Making some changes

I'm not a New Years resolution kinda gal. I get the point, but how effective are they really? Occasionally someone actually quits smoking or goes to the gym a little more for a few weeks, but generally these good intentions fizzle out into a cloud of disappointment, defeat, and self-deprecation. Also, I don't particularly believe that one should wait until a particular date to make needed changes in their lives. If you want to make change, start NOW!

So at any rate, all that said, I was inspired by this little thing that this cool chick named Amy is doing over at her equally cool website, Rocketwife. She made a list of 101 goals she wants to accomplish in 1001 days. She put them all up on her website, and she's kicking butt and taking names while she crosses each one of them out.

See, that's very industrious of her. I'm inspired, but not enough to make a list of 101 things. I can barely tie my shoes in the morning. I'm all about acknowledging some goals that I need to set and documenting the act of holding myself accountable, however. And that's exactly what I intend to do on this here little patch of the blogosphere (I kind of hate that word, but it captures the essence of geography that I'm trying to convey).

So first goal: to familiarize myself with two new shows a month for a year. It's not particularly a secret that I'm a bad musical theatre artist. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until that statement becomes a false one. There are a few different ways one can introduce themselves to new work:

*Performing/producing a show
*Going to see a live performance
*Buying the soundtrack

I music direct between 3 and 5 shows in a year (by year's end I will have music directed 4 shows... hopefully I'll pick up the pace again in 2009), and sometimes those are shows with which I'm already familiar. Needless to say, I'm not going to learn 24 new (to me) shows by June of 2009 just by showing up to rehearsal. And I often don't have the time to see even most of the stuff out there in live performance. That means I'm going to have to start building up my iTunes library with some musical theatre.

I've already started! A friend of mine told me about a year ago how much I would love this piece comprised of four people, four stools, and a piano called [Title of Show]. I kind of dismissed it, until a few days ago after I had seen enough e-mails pop into my inbox about this piece that my curiosity was whetted. And I did just see Candide the other day, so by all accounts I appear to be on track. As far as [...Show] is concerned, I'll let you know what I think... and keep you updated on my quest to become a more knowledgeable musical theatre artist.

And please, feel free... indebted... whatever... to send me suggestions if you see/hear of shows you think I should know about.

E-mail me at underwood.tiffany [at] gmail [dot] com.