Hi all,


Sorry it's been a lightyear since I last posted, I've been extremely busy.  But I'll try to quickly catch you up. 


So in addition to taking improv classes at The Groundlings, I've also been inspired by the lovely Kathleen Hoil to take some circus aerial  classes here in LA.  Learning to climb silks and do various tricks on the trapeze has been a blast, and an excellent workout to boot.    I only wish I there were circus classes like these when I was a young kid in Iowa, climbing trees all over the neighborhood. =)


 I've  also been keeping busy with my internship with the Festival of New American Musicals. I just finished teaching for our program called The East Side Initiative. For this program, I along with a few other coworkers, help plan and initiate performance workshops for the underprivileged kids on the east side of Los Angeles. For my part, I helped teach the acting/performance class, while in addition, the kids also took classes for dancing and singing from local professionals. At the end of the day, each different group would give a performance showcasing what they had learned. Teaching these kids was easily one of the highlights of my summer and a very rewarding thing to be a part of. 

In addition to this program, the Festival of New American Musicals is a nonprofit, so I also spend a good deal of time filling out and submitting grant applications.  This is easily my LEAST favorite thing to do as this can be a very lengthy and time consuming process but after two summers, I have become somewhat of a pro. And as I've said in past posts, my favorite privilege of being an intern, is attending 2 to 3 new musical premieres each week all over Southern California. One of the latest ones I saw was in La Jolla California entitled "Hands on A Hard Body" starring Hunter Foster (Sutton's bro).  Now, it's not what your thinking.  It's actually a musical about the contests that are held by car dealerships for whoever can keep their hands on a car (or in this case, truck) the longest.  It tells the story of the twelve people from all different backgrounds that are brought together by a single goal: to win a brand new truck.   One of my biggest worries with this musical was staging problems (As all contestants had to keep their hands on the truck.  This is one of the major problems of the Little Miss Sunshine Musical) but the director found very creative ways to overcome this. It was surprisingly catchy and creative.   And the night we attended, it was just announced it will be heading to Broadway this fall!  So if any of you make a trip to New York in the fall, check it out!

And finally, in my spare time I have also been working as a background actor on different television shows and movies. One of my favorite experiences was working on the set of the upcoming Steve Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher (and Josh Gad from Book of Mormon!).  It was a really neat experience and for most of the day, I just happened to be placed right behind where Ashton and the rest of the actors were doing their scene, so who knows, maybe you'll get a peak of my of me.  Working as a background actor has been such a fun experience. It's a great way to meet new friends and do some networking in addition to getting some of the best food.  Oh, and I don't mind getting my hair and makeup done. =) This coming Monday I will be working on the set of CSI: New York.


Alright, well that's just a quick update.  Can't wait to catch up with all of you when school reconvenes.  But until then, have a good rest of summer!

Vicky