Monday, December 28, 2015

The City So Nice They Named It Twice

I know he didn't invent the phrase, but that's how David Letterman always referred to his home city. I grew up on Letterman. (My parents raised me correctly.)



Summer after 7th grade, I was in a production of Annie (just like every other red-blooded, American musical theatre kid) and I've never been able to get this song out of my head since:


That moment where she sings, "NYC. Just got here this morning. Three bucks. Two bags. One me." I've always had a love affair with that line. I was never certain if it would actually be me though.

I didn't visit New York until Thanksgiving break my sophomore year of college. The King family either goes skiing or to Disney World. Those are your vacation options. (I have no issue with those options, by the way.) So I was 20, traveling alone for the first real time, going to see a best friend (thanks for choosing NYU, John). To say I was excited would be an understatement.


I was also able to visit the city again during my junior year where I got to see some of my Baylor Theatre professors perform off-Broadway in Craig Wright's newest play. 



Ok, so don't hate me, but when I visited New York City...

...I didn't fall in love with it.


There's this pressure on "theatre kids" in the US to be in love with New York. And I just...wasn't.

Then I studied abroad with Baylor Theatre one summer, spent five days in London, and immediately recognized that feeling I was supposed to have for NYC. That joy of just *being* in a city- reveling in its culture, its history- hell, even its public transport.

Why yes, I will mind the gap.
I felt all of that so strongly for London. Strong enough that studying, living, acting in London became a big time dream of mine.


(Even with the possibility of pedestrian death eater attacks)

Well, we all know how that went. (In case you're new here, may I present the last two years of my blog. Happy reading. Absolutely no apologies for all the dad jokes.)

So what do you do after fulfilling a lifetime dream? Where do you go when you have to leave your favorite city on earth?


New York City very quickly become the only contender. I had a showcase here that went well, my best friends from East 15 (and some from Baylor) are here, I was able to find an apartment in a great location with amazing roommates, I've now officially found a job that lets me still audition. Overall things have fallen into place pretty well. Honestly, it feels a lot like how London happened. Filled with grace. Providential. All those things.

A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on

Plus...I get to live here. (Well, not here, as in the top of 30 Rock, but hereish.)

Am I in love with New York yet? Talk to me after winter. For now, we're definitely in a monogamous relationship and it's even met half of my parents (my mom came up for a quick visit and to be reassured that my apartment is actually very safe). So I'd say we're on the road to a good, solid relationship. I'm playing the long game here.


To Liz Lemon and all the other empowered females in this city (fictional or otherwise),



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Monday, August 31, 2015

Ed Fringe

So our magical month in Edinburgh has just wrapped. I would have loved to do more blogging during the actual festival, but sometimes it's better to just live life and not worry so much about documenting it, you know? That being said, this August was one of the best four weeks of my life. Let me fill you in on some of the details:

Like...reviews of the show?






As a first time company, we were over the moon to receive three different four star reviews for Reconciling. We knew we had a great show on our hands and were proud of what we'd brought no matter what, but it'd be a lie to say we didn't appreciate the validation. Plus it's a hella lot easier to get people to take a chance on new writing when they see stars papered over your posters and stapled to your flyers. We did a lot of stapling of stars. And we loved it. :)


Speaking of social media, here's some more of our filtered and hashtagged journey:







A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on



A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on




A photo posted by @jojoginn on

A photo posted by @wakeandshake on

A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on

A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on





A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on




Of course it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. It's an exhausting month, but I don't think I could have asked for a better group of people to go through it with. I love these guys with all my heart. The things they've done for me. It's hard to wrap my brain around it.




For those many family and friends back in America that didn't get to see Reconciling, our wonderfully talented friend Aslam came and took some production shots for us right before we left. Check out his great website here: Aslam Husain photography. Here are some of my faves!









My heart and mind are honestly too fried at this point to write any kind of poignant wrap-up of the whole experience. So instead, here a list.

Through Ed Fringe, we-

-successfully produced our first two shows.
-made some great friends doing theatre in different pockets of the globe.
-experienced support from our classmates and professors like no other.
-climbed an extinct volcano. (Arthur's Seat- look it up.)
-killed many a tree with our flyers. (really sorry about that, trees)
-saw some seriously AMAZING theatre.
-saw some seriously not-so-amazing theatre. (that is a true #edfringe experience)
-spent a month acting opposite lifelong friends.
-slept far too little and were the better for it.
-closed a fantastic first chapter of The Barrington Collective.

In other news, I leave London for the states in about 40 hours.

To the pieces of my heart I'm leaving behind all over the UK,


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Monday, July 27, 2015

MFA & Such

It happened. I wore a sweet hood, walked across a stage, shook some old dude's hand, got a fancy piece of paper. (It was awesome.)

A photo posted by Jenny King (@jkitsmejenny) on


My parents, y'all. Seriously ace. 

My dad has this thing that he always makes a seal noise whenever he gets a chance to applaud for me. Dance competitions, curtain calls, piano recitals - I've heard this "ORK ORK" over the crowd for decades now. It was pretty cool to get to tap my ear in response as I headed off that graduation stage.

My parents were also able to see a run through of Reconciling while they were here. 

I was maybe just a bit nervous?

Luckily - they loved it. 

(evidently this is a Michael Scott gif post now)

The next few days were filled with sightseeing/tour-guiding with the parentals, rehearsing for our #EdFringe previews, and moving into yet another temporary home. Lots of change, lots of upheaval, lots of transitional elements outside of Jenny's control which...hmm, how do I deal with that again?




However much I'd like to throw an adult-sized tantrum, the reality is this is the season I'm in. Transitional. The next three to six months feature a Jenny without a permanent home or plan. And that's ok. I just have to keep repeating that to myself.


I know that because it's such a struggle means that there's probably some important growth and learning happening in the mix. (Actually, I'm sure of it.) It's a life-long lesson to learn you're not in control. I do get that. I've just been thrown a whole new set of data and I'm just not sure what to do with it.

So until then, I'll look at things like this on the internet to make me feel better.

I'll tell you another thing that makes me feel better. I gave my parents my tour of the British Museum while they were here. The British Museum is one of my absolute favorite places in London - you could spend a whole day in there looking at all the priceless treasures the mighty British empire stole from across the world.

(It's just the truth)

Anywho, I get them into the Parthenon room where there are actual sculptures and reliefs from one of the most important and recognized buildings in all of human history. (Again...not in Greece for some reason.) My dad got emotional and then made my mom and me emotional (the King family does emotional really well). See, Dad's favorite verses in the Bible are Paul's speech to the Areopagus in Acts 17. Paul said these words in the shadow of the very pieces that surrounded us. Beautiful and intricate art - their best work dedicated to their gods. And this is what Paul boasted to them-

Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

The stuff in the British Museum will easily take your breath away. Heck, I'd get married in the Enlightenment Gallery.


But hearing my dad recite those words in front of those beautiful pieces of history was priceless. This art is just the imagination of man. It's seriously great. But it's ultimately stone. God does not dwell there.

Whatever plans there are for me, they are astronomically bigger than my imagination on its best day. I don't mean that to say, "God's gonna make me a movie star" or anything like that. I think I just mean that He knows better. That's what all my control issues come down to, right? Trusting enough to say- You know better. You, that aren't served by human hands. You, that give all mankind life and breath and everything. You know better.

Now. I'm not saying I'm doing that all that well at this right now, but you know- at least I'm aware?

Here's the timeline of my situation. I leave for Edinburgh in less than a week. After a fantastic and furious month up in Scotland, I head back down to London for a precious few days before flying back to the States. I will not put 'permanently' on the end of that sentence because I refuse to believe that. But truly- my home city will be changing very soon. Dwelling on that sends me back into my King family emotional place.

Michael understands.

I think now that Dr. Seuss was wrong when he said, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." I will definitely smile- a lot. But I'll also cry. A lot. 

And there's nothing wrong with that.

To transitions,



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Sunday, July 5, 2015

28

This past Wednesday, I officially entered my late-twenties. You'd think that would freak me out more, but I have bigger fish to fry.

(In the above gif, I am playing the part of Ellie Goulding and my problems are playing the part of the offscreen target that I'm not looking at, but hopefully will still hit because dang that's a missile launcher.)

I say problems when I really mean something more along the lines of "exciting challenges to tackle and conquer." These include my continuing journey with The Barrington Collective to #edfringe this August, followed by a showcase in NYC with Drama UK, and then a figuring-out of where my life is heading...geographically, financially, and all those other -llys.

So here's where I should list some goals for 28, right? 


Yeah, see because of the nature of the coming year (shall we say...a bit uncertain?) I don't feel the need to tie myself down to specific expectations. There a few specific things I want: have a great Ed Fringe run, solid showcase performances, a JOB. There are bigger, less concrete things: to love God, to live in bravery, to be "successful."

But instead of putting a list together here, I think I'll just leave some inspiration. A few gifts from the internet that will put the coming 52 weeks into perspective. Let's begin, shall we?


(doesn't need to be July 4th for this to motivate)















That's a start, I think.

To not freaking out over aging,


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