First Day of the Springboard Program...

...AND MY 21ST BIRTHDAY

It's been magical. The people are wonderful, the town is wonderful, the food is wonderful, everything right now is wonderful (except for the communal dorm like bathroom)! I started the day in a room filled with 34 other theatre students, some still in school, quite a few were recent graduates. We mingled and ate free bagels and met a lot of people from big fancy schools. I think there were 5 of us where no one had even heard of our schools/locations. One girl even went into a mini-panic when I told her I was from Truman State because it was a school that she had never heard of located in the middle of nowhere. She said:
"Oh my god. You're going to be that girl that my professors always talk about. The one from the middle of nowhere that is working twice as hard as you that makes it on Broadway and gets famous."
Why, yes. Yes, I am.
But that's not what I said, or really what I think, but it's fun to respond in a sassy way, even if it's just in my head. But that has probably been my favorite reaction ever to the fact that I go to Truman.

So everyday at Springboard, we work and meet working professionals in the field. It's awesome. Today, we worked with Leigh Silverman. If you don't know who she is you should seriously look her up.
She's incredible.
And out of 35 students, I was the FIRST person that got to work with her ONE-ON-ONE.
It was so great and I managed to trip and look like a fool on my way to the floor because for some odd reason there is a studio that uses bleachers as seating, which are always difficult to navigate. Always. But who cares because I got to work with Leigh Silverman one-on-one!!!!!! Seriously, in 15 minutes she took one of my monologues to a whole new level. I'm obsessed.
After the audition workshop, Springboard treated all of us students to dinner at an Irish Pub and slowly the news made its way through the other students that it was my 21st birthday and a girl just turned and said to me "we're singing Happy Birthday to you now." and before I could open my mouth to protest 40 people were singing happy birthday at me in 3 part harmony. It was awkwardly wonderful. And then another guy in the program bought me a drink and one of the Production Managers for Springboard came up to me and asked me what kind of coffee I liked and if I liked cupcakes and I just said Yes to both. I hope I get a cupcake tomorrow!
So overall it has been a great 21st birthday. Completely nontraditional in the sense that I'm not going out to a bar and didn't take a shot at midnight, but honestly, I wouldn't trade this 21st birthday for anything.

Oh! Here's the shows (that I remember off the top of my head) I get to see over the next 2 weeks:
Peter and the Starcatcher
Once
Uncle Vanya
Sister Act
Newsies
...and I think there's something I'm forgetting, but I just can't remember right now..I'll keep ya'll updated!
(also, a lot of people say ya'll here. I really don't get it, but I'm probably going to get in the habit of using it.)