pilates

So I never blogged about pilates certification.

This was far stranger than the beginning mat certification. I'm not even sure the teacher watched us during the test out. Last pilates cert. I took about 5 classes per day and taught 1, this time I did MAYBE half a class a day...and barely taught. I thought the teacher hated me, because I'm hyper sensitive about everything, but apparently she really liked me and asked me to be her assistant on the last day, and teach the class for my test out - (instead of what everyone else did which was teach two people.) I believe I passed, but who knows, she was hard to read.

Also I'm very hesitant to say anything negative about Iolanthe - because I am in shock I get the opportunity to play the role, but I am supremely confused why the music director keeps telling me to belt less. Last I checked...my complete and utter lack of any sort of a belt/chest voice is what kept getting me into trouble...going to see Mary to figure out what the music director is ACTUALLY trying to say...lol.

Basically, I'm feeling angsty and want to start my career right here right now! LOL! I'm very excited for it to finally start. I'm ready! Just gotta find the door, but I think I'm getting close.

Iolanthe

First of all - in the weirdest twist of irony - I was CAST as Iolanthe - and it turns out - the director - while not being me - IS me! She graduated from UM a year before me, she directed al the Gilbert and Sullivan shows whilst I directed all the Shakespeares - in the SAME BUILDING - in adjacent rooms, through the same student organization UMAC. She is obsessed with Satyagraha, Doctor Atomic, Phelim, cows, all of the same twisted things I am, and knew about the RSC internship. This is so strange! PLUS - she is amazingly sweet and I believe we are going to get along fabulously! I want her to be my BFF now! Additionally, she actually DIRECTS! Which in a way horrifies me, but also excited me. We actually had character discussions and went over the lines - and she gave - GASP - direction! Something the director of the last show I did did NOT do... I hope I don't disappoint! She also said she thought I was a musical theatre major - "that's how good you were." (I blush in embarrassment and squeal with excitement inside.) AND - during the prologue - she is creating a ballet for me to dance in! The character has a lot of backstory BEFORE the operetta begins, and because she saw I dance A LOT of ballet, she is choreographing the backstory into a ballet for me! I am SO EXCITED! I finally get to DANCE on STAGE! AND SING PRETTY OPERA TYPE MUSIC! AND BE A FAIRY! And sing a VERY scary duet/quartet with a guy I have a mini-crush on. AHHHHHHHHH! I'm so excited - nervous - overwhelmed - shocked - humbled - enthusiastic - inspired - everything!:)

hard days night!

This weekend I worked, got certified in intermediate pilates, and rehearsed Iolanthe - and I am SPENT!

Ren Faire

Today I -

Woke up really early

Dressed in a beautiful purple renaissance dress

Took an hour long bus ride to beach front a castle in Long Island

Got my hair professionally done in a renaissance updo

Hung out with about 80 other people doing the same thing

Learned how to twirl a sword

Learned to thrust an block with a sword, and my dagger, and my battle axe

Pet a beautiful horse

Listen to many beautiful tales of renaissance fairs/renaissance lore/renaissance history from people who are WAAAAAAY more into it than me.

Eat delicious pasta

See Kerri Russell and Will Arnett in Action

Watch a joust

Observed a professional t.v. production being filmed

Enjoy the BEAUTIFUL outdoor late summer/early fall weather at said beach front castle

And finished it up by a lovely thai dinner with Miss Danielle and her Jonathan.

WONDERFUL!

I got paid to go to a Renaissance faire! lol! SOOO MUCH FUN!:)

swing high swing low

Not that I'm complaining about being called back for the Eponymous character - but WHY does VLOG always think I'm a mezzo/alto ---- when the one defining characteristic of my voice is that it goes up ridiculously high? 'Tis a puzzlement.

Also - I'm going to REALLLLLY mad is Royal Pains was a Royal Pain and TRICKED me into working under false union promises and pretenses. VERY mad........

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Crazy Dana had a Roshashana party tonight. Aside from me being SO incredibly full I literally couldnt stand up afterwards - it was a MARVELOUS time! I met such kind funny intelligent people - and I even got to have a lively conversation with a British director about the virtues of British Versus American theatre - and all my favorite directors and actors - all while eating amazing Noodle Kugel! Good times. Good times.

renaissance!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! I get to be in a extra in a show. Sadly - it's not an AFTRA show so I will most likely be paid less, not get to each from the special "union" table, and not have it count towards my quote - BUT I DO get to be paid for dressing up in one of my Renaissance costumes and pretending to attend a Renaissance Faire on a (knock on wood) beautiful fall day! WOOOHOOO!

I also probably should have mentioned earlier - I started taking vocal COACHING from Alex G. - a guy I actually know from Michigan - his DAD won the lifetime achievement TONY for Musical Direction and Alex has played several very impressive leads on the B-way. Austin and some girls I know from CAP21 suggested I take from HIM to work on my acting - and let me tell you - he is awesome. He made a list of songs I should be singing - and it was amazing to me how well they fit me! So let's hope he puts together a package that gets me CAST! BOOO-YEAH! He also was sneaky and tricked me into belting - which was actually rather awesome.

remembering roo

Yesterday, for some reason, I started to get really sentimental about roo - and sitting on my sofa crying and looking at corgi pictures. Today - I remembered - yesterday was the anniversary of roos death. I know it's ridiculous - but sometimes I wonder if there's something cosmic going on there...

I wish I could have another roo ----- but I know I don't have the means or responsibility to give a roo the life a roo deserves. It breaks my heart to see roos in the city - and owners who use "pee pads" instead of walking their roos - or keep them indoors in the tiny New York apartments. Roos should be able to frolic and sit out on porches and roam around and have regular walks.

I don't know why roo still makes me cry - but he does - and I guess that's good - because I can use that in acting.

birthday bitterness

What made me sad on my birthday...

Kat didn't come to my party until 1:30 a.m. - when she came she was WASTED beyond belief because she decided to do shots in NEW JERSEY instead with a bartender she thought was cute - then on train back - a random stranger offered her a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and dared her to swallow it in one gulp - which she promptly did and then she proudly claimed she began pole dancing on the train. (Does it seem RIDICULOUSLY unsafe to anyone but me to take a bottle of alcohol from a stranger on a train and gulp it down?) She arrived as we were all going home. She then got on the train with us, where she promptly started asking everyone on the train if THEY had any smirnoff ices and announced she was "So full of alcohol" and needed more or else her "buzz" would wear off. I mentioned she might not want to announce that to the entire train she started yelling at me about how she was 21 and old enough to make her own decisions. She then got off the train at her stop all mad.

Then the next day - my ACTUAL birthday - she said she had to do laundry and clean her room - instead of hanging out with me. Well - that is awesome.

Jean-Paul - insisted we all LEAVE the place I chose to have the party a nice quaint British artisinal cocktail and cheese platter type place - to get Japanese food - even though I told him I didn't want Japanese food and had eaten Japanese for lunch. If I had wanted to get a REAL meal - I would have gotten something OTHER than Chinese. In fact - I WANTED to get fondue - but Kat - who of course didn't come because she was busy getting trashed in Jersey - couldn't afford it - so I chose a place she could afford instead. Japanese is my HEALTHY food - not my "it's my birthday and I'll eat what I want to" food - GAH! Then - he didn't even come back to the apartment with me - he chose to go play a video game with his guy friend Alex instead. Then on MY actual birthday - Jean-Paul sat around and moped in his room.

On my ACTUAL birthday - Candace came over for Brunch - we decided to go to a nice brunch place up near me. We get there - and she says "you can cover me right? I'm broke." I told her - no - I'm broke too and it's my birthday - I'm not treating her to brunch on my birthday - if anything - isn't she supposed to treat me? Then - we get to my place - and she informs me (doesn't ask - informs) - "I"m taking one of your mirrors - you have too many - you don't need all of them and I do.' And I said - no! I like my mirrors! And she said - you don't need the one in the hall by the door. And I said - yes - I do. You're not taking my mirror! And she relunctantly said alright. WTF?

So basically - I'm less cool than some shots and a bottle of smirnoff ice, a video game, and a mirror. Wtf?

Then - people came over to sing - of course - our pianist Jean-Paul was moping in his room which make singing challenging. He finally moped out sad to be torn away form some computer video game with the word Starcraft in it...and played - and everyone got to sing their songs except for me - because the guy who played Tevye in our Fiddler production decided he had to every song I sang with me. WTF - it's my birthday! Don't I at least get to sing ONE song if everyone else is? I know I don't suck!

Oh yeah - and there were 4 gunshots heard outside my apartment - which was pretty awesome as well.

What made me happy was that Danielle treated me to a LOVELY dinner last night at a place I WOULD have chosen if I got to choose - so that was lovely.

I just wish I could take all the rest back.

drowning in nutella!

Woke up early and went to the Aladdin call this morning - sadly I'm only 1/4 Syrian and not 100% Syrian - so I was basically typed out. Super sadness. It would have been AWESOME to play Jasmine. Especially since they told us they were looking for a middle eastern looking Sierra Boggess. Come on! I'm Syrian! You can make me look like Jasmine!

I ALSO got only TWO HOURS of sleep. Why do you ask? Because at 2:30 in the morning, a car drove up and parked itself outside playing SUPER loud reggaeton and woke me up from my pleasant slumber. So I went down to tell them to turn it off when the lady (a very tiny) who owned the car started getting in my face and pushing me and daring me to find a police man, at which point I ran away, since I couldn't get back into my apt and called 911. So I'm standing on the corner with all of the black guys whistling at me in my tiny pajama shorts and it took the police at least 5 minutes to come - probably five of the more horrified moments of my life, the police came, escorted me back to my apt, but made me sit in the car for 30 minutes while they tried to calm down the crazy lady and get her to leave. I was finally able to get back INTO my apt, super wound up and scared - too much so to really sleep for a while, so an hour later when I was about to doze off - the lady comes BACK and starts blasting the music AGAIN, at which point two neighbors from upstairs convinced her to turn it off (took about 15 minutes) and I called 311 for backup.) I tried to talk to the super about it, but he is on vacation until next week! Turns out crazy lady has a drinking problem and she lives on the 5th floor of my building. The "unofficial" surveyors of my apt. on the 4th floor said they would have a talk with her to make sure it doesn't happen, but I am scared and frustrated. I mean - the apt was deemed an environmental hazard by the police, the super says the noise and mess bothers HIM, and now it's just getting violent! It's not safe! It's not pleasant. And no one seems to care enough to do anything. I don't understand how a group of people can be so disrespectful! This morning I woke up way earlier than usual and walking the streets was disgusting and sad. Trash, food, cigarettes, even people's CLOTHS, were abandoned and a group of sanitation workers were cleaning it up. It's our community. Have a LITTLE respect! What really confuses me is - it has NEVER been a problem before THIS YEAR! I don't know what changed but something HAS to!

I'm also a teensy bit frustrated because Cara is staying with me this week from Vegas. Cara is great. Cara is wonderful! But I didn't realize that meant Kat would be staying over night as well and every night we would just watch bad 80s or reruns of Gossip Girl (REALLY? Cara is here? Do we have to watch it from the beginning for a third time?) And I didn't realize I was supposed to cancel my whole week for this. I have only taken TWO dance classes!!!!!!!!! (granted I also did an audition and a voice lesson and an acting lesson and work but....I usually take at least 1 class a day if not 2 or 3!!!!!) I've not been able to work on BLACK PETER at all! Jean-Paul VACATED the premises for the week because he couldnt take it. (but he was super nice and chill about it.) And today was fun - we took a horse and carriage ride through central park and sat by the lake and had a picnic - but in general - GAH! I WANT TO GET A F-ing JOB I have to get better at EVERYTHING and not be subject to the negative influences of others! And truthfully - it is zapping the fun out of my birthday party since - well - I've been eating nutella and staying up late EVERY freaking night this week - Saturday won't be special. LOL! It may even be annoying! I just want to be alone and eat healthy!

But it is nice to have Cara here. She is amazingly motivational. She is the perfect example of a girl who REFUSES to give up. People are always telling hr she suck and isn't good enough etc... but she goes to EVERY FREAKING AUDITION! Even ones for short fat black men who belt and do hiphop! (she is a 5'9 slender pasty white showgirl/ballerina.) And it pays off! She gets rejected a lot - but she also gets hired! And that is so inspiring to see! And I want it to be MEEEEE! I also admire how she is ALWAYS working and fighting towards her goals and making things happen. She is a very active force which I admire! I need to surround myself with Do-ers! More movers and shakers! Like her!

At any rate - it's been a frustrating and stressful week. At least I'm alive and wasn't hurt by that crazy lad!y Though I"m BEYOND pissed that she made me miss ALL of my sleep!