Winter Blues

Hi everyone!
It's been a few days since I've posted, but a lot of things have happened since then! Well most importantly I have had two performances in musical theatre, which has been crazy!
Monday I performed "Practically Perfect" as Mary Poppins for a grade. It went pretty well, I would say! It was challenge because of all of the props I needed to use as well as having the children in my scene, but it was a blast!
Then on today I performed again, performing my free choice song "The Fire Within Me" from Little Women.  I was one of the last people to go, so the anticipation was killing me. My teachers kept talking about how "Astonishing" was such a hard song to act and sing well at the same time, it just so happens that, that song is another song from Little Women that Jo, the person who sings Fire Within Me, performs. What a pressure to put on me. It was really funny when I got up and introduced my song. I did it, and I knew that my voice could have sounded better, but my acting was pretty good. I looked up and saw my musical theatre teacher in tears.
They commended me on the job well done. I don't want to sit here and brag about it...but overall it went very well.
I got really great grades on both of the performances as well as my first song. Now it's up to Kathy and Chris to decide what song I'll be doing for my demo. It really could go any way.
Besides Musical Theatre, I've also been working on my scene with my friend John for our acting final, and it's come a long way.
When we preformed it today, it went really well, but during the workshop Jim, my acting teacher, told me we needed to work on the ending of the scene where John, playing my brother, tells me he's dying from AIDS. So today, after John said his line, Jim said "Your dad, Denis, has been in a car accident." He kept saying things like you can't go home to say goodbye and such while we were still performing the scene. It got me really emotional and was the first time I cried at AMDA thus far. So thanks dad for getting me emotional.
Other than that the week has calmed down now that the crazy performances are over.
I'm excited for the weekend, it's my birthday! I'm excited! I've made plans with friends and it sounds like a lot of people are coming out to dinner with me. I hope we'll have enough room for everyone! :O
Overall AMDA is great!
I also got my demo schedule on Monday and it's looking like I might be coming home earlier than I thought, which is really cool! Not that I don't love it here, I miss Wisconsin and my family and my animals and of course Zack. One thing I don't miss though is the cold! :(
Well that's it for now, hope this will satisfy you until my next 4 hour library shift! :)
LOVE,
R

The Fire Within Me

Hello Everyone!
It's been a long week at AMDA filled with a lot of crazy things, especially with all the prep for final demos, which are coming up fast. In all truthfulness, I only have two weeks left to normal classes before finals begin. Its crazy to think about. Besides finals though I've had lots of assignments to prepare. The third song is coming along nicely. I've chosen, along with the help of some accompanists here, to sing "The Fire Within Me" from Little Women. It's a fantastic song and it's extremely deep. I just need to find an 1800s costume for my performance day. Blah! Another thing to add to my crazy weekend. I also had a VPS test yesterday, which I got 12/10. :) We also had our MT dress rehearsal and acting workshops, it was insane. This week looks about the same as of now. Lots of paperwork: song charts, dossiers. But its alright, all of my hard work will pay off.
It's one week until my birthday and for the most part I have it planned out, unless I have a makeup class :(. If I don't though, my friends and I are going to eat breakfast at the strat, and then make our way to 5th avenue to do some light shopping and window shopping. Then we will probably head back to the dorms and change for dinner in Time Square and possibly catch a show before or after. I am really excited! I just hope that I don't have a class, that would kind of suck.
Also I booked my plane ticket home this week. I cannot wait. I will be home from Feb. 15 (late night) to Feb. 24. It's going to be such a nice break! I wish I had more time though, like I always do! Its kind of sad although that next semester I won't be home at all, but it's okay because I've decided to take the summer off. It's for a couple reasons though. It'll be sad to leave some of my classmates since they are going straight through, but it's something I feel I need to do.
I am looking forward to it immensely!
I am doing a five hour shift in the library! :) It's time to do homework! I'm talking to Zack inquiring about the horse show that I am missing :( Shout out to the New Heights Crew!
Hope Wisconsin is great and not TOO cold, it's like 30s here!
LOVE,
R

I know, I know, It's been a while...

I know, I know, it's been forever since I posted last. I think it's actually been since Halloween, which seems like years ago! But now that a lot of craziness is over with midterms being done, I'm in the home stretch to the end of my first semester, which seems insane!!! Things, though, are starting to pick up again as I head into finals. Everything is piling up, finding new songs for this class, new scenes for that class, memorizing dance combinations and poems, etc. It gets a little nuts at times, but I really enjoy all of it so at the same time it's both stressful and exciting. Classes are going great. In musical theatre I have completed my first song, which I did for my midterm, If I Ever Loved Him from Angel! :) It was a blast and went really well. Now we are currently working on our second songs. Mine is Practically Perfect from Mary Poppins. It's amazing and I have such a fun time with the role!!! My two friends John and Caitlin are playing the roles of the Banks children, Jane and Michael, in my scene so it should be a ton of fun acting and blocking, but we haven't gotten there yet. At the same time we're preparing our third songs which are free choices, this provides the biggest problem to me, which is surprising. Most of my friends, as soon as we found out about the fact our third song could be anything, knew what they were going to do, or at least had a few ideas...me, on the other hand, am kind of clueless. Since I've now become the crazy soprano ingenue, I'm taking a little time to get used to it, but it's such an amazing blessing. It's opened my eyes to so many possibilities and roles I can play one day. So as I'm working in the library, as I'm writing this, I'm printing sheet music and getting ideas from my fellow librarians! I'll post later on what I decide.
In acting we have just performed our final scenes for the first time, and I love my scene. It's from the play Eastern Standard and it takes place between a brother and sister when the brother is telling his sister he has AIDS. I mean its so tragic, but it really has great potential, not to mention I get to work with one of my great friends John, who is playing the brother.
VPS we're currently working on the world of Shakespeare. Over break I read the play Merchant of Venice, which was alright, and then we were given a monologue from the play to do for our final. It's memorized, now I just need to get that "Shakespearean" feeling into the text so it sounds very believable! Besides that though, we've learned everything we need to know for the final. So our task is perfecting it before the end of the semester. As well as intense yoga...yey! :)
Well, as far as dance goes, it's all about learning final dance combinations, memorizing them, and then making them neat and polished before the big day when we perform them all. I believe we have 3 combinations for jazz, 2 for ballet, 3 for tap, and 4 for theatre dance. I'm not sure, it might be more or less for each class. But dance class is a blast, especially theatre dance, I love it!
So as you can see, I have a very busy schedule here at AMDA, not to mention I work three jobs (library intern, hall monitor, and usher) so my week is nuts!
I love New York although, it's an amazing city to live in, especially the upper west side. I think tonight my friends and I are going to see a movie in time square, how amazing is that? :) It's things like these that really make this whole experience worth it.
It doesn't hurt to have some of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for! Everyone I've met here is so kind and caring. My group is amazing, we're all so different it's really interesting! Each of us possess something another person can learn from. I can't express how happy I am to have met all these wonderful people. I would list them all, but I'd probably forget like 20, so I might as well not. I just know I am blessed to have them come into my life!
I hope to post more in the coming days and weeks until my return home in February to make everyone back home happy! And myself to remember all the wonderful experiences I have had!
It's two weeks until my birthday, and I CANNOT wait! :)
I also can't wait until I come home in Feb., it'll be a much needed break!
LOVE,
R