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Grease on Broadway Forum -> Rydell High Forum -> Grease Academy One Year Ago!
Post Info TOPIC: Grease Academy One Year Ago!
Laura Mom


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Grease Academy One Year Ago!
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Grease Academy was taking place one year ago right now! It was very exciting in Minnesota for us but also challenging. Laura had to arrange for more time off from "Grease" here where she was perfroming in our large dinner theatre in Chanhassen and she felt very "pulled" by that. As a working performer, Laura is a very dependable and consciencious actor, and it was hard knowing she was asking a lot from the theatre and her cast mates. Luckily, they all were immensely behind her but it did cause them challenges to cover for her. At that theatre, when someone is away from the show, other actors change parts and it causes quite a domino effect down the line. The director of the show was later quoted as saying he knew right away that he was in trouble when Laura asked to go audition for GYTOTIW. He said he saw Laura as the perfect Sandy, "the real deal," and was certain he was going to have to find a replacement for her for the rest of the run here when she was going to make it into the final six for the TV show. How right he was! Nathan was also planning to ask Laura to marry him at Christmas time and since he asked us (her parents) first, we knew about it! We didn't know what to wish for! Laura had so much going for her here, but we knew too that she had a dream of making it to Broadway! This could really be her chance! We were totally excited and nervous for her and waited eagerly for any calls from her. They were so busy during the "Academy" that we did not get to talk to her often but heard midweek when the 50 were cut to 24 and she was still in! Then the big news, "Mom I made it! I made the final cut and I get to go on the TV show!" We were screaming and laughing and crying all at once! Little did we know just how fun and exciting the next 3-4 months were going to be! It was the most fun time I've ever had in my life! An adrenaline-filled, nervous, excited, ecstatic high that lasted 3 months! Go Laura! Thanks for the stunning memories!

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greatwhiteway


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What a wonderful memory, and thanks so much for sharing it, especially around the holiday season.

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shell8422


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Yes, I agree Thank you for sharing. It's amazing to think that all that happened just one year ago. Thank you so much for sharing so much of Laura with us all. What an exciting time it has been! I just came across this video of Laura on Broadway.com on "Ask a Star" I'm bad at finding new videos so this could be an old one, but still it's so much fun to watch, Laura did a great job answering the questions and just seems like an all around really nice girl.

http://www.broadway.com/Gen/Buzz_Video.aspx?ci=557796

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shell8422


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Oh and Jane, I love reading about how Laura and Nate met and the proposal and everything, it's just like a fairy tale!!!! soooo cute! I'm sure it's a great comfort to know that she has Nate with her.

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Eris


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I was just puttering around here doing random chores when I remembered this post and I thought about how not only how much the lives of the contestants and their families have changed but also those of the fans!

At this time last year I was working as an inside sales person for a plastics company in NJ. A mind numbing job where I dreaded coming to work each day for fear I would drive my pen through my eye just to end the drama and the monotony. It was so dog-eat-dog and this was a sales office of only three sales people! It was really horrible.

Then on January 2, 2007 an amazing thing happened. I was laid off. Now, most of you would see that as a bad thing but it was like getting paroled from jail. They let go of all of the sales people who had been with the company for more than a year. So it was me and one of my other co-workers left unemployed.

Again, some of you may still be thinking "poor Kristin" but if I don't lose my job I don't watch G: YTOTIW. I never get involved with the boards, I never go out to LA for live tapings (twice), and I never start that fundraiser for Meghan Spencer.

By the time Christmas rolled around I'd used up all of my vacation days on baseball trips to Seattle, California (SF/Anaheim/SD), and Cleveland. I was actually negative vacation days because I called out "sick" the day before I took the PRAXIS II (NJ's high school teacher's test. Which I passed but couldn't get certified by the state). So if I had been kept on at Total Plastics I wouldn't have had the time to fly out to LA for those two tapings.

Heck, I'd have never even watched the show! I have to be honest here for a moment - I never had ANY intention of watching the show. None...nada...zilch. The theatre snob in me thought it was a ridiculous way to cast a Broadway show. And I'm not into those other shows ei American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, etc.

So when the first episode aired I didn't watch. When the second episode aired I didn't watch. Didn't even watch the third episode.

Then, I was flipping through channels late one night looking for something to watch. I didn't have to get up the next day because I didn't have to be anywhere at 8am so I was taking the time to do laundry or some other mindless chore. And I came across a Bravo repeat of the first episode. After that came Grease Academy. Yes, they skipped the second episode and I didn't get to see Derek's audition until MUCH later lol.

By the time these two episodes ended I was pretty much hooked on the show and joined the message boards and all. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But, really...if I don't lose my job none of you get to know me. And your lives would be a little less full.

But really...I don't make any of the new friends that I've made since the show first aired. I don't have any of the wonderful experiences I've had because of the show.

Funny how these things work out. What was supposed to happen happened. There's a clear path as far as I can see *s*

-- Edited by Eris at 08:39, 2007-12-14

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"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney

"He took in the smell of the ballpark, he smiled.  He loved the ballpark, there were smells there that couldn't be found anywhere else."
Eris


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It's funny...at this time last year many of us were living, breathing, and eating G:YTOTIW. How little things have changed!

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"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney

"He took in the smell of the ballpark, he smiled.  He loved the ballpark, there were smells there that couldn't be found anywhere else."
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