Dreamings & Wanderings

Show business (in particular musical theatre) is a tough business to be in. Endless competition, nerves, and auditions, but if you do find your niche here, I have a few tips that will help you get through all of those nerve-wrecking auditions! 1. Fake it til’ you make it I’ve found that this phrase has become my motto for almost every situation. I’ve always been quite a shy person, so I often try to ‘fake’ confidence and it really does make a difference. Confidence is such an important quality to have in show business and especially in auditions. If you can fake being relaxed in an audition, it’s much easier to warm to the casting team and you look like you know what you’re doing. A part of this ‘fake it til’ you make it’ motto, is body language. A smile and open gestures (i.e. no crossed arms or legs), shoulders back, and your head held high, makes such a big difference. Along the lines of faking it, I was told once by a choreographer during an audition worksh...

Hello beautiful internet friends, Sorry it’s been a while! Life has been incredibly hectic recently, so I thought it was about time I finally get back into the blogging world. I’m now enjoying the final week of mid year holidays before I go back to uni on Monday…  So much has happened since I last wrote! I finished all of my uni assessment and classes for semester 1 of my 2 nd year (which was a lot of work and stress), performed in CATS the musical with Harvest Rain Theatre Company (which involved basically living at the theatre 24/7 for a week - and I’ll probably eventually write a post about the experience), and then I went on a Christian camp for uni students which was so much fun. So basically I want to fill you in on something that has been a new addition to my life this year that is not so pleasant: anxiety and panic attacks. I have a family history of anxiety disorder, with my grandfather, mother and sister all struggling with it from time...

Hello my dear internet friends! This topic has been on my mind for quite some time so I thought I'd share it with you and hear your thoughts. In short, this topic is:  Follow Your Dreams!  I've just been thinking that it is so sad that there are people in this world who don't or can't fulfil their dreams and do what they love. I have a lot of dreams of what I want to do in my lifetime and I am going to try my best to make those things happen. I'm already studying the course that I need to be an Occupational Therapist (which is my ideal career), and I am pursuing my hobby of musical theatre. I am so lucky to have the opportunities that I have had in the past and the ones that may come in the future. Everything happens for a reason and I think we all learn from our past experiences and these experiences shape who we are and may even change our dreams and plans.  It's interesting even just looking back at the past seven years and seeing how my life has c...

Hello my dear internet friends! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while! Uni has been incredibly hectic recently...and it’s only going to get worse from here. It’s late at night and I can’t be bothered going to bed so I thought I’d write a blog post! I read TFIOS quite a while ago and immediately knew that I wanted to write a review on it but I never actually got around to writing one. So even though I know I’m incredibly late to join the bandwagon, here we go! Firstly, John Green is simply a genius.  I actually first discovered John on YouTube and loved his videos so I was keen to read his books when I realised he was an author.  Although TFIOS is classified as young adult fiction, I think adults would get just as much out of the story and fall in love with it as much as all the love-crazed teenagers are. John writes so eloquently and the characters he creates in TFIOS are oh so loveable.  Secondly, this novel is a tearjerker. I very, very rarely cry read...

Hello my internet friends! Tying in with my post about my health kick, I thought I would post a recipe for a change. I first made this recipe in grade eight home economics class and I remembered it recently and decided to make it for a second time today. This is my recipe for CARROT AND ZUCCHINI MUFFINS :) INGREDIENTS 2 cups self-raising flour (I used wholemeal self-raising flour as a healthier alternative) 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1 cup grated carrot 1 cup grated zucchini  1/2 cup chopped walnuts (you can use any type of nut - I actually didn't have walnuts in the cupboard so I opted for almonds) 2 eggs 3/4 cup milk (low fat or whatever type of milk you fancy) 90g butter, melted (low fat) STEPS Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius  Grate carrots and zucchini Beat eggs Melt butter and set aside to cool Sift flour, bi-carb soda and cinnamon (I couldn't find the sieve so I was lazy and skipped this step!) Add suga...

Hello internet friends! You know that 'get to know you question' that is always asked? "Who would you want to meet dead or alive if you had the chance?"  Well today I thought I would share my list of ten people with you. Some people just have the most incredible life experience and stories, don't they? 1. Jesus - Of course would be incredible to hear his wisdom and his point of view on the world in the past, present and future. 2. Jennifer Lawrence - Need I say more?  3. Julie Andrews - Imagine all the amazing stories she would be able to tell. She's such a brilliant actress and singer and would have had so many interesting experiences throughout her life. 4. Rachel McAdams - I adore in every movie she's in. She's a great actress (and I wouldn't mind having her looks either)! 5. Someone from the 1920s - I have a fascination with the 1920s. The fashion, the makeup, the dancing, the language - everything about it makes me fantas...

Hello internet friends! About a week ago I had a CATS Bootcamp which was basically just spending the day with the theatre company doing workshops. I did a 90 minute vocal workshop, 90 minutes of costume fitting and creating my character (my cat is named Ragamuffin), 90 minutes of learning the makeup, and a 90 minute choreography workshop. Today I mainly wanted to tell you about the choreography workshop.  So in my "tribe" of about 15 people (group I will rehearse with because there's over 800 people in the cast...) left the freezing air-conditioned vocal room with relief and looked forward to warming up in the choreography session! Apart from learning a snippet of a dance for the show, we were taught how to move and interact as a cat - which was fun getting back into acting because I have missed it so much! But to get to the point - the most interesting part of this session was learning about how to be a musical theatre performer in terms of health and fitness. We wer...