Hello BroadwayWorld! My name is Emma Watts, kick back, grab a glass of throat coat and join me as a I kick off my summer as a student blogger! Learn what I'm up to, how I've got here, and where I plan to go in the future.

Every year theatre lovers of all ages and walks of life patiently await the Tony Awards. If other events and awards can have fun watch parties, why not theatre? I have come up with various ways to ensure you and your friends can have an “award-winning” party.

The only thing I could do was take it one day at a time. That’s it. That is all I could do.

As of last week, after our music literacy assessment on a bright Monday, we have come to the end of second year.

Rejection is never easy. You might think that after a while, it will sting less. Wrong. It will always hurt because you will always mourn the possibilities. After a thousand no's, “no” #1001 will still be hard: hard on your heart, your morale, and your passion.

As I finish out my first year of college as a Theatre Performance/MT major in New York City (omg), I am reflecting back on the best purchases I made for my time in school this year and for future endeavors. If you are going to college for Musical Theatre, Acting, Dance, Vocal Performance, etc. this list could be helpful for you!

I'm back with another post on BURNOUT. If you're a college student, or any type of student (or a typical functioning adult), you probably know what I'm talking about. Burnout is a feeling that is almost unavoidable and sometimes it sneaks up on you before you even realize it is happening...

For theatre majors specifically, integrity is what will set you apart. Of course you need to maintain academic integrity; you can’t go about rewriting Shakespeare. When performing, your own integrity, as an actor, is just as important.

Type can be a tricky topic. While it is important not to put yourself in a box as an actor, it is also smart to understand that sometimes people are going to expect certain things from you based on your appearance, your energy, and how they perceive you.

While drama is super important to the theater industry, the value of comedic productions cannot be ignored. Comedy deserves just as much recognition and praise as drama receives. Comedic shows should in no way be considered “cheap” or “less than” just because they are meant to be fun.

Junior year of high school is infamous for being the busiest and most intense. In my experience, I had to balance two AP classes, two performing groups, standardized testing, and more. In this blog, I am going to recap all of my theatre-related endeavors month-by-month throughout this school year, all the way from July 2023 to the present.

[March 2024]---- Hello again readers! As the semester rolls into the springtime (yay), I'm thinking about all the theatre songs that give STRONG spring vibes in my opinion. My playlists and musical tastes definitely change when the seasons do, so I'm trying to get myself out of the dreary state of winter and into a bright springtime era. Without further ado, let's list them!

College opens many opportunities. Some of them are enriching, like performances and internships. Others, like cheating and using artificial intelligence, can jeopardize learning. The fear of punishment from professors and the university are threatening, but my greatest motivation against cheating is my desire to be prepared after graduation.

Overall, I genuinely believe that these past three years have gone exactly as they were meant to, and I wouldn't change a thing. I look forward to growing my skills as a musician outside of the classroom, and I look forward to what comes next. For everyone starting at a new school soon, I hope you have a wonderful time and that you end up doing what you love, whether there are changes to your plans along the way or not.

In order to keep up my daily training, I knew I needed to find a personal routine that I could uphold whether or not I had room in my budget for classes, coaching sessions, and lessons.

Academic integrity is incredibly important to me. It’s resisting temptation to take the easy route while also having the courage to do the right thing. While it may be appealing to look up the answer or have someone else do the work for you, it’s incredibly important to resist doing so. In the long run, you’ll be doing yourself a favor by remaining honest.

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. ​​​​​​​

Surprise! I graduated college! Today marks the one week anniversary of me receiving my Associate’s Degree of Arts in Theatre. While finishing with my Associate’s wasn’t something originally on the bingo card of this school year, it’s something I couldn’t be prouder about and more certain is the right choice for me.

Being a twin is such a blessing, but it does come with the potential for comparison.  I would say, though, our experience in all of these areas has been perfectly complimentary which allowed each of us to find our own niche.

Remember that there are people who are there to help you if you look in the right places. You are given advisors you can go to, but they don't have to be the only people you seek advice from. There are plenty of professors, or even other students, who will be happy to help you create plans for your classes, and back up plans if things go wrong.

Two months into college, I auditioned for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I was not cast in the show. After moving on from the frustration of rejection, I began to say “yes” to every opportunity that presented itself. These led to new experiences, a job, and an exciting internship! Read this article to learn about a few of my 'Yes's.

So you’ve finished the college audition process. You have received your rejections and your offers. So now what? How do you decide where you are going to commit? To help the next generation of theater majors or anyone still deciding, here are the top criteria I considered when making my final college decision!

I hope to not get too repetitive in my blogs, but there is a lot to say about the shy girl who loved theater (aka I wrote a letter to my younger self because I'm proud of her and I hope she feels the same way about me).

Playing with Poe’s works and diving into the realm of devising for the first time was a real growth experience for my peers and I. Using experimentation to create a formal script was foreign to all of us, but we ended up creating a piece we were all proud of!

Just this weekend, from the 10th to the 11th, we completed the third year’s run of Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Show days went by so quickly; some part of me still feels like I have to be there for my 12.30 call time.