move over james dean

After a long day of writing annotated bibliographies for my amazing ex-professor, Megan Sanborn Jones, it was a special treat getting on Facebook and seeing my show's trailer for the Microburst Theatre Festival. In just 8 days, The Shoelace will be performed at BYU for a paying audience, along with six other AMAZING plays written by other BYU students. You know how mega rad that is?

This weekend, I annotated 67 books, both before and after working 4 hours at Station 22. Took me 5 and a half hours, but they got done. The finished product (all of the articles and books and EVERYTHING) turned out to be 70 pages long. That's 3 months of work all in one document. Haha! I still have a few more things to do, but they're on the back burner for now. (: Tonight, Zac and I went coat shopping. We found several contenders, but in the end, I walked away with a new coat from Zumiez and we're gonna go hunting for Zac again soon!

You know what's also mega rad? Knowing your style and marching to the beat of your own drum. I like that I feel like "me" in a leather/sweater/punk-ish coat, rather than a classic trench. I like that I feel most like "me" when I'm not wearing makeup or when my hair air dries. It's just so nice figuring yourself out, even if it is what you see on the outside.

Mrs. Who Will Do (:

17 hour day. Almost every moment of it filled with theatre. Whew.

I attended BYU's Writer's Conference this morning from 9am-12pm. The Shoelace was read and moderated at the end of the ten minute play portion of the conference and I received some interesting and compelling feedback. As this play has been ripped apart and put back together again for almost 2 years, I believe the play is in a final stage that doesn't need too many more changes. Much of what the other writers had questions and concerns I've decided can be cleared up with a director who knows how to pull and prod thoughtful and committed actors. Today the actors were kind of thrown into the reading without any direction and therefore some important lines and motivations were lost in translation. But overall, it was a huge success with all present and generated some powerful discussion.

What does it mean to have doubt? What is personal worthiness? What is faith, both to an LDS audience and to others? 

After the talkback session, several film students introduced themselves to me and asked what I wanted to do with The Shoelace now. I mentioned turning it into a film and THEY HIT THE ROOF. Immediately, they wanted my contact information and gave me positive encouragement with helping me getting it on film. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. AH.

I had to leave for A Wrinkle in Time right then and waved goodbye. Our matinee (or manatee show as we like to call it) went pretty well. I was struggling, not gonna lie but pulled through for my cast. (: We had an hour or so for dinner and then sat outside and played "I Spy." (: And then it was time for our evening performance and IT WENT BEAUTIFULLY. The audience's energy was off the charts and I gloried in it.
Guys. I can't express just how amazing this show is. Agency, love, persistence, doubt, fear, encouragement, faith, love and more love. I get to PLAY. I get to PLAY with a cast I've come to love. How great is that? (:

One of my very good friends told me tonight after the show, "How perfect are you as Mrs. Who? You shine through Mrs. Who! It's you through Who!" hahaha! Greatest compliment of all time, me thinks.

big dumb face zac :D

MY LIFE

DRESSER FOR PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
CELEBRATING BIRTHDAYS (i'm 22...still two days older than big dumb face zac :])
HAIRCUT = NEW WOMAN
WRITE, WRITE, WRITE
KITTIES

SINCERELY,
CHELSEA

BEST SENIOR YEAR EVER

You guys.
This semester hasn't killed me yet!
Can you believe it's already November? I for one, cannot. Just two weeks and three days until Thanksgiving Break and I'm so pumped!
Quick rundown of my life right now: 5-6 hours of sleep every night, classes anywhere from 8am-5pm, auditions, callbacks, rehearsals, makeup help backstage, stage crew shenanigans, kicking butt and taking names with my TA awesomeness, homework all over the place, and a very dirty apartment.
That's me, every single day. On Tuesday, I was on campus from 7:45am until MIDNIGHT. Not kidding, people. But goodness, I couldn't ask for a more theatre filled senior year. :)

\\Good News//

I'm in BYU's main stage A Wrinkle in Time! It goes up next spring, after I'm graduated. Rehearsals start next Wednesday.
My brother goes into the MTC for his mission this Wednesday. He'll be serving in Boise, Idaho! He gets here Monday. I haven't seen him since getting married (so about a year and four months) and I'll have to say goodbye two days later. And not see him for two more years. Good vibes and thoughts would be lovely for him and myself. :)
I submitted a ten minute and one-act play for KCACTF (Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival) two weeks ago! I may write a whole new, full length play before December 1st for it as well, but may just wait until next year.
A student sent me an email two days ago. At the end of his email he said, "Thanks for your work as a TA. You're one of the best TA's I've ever had." !!!!!!! AH. Life complete. :)

Awesome zombie makeup.

I did a stylized adorable Halloween makeup! It's supposed to like a pumpkin sitting outside your door. :)

We have a script for Women of Faith! Being a devised piece, this is a wonderful accomplishment, seeing as we got it done in one week.

Opera Awesomeness!

Backstage is where I live.

Wicked cool Waldo Zombie makeup. Hooray Halloween!

She is the best ever. For more insight into her Halloween costume, go watch this rad video.

a conglomeration of recent happenings

So I have effectively procrastinated studying for my stats test this Thursday. haha Wanna know how? By baking. I think I'm getting a knack for baking--especially when it satisfies my outrageous sweet tooth. And anything's better than stats, right?

In all honesty, I think I'll be okay for the test. I will definitely be hitting the books tomorrow. Promise, mom! I  promise, everyone else reading my silly little blog! 

Life's been pretty baller, not gonna lie. So much busy, all the time, with lots of homework and friends and classes and not a whole lot of husband time. :( Wah. Tonight he plans on pulling an all-nighter waiting for Boarderlands 2 to come out and then he'll play all night until dawn. That's my gamer. :] Well, here are some pictures and a recipe! I'm off to go do some procrastinating studying. Dinosaur bones...histograms...box plots...standard deviation...reading prompts. Ah, life never stop. :]

I found a wonderful friend planking on some blocks during WDA. Before planking, she was being a cat. Awesome.

We had Dramatic Lit outside last Friday. :]

Fossil!

An impromptu date night with a rushed hairstyle and makeup. We saw The Amazing Spiderman. So good.

I came home from classes on Friday to find a cake sitting on our table. Zac did not make said cake, rather, he bummed it off the bakery truck that comes to Wymount on Friday mornings with free day old bread and cakes! That's my money pincher in action.

I got all home-makery by filling some random floating canisters with said ingredients. I labeled them with my expert sticker hand. Aw yeah.

Best face ever. Hands down.

My tummy is so happy.

good times for a change

For those of you not friends with me on Facebook, I have some awesome news. :) Thursday night, I went to my first audition in about...four months. haha Needless to say, I was a little more than nervous. But I heard about this awesome multi-media project from a great friend of mine in WDA. She said I should audition because they need actors and (as she is a fellow playwright) also encouraged me to apply for a writing spot.

When I arrived for my audition, I also went through an interview. The woman directing the project (the one in the clip above) was my theatre history teacher all last year, so I instantly felt a little more confident. When I walked in she was like, "Chelsea I was just tooting my horn about you!" haha I was like, "Really?" hahha And she said to the other people holding the audition, "Chelsea was one of my star students and now she's a TA for the class." MAN. I couldn't stop blushing!! I had no idea I was a star student...I just thought I got a good grade. haha I covered my face with my hands and she saw my bright red cheeks and said something along the lines of, "And she blushes, too! Jack of all trades!"

Throughout the interview, I felt as much at ease as I could for the situation. Then she asked me if I brought a monologue...I didn't. haha >< But she gave me a side and I went outside to practice getting the words familiar then came back in. I stared straight ahead at the wall behind my auditioners and got into my groove. It was odd reading lines for people again. But very nice at the same time. I took my time and tried to make the monologue as laid back and honest as possible. I guess it worked out!

I found today yesterday that I made the cut for the class/show! We'll be creating a performance piece centered around things we've lost and what we've found. We'll be interviewing people all over Provo and then creating a work around their stories. Basically, I get to make theatre. Wow. Sometimes a girl gets super lucky. :) It goes up at the end of next February and it'll be a BYU main stage performance in the Margetts.

Four years into my college career and the one thing I've wanted more than anything concerning my schooling: to be a part of a main stage production at BYU.

Nailed it. :]

A little downer, though: With this class, I'll be at 19 credits for this semester...as well as being a TA, acting in another show this semester (more on that later :]), doing makeup for the opera in a month, and then being a stage hand for BYU's main stage, "Holiday."

Poor Zac. He's never gonna see me. :(

GIVE ME THEATRE OR GIVE ME DEATH. ...Kind of?