Short Update

Hello again,

Alas, Murder in the Cathedral has ended. Though the crowds for each show were somewhat small, the quality of them could not be beat! Honestly, despite the size, I preferred this crowd to many others that I performed in front of, so I definitely considered the show a success. Plus it is always fun to be in shows with friends. I do believe that I will miss the show, but I am ready to move on with other parts of my life and perhaps break away from the Bowling Green scene of things.

Rocking the Rosie the Riveter look while backstage for our final performance

I have already made some plans to do some more comedy now that I have more evenings free. For starters, I will be MCing BG’s Professional Comedy Night this coming Tuesday. Though I have done this a couple of times before, I am a little nervous as I feel somewhat out of practice. Work has made it difficult for me to get stage time, but I am confident that the nervousness will subside rather quickly. As they say, “this isn’t my first rodeo.” Additionally, the DVD for Stand Up Toledo is almost ready to be released! They have already released a few stills from the DVD as teasers (see photo below). The people in charge are hoping to do a public screening of the DVD some time soon, although I won’t lie: I don’t always like seeing myself on camera. Not so much performing, like something with a script, but watching myself perform my own material or just “be myself” always feels awkward. However, this is something I will have to get used to quickly as I begin to do more and more performances for the camera.

Stand Up Toledo DVD still

Another update is that I may have yet another outlet for selling my books! Horizon Youth Theatre has offered me an opportunity to work with them on promoting my book at some of their shows… now I just have to get a hold of some books to sell/promote. So watch for a Kickstarter update! I really want to get this off the ground as I feel that this book is important for any kid who is interested in technical/backstage theatre (and believe me, I have met a few that are!).

That’s all for now, just a short update on the direction in which things are headed for me. As I tell some of the kids I work with before they head out to school: Have a good day! Make good choices, do good things!

“If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” – Hunter S. Thompson

Waiting…

At the point in my life, I find myself in a nearly constant state of waiting. I’m not a particularly impatient person, but I do find myself wishing that I could take a more active role in my life. Unfortunately, many things that I could be doing require me to have money that I simply do not have.

For example, it was recently pointed out to me that in order to promote my book more I need to have more copies to sell, hand out, use for book signings, etc. Unfortunately, the way my publisher works is that I have to pay for copies of my book to have them to sell/use for my own devices. Additionally, if I am going to get any sort of author discount I have to order a minimum amount of 25 books (which would be roughly $250, with my discount). All in all, this is a great deal, but when you factor in rent and living expenses, it’s a difficult number for a young actress who also has to worry about health and paying back school loans.

A peek inside my book, “Silly Billy’s Guide to the Theatre”

However, this fellow author whom I was speaking with brought up some very good points. I would be able to make the money back simply by selling the books, therefore not really losing anything. The difficult part is simply getting the money to start with. He suggested possibly taking out a loan or setting up something through Kickstarter. Since I had never heard of this program, I needed an explanation: Basically, Kickstarter is an online fundraising program designed to help artists, such as myself, begin projects. People can donate money on the site towards these projects, and are given rewards based upon how much they spend on your project. The best part? If you don’t reach your monetary goal by the date that you set, no one is charged anything. So someone could donate money towards the cause, but not have to pay if the project is scrapped for some reason. Cool, right? It’s definitely worth looking into, although I worry whether or not there would be anyone willing to donate money towards my cause, but you never know if you don’t try. Plus, I’ve already been asked to do a few book signings, so it wouldn’t necessarily be an exercise in futility.

Another route I’ve looked into is selling some of my artwork. Well, technically I have already been doing that (thank you, Redbubble!), but I’m speaking specifically about selling some of my oil paintings through Etsy.

One of my oil paintings, currently making my kitchen wall a bit more classy

Instagram made the coloring a bit brighter than it actually is, but you get the picture (lol, lame unintentional pun). For those of you that don’t know, Etsy is essentially a site designed to help artists sell their art online without having to worry about not getting the product or not getting paid for your art. Shipping would still be my responsibility, of course, but this not only gets my art out there, I don’t have to worry about giving it away to someone who will neither pay for nor appreciate it.

Another route I’d like to look into is doing comedy on a bigger scale. This is something I may not have to wait for, I just need to be more aggressive on finding work. However, I am making the choice to do this after…

The finished product! It took a lot of work, but I finally have the poster where I want it. It’s definitely one of the better posters I’ve created.

Murder in the Cathedral! We are drawing closer to tech week and the inevitable opening of the show. I am truly fortunate to be in yet another show with so many of my friends. I am also fortunate that the director has been very patient with me, I have unfortunately been fighting a cold for several weeks now. I’m hoping that this will have passed by opening night, though the doctors are, frankly, a little stumped at this cold’s insistence on staying in my system. Never the less, as the old saying goes, “the show must go on” (and it’s often forgotten counterpart, “or else we’ll have to give them their money back”). Speaking of the show, I have to get some things ready before rehearsal tonight, so I will end this entry here.

“All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for.”  – Woodrow T. Wilson

Random Acts!

Hello again!

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy for me and a lot of things have happened!

I have made the decision to stay where I am for the summer. I will be subletting for a friend and working to raise money so that I may eventually move to somewhere where there is more work. This decision was greatly affected by the opportunity I was given to join Random Acts, a traveling theatre troupe based in Ohio (for the time being). Not only is this a paid acting job (which is awesome), but it also gives me the opportunity to travel to potential living spaces while continuing to build up my résumé. This past Saturday was our first performance, which was in honor of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, entitled “A Titanic Mystery.”

I got to wear a replica of the Heart of the Ocean necklace from the film, “Titanic”

In this production (which I managed to learn in a week, memorization powers activate!), I played Madeline Astor, the character that Rose from “Titanic” was supposedly based on. The mystery part of this show focused on the whereabouts of the necklace throughout the production. The show was written by the director of Random Acts and a LOT of research was put into the show. The majority of the characters were all based upon people who were on the Titanic and we performed the show for a group of Titanic aficionados, who really knew their stuff! The show went splendidly despite a few technical difficulties and I am looking forward to our next production in a few weeks.

Onto Lionface news, we have unfortunately lost the space that we were to perform “Murder in the Cathedral” in. We were set to finish up paperwork and whatnot regarding the space when someone pointed out that there was already an event scheduled to be held there. So, for the time being, we are looking into different venues. Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened to us, but we always seem to manage in one way or another and I have no doubt that we will find another space that will work just as well.

Aside from my work waitressing, I have been getting more hours doing another thing I love to do: working with kids!

A gift from one of the many kids I work with

Kids provide endless fascination for me in that they are so much smarter than people seem to think. A lot of times, adults will try to shelter children and claim that they are simply to young to understand anything. I strongly disagree with this sentiment, I have watched children K-6 come up with their own unique characters, write their own play, build their own set, design their own costumes, AND perform their show for their parents all over the course of a summer. When faced with a challenge, some kids rise to the occasion even more than the majority of adults do. Recently, I had the opportunity to teach another theatrical makeup workshop with a few kids from one of the schools I’ve worked at. I was amazed at how quickly they were able to pick it up and soon they were creating designs and applying them better than a lot of high school and/or college students. I think the difference lies in enthusiasm, oftentimes the older we get the less enthusiastic we are about trying our new things. I believe that as we get older, sometimes we are less likely to want to try new things in fear that we will fail at them. Kids don’t tend to have that sort of hesitation, sure they might get upset if they fail the first time, but they seem to be more likely to try them again until they get them right. This is all my opinion, of course, but I think the world would be a lot different if we would take some of these childlike mentalities and apply them to our own lives.

I’m sure I will have more to write later, but as there are still things that I need to finish, I’ll leave it at this. Thanks for reading!

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

Lionface, AH! Lemonface, Ooh!

Happy Hunger games!

That’s right, I’m going to come right out and admit my intense nerdy love for The Hunger Games, but more on that later.

First, I’d like to talk a bit more on this fantastic organization that I am apart of: Lionface Productions! We are a non-profit theatre organization in Bowling Green, OH and are currently coming to the end of our second official season!

Plus we have sweet, sweet t-shirts!

That being said, our final show, Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot is now in rehearsals and thus far it has been incredibly fun! As opposed to setting the show back in the early, early days of the Catholic church, our director has decided to place it some time in the era of WWI, which was actually the time in wish Eliot wrote the show. I’m interested to see how this will affect the acting, especially when we get into rehearsals. Plus, this gives the women of Canterbury (of which I am one) a lot more strength and say in what is going on as opposed to the early days where women were seen and not heard. If you are interested in learning more about Lionface Productions, please check out their website: Lionface Productions

We are currently trying to raise money to put this show on, so if anyone has a few dollars that they would like to donate to this fantastic organization, please click her: Lionface Productions Fundraising

A little bit more of my painting is complete! Naturally, there’s still a lot to go, but I’m having fun with it.

Back to my nerdy excitement about The Hunger Games. I have to admit, I am a little disappointed that they are coming out with a movie only in that it means that I won’t get to play Katniss Everdeen, which is a phenomenal role. I am going to the midnight première with a few friends and I truly hope that the film lives up to the phenomenal book series. I am sure I will write more on this after I see it, but I wanted to share my excitement.

As for the headshots, I am still excitedly awaiting them as they are being touched up! However, I feel that I can reveal the group responsible for them: Glass City Stills!

Glass City Stills is run by the multi-talented actor/photographer, Cole Simon, who I had the absolute pleasure of working with. Though the company is out of Chicago, we were able to meet in the Columbus area, which was a great deal more convenient for me. A mutual friend ended up setting up this first contact and the rest is, well, that’s what’s going to be seen soon. I had a lot of fun working with him and I cannot wait to see how the photos turned out!

Keeping this post fairly short, I’m still not exactly a “blogger” by any means, so I’m trying to keep things simple. Feedback is always a plus as well! So until next time, may the odds be ever in your favor!

“You never forget the face of the person who was your last hope.” – Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

New Facebook Page!

Due to a growing amount of networking connections, career changes, etc. I have opted to finally create my own Facebook page (as opposed to my profile/regular page). My main reason for doing this is privacy, but also so that people can follow what I’ve been doing as I begin work in the entertainment industry. Some might say that this is self-absorbed or whatever, however, I want to have people be able to view all the cool things I have gotten to do without having to read my occasional rants and crazy posts on my actual post. Make sense?

In other news, I have recently found out that I sold 50 copies of “Silly Billy’s Guide to the Theatre” in the first quarter! Considering the fact that I was only published for half of the quarter, I feel like this is pretty darn good. However, I do need to work on getting myself out there and promoting so that I will be able to sell more and hopefully convince people that there is a lot more to theatre then what meets the eye.

When you publish a book, one should always have the nerdy picture of themselves reading the published version.

In other news, I will be speaking to my former junior high for their annual “Career Day.” It feels really weird to be going there to talk about my career when it feels like I didn’t even graduate all that long ago. When asked what I should speak on, I was given the answer of whatever you want, so I will be talking about my career as an actress, author, comedian, and makeup artist.

Speaking of makeup art, I have finally updated the makeup section of this site to include photos from Lionface Production’s Winter One Acts 2012! There were three shows performed and though I did the makeup for all of them, I opted to only save photos of two of them (given the similarity and simplicity of the makeup for one of the shows). This time, I was able to incorporate some liquid latex and the result was pretty awesome.

A sneak peek at the nastiness that I have created! Muhahaha, mine is an evil laugh!

Other then that, I’ve been having rehearsals for Murder in the Cathedral (which is going fantastically!) and preparing for headshots on Monday (stay tuned for the exciting reveal of the photographer I’m going to and my new headshots!) I may or may not post again before then, but for now I feel that this is a good place to wrap up.

“Human kind cannot bear very much reality” – T.S. Eliot