kerryingon

You guys. Internets. Friends. Strangers.

I have fallen off my Most Awesome Week Ever horse.

Fallen off, yes, but now? Getting back on!

The good news here is that somewhere right around week 35 is when I finally began to settle into my life in this beautiful city. I don’t know what happened except I just decided I should accept living here as a gift that lots of people don’t ever get. I challenged myself to start referring to my apartment at home and the house I grew up in as “my mom’s house” or “the NJ house”. I reminded myself of the great lesson I was taught in the fall of 2010 by basically a complete stranger, that home is within. Home is wherever I am, wherever the people that I love are and the inner peace that lives in our souls. And even more shockingly, after recently being on the west coast for awhile, I found myself (hold on to your hats now) actually missing my city.

Who would have ever thought?

The other good news here is that I am definitely not recapping 12 weeks in full detail. I like y’all way too much to do that. But you best believe I’m gonna give you some mega highlights! Shall we? We shall:

• Weeks 35-37 found me back in rehearsals & performing in my first play in NYC since 2008.
• Week 37 also saw the birth of the beautiful Miss Ayla Harper & all of a sudden one of my best friends and her amazing husband became parents.
• I saw many shows including: the amazing production of Newsies at Papermill in NJ, Bring It On at Center Theatre Group in LA, Jersey Boys (finally), Zoe Kazan’s debut play as a writer, We Live Here, the LCT3 show All American and The Book of Mormon (again). I started to actually audition for theatre again & took my first Musical Theatre class in years.
• I met Kristin Chenoweth. Strange but so important.
• I took a really great weekend business intensive and had a breakthrough realization that I want to be on TV. The very week I decided to focus on that, I managed to get myself auditions on Law & Order: SVU and a new Nickelodeon pilot. Without an agent.
• One of my best friends returned from being away on work & we got to watch her television producing debut. Two more got engaged. Two returned to the business with flying colors. My friends are amazing human beings & I’m so proud of them.
• I formed an acting accountability group to keep myself on track & keep myself surrounded with awesome, like-minded folks. I’ve decided to buckle down and get legit reps here & got myself in front of eight agents last week.
• I spoke up & asked for what I wanted several times despite knowing it could really burn me if it didn’t work. However, this technique of bravery seems to totally work.. like personal-emails-from-CEO’s-&-offers-for-meetings-type-of-“work”.
• Traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sausalito & San Diego with one of my best friends to see more of my best friends. And my second best city.
• I blindly emailed a manager I’ve been wanting to meet since I was 11 the night before I left for CA. She emailed me right back & a few days later, we had a great (but intense) meeting. LA does not mess around.
• I made two mega life decisions. They were “woke up one morning & just decided it” kind of things but really, they were a long time coming. And they feel so good.
• Life Coaching rocks, Voice Over rocks. Henry pup extra-rocks. Making every decision with Love rocks.
• & everything else that I am surely not writing about here. Girl’s gotta have some secrets, no?

Don’t get me wrong, dear hearts. There have been various things in the past 12 weeks that were not so fancy, lovely, beautiful & exciting. There were tears, there was struggle & there were lessons to learn - but that’s not what we’re here to focus on, are we? We’re here to see the absolutely incredible joy that is life and splash around in it like puddles of awesome. Truth is, once you start seeing it, it’s impossible to not jump in.

Might keep up, might not. You’ll have to wait & see ;o) Sending you Love & gratefulness always, xx.

Well, well, well. The time has finally come when I will be doing two of these lists in one day. The good news about my major delays in writing these is that I’m super busy, the bad news is that I’m still working on finding my routine here. It’s either non-stop everything or nothing at all and forget about having set sleeping or working hours. But it’s fun so what else matters? Recapage for week 24 of 2011 (June 12-18) starts now:

• Baby shower brunch for my favorite momma-to-be.
• The Tony Awards where Nikki James made me cry when talking about Bumblebees and Mark Rylance made my heart dance when he discussed walls (“then there’s a moment of total darkness before you step through on the other side”).
• Knowing at least one person in every number featured on the Tony’s. 
• The truth that I will always come back to Yoga like a lover I just can not stay away from.
• Four meetings over seven days and they gave me my very own intern. Hysterical/awesome/weird.
• Things like, oh say, deleting everything in my iPhone which would have thrown me for a giant loop are merely just tiny ripples in the water that continues to flow.
• Birthday lunches are best when accompanied by a torrential downpour and very handsome blonde men.
• When you have an awful lot of work to do, sometimes it is best to go sit in a beautiful park with some sort of iced beverage, a book to read and a view of dogs playing in delight. I assure you this will help your work get finished.
• Voiceover auditions <3
• Being invited to the first preview of Masterclass was lovely. Ending up in the cast line-up at the post-show toast was lovelier. Why yes, thank you, we did do a marvelous job, didn’t we?
• Having a date with my college roommate surrounded by fountains and interrupted by a ballerina completely covered in christmas lights, dancing en pointe. I could not make these things up if I tried.

Sit tight, I’ll be back later today with week 25 :) xx

The Tony Awards are tonight! 

Here’s why I Love the Tony’s: first, they bring the beautiful magic that is live theatre into the homes of so many who will never have the chance to see a Broadway show in person. You know just as well as I do that somewhere in Nowheresville, America that there is a kid watching the awards and thinking “I want to do that. I could do that!” and just like that, the fire is lit. Maybe they’ll try a dance class or maybe they’ll go rent every musical they can get their hands on. Maybe they’ll move to NYC at 18 determined to be the next big thing on the Great White Way - and maybe they actually will be! Every time I watch the Tony’s, I remember what it felt like to listen to the award speeches and hear Broadway stars talk to the kids at home. This business is disgusting sometimes and I’ve watched it rip apart some of my best friends and leave them that way. I’ve hated it in ways that have made me want to quit. But then I watch the Tony’s and I remember.

Here’s the second reason I love the Tony’s (and the theatre community in general): there is an abundance of openly gay men and women and there is an abundance of support for them. I don’t know anyone in this loving community who isn’t 100% in full support of equality for all. Again, I can’t help but think of the kids at home living in a world where they think they’re the only gay person that exists or that they’re the only gay person in their town or that they are wrong, weird, different, etc. Then an openly gay man hosts the Tony’s and same sex couples are seen together and gay rights are mentioned in speeches and all of a sudden, they aren’t so alone anymore.

I saw The Normal Heart last night and for those that don’t know, this revival chronicles the AIDS health crisis from it’s discovery in 1981 to 1984. It was the most gut-wrenching, aching, beautiful, truthful piece of theatre I’ve seen in a long time. Even trying to resist, I still cried openly along with the rest of the audience and the cast on stage. I consider myself pretty well versed on GLBT issues but after seeing this show, I realized I am definitely not as educated as I should be. If you’re in the NYC area, I strongly encourage you to see this show and then talk, talk, talk about it.

I don’t have the celebrity power (yet) of someone like Dianna Agron who wrote this essay today in response to wearing a shirt that reads “Likes Girls” on the Glee tour. I love that there are over 13,000 notes on it right now and that she is reaching a wide audience. However, I do have you and I’m glad you’re reading this and I hope you enjoy the Tony’s if you’re a person who can sit through award shows.

Last year, I watched the Tony’s at a party in Toronto thrown by Harvey Fierstein and got to watch him as his show won over and over again. It was also the first year I knew people performing on the broadcast and only my second year as an AEA member. This year, I’ve seen almost every show that’s nominated and most of them for free. Also, I’ve been invited to join a Broadway theatre company as they watch them IN their theatre, which the 12 year old in me thinks is maybe the coolest thing ever. But, in truth, I may not go - there’s a part of me that just really wants to watch them on my couch in my pajamas and cry over the speeches. I want to yell at the TV when my favorites win or don’t win and just remember why I love theatre so much, why I love show business so much. I’m more than certain that the kid version of me still exists and I never want to let her down by getting wrapped up in the wrong parts of this world. Instead, I want to hold her hand and think about how far we’ve come and all the amazing places we’re on our way to.

May 15-21 was week number 20. Let us recap the awesome:

• It was my birthday. I love my birthday.
• More voice over auditions. As it turns out, all that time spent watching awful MTV reality shows (hello, Laguna Beach) was actually just research for my voice over career.
• My final on-camera class “audition” was used as the example of what to do.
• Impromptu date with Nancy at my favorite place to do work, drink coffee and sit next to pretty boys in skinny jeans.
• When it is your birthday week, you get to go to all of your favorite restaurants with your favorite people. It’s a fact.
• First ever visit to the Guggenheim. Can I live in that building? How fun would it be to slide down every day?
• The world did not end. A great success!
• Conversations that are supposed to be helping others always end up helping everyone involved. Another fact.
• More free Broadway tickets. This time to Cradle And All - fascinating look at two couples living next to each other in Brooklyn who literally couldn’t be more different or more the same.
• For someone who doesn’t drink, I was oddly hungover twice in one week. No me gusta.
• Back in yoga after two weeks of no yoga.
• The realization that when things are right, they just feel unbelievably easy. This applies to lots and lots of things.
• Ro-ro made a video-oh that made me super happy. 
• Rearranging my furniture is seriously one of my favorite activities ever.
• Did I mention it was my birthday?

Enjoy week 21 - do amazingly cool, scary, challenging, interesting stuff and then tell me about it. xx

I loved this week (April 3-9). I love every week. Even when I don’t like a week, I still love it, you know? You know. RECAP:

• Every week should start with a birthday gathering, people you love a lot and being introduced to a new bar. Luckily, this week started just like that.
• Cutting off about a foot of hair made me feel instantly free. My hair dude is still the strangest, most interesting, best looking hairdresser ever. (How weird is the word hairdresser? Say it a few times.)
• Yoga, yoga, yoga + first ever meditation class.
• Catching up with my favorite cagelle keeps me inspired in new ways. Keep an eye out for this boy, he is hustling hard.
• Taxes = DONE.
• Babysitting a sleeping baby can only be beat by babysitting another sleeping baby later in the week. They sleep, I get paid. I feel like I’m getting away with something here.
• Broadway shows of the week: The Addams Family + Jerusalem. The first one was awesome in the way most Broadway shows are. The second one was awesome in that blow your mind, shake your world up, leave you crying/thinking/feeling/aching/being/living type of way. I threw up in my mouth at one point, no big deal.
• Meeting Shoshanna Bean = win. Meeting Shoshanna Bean and starting with the opening line of “Hi, I love you” = embarrassing yet still a win.
• Visitors from home! My sister + her fiance and one of my best friends all popped in this week. AND I got a present that I super really wanted and blogged about here.
• Making myself go to an audition because excuses and fear are lame. Same goes for being in a neighborhood I’m a little hesitant of and saying words that used to frighten me. Do it, go there, say it.
• Being contacted directly by two separate casting directors to be brought in for upcoming projects helped reaffirm that following my gut and splitting with my agents was the right thing to do.
• First voice lesson in months. I can sing.
• Nancy time keeps me sane.
• Seeing a production of Macbeth reminded me how awesome words are.
• Hours and hours in the Performing Arts Library finding new music and breathing in the creative energy that lives there. Forever my favorite place.

I caught myself saying “thank you” out loud so many times this week. Over and over. I’m seeing the pattern of being grateful and having more blessings enter into my life occurring again. So, you, person reading this? Thank you.

This week (March 27-April 2) rocked. Let’s recap why week 13 was ever so delicious:

• Starting and ending the week with marathon skype sessions with my favorite California girl and my favorite proper England dwelling lady. It’s strange, really. They put us on stage, told us to become sisters and somewhere along the way, we actually did!
• Taxes = Dunzo. My accountant gave me solid acting tips & in return, my girlfriend (who had the appointment after me) and I asked him if he’d like to be naked on a Bravo show. It’s a long story.
• Playing this video on repeat and being inspired enough to do this.
• Taking yoga for the first time in over a year.
• Getting free tickets to see The Motherf—ker With The Hat which was incredible and slightly terrifying all at once. Chris Rock was hysterical & creepy.
• Learning that there actually is something worse than that awful not being able to see feeling after going to the eye doctor: that awful not being able to see feeling whilst trying to get home on the subway.
• A meeting that helped me re-focus my goals and gave me a lot of much needed confidence. Handing off a headshot/resume to someone who is doing incredible things for me after only spending a few hours together.
• Seeing Wonderland and having fits of hysterics over the man sitting in front of me when he decided he needed to have a lengthy hair grooming session in the middle of the show. I couldn’t make that up if I tried. Chatting with the cast after gave me extra inspiration that this whole NYC/LA thing is totally do-able.
• Attending a taping of the Nate Berkus show where one of my favorite human beings ever somehow ended up serenading the audience with a rendition of Let It Be. His equally awesome boyfriend followed that up with a dance-off.
• Babysitting my little pal, Lincoln and watching as he discovered my very long, very tempting to babies, hair.
• Getting a present from all the way across the pond. The person who sent it is maybe the busiest person I know and yet, the time was still taken. Grateful!
• Becoming really revived about acting - even more than before - and deciding what my next job will be.
• Spending most of the week with one of my best friends and getting to witness her conquer a fear.
• Giving Henry bear a bangs trim and neither having my hand bit off nor creating any damage to my little baby. Great success.
• Trying to say yes again. Believing again. Knowing again.