happy new year...

heading to West Virginia... won't have internet for a couple days unless we go to Panera...

and no new years with dick clark either...

but hey, who likes tradition anyway?

right. i do.

Happy New Year!

P.S. can't believe I've had this blog for 6 months! weird...

go big blue!

me and eli. obviously a very real photo.

I love the Giants!!!

They may not have the best record, but they are the best team ever in spirit and everything else.

Also, it has absolutely nothing to do with how cute I think Eli Manning is. Nothing at all. Seriously.

P.S. Merry Christmas! <3

ding dong

THE BITCH IS GONE

this is a better rhyme than dead. and it's true.

in other news,

Finals Week of Craziness

Sunday: 5pm Recital (Voice final)

Monday: 10:30am Psych final, 1pm Piano final

Tuesday: 8am American Lit. final

Wednesday: 8am SMAD 101 final

Thursday: 10:30am Performance Analysis final, 1pm Italian Final

Friday: Moving to Chesapeake Hall, HOME FOR WINTER BREAK

THATS 7 FINALS. IN 5 DAYS.

aaaand... the next 48 hours could not be any longer.

p.s. someone please rescue me from this work? i am so burnt out.

the regime of 204

to·tal·i·tar·i·an   
[toh-tal-i-tair-ee-uhn]
–adjective
1.
of or pertaining to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.
2.
exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others; authoritarian; autocratic.

---- dictionary.com


Total (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single (political) person, faction, or class, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.[2] Totalitarianism is generally characterized by the coincidence of authoritarianism (where ordinary citizens have less significant share in state decision-making) and ideology (a pervasive scheme of values promulgated by institutional means to direct most if not all aspects of public and private life).[3]
Totalitarian regimes or movements stay political power through an all-encompassing propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that is often marked by personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism.

------wikipedia.org

and likes to open the blinds when you're changing so everyone else can watch you, too.

So totalitarian regimes have

- rules regarding when you can talk and what you can say

- people telling you what to do; i.e., when you have to shut off lights

- personality standards- you should live exactly like the dictator lives

- terrible, oppressive leaders with whom no one can negotiate

- threats and do evil things to rebellious citizens

- hypocrisy because the rules don't apply to the dictators.

Hmm. Well, that sounds familiar.

that's because it is, crazy eyes. it's actually a really bad thing. not something about which to be proud.

p.s. hey girl in my english class who was talking about wishing she could back out of letting her move in... i know you were lying when you said it was someone else you were talking about... HAVE FUN NEXT SEMESTER... and good luck, you poor thing. you'll need it.

london calling

I've been accepted to JMU's Semester Abroad program!!

I promise it's a real program.

I get to study theatre, media and art (or pick up an internship) in London for about 2 months this summer!

i will ride the tube.

and double decker buses.

and hang out with parliament.

and make telephone calls.

This is basically the best day ever. I can't wait to dive in to planning and to get on that plane to the UK!!!!! Six-ish months until I go!

Amanda

P.S. Speaking of British things, Harry Potter and the AWESOME MIDNIGHT PREMIERE was such a great night. :)

our whole group.

I dressed up as Hannah Abbott. Because she marries Neville. <3

Sarah was herself, totally a Hogwarts character. Maureen was Luna, Rebecca was Ginny, Ashley was Lily Evans and Hannah was Hermione.

in memoriam

prop room senior block

"devil"ed egg costume for back to school night

wearing the beloved little women dress after just desserts

golden retriever puppy playdates

kt = gorgeous

one of the silliest, most fun people ever

<3

extremely talented at so many things

backstage at little women

life is a very strange bird, indeed.

KT Smith

December 7, 1991- November 10, 2010

P.S. i love you

wouldn't it be nice...

if my life could be a cheesy movie ending with a slow dance to Time After Time? I just think that would be swell, don't you?

Who knows, maybe everyone has a movie story somewhere within their life-- and mine just hasn't started yet.

P.S. MY 211 RESEARCH PAPER IS DONE. EARLY.

P.P.S. I'm going to VT next week to see CAITY ASM for The Good Person of Schezuan.

P.P.P.S Alla is coming to visit this weekend!!!!!

P.P.P.P.S. HARRY POTTER SOOOOON

so much to be excited about. loooove it.

JMU kids= lazy.

I admit, I can be just as lazy as the best of them.

thank you google images.

But there are several things that make me just INFURIATED with people on this campus.

#1. People who get on a REALLY crowded bus to get off at the next (very close) stop.

I am going from point A to C on the bus, and point D walking.

Taking the bus from ISAT to Hanson (point B) is not cool.

Not only can no one else get on the bus, but you now are pushing and shoving through people going to class and not their dorm, which it would probably be faster to walk to anyway.

This leads me to #2:

People who get on a bus, and see that there is space in the back to stand or even sit but don't move, making others have to wait for the next bus and almost be late to their next class.

REALLY?!

This hasn't made me miss the bus yet because I'm the annoying girl that squishes on so as not to be late to psych but seriously, MOVE BACK.

#3. People who push the handicapped button on doors when they're not handicapped.

The little symbol means to push open for HANDICAPPED PEOPLE.

Seriously, it's one thing to press the button for someone who can't get the door. But stepping to the side and pressing the button just so you don't have to reach out and open the door yourself? Lazy. And the door has a delay.

#4. People who complain about having "too much work to do" when they're A) not involved in a show/outside activity and B) when they are theatre majors who have talked about wanting to be involved in a show.

This week I needed to pull together a running crew for the production of True West in the Studio Theatre here at JMU that I am stage managing.

shameless plug (Oct 27, 28, 29, 30 at 8pm, Oct 30, 31 at 2pm) /shameless plug

And some people I asked had to decline because they were catching up on work from coming out of Metamorphoses, the most recent mainstage, or they're in the cast of Letters to Sala, the upcoming mainstage. Totally understand. What I don't get are people (read: freshmen) who say they don't have time but they like, totally, like want to get involved. (I'm exaggerating, but I mean I have definitely heard some who talk like that).

Point being: don't complain about how much work YOU have when you're taking 14 credits and not working on a show. Performance majors everywhere will agree that you don't have as much work as they do.

It's like how sometimes I forget that other majors go home after they finish their classes and do homework and then hang out with people and watch Glee and Very Mary Kate.

MKBucks are good wherever MK products are sooooollldddd

I mean, we do too, but just like in the middle of the night 3 days later and such.

P.S. True West is going to be awesome you should really come and see it!!!!!

i love the fall...

Mother Nature has it out for me.

Seriously?!

The Shenandoah Valley is a beautiful place to live, as long as you have God's immune system. Or don't use your voice much.

what lovely allergen-filled rolling hills

Starting my first semester of freshman year (read: almost exactly a year ago), I have routinely been sick every two months.

September, November, January, March, May, July, September.

I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

And no matter how much flonase, dayquil and nyquil I ingest; no matter how many times I rinse my sinuses, nothing seems to help.

think this picture is gross?

just be happy i didn't pick one of the pictures that shows the snot coming out.

That is, until they finally wear down and give me the hard stuff, aka a prescription for sinus infections, usually after my second visit to the health center/doctor since they don't believe me when I tell them this happens EVERY OTHER MONTH.

And then I get to enjoy a lovely one to two weeks of tired, snotty, coughing, congested life.

Did I mention just how much I love JMU?

P.S. JMU BEAT TECH!!!!!!!!!!!!

What jokie hokies....

JMU!!!!!

1 day, 12 hours, 24 minutes and 50 seconds

Seriously?

So today I'm driving along running errands with my cousin, Maria.

We just went to the bank and now we're driving to the library to drop off books, right? And since we're coming from the bank, we're going a new, unexplored (by me) route to Reston Regional.

We're dropping off the book that will probably cost me $10 since someone put a hold on it so I couldn't renew it so it came due while I was on vacation. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. If anyone was curious. Which by the way, I never got to finish.

ANYWAY

We get to this intersection to turn left where I have a stop sign but the perpendicular lanes do not. (+10 big word points)

Let me get this out of the way now: I messed up. It was my fault. I did not have the right of way.

There's a big line of cars on my left that go through and then I see four cars all getting into the right-turn-only lane with blinkers on. I can see no cars behind them and there's no one coming from my right. So I start to inch out just to make sure.

Out of NOWHERE, this little mean old man comes speeding (like 45 in 25 speeding, so not a lot, but still totally legally reckless) towards me. So I stop. Technically I am still not in the intersection, but I'm not behind the stop sign. He totally was fine and had room to keep going.

I expected a beep. I'm waving sorry, didn't see you with my best oops face on. What does this guy do? He stops his car in front of mine so he can look straight at me and point at me for a good 30 seconds.

I will forever be haunted by this image.

This is the closest thing I can find to the picture in my head.

His finger was all knobby like that cane, too.

After the situation, Maria told me I should have given him the finger. At the time, I just gave him my what-do-you-want-from-me? face until he finally drove away. Stupid asshole mean old man.

Then we went to Chick-Fil-a and got cookies and cream milkshakes :)

Update to come on what creepster dream I have about it tonight, though.

My most long term obsession

is degrassi.

i've literally been watching this show since i was 10. i've seen the channel go from noggin to the-n to teennick. i've taken part in fan fiction online, debated with other squawkward tweenies on whether emma should be with sean or craig (and then she marries spinner?!). anyway, they've basically covered about a million high school and some college issues. i don't even know how they continue to come up with what can happen to these poor kids.

IT'S JUST SO CAPTIVATING.

so now they've got this new spinoff called the boiling point.

and i don't really know how to deal because it really is SO INTENSE.

that used to be the tagline for a while.

so today i'm going to give you all my top 5 favorite "old school" degrassi: the next generation moments. since let's be real i pretty much know them all. get excited.

1. Emma and Sean's kiss/ the entirety of the White Wedding episode.

see how cute!?

emma has dated almost EVERY GUY on this show (she's been a main character for 9 seasons) near her age. and by that i mean literally all the guys in her grade except toby and jt. and toby had the hots for her so he like half counts. but none of them was so perfect, sweet, or as meant to be as semma.

He saves her from rick and accidentally kills him.

she visited him in jail and gave him shampoo she uses so he can smell her in his free time.

so why does she marry spinner?

sean, you f-ed up. big time. also, that's your best friend marrying them. yeah.

2. manny and craig's date.

this is back when manny was cute.

pre- craig

post -craig

This episode was HILARIOUS because they showed the date from both sides- to Craig it was terrible but to Manny it was a dream come true. Also Craig wins her horsey horse. (to go with ducky duck and goosey goose) And yet they still date (Manny ends up being quite the little homewrecker) for like a couple more seasons.

3. LiberT (that's my name for JT/Liberty)

So season 1, Liberty the bookish annoying nerd has a crush on JT, the class clown. and like, told everyone.

what 13 year old wouldn't have a crush on this????

or this?!

So he tells her he's gay to make her stop liking him. too bad she wants to be bffs now.

"hey liberty, girlfriiiiend!"- he actually says this.

So then Liberty gets hot (like 3 seasons later) and suddenly JT is like... um yeah, i was just kidding. AND THEN THEY GET PREGNANT. which is like, a whole 'nother mess. JT gets a job at the Canadian version of CVS and is totally gonna be the best teen daddy ever and then he steals/sells drugs to pay for said baby. So Liberty is like WE IS OVER. and gives the baby up for adoption when JT OD's on the drugs he was selling.

So JT moves on eventually and starts dating Mia, who is another teen mom. Liberty= pissed. So she dates some random guy who basically also likes Emma, but that's a whole different story.

ANYWAY, then JT is at a party and decides he loves "Oatmeal"(Liberty) more than "Meatball Subs." (Mia) REALLY JT?! So go after her, you say!

Well he's about to. And then he dies.

Seriously. He goes outside and pees on a car and so a Lakehurst kid (apparently the school only has thugs and idiots- except Mia) stabs JT in the back.

No, like really.

It was basically one of the only times I have cried over a TV show.

And I'm glad if the actor had to go to college and be killed off, that at least LiberT was once more. For about 2 seconds.

Oh, P.S. Liberty doesn't find out he still loved her until his memorial. Like 2 episodes later.

4. Craig, Sean, Spinner and Marco go joyriding.

At the ripe old age of 14, the guys decide to borrow a car from Joey's (Craig's stepdad/new guardian) dealership. Spinner, who had been downing entire cans of cheese for fun, pretty much eggs him on, while Marco aka killjoy tells them they shouldn't but goes anyway.

they're so cool.

So instead of just a ride around the lot, they drive 10 min away to try to win Kid Elrick concert tickets from a radio station. Who is Kid Elrick you ask? Hell if I know.

They actually win 4 tickets and pass the cops on the way back to the lot. Good thing Joey is smart and has an ALARM SYSTEM for his car dealership office where all the KEYS are.

Stupid boys. They lose their tickets and Craig loses like 1 cool point. It's ok though, because Spinner still is the least cool since the cheese can race eventually became a fart-a-thon.

5. Craig and Ashley do The Taming of the Shrew

Ashley + Jimmy= LUV4EVR.

Until Ashley decides to become a goth. Which Craig apparently digs.

bye bye popularity, hello jake epstein

So Craig is like, be yourself! And Jimmy is like, where's my girlfriend?!

Craig and Ashley are assigned to be partners in Ms. Kwon's latest English-assignment-that perfectly-fits-with-the-episode-theme: a scene from The Taming of the Shrew.

Ashley changes back to her old look for Jimmy- which basically means she looks like a little boy with her short hair.

Jimmy and Hazel do a cutesy, comedy version of the scene as a football player and cheerleader.

awwww. they don't get it! how cute.

Craig and Ashley do a dramatic, violent, AWESOME version of it that is totally commentary on Craig's dad beating him AND Jimmy trying to hold Ashley back.

Craig is even hotter when he's angry.

In the words of Ms. Kwon- "Wow. Intense."

hair today.... not so much anymore.

So prompted by the lovely Emma's brave move to summer-ize her hair with adorable bangs:

SO CUTE

I decided it was time to be bold and brave, too. So I have a bob now. This is the shortest my hair has EVER been. Except like, you know, when they were growing in. I fortunately also had enough hair to donate to Locks of Love. yay :)

Look Mom I lost 3 pounds!

Anyway, here you are oh faithful readers- the first view of my new 'do:

it's so SHORT. and different. and a lot less gross than long hair in 100+ degrees.

Off to rehearsal- What do ya think? Should I keep doing the short thang (not that i really have a choice on that for a while now), or was the long look better?

if i can make it there, i'll make it anywhere

first of all, my trip to NY almost never happened. my dad decided on sunday (the audition was thursday) to bail on me. in a move very familiar to every move he's ever made. so how was i surprised? i guess i had high hopes because this role was just too good to be true. and it got even more good to be true as the week rolled along.

on sunday about the minute i found out my dad bailed i texted mike because i was so frustrated to ask him if there was a chance i could stay at his house in new jersey. this was probably a little bit over the boundaries of our friendship since it was so last minute, but a) what did i have to lose and b) he and Julia are staying at my house later this month so i figured i might as well give it a shot.

he said he would let me know and then he said he would come into the city with me. before he even had a chance to ask his parents, my mom said no. i begged and pleaded all day monday, but went to rehearsal as usual. when i got home, she somehow became more open to the idea and i showed her a list of the routes i would need and the trains and buses i would take. i got back to mike who asked his parents and they said yes on tuesday. i got together all the tickets and info to get to his house at about 8pm on tuesday. i was leaving at 1pm on wednesday. talk about short notice.

so i had my train tickets in hand and made my way over to vienna metro, got to union station and eventually i was on my way to metropark, new jersey! mike apparently made wrong turns the whole way there (and back too haha) but it was soo good to see him! i probably would have made this trip just to hang out with mike swan, but the best part was yet to come.

who is this guy?!

oh wait, it's mike swan.

we went to his best friend's girlfriend's grad party, which was cool. i got to meet a bunch of people who probably have forgotten my name by now and got to make smores. :)

at the lovely hour of 5am I miraculously woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing since i forgot to turn it off of vibrate, even though i had set an alarm. and at about 6ish we hit the road for wawa (which i had never been to) and the somerville NJ transit station! i was starting to get nervous since i didn't know what to expect. this always happens to me when i audition. i get to a point where i almost don't want to go anymore, but then i get over it because i never want to regret not trying. and i start to get a little excited.

"welcome to shit, new jersey" said mike as we pulled into the newark station and then we got on the penn station train. we got to the city around 8am. and made our way uptown to the actor's equity association audition center.

i thought everyone else waiting in the member lounge (a room with lots of bulletin boards, fliers and really hard wooden benches) was equity and i was probably the only one who would be sitting there waiting forever. nope. the monitor came out and said that the auditions for the other group that day were very full of equity people and everyone else who was waiting might not be seen. then he said one of the most beautiful things i had ever heard. there was a very low turnout for Fat Camp and they were very likely to audition non-equity people. i had been just sitting there for half an hour and finally realized i needed to go hunting for a sign up sheet. DUH. about 5 minutes after i signed up, the Fat Camp monitor came out and called in all 13 of us girls who were not equity. three more girls came later. the audition was supposed to start at 9 and here we were already being called at 9:05!!! we walked into a bigger, nicer waiting room. the bathroom said "dolls" on it. i basically love this place. michael minarik said in one of his emails to me that he waited 9 hours to get into his first equity audition. i waited half an hour. too unreal.

by 9:15 we were told (well really more i overheard the monitor telling someone) that only 21 girls had shown up for the equity call. plus 16 non equity. holy crap. my chances are actually pretty ok. then i see the girls that showed up. the great thing about Fat Camp auditions were that it wasn't a thousand people who look like me going up for the same one role i am. nope, it was two separate ensembles they were casting. and it was very very easy to tell who was up for what. i mean, the title gives it away, right? so anyway, out of girls auditioning to be campers, there were only about maybe 12 of us. HOLY CRAP if they have an ensemble of 5 i have almost a 50% chance of getting the part. If it's an ensemble of 4 i have a 30% chance. i thought i would have about a...hmm let's think...ZERO percent chance.

my head was spinning at this point. i just hoped i wouldn't choke by the time i went in. i was really worried that i was so much younger than everyone and less experienced and probably not as good. the monitor told us that michael cassara, the casting director, was the only one in the room besides the pianist. i was a little disappointed that michael minarik wasn't there since he's the one i knew. just when i was thinking, well there goes that, guess who shows up just in time to only hear the non equity girls at the end of the line! you guessed it! i wanted to go say hi and introduce myself again as the girl he's talked to on the phone and over email but he went into the audition room and i couldn't lose my place in line. (i probably could have though, only 3 girls were behind me).

anyway, i eventually went in, and i don't think i could have done any better. like honestly, i felt more comfortable in front of a renowned broadway casting director and the producer of the show, who is a broadway actor (ok, ok, i had been talking to him on email and on the phone so it wasn't like a totally unfamiliar person) than i am in front of JMU directors. how silly is that? maybe because i knew this was a long shot and it would suck a lot less if i don't get this role as opposed to if i don't get a JMU role, where i am sometimes made to feel like i should choose a new major when i'm not called back.

mike could apparently hear me through the door on the other side of room (it backed up to the lounge) and we later commented on how unbelievably bad some of these people were. first of all, i heard at least 2 equity people do "i'm walking on sunshine" and the second one was actually really terrible. first of all, she was late to the audition and only got a good spot because she was equity, she looked like a hot mess and went off key on the "woah, oh" part of the song.

then there were the girls who did the big belt rock numbers- they had what i like to call "good day" notes. notes that you can hit; you've hit them before, but you are like hoping and praying the whole time that you're going to hit it. and let me tell you, audition nerves=not a good day for them...

i stuck with "i don't know how to love him" from jesus christ superstar. it is a song i know sounds good in my voice. it goes up to a C above middle C belting, which is right where i'm comfortable. it would take some major choking for me to mess up that song. i always try to pick songs that are at least one or two notes lower than my highest note and at least one or two notes higher than the lowest note in my range.

as i walked out the door thinking michael minarik didn't recognize my name, i hear him go, "wait wait come back! did you go to my high school?" and so i was like "yeah im the one that's been emailing you," and he just was like "omg im sorry i didnt recognize your name, how are you, where are you staying, how was your trip?, etc." and he asked me about JMU too since he went there as well. he told me he was glad he had looked at my resume and seen oakton and jmu all over the place before i was gone. he was really nice. and we chatted about mr bromley and stuff and it was really nice of them to give me the extra time. i could see on everyone's face as i left the room that they were like "oh maybe this 19 year old is not a loser thinking she can just come audition for broadway..."

so we were done and auditioned and the heels were removed by 11am. mike goes, "i don't know why but i was happy just to sit there for 6 hours! i'm sorry i didn't plan anything for us to do afterwards."

my bus was scheduled to come at 4:30. we decided to walk to central park and got some really good pizza (reason #129 why i love the city) and cannoli and a cheesecake (which was mike's but i stole a bite).

love in a tube.

then we walked the rest of the way to central park and explored not even a quarter of it because it's crazy huge. we did, however, lie in the grass for a while, walk past a company softball game and rode the carousel. another reason why i love new york- virginia summers suck. it was 75 degrees outside on the first day of july.

my view while laying in central park. this would be a picture of us on the carousel, but mike erased it.

we also saw one of the pianos that just hang around new york as part of Sing for Hope. i almost pulled out my song book and asked someone to play something while i sang but i figured that was kind of obnoxious. i should have though, because they are only going to be there until this monday. then we got our picture taken by the parkography guy (click the link to see our picture) as we threw coins into the fountain behind us. mike forgot to wish, and i wished for the part, of course. we'll pretend mike wished for that, too.

then we took the subway back to penn station. at 4 i hopped onto the DC2NY bus. USE THEM. they were awesome. they had huge-for-a-bus TVs, had 2 movie options and unlike bolt bus, were not overcrowded, late or promised internet that was bad. they seem a little sketchy because their phone answering machine sounds like a home phone answering message, and the lady called me back about changing to an earlier bus while i was on the scheduled bus. (i originally tried to see if i could get an earlier bus so i could make it back for rehearsal since i had no other plans) DC2NY was easy, early, almost everyone had a double seat to themselves and the internet connection was awesome. the only thing i didn't like was that the people on the bus voted on watching 2012 which i purposely did not go see in theatres, so i took a nap instead. when all was said and done, i got home at about 10:45pm. it was a long and crazy day and now everyone is asking me when im going to know, which i dont know when that will be.

my biggest problem at this point is that in explaining to my mom what will happen if i did actually get the part, my hopes are getting a little too high for my own good, because she wants to know even two or three steps ahead of me getting the job. that combined with the fact that she already asked my uncle if i could live with them if i get the part and he said yes.

so we'll see what happens.

p.s. happy fourth of july weekend everyone!

p.p.s. i rode the intimidator at king's dominion on tuesday and started to black out. i think i am coming a long way in terms of frivolity. :)

chance of a lifetime?

So let me start out this post by saying I am sorry I am not very good at this. Or, really I mean that I'm sorry I don't really have too much to say as far as things going on in the outside world are concerned. I've got a lot going on here in Amanda-land.

First of all, I decided to go with "Anything Goes"- because I was cast as Bonnie! She is the gangster sidekick and has some great comedic bits and two fun songs. For "Annie Get Your Gun," I was cast as Dolly, which funnily enough I played in 8th grade!

me in 8th grade as Dolly in "Annie Get Your Gun" with Katie Ottman

Anyway, it was a hard decision, but I'm really happy that I chose "Anything Goes." And we're about three weeks into rehearsal! It's going to be awesome. If you want to donate to help us produce this show, please check out our fundraiser!

So what's the big chance of a lifetime, you ask?
Well, let me start with some backstory.

In high school drama, not a day went by without a story from Mr. Bromley. And one person he used to always tell stories about was a former student named Michael Minarik. Apparently he was Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" and he didn't look at the right light when he was talking to God, and then his mother slapped him or something like that. He went on from Oakton to JMU, and then a few years in got cast in the national tour of a concert featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber works such as "Phantom of the Opera."

Michael came back to our school my junior year since he was in town playing Signature Theatre's "The Happy Time," which we went on a field trip to see. He also came to a rehearsal of "Into the Woods," our musical that year, and I think he saw the show during its run because he told us he had remembered seeing some of us onstage while we were at the talkback with him.

Since I was not sure where I wanted to go to school by my senior year when the academic acceptances were rolling in but the musical theatre acceptances were not, Ms. Gelinas put me in touch with Michael and he talked to me about JMU and eventually his advice along with a look at finances, the program and the campus helped me decide to go there. SO happy I did.

JMaddy and I are pretty tight.

I kept in contact with him this whole past year, at first thanking him about JMU advice and then to ask about a potential internship in production over the summer (he is now a producer as well as an actor).

Then I saw a casting call posted on Playbill for "Fat Camp the Musical," the new show he is producing. The call was for Equity overweight teens for the chorus of the workshop cast. Now, I'm not Equity, but I thought I would shoot him an email and see if there was any way I could audition. He got back to me right away and said that since I was not Equity, I couldn't get an appointment, but if I wanted to take the chance, I could wait around at the audition center and if they had time after the appointments, they would audition me!

So I'm going up on Wednesday of next week to the city and a blog of my adventures (of waiting in the AEA audition center for hours) will definitely be posted. :) wish me luck!

P.S. I saw Toy Story 3 today. It was awesome.

car rides

The worst thing that could ever happen while you're driving is the moment when you suddenly realize you have to pee. Not only do you have to pee, but you're on your way to Arlington which you know will be at least an hour in rush hour traffic. And you can't get over to the correct lane so you're having to turn yourself around a million times because of selfish people who can't let anyone into the other lane, even when they're not trying to take the exit. And by the time you get to the middle school where your rehearsal is being held, you have been holding a full bladder for about an hour and ten minutes, and the guy in front of you can't decide which side of the parking lot to choose.

In other news, the reason I was driving to Arlington (again) was because I am officially in the cast of Anything Goes! Yay :)
However, I still do not know what part I will be playing because we are still in a callbacks type of process... and I find out if I got into Annie Get Your Gun on Friday as well... so it will be decision time. Want to weigh in? Send me a comment.

P.S. The best part of driving is when it only takes you 30 min at 9pm to drive the same distance that took an hour and ten minutes in rush hour. :)

adventures of the first week of june.

So I began my travels this week with memorial day on Monday (MAY 31). Alla (my sister) had this concert on the next Friday and she needed a gold dress for her a capella solo in "Fame". But could she just borrow our cousin Tina's gold cami and wear shorts and call it a day? Nope. She needed to find a dress. Her original idea was to spray paint her clothing gold. That's fantastic, Alla. Brilliant. This kid is graduating from TJ next year and yet has very little common sense. So my grandma took us to JoAnn's, and we found this bathing-suit-y bright bronze-y gold material and a pattern. This dress took, count them, SEVEN hours to make. They give them more time on Project Runway. My grandma is basically the best seamstress ever. We were telling her that she literally will be wearing this dress for 2 minutes and it barely has to be functional. But my grandma wanted it to be perfect. The hardest part was turning the thin straps to the right side of the fabric (since you sew them inside out). That took an hour. It was extremely frustrating. We were using all these tools made especially for that- plastic and wooden dowels and tubes. It was a mess. But the dress looks like it's right off a designer rack. Also while at JoAnn's, Alla and I both bought patterns and silky fabric to make skirts so that is going to be my new summer project. I have been sewing since elementary school, but I have never done much more than repair already existing clothes or sew straps and ribbons onto ballet shoes. And one time I made a pillow. Ooh and I made the Jo doll for the collection of Little Women themed dolls I pulled together in 3rd grade (dorky fact about me #1). So this will be my first attempt at actual human clothing. Will post pics along the way!

Tuesday JUNE 1 was my birthday!!!! I went out to lunch with my mama at Red Robin, but since Alla was at rehearsal and Sam had to work, we still have not celebrated it! I WANT ICE CREAM CAKEEEEEE. WITH CANDLESSSSS. Oh and my dad scheduled himself to be an umpire for a high school baseball or softball game. cool.

Thursday JUNE 3 was the date of my second community theatre audition of the summer. Anything Goes with Encore in Arlington. Arlington is a pain in the ass to get to. It's supposedly 30 minutes away, but trying to be there by 7pm means leaving my house at 5:45pm, latest. Crazy. So anyway I get there ready with my song- I was going to sing "I Get A Kick Out of You" because it is awesome for my voice and fun to act. But I get there and learn that for our entire audition, we are going to sing the first line of the "Anything Goes" refrain and sing the second line on "bum." Which was kind of weird. But it was mostly high school and young college auditioning, so I thought maybe they did that just to help out the younger ones of the bunch. Anyway, that went really well and then we learned the first verse of "Friendship" so they could hear us harmonize. Love that song too. I recently got a version of it with Ethel Merman and Judy Garland singing a whole medley of Anything Goes songs that starts with "Friendship" and it is one of my favorites. And then after that we danced to the same part of "Anything Goes" and it was a standard audition dance- meant to see how you move. I got a call the second I walked into my front door (an hour later) that I was called back.

Friday JUNE 4 I was supposed to go to Alla's spring chorus concert (that the dress was for) but instead I went to callbacks for Anything Goes. The weird thing about these callbacks was that the callbacks were just going to determine who was cast in the ensemble. The actual roles are going to be decided next week by Friday. So if I get a call tonight (Sunday) then I will know I have been cast but I won't know what part until after the first week of "rehearsal" which will be a week of putting people in and out of the roles to find the cast. So callbacks day 1 started off with some acting exercises and improv. We played this game where one person draws the first line of the scene from a box and the second person draws the last line and has to steer the scene to end it with that line. Then we danced. I LOVED this dance. It was a really cute sequence to "It's De-Lovely" and we had partners. I had to be the boy because I was taller than my partner. Which makes me wonder if they are casting girls as lead/ supporting guys in the show because there were only four guys at the callbacks and I think one that couldn't make it. The weirdest part about it was that I seemed to be one of the most experienced at dance, which used to happen all the time at Alliance auditions but since high school and JMU, I am usually not the best dancer in the room. I was picking up the steps like I already knew them, which made the dance that much more fun! We'll see what happens if I get a call and go to a week of callbacks!

Saturday JUNE 5 was a loooong day. First, I went to audition number 3- Annie Get Your Gun for City of Fairfax Theatre Company. Which thankfully is only 15 minutes away. Until last night, I had not checked the website since Monday. Between Monday and Friday, they had changed the show (again) from Annie to Annie Get Your Gun. Which is actually pretty great because that means even more of a chance of getting the belty part because it's closer to my age. I have already been in Annie Get Your Gun in 8th grade. I played Dolly, the villain who tries to stop Annie from marrying Frank. It was a great character, but I sang in the opening song and the finale simply because a) that's how it's written and b) because it wouldn't have made sense for me to be singing in any of the chorus numbers like "I've Got the Sun in the Morning" because of my villain status. Hopefully I will be up for Annie this time around. I sang "I Cain't Say No" and did the Darlene monologue from The Diviners, both of which came from shows JMU did this year (I just noticed). It went pretty well and I should know by Friday whether I'm in or not. The director said they usually try not to do callbacks if they don't need to, so it's like the opposite of Encore!

Later, I went to see Julia and Emma at Tyson's Corner. Michelle was supposed to come down from PA as well, but she got sick and couldn't make it. Little did I know, Dan, Stephen, Glen and Linn were also going to come!! So it was a really fun time and I'm glad all of us fit into that weird booth. The waiters forgot about us and so they gave our real table to someone else. which was not cool, but they gave us the 6 person booth right there, so I guess it was good we didn't have more waiting to do. Also, Emma's camera is crazy ridiculous and made our faces purple:



Highlights of the dinner include: Emma and Glen trying to take an emo picture but laughing through it; Julia and I discussing our plaid bras and where we buy them; the story of the strawberry and how it got from the cheesecake to the end of the chocolate road on a really long plate; oh! and the tool-y kid that was wearing the same pink striped polo as Dan, except without the cast and with a backwards hat. He must have been like 14 or 15. Oh and his shirt was probably the same size as Dan's, so it went down to his thighs. Good times, good times. Can't wait for tomorrow/today because it is almost 2 AM.

Amanda

P.S. I still have not gotten any birthday cake. nor have there been candles.