DISCLAIMER:

This blog isn't meant to be a recollection of my everyday happenings and who I am as a whole. It isn't meant to be pretty or accepted. Its meant to be real.

It is about pieces of me. Pieces of me that I am constantly finding throughout my days. Its the honest extremes, the realizations, the resolves. Sometimes its up and sometimes its down. And that's because sometimes I'm up and sometimes I'm down.

I think there is beauty in honesty, so I do my best to be honest. And in that honesty I have been able to realize things, discover parts of myself and grow.  Honesty is sometimes gritty and undesirable and disagreeable. But, I believe that through honesty we can grow, learn and become better human beings.

So if sometimes I sound melodramatic, manic, whiny, or any other sort of extreme it isn't because that is how I am all the time. It is because that is what that moment was. So to help myself grow I decided to write about it, and in hopes that perhaps somebody else can grow or realize something from my honesty I blog about it.

So just know, I have a lot to be grateful for.  I love my family and they are always so supportive of me. I live a full and blessed life. Sometimes I'm quirky, sometimes I'm whiny and sometimes I'm just here. I have my happy and my sad moments, because you know what? That's life.

This is my way of sharing my joys and my pains. This is me (unwritten).

"This above all: to thine own self be true." 
Oh Shakespeare! You always do say it best. 

"Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity"

Anxious. My mind was hazy and my body restless. Do you ever get that feeling like your insides are just itching to escape, like you're claustrophobic in your own restrictive skin? That's how I've been feeling recently. Like there is something I am forgetting to do. Like I'm missing something, and the lack of that something is leaving me unfulfilled and ill at ease. Well, recently I realized the reason behind that lack of fulfillment--among others which will be discussed at a later time--was a lack of creation.

Creative people need to create. If we don't, the wasted energy stays bottled inside of us and tumbles into a ball of depression and unease in the pit of our stomachs. Creative people need to write, to sing, to play, to dream, to compose, to draw, to create. At least, that's what I need.

So I went for a walk to try and shake this restlessness and clear my head.  Funny thing: the minute a space is cleared, something surely will fill that space.  Luckily, this time the thoughts that filled the space weren't anxious or depressed.  New, unsolicited ideas flowed into my head without hindrance or hassle.  Ideas for creative endeavors--the likes of which I will not name at this time, for things given announcement and title have a tendency of dying before being born--filled the space in my mind.

Upon arriving home I quickly captured the thoughts with my pen before they could disappear into the recesses of my mind.  I've been writing for the past hour.

DEEP BREATH

Hello inspiration, you've been missed :)

Ponderings, Pessimism, and other P words (Ya. It's what you're thinking.)

Sometimes I wonder if I was meant to have been born a man.

I know. I know. You're laughing. 

But seriously.

I don't think like most girls do. Sometimes I hear the way they look at life and wonder if there is something wrong with me because those thoughts have never crossed my mind.

I don't believe in true love. Not really. I put that one on the same list as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Its just some big fallacy used to make us behave until its too late and we're stuck. Then we realize the fat man is our Dad and the tooth fairy is Mom's coin purse.

Or in the case of true love: we realize that marriage comes down to a pile of regrets, bickering, and separate beds.

So I don't believe in true love. I guess that doesn't make make me a man. Probably more of a pessimist.

Or maybe, a realist.

So pretty much...

I've got to get out of here. Out of this house. Out of this state.

Sadly, that is not an option right now.

My dad is in the other room yelling at the dogs about something, not sure what. Its probably not relevant anyhow. 
Oh ya. Did I tell you? We have 4 dogs. Ya. I know. Ridiculous. But hey, its not my house, not really. Its my parents and if my mom says we keep them, then we keep them. And I keep my mouth shut at the suffocating trivialness of it all.

I'm feeling claustrophobic. With this house and with my life. I feel so stuck, like anything I do is not going to get me anywhere. Like I'm a lost cause. Like no matter how hard I try I will never get better and will never be good enough.

I'm just terrified that one day when I do try to leave I'll get pulled back in. As if I'm stuck in some whirlpool of fate--where even when I think I'm getting somewhere, really I'm swimming in circles and no matter how hard I swim I will inevitably end up at the bottom of the ocean.

Or that I will get out there and realize I really am not good enough. Not even close. And then what? Then come back home with my tail tucked between my legs and become a mommy.

I'm not trying to whine or say "woe is me!" or beg for attention. I'm just saying it how I feel, how it is.

Basically, the vampires in my head are screaming at me. And I don't have it in me to kill them off right now.


**skip to 3:30 and you'll see what I mean**

I want to do something about it

but what?

I got the part

eeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!




(ya. that pretty much covers it, but for those of you who don't understand what that exclamation embodies I'll fill you in.)

I auditioned for shows for this coming fall semester at the U a couple of months ago. I have been waiting anxiously and not so anxiously--while my subconscious sabotaged my sleep with unnerving dreams--for the cast list to be posted.

Yesterday I finally found out when a cast list on facebook--posing as an unassuming message--attacked me! No mental preparation allowed for viewing this cast list (which, believe me, is often necessary-cast lists terrify me!)

I will be playing Sorrel Bliss in a British-drawing-room type comedy called Hay Fever by Noel Coward (the same guy who wrote Blithe Spirit, if you're familiar with that one). I will be playing the daughter of the  crazy Bliss family, in this play that follows the family and their misadventures with some visitors.

Basically, this is the part I wanted. I will be working with the same director I worked on Rocky with and I am beyond excited!

More to come on Hay Fever and the adventures it will bring, later. For now, I am just beyond excited to get back to the stage and feel the love that only can be found within a cast! That love that comes from theatre and everyone doing something they love together. Ya. I miss that.

Today's Realizations

Having the sabbath as a day of rest really is a blessing.

Everyone's life sucks in some way. And yet, there is something good to each life as well.

Tons of  people are going through stuff that I don't even know about. So, just a note to self, STOP WHINING.

I really want to be a hippy.

I seriously want to make acting my career. Not just a lofty idea, dream, or aspiration for fame.

It's a good thing fast food isn't my chosen career field.

Sometimes the world we are convinced of being reality whether it be a world of depression, grief, or exasperation is not the world as it is. Soon things will change and we will look back and say "wow, that was bad." Even though right now, it is bad.

Even when you are having your worst day ever, somewhere a baby is being born :)

There are several things about society that are seriously wrong ( in a disturbing way, not necessarily incorrect way).

I don't want to get fat. or old.

I may be subconsciously sabotaging myself.

I still don't really know who I am.

Music is...more than words can convey. And that's what makes it so beautiful.

Let the Sunshine In

Fast forward to 2:40...gives me chills every time.



I was so meant to be a hippy.

Let it Be

This song came to me in church today. Inspiration? Most definitely.

"And when the night is cloudy,

there is still a light that shines on me.

Shine on 'til tomorrow, let it be"

"There will be an answer.

Let it be."

"Whisper words of wisdom.

Let it be"

Thank you Beatles. No one could have said it better.

Speak the Speech I Pray You

I have been told several times in acting classes to "let the text drive you" or something to that affect.

Do not fight so hard to make what you are saying mean something. The playwright has spent countless hours putting together this script. If he/she is a good playwright, the words will have their own rhythm and the script will be filled with actions and objectives. It is the job of the actor to find this ebbing and flowing of the language, find the actions and objectives, and then forget them. Forget the homework, don't show your teacher how good you are at using actions and just ride. Let your existence as the character float like a canoe on the currents of the text, pushing you towards your objective. Do not try so hard to manipulate the words. Allow the text to do the what it is meant to do. The text will make it easier to exist in the scene, to breath and feel, to achieve your objective.

That's what good acting is. And so much more. Of course.

But I had a realization today. This applies just as much, if not more so, to musical theatre acting. (I use that term liberally for, in reality, there is no difference between musical theatre acting and straight acting. They are all founded in the same things.) In musical theatre there is an added element to aide in the storytelling: the music. I realized today (and I can't believe I never thought of it before!) that when doing a song I should let myself ride the current that the music takes me on. Just as the text is a vehicle for straight acting so is the music for musical theatre. It is an added tool that the actor is given and should make acting easier.

I made this realization today when I was singing a song and let myself ride on the music and the text. The affect was definite. By allowing myself to ease into the song and use what the brilliant composers and lyricist had given me I was able to achieve more than I would have otherwise. I didn't need to push and try and show how hard I was working to act. Tension is not necessary. It is detrimental. Acting should be easy. Like breathing. Just. Existing.