What's been going on with us, you ask?

Nathan and I have been settled back in NYC for about two months now since we've been off the ship. It always takes a while to get back into the swing of things once you have been out of them for a while. We are still trying to find consistent part-time work and looking for agents and great teachers, etc. But things have really been looking up for us since we have come back.
 Nathan has gotten a Christmas gig this year where he will be in Singin' in the Rain and A Christmas Carol at The Fulton Opera house and he will be becoming a member of Actors Equity! We are sooo happy and he is really looking forward to working at this great theatre.
  In recent news - Nathan and I have both just booked a gig TOGETHER! We just received the call this week that we will be performing in "Hairspray" at Media Theatre, where I will be playing Amber and he will be playing Link! We are SO excited to be playing 'boyfriend and girlfriend' and get to play opposite each other at an equity house. The show goes up in October and closes right before Nathan starts his gig with Fulton. The Lord is truly blessing us and we are just ecstatic for what the Lord has in store.
   For July and August we are trying to take classes and work with our temp agencies as much as we can before we start our theatre gigs. Of course, it is extremely HOT up here in NYC and are trying to get used to not having central air. (Thank God for the few air conditioning window units that we DO have though...sheesh)
   Our Landlord has two bikes that he said we could use whenever we want, so Nathan and I rode around our neighborhood for an hour and really got to see parts of our neighborhood that we had never got to enjoy before. Our eyes are being opened to a fresh new start here in the city, and we are loving what we are seeing! :)
   Hopefully the blogs will be staying updated more frequently from now on! (crossed fingers)

Nathan's 26th Birthday

We celebrated Nathan's 26th Birthday this past weekend here in NYC. It was the most perfect day that we could have asked for. It started out early with home made french toast (first time I've ever made them...they turned out pretty good!) and then we went to try and get General Rush Tickets for a Broadway Matinee that afternoon. Nathan waited in line at 'Anything Goes' while I waited at 'Spider Man'. We were waiting for the box office to open at 10:00am so we could get the $30-$40 tickets for the show! There were about 30 people in each line and we could have gotten tickets to either one, so we decided to go with "Anything Goes" because it has a closing date, and Spider Man is still going for who knows how long.
  After we got our tickets, we headed down to South Street Seaport. This is such a beautiful location in the city. It is right by the water where boats dock, with lots of restaurants and shops along the cobblestone streets and water. We watched a race that was happening where about 100 people were swimming around the Manhattan Island, supposedly they swam for 8-9 hours!! Incredible to catch a glimpse of that! We ate lunch by the water and walked around a few of the shops; the weather was perfect!
   We then headed to "Anything Goes" where we had wonderful seats and really enjoyed it. Right after the show we headed up towards Lincoln Center to eat dinner at the Rosa Mexicano with 2 of our favorite couples: Marissa and James, Katherine and Sam. After we ate tons of yummy mexican, Marissa pulled out six red velvet cupcakes that she made for Nathan's bday - they were delicious, what a treat!
    We got out of dinner right around 7:30pm, just in time to go to Bryant Park and catch the TropFest Film Festival. (These are the moments where I just love that we live in NYC). This is the largest film festival in the world, that is based out of Australia and they hosted their first year in New York on Nathan's Bday! It was an outdoor free viewing of a few short films, each under 7 minutes and then one was awarded first place and $20,000. Not only was it awesome sitting at the park in perfect weather watching these great short films with our friends and thousands of strangers, but to top it off Hugh Jackman hosted the event!
     Nathan's bday was sooo great and couldn't have gone better. Thank you everyone for sending the cards, texts, and Facebook posts - they made him feel super special!

Since we've been gone!

Since it's been a good 6 weeks since our last blog, it's time to do a quick update. Whitney and I are officially back on land. We finished up our contract on April 22nd and got back to NYC around 6pm.
IT WAS SO SURREAL! We immediately ordered sushi from our favorite sushi place and just laid around our couch for the rest of the night with our jaws dropped. We couldn't believe that the 9 month contract was finally over. I mean don't get me wrong, working in the Caribbean together was not bad at all but it's been amazing being back in the world where you can do WHATEVER you desire.
Since our time back, the Lord has been extremely giving. We had a wonderful weekend with our great friend Eric Percuoco from Iowa. We saw a few Broadway shows to catch up for some time away from the theatre world.
Ghost the Musical was excellent.. the visual effects were stunning.
Godspell was a lot of fun and nostalgic for Eric and I since we were in that show together in high school.
Newsies was out of this world entertaining. Some of the best dancing I've ever seen!

Whitney and I have gone to a few auditions since we've been back and it's been pretty nice because this is the down time for auditions. We have been able to get seen at equity auditions and it didn't take us all day like normal. We've been getting a few callbacks which is always nice. Nathan got a pretty great offer with an Equity company doing Singing in the Rain, he just has to now accept it and he will be getting his equity card. Fantastic news! That will start in November, 2012. Whitney performed in front of two different agencies and they both seemed extremely interested in her work. She will be hearing later on if they want to represent her. So for now, we are doing great being back... things are starting to take flight for us.

We are currently visiting our amazing families. Just got into Tennessee yesterday and will be finishing in Kansas and then Iowa. Hooray for family time!!! It's only been 10-11 months since we've been home!!!

We'll post pictures later... because there are lots!

2 more weeks and officially back in New York

Happy Easter to all!

Whitney and I did not get Legally Blonde, they start rehearsals 2 days before we get back so it didn't work out. But great news for us because now we will be back in our home and back to our life! We are so excited to start back up again and we will be planning our family trips very soon. Love to all!

Blue Hole

On Wednesday, 11 of us went to a place near Ochos Rios, Jamaica called Blue Hole. It was an hour and a half away and it was gorgeous. We had been wanting to go this entire contract and it finally worked out. The water was so blue and fresh feeling. We jumped off of waterfalls, climbed up waterfalls, and swam underneath and through waterfalls. Our tour guide brought us to 3 different waterfall locations. This was an amazing experience. The day was perfect, the water felt so cold and awesome. An added bonus was also the fact that it was just our group and a tour guide. So we didn't have to share the experience with strangers:) These experiences are the ones that will last a lifetime and keep me counting my blessings for life and for this job. Pictures don't jusitify it's beauty.

 I was also soo proud of my wife for jumping, this is a huge fear of hers and she conquered it and had a blast.

Underneath this waterfall there was a cove and a little cave like hole you could climb up and through - it was really tight space but we squeezed through. I wanna go back!!

No, we didn't attempt to jump off of this one. Too scary. 

Natural beauty - there is nothing better. I mean look at where we were!!!

Scratch that thought

It's crazy how fast things and decisions can change. Whitney and I ended up turning down the offer for Little Theatre on the Square. It just was NOT enough money to pay for our apartment in New York. The couple subletting our apartment decided to leave as originally planned and we don't want to be paying rent when we're not living there. We feel really good about our decision. We'll be back in the city and I might get my tonsils taken out in Iowa before my birthday, so this will be a good time off for us. Plus, we were just offered the ensemble for the gig anyway and we're getting to the point in our career where we have to turn down work to get what we want.
On another note - Clemmons/Dewing casting called me in for an appointment for the role of Frank Jr. in the "Catch Me If You Can" tour and unfortunately I can't go because I'm still in the middle of the ocean... really?

Future Contracts

If you didn’t read our past blog about summer work, Whitney and I are doing Summer Stock theatre in Sullivan Illinois with Little Theatre on the Square.

My contract begins May 21^st through July 28^th

Whitney’s begins June 7^th through August 12^th

We will be there for 10 weeks receiving 10 Equity points and performing in 4 different Musicals.

We will both be doing Pirates of Penzance, Music Man, and 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.

I will be opening the season with Grease and Whitney will be closing the season with 9 to 5. We are very excited to be again working with each other.

Now we just have to wait and see if we get cast in Legally Blonde with the Palace Theatre in New Hampshire. It would literally be during the break from the Cruise to the summer theatre gig.  4 weeks long, April 23^rd – May 20^th. Yikes. If we both get cast there is no telling if we would even take it. We would love to be able to visit NYC and our families before the summer gig would start, but we’ll keep you all updated.