2023 Life Update

Hi. I’m back. Again.

I’m gonna try and write more this year—once a month. I set myself a 2023 goal to get back to writing. Seeing as it’s the second to last day in February, it’s about time for me to buckle down and put my money where my mouth is.

But I’m also not going to stress myself out with unnecessary deadlines and self-imposed expectations so…

Let’s do a little life update. After a decent-sized hiatus, I have begun posting more on social media (or, at least, trying to). I have had a lot of comments and DM’s that made me realize: many people have no idea what my life is right now, and thus have no context from which to understand the photos and videos I’ve been posting. Things like “wait, do you still live in South Carolina?” and “Are you going to audition for Sight and Sound since you’re there so often?” “Are these photos from NarroWay?” (guys…I haven’t performed there in over 10 years, but I digress)… So here’s a little life update and context for any and all who care to read it.

Personal

So. I’m married to Kyle Blanchard. We’ve been married a little over two years. We own a house in Branson, Missouri. We bought the house in October 2020, got married Nov 1st 2020, closed on Nov 17th 2020, flipped it completely, and moved in on Dec 23rd 2020. (In retrospect, this was insanity. But I’m so glad we did it).

Click through below for some before/afters!

A lot has happened in the 2+ years we’ve been married: shifting in relationships, asking myself hard questions and dealing with the answers, shedding the mask, deconstructing toxic belief systems, releasing things that don’t serve me and us… I know that’s all very vague. But I look at the people we were when we started dating vs. who we’ve both become, and I’m grateful. It’s been messy, and I believe we’re always works in progress, but I honestly wouldn’t change anything.

We have the best cat in the world, her name is Luna McGonagall Valentine Blanchard and she’s perfect. On a random Sunday off in February 2021, we decided we would just go visit the animal shelter to see our options. We walked out with Luna who had been surrendered just a few days prior at 6 months. One of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

We travel whenever we can—we’re somewhat limited by our work schedule, but it’s also our job that allows us to afford it so… it’s a balance. Last year we went to Ireland and Mexico, and our next adventure is to Iceland in August. There’s a decent chance that travel will become a much bigger part of our lives in the coming years 😉, so stay tuned.

Fitness/Wellness

In February of 2021, I graduated with my YA 200hr yoga certification and immediately began teaching classes at Kom Hot Yoga—the same studio I certified with.

I am going on my tenth year as a personal trainer with ACE and have found my niche in prehab and functional movement. I taught group fitness at a local gym in town called Landing Fitness for nearly 3 years, but have since stepped away from that position because #margin. Now I primarily have a select few Personal Training clients and am putting the rest of my efforts towards writing training programs for FitMeow Fitness as a way to continue helping people who want to begin a fitness journey, but don’t need my 1-on-1 attention… plus, it’s a much more scalable business model for the long-term.

FitMeow Fitness

On that note, I recently started a business: FitMeow Fitness! I launched on Christmas Day of this past year and actually had quite a few purchases which was exciting and very unexpected. I’m letting it begin small—I’m not in any rush to make this business hugely profitable and I’m actively trying to rest more this year. So I’ll make moves when it feels right and allow the business to grow organically. In the meantime, if you’d like to try a 7-week foundational workout program, Gym Guide: Foundations is available for purchase😊!

Galaxy Semiconductor

I work part time in Event Management, Design, and Accounts for Galaxy Semiconductor. I won’t try to explain it to the laymen, but I’ve attached the link for anyone who’s interested in learning more about it here. For the rest of y'all, I work from my laptop approx. 10 hours a week answering emails and plugging things into Quickbooks and Excel. Occasionally I travel with the team to organize events, pick up food, manage meeting spaces, etc.

Sight and Sound

Okay, let’s dive into the biggie. In the fall of 2021, I was hired as a part-time Swing at Sight and Sound for their production of Jesus. It had been nearly two years since performing and I collapsed into a puddle of grateful tears the minute the curtain came down that night.

Before I continue on, I should clarify some terms that Sight and Sound uses that are unique in this industry, otherwise much of the rest of this won’t make any sense. Because of the exceptional demand and length of these contracts, the casting structure is a little different than any other theater I’ve worked at. When casting goes out in an email, you don’t receive a “cast list” but rather a personal “role sheet” with all of the roles you would cover in any given scene. Most people have 2-4 roles or “tracks.” I've attached a snippet of my Esther role sheet below for reference: on the left is the scene number and name, on the right is all the roles you would potentially play in that scene.

All roles are cast 3 deep: Primary, Understudy, Backup. On occasion, for the bigger and more demanding roles, there’ll be a 4th Emergency Backup. In Queen Esther, these 4-deep roles are Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and Xerxes.

Primary (P)

This is the person you’re most likely to see if you picked a random day and bought a ticket to come see our show. For the larger and more demanding roles, there is typically a 70/30 split with the understudy for sustainability. Meaning the primary does 70% of shows, and the understudy does 30%. For the mid-demanding roles and below, the primary will do 100% of shows, and the understudy will go in as needed either by request or for vacation/sickness.

Understudy (US)

2nd in line for role coverage. Chances of seeing the understudy are very decent, especially in our busy seasons.

Backup (BU)

3rd string for coverage. If the primary or understudy of a lead is out, then the 70/30 split would shift down to be shared with the backup. You would think that being 3rd in line means never going in, and sometimes that's true, but I was BU Satan in Miracle of Christmas, and went in on the first week. Our primary was injured, and the understudy was out of town. Anything can happen—so they just try to be prepped for it.

Emergency Backup (EBU):

I think you get the idea by now. This is the 4th string.

Swing

This is an industry standard term, so most people with a theater background will have the right idea. A swing is a role in and of itself; it's essentially an understudy for the entire ensemble. So any of the dancers, singing ensemble, crowd scenes—a swing would cover those roles and fill them as needed. Typically, male and female swings cover different things when it matters (vocal parts, dance positions, etc) and anything when it doesn’t (crowd scenes). I am one of the female swings in Esther this year.

So this means my “track” will look different everyday depending on who’s sick, on vacation, or what understudies are going into their understudy role. As a swing at Sight and Sound, I keep a white board at my dressing station. On one side are all the scenes, written in Sharpie. The other side is blank, and I write the names of who I’m covering in each scene in a dry-erase marker. So here’s an example of what my board might have looked like on a typical day in Jesus.

Docks: Cat F

Sermon: Audrey

Pilgrimage: Cat F

Temple: Jeremiah

Gadarenes: Bethany

Lazarus: Joey

Triumphal Entry: Cat F

Crucifixion: Shekinah

Finale: Cat F

These are real people whose patterns I covered—you’ll notice Cat is on here multiple times. In this hypothetical scenario, she was in for her understudy pattern, thus leaving her dancer/ensemble track in need of coverage (this happened regularly). If one person is out for coverage, sickness, etc, often one swing will cover their whole track—just for consistency. That way the cast can anticipate the same swing covering same actress the whole show, and audio doesn’t have to patch in multiple mics to cover one pattern.

So anyway, I wanted to provide some thorough context for y’all before I just started throwing terminology around in future blog posts. Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

In 2022, I was cast full-time for the 2nd year run of Jesus in the Primary dance ensemble, a couple fun bit roles, and Backup Martha.

For Miracle of Christmas, I was cast as Primary Orpha (Joseph’s little sister—she was a fun little twit), Primary Worship Angel, and Backup Satan (which meant FLYING!).

This year, we’re doing Queen Esther: I’m back as a Primary Female Swing, BU Anya and Avaley, BU Esther Body Double, and EBU Esther, and a few other random things. I’ll probably write more about this show and process specifically as we get closer to opening, but if you’ve made it to this point, you’ve already read nearly 2000 words—you’ve earned a break.