Student Blog: 54 Below Debut!

To conclude my wonderful summer, I got to make my 54 Below debut and perform in 54 Below Sings the Do Not Sing List produced by Annie Brown and Music Directed by Joshua Turchin! It was truly such a wonderful experience. To document it a bit, I thought I’d do a little week in the life of my time in the city so I don’t forget it, but if you wanna read this little blog post/journal, I surely wouldn’t mind. :)

Day 1: First day in the city! Today was nice and very relaxing which I definitely needed. Today, my friend Cameron and I walked around Brooklyn for a bit, then grabbed some pizza and watched The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. Then, we met up with some of our other friends from SEMO who were also in the show and it was so good to see them and start our time in New York together.

Day 2: We met up with our SEMO pals again, and took the city by storm. We started off grabbing lunch in Times Square, then we hung out in Bryant Park for a bit, then it was time for Shucked! We all got to see Shucked together and it was amazing. So good and it was so fun to see it all together.

After that, we walked the entirety of Central Park in search for food-which we never truly found but we got to see all of Central Park which was cool. Cameron and I then split off and headed to our first rehearsal for the show! We rehearsed the Audition Medley and it was so fun. It was really great to get to meet everyone and to hear everyone sing. After that, we waited for our other pals to get done with their rehearsal (which was incredible), and then we went and got some food and hung out and it was so fun, so silly, and a great day.

Day 3: I did absolutely nothing but sit with Cameron and watch Big Brother. We also practiced our music, but we did some relaxing as well, which was much needed.

Day 4: I slept in and then headed off to Ripley Grier for our final rehearsal! We learned the finale, Being Alive, then we ran the entire show and it went really well! It was so fun to get to hear and see everyone's songs! I couldn’t fully believe how fast this process was going. Like, I started rehearsals on Sunday and now we are doing a full run through? Crazy. After rehearsal, I met up with my mom and we grabbed dinner, then headed over to see Shucked! My mom really wanted to see it, so I tagged along because I love Shucked. After the show, we got cheesecake at Juniors, then headed off to her hotel to get some sleep

Day 5: Show day show day show day! Today is the day! The sun is shining! The tank is clean! I woke up and was automatically just so excited and so happy. I got up, grabbed breakfast, then I walked over to 54 for sound check, which went really well! After that, I grabbed lunch and met up with my mom. We hung out by the pool at our hotel for a little while until it was time for me to get ready for the show! Cameron came over and we got ready together, then headed over to 54. It still doesn’t seem fully real. Like I still can’t fully fathom that this happened. Everyone was genuinely so so nice and I’m so grateful for it all. We were completely sold out, so much so that the whole cast had to wait out in the lobby to go onstage. It was incredible. And I’m so glad to have gotten to do this alongside SEMO folks as well. The show went really well. We all went out and hung out together afterwords. The next day I packed up all my stuff and headed to the airport to go home.

Ever since I was in middle school, I used to stay up for hours on end watching concerts and performances from 54 Below. It fascinated me. That is how I discovered a lot of my favorite singers and performers now. Getting to be in the Do Not Sing List was such a dream come true, as corny as it sounds, and little Grace wouldn't believe it. School has started back up and I’m happy to be back, but I’m definitely missing the city a little bit right now. And 99 cent pizza.

To watch lil videos from our show click here! for more information about 54 Below and 54 Below Sings the Do Not Sing List click here.. As always, go do great things!

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