Saturday, April 26, 2014

For dress has always been my strongest suit

Hey everyone!

So in the midst of finals and graduation and the death caused by house hunting (seriously, why is it SO hard!!), I thought I would share by first paid (!!) work with you. It's a short video that corresponds with a book called The Lost Art of Dress which is about the "Dress Doctors" of the 1920s through the 1960s. These women created some impeccable fashions that we have come to associate with this time period. Take a look at the video!

The Lost Art of Dress

Thanks everyone!

Bye-Bye!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

We're all digging if you wanna know

Hello everyone,

So this is the reason that I have no readers because I never update this blog!! I apologize!! A lot has happened in my life since the first day of the year (well, yeah! I hear you all say). Anyway here is the rundown.

Etiology, the mainstage I was cast in, was a very interesting experience. It was a joy to work on but had such a tumultuous rehearsal process that it became quite stressful and problematic. It was a new work, so there was bound to be a bit of a learning curve for getting into the process. Learning lines was always tricky and it was always a game of "which version of the script will we do now?" Then the design was all over the map, I won't even get into it. Then we had the epic Snowpocalypse of 2014 that cut the actual run of our show to two days, Saturday and Sunday. My family was still able to see it, thank the lord, but I wished we had had Thursday and Friday. The audience though loved the play and was fully invested in the characters and the ghost plot-line and liked our acting! I remember one of my fellow classmates telling me freshman year that if people came up to you weeks later and complimented you, then you really knew you did well. I have had multiple instances of that which makes me feel really proud of myself, something I rarely feel. All in all, a good experience to have but an altogether mayhem.

Then this year, I had my British Drama school auditions. Let me preface this by saying that I did not get into any but the competition is so fierce that it is understandable. I had to travel to New York twice for these auditions, once in January and then again in March. I found that I grew a lot in these trips because at first I was terrified to travel to New York by myself because it's such a big city full of lots of people, both nice and scary. I was convinced I would get lost and die. I learned to love the train ride up and back because it gave me an opportunity to see parts of the country I had never seen before, though train stations are not the best example of America. The auditions themselves were learning experiences because I learned to not dread auditions from anxiety. I also came to understand how to get around New York and found that my childhood dream of living there had pretty much been replaced by London. I just really can't live in a place where you can't see the sky. Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I would not mind returning to New York for little trips here and there.

What else has happened since January? Hmmmm........

I have finally had enough of CUA Drama. It's really time for me to graduate and move on to theaters that actually want to work with me.  I'm glad that the one mainstage I had here was a leading role and not some sad eight-line ensemble role like some people get. But Merchant, anyway..........

Ahh! DC has had a brutal winter that is still lingering. Please leave! I can't deal with you anymore!!!

This weekend, I did an intensive with Shakespeare and Company from Lennox MA. It was very enlightening and was like a return to London and the amazing training received there. I worked on a Cordelia speech from King Lear and found a way to feel quite comfortable with the speech and will most likely use it for auditions in the future. The most important thing I learned was: "When I speak prose, I speak my thoughts. When I speak verse, I speak my soul". Cool stuff right?

Little things that happened: working on the closet scene from Hamlet as Gertrude. Game of Thrones and the soundtrack of The Wolf of Wall Street are now a part of my life. Touched raw chicken, and then cooked it! Got a part time job at Imagination Stage for after graduation! Working on a paper on Julie Taymor's Titus and its super fun to do. Saw some great shows (though the best were all London-born). Enjoyed DC and all it has to offer. Laughed. Cried. Wished I was Patrick Stewart. All the usual stuff.

Anyway, I probably won't update this for a long time especially while in the midst of preparing for graduation and trying to find an apartment in DC. The real world calls me, I don't want to answer. Here gos!!

Bye-Bye!