Dancing in the Rain

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, its about getting out there and Dancing in the Rain

Sunday, January 30, 2011

England and Scotland and France ..OH MY !!!

Well its official !!! I will be traveling to Europe this summer with UVU Theater. We will be going from July 18 to August 12. We will be spending four weeks experiencing the best in theater in London's West End.We will be involved in two theater festivals: Festival d’Avignon and Edinburgh’s International Festival.


    We will be visiting such historical places like Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Royal National Theatre, and Stratford-upon-Avon. I will be spending 16 nights in London, 4 in Avignon, 1 in Stratford, and 4 in Edinburgh. I cannot express how excited I am to take part in this once in a life time opportunity. I was hoping to have gone last year and I did not due to the price of the program. I wasn't going to go this year either but then my best friend Zack convinced me that this may be the only chance I get for a trip like this, so I decided it was time I took out a student loan ( woot ...sorta) 
   I am in the process of applying for a passport and hopefully they don't find out I'm an international spy or anything hahaha. Getting your passport picture is, believe it or not, worse than getting any yearbook or drivers licence photo done. Now if you know me at all you know I have a hard time NOT smiling, so as soon as the photographer told me I couldn't smile guess what happened. The turnout was a picture of me with some weird smirk and a half raised eye brow. 

   In other news, Oklahoma's closing performance, yesterday, was very rewarding and emotional. I have learned so much about researching a play and the world around it.  With that I enjoyed being a part of an ensemble where I was able to create and mold a character.  Every night I was discovering something new about who I was, and what I wanted, and amazingly enough by the last night of the performance I was finally learning my characters secret that I had been acting on the entire time.


Here is a quick profile I had made:

Name: (Elizabeth) Eliza Martha Butler
Age: 17
Place of Birth: Green, Kentucky
Fathers Occupation: Farmer
Family: Youngest of three Caroline Butler and Christian Thomas Butler (died at age 15
Reason for Leaving:
     Ran away with Older sister ,Caroline Butler, and Caroline's Fiance ,David John Palmer, to Mississippi after parents died of Cholera and the children were placed in care of their Uncle.  After getting to Mississippi David left two girls on their own. They soon joined a wagon train coming from Alabama on their way out west. Her older sister Caroline Butler came down with small pox and died just outside of Claremore, Oklahoma. Here Eliza started a new life and became a part of the Oklahoma Territory Community.
Secret: She was in love with Judd; who, unfortunately, had no eye for her.
Nothing  too interesting really, but I will certainly be doing this or some form of it in any future role.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

      Throughout the process of working on Oklahoma! our director, Dave Tinney,  has made it a point to make this show real. To have each character in the show be a living, breathing person who is relatable and that our audience can connect with. Yesterday we had a High School and Jr. High School matinee. Before the show at company meeting Dave told us to do the show for the kids. That we should know that this may be some of these kids first exposure to theater, and that we are here to help out any Judds, Ados, and Lauries out there in the audience. Before our second performance that night Dave told us what he observed during that mornings performance:
       When the kids had caome in Dave noticed one boy sitting by himself, away from the rest of the kids. Throughout the show he was very involved in the story , yet he was still not a part of the students. At intermission he ate his lunch alone. At the end of the show, when Judd had died, he was crying and then  during bows he was the first to give us a  standing ovation. Then after the show, after what they had seen in our show, a couple of kids went to the boy and befriended him and started talking to him.
       Its amazing the effect theater can have on people. The power of showing life as it is and how it has been. I'm grateful that I have the chance to be a part of this amazing and powerful art form.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.

Hey there! Long time no see. So I've been away for a very long while and have decided to try the blog scene again haha. Here is my life up to date:

  • I was cast in Wiley and the Hairy Man. This was an amazing TYA production that I was able to be a part of and I got to work with ever so talented John Graham. I also got to learn to work on stilts which was also amazing (and scary)

  • I got a new job !! I'm no longer a Jamba Juicer. I am now working at LifeVantage Corporation. I'm a customer service agent. (basically I sit at my desk on Facebook, Hulu, while I Crochet, make my journals, and jewelry) I love my Job and I work with three of My Best friends Heather, Ashley and my Roomie Tasha!

  • I got a new apartment! I live right across from campus at these fantastic apts called Winterhaven. I LOVE my roomates ! I live in the same room as Tasha and we are best friends :)

  • For the past couple months I've been working on Oklahoma! at UVU. It has been an amazing experience to get to work with Dave Tinney. He is a fun professor and a Brilliant Director/ Choreographer. Our production runs from the 20- 29th of January.
  • And I get to now. I have just been cast in The Black Box Company directed by Dave Tinney. We are doing a Childrens touring show called AVillage Fable. We will be taking this show around Jr High schools and Middle schools. This show tries to deal with suicide in a way that doesn't necessarily scream at you.

Now for the future, right now I am planning and preparing for a trip to Europe this summer. I'll be going with our Theater Dept. Headed up By the wonderful Chris Clark. I will be going to England, Scotland, and France performing at the Festival d'Avignon and the Edinburough International Festival .