Monday, January 26, 2009

A week later...


Spring Awakening was the most dramatic chapter of my life so far. When I made the decision to move to the city and take on this world, I really never expected I would come across something like that show. I have too many emotions and feelings to throw up all over this blog about my time with the show. So...I'm going to avoid that and try to keep things simple.

In my two years with the show, I grew so much as a performer and as a human being. I owe so much of who am today to the people and the material I worked with. I am overjoyed every time I think about just how fortunate I was to be a part of such a historical mark in Broadway history. I really cannot believe that I was blessed with such good fortune. I sacrificed a lot by not continuing my training at either Carnegie Mellon or LAMDA, but I know that I could not have possibly asked for better training for this business than the training I received at Spring Awakening.

I don't think anyone could truly understand how epic the final show was unless they were actually there. I have tried explaining it to some of my friends, but they just look at me with blank stares and politely say "Cool. Sounds really great." I was so happy to see all of the fans there that night and was so moved by all of their emotions. (I apologize for not stage dooring at the matinee. It was my mother's 50th birthday dinner.) But what really struck me about being on stage at the final show was feeling deeply connected to everyone in that theatre. The energy in the most quiet moments was overwhelming. My stomach tied in so many knots that night. I tried to really listen to the words and messages of our show for one last time and take them all in. It was utterly heartbreaking. It was such a gift to have Spring Awakening on Broadway for these past two years. I believe it did so much for this generation of Broadway fanatics and beyond. It is a remarkably important piece and my only hope is that it continues to inspire, despite the Eugene O'Neill's vacancy.

In short. It has been an honor. It completely flipped my life upside down and jump started my career. I could never have dreamt up any of it. Thank you to everyone.

It's been a week now and I do miss the show, but I am so excited to be moving on to other projects. I have been auditioning like a mad man already and I am hoping to announce SOMEthing on this blog soon ;)

But there are some positive things already! I will indeed be returning to Gossip Girl for another brief appearance.

I have spent all of January reflecting on the past two years. It's nice to finally begin to digest everything and accept that time indeed passes...and when one door closes another one is bound to open.

I'll be around.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Laugh

You know, I think SNL is always at it's best when they can't get the big A-list name and end up settling for someone who actually has comedic gut and talent. The best episode of last season was by far the Brian Williams episode, and I gotta say...Neil Patrick Harris knocked it out of the park. He was hysterical. I admire him as a performer and I think he brought a lot of much needed energy and spirit to the cast this past Saturday.

Starting with his monologue, the show reached a much more satisfying height than it has been at all season. (aside from that terrible "two-first names" skit...oof)

Here are a couple skits. Catch the episode it you can.



SNL skit



Regardless of half the shows being long over. It was cute.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Change of plans...

One thing I won't miss about understudying is the constant change of plans.

I was officially told at 5:30 and announced in a post shortly after that, that Hunter had called out. However, Hunter called back in and will indeed be on tonight. I appologize for any confusion.

Matt