Student Blog: The Rusty Month of May

In my last entry, I announced the start of a gap year I’m taking from school post graduating with my Associate’s degree in theatre! I got home from school two weeks ago, had graduation, and now that my break has finally started… I have a million things to do. While I’m excited to be kicking off a year of no school, coming home for the Summer started what has been a work heavy few weeks of applying for jobs, starting rehearsals for my Summer show, and figuring out how I plan to stay on top of my theatre game while out of school for the upcoming academic year. 

I’ve always called myself the self-proclaimed “queen of odd jobs,” as I’ve managed to go a few years now making change on small freelance jobs and gigs. This month has been no exception to that, as I’ve continued to work a job for my neighbor as well as picking up script editing as a side hustle. While I love these types of jobs, I know that finding a steady part or full-time one for the upcoming year is probably the smarter move, so I’ve been looking into a mix of local jobs in my town, as well as keeping my eyes open for any auditions or box office jobs at theaters near me! Other than that, I have a lot of personal work things I’ve been cracking down on too lately, like coming up with new topics for my blog posts and finding time to work on writing the second act of the play I’m currently writing! 

On the more fun spectrum of work, rehearsals for the musical I’m a part of for this Summer have just begun! I’m excited to announce that I’m working on one of my favorite musicals, Pippin, for a second time now! This time around, I’ll be playing Pippin’s grandmother, Berthe, which I’m having the time of my life with (along with my sister, who is my understudy)! This is the first time I’ll be repeating a show I’ve been in before and it’s been super fun to see it from the lens of a new cast and director. I’m also one of the oldest cast members this time, of which I was one of the youngest before! So excited to get to be a part of this fabulous production at my precious hometown theatre company.

While I’m having a lot of fun focusing on my current endeavors, I know that I need to start making a plan for how I’m going to be spending my year out of school in terms of not falling out of practice with my theatrical skills. Without having scheduled classes everyday, I know that I’m going to have to take a lot more initiative when it comes to things like dance and vocal practice. During the 2020 lockdown, I had gotten pretty good at working things like stretching and online masterclasses into my days, but now I’m going to have to kick things up a notch– I’m the only person responsible for myself now after all! This means starting to do things like making sure I’m staying in good physical shape and practicing dance, continuing vocal work, and of course, researching and auditioning for potential schools to transfer to. Knowing I have to redo the college audition process is definitely daunting, but I feel more prepared this time around after Staying on top of myself artistically is the biggest goal I have for this year as I refuse to let being out of school mean falling behind on all the work I’ve been doing for the past two years. It’s definitely going to be a new level of work on scheduling and disciplining myself to work, but it’s for something I love and really care about– and reminding myself of that makes it all the more doable.

So despite only being home for two weeks, I’ve already had a lot on my mind! Personally though, I’m someone who loves being busy, so even though I’ve been a bit crammed with projects as of late, I love the feeling of being independent and productive with my work! And knowing I have a year of being in complete control over my own schedule and work life, while daunting, is very freeing and exciting. I will make sure to provide plenty of updates on where this Summer and the kick-off to my gap year takes me! Hoping to learn lots of lessons, make lots of things, and love lots of life :)

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