Well, it seems I’m a bit of a failure as a blogger. I’m going to work on it though! My mission is to write one blog post per month!

In my (not very good) defense, I have been super busy for the past few months! I took the month of December off of work, acting, and New York City to pursue another passion of mine–traveling. After a quick stop in London to visit friends, I headed to sub-Saharan Africa for the first time. I’ve been traveling since the age of 16, and have been to more than 40 countries, but aside from a trip to Egypt in 2012, this was my very first time in Africa. I went on safaris in Namibia and Botswana, visited Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and climbed sand dunes in Sossusvlei, Namibia–I could go on and on and on about this trip, but basically, it was pretty epic.

I was ready to hit the ground running when I returned to New York in January, and it’s been a pretty busy (and exciting!) few months. I took Level 3: Introduction to Longform Improv at the PIT with the incomparable Chris Griggs and a pretty fantastic group of improvisers. Level 3 focused on learning the Harold, which was extremely challenging, but I was really proud of the two shows our class pulled off these past few weeks. I’m looking forward to working with this group again, and hopefully taking Level 4 soon!

I’ve also been busy taking theatre dance classes! While I don’t think I’m going to be dancing in Chicago anytime soon, I’m really, really enjoying them, and feel like I’m improving each class. It’s exciting to be adding a new skill to my repertoire–and although I’m not a musical theatre actor, I have a life-long passion for musicals, and I’m really enjoying exploring this new way of pursuing my art.

I’m also taking an advanced monologues and career planning class with Karen Kohlhaas, which has been great! I’m working on a few fantastic new monologues, and have been mapping out my career goals. It’s been great to have very specific major dreams to focus on, and figure out exactly what steps I need to take to get there.

Once I started taking classes, a lot of good things started happening! First, I was cast in a staged reading of a new play at the Emerging Artists Festival, Through the Glade, written and directed by the super-talented Rachel Whorton and Cali Moore. The play was incredibly smart and funny, and the entire cast was phenomenally talented, hilarious, and wonderful to work with. I had such a great time being a part of the reading on Tuesday night, and was really sad to say goodbye to this project!

I also got to be a part of a really fun, meaningful student film at Columbia. The film, The Soul Shattering Lightness of Divinity, was written and directed by Isabel Stewart Robinson, who is incredibly talented and really fun to work with! The film deals with the subject of mental illness, and a community’s response to it–I’m always interested in working on projects that are meaningful and thought-provoking, and we had a really great rehearsal prior to filming where we discussed a whole series of issues regarding mental illness. It made the character–an overbearing, disapproving mother, which is always fun!–that much more nuanced and layered in my mind.

Finally, I start rehearsals on Sunday for a new production of 29x/y! I had a fabulous time working on this play last summer, and I’m excited to get to explore it once again! Stay tuned for more information on performance times!