Student Blog: Start of Spring Semester

February has been a hectic month but it’s also been exciting and inspiring in all of the best ways. As a student actor in New York City, I was anticipating this month to be overwhelming. But these past couple of weeks have been incredibly fulfilling and joyful as a performer.

As a student, my weekly curriculum remains virtually the same. This includes voice, dance, acting, audition technique, film/television acting, improv, scene study, dialect, and directing. This semester in my directing class, our class is doing a production of Seussical to close out the year, and I was cast as Horton. I was equally thrilled, amused, and surprised upon hearing this news, considering I’d never done a role like that before. I also didn’t know much about Seussical other than when I saw a community production of it almost a decade ago, so I didn’t really know what to expect. After starting to delve into the show material this month, I am so excited to play Horton because it’s an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and just play on stage, which is always a treat.

On top of this, I also was involved in a new work presentation for the musical Senior Class. It was a really quick, week-long workshop, and it flew by, but I had a blast learning new music and meeting new people. It’s such an inspiration to work on new material because you get to watch how it evolves, even for a week. It’s the coolest thing to be a part of that journey.

This month, there was an agent who came into my school, several master classes with casting directors, as well as directors who came to audition students for their regional theatre. With these amazing opportunities through school, alongside auditions that I’ve been attending in my personal life, it’s been a very exciting audition season so far, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

But with everything that’s been going on this past month, I find that I’ve been struggling to stay present in my day-to-day life. This month I have had to constantly remind myself to take things one step at a time. It’s so easy to get caught up on what’s next rather than what you’re currently living through. This can not only be mentally taxing and overwhelming, but also physically exhausting, and I’ve tried to give myself some grace and remember that it’s healthy to take some breaks when I need to rest. I tend to feel guilty when I’m not working as much as I think I should be, but I need to remind myself how much of a whirlwind this month has been. Just because I have an easier day compared to the rest of the week, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been working unbelievably hard this month. Sometimes your body needs to catch up to you, and that’s okay. 

Keeping that mentality is incredibly challenging, and it is so easy to throw all that advice to the wind and get swept away in the commotion of my life as an actor. But performing becomes a lot more joyful when I allow myself to focus on where I am and what I’m doing in the moment, rather than the heavy to-do list I have to get done in the future. It was an incredible start to the semester, and although it could be overwhelming at times, I am going to remind myself to stay in the moment every day, embrace the process one step at a time, and appreciate making art with my friends.