The Theatre Lady

Guys. GUYS. Picture it. Last Thursday, I'm at the gym. I'm running on the treadmill. Suddenly a text pops up on my phone from my friend Ashlyn: "Whatcha doing tonight?" followed almost immediately by a screen shot. In fact, this screenshot. Cue my yelling nonsense words at Jess, who was on the treadmill next to me and desperately trying to stop my own machine, less I trip and end up in the ER, thus throwing away my shot. When I finally gathered my wits, I tested her back, super cool and casual, that YES OH MY GOD I WOULD LOVE TO GO THANK YOU!!!!!!!! 😍😍😍 It's so fitting that she happened to win the Hamilton lottery. When we had gone for drinks just a week earlier, we had spoken about how desperately we wanted to see Hamilton. She even mentioned this article  at Timeout about the odds of winning.  We had each sighed, resigned that if we ever got the chance, it was probably years off. LITTLE DID WE KNOW. Cut to six hours later. We got $5 frozen drin...

8:00: I'm up! I think a mixture of excitement over filming in Acting IV and anxiety from my Spanish quiz helped me wake after just a few alarms. 8:30: After perusing social media and pouring a cup of coffee to cool, I jump in the shower. 9:20: Leilani comes in to my room as I'm doing my makeup in bed. I should already be done, but I got distracted while trying to find a Leslie Knope makeup tutorial on youtube. Instead, I watched alot of Parks & Rec clips. She brings me a few flannels to try for my costume and headed to school. 10:30: I drive to school, afraid that horrible parking will make me late for class, since I'm filming first! 10:50: Have I mentioned how abysmal the parking is at WT? I finally head across campus to the historical log cabin where we chose to film. 11:00: The scene goes great! 12:20: After filming the last four scenes, class is released. I head back to the green room to study for my Spanish quiz. 1:30: Off to Spanish, Buenas suertes! ...

Wow guys! I gut super busy and didn't post for a few months.. or twenty four. I'm so bad at this. BUT I desperately want to get better, So we're going to try this again. Let's see. What has happened since I last posted? In April 2014 we opened and closed Macbeth. It was such an amazing experience! Shortly after, WT held auditions for the Fall 2014 jump show, The 39 Steps , and I was cast in the ensemble as well as Pamela's understudy! I spent that summer working at Pizza Hut and the Amarillo Zoo, both of which I quit when was hired on as a Sales Associate at Loft! August brought The 39 Steps and we opened in September, just a few weeks into the school year! That fall I was cast as Stella in the WT Directing class's scene of A Streetcar Named Desire , which is one of my ultimate dreamroles and a dream come true! I don't have pictures, but hopefully will one day soon! A few weeks later I was cast as Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest . We perform...

I haven't posted since September. I AM SO SORRY!! Life just got INCREDIBLY crazy. Here's a recap of everything that has happened since we last spoke. October: We put 'Shakespeare in Hollywood' on the stage to great success! It was such a wonderful experience. I gained a lot of experience, made a lot of great friends, and finished very proud of my debut on the WT stage. Later in the month I drove to Kansas to see my beautiful friend Alison marry the love of her life Lewis! November: After not being cast in 'Into the Woods,' I volunteered to work on the wardrobe crew. It was fun, but it was hard. Thank you Stephen Sondheim for giving Cinderella approximately 30 seconds to change out of a ballgown and heels back into her poor clothes. Not cool sir. December: I was cast as Steph in Neil Lebute's 'Reasons to be Happy', directed by my good friend and big, Kyla! I then completed my first round of juries and my first semester in college!  Then I went...

7:50 First Alarm. Browse twitter. 7:55 Second Alarm. Turn off the third and get up. Head to the showers. Attempt to (quietly) vocalize so I can warm up my voice, but I'm scared of waking up the other girls and this shower doesn't go past mildly warm water, so I eventually write it off as a moot point. 8:15 Time to get ready! 9:00 Em and I walk across the entire campus for breakfast at the caf. Raisin Bran, a pancake, and half a pear. 9:25 On our way back to the room we stop and get our mail. Yay! My mom sent me all of my sheet music (which was left behind in the hecticness of moving) and Alison sent me my cardigan that I left at her house during Cinderella. 9:30 AHHHH! When I open Alison's package I find that she has sent me a Playbill from the musical Pippin!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! 9:50 I get to Script Analysis only to realize that the Oedipus Rex worksheet isn't due until Wednesday, and the sequential analysis is due today! Ah! Quickly complete that and turn it in...

Sunday 7:04 I wake up because my room is really cold and I'm just under a sheet. You see, the residential hall I live in was built after the Great Depression and consequently does not have air conditioning. Which in Texas in September is a horrible thing. So to combat the heat my roommate Emily and I keep both windows open 24/7 with a fan in each one to circulate the air. It keeps the room manageable during the day, and in the early hours of the morning, we actually get to sleep with our blankets. I snuggle under my comforter and go back to bed. 7:25 First alarm. Snooze 7:30 Second Alarm. I drag myself out of bed and grab my shower caddy and head for the communal bathrooms. I'm usually an obnoxious morning person but I was up until one in the morning working on a project for my Musical Theatre I class, so I'm a little more subdued. 7:45 Head back to the room and start to get ready. The cafeteria opens late on the weekends so I grab a poptart and a container of apple...

Guys I suck. Big time. I never posted anything about Cinderella (It was fabulous. I played Queen Constantina. We had a blast!) I started college the 26th, and have told you guys none of the super cool awesome things I am learning. I didn't even blog about my very first college play audition, subsequent casting! But I pinky promise that I am going to try to do better. For instance, this net week I am going to do an entire unit called: A Day in the Life of a Musical Theatre College Student ...because my life is kind of awesome right now. And I know, especially the last semester of my senior year and this summer, I was really nervous over what to expect. So I want to share all of my (3 week old) worldly wisdom! So stay tuned!

Well, Katy, Magen, and I stayed up until four o'clock this morning, laughing, crying, talking... We knew it was our last night, so we had to get it allllllll out. This morning we got up, showered, and packed up all of our belongings. We got checked out of the room and we all went to lunch. Then we trucked over to the theatre for hair and makeup. I don't know why anyone does drugs. The high I get in the dressing room, putting the finishing touches on my character, or standing in the dark, behind the curtain, waiting for the show to start... Nothing could possibly top that adrenaline rush. Nothing. I actually happened to get a few pictures in the dressing room pre-show. Here they are! Me as Miss Lily St. Regis! Katy as Grace, me as Lily The show went superbly! I can't wait till I get my DVD of the performance, I will try to upload some clips from the show. I will be uploading more photos as they become available. I have had so much over the past week. So. Muc...

I love this place. :) Like seriously guys. BAP is so special to me (and others) because it's this... meeting place for those who just don't belong in our respective Mid-Western towns. We like to sing and act and dance, and we're kind of weird, and people in our hometowns just don't understand us... but at BAP, we find our kindred spirits. It's like this haven in the middle of sports driven, good-old-boy nowhereville. I've met some of my very best friends here. It is the event that truly convinced me that theatre is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I just love it:) So first of all, we were up until one o'clock in the morning dying Ava (AKA Annie)'s hair red. It turned out so cute. I'm extremely jealous. I've always wanted to be a redhead. Then we sent her to bed and the rest of us (Alison, Sheldon, Kasey, Magen, Katy, and I) stayed up giggling and talking. We even discussed possible shows for next year! (Although we wont know anyt...

Ladies and Gentleman. Today, Broadway Academy of Performing did three entire run throughs.  Off book. On Thursday. This is unheard of!!! In the 15+ years since BAP has existed no one can remember ever having three full run throughs  on Thursday. It's usually a high stress day, with dropped lines, dropped choreography, and botched music. No. Today was crazy amazing. Truly proof that this group of BAPpers is truly special. I cannot wait for the performance on Saturday!!!

Today was a great day. We worked our butts off this morning, really perfecting the show. Then, after lunch we got to the pool here on campus and swim. I'm not that great of a swimmer, but I love it never the less! We all had a lot of fun, I can guarantee you the younger campers will be sleeping sound tonight. :) Katy, Magen, and I have been furiously working lines and songs. We must be off book tomorrow.  Eek! I'm not sure why I am so nervous; this is my fifth show with BAP. We pull this off every single time. But the perfectionist, Type-A personality in me is determined to have this show down. We are allowed to call for lines tomorrow, but on Friday we don't even have that! We also got to add our canine actors today. Dodger, the dog playing Sandy, is ADORABLE and perfect in every way. His owner is a choir teacher, so I'm slightly surprised his name isn't Sandy. We Dottie the Basset Hound and Princess the Dachshund playing mutts in the Hooverville scene. They ...

What a day! Today we learned the choreography for 'New Deal', and reviewed everything that we have learned so far, meshing song and dance together. We also finished blocking to the end. We officially have learned the whole show. It's Tuesday. We are waaaaaay ahead of our normal schedule, we even got sent back to the dorms early so that we could begin to memorize in preparation for Thursday, when we are required to be completely off book. A less happy note: the autistic camper that I previously mentioned has left us. It's a bummer. Although, she will get to go swimming with us on Wednesday! SO she is not completely withdrawn. A quick shout out to our wonderful counselors, Kasey, Sheldon, and Julio. They are FANTASTIC. For instance, Katy and I are in Magen's room (we're suite mates, so we spend a lot of time over here) and there was a knock on the door. We open it to find Kasey and Sheldon, and they proceeded to sing 'I Could Have Danced All Night...

Today went really well! Everyone is working super hard, and we are ahead of schedule.We have rehearsed all the songs, and we have choreographed every number but New Deal! For any of you that might not realize how big of an accomplishment that is, keep in mind that we have a cast of 20, a good half of whom can't watch a PG-13 movie yet. That's approximately 26 musical numbers! We watched the movie tonight after we finished blocking pages 44-110. We watched the 1982 film with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters. It doesn't follow the plot as well as the newer movie does, but who can resist watching Carol Burnett's rendition of 'Little Girls?' She is fabulous. Now, in a normal production you would never  watch the movie musical, just because it takes away your original spin on the character. But, since we are doing a 140 page musical in a week, we make some allowances. Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow! (Hehe get it? Tomorrow?)

We got stuff down today! We have officially had one day of rehearsals and so far we have learned: "Hard Knock Life" Music and Choreography "Something was Missing" Music and Chor. "Maybe" and "Tomorrow" Music "Little Girls" Chor. "I Don't Need" Music and Chor. "Hooverville" Music and Chor. "Easy Street" Music and Chor. Blocked pages 1-44 So yeah! We've made incredible progress. We have lots more to do though. I'm not sure how we get it done in a week, but we always do! And on a side note, I am absolutely loving my part! Lily St. Regis is so fun to play! Our dance for easy Street is freaking amazing. I love it. :D

Hello theatre people! I am at BAP and life is so incredibly good right now. There are 20 campers aged 11 to 20 here. We auditioned when we got here and had callbacks following dinner. We've aready been cast and start rehearsals tomorrow! Here is the BAP: Annie Cast List (To the best of my abilities) (Their ages are written next to their names) Annie: Ava (11) Daddy Warbucks: Marshall(16) Miss Hannigan: Magen (19) Grace: Katy Moore (18) Rooster: Arthur(16) Lily: Jordon Shyanne(18) <Me! Ms Drake: Abby (15) Pepper: Erin (12) Duffy: Ella (12) Molly: Hannah (11) Tessie: Parker(11) July: Molly(11) Kate: Brooklyn (11) Ensemble: (This includes Hooverites, servants, stars, and the like!) Cassi(14) Jessica(13) Elizabeth(12) Abigail(14) Bethany(12) Kaylee(15) Torrie(12) Some interesting facts is that we have TONS of BAP family members! Magen, Marshall, and Ella (Miss Hannigan, Daddy Warbucks, and Duffy) are siblings! So are Bethany and Abigale. So are Arthu...

So guys. Guys. This will not be a happy go lucky blog post. This actually somewhat of a bummer blog post. Bare with me. April 11th we went to Area One Act Play. We performed gourth and everyone told us that it was the best we had ever performed and that we were definitely moving on to the Regional competition. That is not what happened. Victor and I were awarded Honorable Mention All Star Cast and Adrian was for the third time in a row awarded Best Actor. (Yeah my boyfriend is one heck of a stud.) We got alternate. We don't get to move on. I... was crushed. It is my senior year. I've devoted the past four years to One Act Play, wanting to go to State, and this was my last chance. I cried in the hallway waiting for our critique. I barely held it together through the critique. Then I cried the whole way home.  This happens. Shows do not run forever. Even on a Broadway. All the great shows, from Rent to Gypsy, from Legally Blonde to My Fair Lady, they all eventually clos...

Time for Thespian Peacock! "Red leather, yellow leather!" -Jordon

Yesterday we went back to White Deer yesterday for District. We performed first, which is definitely my favorite time slot to perform in. We got on the stage and put on a good show, but our timing was a little off. Well, after us performed West Texas, who had moved on with us, then Claude who performed a play called "The Curious Savage". They were good, but I personally felt that they could have done more with their characters. Last was Panhandle, who did "A Midsummer Night's Jersey" which is just like it sounds: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in Jersey Shore. I absolutely hated it. It was a complete mockery of theatre. Yuck. At the critique, Taylor, who plays my mother, was awarded Honorable Mention. Then Katy, Victor and I were awarded All Star Cast. Then, (of course) Adrian was awarded Best Actor. However, we were all very surprised when a girl from Panhandle (The Jersey play) got Best Actress. Did this mean it would be us and P...

It has been an incredibly good week! On Thursday we packed up all of our props and costumes and went to White Deer for Zone contest. All of our props-plus the light manager, Tyler We had the second time slot, after Gruver. We got ready in a math classroom, feeling very nervous. But when we got onstage everything started clicking. We had SO MUCH fun. Which is good because sometimes after you have rehearsed a play for so long, things start to drag. But no, we kicked some stage butt up there! After we got done we got to see the other plays. Gruver had done "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" which is about Nazi Germany, West Texas did "A Girl Called Opal" which was set in Oregon, 1905. Sunray performed a play called"Proposin" which only had three characters. And finally Booker did "Tevya's Daughters" the play that Fiddler on the Roof is based on. After the final play left the stage, we went back to our room and got dressed up for the crit...

Well, today we performed the play twice, once for the high school and once for the community. Everything went very smoothly! Both the students and the town have been very complimentary. They said this their favorite play we have ever put on! I'm so happy that they enjoyed it. Today was very emotional for me. This is eighth and final play I get to perform with Stratford High School. I'm going to miss it very very much. Several people have told me that they think I will get Best Actress at the Zone Contest on Thursday, but this is highly unlikely. While I am giving the role everything I have, There is an unspoken rule that Best Actress and Best Actor have to come from different schools. In fact, they generally must distribute the 8 All Star cast medals and the 8 Honorable Mention medals evenly to the participating schools. And I can almost guarantee tat Adrian will get Best Actor. So I'm just hoping for All Star Cast! I don't have any photos to post yet, but when th...