So... SOMEHOW (and by somehow I mean the fact that I have no daily access to a computer) I missed out on writing about an entire year's worth of theatre. Which included dealing with school theatre, or lack thereof, my shenanigans at FIRE, and on top of that, college auditions.... Hopefully you can obviously see why I had no time :)
But I'm back. Hopefully on a more scheduled basis. I'm getting my Mac pretty soon for school, and that's quite exciting! So hopefully, I'll update more often, especially since I'll be participating in MANY more adventures in COLLEGE!!!
So let me give you a quick rundown. After Pippin, focused on school for a while. Honestly, I don't even remember how that turned out cause it's just that unimportant to me. Then at Christmas, I was in "A Christmas Carol" I got to be an "Abundance & Charity Elf" and got to tap dance. Fun fun, yeah yeah, whatever. Flash forward to.....
WEST SIDE STORY!!!!!!!
So.... January is what I like to call my "life changing month." For one, I started a relationship with a boy, and since this blog is about theatre, I'm not going to talk about that, but regardless, it had a grand effect on my life. Secondly, there was West Side Story rehearsals. And thirdly, and most importantly of all, I had college auditions. In the greatest city on earth. New York.
Yes. It is filthy. It smells. There's a billion and one people. The apartments are small. It's really cold in the winter. Theres vendor's on the street ripping you off for a hat, but you don't care cause your ears are about to fall off. There's a million things wrong with it.
But I don't care. Because it is absolutely beautiful to me. I really do "heart" NY.
ANYWHO! My mom and I stayed with Mike and Charlie, and God bless them, they literally took me everywhere I wanted to go in the city! I went to the outside of the Marquis theatre, where one of my favorite shows, "The Drowsy Chaperone" played. They took my outside the Nederlander Theatre where "Rent", the musical responsible for my theatrical existen
ce, ended it's 12 year run a little over a year before. I looked inside the window at Sar
di's. Went inside Saks Fifth Avenue. I played on the "BIG" piano at FAO Schwartz. Watched the ice skaters in Rockefeller Plaza. Walked through Central Park. And most importantly of all, for the first time in my life, I saw a show on Broadway. Admittedly, I did try to get lottery tickets to "Wicked" first, but those are nearly impossible to get cause A LOT of people try for those. So when that didn't happen, Mike and Charlie suggested that we try to get lotto seats to
"Next to Normal" Now, I'd heard some of the music, and definitely was NOT a fan. But I wanted to see a show on Broadway. And that was that. So we went, and sure enough, it was God's will that I saw that show. I was sitting on the 2nd audience left balcony, and I had to lean over to see part of stage right. Alice Ripley, who won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for "
Next to Normal" wasn't there that night (go figure right?) But regardless... It was the greates
t thing I had ever seen. The understudy, Jessica Phillips, literally gave the greatest performance I've ever seen in my life. She literally, changed my life at a particular moment in the show. Everything was perfect, where I was sitting, having my mom next to me during THIS
particular show. That woman is amazing, even if she was only the understudy. I saw "Next to Normal" the night before my auditions. And it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Then, it was the morning of UNIFIEDS. My mom and I made our way down Broadway
to the AMA Building, after getting a little lost :), and I went to my first audition, for a conservatory in Seattle. Honestly, I only signed up to audition because I knew my first one was gonna suck, and it did. I literally said, "I'm so nervous!" But after that it went well. So, later on during the day, out of the blue, I decided to audition for a school in Philadelphia cal
led the University of the Arts. I had been interested before, but Mrs. Sleeman said I shouldn't audition. So I didn't sign up. Well, I was walking by, and they had an opening, so I decided to audition. Long story short, it went amazing. A woman named Amy Feinberg auditioned me, and they were running behind, so she was like, "We're just gonna have you sing one song and do one monologue." And I was like, ok, cool, whatever, you're busy. I get it. So I bust out with Kander and Ebb's song, "Arthur in the Afternoon" Ms. Feinberg and the girl assisting
with the auditions just kinda looked at each other after I sang, and she looked at me and was like, "Yeah, I want you to sing your other piece." So I go into "Our Story Goes On" from the musical "Baby" And then she goes, "You would be incredibly competitive in our program, why haven't you applied yet?" So we just started talking, and I just felt so comfortable with her, and she told me about the program, and I did my piece from Labute's "Reasons to be Pretty", and even though I still had my dance audition for Point Park, I had this gut feeling
that I had just done something extremely important. And I had. Because I got accepted. Woohoo! And I'm going there!! Woohoo! In 5 days!! Woo- wait. What?
So... side note... I've written this post in three different sittings in the course of a month. Which tells me that it's too long. Like, you know how at the beginning of it I was like, "I don't have a computer." Well now I'm typing this on my Mac. That's how much has happened. So here's what's gonna happen. Roller coaster effect!
I've been waiting to leave Greenville for 17 years. But because of the recent happenings in my life, I'm reluctant to leave. But I'm doing it anyways. I'm moving on. I'll miss many things. My family. My friends. Well, my actual friends. FIRE. But it's time. But I will go remembering this quote that was painted on the wall at, of all the god-forsaken places on this earth, St. J
oes.
"I desire no future that will break the ties of the past." -George Elliot.
I may be leaving my past behind knowing that I'm going to return a somewhat different person. But that doesn't mean I have to forget it. But it also means I can't cling onto it for dear life. And
I won't. So. No more of what's happened to me the past 8 months. You really don't care anyways :)
Here's to my new life in Philly. May it be... eventful. Anded on those events whilst they are happening.
