Guest Blogger: Monica Furman

As artists, actors, and overall human beings, we receive rejection all the time. But how we deal with rejection...that's an art. Rejection 101 isn't taught in any major perhaps because it cannot be defined or streamlined. Everyone deals with rejection differently. I asked a few artists that I look up to how they deal with rejection, in hopes that their methods inspire me to try something new:

If you've been living under a theatrical rock, you may have missed the Ghostlight Project, a national movement to pledge or reaffirm diversity and equity initiatives by artistic communities that launched on January 19, 2017.

Content warning: This article describes art about sexual assault.

Ah, New Year's Resolutions. I make these every year and I dread them every year, mostly because I know the lifespan of these promises might not outlive the month of January. However, this year, I am taking a different approach. Maybe it's because I'm smack dab in the middle of senior year and I'm really feeling that 'transitional life change' crisis, but I've been getting really inspired lately. For 2017, I'm creating artistic New Year's Resolutions where, if I (hopefully) complete them, the principle of each can translate to 'real life' (whatever that is).

This week has been a lot of schoolwork and rehearsals (the usual). So, I decided to interview one of my favorite humans who happens to also be in the theatre. LeeAnn Dowd was the first Chapman person I met; it was during the summer before my freshman year in NYC while she was interning. We instantly hit it off and she even came to one of our shows! During my freshman year I looked at LeeAnn, a senior at the time, as a role model; she started Cross the Line with another senior, Sierra Stenzel, the club that I'm leading now. Our outlook on theatre was very similar. We also went on to do ASTEP's Artist as Citizen Conference together, which was an incredible experience for us to share. Even though LeeAnn has graduated and moved to San Francisco, we still keep in touch and she graciously let me interview her for the blog. Hope you enjoy getting to know a recent post-grad perspective!

Hey. It's been a while. And yet, three weeks seemed to have flown by. I guess that's senior year. Between homework, rehearsals, and work, I haven't been able to set aside enough time to write down my thoughts. But here we are, so let's do this.

The first two weeks of fall semester were nothing compared to the heavy-hitter that was the third. I found myself (*gasp*) actually having to put in homework hours at the library, at home, and in rehearsal spaces; the semester had finally begun.

This semester, I am enrolled in two theatre classes--Shakespeare II and Business of Acting. For the latter, we have a workshop-style class every Friday where we discuss our preparations for our BFA Showcase and post-grad plans, as well as meet with industry experts. This week, we met with a Los Angeles casting director who spoke about the importance of being professional, which is what sparked this blog post.

I am now a week into senior year. Between beginning-of-the-year meetings, office hours, and work-study it's been...calm. I enjoy the routine of school and it's something I will miss.

This summer, I've been getting a lot of texts from friends visiting New York asking, 'Monica! How do I get cheap tickets to insert show name ?' Actually, I get these texts pretty much all year round. My parents have even been sending me the contact information of their friends who want to know where to get discounted theatre tickets. In lieu of sending everyone lists that I have to text, I will now be sending everyone who asks a link to this blog post, where I have compiled a comprehensive list of my favorite resources and methods for getting theatre tickets on a budget in NYC as well as Orange County/Los Angeles and even Chicago.

Well, not really. It's the last summer--before I graduate college.