Who are you (meaning me) and what are you (meaning me) doing here?
It has taken me nearly a week to begin this blog, after setting it up last Saturday. I thought it only appropriate that I begin with an entry that explains who I am and my purpose here. I am fairly new to the "blogging" world...never really explored it, nor found one that I considered a "must read" during my daily travels through cyberspace to check email and such. But, recently, a classmate of mine from the University of Texas started one and, after seeing some of his posts, I became inspired.
Many of his posts were observations of things he witnessed in and around the city, some were frustrations, some celebrations, some were just ramblings in an effort to clear his mind and evoke a response from others. As I read his blog, I realized how many things I observe here in this city on a daily basis. I thought to myself, "How many folks have the opportunity to get on the subway and see an overweight white woman in leg warmers and black stretch pants pop & lock her way from 14th St. to 42nd St.?" The answer? Very few. I also thought that it would be a great way to chronicle my time here in New York which, I can only imagine, I will want to look back on when that time has come to an end.
A bit about me. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. My folks were both born in the mountains of West Virginia, where they met in high school and where most of my extended family still live to this day. To this day, I have spent nearly every major holiday there and, in a lot of ways, have more ties to that place than I do my hometown. At any rate, after graduating high school, I attended Penn State University (94-98). My first year there was a glorious run in college football, (12-0, Rose Bowl win) and I have been a rather avid PSU fan ever since. And it was also there that I realized that acting and the theatre would be my life's work.
After graduation, I spent 3 years living and working as an actor (and a Barnes & Noble bookseller) in Pittsburgh, PA. Nothing can quite prepare you for that time right out of school when you dip your feet in the real world (not MTV style, but the REAL real world) for the first time. Pittsburgh offered me a smaller market to test the waters and be sure that I wanted to pursue theatre full force. I was moderately successful, but knew that, if I really wanted to do it, I would need more training. In 2001, I attended the U/RTA conference in New York, where I met Fran Dorn, head of the M.F.A. Acting program at UT. I was taken almost immediately with her presence, energy and passion about a newly designed program and, come September, I was living in Austin.
For the next three years (2001-2004), I bled, sweat, laughed and cried with some of the most talented actors I have ever met from all over the country. We worked hard, challenged each other in ways I couldn't have imagined and, while there were times when we didn't get along, deep down we all care for each other. It all culminated in April of 2004 with two very successful showcases in New York and L.A. After graduating I spent 14 weeks at Wayside Theatre in Virginia before making the great leap to New York last fall. Now, here I am living in Brooklyn with my lady and one of my closest friends...pounding the pavement with 1,000,000 other actors looking for that break, that door to stick our foot in, or even just the next chance to perform.
I don't know who will find this blog, if anyone, but I am not necessarily doing it for attention or to be noticed, etc. It's a way for me to collect my thoughts and observations that, perhaps, others will stumble upon and find amusing. Or, it will simply serve as a log of my experiences, thoughts, ramblings as I struggle, fail, and triumph here in the "Big Apple." And, thus, we begin....
Many of his posts were observations of things he witnessed in and around the city, some were frustrations, some celebrations, some were just ramblings in an effort to clear his mind and evoke a response from others. As I read his blog, I realized how many things I observe here in this city on a daily basis. I thought to myself, "How many folks have the opportunity to get on the subway and see an overweight white woman in leg warmers and black stretch pants pop & lock her way from 14th St. to 42nd St.?" The answer? Very few. I also thought that it would be a great way to chronicle my time here in New York which, I can only imagine, I will want to look back on when that time has come to an end.
A bit about me. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. My folks were both born in the mountains of West Virginia, where they met in high school and where most of my extended family still live to this day. To this day, I have spent nearly every major holiday there and, in a lot of ways, have more ties to that place than I do my hometown. At any rate, after graduating high school, I attended Penn State University (94-98). My first year there was a glorious run in college football, (12-0, Rose Bowl win) and I have been a rather avid PSU fan ever since. And it was also there that I realized that acting and the theatre would be my life's work.
After graduation, I spent 3 years living and working as an actor (and a Barnes & Noble bookseller) in Pittsburgh, PA. Nothing can quite prepare you for that time right out of school when you dip your feet in the real world (not MTV style, but the REAL real world) for the first time. Pittsburgh offered me a smaller market to test the waters and be sure that I wanted to pursue theatre full force. I was moderately successful, but knew that, if I really wanted to do it, I would need more training. In 2001, I attended the U/RTA conference in New York, where I met Fran Dorn, head of the M.F.A. Acting program at UT. I was taken almost immediately with her presence, energy and passion about a newly designed program and, come September, I was living in Austin.
For the next three years (2001-2004), I bled, sweat, laughed and cried with some of the most talented actors I have ever met from all over the country. We worked hard, challenged each other in ways I couldn't have imagined and, while there were times when we didn't get along, deep down we all care for each other. It all culminated in April of 2004 with two very successful showcases in New York and L.A. After graduating I spent 14 weeks at Wayside Theatre in Virginia before making the great leap to New York last fall. Now, here I am living in Brooklyn with my lady and one of my closest friends...pounding the pavement with 1,000,000 other actors looking for that break, that door to stick our foot in, or even just the next chance to perform.
I don't know who will find this blog, if anyone, but I am not necessarily doing it for attention or to be noticed, etc. It's a way for me to collect my thoughts and observations that, perhaps, others will stumble upon and find amusing. Or, it will simply serve as a log of my experiences, thoughts, ramblings as I struggle, fail, and triumph here in the "Big Apple." And, thus, we begin....
posted by J.T. at 12:00 PM
1 Comments:
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