A Friendly Post-College Update

Hello hello and hellooooo

It's me Hil. You may think I've been living under a rock but alas, no, I've been living in a lake house.
Life has changed in a multiplicity of ways over the last month. I've moved from Lynchburg, VA to Orlando, FL--at least for the time being. The near future remains quite dubious as I don't know what state I'll be in residence at come July 1. At first I really enjoyed this whole "flying by the seat of my pants" thing but now I'm ready to get in a groove. As adventurous and random as I like to think of myself as, I am totally a girl of routine. Little known fact: I love lists. And this isn't a thing that came about once I was 21 and a junior in college. Nosiree. My mom (and this is embarassing) found a notebook full of lists dated 1996. That would've made me 11. 75% of me I think of as free-spirited and planner free. But who am i kidding? As much as I like the abnormal, I like to plan. I like to know what's up. I like to think of the big picture and know everything's gonna be just fine--or, even better than I expected.
So this whole Florida thing. You're probably wondering what I'm doing here. Why I'm here. What tricks I have up my sleeve. Well, here's the situation in a summarized fashion.
I came down to Florida shortly after graduation to audition for a job performing at Disney World. Most people don't know that height is very important at disney. (ie: you can't have a Minnie Mouse that's 5'8" and another that's 4'11") and as fate would have it according to Disney Entertainment I am 5 feet 3 and 1/2 inches. Which is great if you want to be normal. And completely generic. And the exact same height as a million other girls who are auditioning to work at Disney. They only need so many chip 'n dales and ariels. Which means that I am in the "character pool." Aka the waiting list. When (if) a job opens up within the next 6 months for someone who looks like me and dances like me they'll call me up. If not, I can audition again come November.
What you may not know is that there are 2 divisions of disney entertainment. One side is the character performing that you see in all the parades, autograph signing, and lip-synced shows. The other consists of Equity performers. These are performers who are considered professional singers and dancers. If you see a performer at Disney that is singing they are equity. Someone dancing in a show (and it looks rather complicated) would be equity as well. These people get paid better and can go on to attend equity auditions for broadway shows and national tours. For you non-theatrical people basically "Equity" is short for Actors Equity Association. It's a union that is a little bit difficult to get in to. You have to be a legitimate professional performer--having performed in about 50 weeks worth of work. The perks are that you get more respect, better auditions, better backstage treatment, and higher pay.
Ok anyway.
So, there are more auditions for Equity coming at Disney in the future. In July and August they'll be looking to cast lots more people for their Christmas shows. There's a chance (not a huge one) that I could get cast from that pool and that would be stellar. Then I'd really be doing what I loved loved loved.
But while Disney isn't coming through with the whole making my dreams come true thing, I'm auditioning other places as well. Sunday I'm going to audition at a professional theater in Nashville that is doing the show "Urinetown." The same theater is doing "Into the Woods" in October. Both of these shows I'd love to audition for. Also, in July there is an audition in Orlando for a repertory theater company here. And then later this fall there are theaters in Nashville and Orlando that are doing shows that I'd like to audition for.
In addition to all that, I've applied for an internship at a magazine for the fall and I'm considering applying for an internship with Harpo productions. At this point I'm just trying to knock on as many doors as possible until the right ones open! :)
Oh and if you didn't know, what makes this whole situation unusual is that I've signed an acting contract for Mill Mountain Theatre (www.millmountain.org) in Roanoke beginning February 2008-June 2008. So it's an interesting balancing act trying to figure out if I want to hop into a professional job in communications right now or if I just want to audition for shows while working retail or if I want to get an internship at a magazine. There's lots of choices, lots of opportunities, and lots of options. Right now I'm just trying to take some deep breaths and make the most of the opportunities given to me today! So I'm living at this lake house the rest of June. I'm going home to Nashville Saturday-Tuesday to audition at the Boiler Room Theatre. If all goes well there (and when I say well I mean ridiculously amazing) I'll be moving home later next week. If not I'll be locating a roommate and getting situated in Orlando for atleast another month.
I'm just tring to remember right now that there will come a time where I won't be able to be this random and carefree. I'm just trying to soak up the freedom and thrills of growing up right now. Life couldn't be better.