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Year end reflection

I just got home from the end of year TAD gala, and I want to look back. What an amazing, terrible, incredible, painful, stressful, joyful, influential, demolishing, and building year it has been. There have been struggles and successes, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I came into this year terrified of what it would bring and how I would react to being thrust into my college life as an underage freshman. I couldn’t have asked for a more dynamic time. Really the biggest thing that has been so influential on my development has been the relationships and friendships I have cultivated during my year here. I have met so many incredible performers, educators, and friends, and I am grateful for the time I have had here with them. I have had such an amazing time in all of my classes, learning from amazing people and developing my acting, technical abilities, my voice, and my body. And I would be remiss if I didn’t gush over Urinetown for at least a moment. Being cast in my fir...
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My Future Goals

I figured it was probably good to figure out my life. I've often heard that it's a really good idea to write down your goals, so that way you have something holding you to them. I realized that I've never actually gotten down on paper the goals that I have for myself in my industry and for my future. I'm also writing this down in several other places so that I have it to always focus on and remember, so hopefully I'll have some sort of cohesive guideline for how my life is going to go. I'm also including the goals that I can into the semester with, so I can report to myself on how I did and hopefully have this to look back on it I ever get down on myself, which happens far more than I wish it would. My first goal for my life was to make the Classical Acting BFA program. Fortunately, I can now confirm that I managed to succeed in this one. Looking forward to this school year, my first year in this school, I wanted to establish my place and my ability in this...
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Body Connection

I’ve connected to something and I think it’s important. I’ve been in a yoga class all semester and it just ended, and it got me thinking a lot about my body, my health, and the connection it has to my voice and my performances. I’ve never valued and respected my health, both physical and mental, as much as I should, and I’ve suffered some setbacks this semester because of that. But I want to dive deep and figure out what exactly the relationship is between my health, my voice, and my emotions, and I think voice and diction has been very helpful in at least one side of the equation. Anyone who knows me knows that I am an extremely rambunctious person. I despise sitting still, I’ve played at least three competitive sports for my entire life, and anytime there’s something physically exerting to be done or participated in I am the first one there. This has often been a great benefit to me, and I’m very grateful that I’m in shape and healthy, but there are some drawbacks to this way...
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First (Second?) Hamlet Performance

Improvement is here, and I’ve got a long way to go. But on the plus side, the boredom is gone. I think that performing, or at least speaking the text and being out on the floor is what I love the most. I can get through the warm ups and the IPA, since above all I crave the work and I can keep it out in front of me to look forward to. Today was absolutely awesome for me, and I think I know why. I was able to perform and work my Hamlet piece today, and it feels like it’s been a long time coming, but I’m glad we had the wait so I value it more. Ugh, I love Shakespeare so freaking much. I was trying to decide which piece I would do for this Shakespeare text assignment, and I went through a couple of choices, some that I’ve done previously and some that I’ve never explored before. I was leaning towards Brutus’ “Romans, countrymen and lovers” speech from Julius Caesar, which has been my go-to audition monologue for quite a while, but that didn’t feel right. I really wanted to e...
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Urinetown Response

Augh Urinetown was so good! I was involved in the production of Urinetown here at the school, and for this post I’m going to be including some excerpts from my Urinetown response paper inter cut with some more in depth thoughts that I’ve had since the show ended about the effect it has had on me and my performing future. The first big thing I learned in this process was how to connect with people, something that Voice and Diction has also been extremely helpful with. I am a naturally introverted person, and I usually do not enjoy hanging out with people too much. I try to make up for this with over the top energy for the most part, but it doesn’t change my natural hesitations and difficulties in making friends and connecting with people. But Urinetown changed something to some extent. I started to discover how to truly connect with people, and I think that was greatly due to the stuff we’ve been doing in Voice and Diction. The exercises we’ve done in connecting with the second ci...
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Stagnant… Again

Today was so monotonous. It happened again. I felt so, so bored and dry today in class. I’m not sure if it’s me, but it feels as if there wasn’t enough material in the class to take up 16 full weeks. I’m trying not to be negative, and I have definitely learned an absolute ton in this class. I guess I’m just the kind of guy who really likes to be moving and performing and doing, and I haven’t felt that a whole ton outside of the Poe piece performance and stuff like that. The IPA was a nice breakup, it wasn’t my favorite thing ever but it definitely did help create some variety and spice in the schedule. I think if this was a six week or ten week class we would have just been chock full of new, interesting things every time. I know that’s pretty unrealistic of an expectation, but I just wish that for how interesting and educational this class is at its best times, it would keep being like that throughout the semester. There are some ways that I feel like this could be remedied wit...
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A Safe Enough Space

Wow, today was special. It’s was absolutely incredible to be in the room today. Coming off of the weekend, finding out that I’m a BFA candidate for when I get back from my mission, getting all of my assignments turned in, and experimenting with my Poe piece in class, I went into today feeling crazy good. And oh my gosh did it get so much better. At the beginning of the year we talked about creating a “safe enough space”. I’ll be honest, I’m the type of guy who really is turned off by the idea of the whole safe space trend. Especially in the theatre world, I think it is crucial that words and taking offense don’t control our discourse and interactions with each other, and I feel that this idea very often slips into excess and limiting words based on the slight possibility of causing offence. Because of this, I was initially very hesitant when we started to discuss this idea in class. But I think I realized what the idea of a “safe enough space” means today, and I think it’s a ...
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