It has been a very hectic last few weeks….We had auditions for fall semester shows and I had 3 callbacks. It was very exciting to get callbacks since I’m only a soon-to-be sophmore! So we’ll see what happens. It was another thing that made life very insane….but it was at least an exciting thing!

The weather has finally been really nice outside, so I spent quite a bit of time doing homework at Rittenhouse Square, a gorgeous park only a few blocks away from UArts.

me making a profound point to Grace, of course!

Yeah, everything’s been slowly winding down. We had our last classes last week and we have finals all this week. Final projects and papers and everything have gradually all come together. Acting Studio and Music Skills finals on Monday, Script Analysis final on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I have my ballet presentation where I am doing “Tom, Dick, or Harry” from Kiss Me Kate with Allison, Chris, and Monica. And then my jury next Monday….And then there is just saying goodbye….Ugh….While of course we come back in the fall, no year is exactly the same as the year before. I will have new next-door neighbors, new classmates, new teachers. But it’s all an adventure.
 
Our last Music Skills class

It’s absolutely insane that this time last year I didn’t know anyone or anything about UArts. It’s been a great year. It’s had ups and downs, but I’m so happy I came to UArts. I cannot believe I’m going to be away from UArts for 3 months. This has become home to me and it’s just so sad to leave.

To all my readers, I hope I made an impact in your decision to come to UArts and that you enjoyed reading my journal. You should totally apply to do UArts journals because you get a free digital camera in addition to the good feeling of knowing that you help influence people’s decisions! To all the freshman journalists of next year, have fun! Thanks for reading!

Sincerely yours,

Serena

Last night was opening night of Back2Back2Back, the three one-act musicals that I was on load-in for. The show was great and it was cool to say that I helped create the set even though I was HORRIBLE at crew lol! Let’s just say I’m not so good at the carrying and drilling things. But my name was in the program, so hooray! Since it was opening night, there was a reception afterwards with FREE FOOD. From now on, I will go to opening night of all the UArts shows because free food is an excellent concept!

Mariel and I were enjoying our free food!

Here are my two friends Emily and Janet who are upperclassmen MTs who were in Back2Back!

So I am done with crew this year other than strike for Back2Back next weekend. It will be a little hectic because I have rehearsal for our acting studio scene showscase that day as well, but oh well….I don’t really want to be sitting around bored either haha.

I also registered for my classes for next year. That sort of made me aware that I am only a freshman for 3 more weeks. EEEK. I have exactly 16 more days, including my finals and jury. What a year this has been. At least it’s finally getting warm!

Okay, well I better get back to all my homework…..jealous?

So last week was Passover and I went to a seder at Kyra and Jenna’s (2 upperclassmen MTs) home. I am Jewish, but non-Jews were there too woo hoo. It was fun and yummmy. It was weird to not be home for Passover, but I had a good time nonetheless.

So last week I got to see “Caroline or Change” at the Arden Theater, one of the many theaters in Philadelphia. A UArts senior was playing Emmie, the daughter, and my music theory teacher was the music director for it. It was absolutely fabulous. I saw “Caroline or Change” on Broadway and I honestly enjoyed this production soooo much more. It was so great to see Elyse as Emmie and to know that my teachers are working professionals in their business!

I have also been very busy with load-in for Back2Back2Back, the three one-act musicals that go up next weekend. I’ve heard it will be great, so I strongly urge people who are looking at the school to come up to see the shows.

I have also been busy with a huge research paper for my Script Analysis class. Mine is on “Suddenly Last Summer” by Tennessee Williams. Look how artsy my picture is. And you thought I was a PERFORMING ARTS major hehe.

Other than that, auditions are in a week and a half. Tomorrow we are doing our audition cuts in my voice for musical theater class….I dunno. I don’t feel entirely confident, but I know that will change because I have a wonderful voice teacher!

4 more weeks of school…..so that means only a few more entries left! wow……time flies when you’re having fun! till next time….

but I’m here now!

Things are going well. I talked about last time how we had evaluations/conferences for our acting studio. I was relieved that mine went much better than I thought it would. I was so nervous. What I really appreciated about the conferences is how nurturing the faculty at UArts is. They still give great feedback and criticism, but this isn’t a school where you will get destroyed and beaten down in a negative way.

This weekend was fun since my two friends from back home, Willie and Lana, came to visit! I took them to see the UArts production of “You Can’t Take it With You,” which was great! I bragged to them how awesome the talent at UArt was and…..I pointed out how the paint splatter on the easel was because of ME!!! In costume and prop class a couple of weeks ago, we had to help paint random things and my assignment was to take paint and make the easel look like it had gotten a lot of use! How sad that my name was not in the program. It will be in the program for Back2Back, 3 one-act musicals, that I start crew for on WEDNESDAY! hooray!

I also worked at the Open House this weekend. It was nice to talk about how much I love UArts, but my voice got really tired after answering SOOO many questions! Hopefully I’ll be fine for my voice lesson on Tuesday.

   
my two silly friends!

So yeah, things are good…the usual insanity. I CANNOT believe how it’s already April. Where did the time go? Pretty soon I won’t be a freshman anymore and I’ll be giving advice to the incoming freshmen!

Yeah….can’t think of much else exciting to say…..adios till next time!

So last week was spring break (even though it snowed for part of it). It was annoying that it snowed because I am eager for spring weather, but it was nice to have the chance to relax. I saw “Company” while I was home, saw some friends, did homework, and slept A LOT. Now I’m fresh and ready for action!

And what a better way to start the second half of the second semester with a 10 dollar concert to see Audra McDonald and Barbara Cook at the Kimmel Center last night!!!!! It was an amazing concert and we waited out in the cold for a REALLY long time to meet both of them, who were both insanely nice and gracious. It was just me and a bunch of other UArts theater kids so we got to talk to them for a bit! Definitely worth the fact that I couldn’t feel my hands or my face afterwards. I am a naturally very pale person, but this picture reflects more how cold it was, not how pale I am haha.

I really have met a lot of “famous” people this school year…..LaChanze, Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Groff, Kristin Chenoweth, Marissa as Annie, and now Audra and Barbara Cook…..hopefully a sign of good things to come??? haha

I also came back to find out that I’m in some New Play Development workshop for the second half of this semester….not quite sure what that means, but I’m sure it should be fun and interesting. A few of my other good friends are in it as well.

This week is a little bit of a funky week because we have conferences for our acting studios. It’s basically just 10 minutes of our acting teacher talking to us and telling us how we are doing so far and everything. It’s low-pressure, but I’m still a little nervous for mine, which is on Thursday. I do feel I am improving, so that’s always the important thing.

But yes, things are of course crazy with fall semester auditions coming up, summer auditions, and lots of other goodies the rest of this semester.

Yup, not much else going on here…..gotta go practice….juries will be here before I know it!

Otherwise, things are good. I had a good weekend. I saw “Annie” on Friday night. No, I’m not a big “Annie” freak. In fact, I hate the show. But I know the young lady who is Annie and I was so happy to finally get to see her play the part. She did a great job. I was really glad it came to Philadelphia and I was again able to take advantage of the great rush policies that Philadelphia has to offer. I was able to see Marissa before the show. Here I am with her!

Then I rushed off to go celebrate my friend Ryan’s 20th birthday! He’s a sophmore musical theater major and it just reminded me how nice it is to be friends with all different grades. I know it sounds corny, but we all really are a family and it is sad to think that the seniors are leaving in just a couple of months!

4 awesome freshman musical theater girls and Justin, a freshman acting major.

Do you remember this freshman journalist from last year?

So yeah, lots of work, but we have spring break next week. I cannot believe how quickly this semester has been going by. I have 5 midterms this week because my more studio-based classes do not have actual TESTS in the same sort of way.

Yup, I guess that’s about it going on here……it was warm yesterday, which was a tease since it’s cold again! ahhhhh

So last week we ended up having a snow day, which was very very unexpected. I also injured my neck a little bit last week, so it ended up being a very weird week. I am feeling much better now, though….so hooray. It’s good to be back dancing. I hate missing my dance classes….or really any class for that matter.

They did announce the season for next year and it looks to be a very promising season. Some of the highlights are “The Philadelphia Story,” “the Cradle Will Rock,” and “Into the Woods.” There are many more….it should be a great season. There’s a bit of a philly theme because it’s the school of theater’s 25th anniversary next year! Yes, I realize “Into the Woods” does not take place in Philadelphia, but it was the very first musical the school of theater did!

Next year is going to be crazy…..I have found out that I will get to be a music theory and piano tutor, so I’m excited about that. I like money and helping people.

So I ushered for “Measure for Measure” and hung out with my friend and floormate Andy who was in it! How weird is it that I’m in basically the exact same position in both pictures! That was not planned!!!

Hmmmm and I don’t really know what else is going on…..I’ve just been really busy with acting studio and voice for musical theater this semester. I am excited for next year, but I will definitely miss a lot of stuff about this year….I’m glad it’s not over yet, but it will be cool next year to finally get to the Meisner acting training that all the sophmores talk about non-stop.

It’s still cold.

Till next time…….

So last Friday, I got to see the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Porgy and Bess for a mere 5 dollars!!!!! And our seats were great! It was such a beautiful show. I loved it so much. It’s great to be back in Philly seeing shows for crazy cheap prices. We also got to see the UArts production of Berlin to Broadway, which was the music of Kurt Weil. It was also great. This weekend is Measure for Measure where we will get the freshman second semester ushering requirement out of the way! Hooray.

The weekend was good as well….Famous playwright Christopher Durang was here at UArts and we got to have a talk-back session with him where he talked about his career! And I got to ask him a question! And then there was free food…..

It was good hanging out with people. Here I am with Grace, my floormate and acting major friend! I’ll forgive the fact that she is on a Mac in this picture (I am a PC person!!!!!).

Classes have been good….we’ve been busy working on our scenes for acting studio. I love my partner, so I’m really happy about how things are working out for that. It’s definitely a stretch. We will have at the end of the semester a freshman showcase where we perform our scenes, so it’s good to have something official to work towards. I love all the people in my studio. It’s gonna be so sad when we get split up next year!

That’s me, Mariel, and Mike Doh…..I’m all dressed up because I had master class right after Acting Studio and we had to dress up for that!

And there I am with Monica, Mike, and Amanda! Yay acting studio!

Of course all these pictures were before I ate the massive amounts of chocolate at master class…..ugh. We won’t get into it.

Master classes are great, though. They give you a chance to hear other people sing and just practice performing your pieces in front of other people. It’s always good to sing for other people. This master class was really good because a speech therapist was there to talk to us about vocal health and procedures…very informative and useful information for people trying to pursue musical theater professionally.

And in other news, I have a huge research paper for my Freshman English class on anything we want to write about that deals with the 1980s. So I am comparing and contrasting Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim and their role in American Musical Theater in the 1980s. I must admit, I am actually EXCITED about this paper!

Hmmm. I guess that’s about it……Never a dull moment around here, but I find myself not having tons of exciting things to say! Tootalooo….till next time!

So with 2 weeks of the semester behind me, everything is back into full gear here at good old UArts! It really is nice to be back even though I find myself getting behind on work very quickly lol.

This semester has already proven itself to be very different than last semester even though my classes are essentially the same. The start of last semester was so much about discovering who we were as performers and people. We were provided with such a foundation that we are working with now. Of course we are still going through self-discovery, but this semester is not about getting adjusted to college and a whole new lifestyle the way last semester was. It’s interesting as I started looking back on last semester. I was thinking about it because I worked at the UArts auditions today. The first semester is so confusing because you come from a life where theater is your passion and your life, but then you come here and it does put new levels on it because it’s suddenly school and you’re getting graded. It’s very emotional as you see what your role is in the world as an artist and person. It was such an invaluable experience and it’s so great because UArts has such a warm community of people always there to help you.

So last week I was a bit of a social person as I went to a (free food) alumni dinner for alumni at my high school who go to college in Philadelphia. I also went to my first Philly Young Democrats meeting! That was fun, too! While I haven’t done anything particularly politically active, it feels nice to get involved and doing something productive. There is no such thing as a dumb actor, so I am glad to hopefully get more involved.

Everything has been really good so far this semester. I am trying to manage everything successfully…..we’ll see how that turns out haha

Haven’t had much picture-taking time. Here are some silly photos from Olive Garden dinner!

Tomorrow is appartment-hunting, laundry, grocery shopping, and homework. I know you’re jealous.

Till next time…..

The first semester ended very well even though I was ridiculously stressed out by the end of it. I was very pleased with the comments I got about my jury and glad that I managed to make it through with grades that I was happy about.

And I thought I would enjoy the theater break of winter vacation……………..

BUT BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!!!!!

I had a nice vacation, but I felt so much of my life was missing without theater. Call me a nerd. I don’t care. It’s true!

I did get to see a bunch of shows over vacation, so that was nice. Here I am with my lover Jonathan Groff in Spring Awakening. We’ll save my thoughts about that show for another day when I have nothing interesting to talk about.

So anyways, I am SOOOO happy to be back at school even though I already feel overwhelmed with work!

Last week was actually a very different and exciting week. I came back a week early for this additional mini-class that UArts was offering. UArts has a sister relationship with the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in England. A bunch of the students from there came here and we had a week-long class in collaboration in the arts. I had no idea what to expect and it ended up being a lot of fun! I made some great new friends and just had a good time! Here I am with Didi as we wear our cool new LIPA hats!

The semester has been off to a good start so far. I had a really good voice lesson yesterday, so I was happy. Today we got our crew assignments for this upcoming semester. I am less than thrilled that I have load-in for Back2Back2Back (3 one-act musicals being performed in April), but the good news is that I am getting load-in out of the way because everyone has to have it at some point.

I am basically taking the same classes this semester except that I have costume and prop technology and not scene and lighting technology. Otherwise, I have the same brilliant acting teacher and all that fun stuff.

Monday night was my friend Jen’s birthday. So we had a nice get-together as we celebrated the first day of classes!

But there’s never a dull moment around here. I already have tons of work and a studio show called Enchante that was have to see this weekend. It’s soo nice to be back. This is better than being bored.

So is that a good back-to-school entry? I hope so! Till next time…………..