I’ve heard many times that your freshmen year is your toughest year. It’s also the time when the most kids drop out of a college or transfer into a new one. I’ve heard a lot of my friends talking about transferring because they don’t like where they are. I don’t have feelings like that at all about UArts. I love it here, and wouldn’t leave it to go anywhere else; however, my best friend Jon feels different.
Jon and I went to all of our college auditions together last year. His mom, my mom, Jon and I all went to Boston together, Philadelphia, NYC and other smaller cities to first look at schools and then audition at them. We really wanted to go to school with eachother. UArts was my top choice and because I got in here I decided to go here. Jon, unfortunately, did not get in here, but was accepted into another very competitive musical theater college. We were bummed out, but knew we could still keep in touch.
Over the past month, Jon and I have stayed really close. Devon and I went up to visit him for a weekend and see how the school was and see how he liked it. We got talking about it, and it turns out the school really isn’t for Jon. He doesn’t like the curriculm and the people just don’t seem as dedicated. I guess it’s a big party school, and a lot of the kids don’t take the work seriously and would rather just party every day. He really wants a more conservatory style program. He feels he’s taking too many liberal arts courses and not enough that really will help when he goes out into the real world. He’s coming to visit us in a few weeks, but he said he really would like to come here next semester. It’s not definite yet, but he’s beginning to look into new monologues, songs and learning a dance. I would really love it if Jon could come here, but we’ll see. Anyways, I guess that’s it for now!

Here’s a picture of Jon and I from last day of school junior year:
(We had done Cats earlier in the year, so those were our unitards from the show and also some balloons for fun)

I’ve been pretty sick for the past few days. After I got out of the hospital, I came down with a really bad cold, which turned into a bad sore throat, which turned into a bad cough. My voice has been gone for a few days, too and I kind of miss it. Anyways, I still really love classes. I think I decided my favorites are Acting Studio (of course) and Voice and Speech. We had to write poems about how we feel about our voice for last class and recite them. Here was mine:

As I sleep, you sleep, too.
I quickly wake up, but you lay there, not making a sound.
I try to speak, but you stop me.
There’s so much I have to say, but not a word comes out.
I’m worried about what’s going to come next.
I can feel your hands grab around my neck,
Climb into my throat and begin to slowly claw downward.
I try my best to pretend nothing is happening.
I ignore it and act like I’m stronger than I am.
With each breath, I know there will soon be no use fighting.
We’ve been here before.
None of this is alien to me.
I know what I have to do.
I will have to stay quiet.
Learn to be silent.
Take some Nyquil.

It’s about my sore throat. In acting, Drucie had us each write a monologue about one of class mates based on 6 random facts we knew about them. They usually all turned out pretty funny. So, the next class we received the monologue that someone else wrote for us, and had to memorize. Yesterday, we had to perform them. Mine made me seem really geeky, but Drucie took me outside the first time and gave me a different motivation than I had before. It made the monologue so much funnier. It was a ton of fun to do, too. So, I’m excited to watch everyone else do it next class. I guess that’s all I have for now!

-Danielle

So, another short detour before I get into my post about NYC. So, Tuesday night, I was really tired of writing an essay for Writing. So I decided, wouldn’t it be a good idea to go out in the hall and play with everyone else? Everyone was dancing and playing, so I thought, “Hmm, this would the optimal time to do a toe touch in the hall way! Also, why don’t I do it without really stretching out before I do so?” I jump in the air and my toe touch really did look good. Unfortunately, when I came down I felt a sharp pain race through my back. Everyone was too busy running around to notice me and my massive amounts of pain. I fell down and tried to walk back to my apartment so I could climb into my bed and cry. It took me about ten minutes to get back into my room even though I was only about 8 feet away. I could hardly walk at all and when I did it was the most painful thing I had ever felt in my life. I finally climbed into my bed with some help and laid there for about a half hour. I realized I had to pee, so I got out of my bed and couldn’t move. Adam had to help me back on to my bed and we knew there was something wrong. At this point, it’s around 1, and I had to call my mom because I know she throws out her back all the time. She told me I was probably going to have to go to the hospital. We called over Graham the RA of our floor. He agreed that I was going to have to go to the hospital. I was pretty bummed out. I was especially worried because I had just auditioned for the Equinox shows on Monday and had call backs for Wednesday night and Thursday night. Devon put hot wash clothes on my back and the ambulance came to Spruce. The guys came into my room and pulled me out on to a stretcher. Devon came with me on the ambulance. Then they left us in the hospital. We sat there for hours. I was only wearing boxers and a t shirt and my back hurt. I felt like an idiot. I laid on that stretcher for hours. We got there around 1:30 and they didn’t call me in for X-Rays until about 3:30. They brought me back out and Devon wrote her paper. We also read Death of a Salesman together. Some more hours had passed and we just sat there doing nothing. I was getting so tired. At about 4:30 a nurse came in and said she was going to give me really strong medicine that would make me “stoned out of my mind” as she put it, but it would make it so I could walk enough to give a urine sample. So I took that and came back. Devon climbed up on my hospital bed because it was freezing and we tried to get warm. The nurses probably thought we were crazy, but that’s okay. We were also starving because we hadn’t eaten since about 10PM. We were talking about how good Saltines sounded. Then the nurse came back and asked if we wanted some crackers and juice. I was so excited I almost shouted at her. She came back with Graham crackers and apple juice and Devon and I were so happy. We ate them all. Except not all of the juice, because one of them sort of looked like my urine sample. So we just saved that one as a keep sake. After another hour, they let me go with some prescriptions and a note to get out of classes for the next day. I guess the muscles around my spinal cord had swelled up which is what caused the pain. So, we called some cabs, and when the first one came, we took it back to our dorm. It was about seven when we finally got to sleep. We didn’t wake up until about 3 in the afternoon. Devon slept through her acting studio and I had missed my voice and speech class. We had walked to the nurses’ office and she said Devon was okay for missing that class, and then we went and picked up my prescription which I took immediately because my back had really started hurting again. I walked home and got ready for the call back. I went really early and the medicine made me so tired that I almost fell asleep before I was called in. I was asked to stay one more time after I auditioned the first time, but the second time I didn’t do as well. So I knew I wouldn’t be asked to stay again. I wasn’t. So I came home and took some more medicine. Memorized a monologue, finished an essay, ate some cake and went to sleep. It was a crazy past few days to say the least. So today, my acting studio was canceled because Drucie has an audition in NYC. So I don’t have a class until 2:30. After classes, I have the audition Assinine, which I’m pretty nervous for. We’ll see how it goes and I’ll also write about the weekend. I’m just waiting for my friend MiKayla to upload the pictures. Alright, so that’s it for now!!

For now: Here are the pictures from our hospital visit. The nurses must have thought we were crazy for taking pictures at a hospital.

Here is me with my cup that they wanted me to pee in:

Here is the food they gave us because we had been starved for like 5 hours(Notice the lighter colored apple juice):

Here is Devon and me with our food:

LATER THAT DAY:

I had an audition for a main stage show called Assinine. It was for the female ingenue, so I probably won’t get in. On top of it, all of the other girls that were at the call back we’re all a year older than me and we’re also gorgeous. I’m not really the ingenue type girl. I’m more of the silly character part. I was really excited for that call back though. They just gave me a side to read from and that was it. I don’t know when we’ll find out, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t get it, but I’m totally fine with that. I was happy to at least get a call back. So, seriously, I’ll really write about NYC soon!!

PS - I just want to give a shout out to Art. He’s in my acting class and voice and speech class. He always reads my journal, and asks me when I’ll make my next post, so I thought I’d mention him!

-Danielle

I just got back from NYC a few hours ago. As soon as I upload some pictures, hopefully tomorrow or the next day, I’ll put a nice long post about my weekend! Right now, I have a monologue to write, some reading on the Linklater method and a lot of sleep to catch up on!

-Danielle

First - Make sure you buy a rape whistle at the UArts book store! Really, you can never be too safe in a big city!

My first half of a week of UArts classes was very fun. I’ve learned some really weird techniques, but I can already tell they’re going to help me a lot as I learn more. I like all of my classes. The only thing I don’t like is waking up at seven on Wednesdays, although I really like that class. It’s my movement for actors class and it REALLY wakes me up. It’s a good way to start the day, so I’m not going to complain about it. Plus, a lot of kids have more than one 8:30 class in the week, so I got pretty lucky. This past weekend was the first and I think only long weekend until Thanksgiving, but we had a lot of fun. My friends and I walked down to South Street to see what was there. There were so many shops and cool places to go. Probably the best and least expensive was Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Garden. It’s an old warehouse I think, that is a giant mosaic. Greg took a lot of pictures. It only costs $3 dollars, so if you’re in Philadelphia you have to check it out. It really is incredible. These pictures don’t do it justce, if you’re here, go check it out!

Saturday night Kat, Vinny, Devon, Greg, Adam, and I went to Club 27 and met up with some friends. It was pretty fun. At the end of the night they threw “$1,000″ down from the cat walk to the dance floor. I think it was more like $20, but at least Kat caught a dollar! Sunday, I think everyone just pretty much hung out. Monday was pretty fun. We all ended up going to Love Park for a picnic. I thought the Love statue would be bigger than it is, like the one in NYC, but it was still a nice park. We decided to actually get into the giant fountain like the beginning of Friends, not realizing that we didn’t pull up our jeans high enough and not knowing how cold the water was despite how hot it was outside.

After Love park, we made out way over to Trickopoly. Now, I’m not exactly sure what or why it is, but it’s just this place where there’s giant game pieces scattered about. It’s also a great place to take silly pictures, so that’s what we did. I just would like to point out that Kat ruined the majority of these.

Now my break is over, and I have a freshman theater meeting in the Merriam in twenty minutes. I’ll post again soon and let everyone know what’s up!

-Danielle