One year ago, my ideal college was Ithaca College in upstate New York. Every fiber of my being felt a sense of belonging to their campus, their physical therapy program, their community. Their institution was perfect for me except for one key aspect: the expense. I let my heart become attached to a college that, in the end, I would only get to experience on a campus tour rather than as a student.
The thought of coming to Stockton was one that nauseated me. I had fallen in love with Ithaca College and felt married to it, I felt adulterous informing Stockton that I would be attending their campus in the fall. When I came for the Honors Overnight Experience I was ambivalent, trying to find something to love about Stockton when I felt very prejudiced against it. I looked at the agenda with a critical eye, doubting that anything would spark an interest for me. That was of course until I read the title: Whose Line is it Anyway.
Comedy has always been my guilty pleasure and improv my bread and butter. Growing up I would stay up late whenever I could so I could watch episodes of Whose Line air on ABC Family around 11 o’clock. As my taste for comedy matured I added television like Saturday Night Live and The Office to my repertoire of favorite shows. But my gateway to comedy, my gateway to funny, was Whose Line is it Anyway.
My heart opened up to Stockton as soon as I saw the program in the Campus Theater at the Honors Overnight Experience. I knew that it was a night of theater that I would never forget. More importantly it was the first thing that I could see myself becoming involved in at Stockton. I saw the show again during Welcome Week- the actors were playing to a full house. As an actor myself I know there is nothing more euphoric than the feeling of performing for a full and receptive audience.
After the show that night, the director of the program announced that Whose Line was a program open to anyone who was interested in improv comedy. I proudly fell into that category. The criteria for being a cast member on the show at that point was simply expressing interest in the program; so many people had done so however that auditions became necessary.
Sitting in the Experimental Theater lobby waiting to audition for the show, I felt oddly star struck simply talking to the members that I had seen perform just days before. In that moment I wanted nothing more than to be among their ranks for the next Whose Line production. During the audition we just played the improv games together that they use in performance. I had so much fun goofing around with them I almost forgot that I was at an audition. When the cast list was posted, I was thrilled to see that my name was second on the list, I was on Whose Line is it Anyway?! My inner child was squealing with joy, I had just accomplished a life dream.
The following Monday I got to perform in the Campus Center Theater for around sixty people. I had butterflies in my belly all day prior to the performance. I had watched episodes of the show on YouTube in between each of my classes to prepare for the night’s production. I had the best time playing different games with my theater friends and was feeling the euphoric joy of entertainment each time the audience laughed at one of my jokes. It was one of the best performances I have ever gotten to be a part of. I can’t wait until next month when I’ll have an opportunity to do it again.

Recently I auditioned for Walter Wyke’s play, The Profession, directed by Dan Cerullo. Going on my first audition here at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey was something that got my adrenaline pumping. Performing is my true passion and finding an outlet for it here on campus was of paramount importance to me. The show’s cast called for three actors total, with one female lead. Talk about intimidating. I had never auditioned for something so exclusive. In reality, I just wanted to get my name out there and associated with the theater program. I wasn’t expecting to receive a part, but I wanted to dip my toes in the water of college theater.

I auditioned with a dry reading of a monologue that Dan, the director, had provided me. Having never seen the monologue before I was very nervous, but I connected to it and felt as though I could really portray the character well. It was an exhilarating feeling to deliver the monologue in the Experimental Theater for two reasons. The first was that I had never had an opportunity to perform in black box before. The second was because I was making the director and stage manager laugh. Nothing is more encouraging to an actor than an engaged audience that responds to his/her humor.

It was so rewarding when my name was on the callback list. My first college audition yielded my first college callback! I had never thought that my audition would do anything more than connect me with more students involved in theater. Having a callback was an extremely heartening experience. In the end, although I was not cast in the show, I had accomplished two items on my college bucket list: (1) audition for a show and (2) get a callback. I hadn’t expecting to achieve either of these things in my first semester, let alone in the same day!

Having had such a great experience with my audition, I could not wait to see the show go up and support the cast. I signed up to usher for the Saturday night performance, excited to get to help out with the show in some small way. The show itself was unlike anything I had ever had the opportunity to work with before. The Profession is an absurdist piece, which means that just when the audience is grasping the plot of the play, something crazy happens that challenges everything that they believe and forces them to question what it all really means. In the same way that a dystopia novel causes the reader to question how the commentary applies to his/her every day life, absurdist pieces of theater provoke the same types of questions. The genre was something I had never experienced before but I have always loved dystopia novels; I was so excited for the show to begin.

The show followed the character Eugene, portrayed by my friend Jeremy Rotolo, who was learning the trade of The Profession along with another student Rosetta, played by Taylor Cawley. Both characters were being taught the profession by an ominous looking teacher, Schaefer played by Ryan Gorman, who appeared to tower over his students. The content covered in their course seemed extreme to Eugene and he often objected to the lessons, questioning their necessity and by extension his purpose. Throughout the show, Eugene’s questions reflected the questions of the audience. As the drama escalated to a climactic point, the questions that bounced around in my head were abundant. I left the theater with more questions than answers as there wasn’t a real resolution. At first, I wasn’t satisfied; the show was lacking a conventional dénouement. Upon reflection I realized that having so many questions in the end was what made The Profession a success. Good theater is theater that leaves makes the audience think, and almost a week later I am still thinking about The Profession.

Accomplishing a lifelong dream is a feeling unlike any other.  There are a myriad of dreams I have seen accomplished having just graduated from high school and entered college, but there is a particularly dear one that I accomplish a little more and more each Monday and Wednesday evening. That is my childhood dream of becoming a member of an a cappella group.

This dream came to fruition when I was in the third grade, the year I saw my cousin Colin perform with the Deltones at the University of Delaware. At that point in my life, I was struggling to cope with a chronic illness that held me back from playing sports or playing instruments. Two years prior I had been diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, a disease that has come to affect each of my joints on a daily basis. My disease was a real hindrance, holding me back from the activities of my friends and leaving me struggling to cope with the boundaries of my condition. I was on the hunt therefore for an activity that would be fun, that wouldn’t hurt, that I could love. I found that activity at my cousin’s concert.

Driving to Delaware was a big deal for my family. We had always supported my cousin’s musical pursuits throughout high school but this was our first opportunity to do so during his college career. Little did I know that our journey to his college would result in the birth of my first attainable lifelong dream. Up until that point my goals were to open the first library on the moon and to meet Junie B. Jones. Figuring out that I wanted to join an a cappella group was a dream that my joints couldn’t destroy and one that felt possible.

The moment I heard the Deltones sing their first song, Somebody to Love by Queen, I knew that a cappella was my future so I set about my life singing from the moment I woke up in the morning until sleep took me at night. Singing became a lifestyle choice rather than a hobby and it was something that I was fiercely passionate about. I became successful in my town in different choirs and ensembles, especially in musical theater programs.

When senior year rolled around and I was starting to apply to colleges, my singular criterion for a school was that it had an a cappella group that I could audition for.  I didn’t find out about Stockton’s groups until after I was accepted and applying to the Honors Program here. Then, when I investigated the school’s extra curricular events and I found it, I knew that Stockton was a place that I could accomplish my dream. So I auditioned in the fall and was so thankful to be accepted into the male/female ensemble called the Stocktones.

I found my home at Stockton when I found the Stocktones, the community that has been borne from our music is one that I wouldn’t trade for the world. As individuals we are goofs who love to sing songs. As a whole we become an ensemble that makes music. Together we accomplish something amazing that we couldn’t do independently of one another. Every time we rehearse, the little girl inside of me that yearned for the opportunity to sing with an a cappella group feels great success. Tomorrow is the Stockappella concert for this Fall 2013 semester, it’s a sold out show. I know that the concert tomorrow will once again yield an overwhelming feeling of success, both personally and for my group.  I write this blog post as I sit waiting to take the stage during the dress rehearsal. Today more than ever I feel as though I have become the person that I wanted to be as a child. There is no appropriate way to describe that success, its still too surreal to me. All I can say is that I am thrilled to be in the position that I’m in and to have the opportunity to perform with the Stocktones is something that I wouldn’t trade for the world.