Hello from Memphis!!!!

Sooo let me play catch up for a bit!

Over the summer (after leaving Philly) I spent 3 weeks in Northern Austria/Southern Germany, which was amazing. I participated in a program called TOP Opera (the Tyrolean Opera Program) in Maurch, Oesterreich, receiving multiple coachings, voice lessons, acting lessons, and staging rehearsals over a two week period. It was my first vocal program ever, and I found it absolutely wonderful! It was so nice to work with such professionals (Elizabeth Bachman-Director, Kathryn Wright-Coach and musical coord. for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Melanie Helton-Voice teacher, and Sebastian Soules-Voice teacher/coach from France that is based in Innsbruck) in my pursuit to prepare myself for grad school in Memphis. It was also SOOOO nice to work on my German!

Shortly after returning home from Europe, my parents and I moved me down to Memphis :) I wasn't really sure what to expect from the area, or the school really, but so far I absolutely love it here! I am in my second week at the University of Memphis, and just this week have had a voice lesson, 2 coachings, and 2 acting classes. My main teachers are Dr. Pamela Gaston (voice teacher), Maestro Mark Ensley (conductor, director of Opera program), and Mr. Copeland Woodruff (Acting teacher/coach, head of Opera workshop). They are all SOOOOO helpful, and are really helping me to open up my voice in ways I've never been able to accomplish before! I am also working with Marcie Richardson, who is my accompanist for lessons as well as a coach for Opera workshop, and she is wonderful!

For performances this year, I am covering the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) during the fall semester. This means that I will attend all rehearsals and coachings for the role, and have the chance to earn one of the performances in December (which I am absolutely determined to do). During the spring semester I am performing the role of Miss Todd in Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief, which I am also looking forward to sooo much!!!

So all in all, I will be an extremely busy lady!!!! I am currently looking at summer programs and young artists programs for next summer, as well as trying to get a church job for the next couple years. I've been pretty diligent about going to the gym (kickboxing Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays :)), as well as riding my bike to school on days that I can, and just all in all working on being the best performer I possibly can!

I'll also try to update this more often so it doesn't take an hour and a half to read again.....hehe, sorry :-p

My last show (stage managing) in Philly!!!!!

I haven't kept up on this at all!  But, my last show here in Philadelphia has been FANTASTIC! Even though it's the most depressing piece we've done all year (The Rape of Lucretia), it has been sooooo much fun.  Our director was hilarious and british, and an all around blast to work with, as was the show designer (who was Janet's age and from Fort Collins-small world!).  Janet has been sooo much more laid back and happy this show as well, I think because she officially told the company that she was turning down the contract for next year and was no longer stressed about it :-D 

A few pics!

Yea, karaoke!!!

Hopefully next time I'm working in Philly it'll be to sing!  Yea!!!

L'enfant/Schicchi

This show has totally flown by!!!! The last four weeks have been a total blur, and don't even know where the time went. This show has been a total relief after Turandot-which was a nightmare-and I really think the end product turned out really well. L'enfant is about a child who is kinda a hellian, and breaks his furniture and throws his books and all this, and then everything in his room comes to life (including two chairs, teapot/cup, grandfather clock, math, the cats, and the fire in the fireplace). It's a very strange show, but we did it with a lot of background projection and some really great costume designs. Our cast is a much younger group, and were all soo wonderful! Very fun :) Schicchi is about a family who's very wealthy elder passes away and leaves everything to a bunch of monks, and they naturally develop a scheme to have his will re-written in their favor. It's one of the few Puccini operas that I love, and it's hilarioius!

We had opening night last night, followed by the opening night party (which was the same as always-but stage management looked awesome!!!!! see picture below :)) Now there is one week left and I'll be home for a few days!

Palm Sunday...

I went to mass for the first time in.................6 years?..............today. The church is like, 2.5 blocks from my house which is really nice, and it was funny cuz the priest greeting the people at the door was like-you've never been here before- and I told him I was visiting :) It maybe wasn't so much funny as it was nice-it reminded me more of our church in Clovis that was more personal and laid back.

Anyway, the main point of this post- my palm frond crosses suck compared to moms! :)

Catching Up!

I am back in Philadelphia once again and have begun rehearsals on the double bill- L'enfant et les sortileges and Gianni Schicchi. Some quick thoughts on the show:
-Our director is WAAAAYYYYYYY more reasonable and doesn't yell-although he does seem to have ADD which presents a whole different set of issues :)
-The cast is really fantastic, but much younger than our last group.
-We are not having three session days, so no 9 am to 11pms on this one, yea!!!!

As far as life in general goes, I was accepted to the University of Memphis for my master's in Vocal performance (also very YEAAAA!!!!) and couldn't be more psyched about it :-D

My roommates Erin and Azu (who were together), split up after Azu bought a house, and as of today Sylvia (our pit bull) no longer lives with us either. It's quite a big change, but it's just a little more coping! Pain in the ass that Sylvia may have been, I'm gonna really miss her sweet and loving times :(.

I'm hoping to get some spring pics soon, the trees are blooming which I LOVE! I'll get them put up ASAP!

Atlantic City!

Sooo as a reward to ourselves for getting through this show, Janet, Valerie and I decided to head to Atlantic City for a couple days. Our trip was almost canceled due to lots of snow and the locks on Janet's car freezing, until we found out we could take the train for $8 each way-yea!!

We used one of Janet's promo free nights at Bally's, and basically spent the day gambling, eating, and drinking a few beers with no talk of Turandot, and it was great!

The view of the ocean from our room:

A few Random pictures on this trip:



And for the Monopoly geek inside me, our hotel was located at the corner of Park Place Avenue and the Boardwalk (the original game is based on the streets of Atlantic City):

Auditions and such....

So the last week (and a half) have been a bit insane-o busy. Here is a brief breakdown of events, keeping in mind that it is a 3 hour train ride to New york City........

I went to NYC on Thursday, the 19th, to meet my accompanist for my CCM (Cincinnati) audition. That went well, and thankfully the accompanist was very good and quite helpful as well :) We opened Turandot on Friday, the 20th, followed by a party the next day to celebrate a certain director's departure-which was very necessary after the previous 3 weeks! Sunday we had a show again (which went very well). Monday I spent getting together audition recordings and application materials for Brooklyn College as well as for a summer program called TOP opera that I'm applying for- both due by this Sunday, March 1st. Tuesday, the 24th, I hopped back on the train to NY for my 5pm audition for CCM- this audition had one mediator, which was great, and I believe I actually did quite well- I have had trouble hearing out of one of my ears for this entire week, and I believe it actually helped me out on this one :) Came back to Philly that night. Had another Turandot on Wednesday, the 25th- a small hiccup involving an ill super inside a giant plastic bubble slightly changed that evenings show, but all in all we made it work :) Prior to the show, I learned that the financial aid stuff for Memphis and Manhattan were due by March 1st (four days-ha!), so started scrambling that stuff together and calling dad for sure. I left Thursday the 26th to go back to NY (for 3 days this time-stayed with the wonderful Amy S.) for my Manhattan School of Music audition. I spent the first day kinda just hanging out, because my audition was the next day at 11 am. I don't really know how to tell you the audition went: I think it was fine, but I can't be sure. The room the audition was in was accoustically awful, and caused everything I said to echo and buzz really loudly in the ear I mentioned before- I know I got all of my text correct, but other than that I'm hoping habit kicked in cuz I couldn't hear or feel anything but the echo (fun! :(). After the audition, we had to take a diction test, which they didn't mention was also a translate this test-I don't think I COMPLETELY failed it, but definitely could have been better. Had I spoken Italian or French. Hehe. We went to the Knicks vs. Sixers game at Madison Square gardens that night, which was fantastic. Which brings us to today- I took the train home this morning and am now very releaved to be not worrying about anything at the moment. Yea!!!

And now my plan is to sit back, and do nothing. Except maybe watch some Grey's............. :)

One of the greatest days....

Sooo for those who are unaware, the theater that we are having our opera in also has other traveling shows that come through (before we put our set onstage). And because the ushers know and love us, we get to go see these shows for free anytime we want (or are available) to. This week RENT was in the theater (which I am in love with-duh) but I had rehearsal allll week. I went in early most days this week to practice, which also means you have to go through the theater to get to our rehearsal hall and unlock it, which was AMAZING- oh yes, on the set of RENT. Seeing the quick change areas and the props and stuff that most of us have seen on the stage. Loves it!

I was FINALLY able to go see the show today, and as I was quite early, I had to wait in the green room until ushers showed up. This involved me walking through a barricaded area surrounded by fans waiting for performers to show up and getting very excited thinking I was in the cast- hehe, nope :) The green room is the first room you come to in the backstage area. And then my day was made- Adam Pascal(Roger) walked in (after getting through the screaming girls) and was like, two feet from me-very cool- but he was not talkative and went strait to his dressing room. But when Anthony Rapp (Mark) walked in, he was cracking up and said all sarcastically "I'm just trying to get to work!" and grinned his wonderful grin at me. And I love him. :-D

The show was awesome (I cried in all wrong places-hearing the original voices makes me beam), and made me realize just how many memories I have of highschool from just this musical. It also made me decide that if it turns out I become strictly a stage manager, I really want to do both opera and musical theater. Opera is great (and pays very well), but my heart has always been in musical theater, which I think most people know. It's exhilirating, and keeps me going :)

Assurance that I'm not dead, and a quick update :)

Soooo I've been really bad about keeping up on this, and calling people back, and emailing people, basically because the last two weeks I have been at work for 14-15 hours a day (with an hour for lunch and dinner, of course :)). The show is a beast, and our director is kind of an ass......which makes the process that much more.....fun? Let's just say we're pretty excited to move onto the next production :)

News of the day: I just received an email from Brooklyn College's Conservatory of Music. The good news? I got an audition (yea!!!!) The bad news? It's the day of our last performance-ie I can't do it. I emailed them to see if I can have a different audition day, or if I can send them a recording, so I guess we'll see!!

Gotta finish dinner and such, then it's back to rehearsal!!! If grey's is new tonight-don't tell me what happens!! ;-D

Catching Up

Saturday I spent the day walking around Philly, getting my hair cut, checking out thrift stores, and such:

Please excuse the stupid face- this is more to show that no, I didn't cut it ALL off.........yet ;-D

Walking to the River-couldn't tell you which one...

Random Korean war memorial-very cool though

I found a giant Italian style Naschmarkt (open market) in the middle of Philly!!!!

Amanda---these are like 2 bucks a can, if it's what you like I'll send ya some (or bring some home with me)!!

Random Cool building...

Pics!

Pictures that were promised before:

Sylvia:


w/ Erin:




Janet (SM):






Valerie (ASM):

I'll post another blog with pictures from my Saturday jaunt later today- gotta go tape a set!

Walkin to work.....

So yesterday I learned a couple things. First, when you walk down the street in Philly wearing giant rain boots, people smile at you more. This could either be because a) they think you look ridiculous and feel sorry for you, or b) they find you much less threatening and feel it is alright to make a little bit of human contact. I prefer to think it's b.....but who knows?

The second thing I learned: on the way home from work there is a place called the Warsaw Cafe. Oh yes, there is a polish restaurant on my route to and from work. Which I never knew about before. You should be jealous :) Although, I now either need to find someone willing to go with me (apparently polish and german places don't do much for vegetarians.....) or suck it up and go alone. Which it will probably come to that :-D

Today I went to my favorite coffee shop (Bonte) for the first time since I've been back, and as luck would have it, it was free waffle day! Heck yes! It is going to be a good day :)

Success!!

Sooo, today was full of Rockband and football (damn Eagles lost though...) and tons of fun at Janet's, so that's not the point of this posting.

I just wanted to announce, that when I came home at 10:30 pm, and all the lights were off, I dressed in black (of course), Sylvia DID NOT try to eat me!!! Yea!!!!! She came running down the stairs, I got a bit tense when she kinda jumped on me, and then she ran to the couch and wanted me to scratch her tummy. The pit bull likes me. Woohoo!!! :-D

Todays happenings and audition updates!

Sooooo I could have been productive today.....instead I decided to walk 2.5 miles to a movie theater to watch Slumdog Millionaire (Very good, I must say) and then decided I didn't feel like walking yet so stayed and saw Revolutionary Road (a bit slower, very good, but depressing) as well. That's basically all I accomplished today. So I guess in fairness I did walk almost 5 miles (in the wicked cold), but all in all a lazy day :)

I am officially auditioning for the Manhattan School of Music on Friday, February 27th at 11am :) My Cincinnati audition is three days prior to that (in NY as well), and I have yet to call Brooklyn College (which I really need to do.....). I did not receive an audition for the Curtis Institute, but I'm not too surprised nor am I upset by this :) Keeps me from coming up with an excuse to get out of rehearsal. So now I just need to find an accompanist for both auditions, and all will be well :)

A roommates first impressions

I arrived in Philadelphia yesterday, and waited at a coffee shop (Lava) until one of my roommates (Erin) was off work. She met me there with their dog Sylvia, who is a blue pit bull mix. Sylvia is a bit territorial of the house, so Erin wanted her to meet me before I was there to start getting used to me :) The dog is gorgeous, and very well trained (she's going through professional training currently) and seems to magically remember who I am once I give her peanut butter......... :-D

I met one of my other roommates, Justin, when I got to the house, and the three of us went out for drinks (I for food) later that night. So here's what I've learned about the roomies so far: Erin is studying for her PhD in neuro-psychology and is an intern at a rehab hospital that specializes in brain damage (including strokes and such). Her partner (who also lives with us) is currently in Peru until Monday visiting her family (her dad is the health minister of the COUNTRY), so more on her later :) Justin is recently done with school, and is both a nutritionist and a chef (which is kind of awesome). He used to intern at a hospital in Parker, CO, so sometimes knows the places I talk about. Currently he works at a hospital in Jersey. He also was an intern for a woman who is a nutritionist/chef that caters for individuals by making meals that are healthy portions of really really good food, but recently she was asked to go to New York to film a show (it's the one on Food Network that is like-who will be the next Food Network Star-kinda thing-mom we watched this once) so he is now getting paid to run her business for at least the next month. They are both really nice, and seem very outgoing, so I think this was a good pick for me :) The area also seems to have many more people my age than where I stayed last year, which is nice.

Pictures will follow soon!!!!

To begin with....

Soooo I've never done a blog before, and I'm also not very good at the whole, journaling thing, but I've decided that to keep everyone up on what's going on in Philadelphia (and in the future, other places) I would go this route :) But as I said before, please don't be surprised if it is not updated as often as it should be!