If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.
Something large and new for me this year was realizing that there's hardly ever mastery, except in the demonstration of attempting something beautiful (either a play, something new, or some deep understanding). The act of doing is as vital as the act of the accomplishment. We have never made it, we have only begun to understand what making it would mean.
So while I have not succeeded in the sense that I am not solely supporting myself from my acting work, I have succeeded in that I have the freedom to explore and engage with what I really want to do. Every time I attempt, I succeed. That is really nice. And a new perspective.
This year, I kept working to make my theatre dream happen. I went on many auditions. I started a serious acting class. I applied to an actor training school and didn't get in. I spent half the year working on a play with a deliberately cruel director, something which I will never do again. I also professionally stage-managed an Equity reading (Virtuosa), was paid to help produce an original musical(Love, That Four Letter Word!), underwent trial by fire on how to run spotlight in a regional theatre (Westchester Broadway Dinner Theatre), directed in the Bad Musicals Festival (Virgin Dictator, on an impossible timeline and a budget of 0$), fundraised hundreds of dollars for charity with two concerts (one with The Artist's Crossing and some incredible Broadway Stars, the other with a friend's company (Group Therapy) on Long Island) and ended the year performing The Velveteen Rabbit in community theatre (Talegate Productions). In the last role, a young fan gave me a doll dressed as a bunny, which is currently decorating my very first Christmas tree (that's mine as an adult, in my house).
In 2009, I look forward to continuing my actor training, dancing and singing as much as possible and generally making magic happen. That musical theatre magic, where things wrap up with polite pithy sentences. Just before a song.
I intend to
