Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

This week was kinda crappy for me. I'm just sayn... Without getting too personal, I'll share some of the "lowlights"... I started the afterschool program this week. I've taught in classrooms for many years as a substitute teacher for public schools, I've also taught acting to ages 5 to 65! But I don't think I was prepared for what I encountered this week! I was assigned to a middle school to teach theater to a group of kids who lost the teacher they've had since the beginning of the year. Not sure where he went, but he couldn't continue with the class anymore. I went in on Tuesday, and although they were crazy "energetic" and had a hard time focusing, I finally got them to do a few improv scenes and the day didn't end so bad. But then Thursday came... Ugh...Thursday. I couldn't get them to listen to me from the start. And the good students from Tuesday had decided to trade places with the other ones and have a bad day tha...

Rehearsals began this week for Lightning Strikes, the play written by my friend Erica Saez, that will be performed as a staged reading in about 2 weeks. It's so nice to be in rehearsals again. It's been so long - I forgot what it was like! I wasn't sure if my memory could memorize a full script anymore - but good thing it's a reading and not a full on production! And I have to say, there is a calm in this sort of work. I'm not on edge and I'm not stressed. And it's so not about "business" - or who will be in the audience the night we perform this, will they bring me in for pilot season? None of that matters. People are doing this because they love doing it - not because it will further their career. And ahhh....That's all I want right now. If I perform, it's because I want to and not for a paycheck. :) What a different way of life here in Austin Texas. I tell you, I must've been burnt out with the "business" of i...