the fun continues! (IT HAS TOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!)

I had the best three weeks of my life with you guys at the conservatory this summer!

I'm going to miss yall sooooooo much! I swear to keep in touch with every single one of you! And I may plan something at my house I'm not sure though. I'm really looking forward to next year.

I love all of you! The shows were fantastic! Both of them melted my heart and I can't believe I had the oppourtunity to be in them with such a fantastic cast.

I swear to keep intouch!

my number is 919-414-4148 if you don't have it already, and my email is Em0hell0kittypunkrokkerchik@gmail.com

LOVE YYYYOOOOUUUUU!!!!

-rAYA

To everyone

Thanks for being such great people. I'm going to miss you guys. The shows were fabulous. :D I had so much fun! Keep in touch on facebook!

We still need to have our rave!

Kristen

It's over?

I just can't believe how amazing the past three weeks have been. I have grown as an actress and as a person. I have met so many people and we all have grown to love each other. We all share so many memories and inside jokes; it 's hard to have to say goodbye. I will miss everyone.

Much love,

Sofia

"When you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same."--Nelson Mandela

I think I am having a Biron moment. I--having been so full of words in my past postings--now do not know what to say. However, I feel there is much needed to be said. for these past three weeks have been remarkable.

I will admit that in the beginning I was skeptical. Last year had been so eye-opening as my first conservatory. Most people in Richard III were older or were veterans of the program, and I'd made a lot of great, (what I hope to be) lifelong friends. As Uta Hagen puts it, we all have expectations, and life is a game of whether those expectations are met or not. When I entered this year's conservatory on the first day, I was afraid. It didn't feel the same as last year: there were younger faces, new faces, and, of course, a Shakespearean Comedy to deal with. However, as time went on I realized that this difference was not bad, no, it was quite the opposite. Suddenly, I was the veteran. Suddenly, I had to be a role model. And having this be my second time, I needed to grow as an actor.

Even though these past three weeks have indeed flown by, I feel like I did grow. Emily Ranii gave me great inspiration with her idea of "filling" your character. For those of you who have seen my past performances, I have always struggled with the concept of overacting. My problem with it was that until now I never understood what the boundary was. Did I overact? When is it going too far? When Emily Ranii explained that when you fully inhabit the character in commitment and physicality you can not possibly overact. It was an "aha" moment of epic proportions in my acting experience.

Additionally, when Ian had us work on impulse I was so too enlightened. For with not fully inhabiting a character comes a tendency to stay in your head. Having improv sessions specifically focusing on impulse work really helped me consciously tap into my more vulnerable side, and John Gully's Meisner exercises showed me the kind of brilliant acting that impulse work can harvest: what acting should be.

In conclusion, I am very happy and fulfilled having done STC a second time. I met many great people, and I have been honored and thrilled to share the stage with such promising youth. As I said in the beginning, Love's Labor's Lost was just plain different than Richard III. You can't compare. In both cases I felt myself grow as a person. In Richard III from a young, unsure child to a promising, still young actor. In Love's Labor's Lost from a tired, slightly immature actor to one who is finally starting to see the art and beauty in everything.

I am sad to say that I think this will be my last conservatory at least as a student. Next year, I'll probably be getting a job..:( But so too is it time for others to rise up and be able to get the same opportunities out of STC that I did. I am so grateful to Ian and Burning Coal for enriching my life with this program. I hope to see you all soon, and if you ever need advice or someone to talk to, you are all friends in my book: facebook me or give me a ring. :) I know we shall all do great things one day. The future is limitless.

Thine, in the dearest design of industry,

--Dylan Goodman

The End.

These three weeks literally went by in a blink of an eye.
Thank you to everyone for making this a wonderful experience and I am honored to have been able to work with and get to know all of you.

Love forever,
Jenni.

Whether the Weather is Cold...

Everyone -

You guys are amazing. I've had some of the best three weeks I've had in a long time. I've grown as a person and an actress. I've made bonds. I've made friends. I've added to a family that keeps growing and I hope to keep in touch with everyone after this. At first, upon entering this, I was... well, terrified. I knew no one. I'm not one of those people that jumps into things. You've changed that.

Ian - you're amazing. I think I've said this more than once.

Friday Cast - what a show. What a show. What a production. I think you all have made this go down in history as one of the favorite productions I've been in, headcold or no headcold. (You've beat out Theatre in the Park and Doubt, by the way. Just so you know.)

Saturday Cast - beautiful performance. Remarkable. Truly outstanding. I didn't feel like I had seen it a hundred times once and again. It was fresh, and it was alive.

I apologize for not being there for strike - I slept on the way home so I have a bit before I really drop.

So, for the final time,
"Whether the weather is cold, or whether the weather is hot, we'll be together whatever the weather, whether we like it or not!"

With All Due Love and Admiration,

~Austin Dennis, signing out~

Ok, NOW is the time to get sad.

Wow. Just wow. These three weeks have been amazing. I can't even start to go into detail with all of the amazing experiences that I have had.

I really want to thank the cast first. You really made me feel accepted, especially towards the end. I managed to have a great group of friends, a girlfriend, and a mentor by the end. Everyone was just such a pleasure to be around. I have never been in a place with so much constant energy. It was really such an awesome time, too much for words.

I also would like to thank Ian. Without you none of this would have been possible, and a meaningful (yet short) chapter in my life would be left unwritten. You really taught me so many things that I wouldn't have learned otherwise, and grew my passion for theatre. I can't thank you enough.

Well, it is a pain to see everyone go without some sort of huge sendoff to finalize it. Then again, I doubt I would feel better or feel more closure with a huge party to end it with (P.S, we forgot to rave!) I have had an amazing time with everyone in the cast. Hopefully, I have four more happy years at STC.

All good things must end, less they become bad things.

So, until next year,


Jake "Longaville" McHugh