Spreading My Wings

My heart is breaking

but yet so full  of love at the same time

outside  I can hear the windchime

The curtain has closed on another

production

time flies when you’re having fun

9 months will pass

and auditions will happen again

I am overwhelmed by bliss

and also gratitude

2 years ago when  I auditioned for Music Man

I was welcomed with open arms

the memories since then have been great

the journey has taken me

from River City

to  Oklahoma

to St Louis

(and in the off season to Bedford Falls in  It’s A Wonderful Life with Riverbend Youth Company)

and next year to the land of Suess

We all share a passion for the stage

but  in my career it’s time to turn a new page

Spread my wings and learn how to fly

Thanks for helping to grow and touch the sky.

This poem is dedicated  to everyone involved in the Amherst PTA play.  As  I prepare to move foward after next year to focus my technical and auditioning aspirations on theatre in Nashua  I could not more deeply express  the grattitude  I have to all  of you. I have been truly blessed to work with  everyone in this company many who  I have seen over the years as I grew up in Amherst.  I love you all very dearly and  I would be lying if I said I won’t be a little sad next year when Suessical is over. Thank you all so much for everything.

Princess K.I.M auditions were last week. It was interesting to be on the other end of the audition process and helping with keeping things running at the front end. We have an amazing cast and I am so very excited for the journey we are going to go on. Congrats to everyone who got in. To see the cast list and follow our production’s progress go to http://www.princesskimthemusical.com.

I am starting to plan out my schedule for upcoming audtions. I like to get a head start on things so I can prepare. My next audition is September 8th with Stagecoach Productions for Children of Eden.. I am likely auditioning for ensemble. The people at the theatekidsaudtions blog on tumblr reccommended Just A Housewife from Working and I have already gotten the sheet music. It’s always good to get a head start.. the more prepared I am the less nervous I will be. PTA auditions for Suessical aren’t until January so I stil have quite a while to decide A) what character I’m auditioning for ( considering either Cat In The Hat, Gertrude or Mayzie but won’t make a decision til after Thanksgiving) and B) what song I will sing. I am considering auditioning for the holiday show at the Amato Center again but the show and audition dates haven’t been announced yet. If I don’t end up auditioning for that I may end up auditioning for A Christmas Carol at Peacock Players with Allie and Sonya.
Pacing myself is key and focussing on one audition at a time and also finding a job. The job search has been very stressful and frusturating.

Also summer viewing schedule!! Please let me know if you want to join me on excursions!!

June 28th- August 25th Annie @ Prescott Park Arts Festival in Portsmouth I do not know what day I am going to this yet.
June 28th/29th You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown Stagecoach Productions I am still figuring out what day I am going.

I aim to go to one show at the New London Barn Playhouse evey summer. Right now I am deciding betweeen Singin In The Rain (Saw this at Nashua South in March and loved it.. can’t wait to see it again), A Legendary Romance or Laughter on The 23rd Floor. NL Barn Idols sounds pretty interesting too.
August 11th A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum at Interlakes Summer Theatre

Meet Me In St Louis has been over for about two weeks now. Since then work on Princess K.I.M. The Musical has really picked up so post show depressions is pretty non existant for me. Audition for Princess K.I.M. are on Friday and I am very excited to see who is going to audition. Looking so foward to seeing the process of this show come to life. Horray!!
Also so excited for the DVD party for Meet Me In St Louis on June 15th.

As far as the future of this blog is concerned it is very up in the air at this point. The Telegraph and Cabinet were purchased by another company at the end of April so at this point I have no new articles coming in. Hopefully I will have some work by July or Augusut. If not then it may be the end of an era and that will make me quite sad. I am on the hunt for suggestions for other local papers I can submit my articles to. If anyone has any suggestions please either leave a comment here or email me directly.

Candice Glover won American Idol. The finale this year was very mediorcre and the outcome was very predictable. Kree is a decent performeer but I kind of had an inkling going into watching the finale that Candice would win. If Angie had been in the finale it would have been more of a contest in my opinion. Can’t wait for the Idol Concert on August 20th.

Summer Viewing Schedule!! Email me if you wish to join me on excursions
June 28th You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown Stagecoach Productions
June 28-August 25th Annie at Prescott Park Festival in Portsmouth Haven’t decided which day I am going to go yet… it wil depend on my schedule.
July 27th Shakespeare In The Park @ Greeley Park Mercchant of Venice
August 2nd-4th NEC Open Door Show Twelfth Night
August 8-10th Cinderella Riverbend Youth Company (If I don’t end up working backstage)
August 11th A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.

Still deciding between seeing Laughter on The 23rd Floor, Singin In The Rain or NL Barn Idols at New London Barn Playhouse.

Also looking for song suggestions for my Children of Eden audition with Stagecoach Productions in September. I am auditioning for either Yonah or ensemble. Shoot me an email with your suggestions. Thanks friends!

Yesterday I had an audition for You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown with Stagecoach Productions. It went very well though I  did not get a callback.  Interestingly when the director  emailed me this morning he mentioned that he was on the board of directors for Manchester Community Theatre Players and suggested that I should try out for thier production of Annie which has auditons in July.

The irony of this is  that last year  at this time I was debating auditioning for Fiddler on The Roof at MTCP or Annie with Actorsingers.  It is  considerably frusturating that I don’t drive because if  I did then I would definitely audition for Annie.  One thing I learned after auditoning for Actosringers last year is that  I set my sights too high  when I chose to audition for Grace Farrell.  Hypothetically if I were to audition for Annie  for MCTP  I would probably lean away from auditioning for  Grace because I obviously know now that role is not attainable for me.  Star To Be might be slightly more attainable… other than that I would probably just end up auditioning for ensemble.

 

This of course is hypothetical.  I wish it could be reality…more I could not wish it. I hate loathe despise and abominate  the fact that I don’t drive.

 

OH well such is life.  The next Stagecoach  show is Children of Eden. Those auditions are not until sometime in August… date has not been set yet so  I wait for that announcement. I think  I may  choose to audition for this instead of the Holiday Show at the  Amato Center since  doing both shows would be kind of impossible. Show dates for Children of Eden are the first week of December and the holiday show at  the Amato Center opens the following week.

I try to shy away from writing reviews for shows  that  I am involved in. Let’s  get that out there right away.  The main reason because  is because I like to have some objectivity in my writing and anaylsis of the production.   I based this review off of the  dress rehearsal that we had on Tuesday May 7th.   When I first found out the PTA Play was going to be   Meet Me In St Louis   two thoughts came to my mind. The first was that this was the third year in a row that we did a show  which was set in  time period of the early 1900s. I was actually hoping we’d do something with a more present day setting… that makes me  all the more excited for Suessical next year. The second thought was…  “I am not familiar with this show.”  That second thought which was what actually held me back from wanting to audition.   I  kind of regret not auditioning looking back on it.  Music Man took awhile to  grow on me two years agoa and  I’m  sure this show would have had the same effect on me had  I tried out and got a part.    Another reason why I was reluctant to write a review for this show is because usually when I write reviews  I tend to focus on people who stand out in the production and what stood out about their performance.  Once again it is hard to have an objective point of view here because  I have been involved in this company for three years and have gotten to know  everyone and their skill sets really  well. That being said it  really hard for me  sit down and fairly  critique the performance and say ” This person was better then the other person.”  I hate favoritism… it is very overated.  ( In all fairness this will probably  be the worst review I have written due to my lack of objectivity.)  The music is another story.. I can be a better  judge of the music and not worry so much about favoritisim there.     Typically when I sit down and indulge myself in a soundtrack for a musical there are numerous songs that appeal to me.  The music in this show was pretty touch and go with me actually… I love  Judy  Garland do not get me wrong but certain songs from this show had more appeal to me  than others.   My favorite songs were probably Touch of The Irish, Banjo, Under The Bamboo Tree and The Trolley Song.  Banjo was an incredibly fun dance number and I wanted to dance along to it backstage.  When I rented the movie I was surprised that Have Yourself A Merry Christmas was on the soundtrack.  I am more familiar with the modern day version of this song by  Nat King Cole.

This year I worked backstage helping out with props, set painting  and scene changes.. it was certainly a change of pace from being on stage but I did really miss performing with everyone this year and thus cannot wait for Suessical next year. This was probably not my favorite play the PTA has done out of all the ones I have either been a part of or seen. It would probably get a 5 out of 10 a pretty modest rating. The movie version got a C+. Of course the overall experience of being involved in the play gets a 10.

Ratings of PTA Plays 1998-2013 Scale of 1-10. 1= worst 5 middle ground 10 best *was in the ensemble ** was on stage crew
1998 School House Rock Live 9
1999 A Chorus Line 10
2000 Enchatment of Beauty and The Beast 6  I perfer the Disney version much better which is why I am excited for 2015.
2001 Pygmallion 4   This musical prequels My Fair Lady.. which is  by far not one  of my favorite musicals. Plot is mediocre at best and there aren’t very many standout songs.
2002 Wizard of Oz 7
2003 Oliver 7
2004 Annie 9
2005 Sound Of Music 9 Missed the performanes because of school conflicts but have watched the DVD numerous times
Missed The King and I, Fiddler and Joseph because I was in school… have never seen the DVDS.
2009 Peter Pan 9
Did not see Children of Eden because of a schedule conflict though at this point I regret not seeing it because it would help me a lot in preparing my audition with Stagecoach Productions in August.
* 2011 The Music Man 9
*2012 Oklahoma 10
**2013 Meet Me In St Louis 5
Suessical gets an advance rating of 7 because I know that show will be awesome.. I don’t think that rating will change over the course of a year and should it change the change will be slight.

Te Amo Amherst PTA!

 Photo courtesy:  Rich Sparks

I can not express enough how much I have grown to love the Amherst PTA group. As I said in my entry A Note of Appreciation due to transportation issues after next year I will be focussing more on auditioning for shows in the Nashua area. I could not be more grateful for all the expereinces I have had with the PTA over the past four years. You guys are more than friends to me you are a family. I love you all very much and I hope you realize that.

http://http://youtu.be/c-3vPxKdj6o
We’ll start with a quote.. the author of said quote slips my mind at the moment but I feel it is very fitting to what will be talked about in this post.
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go, others stay around for awhile and leave a footprint on our heart and we are never ever the same.”

This is an open message to everyone who I have been in shows with the Amherst PTA and Riverbend Youth Company-
( there is quite a bit of crossover with people in both companies for the record)
I just wanted to take this opportunity to truly recognize all of you. In the past couple years ( four for PTA five for Riverbend) I have come to be very fond of both of these companies and all people involved. I am not planning on disappearing from the radar of either of these companies in case you were starting to worry about that. As most of you know last year I moved to Nashua and in the past several months I have spent my time acclimating myself to the arts scene in Nashua. Since Oklahoma and It’s A Wonderful Life both ended I have dove into the arts scene in Nashua joining the YMCA choir and the choir at my church. This decision was not easy for me to make because as I said a bit ago I have grown very fond of both of these companies. I have decided that after next year I will be focussing my auditioning and technical aspirations more on Actorsingers and Stagecoach Productions potentially Nashua Theatre Guild also. This is due mostly in part to geography and transporation issues. Of course depending on the show that PTA is doing I will definitley consider auditioning but for the most part I plan on focussing more on Stagecoach and Actorsingers and becoming more involved in the choir in my church and the Choir at the YMCA.

All my experiences over the past couple years have really helped me to grow as both a performer and technician. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the directors, producers, musical directors and choreographers on all shows I have worked on for your guidance and helping me to grow as an artist. Thank you to all my PTA castmates and crew members for your support, laughter and friendship. I hope that our friendships will continue throughout the years ahead. I love you all so very much! Congrats to all the seniors that are graduating from Riverbend Youth Compmany this year. It has been such a pleasure working with you all the past couple years and watching you grow as performers as well as having the opportunity to grow with you.. I wish you all the best of luck in your post Riverbend endeavors

Riverbend Youth Company Seniors: Samantha Ahern,Emma Ayotte,Meghan Bedard, Bekkah Cloakcasure, Morgan Chamberlain, Molly Desmond, Jon Edelbleit, Kat Feraco,Jess Harper,Brenna McClain, Patrick McKnight, Renee  Reeves, Rachel White

Forgive me  if I misssed anyone.

Figured I would list all the shows I’ve been in with both of these companies

Riverbend
2010 Annie JR Props
2010 Man Who Came To Dinner Sound Design
2011 Wizard of OZ Props
2011 Guys and Dolls Jr Spotlight Operation
2012 It’s A Wonderful Life Mrs. Hatch and various ensemble characters

At this point I am still deciding if I plan on helping out backstage with the summer alumni show and the Sound Of Music for Riverbend Youth Company. I also may audiition for the holiday show at the Amato Center again but that depends on the dates because the fall show for Stagecoach Productions is Children of Eden and their production dates are the 1st week of December.

PTA
2009 Peter Pan- Publicity
2010 Children of Eden- Publcity
2011 Music Man Ensemble
2012 Oklahoma Ensemble and Publicity
2013 Meet Me In St Louis Props
and obviously next year I am doing Seussical.

Oh and a happy Happy Mothers Day to everyone on the cast and crew of Meet Me In St Louis.