Summer News!

    I suppose it's about time for an update! I'm sorry it's been so long. Life has been crazy! The last two months in NYC have been filled with beautiful weather and spring/summer coming out. I've never seen NYC in the summer and I loved it! (Yes, "loved" as in past tense). I recently signed a contract for a gig that took me away from the beautiful New York City. However, I am very excited and grateful to have a job doing what I love! Just recently I had become a server at the restaurant I was working at on Times Square and as much fun as that was... ;) ... I would really rather be doing what I have been trained to do.

    I have re-located to Pigeon Forge, TN for the next several months - spending my summer in the Smoky Mountains! It is beautiful here as well:) I am working at the Grand Majestic Theatre in a show entitled "America's Hit Parade" so if you happen to be in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area of TN in the next few months then please come visit me! As I do every day, I had been searching for audition notices, came across this one, and less than one week later I had packed up and was making the 13hour drive all by myself. I'm living in cast housing and so far I am having a blast with everyone! There was another girl  joining the show at the same time as me so her and I had only one week of put-in rehearsals before we went on! We have just finished up our first week of shows and are beginning to settle into life in the area. The experience has been interesting so far but overall, good. It was the first time for me being put into an up and running show with two and a half hours of singing and choreography to learn! We managed to make it through! We spent the entire week in choreography rehearsals, vocal rehearsals, costume fittings and photo shoots and only two blocking rehearsals with the cast. That left costumes and costume changes, hair and makeup, mics, running the show in order (and in its entirety) and running the show with the cast...all for opening night!!! It was a bit stressful but mostly exhilarating and not as hard as I thought. Vocal rehearsals this weekend to polish things up and we go back into our run on Tuesday! Our shows are Tuesday-Saturday:)

    Kimberly Simmons came to visit me this weekend! Well, she was here for a completely different reason but it just so happened she could stay with me a couple days so it was lovely getting to see my CState roomie again:)

    Blogging is something I will try so hard to be better at! Thanks for the encouragement and support! Ask Seth what he's up to in New York!

Exciting Week!

Hello to all:) To CState students - Cathy tells us that the Pro-Company show was AMAZING! I'm so sorry I missed it - also heard "9-5" was right on track! Congratulations to Josh Lowery for the Disney audition - get it Joshua!!!

The weather continues to be unusually warm here and I am loving every second of it.
Well, here is a bit about the particularly interesting week the city has brought:
A submission for a dance audition led to an invited appointment for a pretty prominent new show here in the city. My friend had been on the audition before and was able to tell me exactly what to expect - technical combination, no improv, act the part.  So I show up to this place where we audition ON SET with 45min of improv. My mind has never been so exhausted!

Work has been very interesting this week! I've worked many more hours than usual. One night I was actually recognized by a woman that was eating with Broadway legend Sara Gettelfinger! This woman (Mel) asked me over to the table and I stood there for five minutes while we threw around random possibilities as to how she could possible recognize a girl from TN that's only been here for seven months! Mel said she didn't know how but she just KNEW that she recognized my smile. She asked what I did outside of work - I told her theatre, she asked if I was into childcare services - I told her no (but this sparked an idea). I said to her "This might seem extremely random, but by any chance are you associated with James Wilkie Broderick?" In response, she grabbed my arm with both hands and said "THAT'S how I know you!" As it turns out, she was one of James' nannies that I had only met once, very briefly, but she recognized me from the show I did with little James over Christmas! She introduced me to everyone at the table and explained how she didn't recognize me in my "trendy" clothes in comparison to looking like a 30 year old mother of three in "A Christmas Carol" but she knew it was my smile:) Well that made me very happy!

The other exciting event that took place at work is I found out that BR Guest Company forms a softball league every summer and we can sign up and get t-shirts and everything! One game a week all summer! I haven't played softball since high school but it's the only sport I've ever really cared for and am super excited about getting some exercise in the city park every Monday morning:) Oh! AND...I am finally beginning my server training at the restaurant this week!

So many crazy things are going on - today is my one day off so I'm spending it doing taxes, searching and scheduling auditions, stapeling and cutting headshots and resumes, and creating business cards (on Pat Addiss's orders:) Ximena (our amazing roommie:) secured the three of us tickets to see the midnight showing of "The Hunger Games" on Thursday night so that should be fun!

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PS. Whatever you do - never come to NYC on St. Patrick's Day. I've declared it much worse than Halloween...which is really saying something:/

~CourtneyLynn

This is my mental image every morning when I wake up:)
True for anyone but very personal.
Life is all about choice.
Fierce!

Next Alumni Blog..with friends!

First Alumni Blog (Columbia State)

Hey everyone, Courtney and I have been asked to do a video blog for Columbia State. Soon these will be on their website for promotional use. Why not also put them on here?! Enjoy.

March 2012

On the Pier viewing the Statue of Liberty

Central Park Bridge

Well, here we are in what should be the dead of winter right now. Yesterday it was 66 degrees and sunny! Today the wind is scary and the temperature spiraled back down into the low 30s but we won't talk about that...

Josh kissing "Alice" on the cheek:)

We had visitors this week! Four friends from the Commercial Entertainment Dept. at Columbia State spent the entire week with us and we had a blast. Seth and I really enjoyed the company. Plus, I'm not going to lie, it's fun to go do all the touristy stuff that we never have time for otherwise;) so thanks guys for choosing to spend your spring break in the big apple with us!                                              
Currently, Seth and I are working on a video blog for CState so stay tuned to hear and see more about how that works out! We're pretty excited about it - as I type this I can hear Seth editing the video footage in the next room. Auditions are still coming around constantly - always working for that callback that will lead to a job! Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and support:)

Friends: Josh Lowery, Daniel "Tumnus" Thomas, Luke Collins & Seth McGraw

from Seth on 2-18-12

I'll admit I am a horrible blogger.

When Courtney and I moved to NYC we promised our families and friends we would keep a blog going on whatever was happening on our “adventure”.

Well I can say one thing.. We are busy. I'm not sure we have time to spending writing blogs. Even right now I'm writing this from our Internship’s office.

On a different note, Courtney and I are currently trying to audition for anything we can. We just finished working on a project, a children’s musical called “Welcome to Tourettaville”. The show teaches kids how to deal with our differences and to treat others with kindness. It’s cute.

Courtney is still working at Ruby Foo’s and she loves it and hates it.

I am still working as an Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor for the Off-Broadway musical Silence! The Musical. For those who don’t know it is a musical parody of the film The Silence of the Lambs. You can catch the TV commercial on either TV or youtube (caution: strong language).

My boss at my internship has guaranteed a few jobs for me coming this spring to work as a production assistant for some musicals, so there is something to look forward to. 

I really love performing and being up on stage but for right now I feel my best contributions to the theater are in tech work. I need to take more classes, pump some more iron, and gain more weight before I can feel like I would be great on the stage up here. It is really a different world, and self-consciousness gets the best of us a lot of the time. There are still a lot of times when I want to go home to TN and I'm glad to say that I fight them because overall I am very happy I am here.

from Courtney on 2-07-12

  Beautiful weather is gracing us with its presense for the first time in weeks! The sun is shining and it's not biting cold outside! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone who has been keeping up with us throughout this transition of a move from the beautiful hills of middle Tennessee to the rather unforgiving concrete universe that is New York City. Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than seeing a text message from a friend from home or a random call or a facebook note! Even a simple invitation to play a game of "Words With Friends" from a family member or old school-mate is enough to make me feel closer to the people I miss most:) Making friends up here (anywhere new really) is difficult and takes time. However, today is the sixth month mark of the day we packed up our lives in that little car, and I feel blessed to have as many friends up here as we do:) That's one great thing about theatre - we are all crazy and therefore we all accept each others craziness - instant friendships;)

    The daily struggles of living in this area are much more challenging than those from down South. Transportation is a constant test of patience, food is unreasonably expensive if you're not careful, and the weather is more unpredictable than the swimming patterns of a gold fish. Money is tight and much more difficult to come by in these parts. I am still working as a host for the BR Guest Restaurant and have just picked up a second job with a Broadway merchandising company (to begin in March!) so hopefully the two combined will help! For the past week I have been working as a sub at "Silence! The Musical" with Seth and have really enjoyed working with the talented cast and crew of the show. Being around theatre in any capacity is always worth the experience. Over the weekend we wrapped up our tour of the Musical we were performing in and now its continuing to seek the next gig. These little short term theatre jobs are always a blast and hopefully I will be able to continue picking a few up here and there. I am still working for the incredible Pat Addiss and I still volunteer my time when I can at Amas. Two internships + two jobs + auditions + classes. It's ALMOST worse than college....but not quite;)

While all these little part-time jobs allow me to pay my bills and take a few classes here and there, auditioning is my full-time job. I spend at least two hours a day searching for new audition postings from numerous different websites and the rest of my free time preparing for these auditions. Whether I'm stretching to force a better extension (what I'm doing as I am typing this, actually;), going to the gym to build up cardio and strength, singing or sometimes trying to sing, learning new songs, researching monologues, looking up casting directors and choreographers, etc., the list seems endless and yet I push myself through the ritual every day. Auditions are really picking up now - it's that season. Some of them have gone really great! Last week I went to an open call for Spring Awakening and made it all the way through the end of the day out of over three hundred people! A few others have had great results like getting put on file and receiving invited appointment only emails, but most auditions end with a lovely (or not so lovely) "thank you" from the director accross the table. ("The Last Five Years" was right...ALWAYS MEN!!!) And then there are audiitions like the embarrasing display of attempted talent I put forth this morning - Not so great. Sometimes you just have those days, I guess. You get off work at night, get four to five hours of sleep, wake up at 5AM to put rollers in your hair or iron a dress, haul your suitcase weight of a bag on busses and trains and then that mile you have to walk to arrive at the audition center by 6:30AM to sign in on an unofficial list you pray to God they accept, and you wait. And wait, and wait, and wait - becuase you showed up at 6:30AM to an audition that doesn't begin until 10:30AM. With any luck, you will have signed in at a number below 80 to even consider being seen before lunch, if at all. In the words of Laura, "You pray you get the callback and when you get the callback, you pray the callback ends before your next shift at work begins!". That pretty much sums it up. 

My mood has begun to opperate on extremely high highs and extremely low lows - there is no middle ground anymore. It's up or down. This constant rise and fall in emotion is slightly annoying and can really get to me. I think that's the most difficult part of this business. I'm learning to live with it - I'm learning to be patient and forgiving with myself and how to spend my time wisely. If I have one goal this audition season (besides booking a gig, of course) it is to learn everything I can from every audition I attend. I learn to make minor adjustments to my resume, choose a different 16 bars, don't stretch my legs to the point of being weak while I'm waiting for three hours...little things:) I am writing down all the choreography I learn so that when this company comes around next year using the same routine I'll be ready! For the most part, I've been able to maintain a positive attitude thus far - though I'm sure Seth and my Mother can testify to plenty of times when I have been quite the opposite of positive. I'm doing my best. I do at least three things every day that could better myself - something for my spiritual health, something for my physical health, and something for my career. Sanity has to start somewhere!

All in all, the everyday here is not so everyday because each day brings something completely different. I want everything this city has to offer me and I won't stop working for it until I have reached my goals. 

Tomorrow brings another early morning audition and a Broadway show before work! Bring on the inspiration!!!