Beauty

I made the most amazing chocolate chip cookies last weekend. You know you want one.

Friday morning at work I made the most excellent Harry Potter themed weather board in anticipation of the FINAL MOVIE this past weekend.

Jake was supposed to come over this past weekend so we could all go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 together but unfortunately Jake's car broke down. So, no Jake this weekend, but Megan and I still had a super awesome weekend which began with a lot of crying, cheering, and sobbing. Yes, I did all of those things while watching Harry Potter because to me, and to a whole generation of people, this movie really marks the end of an era. It marks the end of our childhoods, the last thing we grew up with.

I finished my re-read of the series on Friday just as I finished my desk shift. As I walked upstairs, I wiped tears from my eyes thinking about the adventures I had just been through, all the emotions I had felt, and all the lessons I had learned with Harry and his friends. And in one day's time, I knew that it was all going to end.  It's crazy how something so simple can effect people, and how a single story can make connections between people.

My hands shook as the opening credits played and my heart stopped when I remembered Dobby's death. I laughed when Hermione transformed into the evil Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter is a genius.), I cheered when Harry, Ron, and Hermione escaped Gringotts on the back of a dragon, I cried when Professor McGonagall unleashed her rage against the man who had murdered Dumbledore, I shook when Voldemort and the Death Eaters came to Hogwarts and began the battle, I screamed when Nagini murdered Snape and sobbed when Harry learned of Snape's true alliance, I weeped when Harry learned his true destiny and marched into the Forbidden Forest with his family by his side, I smiled when Harry survived the Avada Kedavra curse again only to come back to the castle and fight and win.

It was amazing, and a beautiful ending. To watch Harry send his own children off to Hogwarts was the most brilliant ending there could be. Thank you for these stories J.K. Rowling, you have brought so much joy to so many children with your writing.

On the way to Middlebury to dance in the street - Big Band style.

A U.F.O.! Of course a theatre would have this set up.

The coolest storefront ever.

One thought that's crossed my mind lately is the way actors work. I don't want to give my own tools away because their mine, but most teachers (Hagen, Stanislavski, Strasberg, Meisner, mostly The Method) talk about finding a substitution for the emotional moment of a scene from your own past. For example, if I had a scene where a character was arguing with someone who abandoned him, I would try to think of a moment in my own life when I ever felt abandoned or betrayed to substitute that real emotion into the character. (For me, sometimes this really isn't enough. I like the Practical Aesthetics method introduced by David Mamet which involves create a physical image of a character, imagining the "given circumstances," and then filling in with substitutions and emotions.) Megan brought up the strange dilemma to me when actors stop feeling in real life, and the only way they can express emotion becomes the stage in a character, they're not able to have emotion themselves. It's kind of that image of the "stoic actor" who is very pompous, speaks in monotone, but when they get on the stage they completely transform.

In a way, the stage becomes an actor's form of therapy. But is it crossing a line when an actor can no longer feel in their own lives? I think the answer is yes. Uta Hagen talks about how the actor needs to be a vessel for emotion, and in an interview with Jennifer Anniston that Megan and I were watching, she mentioned how she feels like the actor has a deep well of emotion that they just use. Being that "emotional sponge" is the way an actor becomes a character. Actors have to let emotion effect them. Always. That's how we get the tools we need to play characters. We need to embrace the brilliant happiness and deeply feel sadness and anger in order to convincingly use the entire spectrum of human emotion when creating the aesthetic of a character.

So that's why I cried, laughed, cheered, and sobbed through Harry Potter. Because that's what I felt, and I was filling my well.

Peace out!

Palm Tree Thanksgiving Part 2

After an evening at Red Lobster eating cheesy biscuits, we made it to Venice Monday night and crashed at my grandparent's condo where we stayed for the week. It was such a fantastic week. Just the fact that we had no responsibilities and no worries while we were there blew my mind. We saw the new Harry Potter movie (of course), we saw Burlesque (a fantastic movie which we both highly suggest), we went to three different beaches, we ate out, we slept, we finished our epic Heroes marathon which has spanned a year, we went swimming in the pool, we danced in the pool, we made cookies, we watched Glee, we chilled with my grandparents, we riced potatoes for Thanksgiving, we ate Thanksgiving, we decorated my grandparents' Christmas tree, we got waited on by a terrible waitress, we ate AMAZING homemade gellato, my grandmother got me a new electric toothbrush, and we saw an amazing performance of Ragtime at the Venice Little Theater.

It was strange to see Christmas decorations everywhere when it was over 80 degrees and sunny...

It was an awesome vacation that was incredibly well deserved. I'm so glad we took it and that we got to spend it with my grandparents. Thank you for a fabulous week! Now we've been back for another full week and I've been on a dead run since our return. Between Toys and school work, I'm pooped! On top of that, it's been snowing all day and now it really looks like Christmas out there.

Peace out!

P.S. The squirrels in Florida are tiny, like rats. Nothing compared to the ones in Btown!

Palm Tree Thanksgiving Part 1

Oh hi! You're still here! I thought maybe you wouldn't want to stick around seeing how I haven't posted in forever but that's just because Megan and I have been on an amazing vacation to Florida. We had so much fun with a week of relaxation free from stress and responsibilities. And we got to have an awesome "palm tree Thanksgiving." To check out some of Megan's pictures from the trip, click here. I'm going to give you a blow-by-blow of our amazing trip. Get ready!

Friday
My mom picked me up from school the Friday of vacation on cloud nine. The cast list for Twelfth Night (UVM's next production) went up minutes before she came to pick me up. I actually got a part! I can't even believe it. Finally after working so hard and auditioning my butt off, I get another role. Most of my friends got roles as well, lead ones. It's going to be so much fun. My mom actually came into the theater to come get me and she got to see the cast list as well. It was a happy moment.

I'm in both of these shows!

Saturday We made it home to Lville the night before and spent the night at home. It felt very good to be home and not having to worry about every little thing at school. Seriously, sometimes it feels like my life is a constant string of worry. But not on vacation! We got to have Thanksgiving with my brother, his wife, and my niece Iris. She is so adorable and she has grown so much! She's only three months old and she's able to roll herself over. The problem is, she can't quite roll herself completely over so she gets pissed off and cries, but it'll come in time. It was nice to spend time with family especially while being able to eat real food. That was a wonder in itself.

Sunday
Finally! The day we had been waiting and planning for for months now. Megan's mom and gram brought us back over to the Btown airport so we could get through security and catch our flight around noonish. Our flight plan would have taken us into JFK airport where we would have had a huge layover and then we would have gotten into to Tampa, FL by eight. Not so much fun seeing how we still had to drive to Orlando. However, we seemed to be having a stroke of luck that day because we were offered a miracle. We were just expecting to check our bags when we walked up to the gate but when the lady asked us if we wanted to switch to a much earlier flight for free, we immediately took it.


This is us...happy.

We got to Tampa incredibly early around four-ish and met up with my grandparents who were waiting at the bottom of the escalator in baggage claim. The drive to Orlando was gorgeous, although I felt a little shell-shocked that we were actually here. It made it even better when my grandmother started blasting the Mamma Mia soundtrack and we belted along with it. I got so excited as we passed signs for Disney World, but I knew the excitement that waited for us. We were going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios. Yeah, jealous yet? All of my dreams were about to come true. We were actually going to go to Hogwarts! First though, we got to spend in the night in a really nice hotel with an amazing pool, we also got to relax and have a nice dinner with my grandparents. Way better than if we had flown in at eight.

We kind of took over the hotel...

Monday
So, I basically couldn't sleep very well that night because I was so excited about Harry Potter. I was the first one out of bed and ready to go but we had a great breakfast buffet and then Megan and I were off to get on the shuttle for Universal which was right across the road from our hotel, unfortunately that was six lanes of traffic. So everyone on their way to the park crammed into the tiny bright neon-yellow shuttle like sardines. Everyone was feeling each other up. It was like a theater green room on that bus. Anyway, we made it but not before the bus driver lied to us and told he would be pack for pick up at 5:30. We had to take a cab home later. But let's not focus on the negative besides the fact that the place was PACKED. I think if you took the whole population of New England and dropped them in Orlando, that would probably be an accurate description of how many people there actually were. There was a huge line to actually get into the Harry Potter section of the park but Megan and I went off and had fun in the rest of the park and then we finally made it to Hogwarts.

Close...

...closer...

...closerer...

The ride inside Hogwarts was so spectacular. It was like a terrifying 360 experience. Wicked cool.

We got butterbeer!

Halfway through our time in Harry Potter World, it started down pouring. The multitude crowd of people suddenly spilt as people ran to take shelter. Megan and I just stood there in the raining, soaking it in as lines dissipated and everything became a little more available. There were still lines to get into the shops though, which was rather annoying.

See? We're soaked!

Overall, it was a fantastic day and The Wizarding

To Be Continued...

Peace out!