Backstage with Sydney

Life got real busy around the end of school. Honestly, the month of April flew by. Finals were exhausting. I have loved every second of school, but it is really nice to be on break. The program I am in is very intense and demanding so I am more than happy to have a few months to slow down a bit. All of my finals went very well. I have grown so much this year. I just gotta say that I ended with an A+ in ballet. I never thought that was possible, but here we are. Not only was I in the process of finishing school, but I was moving out of my dorm into my apartment. Luckily, I have the best parents in the world who are always looking for an excuse to come and visit me. There is no way I would have been able to do it all without them. Please ignore the fact that I look like a hobo in this video, all of my clothes were packed okay... Moving in New York City is a whole different game. I was only moving like 10 bocks from where I was before. Therefore, it seemed so point...

This semester our performance project was a production Bye Bye Birdie, in which I had the pleasure of playing Kim MacAfee. This was no ordinary production of Birdie however.   With this being a first year of a musical theater program at our school we only have studios for performing, whereas most MTP's have access to an actual theatre. So we got to do Bye Bye Birdie in one of our studio classrooms. This posed as a bit of a challenge due to limited space and no set, props, costumes, lighting, or even easy solutions for entrances and exits.  We rose to the occasion and our reimagined presentation of Bye Bye Birdie was a success. We used minimal costume pieces and props, acting blocks for set, a lot of creativity, and we asked for audience imagination. It was quite fun. When the scene needed to be changed one of our cast members would shout blackout. The audience was instructed to close their eyes when they heard this. During the transition a "setting of...

I did it! I finished one semester of college! This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I have learned so much over this semester and I am also grateful for every second I have spent learning. I will say the last week, finals week, was the most exhausting tech week I have ever known. Even though I was busy, busy, busy, I loved every second of it! I had a lot of performances to be prepared for and the biggest one was my composer project show. My 12 other classmates and myself put together a 2 hour show highlighting several major Broadway composers including; Jerome Kern, Sissle & Blake, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Kurt Weill, John Kander, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jeanine Tesori, and Johnathon Larson. I studied everything there is to know about Richard Rodgers and how he came to be one of the rulers of Broadway. We spent ten weeks putting together this devised show. We would meet, play, and creat...

NYPLPA: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Isn't that amazing!? They have a whole library for the performing arts! I have started this new class called Research Project: The Great Composers of Broadway. It is held on Tuesdays for 2 hours and then Saturdays for 7 hours. Yes, 7 hours for one class, on a Saturday. But, it's okay because I really love the class. We were each assigned a composer who was significant to making Broadway what it is today to research. I was assigned the great Richard Rodgers. I have loved every second of learning about this incredible artist and his lifetime of inspiring work. Now for where the library fits in. Due to the homework in this class and the in-depth research it entails, a library card was absolutely necessary. It was cool and exciting to get a New York Public Library card, I don't really know why, but it was. As cool as getting the library card was visiting the NYPLPA was even cooler. I mean a whole library dedi...

I  am so sorry that I have been absent for the last little while. I really owe you all quite an update. School has been super duper busy! This was because recently it was time for midterms. It was a stressful time if I ever knew one. I had some kind of final performance in every single one of my classes. It was a big deal to me because this was my first grade I was going to receive at school here. The way my school works is that you can't check up on your grades at just anytime. You can only view your grades twice a semester; midterms, and finals. Also, it is helpful to know that all grades start at average; or C. The idea is that by the finals you will hopefully reach mastery; or A. So your midterm is your way to see how your teachers are feeling about where you are on the path to mastery. The midterms grades don't go on your final transcript, which is nice, so it lessens the pressure a little. But me, being the kind of student I am, I was still stressed about impressin...

The whole reason I am here in New York City is for school. I am studying Musical Theatre at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. This is actually the very first year of their full time musical theatre program. I am so excited to be apart of this very first graduating class. I attended their first summer musical theatre intensive program during the summer of 2017 and fell in love with the school. I am overjoyed to be back, this time for two years of musical theatre training. This semester I have classes like Ballet, Vocal Technique, Voice/Speech, Movement, Acting, Music Theory, and History of Musical Theatre, as well as a weekly private vocal lesson. I am definitely a full time student. I have school 5 days a week, and between all my classes I am in school almost 30 hours a week, so school definitely keeps me busy. My first week of classes was awesome. I love all of my classmates and my teachers. There are twelve students in my class, including myself, fro...