Shooting a student film today!
Excited to have a little work to do today. I have been giving myself some vacation time these past couple of months. I was sick with strep throat and have had a hell of a time recovering, especially vocally, and I also will not be having a summer vacation this year because of my acting intensive that starts in a couple weeks. So I decided to allow myself a small period of indulgence. But I guarantee you it hasn’t been wasted!!
I’ve been fitting in a lot of exercise with friends at the gym, in Central Park, and Yoga to the People. It’s felt great to really get in shape. I’ve been watching so many movies that I have had on a list for much too long. I’ve gone out dancing and partying with friends enough to be having a lot of fun, and not even close to enough to make me feel irresponsible. I’ve saved up some money for a security deposit for when I move out of my apartment in a month. And I’ve laid a really great foundation for a new relationship with a really, truly wonderful guy that I am so excited about having in my life.
It’s been quite a long time before I’ve been so happy with the state of my personal life. It was about time I got that together! Should make it even more rewarding when my creative pursuits start coming along as well!
I will be studying at the William Esper Studio starting in June!
I am so excited to announce that I have been accepted into their Summer Intensive program! I will be doing the part time acting program and will probably add on a Voice and Speech course as well, since I definitely need to work on that.
I have been making a lot of changes involving my personal life, so this will be great for me to get my career mind back on track.
Got seen at Equity for the first time ever!
Accomplishment of the day ;)
I promise a long post about my recent auditioning endeavors soon, there have been some good ones!!
Auditioning for The Secret Garden tonight in Astoria
It’s not until 9:30, so I figured I’ll leave around 8pm.
So the next 5 hours (such an awkward block of time…) Will consist of tidying up my room, a spot of yoga, curling my hair, warming up my voice and choosing material for tomorrows auditions as well as running through tonight’s.
If I had known the wine class at work today would have been so short, I would have scheduled a voice lesson. Alas…
Roles I need to play
- Anna in The King and I
- Grace Farrell in Annie
- Dot in Sunday in the Park with George
- Mother in Ragtime
- Mrs. Frank in Parade
- Glinda in The Wizard of Oz
- Belle in Beauty and the Beast
- Emma in Jekyll and Hyde (again…)
- Marian in The Music Man (again, and better than before!)
… I’m aware I need to be older for lots of these, but that’s okay. Because that means I have plenty of time to start learning all the roles now so I can be perfect when it’s time for me to be cast. And to start working on my voice 100% so I can sing the hell out of any of these roles I get the chance to go in for.
Facebook event for Sophia! →
The new musical I am workshopping in NYC previews tonight and opens tomorrow! It runs every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm until March 17th! If you are close by and interested, definitely click on the link above for all the information!
Very important audition today.
So on Friday:
I woke up bright ad early (5:45am) and went out into the cold winter morn to sign up for the Equity calls of North Shore, Flatrock, and St. Michaels. Good news! All of them were dead because everyone was at Goodspeed! (for anyone who doesn’t know, Goodspeed in MD. is having JULIE ANDREWS direct one of their musicals this year… big deal. Seriously BIG deal!!!!)
Anyway, I stayed at North Shore and a friend of mine was over at Equity keeping an eye on the other lists, and they were moving very quickly, there were barely any appointments and they got through some EMCs. Eventually, the alternates started pouring in (coming over from Goodspeed no doubt!) and they told us non-union folk to come back after lunch.
So, here comes the best part of my day… I went and had a voice lesson. And it was fabulous. I am so blessed to work with Christian. He rid my voice of any kinks instantly, and we went on to work on the two pieces I am singing for my audition for the Glimmer Glass Opera Festival on Thursday: ”Quando m’en vo” from La Boheme, and “Jimmy” from Thoroughly Modern Millie.
He had another student after me and he had come a little early, so he was sitting in the room as I finished singing “Quando m’en vo”, and when I finished Christian was like “Yesss” as he does haha, because it was definitely one of the better times I’ve sung it, and his student said, “She has you all jazzed up!”
And this was his response, verbatim:
“She always does. She is one of my favorite voices in the whole world. She knows that. There have been times I have been sitting here with tears pouring down my face thinking, ‘I just can’t believe it’ just… the color of her voice makes me crazy. You know everybody has their favorites; she’s my favorite. And you should hear her sing the simple stuff! She has this way of bringing simple truth to her singing that is just delicious.”
I had been recording my lesson for the exercises and I happened to get this recorded as well, otherwise I wouldn’t even believe it.
How lucky am I to have someone who is so talented and knowledgeable who things of me in such high regard?
Very lucky. Very, very lucky.
And I won’t let him down.
So.
Leaving now to sign up for appointments for Cohoes Musical Theatre and Triarts Sharon for after my meeting today.
So many auditions coming up…
But my BIG GOALS after Sophia is finished (unless I book something else of course) are to invest in a really great Meisner class (either Alan Gordon or I am also looking into studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse…) and to enroll in the work study program at Broadway Dance Center.
Training is everything. And I need more of it. The sooner the better!
Sorry for the lapse in updates!
Let’s see… the audition for the Arden went really well. I got there really early, and not having too much sleep the night before, I changed my plan for my audition song that morning from belt to soprano because I wasn’t sure how my mix/belt range was going to behave. I sang “Simple Little Things”, and then they asked for something more contemporary pop anyway, so I ended up singing “Times Like This” anyway haha, and it sounded quite good! Acting was also on, I was very satisfied. They then had me read some ridiculously funny sides.
After the audition I had lunch with an old director of mine who is now working at the Greater Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia. It was a wonderful little get together =)
Since then I have started my rehearsals for “Sophia”. So far so good, I get to be really wacky and off-the-wall, and I have to say I am really proud at how my comedic abilities have developed over the years. I am no longer self conscious when it comes to describing myself as “funny” or “with good comedic timing” or “improv ability a plus” etc. That being said, improv classes at the PIT are still very high up on my list of things I want to do!!
…
I’ve decided to start making 3 weekly goals and 4-6 monthly goals every week/month. short term/long term etc. It has been good as it is forcing me to prioritize. Some of these are personal, but of course a good number of my goals are pertaining to my career. I made a big list of basically all of the goals I want to accomplish hopefully within this year! Of them I picked the most important RIGHT NOW and made them goals for THIS MONTH. And of those, some will become goals of the DAY or WEEK!
Today, one of my daily goals is to apply to the Glimmerglass Opera for their summer season. It is an apprenticeship of sorts, not great pay, but a good credit and great experience. Their season has a few shows I am interested in (including Aida and The Music Man!!) and my voice teacher knows one of the directors. The application is due on February 8th, so I have to bang that out today.
The other daily goal is to finish watching Season 4 of “Breaking Bad”…. honestly, the acting on this show is so good that I absolutely consider that a professional goal. I cannot get enough of Bryan Cranston or Anna Gunn! They are such inspirations.
My weekly goals include personal things like groceries and laundry and other errands, but a big one is to get out some postcards and thank you notes to the directors/staff of the productions I’ve auditioned for over the past couple of weeks… due to some rather upsetting family disturbances I have been behind on that.
My monthly goals include some new fitness and dietary expectations for myself (January has been a bad month for fighting flab, especially since I spent a couple of weeks at my parents’ house in Pennsylvania to help out with the aforementioned family troubles!) so that is a very important thing for me right now. Two other major achievements I want to have finished by the beginning of March are a work study position at Broadway Dance Center, and and I want to revamp my website… namely more/better photos or my previous work, and embedding my videos on my site instead of simply providing links to an external site… Youtube haha.
Let’s get this show on the road!!
On my way to an audition at The Arden!
I am excited I have never auditioned here before! Voice isn’t at its best… Very little sleep and a little pleghmy today so I guess I am just going to have to act really well lol.
Super audition.
Really happy. Voice couldnt have sounded better, and my acting was well recieved! And then, despite the conflicts, they are looking at me for the role later in the spring/summer when the production continues/tours!
Worth getting up at 6:30 to primp and vocally/mentally prepare.
Up and at ‘em early this morning…
Auditioning for “Pinkalicious” this afternoon, and this will be my fourth audition for the Vital Theatre Company. I am really happy they keep asking me back.
I have already committed to “Sophia!”, which will be performed Off-Off-Broadway (92 seats) and under Equity Showcase Code. Sadly, this means even if my audition goes well this afternoon, that chance of my being cast with Vital are slim to none, simply because of conflicts. I hope I get a fifth chance to be up for one of their shows, working with them is something I really want to do; the people are wonderful and I always have a good time auditioning for them. Getting cast in one of their shows is definitely one of my short term goals at the moment!
