Closed!

What a great run! for anyone who is curious... here are some of the reviews, but hopefully you came and made your own opinions about it! Love you my Gypsy family! Until next time....

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700164931/Dark-Horses-Gypsy-has-plenty-to-sing-about.html

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/52212149-81/rose-musical-stage-mama.html.csp

http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=169

http://inthisweek.com/view.php?id=2526662

GYPSY (Part 2) Opening night tomorrow.

Ah HELL WEEK. How can I describe this for those who have not experience it......

day one...stopping starting standing waiting for lights and sound cues to be set......set changes...sleeping while waiting long hours.....then missing something important while you were sleeping.... picking up where we left off the night before so the days all blend into one long day.

(the Boys patiently waiting for lights to be set on their number.)

then costumes thrown at you. Literally. 6 kids + 25 adults + 5 changes a piece (at least) + no costume plots = A zoo backstage. quick changes in the very small wings....clothes flying.... shoved out of the way for a giant set piece to fly by.... jumping on stage and hoping all the rehearsal will kick your muscle memory into gear because you have no idea what is next... the actors desperately needing to work certain parts of the show and trying to find the energy and the good attitude to do it... and of course time. did I mention we have live animals in this play? oh yeah.. and don't forget to SMILE BABY!!

(This is Lauren in partial cow costume with no use of her hands.. so she sits and waits backstage)

it has defiantly been one of the craziest tech weeks I have experienced.

But ready or not we have an audience tonight. One of my favorite parts of theater is watching a play really come alive with an audience. Mistakes will defiantly be made but that is also part of the fun. Its going to be a great show. The talent and the heart is there.

If you want to come and see the show visit www.egyptiantheatrecompany.org and get your tickets. Use promo code "Darkhorse" for a discount. :)

GYPSY

Since I have nothing really new that happens in my life I decided I would blog about the current show that i am in... I will try to be honest about my feelings of the production, good and bad, so that I can look back and remember it just the way it was.

So the current show that I am rehearsing right now is.........

For those of you who don't know this show, it is loosely based on a true story about Madame Rose and her two daughters, Louise and June, and their life in show business. The story begins in their life in Vaudeville (traveling vignettes and variety acts) but as that industry slowly dies and June runs away because of Rose the unbearable stage mother, the story ends with Louise living the life of a burlesque stripper, brought on by pressure from her mother. Its a great show that is very sweet, funny, dark and sad.

My character is June (based on June Havoc) She is the younger of Rose's two daughters and the one center stage while Louise is pushed to the back and dressed up as a boy. She eventually can't take it anymore, and runs away from her family to make it on her own.

This is very convenient for me because that means I am not in act two of the show and get to take an hour nap backstage.

We are two weeks away from opening this puppy and it feels like we have had two rehearsals. A combination of what feels like a somewhat slow moving rehearsal process and a very disjointed show, (ie. I am not on stage with half of the cast, ever. Not even in the same act as half the cast) it seems like I hardly know what is happening. But with a talented cast and a great director I am keeping the faith that when it gets all put together it will come together like Jello. Baby.

We get to rehearse in our actual performing space on Saturday! yeee! And costumes to come soon as well. I can't wait to watch the whole thing and see what the show is like :)

P.S. my character is perpetually in the splits in the show. ugh. So keep my left hamstring in your prayers at night. Oh and our leads are both sick so keep them in as well. Hopefully all will be healthy in two weeks when we open.

How To Be Alone

.....while in between theatre projects....
.....work being painfully slow....
.....no serious relationships....
.....and roomates gone quite often.....

I am trying to learn how to be by myself with out driving myself crazy.

Watch this and you will get an idea of what I mean.



Which has inspired me to do more of this...

*painting, building shelves and decorating my room
*growing plants!
*learning the guitar
*going to the library
*reading
*cooking (ha)

For a start. I will let you know how my new skills work out. I think my plants are already dying.

My life is a movie.

Went on a nice run this morning and was of course listening to my ipod when suddenly my life turned into a scene straight out of a movie.

Out of nowhere a mailman who looked something like this...

stepped out onto the sidewalk and I plowed straight into him. I kid you not at that EXACT moment the song "At Last My Love has Come Along" came on to my ipod and I am pretty sure everything turned slow motion. We even had a moment of eye contact and then we smiled and I continued running listening to the rest of the song as if I were in a movie. I even went with the urge to turn and look one more time. It was amazing and made the rest of the run so much more enjoyable! Too bad I looked like something that fell from the sweaty tree and it probably didn't play out same way from his point of view.

White walls are boring.

Just moved into a new apartment. A permanent, temporary home to live when I am in SLC. Which looks like it might be for the whole summer! So this is the project that we took on. The apartment was a one bedroom with a huge, some what divided, front room. Well we decided to make it our project and for much cheaper rent we turned it into a two bedroom!


These are the white walls before we splattered our personality and creativity all over them. The far room with the balcony is now my bedroom after we divided it with curtains and a faux-wall using various mirrors, clocks and photos, and of course some of our personal artwork :) and the boring white walls had to go as well. Most people do a little planning before painting but I just picked up a pencil and as I started drawing, Jeffrey started painting. It was very spontaneous and we let them creativity juices flow! It now looks like this.


Furniture from DI- $100
Paint/curtains/supplies- $20
Opportunity to get your hands dirty and make something your own
and then have your cat slowly destroy it all...... - PRICELESS!

oh 2009.

It is really hard for me to imagine 2010 to be better than 2009. It was a pretty awesome year.

The easiest way for me to categorize the years and events in my brain is by associating them with what shows I was in. I am sure many of you theater people understand. Here is a quick list of things I liked about this year, sorted by show.

THIS IS YOUR LIFE! (on tour through the east coast)
-met a crazy girl, who likes to call herself my friend, named Lizzie.
-strengthened the family ties with my long lost brother Allan.
-Got to travel spending virtually not a dime of my own money. :)
-oh yeah, and I enjoyed teaching kids valuable lessons through the art of the theater...yadda yadda yadda.

GUYS AND DOLLS! (Sugar Factory Playhouse)
- Choreographed my first full length musical!
-Strengthened the family ties with the ma and pa.
-learned to re-appreciate the dedication and passion of a community theater...yadda

GREASE! (J-Hole)
-managed a restaurant like a real grown-up.
-had annoying songs running constantly through my brain.
- made lasting friendships based on the fact we had similar things to complain about.
-lived in the middle of fascinating wildlife and scenery all summer long.. (that i never got a chance to appreciate.)

GREECE!(Not a show, just a country)
um...just plain amazing.. thats all.

CHRISTMAS SHOW! (j-hole, round 2)
-100% freedom as an actor and choreographer. (sometimes its just easier to have someone else tell you what to do)
-By January 3 learned almost all the lyrics to pretty much every Christmas song ever written.
-slept in everyday, in a cute cabin, in the middle of a winter wonderland....can't complain.
-Tried very hard to impersonate Rosemary Clooney, and then gave up cause no one knows who she is anyway.

SOOOO.
-First year out of school- Holla! Hard work pays off.
- Hit approximately 15-20 states and 4 countries!
- Gained some friends.- (weird I know)
-Had a lot of fun. Who knew that being a grown up would be so much fun?!



NEXT YEAR>>>>>hmmmm

-5 countries?? or better, more than a month in one foreign country.....Yes.
-survive another year with out a boring 9-5 job.
-lose 5 pounds.. work-out everyday....oh! be able to do the splits again.
-eat less sugar --GASP---i know. :(
-Be a better friend. This is no secret. I suck at keeping up good friendships.
-find an adorable place to call home, even when I am away for long times.
- be a better mom to my kitty. I will start by not forcing him to stay in my arms while I pretend that he is a cuddly kitty.
- learn how to format my blog so it doesn't look like a three year old uploaded and spaced it.(Just added this last one as I am trying to put up pictures, looks like you don't get pictures this week.)
- I am also up for some friendly criticism on 2010 goals.

peace.

What are YOU Thankful for?

My cat, FAMILY, great friends, a country where I can do what I love.
Oreos, Dr. Pepper, candy, CHOCOLATE,orange chicken.
the power of music, GOD, freedom of EXPRESSION, discovery, COMPASSION
Theatre, LOTS OF LAUGHTER, game night, MY DOG, health, HUGS
Kareoke, POKER NIGHT, fuzzy blankets, UN-BORING CAREER, CSI at two am.
HOT showers, FRANK SINATRA, mashed potatoes and gravy, dollar menus and YOU Seriously.

The long awaited video

Lizzie put this together.

Delphi, Athens and Rome.

The last week of our trip!
(the temple of Athena. Painted Camouflage.)


DELPHI
It was a struggle getting to Delphi because this was our first real experience where NOBODY spoke English and we couldn't even tell what the road signs were saying. So we hopped on a few buses and just crossed our fingers that it was taking us the right place. We even rode for free because we didn't really understand the whole buying a ticket process. (ooopsy)

Delphi was great we took a short pilgrimage up half way to the Sanctuary of Apollo (just like Socrates and many others) but unfortunately the top portion of the ruins is closed because it was built on a giant fault and it may crumble at any moment. We also saw the training grounds of some original Olympic athleates. Lizzie and I even ran a foot race on the track. Guess who won?
We were lucky to just barely miss the rainy day in Delphi and we headed out of town back to Athens.

ATHENS!
(this is the temple of Thesion in Agora)
We saw way too many ruins for me to tell you each one. Ruins were literally around every corner, surrounded by shops and metro stations. The highlights for me were... the Parthenon actually all of the Acropolis. The theater of Dionysus and the Herod Atticus theater. I actually sang a note while standing (almost) on stage. Now I can say I have performed in those theaters :)
While the ruins were mind boggling and spectacular, Athens itself leaves much to be desired. I am glad we waited to the very end to see Athens cause it is much busier and less attractive than the islands. But I did like the bakeries on every corner, and the gyro places that lined the streets. We would order a gyro and before we had even finished, we had bought our selves a second. We watched the changing of the guards for quite a while, because it was very interesting the way they marched and such. (and the boys in uniform didn't hurt keeping our attention)
We stayed the night in the very finest of places. A youth hostel, six girls to a room and a shared bathroom, with a very loud sleeper who was growling in her sleep. Plus the ipod decided to stop working. I never thought I would wish to be sleeping on the beach again.

ROME

I know it seems pretty random to suddenly be in ROME! But we were pretty lucky to have a 14 hour layover in Rome. SO although Rome wasn't built in a day we put in a solid effort to see it all in a day. Unfortunaly the transportation methods getting to Rome weren't really going our way, and resulted in me being extremely cranky and hungry because we we only had a couple more hours of daylight to see EVERYTHING! Once we finally arrived we were very cranky but Lizzie and I can't kill each other now only because we have already made it this far. We caught one of those very touristy hop on hop off buses and within an hour had already seen the Colosseum and other major sites. We even got to the Vatican before it was too dark, but unfortunately couldn't get in. Just another reason we have to go back to Italy.
We then ate an authentic Italian meal and had gellato as the very last thing to eat in Europe. And yes it was fantastic.

Santorini Continued...

Sorry about the short one.. Internet time ran out.

So we spent the first night in Thira and in the morning decided to find a beach! well we walked from our hotel to the city and by the looks of our map, the beach couldn't be much farther in the opposite direction....or so we thought. We ended up walking an hour to the beach, which didn't have anything to offer for snorkeling anyway, so spent maybe 30 min at the beach and walked 1 1/2 hours back to the city. then we went out to the city of Oia. This city is famous for this photo op

. and the sunsets here are better than anywhere else. We casually walked through the streets taking many photos and talking to the very nice shop owners until it was time for the sunset. The streets are built all on top of eachother, and so you could easily hop onto the roof below you, and we saw all sorts of animals hanging out on rooftops. The sunset was quite spectacular, but we haven't had a night with out a beautiful sunset. We crammed into a very crowded bus and had dinner on a very romantic rooftop, dimmly lit with music and a view and couples in love. And then there was Lizzie and I. Awkward....

Food list

Greek salad (I was very disappointed, didn't realize that it didn't have lettuce, only more tomatos and cucumbers which i don't like)
More crepes

Lamb

CRETE!!....Er...Naxos?

So the next day we had our Ferry tickets in hand and went to double check our boat with the local ticket booth. The receptionist causally matter-of-factly told us it was cancelled. So we had a couple of options...stay in Santorini for a few days more or pick another island at random. We picked Naxos. and in less than an hour had to get ourselves on the boat.

Naxos, a town full of octopus and squid, was pretty big compared to the other islands. I am getting pretty good at bargaining for a hotel room and "Nick the Greek" took us to our hotel and was very friendly to tell us about all there was to do on this island. We decided to rent a four-wheeler and concour the island ourselves! We strapped on our bags the next morning and set out find whatever! We visited many little villiages through the very steep mountiany terrain, and stopped at this villiage, pretty much in the middle of no where for dinner. We went exploring through the little streets, as usual but the thing that was different with this city was that it wasn't near the coast. Meaning we had no landmark to find our way to the exit. We ended up wandering through the streets for over and hour, with no people around, just taking wild guesses on which corner to turn. It seems that the stairs up never ended. Fortuantly we found this little lady hanging laundry. YAY! unfortunatly she didn't speak english... she spoke French. So with the very little French I knew this little angel showed us the way to our ATV. We then went to a very remote beach and did some snorkeling and saw some more octopus and fishys. The sun was setting and we still didn't know where to stay the night. It was getting darker and darker and we still didn't have a hotel.. so we could either go back into town......or there was a very cool beach that we could camp on for free......hmm. We chose the adventure! although very cold, it was free and easy.

Santorini...the romantic destination.

So the island of Santorini is all built on a volcano, which means EVERYTHING is stairs. So after a long day of hiking to the beach and ten spending a day going up and down stairs, our legs are feeling it. But it was so worth the energy because the views are out of this world! Sorry i can't talk anymore! love you all!

Hello! Gia!
So continuing on with 10/18
We traveled around town for the rest of the day, getting lost in all of the windy roads with no names, but we didn't mind getting lost because the scenery was so great. I devoured a strawberry and nuttella crepe that was very messy but absolutely heavenly! So good that I almost forgot that I had the chicken pox.
So remember how I mentioned that the bugs were eating me...that night I ended up having more than twenty bugs bites or hives or whatever they are all over my body.. making last nights rest very miserable. This morning there were too many to count, mostly on my arms and my face.. :( So we took the evening easy, strolling along the beach in the sand listening to music and watching the sunset....how romantic for lizzie and I.. haha. It was fun though. We have met alot of really cool people so far. A lot of fellow backpacking students from all over the world and some really nice and sweet locals.
10/19
So first things first! We went out to find a pharmacy. Since yesterday was a sunday we couldn't do anything about the hive situation. A very cute Greek man named Antonio who didn't speak any english at all showed us along the windy tiny roads for a ways to the pharmacy and I spent my whole ration of euros for food for the day on meds.. It was sooo worth it. They are starting to un-swell and are only the size of quarters now. Enough about the pain. It hasn't really affected how wonderful and charming Mykonos was. We spend the morning hanging out at the port and shopping. Then hopped on the Ferry to Santorini!!

Arriving to Santorini, again with no real plan of where to stay, and I had just woke up from my two hour boat ride nap and still was very groggy and confused. We hop off the bus, and like at the other port were bombarded with people trying to get us to come to there hotel. The first woman who walked over to us offered us a hotel that was nicer than any hostels but still out of our price range. I have never really "haggled" prices before but very easily talked her into letting us stay for 10 euro a night. In no time we were in her car getting a ride to the hotel and I was still dazzed and confused on what had really just happened. I guess since it is the off season they are willing to just fill up the rooms at any price! or I just have some nack for haggling. So we dropped off our bags and made it to the main part of Santorini just in time to grab dinner at a cool very local place.. ( I had lamb and Lizzie had pork Slovuki and we shared some Tzitzi) and finished just in time to see the sunset.. Talk about spectactular! you could see all the islands and the clouds. Again. so romantic. Awe.. So we wandered through the very steep (Santorini is a volcano, so EVERYTHING in uphill.) streets that were so cool. If you close your eyes and think about what you imagined Greece like, this is it but so much better in real life. I wish the camera captured it better. Time is about to run out on my computer. Gotta go ! love you!

Travel Journal of Greece! First three days.

Greece!!!
We have arrived and are still alive!!!We started off with what could be expected on a 9 1/2 hour flight to Paris, Meaning crying babies, old men behind us wiggling their toes between our arm rests and of course not getting any sleep. The good news is that Elder Russell M. Nelson was on our flight so we knew the plane was probably not going to crash.
We rushed through the airport so quickly in Paris that we saw nothing but we did have a short talk with the apostle..In Paris. How cool.
From the moment we arrived in the Athens airport I liked this place, specifically because I found a $50 bill on the ground in the airport. I took it to the desk and they told me to keep it! Score. On with Greece! We hopped on a metro and walked through the somewhat ghetto town of Pireaus, which is a little port town where we stayed the night to catch early ferry the next morning. Whew. We were pretty exhausted.


10/18

So we hop on a ferry to Mykonos and from this point on, we have no real plan of what is next. We left at 7:30 in the morning so we got to see an awesome sunrise from the boat with greece in the background. After a 5 hour Ferrie ride we finally were at destination 1. We hopped on a shuttle that took us out to Mykonos Beach. This beach seems to be a spring break college party type of beach during regular season, but it was quiet empty and nice for us since it is October. We got a cute little penthouse for very cheap and after eating headed straight to the ocean (Aegean Sea) We went snorkeling and it was very cool. I have never snorkeled before and we got to see fish and coral and an OCTOPUS! I was right above it until it opened up all eight legs and freaked me out so i swam away quickly. I am pretty satisfied that the first day swimming we saw an octopus.
There are cats everywhere here. Probably 12 or more just living off of dropped food at the resort we are staying at. With a whole family of kittens. We explored the beach the rest of the evening and when 7:30 hit we were both exausted. We forced our selves to stay awake until 8:30 and then we crashed hard of course going to bed so early we were wide awake at 6 am the next morning. We are still working on the whole time difference thing.

10/19
We caught an early bus into the town of Mykonos, where litterally every corner you turn the streets look like that right off of a post card. It is so cute and the shore is absolutley stunning. They say that people cant leave this place once they visit. We actually met a lady who is from... weird....Northampton Mass. The city that we lived for two weeks for foodplay. A bizzare coincidece. But she visited this place and just fell in love and moved here. The streets and scenery are absolutly stunning and I can't stop taking pictures. It is great weather and we are actually very hot and stop at this internet place to take a break and get out of the sun and because the bugs are eating me alive.

The food that I have had so far.... A few Gyros (SO good!)
Lots of pasteries and crossants
Baklava (sp?)
About to go get myself a crepe.

I am OFF!! Love you all and miss you..

From Grease!....... to Greece!

Rizzo and Frenchy

I have just finished a run of four months in the musical production of Grease in Jackson Hole Wyoming. It was a fantastic production with many talented and wonderful people. I will miss the great friends and the Grand Tetons in my backyard. AHHH.... WHAT A GREAT SUMMER!








BUT! now that I have bid GREASE farewell... I say hello to GREECE!

I am crazy excited to tackle the next big adventure with one backpack of luggage and a camera. My friend Lizzie and I will be embarking on a two week VACA! I will be sipping a nice cool beverage and possibly looking out at this....

Or maybe stumble upon a stage where acting was invented!......

or finding some underwater wonders like this!......

and then wandering around some streets like these....

and by the end have a wallet that looks like this.....

(Photos will be much cooler when actually taken in person.)


As you can probably tell, I am stoked.

quick ketchup...er catch up.

No I haven't abandoned the blogging world. I apologize to my four faithful followers that I haven't posted in a while. Two reasons....

A. Not a whole lot has changed in my life

2. My camera basically blows so I have no good pictures.

So let me catch you up.

THEN

• My best friend Aubri came to visit and we got into plenty of mischief as always...(pictures will come when she finally downloads them)


• I went on a girls day shopping spree to Park City on my brother-in-laws budget with my sisters and mom and cousin.


• Had Ry mans mission farewell on Sunday!
  
  NOW
  
• Still having way too much fun at my job that is touring through Utah with these two fools.

Spell it backwards its NAVEL.




• Choreographing "Guys and Dolls" for the Sugar Factory Playhouse. WOOT!


• Enjoying the nice spring days when they decide to pop in.



• Spending all the free time I can with this guy.



• and these guys.
  

SOON!

• Riley leaves for California on his MISH!


• Luke graduates from college. HOLLA!


• I am going to Disneyland/Vegas/St.George (hopefully)


• I leave for the summer to the glorious Jackson Hole, Wyoming for GREASE (I'm frenchy) and also to take over the position of manager at the restaurant.

I WILL TRY NOT TO TAKE A MONTH AND A HALF NEXT TIME>>>

HOME AGAIN.

It was a vacation well needed and I might even say well deserved. After all, I am a college graduate.

I spent the last two weeks of the tour in Georgia and Florida and you can imagine how thrilled I am about coming back to snow.

I have discovered that there are nice people all over the country...... and a couple not so nice ones.(These are some nice ones.)

I was a very good tourist.. I braved snow, cold, aching feet and even nearly wetting my pants just so that I could get to see all that there was to see in each location that we stopped at.

I ate more food then I ever thought I would in my entire life! including....rabbit, quail, kangaroo and alligator

And of course made lots and lots of memories..

And to answer the question you have all been waiting for? ........NO I didn't kill Allan. Even after two months of each other neither of us were strangled. ...........

.......I just left him in Alabama.

And I even got a couple days off to go visit my cutest cousin.

ALL SAID AND DONE....ITS GOOD TO BE HOME!

This is what happens when two girls are bored on their day off. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do, cause I get a kick out of myself.

13 states in 10 days.... the way a road trip oughta be.

Maine, Delaware, New York, Washington D.C, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut. Admittedly we just drove through a couple of these states on our way to Georgia. But we at least stopped for lunch or at a gift shop in each state.

MASSACHUSETTS

Yes we are back to MA again.... But we got to explore a different side of it this time. It was a dark and stormy night on Friday the 13th in Salem......No actually it was just a bit windy. But Salem was the perfect way to spend the superstitious day. The town was just as you would imagine. Lots of weird voodoo style shops, and cool historical sites, like the site where they think the witch hangings took place and monument and of course about twenty fortune tellers trying to get us to pay them money.....

Continuing on the road!.....

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Up to New Hampshire we went for one day. We have eaten so much clam chowder in New England......I mean LOTS. We found this little restaurant right on the port and ate mussels (ew) and more seafood. (yum) I have to admit, the seafood is much better out here.

MAINE

There is a time and a place for everything and Maine is the perfect place to eat Lobster for the first time. I was frightened, even terrified at times, but after I got used to my food having eyeballs, it actually tasted really good.

DELAWARE

I don't who thought up the idea for the place that we stay for the longest time, be the most boring state. I don't have much to say about Delaware except that it comes after Connecticut and before Florida in the alphabet.

PENNSYLVANIA

So instead of twiddling our thumbs in Delaware we hopped in the car and drove across the border to Philly! We visited lots of cool history stuff, liberty bell, the usual and also got to experience a real Philly cheese steak sandwich. Geno himself asked us if we were Mormon. I really think we may have a future convert.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Very cool place to hang out for sushi. I don't recommend driving through it with traffic and parallel parking a minivan.

SOUTH CAROLINA

10 hours of driving later.....we finally landed here for a nice southern style lunch. Never had hush puppies before this and have never been called ma'am so many times in my life.

GEORGIA!

I love Georgia. The people are real nice and the weather is even nicer. Of course I am comparing the weather to the 4 degree weather of New England, but a 55 degree day in Atlanta was awesome! We celebrated black history month by seeing the historical Martin Luther King Jr site, we also celebrated how caffeine blesses our lives by going through the coke museum and ended a typical day by being crowned royal lords and ladies of the Medieval realm. No Big Deal.

As for the other seven states they were all special and wonderful in their own unique way. Just not cool enough to make it on to my blog.

Florida is Next!!!