Hullo from NIDA!!!
Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Wow wow! I am SO sore!!! This place is so cool. I'm having lots of fun :-D
I've decided that musical theatre = really really, really, exceedingly physical theatre. Because wow! They work us hard. But it's so much fun and now that we all know each other and are getting stuff happening as a group, it's really great. The group is rather small - only four girls and four boys, plus a singing tutor and a dance tutor. Mornings are singing, and afternoons is dancing, so as you can probably imagine we're really sweaty and gross and tired and everything by the end of the day ;-) Yeah. Tired is just an understatement really. We're sweaty and gross, and sore, dizzy, dehydrated (I need to drink more water!) and yeah... did I mention sweaty? First thing I do when I come home (after the ten minute walk back home - everyone else is so jealous of how close I'm staying ;-P) is shower. But anyway. Enough of personal grossness. And onto the fun!
It's really good. The tutors are fabulous. We learn lots about the different musical theatre forms in the morning... the history, the different styles, the different ways to sing each sort etc. I'm really glad I did the Broadway research paper that I did last year, cause it means I actually know half of what Queenie (singing gal) tells us in regard to the history of American musicals. And then we get to sing it all!
...and my icecream is melting. I was SO full from dinner and then what do you know? Someone brings me in a ghuge plate of chocolate brownies and icecream. Yeah. Wow. It was Phil Dewhurst actually. He's over for dinner, and he came in and did a little dance as he gave it to me. Haha. He cracks me up...
Anyway, so apart from mushy icecream, everything is really cool. We're gonna perform "At the End of the Day", from Les Miserables, as a group at the end of the week! We're gonna perform a few different songs, and do some dances too, and I think Joe and Carly might come watch so I will have some friends in the audience ;-) And the dances?! They're cool! I can't say I look cool doing them, but the dances themselves are awesome ;-) You know those really smooth, funky, 60's musical style dances? Yeah :-) I just wish... I am so not a dancer! At least, not yet. I guess I've never done it, so how could I be as good as some of the other guys there, but yeah. So other than taking ages to learn and memorize it all, and looking no where near as impressive as some of the others, the dancing is going well! The music is really funky too.
Then add on top of all that about an hour of very extreme exercise (think: football team style) each afternoon, and you're almost done. The dance teacher supervises all that, because "actors who do musical theatre have to be really really stong and fit, cause not only are they acting, but they're singing, dancing and acting!" etc. I'm going to be incredibly fit by the end of the nine days but at the moment? I'm just sore. So is everyone else, so it's alright ;-)
Oh yes, and then there's everyone else! Everyone else is pretty nice. As I said, there are eight of us, and it's a cool little group. Of course there are always people you really click with, and then others who are nice but you know... they're not much more than that. So the two that I feel particularly friends with so far are Alex (a twenty year old girl) and a boy called Brad, who's the same age as me. He's pretty wild, and swears a lot and has interesting ideas about the world, but other than that he's lots of fun, and he can't dance much either :-D And Alex is really friendly and nice.
So. Wow. That was detailed. But there's how I'm feeling at the moment about this adventure. I got an e-mail tonight offering me a role as an extra in a film Thursday week, so... maybe the career has already started? ;-) Haha. Or maybe not. In any case, we have NIDA all day that day so I probably can't get over to Paramatta :-( But it'd be fun.
Ok. I really should be doing some research to take in tomorrow, so I'll say farewell. Hope everyone is having a superb week, and I'll catch you all later!
By the way, if you want to know where I actually am, check out this site: http://www.nida.edu.au/
I've decided that musical theatre = really really, really, exceedingly physical theatre. Because wow! They work us hard. But it's so much fun and now that we all know each other and are getting stuff happening as a group, it's really great. The group is rather small - only four girls and four boys, plus a singing tutor and a dance tutor. Mornings are singing, and afternoons is dancing, so as you can probably imagine we're really sweaty and gross and tired and everything by the end of the day ;-) Yeah. Tired is just an understatement really. We're sweaty and gross, and sore, dizzy, dehydrated (I need to drink more water!) and yeah... did I mention sweaty? First thing I do when I come home (after the ten minute walk back home - everyone else is so jealous of how close I'm staying ;-P) is shower. But anyway. Enough of personal grossness. And onto the fun!
It's really good. The tutors are fabulous. We learn lots about the different musical theatre forms in the morning... the history, the different styles, the different ways to sing each sort etc. I'm really glad I did the Broadway research paper that I did last year, cause it means I actually know half of what Queenie (singing gal) tells us in regard to the history of American musicals. And then we get to sing it all!
...and my icecream is melting. I was SO full from dinner and then what do you know? Someone brings me in a ghuge plate of chocolate brownies and icecream. Yeah. Wow. It was Phil Dewhurst actually. He's over for dinner, and he came in and did a little dance as he gave it to me. Haha. He cracks me up...
Anyway, so apart from mushy icecream, everything is really cool. We're gonna perform "At the End of the Day", from Les Miserables, as a group at the end of the week! We're gonna perform a few different songs, and do some dances too, and I think Joe and Carly might come watch so I will have some friends in the audience ;-) And the dances?! They're cool! I can't say I look cool doing them, but the dances themselves are awesome ;-) You know those really smooth, funky, 60's musical style dances? Yeah :-) I just wish... I am so not a dancer! At least, not yet. I guess I've never done it, so how could I be as good as some of the other guys there, but yeah. So other than taking ages to learn and memorize it all, and looking no where near as impressive as some of the others, the dancing is going well! The music is really funky too.
Then add on top of all that about an hour of very extreme exercise (think: football team style) each afternoon, and you're almost done. The dance teacher supervises all that, because "actors who do musical theatre have to be really really stong and fit, cause not only are they acting, but they're singing, dancing and acting!" etc. I'm going to be incredibly fit by the end of the nine days but at the moment? I'm just sore. So is everyone else, so it's alright ;-)
Oh yes, and then there's everyone else! Everyone else is pretty nice. As I said, there are eight of us, and it's a cool little group. Of course there are always people you really click with, and then others who are nice but you know... they're not much more than that. So the two that I feel particularly friends with so far are Alex (a twenty year old girl) and a boy called Brad, who's the same age as me. He's pretty wild, and swears a lot and has interesting ideas about the world, but other than that he's lots of fun, and he can't dance much either :-D And Alex is really friendly and nice.
So. Wow. That was detailed. But there's how I'm feeling at the moment about this adventure. I got an e-mail tonight offering me a role as an extra in a film Thursday week, so... maybe the career has already started? ;-) Haha. Or maybe not. In any case, we have NIDA all day that day so I probably can't get over to Paramatta :-( But it'd be fun.
Ok. I really should be doing some research to take in tomorrow, so I'll say farewell. Hope everyone is having a superb week, and I'll catch you all later!
By the way, if you want to know where I actually am, check out this site: http://www.nida.edu.au/