Farewell to Forum

The past few weeks have been insane to say the least.  Yesterday, I closed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Baton Rouge Little Theater.  That show really surprised me.  To be honest, I went into the show just looking for my theater fix!  I hadn't done any theater in over a year and was starting to get a little twitchy.  But Forum turned out to be one of the top theater experiences of my life thus far.  I made so many amazing new friends and, with the help of those friends, experienced a lot of personal growth.  This cast truly kept all the drama onstage and just enjoyed being with each other offstage.  And you know what, guys?  I've been smiling so much these past few weeks, and it's all thanks to the wonderful people this show has brought into my life!

The wonderful ladies of the cast!  We had a ritual that we did before every show called TTA.  What does it stand for?  Well, that's our little secret!

The entire cast of Forum!

At the end of the final show, we had to do something called "strike," which basically means "tear the show down."  You clear out and clean the dressing rooms, put away the props, and tear the set down.  

Girl power!

Last time around!

Yesterday's strike was different from a regular strike in that in addition to tearing down the set, we had to strip the entire stage to prepare it for an upgrade. This included taking down the legs and the curtains and stripping all of the lights off of the fly rails.  Once everything was out of the theater, we all felt so small. 

Standing on the completely empty stage reminded me just how amazing theatre really is.  At it's heart, theatre is essentially a space, a person (or a group of people), and an idea.  You start there and it grows into something truly amazing that can take a person away from whatever is troubling them, even if it's just for a little bit.  I mean, how cool is that?

And theatre has a really neat way of bringing people together—people who probably never would have crossed paths otherwise.  But theatre brings them together and something just clicks.  Forum brought a wonderful person to me.  Blogosphere, meet Chris.

Chris was our drummer for Forum.

 He makes me happy.

I always feel sad at the end of a show–sad because I'll miss performing, I'll miss the characters, and because I'l miss the people.  But I didn't feel sadness yesterday.  I felt excited!  Yesterday may have been the end of Tintinabula and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  But it's only the beginning of so many new and amazing friendships.  And I can't wait to see where those friendships take me!

Hump Day

I absolutely adore being in shows at the Baton Rouge Little Theater, but my goodness—After tech week and opening weekend, you definitely learn to appreciate your nights off even more.

Speaking of theater, did any of you Baton Rougeans see the awesome review for A Funny Thing Happened to the Forum in this morning's Advocate?  If you didn't happen to see it or you don't live in Baton Rouge, no worries!  You can read the review here.

Now, let's get to the main reason we have gathered here today.  It's time for.....

Post your favorite Pins and link up at The Vintage Apple!

Source: tatertotsandjello.com via Emily on Pinterest

This is on my to-do list for tonight!

Source: Uploaded by user via Jennifer-Jen on Pinterest

The scary thing about rock bottom is that life tricks you into thinking you've hit it, but then you fall even further.  So you never quite know where you are.

Source: donttouchmymoleskine.com via Juliana on Pinterest

Ha.  Ha ha.

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via Tammy on Pinterest

:)

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Jessari on Pinterest

This is so adorable!

Source: shrimpandglitz.blogspot.com via Madeline on Pinterest

I'm so excited that it's getting warm enough to wear cute outfits like this again!  Now, if only I had cute outfits like this...

Source: d-o-l-c-e.tumblr.com via Haley on Pinterest

Looove this.

Source: crockpotladies.com via Emily on Pinterest

This is on my list of things to try in my crock pot.

Source: theaprongal.com via Emily on Pinterest

And I might have to try to make these for the cast and crew of Forum.

Source: graphjam.memebase.com via Shelby on Pinterest

That's an interesting way of thinking about it.

Source: ilovephoto.info via Joon Shern on Pinterest

I kind of feel like this elephant right now. 

Funny Things

A few scenes from backstage at A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum!  

Me and Claire, one of my future roommates, who plays a Protean.

Joe, Les, and Jessica, who play Erronius, Marcus Lycus, and Panacea, respectively.

There's always so much food backstage.  Not so great for those of us whose costumes show our stomach.

I've been having fun helping a teacher in the cast grade her papers.

Gotta stretch.

Stretch, stretch, stretch.

Cupcake?

CUPCAKE!

Green room cuteness.

Life lesson: Never set me loose with your camera.  Especially not a fancy one like Elizabeth's.  When you get it back, you'll have about 600 pictures like this to sort through.

Courtesans reading about themselves.  Such actors.

Chit-chat.

For a lack of a better term, boob envy.

Chilling in the green room.

Lovely ladies.

Don't miss this awesome show at Baton Rouge Little Theater!

All photos by Elizabeth Cosnahan of Hope's Treasured Moments.  Check out her Facebook page here and her website here.

Where I've Been

Hello all! Long time, no blog. But, in my defense, I've barely even had time to eat during the last two weeks.  This blog isn't the only thing that's been neglected.  Just look at my laundry hamper!:

Every surface in my room is covered in dust because I haven't had time to go to the store and get dusting cloths (On a similar note, I also don't have any milk for breakfast tomorrow.  Sad, sad situation.)

My dishwasher sat full all weekend after I ran a load of dishes on Friday.

And my desk is a cluttered, useless mess.

And (possibly worst of all), my Pinterest account hasn't seen any action in days!

What has everything fallen into disarray?  Well, I've been a bit busy.  First of all, last week was midterms week at school.  And then on top of midterms, I was off at Baton Rouge Little Theater playing dress-up and having fun.

Jingle, jingle, jingle...

This past Friday, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened at Baton Rouge Little Theater.  I am playing Tintinabula, the loud, jingly, air-headed courtesan.

We've had a great weekend of shows, but before we could open, we had a busy weekend of tech rehearsal. So last week, if I was either in class, at the theater, at work, or studying.

If you were smart, you wouldn't miss this show!  It's pretty hilarious, if I do say so myself :) If you like comedy, dancing women, men in short dresses, or any combination of the three, this show is for you!  You can read an article about it that was published in the local newspaper, The Advocate, here.

This picture of me appeared alongside the article.  Photo credit to Arthur D. Lauck.

Tickets for the show are available online at www.brlt.org or by calling 225-926-6496.  Tickets are $27 and worth every penny!  The shows are selling well, so you definitely want to get your tickets ahead of time to make sure you can get good seats!

Now that the show's open and midterms are over, the hard part for me is done.  I will (hopefully) have more down time, which means more blogging. And dusting.  I desperately need to dust. Whee!

Oh, and if any of you with a smart phone play Scramble with Friends, FIND ME AND PLAY WITH ME!  This game is my newest addiction and I need new opponents.  My username is EmCaroline1.  If you're friends with me on Facebook, you can find me through that as well.

But in the meantime, this busy week has left me exhausted, which means it's time for me to crawl into bed with a box of Thin Mints and finish watching Despicable Me.  I hope that all of you have a great Monday!