Hello my mighty Starmites!
 It's me...Ryan...your officer who likes to reach out to others...
As I sat in my comfortable seat inside of TGI Fridays at Northfield drinking my Arnold Palmer, the lovely Shawn Hann reminded us, officers, about our duty of blogging...so...here I am...

I came to blog my rather...interesting side of the 2011 National Thespian Conference, which most of thespians did not receive, because they are, well, normal...

I expected Nationals for me to be rather boring and kind of depressing, due to the fact my IE at State had just barely not made it to the National level (1 Superior, 2 Excellence)  BUT BOY WAS I COMPLETELY WRONG. I walked away saying that was one of the best weeks I've had in a very long time and it was because of several reasons

1. I fell in love (sorta, but not really, but I kinda did, but not really...you get the point).
2. I got to act in the 2011 Playworks!!!
3. Flight went super super awesome!
4. all of the other shenanigans which occurred, including some of the incredible shows we saw.

Lets start off with the shenanigans:
- First!!! Let me say a quick congrats and an absolutely amazing job to Alex Bagget, Sarah Harmon, Sam VW, Alexander MJ, and my old theatre teacher, Mark Devine who kicked so much ass in all of their performances!
- My friends had taken me inside of the dance to teach me how to do some sexy dance moves, otherwise nowadays known as Grinding or The GRIND or for others The Big Rub... And in my attempts to try and do this dance, I simply could not take it seriously and just had to laugh at it and then walk outside. (I also was bad at it, which is sad, because if you've ever done that kind of dancing...the guy really doesn't do anything.)
- I met a guy who could turn dollar bills into bow ties, which I wore around for a day acting like a total DB or AH (you guys can figure out the words I'm trying to say)
- Cluster Folk and hearing them play from the beginning
- Rooming with Jake and not doing anything we planned on doing late at night
- Bus rides with Nicki and Sarah
- Wearing Zach's fedora the entire time :)
- Making Julia Hemp and Sarah Harmon feel absolutely uncomfortable during all the shows...
- My lucky Slap On Bracelet (which you'll soon read about)
- Drowsey Rabbit Goes (my order)
- I made the guys from Good Boys and True hate me, yet I still got a picture with them...funny thing actually happened...when we first got to Nationals, before we ever saw the show, the guys from that show were holding the door for us when we loaded in Flight and I looked at him and I said, "Aren't you a little to buff to be a thespian?" In which six pack replied, "....We're athletes...." I think I made a friend...

So Playworks....when I first heard about it, I knew I was going to audition and try to get in, because it sounded like the most fun event to me...so...I auditioned...
During the cold read...I totally misinterpreted my character, which just so happened to be the character they were looking for in another show...so after i finished my scene they asked me to do a southern accent...where I thought in my head, "Well, here goes Mice and Men all over again..." And it seriously was, because my character turned into Whit the second they said that. This just goes to show that one can completely screw up an audition, yet they always still have a chance (I feel like this has been my life a little...) So, after the audition I waited around for a bit and hoped to have someone come out of the room asking me to read for another character, as I saw many others were asked who I knew were great actors, but I was not, so I figured I did not make it, which was not a problem in my mind at all, because then I could take the Sexy Salsa Dancing Classes...
A few hours later I was standing in the girls dorm convenient store looking to buy a Slap On Bracelet (yes I am a 2nd grade girl) when I received a phone call from the wonderful and talented Ethan Griggs, who tells me "Hey dude...did you see the cast list?...dude you got into Playworks!!!" So...being the 2nd grade girl I am, I ran out of the store screaming "I got in! I got in!" And as I ran through the halls with a great amount of excitement, I soon realized the Slap On Bracelet was still in my hand, which I never paid for and although it was only dollar, I did return back to the store and pay for it 
But anyways, Playworks, I found it to be very low stress, a lot of fun, and just using your first actors instincts I loved, because it's just like, "well here goes nothing..." The funny thing about my cast though was there were 7 kids from Cherry Creek High School (my old school) at Nationals, and 2 of them, who happened to be friends of mine, were cast in the same show as me, allowing for me to kinda get to hang out, which was awesome! (Thanks to Griffin and Avery) If I'm not super stressed with college auditions next year, I will totally re-audition and do it again and recommend it to anyone else going next year! The best part is my name will be listed in the published Samuel French 2011 Playworks play as the original actor to portray the role!!!

Flight of the Jake!
After we had the best rehearsal with Brandon Becker, our cast found a great energy within the show, which we were finally able to use in our last performance! We added to new jokes, including " F R A N C eahehahhy!" (Gotta love Sammi D. and Marlo) And I am proud to say that it was the best job I had done all year, because DaVinci was much more sharp and my singing was a ton better (not that it was actually good, but it was the best I've sounded all year, because I could finally hear my pitches within the recording.) I practiced that song a ton and it took me A YEAR to get it almost exactly right, which is sad, but hey...I DID IT!!!

Falling in love...sorta
During Drowsey Chaperone's song, "Show Off," I believe there were two men in the audience who fell in love...hard. Those two people were Austin Allen and myself. We both found the leading lady Janet, portrayed by Kayla Eilers, to just be the greatest performance we have ever seen in our life by a female woman. Her wonderful singing voice, hilarious acting, large amount of beauty, and ability to make every man in their seat have to re-adjust, gave reason for Ethan Griggs and I to give standing ovations after her song, being the only people standing in the theatre for those 10 great seconds of applause...
  I thought after the show..."maybe there is the chance I will see her and get to talk to her," ...and that just so happened, but in a more accidental way. I saw a gentleman from the ensemble I remembered and one of the leading male tappers, so I went up and complimented them. Not long after, a young lady came up who I thought looked familiar, and when she told me she was Janet, I became almost star/love struck, leading me unable to speak or talk to her about how great I thought she was. To my luck, she was very kind and sweet to me and hopefully did not find me to be too much of a weirdo...however...I am blogging about her, which is pretty creepy...sorry if you read this...
Anyways...the next day I saw her and chatted for a second where she called me "Bud." (I know...big deal) Then on the day of the auction Austin and I talked her about being bid on where she said she'd rather be bid on by us two than by some creepy random people...which is pretty funny, because it is...well...me and Austin...But anyways, he and I decided to pull our money together, along with the donations of a few friends, giving us around $150. In the bidding we won her for $100, making me jump up and down like a 2nd grade girl yet again after the auctioneer said "SOLD!", but also at the same time making me feel like a total pedophile.
On the dinner/date/slave trade or whatever you want to call it, it wasn't awkward at all, Austin and I had a great time, (hopefully she did too), and we just sat down, had some great mac & cheese from Noodles & Company and talked briefly about our lives and what not. She was a very kind soul and and just good person, which made Austin and I sad she has to be all the way in Kentucky :( It was just a very funny experience overall to be amazed from one's performance and then to actually getting to know them a fair amount in the few days we had.
 
The Conclusion
I just had an absolutely great time on the trip and can't believe half of the crap that happened had actually happened...anyways...yeah...can't wait til next year and just hope it can be just as fun!

Thanks for reading! Didn't mean for it to be this long...(that's what she said)