Hello, Hello, Hello!

Hello everyone! Like so many posts before this one on this blog, I am apologizing for disappearing. Again. I'll fill you in on what I've been doing...

Basically, from the moment we stepped off the plane home from Italy to now, I have been in a show. Not one, but four separate ones. Next to Normal with Patrick in August, Evil Dead: The Musical in October, A Christmas Carol reprising my role from last year (!), and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in January/February (for which I was acting and producing). So ridiculously busy!

Now that it's March, I think things are finally calming down a bit for me to return (triumphantly) to the blogosphere, keep up with some recaps and move forward! Good thing too, because Patrick and I have a big announcement to make...

We're going to have a baby!

Not kidding. Completely thrilled. Almost no words to express the joy and love. We found out a little before Christmas that we'll be expecting the Little One in August! (Woo hoo!). Patrick and I had decided not to wait too long before having kids. We feel incredibly blessed, overwhelmed with joy and excitedment and content.

Lucky me too, it just so happens that one of my best friends (and bridesmaids) Abbie is also expecting (she's a full trimester ahead of me, so it's been wonderful to ask questions and discuss things with her!). 

Facts:

I am, this week, four months and a week pregnant.

We are having a little boy!

We're moving to a bigger apartment!

So, you can see, our lives have been even more of a love-roller coaster. We've been lucky, again, to have quickly found an apartment we really love (a little further out from where we were before) and we've slowly been packing and moving into the new place. It already feels like home! I can't wait to share with you our decorating (especially Baby's room!) adventures and life as a married (and soon to be parenting) couple! Don't worry -- there are plenty of crafts, wedding re-caps, and other typical Roses are Blue posts! So stay tuned!

:) :) :)

My very (preggies) best,

Micah



Being A Bride v. Playing a Bride, Part the Second

I posted before about the art of playing a bride onstage, and now again in A Christmas Carol, I am playing a fiancee! (Actually, I get proposed to onstage). I have to confess with mild hubris, that this is my favorite part in the show. Here's a brief synopsis of the story if you have lived under a rock all your life if you haven't seen/read it.

In our production, the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a few scenes from his childhood before moving on to his young adult life, when he was working for a jolly man named Fezziwig! The Fezziwigs always throw a wonderful Christmas party, and this particular memory Past shows Scrooge is of his young self proposing to his love, Belle during the festivities (That's me!). The carol we sing in the show is The Wassail Song, which is a joyous old English tune we all get to dance to. And then Young Ebenezer proposes to Belle a midst the hubbub of the dance! (See below)

I guess the reason why I am posting about this is because that moment in the show brings me back to the moment last January when Patrick proposed to me! It was such a time of warmth, excitement, nervousness, and being completely overwhelmed and this role brings me right back to that night! Patrick's proposal to me was so romantic and personal and I couldn't be more happy with it! He did a great job. Here's the proposal story. I am so lucky. And to have this role to remind me of that night is a blessing within itself! I love acting.

©2011 Erb Photography
Hanover Theatre 
December 2011

*Us*

Best,

Micah

Being a Bride v. Playing a Bride

Since I have been a little busy running around like a crazy person working on a show with my new theater company, I thought I'd bring this into my wedding blog, since I am playing a bride/newlywed in the production (if only for a few scenes). It's like a cross-over post from my other blog! Here's the dealio (in a VERY condensed nutshell): The play's the thing! Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, that is.

Titus Andronicus, Roman general, returns from ten years of war with only four out of twenty-five sons left. He has captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moor. In obedience to Roman rituals, he sacrifices her eldest son to his own dead sons, which earns him Tamora's unending hatred and her promise of revenge.
Tamora is made empress by the new emperor Saturninus. To get back at Titus, she schemes with her lover Aaron to have Titus's two sons framed for the murder of Bassianus, the emperor's brother and Titus' daughter Lavinia's husband. Aaron advises the lustful Chiron and Demetrius, Tamora's remaining sons, to kill Bassianus and rape Lavinia, after which they cut off her hands and tongue so she cannot give their crime away. Finally, even Titus's last surviving son Lucius is banished from Rome; he subsequently seeks alliance with the enemy Goths in order to attack Rome. Each new misfortune hits the aged, tired Titus with heavier impact. Eventually, he begins to act oddly and everyone assumes that he is crazy.
Tamora tries to capitalize on his seeming madness by pretending to be the figure of Revenge, come to offer him justice if Titus will only convince Lucius to cease attacking Rome. Titus, having feigned his madness all along, tricks her, captures her sons, kills them, and makes pie out of them. He feeds this pie to their mother in the final scene, after which he kills both Tamora and Lavinia, his own daughter. A rash of killings ensue; the only people left alive are Marcus, Lucius, Young Lucius, and Aaron. Lucius has the unrepentant Aaron buried alive, and Tamora's corpse thrown to the beasts. He becomes the new emperor of Rome and orders a slow, painful death for Aaron. (SparkNotes.com).

So. What does any of that mess have to do with weddings? Let me illuminate. I am playing Lavinia. The most tragic role I have yet to play. As you can tell, it's an extremely dark show, and I have been preparing a lot for it. But that's not why I am posting. Lavinia is a newlywed who endures the worst pain imaginable. Not the physical pain, the pain of the loss of her love and of her dignity.

Lavinia and Bassianus
Julie Taymor film version

It is interesting to me, that since I have been with Patrick, every character that I play is enhanced because of my love for him. I don't mean for this to be a sappy post, but finding Patrick has made me more able to channel deeper emotions. I'm not at all saying that you can't be an actor if you're not in love, but for me, it helps. Before I was engaged, I was completely clueless (except my obsessive Weddingbee binges) about anything wedding; planning, budgeting, dresses, cakes, officiants. And I realize that with my ::cough:: 10 months ::cough:: of engagement, and as I have said, Bride on the Brain, I may not appreciate what a wonderful time it is in our lives. Playing Lavinia, has brought that again to my attention. She is a bride/newlywed for one day before her husband is slain before her (great tragedies by Billy Shakes).

I have an extremely valuable subscription to Brides Magazine, and after I got the role, I was browsing my issue and I found a beautiful picture that screamed Lavinia to me. It was in the September 2011 issue. I immediately brought it to our amazing costume designer and she will be building me one! I will be wearing a pink tulle veil in one of my scenes (post nuptials for Lavinia)!!! I am so excited!!! We decided that the veil was sort of the symbol of Lavinia in this show; as a bride, and to veil her shame and pain.So, it was necessary to have it as a part of my costume!


This is NOT the picture because I can't find it ANYWHERE
But it's the most similar, with three straps holding the veil/blusher over my face and hair

Ugh, I'm cranky that I couldn't find the right picture, but this one is close! The head straps that go into a bit-like thing? Ignore that (slightly inappropriate image) and imagine for me if you will, that they connect beneath the chin. It had a similar look to those tooth-ache medical straps that people wore way back when...

But not as thick, and multi-satin ribbons securing the veil/blusher to the head. I'll be sure to post a photo edit update when I have it, but we tried the trial veil on a few days ago and it looks cool! Hee hee! Anytime I can dress like a bride! ;-) Meanwhile, in real life, my mother has picked up my dress from the salon, as you may have read it came in! And it now waits for me in my closet in my old room next to my veil and slip!

Another bride I played actually was married onstage! This was before I even spoke to Patrick, way back in college when I was a sophomore. I played Amy March in Little Women: The Musical. I had a GIANT wedding dress made for me to fit the time period (mid to late 1800s). Here's a picture!

OH! Sorry - forgot to warn you,
I was Blonde (in wig) for this
I know, I know...It won't happen again.

I guess the point of this post is to muse over my past bridal roles as I grow into a bride for my own wedding. As acting is a big part of my life, I think it is nice to remember and think about the times and characters I played that were brides, and to see how now, I feel so differently than I did in college. Anywho --- thanks for reading, if you made it past the blood, revenge, and doom of the Titus description!

Best,

Micah

Get Going Already!

Hello all! I feel like I have been gone for years, it has been far too long. Here's what I have been doing for the past summer:

As you may know from my other blog, I have been doing an apprenticeship with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston! Little did I know that besides classes from 9am-5pm everyday, 6 days a week(...for 10 weeks!) I would be cast in the mainstage "All's Well That Ends Well," the show that the professional company put on this year on the Common. It. Was. Amazing. And truly and deeply exhausting. To keep this lame excuse for not blogging very much this summer brief, let me simply say that I learned so much, gained invaluable acting experience, and a lot of strength of endurance physically, emotionally, and mentally. (If you'd like to know more about my experience this summer with CSC, please go ahead and visit my other blog!)

From this program, which ended a mere five days ago, Patrick and I are diving right into a musical production being opened next week! (Thank goodness we have each other! And we are playing lovers, so not too difficult of roles ;-) ) So, as you might have guessed wedding planning this summer has been kind of slow.



I know what I need to do...I'm just so tired!


But here's what I have been doing a lot of is a lot of thinking about things. Making little decisions with Patrick verbally and mulling over caterers and photographers. What I need to be doing is GETTING ON TOP OF THINGS! Because now there are 325 days left, (according to my Wedding Plandroid app on my new Thunderbolt phone! - I have two other Wedding apps. I need to stop) so I need to get on it. And believe me, the motivation is there, there is just one little thing that still needs to fall in place before I can go all-in wedding planning cray cray: I need a full-time job. One of those 9-5ers that can support me. So, in the midst of all my and Patrick's glorious wedding dreamings, I am interviewing like a madwoman!

Never fear! All is not lost! This post is not to say I have gotten nothing done whatsoever! I have in fact; started making paperflowers for our archway for the ceremony, gone to David's Bridal (a second time, I never got to post about the first) and I may or may or may not have decided on THE dress! I've also emailed a bunch of photographers, made a giant Excel document listing all the DIY projects I would like to do, added about 40 things to it, and we are planning a family budget dinner to discuss who is paying what for what (I know, joyous) for the wedding.

But guys, I am SO excited that now I can really start planning and getting things done. I am so looking forward to evenings of crafting with my bridesmaids, giggling about the honeymoon plans with P, and starting to really solidify our big day! From now on, there will be more frequent posts because this girl is getting her butt in gear and going forward!

Best,

Micah

P.S. Remember when I showed you a sneak peakie? All the waiting will soon be over!!!!