Opening Monologue

So far, my only successful blogs have been ones that were for classes and were only meant to last for a short length of time. All my other attempts have kind of fallen flat. But! I'm at an interesting place in my life at the moment - I feel as though I'm learning something new every day. Or at least that there's a lot for me to think deeply about. And, as some know and make fun of me for, I have early onset Alzheimer's or something because unless I write my thoughts down I won't remember them five minutes later. So, in the somewhat unlikely event that a stroke of genius actually occurs in my brain at some point (or maybe just so that I have a record of my thoughts somewhere along down the road when I'm middle-aged and wondering what in the world 20-year-old me thought and cared about), I'm going to try to chronicle my thoughts.

A little about me. To preface these thoughts.

I grew up a missionary kid in Quito, Ecuador. 

After my sophomore year of high school, I moved back to the States.

Started college with the intent to be a Secondary English Education major with perhaps a theatre minor.

Was cast in a show and it was a hopeless cause: I changed my major to theatre.

It's been something of a process for me to really begin to take myself seriously as a theatre artist. Come to think of it, it's been something of a process for me to think of myself as an artist. But over the last three years, with some helpful pokes and prods (that may or may not have left me smarting a time or two), I've begun to embrace the tension between faith and art that has become my life. 

Where am I right now?

Well, I'm an aspiring professional actor. I'm trying to embrace as many possibilities and opportunities as I possibly can, and I'm trying to begin networking to help launch an acting career. This month I'm attending auditions in St. Louis, Missouri as well as auditions in New York City in the hopes of landing my first summer job as an actor. If I can manage to do that, well. We'll see where I end up. 

I'm beginning work my senior project which will be a one-woman show called "My Name is Rachel Corrie." If all goes according to plan (*crosses fingers*), there's a distinct possibility that I might have a venue in Chicago to present two performances. Granted, between now and then I have $1200 to raise and a 31-page monologue to memorize, but I'm doing my best to be unashamedly optimistic. 

So far, doors have kept opening in front of me. Opportunities have presented themselves and I've done my best to take each one with enthusiasm and an attempt at fearlessness. That doesn't mean that I don't have moments where I put my head in my hands and say to myself, "What the HECK do you think you're doing?" God knows I have plenty of those. But I am convinced that this is what I'm supposed to do. 

Oh, I've met some resistance. There are people that question my choices and my motives. But that's a discussion for another post. Or two. Or three. Or seven. This is just the beginning. The intro. The opening monologue.