Luckily I've got it in my head that I want to be an actor, so I may be able to escape this real life thing once in while a do something I enjoy.
And I do actually want to be an actor. I'm not someone who decides after one stint in a high school production and just jumps in with no training, experience, or knowledge of the business; so GOD FORBID someone tells me one more time that acting is a hard business to get into. I KNOW! In fact, most actors you tell that to probably already know and have experienced it first hand. Why everyone assumes we're so ignorant of the business is beyond me. End rant....
Anyway, I want to act and so I will be taking my first step toward that goal on September 27th when I start an eight month training program at Neptune Theatre in Halifax. In 53 days I can blissfully escape the real world for four hours a day four days a week and return home to theatre world!
The Pre-Professional Training Program at Neptune runs at the theatre for eight months and includes classes in voice, movement, text, singing and dance; plus discussions of all the plays preformed in the current season and a list a 25 plays to read.
My audition was in June and I have never been more nervous. I spent three weeks preparing two monologues, one from Nicky Silver's "The Food Chain" and one from Shakespeare's "As You Like It", and the song Part of Your World from "The Little Mermaid". The auditions were held at Neptune in a rehearsal room and the current head of the theatre school was the only person present.
Immediately afterwards I felt great about it, but as the days went by and the deadline at which we were supposed to hear back went zooming by and still no letter had arrived, I began to get worried. I had taken to calling home everyday at 11am to inquire whether the mail had arrived, to which L would reply "no letter today" before I could open my mouth to ask. Eventually, in order to keep my sanity and fragile ego from shattering to bits I had to tell myself I didn't get in and set to work figuring out what I was going to do for the next year. I had a plan to move to Europe as an Au Pair for a year before re-auditioning for the program and starting to build my acting resume.
Then, a few weeks into July, after a very long and horrible day, in which my computer decided to declare a vendetta against me, I realized I has less than $5.00 in my bank account because I hadn't been given my first pay-cheque yet, and I lost my last bus ticket (and obviously couldn't buy more) so I was forced to walk the 6 miles across the city to home, I got a call. Not a letter, A CALL, with a real live person from Neptune Theatre who was telling me I had been accepted into the program. I was ecstatic, even the fact that I was walking home in 35 degree weather across a long bridge with no shade couldn't dampen my mood. I had been convinced that my only alternative to going to Neptune was running away to Europe for a year (which would be so bad but I wanted this program more). I called F right away and then Boston Dad and J and then my sister and probably just about every other family member and person I've met in the past four years. So Europe was cancelled, I was going to acting school and the hunt for an apartment for F and I was on (more on that in another post), because as much as I love the Bennett family, I do need my own place.
Only 1272 and 39 minutes 'till departure from real life!
flew back to 
Next is Salad Days, a wonderful new musical by friends Landon 
And last but definitely not least is Blood Relations, a great play by Sharon Pollock that tells the story of Lizzie Borden, the infamous late 18
