Hey theres! :)
Today was kind of a horrible day for me. Maybe horrible is too strong a word. But today certainly wasn't the best of days. Had a lot of drama. And I never have drama. Very rarely. But eh, stuff happens. Right?
Anyway, today's quote is quite an encourager. You see, I am currently pursuing acting. I was in a play this past April that awakened a love for acting/thearte inside of me. I've always had the desire to act, even as a little kid. It's thrilling to me. I love every aspect of it, the stage, behind the scenes, make-up, prostetics - when needed, practice, line memorization, character building, and working with others that are passionate about the same thing. But mostly, I love bringing stories and characters to life. Yes. It's so much fun! And I really do enjoy the psychological part of acting, where you truly have to be the character. You have to be able to think like the character that you are portraying. I get to think what the character thinks of, and really just study who they are. And then I get to act the character out, it's really about bringing them to life. Some characters may be from a different era, then that means I have to assimilate the fears, worries, and joys of that character by studying history on that particular era. How would the character react, think, respond during that time frame? It's just an interesting question. I have to be able to rationalize like the character would. It really gets psychological, you just have to step outside of yourself. I love that. I love imagination, and I LOVE bringing ideas, concepts, and characters to LIFE. I love creating a mood, something that touches people. I love moving people to laughter or tears. I thourougly enjoy it. Well...so yeah..enough about this rant. :) I have a bit more to say though;
As a kid, I so badly wanted to be an actor, but when I told my dad about my dream, he kinda laughed it off, and said, that's fine but it's not a very good profession. It's better to be a doctor, nurse, etc., actors are unstable. Although the usntable statment may be true, the fact that my dad laughted it off, showed me that he didn't have faith in me to do that, which crushed my dreams of ever pursuing acting. So, as a rational thought, I put all foolish silly things aside, and decided to put acting out of my head. It's always been in my heart, but it's been out of my rational head...that is until this spring. Being in the Alice in the Underground play (a darker version of "Alice in Wonderland," a story about homeless youth in Fairbanks with real teen monologues)has completely reawakened my desire, my passion, my exhiliaration, and my dream for acting. And so it has been unleashed. This summer I even auditioned and joined the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre for their Annual Summer Outdoor Show. I was a chorus member, dancer and gypsy in their musical version of "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Let me tell you what! LOL! I had no clue what I was getting into. All I knew was that they were looking for more actors, and I thought, eh, I'm not too interested in the play, but I should probably join the cast so I can build my actors resume. I've gotta start somewhere right? :) Well...that somewhere was hard! I know that evey serious actor has to do a lot of freebie acting before they actually get a paid gig, so this to me was my "internship." And so it began...wow! Tell you what! It was INTENSE! It really was! From the middle of May to the middle of June we got together 5-6 days a week, from 6-9pm! One day we would practice as the chorus music, the other we would practice the dance moves, twice a week would do some crazy sweat it all out Cuban Jazzercise - whew-wee, that was crazy! And the other, we would practice different scenes of the play. It was VERY intense. And after all of the grueling hard work believing that it would never end and the results would some day come very far far away then expected, we performed for most of the month of July. We had 14 shows! Crazy! And because my hair was considered too blonde for "Verona," I was the only one they gave a wig to. I have very short pixie haircut and super uber blonde hair, so they gave me a long black wig. And it was a ton of fun! So I realized that I LOVE the entire process! Even the hard and never seemingly ending process of pre-production. But it was all worth it, and it was a BLAST! I don't much care for Shakespeare, but this Shakespeare Production was off the waaazooo! :) It was a lot of fun! I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I wanted to quit, it would get hard, everybody's nerves would get shot, lots of confusion, and lots of learning and memorization. But it all payed off in the end! And, after being a part of the Summer Production of Two Gentlemen of Verona, I had many windows of opportunitess opened to me simply by being in the cast and by knowing people. So since then, I've built up a pretty good resume, and I have learned a lot from my fellow professional actors. I gleaned a lot from them. And next month, even though this is a small step up, I am going to be an extra in "Everybody Loves Whales," a film by Univeral Productions, a first time about Alaska shot completely in Alaska. This is a big deal for Alaska because Hollywood is coming to Alaska, and like I said, it's the first time they are shooting the ENTIRE movie in Alaska vs. say snippets of Alaska and the majority in Canada, Oregon,Washington or elsewhere.
The major actors on this film are Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Kristen Bell, and a few others. How exciting! I may not be working with them directly, but I will be able to share the same set with them. So that is super cool! :) You know, I've never been obsessed with any actors or musicians, I see them as regular people, with talents, that happen to be pursuing what they are talented and happy with. But they have fears, insecurities, hurts, frustration, and angers just like you and me. And believe me ladies and gentlemen, acting isn't as "easy" as it seems. You don't just get up there, "pretend" to be another character and get off and get payed the big bucks. The actor is the front face of the operation, but there's a whole crew behing the scene. There are hundreds of dollars that go into the movie and hundreds of hours. Actors need to have patience, be able to be flexible - all the time, have different schedules, long 12 hour work days (which is standard), and they don't always have their say. They have to pay attention to the scenes, not interupt, be polite, know what to do at what moment, build good relationships with their co-workers, pay attention to what the director wants, have uncomforable shooting moments, they have to conjour up feelings and create emotions with other actors, and that can be VERY challenging. It is not uncommon to find actors that are going through counseling, because sometimes the roles we take on are truly psychological, and can come back to haunt us. You have to take it a step at a time.
Well, I was going to say something else, but now I forgot.
So I guess this is it! :)
Gooday ladies and gents,
Sleep peacefully and follow that dream wherever that dream may lead!"
-Your Fellow Chocolatier,
P.S., I am now double majoring in music and theatre! Yeah! :)
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