Here We Go Again

Wow! So, I'm really bad about keeping up with this blog thing. I guess things have just been so busy and I haven't really thought about it. Today, however, it's 91 degree outside and as I am hiding from the blazing sun in the stifling comfort of my apartment, I figured that it was the perfect time to catch up. This might be the only free time I have until I fly home next week. That's right, I'll be back on the homestead as of 8:00 AM Thursday, so get excited!

We finished all of our academic type classes a few weeks ago and we are currently working on our month-long final. At the end of every semester we are cast in our exam plays, which we work on for about three and a half weeks and then perform for a final review. The play I've been working on is Bus Stop by William Inge. It's a relationship play that takes place in a small town diner in Kansas in 1955. There's a snow storm and the bus carrying a night club singer, a professor, and a few cowboys is delayed at the diner bus stop. If the plot sounds familiar, there's a loosely based movie staring Marilyn Monroe. I'm sure everyone will be shocked to find out that I am NOT playing the Marilyn character Cherie. I've been cast as Grace, the friendly and motherly diner owner who is lonesome and yearns for some company. Hmm.....

The show's going pretty well so far and our director is really cool. A lot of my cast members are my former classmates and it's been fun working with them. We're the last ones to perform our show on Wednesday, and then I hop on a flight bound for Atlanta... at 10:55 PM. I'm still torn as to whether I would be terrified or excited if Cillian Murphy was on my flight.

I've also been at my new job for the past two weeks and it's going really well. I'm working the Admissions Office at the Academy, so if you ever call about school information or auditions, you might be talking to yours truly. It's actually really similar to what I was doing at OYP but on a much smaller level. I answer phones, file, do mailings and enter information into the computer. The two Admissions counselors I work with are really awesome. Yesterday we had an hour long conversation about the best worst movies ever including my personal favorite, Thankskilling! It's also been recommended that I watch Troll 2 and The Room. Also, I found out that I am working with fellow Scream franchise enthusiasts. We spent the first five minutes of the day in excited shouting about how amazing the Scream movies are. I love my job!

Last night after rehearsal some friends and I went out to diner and then we saw the newest Scream installment, Scream 4. I don't care what anyone says, I thought it was awesome. I won't go into my whole spiel, but I will say that the movies were an important part of the late 90's and are a perfect mix of slasher horror, comedy, parody, and action and the dialogue is fantastically quotable. They are movies that you should just enjoy with simple pleasure and not try to rip apart and dissect the lack of this, that, and the other. They are meant to be fun! Of course, I'm a firm believer of the motto "to each his own," so I understand if you disagree with me. Just don't think that you will ever be able to change my mind! ; )

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I'm going to try and wait out the heat and maybe go to the Grove tonight with friends. There's a small possibility of going to the beach tomorrow, but I'm not sure my fair skin can handle that much direct sunlight. Oh, and before I forget, I have a question to pose for anyone who reads this. Last night we were trying to figure out what animal best represents us and I have yet to receive a satisfactory answer. Below I will list a few of the proffered animals. If you agree with one or if you can think of a better one, let me know.

If Lucy was an animal, she would be...
1.) A peacock
2.) The fancy feast cat
3.) A beaver
4.) A bird of paradise
5.) A badger
6.) A wombat

~ Lucy ~

It's Been Awhile...

... and I don't have time to write too much now. I will, however, give a brief snipit of what's been happening and I promise to spell it out in detail this weekend. Basically, I spent the last two weeks of February flying back and forth between L.A. and Athens to visit family and support the OYSP clan at competition. I saw the NOHS production of The Crucible, which was awesome, and watched OYSP win best studio, again, at Access Broadway. All the flying through time zones really messed with my body, but I recovered. We did our Charleston performance, finished our Glass Menagerie scenes, and sang our midterm songs. We performed an ode and started a Fosse jazz piece which includes... The Cell Block Tango! Yay! I got assigned "This Place Is Mine" from Phantom for my final song. Saw a couple movies, bought groceries, etc. So, that's that for now. Details to follow...

~Lucy~

The Syfy Guys!

Okay, Friday was officially a great day! Our Voice & Speech quiz got cut in half which made it sooo much easier and we didn't have to do four sets of alphabet planks! My abs and my brain were very happy! Also, after a very difficult week, I had a breakthrough in Mr. Solin's acting class. It's hard to hear that you've have really bad acting habits and that you're too theatrical over and over again, but I know he just wants to help us be more believable. Who knew it was so hard to be real? Anyways, today I finally got out of my head and was able to do what he asked in our scene. Yay!

Friday is a short day for classes, so afterwords Blake and I went out to lunch in downtown Burbank. We ate at this place called the Elephant Room which was pretty cool. Amazing garlic bread and really good margaritas! While we were eating, a group of guys sat in the booth behind us. I wasn't really paying attention to them, but I happened to catch the word SyFy. Naturally, I perked up my ears and decided to practice my... listening skills. Some might call it eavesdropping, but it's not my fault they were talking really loudly. Anyways, being a SyFy junkie, I got really excited when they started talking about things like Mega Snake and other classics. I almost lost it when they mentioned "Casper Van Dien" and "project" in the same sentence. Is it shameful for me to hope it's yet another Starship Troopers or Shark Attack? They guys seemed to be involved with scheduling and marketing for the network because they kept talking about foreign markets and the graphic quality of certain films. I swear I heard something about a bear eating a woman or a snake eating a bear? I'm not sure, but I'd watch it. Blake just laughed at me and I'm sure he thinks I'm an idiot, but to each his own!

After we ate, we decided to go see the new movie Sanctum. We walked around for a little bit and looked in some of the stores to kill time before the movie. Blake bought a pair of boots from this cool shoe store and I was really tempted by a pair of $2oo boots, but I managed to restrain myself. We got the tickets for the movie, and let me just say that I visibly shuddered when I had to pay $18 for a movie. Granted, it was on IMAX 3D and it is California, but still! I thought it was a pretty good movie and it definitely had me biting my nails. There were some moments that were almost too much for even me to handle, and I've seen every Saw movie! It was like The Cave minus the supernatural elements. Nothing special 3D wise, but still an enjoyable movie with some really pretty shots.

At the end of the day we came home, I read a book, watched some Murder, She Wrote and went to bed early. All and All a pretty awesome day! Saturday, not so much. Blake was pretty sick all day and had to go to the ER, but he's doing much better now. He ended up sleeping most of the day while I had a mini Greek marathon. Today, he's up and about and I'm watching the Super Bowl trying to be unbiased since both my teams are playing. I have to admit though, I'm like 45% Greenbay and 55% Steelers and a little worried right now. Gotta say though, there's nothing better on a Sunday night than watching a good game of football with a cold beer, a pizza, and some hot wings! If only I didn't have to do homework...






Best of luck to my boys Big Ben Roethlisberger...












...and Georgia boy Hines Ward!








~Lucy~

Procrastinators-R-Us: Member Since 1998

Okay, so I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to write in awhile... and I don't really have time to write now. Even though we have a really heavy course load, it's completely my fault because I keep putting it off. That's right, my name is Lucy Haskill and I am a procrastinator. I knew I had a lot of homework this weekend, but I still found other things to do with my time. Not that I have a lot of free time, but still. Instead, I cleaned my room, did the dishes, did the laundry, cleaned the apartment, went grocery shopping, and dyed my hair. Granted, these were all things I need to do, but I probably should have made time to do homework as well. Now I'm sitting here, knowing that I have tons of memorization and stuff due tomorrow, and what am I doing? Writing a blog post and watching Gabriel Iglesias: Hot and Fluffy.

Side note: He is one of my FAVORITE comedians! Ever! Love, love, LOVE him! Netflix queue, check!

Anyways, I guess I've put homework off long enough. No use postponing the inevitable and I really don't want to make Mr. Hart mad! Me thinks that would not be wise... or pretty. Hey, at least I can admit I have a problem. That's the first step right? I promise I will write a more detailed post later. Also, enjoy the pictures to the left from the beach and a class get-together!

~Lucy~

Papa Loves You And You're Pretty

We are going into our third week of classes at the Academy and it's starting to get a lot more involved and intense. It's been wonderful working in such a safe and supportive environment with people that are so passionate to learn about acting. Last week we performed our monologues for the class. It was really interesting to see how different everyone was and I must say we have some incredible talent in our class. It amazes me that so many people who have never acted before in any capacity are so in touch with their emotions and truthful in their portrayals. I loved watching everyone and it gave me a chance to see why everyone is here at the Academy.

We've also been doing auditions in our Vocal Production class. Everyone has to bring in a song and sing it in front of the entire class and many of them have had no singing experience. After we sing, Mr. Hart vocalizes us and assigns us a song to work on. It's been really amazing to hear those without experience discover how good they really are. Some of my classmates have really incredible voices. One girl, Erica, has had opera training and here Soprano voice astounds me. Then there's Tupua who is this 6'5 teddy bear with a beautiful voice. He was assigned "Soliloquy" from Carousel, which is a really long and powerful song for the main character Billy. Having recently been in a performance of Carousel with the one and only Josh Darnell playing Billy, I have very high standards for the song and I know he will meet them. I was assigned "How Could I Ever Know" from The Secret Garden which will be a HUGE challenge for me. It's way out of my comfort zone and is really high, but apparently Mr. Hart thinks it will be great for me. I have to trust that he knows what he's doing.

I love Mr. Hart because he is so blunt and honest with us, but he always has a sense of humor. His mantra for us is, "papa loves you and you're pretty." A lot of the notes he gives us are very critical and he wants us to know that it's not personal and it doesn't mean he doesn't like us. "You have no self-esteem and the industry will tear you apart so grow a backbone. You're too nasal and you crap out at the end of the song. Papa loves you and you're pretty." He always makes fun of me because I apologize for everything. "I'm sorry for cracking on that high note. I'm sorry for existing." I feel like his class is going to be really helpful for me and I really enjoy his teaching. It helps that he's really funny, looks like Joel Gray, and is apparently friends with Michael Cain. Awesome!

We are studying The Glass Menagerie in Mr. Solin's Acting class and we got assigned our first scenes this week. I am of course playing Amanda and will be doing the Gay Deceivers scene with two different girls playing Laura. He really took us through the characters objectives and feelings today and I now have a much, much better understanding of the show and my characters motives. I also realized that I relate more to Laura's character which really surprised me. I can't wait to start working on theses scenes and it's going to be really interesting because we aren't allowed to work on them outside of class other than learning lines. The point is to be active and present in the scene and we'll be doing a lot of improvisation with the scene, a tactic I'm not really used to. We'll see how it goes!

I leave you with a few pictures of my room at the apartment, which I'm really excited about! It's very... bright, and cheerful.

~Lucy~

Star Watch: Michael Grant Terry

It's official. I experienced my first star sighting today while a friend and I were walking around the business side of downtown Los Angeles. We were looking for a computer store (turns out we were in the wrong part of town) on a really posh street and I see this guy walking towards us that looked really familiar. Turns out it was... this guy!


This guy is Michael Grant Terry and he plays Wendell Bray on the hit television show Bones. If you haven't seen the show, you should. It's absolutely one of my favorite shows with an amazing cast. Who better to work with than Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, Michaela Conlin, T. J. Thyne, Tamara Taylor, and John Francis Daley.

It looked like he was on his way to work out and I'm proud to say I just made eye contact and smiled instead of screaming like a crazy person and bombarding him with questions. So Micheal earned the honored position of being my first celebrity sighting.

~Lucy~

Venice or Bust!

Yesterday a couple of classmates and I drove out to Venice Beach for the day to hang out and have fun. It was a beautiful, sunny January day in the upper seventies. I must say that West Coast beaches are very different than East Coast beaches. The waster was so blue and the beach was completely flat except for a few rock outcrops. The sand is so soft and fluffy (can sand be fluffy?) and there were so many cool shops along the boardwalk.



Even though it was warm and sunny, the water was freezing. Erica and I were to only ones to actually go in all the way. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then I had to walk around the rest of the day covered in sand. I decided to embrace the sand, as I was at the beach, and ended up having a great time. The street vendors and musicians were really cool and we stopped for pizza and beer at one of the sidewalk restaurants.



I got some really fun items out of the day as well. The first was a free CD from a guy we helped wash bird poop out of his shirt and hair. We told him it meant good luck! He gave us one of his CD's for free (usually they charge $5 or $10 bucks) as a thank you. Then I started talking to a woman carving names and shapes out of blocks of sand. She started to make me one and told me they were $10 per name. My friends were leaving so I told her I had to go and gave her $2 as a tip. She finished it really quickly and told me to take it anyways, which was really sweet.



Before we left, we were hanging out in the parking deck and the guys started teaching us fighting and defensive tactics. I learned a lot of ways to protect and defend myself and just some cool moves in general. Thanks to Chris, Roy, James, and Alex I am pretty sure I can now stand my ground in a fight and ward off any would be attackers! Hopefully. So watch out if you try to mug me, I will retaliate and run!




Overall, it was a really awesome day. Sitting on the beach watching the sun get lower on the horizon, I realized how incredibly happy I am to be here getting to know new friends and a new city. Plus, I was outside in the sun all day and only got a little bit sunburned. Success! Next up: the Golden Globes!



~Lucy~

The White Light

I officially made it through my first week of classes at the Academy! Whew! I almost died on Wednesday by the way. Mrs. Baxter kicked our butts in Movement. We did an hour workout including three minutes straight of various crunches transitioning directly into three minutes straight of bicycling. Even the mightiest of the manly men in the class had to stop. Three months of this and I'll be ripped... or at least a little lighter. Rob Hahn's Voice and Speech class on Wednesday was the last of the firsts. I think it will be really challenging but I'm excited to work on my speech issues. My grandmother will be so grateful if he can get me to slow down and speak louder.

I've met some really cool people here so far. My class is really diverse and we have students from Slovakia, England, Germany, South Africa, and Bolivia. Everyone is really nice and supportive of one another. It's a really safe and comfortable environment which makes it so much easier to work. I'm so excited to see everyone work and I can't wait until we get into scene and partner work.Today in Mr. Solin's Acting class we did an exercise called The White Light and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It's a mental relaxation and clarity exercise involving deep meditation. After twenty minutes I literally couldn't feel my body. I remember sitting there with my eyes closed trying to remember if I had shoes on. I have never been so relaxed in my entire life. I had blocked out every sound and couldn't even tell if I was breathing. Yet, I still had absolute mental clarity. It was incredible! If I could master it lying down at night I could probably cure my insomnia.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are planning on going to Venice Beach for the day since it's gonna be in the upper seventies and sunny! I finally get to see the clear, blue waters of the Pacific Ocean so I'm off to bed since we have to get an early start because of traffic. BUT... I promised a few pictures so here they are. Below are some of our apartment and the area. I will try to take more this weekend!

~Lucy~

Me in front of the main office of our apartment. Down the street is Warner Brothers Studio!

The main office of our apartment complex.

That's right, there's a Starbucks across the street from our apartment... and that's my awesome Aunt Leslie!

We have a pretty pool!

Pasadena and the Rose Parade route!

The Hollywood sign!

Our Greatest Fear

So... today was the first day of classes at the Academy and it was one of the most exhausting, draining, stimulating, enlightening, and exhilarating days of my life. First thing this morning I had Movement (a.k.a. Dance) which has given me an even greater appreciation for you guys at the studio that do this every day. Granted, I haven't done anything remotely resembling the physical endurance that is dancing in a good, long while. However, after a grand total of thirty minutes doing plies and tendus in first, second, fourth, and fifth position by bum was burning and I couldn't feel my legs. Most of my classmates, thankfully, seemed to experience similar symptoms so my embarresment was minimal. Even Blake said he broke a sweat in his class, but he is sickly and he may have been trying to make me feel better. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and our teacher seemed really cool. She still works a lot and does stuff with Buena Vista and General Hospital. She's currently working on the new Muppet movie with Amy Adams (love her, she's fantastic) and Jason Segel (the love of my life).

After Movement, I booked it to Acting because we'd been warned Mr. Solin was a punctuality Nazi. He is, but he's also a really funny and interesting teacher that reminds me of my grandfather and Christopher Walken. We have a great reading list for the class that I'm really excited about, all classics that I've been wanting to read! We didn't get into any exercises today, so it will be interesting to see how things go later in the week. After Acting, I had a short break so I drove home and watched an episode of Supernatural while I ate lunch. Now I can say I'm studying when I watch movies and television, how sweet is that?

My last class was Improvisation/Physical Acting with Alex Billings who will actually be teaching us Viewpoints which she has also taught at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and now teaches at Steppenwolf in Los Angeles. She was enlightening and extremely entertaining and her class was quite an experience. She has a way of looking past all your walls and seeing what's inside without even knowing you. Needless to say, I left her class feeling raw and exposed and oddly exhilarated. Her mantra for the day was a quote from Nelson Mandela/Marianne Williamson that says, " our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure." She trained under Uta Hagen and Tina Landau, so I'm excited to see what happens next!

Tomorrow's another long day, but I'm looking forward to Wednesday because classes end at 1:00. Maybe then I'll have time to finish all things I still need to do: laundry, decorating my room, unpacking, the bathroom, the kitchen, homework, Christmas present (sorry ladies!), phone calls! Ahhh! Can it please be Wednesday now?

Ps. For those of you privileged few present for Caldwell Halloween 2010, just thought I'd let you know we spent five minutes of our last class talking about a certain awesome, epic movie! Gobble Gobble!

~Lucy~

In Brief

I finished my last week of work, graduated from the University of Georgia, and watched one of my best friends get married. I packed up everything I own into a giant yellow moving truck with room to spare then celebrated Christmas with my family. I packed my presents into my car on the first white Christmas Georgia had experience in 70 something years, even though I couldn't feel my toes. The next morning my dad and I left for a four day trek across the lower 48 from Georgia to California with a minor detour to the Grand Canyon.

We spent two days moving everything into the new apartment in Burbank and I've spent the last week unpacking with Blake. I've made too many trips to Target, but only one to Ikea. I had orientation at the Academy yesterday and met a lot of interesting people from all over the world culminating in a discussion about the Doctor. Today I relearned my audition monologue and found a song to sing for the initial performance tomorrow then I have to find rubber-soled character shoes somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area. I have a three page to-do list and two days time.

In summation, California is awesome and I miss my friends and family. I've been crazy busy but am having a great time. I'll update soon in more detail with pictures!

~Lucy~