My Top Ten of 2010

Here we have a list of my Top Ten Favorite events/happening/accomplishments in 2010! Enjoy.

10. HOMICIDE TAKES A HOLIDAY

Performing professionally is always a pleasure. My lovely friend Jimmy Emmerson called to see if I would be interested in doing a murder mystery show in Edmonton, CA. I had been there in December of 2009 (Cold, anyone?) and was excited to go back. He told me they were looking for a leading man like my husband...so I said - why not just bring him? So DramaDad and I made the trek to Edmonton, CA in July of this year. Ok, it's really not that bad, only about a 4 hour flight. Anyway, we had loads of fun playing Lord Wardyworth, the broke English Lord and Cecily, the shy, abused assistant of the diva Dame Sainsbury (played by my amazing friend, Kellie Wright. LOVE HER!)

The whole cast!

It was a love story! Always fun to fall in love with your husband again!

And we had lots of fun - at the West Edmonton Mall. It's EPIC!

We also had fun, singing Karaoke. (That's Kellie to the right.)

All in all, it was the best situation...paid vacation with my hubby! Oh, thanks to my Grandma for flying in and staying with our kids the week we were gone. 

9. New Home!

After living with family for 2.5 years, we were blessed to be able to find a wonderful house to rent - and help out our landlords! The husband had moved to Santa Fe for a new job and the wife had stayed here with the home - for over a year! They didn't want to just leave it vacant and with the market the way it is, selling wasn't working out for them. Anyway, we were able to rent it from them so she could move to Santa Fe to be with her husband...and we have a spacious home to call our own! It's honestly my favorite home I've ever lived in and my husband has done a killer job decorating on a dime! We're so happy here. 

8. Kids say and do...

I have no quiet, shy children. They are all loud, outgoing and full of personality. Which makes for some really fun times, and very little quiet. But some really funny things. 

For example, this summer, DramaDad directed a production of DAMN YANKEES. 

The lead character in Damn Yankees is - LOLA! The same name as my baby girl. Now, I was the costumer on the show and one night the kids came with me to rehearsal to measure the cast. As we were leaving, one of the older one's asked "Who's playing Lola again?" We answered her. A moment later, my son - BuddyBoy - says "Who's playing me?" We all about died. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

On the night we took cast photos, little Lola couldn't resist joining big "Lola" -played to perfection by the dynamic Traci Kesisian - for a few photos. We did not pose her. She just mimic'd whatever Traci was doing.

Lola and Lola

SOOO Glamorous.

They truly formed a bond. SO adorable!

7. Damn Yankees - COSTUMES!

My day job is costumes and this summer, my good friend VALINDA and I went to TOWN on a huge show! Damn Yankees! We built dozens of costumes within 1.5 months...and lots of breaks for girls camp, drama camps, husband out of town...and so on. It was huge - but gorgeous. I was very proud of us.

You should definitely click on this photo to see it larger. We built all of the dresses and put together all of the men's clothes except the baseball uniforms. We also built Lola's costumes - corsets and robes and more!

5 & 6 - Shows with RagTag Entertainment

I was able to do several shows with RagTag Entertainment this year! Quite a few Cabaret shows, a concert version of Godspell and a small scale production of Jekyll & Hyde! Playing Emma in J&H has been one of my dream roles forever, so it was such a thrill to get to play it! RagTag has given me the opportunity to get out and perform smaller shows with less time commitment that allow me to do shows at all!

Our logo! Hand painted - I got to keep the portrait!

Me & Anne right after our big duet   Me in costume..ready to go on!

A still from the show "Take Me As I Am"

Performing "Strongest Suit" in a cabaret   Singing "In His Eyes" at the Liberace Museum

GODSPELL in Concert! at the Ovation in Green Valley Ranch

My Solo - Bless the Lord!

 With my girls!

Here's a video mashup/edit of my number...it starts with our first performance but then goes to the second show, which was at a church. Now, the second video's picture is awful, but the mix of voices and tempo were better, so I opted for vocals over visuals...that's the singer in me!

4. Smartypants!

Both girls made the A/B honor roll for the final quarter of their 2nd and 4th grade years. I was PROUD as could be, considering that Mowgli went into 4th grade barely passing math. 

3. The Final Liberace Concert

This was kinda a big deal...I was asked to perform in the final cabaret show at the Liberace museum. I was priveledged to perform with the likes of Peter Saide and Travis Cloer from Jersey Boys, Sarah Elizabeth Combs and Andrew Ragone from Phantom The Las Vegas Spectacular, Philip Fortenberry (Associate Conductor at Jersey Boys) and Niles Rivers from The Lion King. I was the only girl to do a solo - and I sang "Memory" from Cats as a special request. I was TOO nervous so I don't think I rocked it like I normally would. But it was a total honor. 

Performing at the Liberace Farewell Concert

2. Recording for a New Musical

One day one of my friends posted on Facebook that they were looking for some singers to come do a recording for a new musical. Normally I would probably ignore something like that, but for some reason, I decided to go!

To make a long story short, I ended up recording one of the roles! It's a musical called Eve of a New Dawn by Jack Kent Tillar. Jack is the sweetest, most wonderful man! He's old as can be, but full of life and energy. He worked in Hollywood for decade as a music editor and supervisor. Here's his imdb page! He's most well known for the song "Let's All Go to the Lobby!" and he worked on the original Willy Wonka movie. It was a really great experience and I just loved working with Jack. 

Here is one of the songs I recorded, called "To Do It All". I play the role of Rikardus, a medeivel nun under the supervision of visionary Hildegard of Bingen. I really, really like this song.

1. Cirque Du Soleil

I have no photos or video or anything fancy for this one. But it is something I am enormously proud of! Cirque Du Soleil held auditions for singers here in Las Vegas in February of this year. First, I was just giddy as a school girl when I was selected from my audition reel to attend the live auditions. On the first day of auditions, they allowed everyone who was invited to sing, they decided who to call back the second day to record their audition. I had a few other friends there and I was at the end of the 1st round, which means I waited for like 4 hours! That was stressful, especially when very few people were getting called back. Fortunately I found out that they seemed to be especially looking for sopranos, so that helped me solify my audition choice to a legit soprano piece.

I was SOOOOO nervous I could barely breath. It was NOT good. Fortunately, somehow, I was able to get out a good enough sound to get CALLED BACK!!! So exciting. SO AMAZING! I was beyond thrilled.

The next day, I was scheduled to come in around 3:30. Perfect! A great time to sing. And I told myself that I HAD to get control of my nerves. I focused on being calm and focused all day long. I let go of the nerves. And I had a FANTASTIC audition. That right there was enough. I was able to overcome my nerves and focus and show my best self. And then they told me that they would be adding me to their database of singers and that I would be perfect for a show like O or Mystere. So, in reality, nothing may ever come of it, but that was the whole point of the auditions, to add people to the database. And I made it!

I was also able to work with the local casting director in Jekyll & Hyde. But the icing on top was that my brother in law - who works for Cirque in the technical department, ended up having a conversation later that day with the bigwig lady who auditioned me and he mentioned that I had auditioned. She totally remembered me and went on and on about how much they liked me and thought I was great. THAT was pure awesomeness.

In Conclusion...

All in all, 2010 had plenty of downs, but it's ups were really, quite special. I feel like because of this year, I finally am starting to figure out who I am, what I want and how to get there. Hope that's not too existential for you.

I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous New Year!