Well, at this point I've been sick for almost a week, and it's not getting much better. I don't have a lot of time to relax and to allow myself to rest enough to get better, but that's college for you!
In the wake of ICCAs last weekend, the Mixtapes have started working hard toward our next concert on March 7. We're learning two "old" songs (pulled from previous semesters) in addition to two brand new songs, plus polishing our ICCA set which we're hoping to perform with choreography at our concert. It seems as though everyone's getting sick again, as if everyone's immune systems made the collective decision that now that ICCAs are over, it's okay to get sick because the obligation is past.
Well that's not quite true for me--I'm currently in the process of auditioning for Sharon Playhouse's Collegiate Company in Sharon, Connecticut. It's a summer stock theater company where I'd be performing in three full productions in addition to taking master classes and having a Collegiate Company cabaret event. I have a callback tomorrow and hopefully we'll hear back soon after that as to whether or not we get cast. I've also applied to the New England Theater Conference (NETC) which is similar to Unified auditions for performing arts programs. It's a weekend where I go and audition for about 30 summer stock theater companies at once and anyone there can hire me to work at their theater company over the summer. I'm also looking into theater internships in New York. So many possibilities!
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
ICCA Weekend
This past weekend was the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA). The Mixtapes went out to Hofstra University in Long Island to compete in the Northeast Quarterfinals. We placed third, which means that we don't get to advance, but at the very least we placed third out of eight groups. Last year when we competed for the first time we didn't place at all. Experiences like this weekend is why I joined the Mixtapes in the first place. I'm very proud of the work we did, I think we looked great and sounded even better. We got lots of positive comments from audience members after the show and our friends who came to see us said we never looked or sounded better. We have an audio recording of the event and a video is coming out soon, I'll come back and post the link to that once I get it.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
ICCA Prep!
The Mixtapes are hard at work preparing for the ICCAs coming up this weekend. T-6 days! Today we had a clinician come in to help us clean and work on our routine. Her name is Mel Daneke and she's part of an a capella group called Musae, and she also works at The Vocal Company, which produces solely a capella music. PLUS she's a judge for the ICCAs on the 21st so she knows what judges are looking for.
It was so much fun working with her, she was really nice and not intimidating at all. We did our set for her (as far as we had choreographed), and then we sat and talked and broke down the set song by song. She's really into talking about the emotion behind songs and what they mean to us, which was a great way of looking at it. I feel like we spend a lot of time perfecting our sound but we don't spend as much time thinking about the performance side of things, or the "acting" side, so Mel taking the time to sit with us and discuss the emotion and drive behind our songs and kind of the general story arch of the set was really cool. Then we started from the beginning of the set and started and stopped so she could give us notes and fix formation issues and whatnot.
One cool part of the clinic was when we were singing through "Pusher Love Girl" at the end of our set. There's a moment when the girls have a crazy four part harmony that's super cool and very much our style, and Mel asked who was on the highest soprano line. Everyone pointed at me (awkward) and she was like "Okay cool! Don't be afraid to have more fun with it, you can totally belt it more than mix it" and I was like "Yeah okay I'll try that" and then we sang it through with that in mind and it was sooooo thrilling! We sang the harmony part and then stopped and everyone was hooting and hollering because it sounded amazing. It was a really cool breakthrough moment. I also felt really happy and excited personally because I got to let go a bit more and have fun with the line and belt my face off a bit, and everyone seemed really impressed. Erica, one of the sopranos who just came back from being abroad in Prague, came up to me after rehearsal and said that she was standing next to me during that bit and she was blown away by my voice. Yay!
It was so much fun working with her, she was really nice and not intimidating at all. We did our set for her (as far as we had choreographed), and then we sat and talked and broke down the set song by song. She's really into talking about the emotion behind songs and what they mean to us, which was a great way of looking at it. I feel like we spend a lot of time perfecting our sound but we don't spend as much time thinking about the performance side of things, or the "acting" side, so Mel taking the time to sit with us and discuss the emotion and drive behind our songs and kind of the general story arch of the set was really cool. Then we started from the beginning of the set and started and stopped so she could give us notes and fix formation issues and whatnot.
One cool part of the clinic was when we were singing through "Pusher Love Girl" at the end of our set. There's a moment when the girls have a crazy four part harmony that's super cool and very much our style, and Mel asked who was on the highest soprano line. Everyone pointed at me (awkward) and she was like "Okay cool! Don't be afraid to have more fun with it, you can totally belt it more than mix it" and I was like "Yeah okay I'll try that" and then we sang it through with that in mind and it was sooooo thrilling! We sang the harmony part and then stopped and everyone was hooting and hollering because it sounded amazing. It was a really cool breakthrough moment. I also felt really happy and excited personally because I got to let go a bit more and have fun with the line and belt my face off a bit, and everyone seemed really impressed. Erica, one of the sopranos who just came back from being abroad in Prague, came up to me after rehearsal and said that she was standing next to me during that bit and she was blown away by my voice. Yay!
Sunday, February 1, 2015
BIRTHDAY WEEK
This Tuesday I turned 20!! That's right, no more teenagerdom for me! I'm now officially a 20-something. And of course, New York (and NYU) recognized the significance of the day by declaring a half day Monday and a full snow day on Tuesday--the first time I've ever had a snow day on my birthday! I also realized that it was the first time since probably preschool that I didn't have school on my birthday, so that was exciting. My roommate Lexi and I slept in and then went and got our nails done, I got a free birthday drink from Starbucks, and then we went to dinner at this darling Victorian themed restaurant near my dorm. It was so delicious and so cute! Lexi and Elle and I walked past it once last semester and when I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go for dinner I saw Lillie's Victorian Bar and Restaurant and decided to give it a try. We ended up really liking that place. Then we went back to our dorm and Lexi made me a cake (funfetti, duh), and we watched The Other Woman--very funny movie!
In other exciting news, my a capella group has started rehearsing and preparing for the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA), we compete in just about two weeks. We finished learning our ICCA set today and started choreographing and it already looks and sounds amazing. We only have I think three (official) rehearsals until the competition, although we might add another one if we feel its necessary. But if the choreography is as simple and easy to pick up as the stuff we did today, I think we'll be fine.
In other exciting news, my a capella group has started rehearsing and preparing for the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA), we compete in just about two weeks. We finished learning our ICCA set today and started choreographing and it already looks and sounds amazing. We only have I think three (official) rehearsals until the competition, although we might add another one if we feel its necessary. But if the choreography is as simple and easy to pick up as the stuff we did today, I think we'll be fine.
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