Hey y’all!

It’s been a few years since I was in TRaC (I’m now a rising senior at gorgeous Vassar College, pursuing a B.A. in Urban Studies and Drama), but being in the city over the summer has made me think a lot about TRaC and High 5, so I figured I’d check in! (To all of you that are still in high school and/or a teenager – seriously, take advantage of the awesome High 5 Tickets while you can! Trust me, you’ll grow tired of having to beg your little sister to join you so you don’t have to pay twenty bucks to get into the Guggenheim. 😉 )

Basically, this blog post is just an excuse for me to talk about a couple random things that have come about (or almost come about) thanks to TRaC. First off, my TRaC session was taught by playwright Karen Hartman, who to this day I remember facilitated some of the coolest interactions between high school students and working actors (and I went to a performing arts high school, so that’s saying something). From an after show talkback with actress Marin Ireland after the Broadway performance of Neil LaBute’s Reasons to be Pretty, to a roundtable discussion with playwright, actress and singer extraordinaire Eisa Davis (Angela Davis’s niece), I remember our talks being laid back and super interesting.

During my sophomore year at Vassar, a friend of mine was stage managing a student production of Bulrusher, (coincidentally) by none other than… Eisa Davis. For some reason I really can’t remember, I was unable to catch the show, but to this day drama majors at my school bring up how amazing the set was – literally, a riverbed inside of our small student-run black box theater. Having told my friend I had actually met Eisa and might be able to put them in contact with one another, I emailed Karen, who forwarded my message to Eisa, who was set to come watch the show until something popped up last minute. A shame it didn’t work out in the end, but it was still awesome to correspond directly with such an amazing artist such a long time after “graduating” TRaC.

As for another High 5 related story, on my 18th birthday, I decided to celebrate with my family by picking up a few High 5 tickets to the New York Neo Futurist’s Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. As a result, two years later, I am still volunteering to box office manage for them every chance I get (I’m telling y’all, their Pride Week show should not be missed, it’s epic).

Anyways, I promise college makes you a better writer than this; I’m just terrible at being concise. In terms of what I’ve been up to since TRaC but on a totally unrelated note – bake bread every week. I’m telling you. If you’re starting college, join/start a chapter of Challah for Hunger at your school. 😉 Plug ended. Peace (& Art, & Challah, foreva).

~Julia

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This blog post is the first in an ongoing series featuring High 5 and TRaC Alumni. If you’re an alumn and you’d like to participate, email a 200 – 500 word write up about your life after High 5 (and a large picture!) to TRAC@high5tix.org. The blog posts should generally follow this format: What arts were you into in high school? What has you life been life after TRaC/High5? Where are you now? What are you up to? What are your goals? Lessons learned? Funny stories? Feel free to self-promote and drop hyperlinks to your websites, current projects, school, Tumblr page, favorite Kickstarter project, whatever!