist ideology. Inviting you to, in addition to wielding your light saber, use May 4 as a stark reminder that none of what’s happening is acceptable or less than tragic, and we must continue to stand up. #may4 #resistance by @michdeef

8

0

5 months ago

It truly does feel like it was a dream……. The experience that was Follies in Concert for @porchlightmt over these last two weeks was so joyful, collaborative, inspiring, and exhausting (in the best way) and was also a constant masterclass from everyone involved daily on how to bring your best with dedication and no ego nonsense and fully appreciate and support and admire others’ doing the same with and all around you. All to tackle this glorious @realsondheim masterpiece with reverence and love and laughter. The “holy trinity” of @mweber935, @brendance714, and @lindamadonia directing, choreographing, and music directing/conducting respectively and the mighty @billwalterscook keeping the whole thing together and running as SM expertly led us from high ambition to fruition in that nanosecond of a rehearsal period. I’m in awe of and in love with every single human involved in this and so deeply grateful for the chance to inhabit Phyllis even for this brief (but spectacular) time. Thanks to everyone who came to witness and support. Xoxo taken in Studebaker Theater by @michdeef

89

12

5 months ago

This weekend was full of some of the highest highs in recent memory, and also a devastating low. I’ll post about the highs soon enough but first…attention and honor must be paid.

I was gutted to learn of the passing of Matt DeCaro this Saturday. We didn’t meet til I’d left Chicago and we were cast together in Streetcar at ACT in San Francisco in ‘97 (Stella & Mitch). We became thick as thieves almost immediately, spending countless hours, in and out of rehearsal, talking shop and being confidantes and champions for one another and laughing our asses off…..he and Marco Barricelli (pictured) and I made a daily ritual of red wine and cigarettes and decompression at a French café between the theater and our housing. It was an incredible production, he was a brilliant Mitch (natch…he’s at the sink in the photo), and that was a time for the ages. We got to see each other quite a bit in the following years since he came to LA for pilot seasons and visits and we kept tabs in between. We lost touch in my NY time…but I was beyond overjoyed to see him again at my Sister Act opening and could not wait to get my moving here done so we could finally resume and get our Chicago groove on, at last in the same city again. That was to start with my seeing Ma Rainey. 💔 I cannot get over that I won’t ever see his brilliance onstage again or share a meal/hug/secret/story/laugh/anything with him again. I, along with this whole Chicago community (and beyond) feel robbed…and still am so grateful for the gift of having him in my life at all. Rest well, Matt. You are so beloved. ❤️ by @michdeef

31

2

5 months ago

Hello, friends…..

So so so SO much has been going on in the world, the country, and in my own life that I haven’t had much energy to keep up with sharing much. Going to begin to catch up, a thing at a time. Starting with: after years of deliberation about where I really wanted to be geographically, I have finally landed after no small odyssey in my beloved Chicago. (More on the odyssey in later posts…..) This is Where All Good Things Began in my adult and professional life and I am really, really happy to have returned at this moment in both. ❤️

As luck and timing would have it, I booked an indie film that began shooting in Chicago 24 hours after I arrived here. When I was given the address of where to report to set, I had no idea that it was in the Hancock Building, or that I’d spend the whole shoot on the 85th floor of it. After such a long journey to get here, it was the most moving thing to enter this apartment, be greeted by my fantastic colleagues and….. this view…. Which instantly lit up my heart and felt like the warmest, simplest “Welcome back, Michelle” I could have asked for. So grateful. #mykindoftown #ddoartists #jmasonent #ohmygodimfinallyhere taken in The John Hancock Center by @michdeef

63

3

6 months ago

We added a show!!! If you couldn’t get a ticket before, hop on! (link in my bio) Sooooo excited for this one….. #follies #sondheim #chicagotheatre taken in Studebaker Theater by @michdeef

32

1

6 months ago

OHIO VALLEY/PITTSBURGH/LOCAL FRIENDS AND ANIMAL LOVERS: WE NEED YOUR HELP. A few years ago my neighbor Lori and I managed to TNR (trap, neuter, return) all of the cats in an ever-growing colony on the hill here at Stratford Springs. There were 12 adults at the time and constant kittens, and thankfully that’s where the expansion ended. There are now just four of these sweet survivors remaining. But my landlady really can’t stand them and very much wants them gone. Lori moved a couple of years ago and I am moving to Chicago and will no longer be able to protect them, though I have friends and co-workers on the hill who would continue to feed them and let them be. It’s been made clear to me that their days are numbered and I’m running out of time and ideas to help save them and so am asking your help for ideas/solutions/connections. Thank you in advance, from the bottom of my heart, and theirs. 🐾❤️🐾 by @michdeef

6

0

7 months ago