Monday, April 25, 2016

Magic: The Story is LIVE!

Headshot by James DePietro
This was my first ever real Voiceover project.  I did a few for PowerTV and the occasional Live Reading for Afterbuzz TV but this was the first job I was cast for based on my voice!  And what other than joining a project that has such a huge fan base.  

Magic: The Gathering is a card game and you can now hear the Podcast with our Voices for the first episode: Under the Silver Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad Ep. 1 - Unspoken Realms.  It's best version can be heard on MTG ProTutor over on iTunes but you can find all the details on the website here: Magic: The Story  You can also see the cast (a few of my friends from CAC, Nathan, Lauren, and Austin), find more information, and support this project.

It's best listened to with headphones so you can hear all the little extras and background noise that really add to the story and fill out the sound.  As I listened to it, (I do the voice for Halana) I genuinely felt like I was in the world of Magic.  I'm so proud of the cast and engineers, our leader Shaun, and Thresa for thinking of me and having me audition!  Enjoy :)

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Vintage Mom (Part 2)

I brought Vintage Mom back at the end of January, this time in Los Angeles, as I had packed up a bunch of my Mom's things before I left Wisconsin.  Some of my friends had thrown me a Welcome Back to LA Party and BBQ so I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a Mom Outfit.

This raspberry sweater was from the 80's, it was soft, comfy, and totally Mom.  It's amazing how much closer I feel to her when I'm wearing something of hers or something of mine that she liked.  I brought these shoes home with me in September and she commented on how cute they were.
When I initially posted this on Instagram, I had also heard one of my favorite Bible verses in Church that weekend.  'Love is patient, love is kind.  It bears all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.  So faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.' ~ 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13  With my Mom's love and memory guiding me, I can endure just about anything.  And I will.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

The Ruskin School

On February 1st I went into the Ruskin School for an audition.  I was meeting with John Ruskin who was Sanford Meisner's apprentice.  The audition went really well; I was present and in the moment, performed well and was told I was accepted into the school.  In my excitement, I broke down knowing my Mom would have been so proud.  I then apologized to John, who stopped my apology immediately.  He told me to never apologize for feeling, that the emotion and vulnerability I had just shown was more beautiful than my audition, and that would be what makes me special.  It was then that I knew I had a very exciting roller coaster of a journey ahead of me!

One of Meisner's famous quotes: "The truth of ourselves is the root of our acting."

Headshot by James DePietro
I was doing the Scene Study with Master Teachers and each week we were paired up to perform our scene for the class and also a Director, Actor, or Producer that was teaching class that week.  The first week I prepared a monologue as my scene partner was out of town.  I was really happy with it, prepped with some friends from CAC and also got some direction from another friend, but our Coach that week didn't really love it.  Barbara Tarbuck came in and she reminded us to remember what our secret was, as well as note the moment before the scene starts.  That just gave me even more motivation to do more and improve for the following week.  My scene partner, Nicole, and I had rehearsed for almost three weeks by the time our second class came around and Chris Mulkey was the Coach that week.  He reminded us to find out what we want and need.  He was so energetic he wanted to get up and act while he was there, and that kind of energy was just so contagious.  Chris liked our scene and gave us some really great feedback for the next few weeks.

During our third week we had Paul Sand as our Coach.  He opened by telling us to trust our intuition and that we are creative.  He had such a huge personality and wanted to see that in our scene.  I ended up letting the class and Paul know about my Mom because he asked me where this block in the scene was coming from when dealing with lines about my Mother.  It was really emotional but also opened me up to a better understanding and allowing those feelings to be present and use them in a positive way.  Paul came back again a couple weeks later and somehow found another way to bring emotion out for both Nicole and I and was very happy with our progress since he'd last seen our scene.  Paul is such a funny guy so it's crazy he could bring the tears from me, but he sure knew what he was doing, in such a great way.  For our next week, Billy DaMota came in to Coach.  He was excellent, honest and had just written an article that went to the Hollywood Reporter about Casting Workshop scams.  He gave us some great notes to take home and work on for the next class.  In all honesty, I prefer to get notes and things to work on because there's always room to improve and every person will find different parts they love and parts that they dislike. 

By the time we got into our fifth week, Nicole and I were really feeling good about our scene,  'Bone China' that was from a 10 Minute Play.  Dave Florek was Coaching us that week and said to make sure we were finding the truth in the scene and that holding back can be more beautiful than letting all the emotion show.  He ended up liking our scene and banter as sisters.  Nicole got booked on a movie the night before our sixth week so I quickly found a monologue and started prepping it on the Friday night before my class on Saturday morning.  I felt really connected to it and Paul Ruddy who was in that week really enjoyed it as well, said it was naturalistic and that in that scene could have been really difficult because of the content and was very impressed I'd learned it in a few hours.  I learned a lot from all the information he gave throughout the class!  Our last class was with Bruce Davison, who thanks to a very small class that day, was able to really get into feedback for everyone, tell stories, and teach us some things as well.  I felt like Nicole and I had both listened to each other more and were really connected and Bruce noticed that as well and was very happy with our performances.  It was so great to end on a high note!  Plus, he ran us through this neat exercise where three people got up (I was one of them) and we all got to portray, anger, love, and pleading.  He made us note what was easy, what was difficult, and where do we stop ourselves.  I loved this!  To make the class even better, he performed a monologue from 'King Lear,' and brought mad applause from all of us!

Overall, the eight weeks of classes that ended just over a week ago were so beneficial to me as an Actor but also a great way for me to work at something and feel really accomplished.  All the emotions I went through were really rewarding and have given me even more to look forward to in my career.  I was able to find my truth in the scene, in the moment, and I loved honing that skill again.  As I told Nicole from the beginning and what Bruce left us with in our final week...you are enough.  Always remember that!

Friday, April 15, 2016

Vintage Mom

After losing my Mom in December, I wanted to do something to honor her and keep her wonderful spirit and incredible fashion sense alive.  I've always loved her clothes and was amazed at all the styles she tried and how tiny she was.  I remember trying on clothes in high school that fit me and were almost a little snug!  I was really happy to go through her clothes and re-vamp them a little to be worn today.  Don't get me wrong, some items will be forever gone; all the huge shoulder pads, high-waisted baggy jeans, jumpers, and bulky sweaters have a place in my heart but not in my closet.  So here I take this journey and share with everyone to remember the special woman that she was!
This new series is called 'Vintage Mom' and will include my personal stories about the items I've found after going through my Mom's clothes.  Some of these items are over 30 years old.  This first post is from when I was back in Wisconsin in January.  It was 22 degrees outside, so Mom's olive green long-sleeved top was comfy and casual; it was perfect for me for Church (although she would have thought it wasn't "nice" enough for Church) and adding a pair of earrings I bought for Mom a couple years ago made the outfit.  I gave her the earrings for Christmas and I can still remember the smile on her face and how much she loved them!

My suitcases were packed to the brim so I'll continue to do more 'Vintage Mom' posts for as long as I can!  Special thanks to my Mom for inspiring me on this journey <3

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Blue Apron!

My gals at Bar Lubitsch set me up with Blue Apron for two weeks for Christmas while I was back home in Wisconsin.  It was a great gift, thank you so much Ladies!  Knowing how picky my Dad is with food (he's your typical Wisconsin Dad, meat and potatoes, pizza, burgers, and whiskey) I decided to start using it when I was in LA and could hopefully share it with some friends!

The process of picking out each week's meals was really simple.  I'm not a huge pork fan so I kept that out of the three meals that were sent, and made sure I had at least one vegetarian option each week since it was during Lent and I couldn't eat meat on Fridays.  The meals served two people and were surprisingly simple to put together.  Nothing took much longer than 30 minutes and some were even less.  I felt like I was making restaurant quality meals, well worth the price, and they tasted AMAZING!  What was even better was the easy to use recipe cards that listed the ingredients and gave step-by-step instructions including pictures that I kept so that I can continue to make some of my favorite recipes.
Catfish, Steak, Salmon, and Gnocchi all made thanks to Blue Apron!
My first meal was Alsatian Spiced Chicken with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and glazed red cabbage.  I loved this meal; the spices worked well together and the cabbage was incredible.  It would be the only way I would ever make cabbage again!  Next up was Catfish Meuniere with collard greens & lentils and I had Courtney over to enjoy it with me.  The fish was a little fishy on this one but the lentils and the meal as a whole felt really healthy and there was plenty of food.  Adam joined me for steak night and it was the first time I had ever made a steak.  It turned out perfectly medium rare and the garlic kale side served with it was seriously delicious.  This was definitely one of my favorites of all the dishes and I was very excited to execute it to perfection!  

On my second week I started out with Adobo-Style Chicken with bok choy and jasmine rice.  I was really surprised at how flavorful the chicken dishes were and will definitely make both again.  I made the seared Salmon with spinach-walnut pesto for Lunch after a great acting class and was excited to have the leftovers for Dinner that night at Bar Lubitsch.  It was by far the prettiest of all the meals I made and also felt super healthy, on top of it being one of my favorites!  I was sad when it was time to make my final Blue Apron meal which was brown butter gnocchi with lemon and brussels sprouts.  Acquah joined me and we paired this one with a Chardonnay I had (the only time I drank with the meals because I had been on anti-biotics for a couple weeks).  Having a glass of wine with the meal was a nice addition (duh).  The meal was so good that I wanted more and this was the only one that I felt like the portion was a little small and I was hungry almost immediately after.

I would definitely recommend Blue Apron to anyone who enjoys cooking.  All the ingredients are mailed to your doorstep and ready to be made.  There is prep for each meal but the instructions make all of that a breeze.  I would say that you need to have basic kitchen/cooking knowledge since time management is key when trying to do a couple things at once.  I felt confident after making the first meal!  I'll definitely get more Blue Apron orders in the future :)

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

March Karaoke

We had quite the busy month at Karaoke, lots of friends coming in, lots of regulars, and some newbies as well.  I also sang some new artists that were really fun and look forward to diversifying my artist selection!

Pat Benatar 'Treat Me Right'
Madonna 'Like A Virgin'
Mandy Moore 'Only Hope'
Adele 'One & Only'
Whitney Houston 'I Will Always Love You'

Smashing Pumpkins 'Disarm'
Sheryl Crow 'If It Makes You Happy'
The Police 'Every Breath You Take'

3 Doors Down 'It's Not My Time'
No Doubt 'Just A Girl'
Oasis 'Wonderwall'
Amy Winehouse 'You Know I'm No Good'

Lifehouse 'Hanging By A Moment'
JenniferWarnes 'Time Of My Life'
Nickelback 'How You Remind Me'
Tonic 'If You Could Only See'
Kim Wilde 'Keep Me Hanging On'
Dishwalla 'Counting Blue Cars'
Amy Winehouse 'Back To Black'

Fleetwood Mac 'Rhiannon'
The Beatles 'Come Together'
Rick Astley 'Never Gonna Give You Up'
Whitesnake 'Is This Love' 

That first week my voice was feeling stronger after being on antibiotics for my sinus infection for two weeks so I did 'Only Hope' by Mandy Moore and also sang some of my favorite Adele and Whitney Houston songs.  The next week at Karaoke it was really busy so I only sang a couple times and Adam had suggested I sing Sheryl Crow's 'If It Makes You Happy.'  I've sang Sheryl before but that was a new song for me and she's always a fun one to sing.  I love 3 Doors Down so my new song in the third week was 'It's Not My Time' and once again we had a pretty busy week.  The following week was really slow with a really quick rotation so everyone sang quite a bit.  I opened with my new song that night which was 'Hanging By A Moment' by Lifehouse.  I always forget about them and they're such a great band so I'll have to try some more songs from them.  Last week my new song was The Beatles 'Come Together' because Jamie and I had heard it while we were at Dinner and I thought I would try it.  It went really well and I had a blast singing it!  I also did a Rick Astley song which might have been a new one as well.

April marks five years of Hosting Karaoke at Gabe's so we'll be celebrating next week!  I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by and how much I love going into Gabe's not just to Host Karaoke on a weekly basis but stop by to sing on my nights off, or visit Aimee while she's working, or take someone out to enjoy a relaxing evening at one of my favorite bars :)