I Am The Queen of Hearts!

#queenofcoldhearts

To round out the year, there was a goodbye dinner with all of the globalinks students from all across Sydney. We met at the Art House downtown and had a great evening reconnecting with a lot of people we'd become friends with over the semester. I even met a fellow Ohio State student! It was about time. Our program coordinator also asked a few of us to give a small toast/roast about our university, and I was picked to do the one for Macquarie. On the train ride up, Courtney, Mary and I came up with what I was going to say, and it was a great time to reminisce about all the hilarious antics everyone had gotten themselves into over the semester. I came over with an eclectic and crazy group that never fails to make me laugh!

Globalinks!

After the dinner, I made my way down to Circular Quay to meet up with fellow cast members at Vivid! Vivid is a massive lights/image show in Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, and the Warf. It's put on in Winter as a way to get people into the city even when it's cold. The displays are on buildings, created especially for the event, and, my favorite, projected on the Opera House!

Vivid on the Opera House

It goes for over a week and is a must see. And I had the added bonus of getting a ride home in a car (literally, aussie friends are the best) and the double added bonus of getting quite the tour of the city as we got lost along the way. But we had so much FUN! :)

having FUN!

Wednesday of that week was student night and the first night of our second weekend of Alice! A huge group of my closest friends came to see me and we had a great audience (although I may be biased!).

Love you guys!

I had a lot of visitors that weekend support me in Alice, and I'm so grateful to each and every one of them. Having someone in the audience for me has always made my performances that much better while I'm on stage, and rewarding after the curtain closes.

Before the show

Intermission silliness

Post show shenanigans were as wonderful as ever, and I was even introduced to Cards Against Humanities (a welcomed change from more maccas!). I could not be more in love with my cast. Every day of the show meant endless hugs, laughs, and jokes, and every day without the show meant way too much time talking to each other on facebook. There's nothing quite like a cast that becomes a family.

Jo (Hare) and I <3

Friday morning I woke up bright and early to finish my two final papers before my parents arrived! I'd had something major due every day that week, on top of the show, and there were 4000 words between me and senior year! Luckily (for me at least!) my parents were delayed a couple of hours, so I finished just in time to rapidly clean my apartment and shower before they were ready to be picked up from their hotel! Alex was awesome enough to drive me over to get them, and then I took my parents on the grand tour of my apartment, the village, campus, and the Mac center. Before the show we stopped by the infamous party on the green in the village and I got to spend a few minutes with all the villagers I hadn't seen in ages.

Roomies! at the Green

Queen of Hearts Poster!

Emma doing my makeup

It was so nice to see my parents for the first time in almost four months! They seemed pretty jet lagged, but they were excited to see me as well. The best part was they were coming to see Alice that night (and the following two!). I LOVE having my parents in the audience. I have never been satisfied with a performance until I get their opinions on it. There is something about the supportive honesty they give that lets me know whether I'm actually any good or not.

Scarlett (Alice) and I with our Capes!

Emily, Daniel, Me, and Kathryn!

Each night my parents met more of my friends and were quite the hit, as the audience members to travel the longest distance! After the first show they were at I got a wonderful present- a big box of Buckeyes from Malleys Chocolate. I was ecstatic! Nothing like my parents bringing me a little taste of home. Friday night I also had friends from other uni's come to see the show!





On Saturday we went into town and visited the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium in Darling Harbour. The aquarium was excellent. I especially loved the dugongs, which are sort of like manatees. We then walked over to a nice place in Darling Harbour for dinner and I tried kangaroo for the first time--not bad! Soon enough it was time for me to head back to uni for another wonderful night of Alice, and another fantastic night after Alice!

Dugongs! So cute.

Sunday morning my parents and I ventured back into the city and they checked into their hotel for the second half of the week-- the Park Hyatt on Circular Quay. We then ventured to Glebe because I was keen to buy a necklace I'd been thinking about since I first saw it a month or so prior. It's Alice themed and quite lovely. However, when we got there I realised Glebe markets were only open on Saturdays. It was quite the fail considering the long trek I'd taken my parents on through the city on foot. We made the best of it, however, and got brunch at a local cafe before shopping in a few of the boutiques!

Emma in our "dressing room"

Scarlett and I

Closing night of Alice was that night, and I was terribly sad to see the show go. I'd spent the prior two weeks refusing to admit or talk about the fact that the show would come to an end. The end of Alice meant the end of Australia was following very closely afterwards. The show that night was amazing. Everyone was giving it their all, and leaving absolutely everything they had on the stage. We were playing off each other with a new sense of ease and the audience was eating it up.

I am the Queen of Hearts!

I certainly gave it my all, and as the final number was ending and we sang the last lyrics to the show "and now the tale is done" I sang to my director in the audience, and a few tears might've run down my face. Only to be increased as I peered through the curtains during bows and saw my parents give a standing ovation to each and every cast member. I could not believe they had come all this way just to see their baby girl on stage once again. I could not believe I was taking my last bow in the Lighthouse Theatre. I could not believe I was saying goodbye to the Queen of Hearts already.

Ashley and Josh came to see Alice!

Emma, and Todd and I goofing off

Alice became so much more than some show I auditioned for in some society I participated in while I was abroad. Alice became the family I will always have on the other side of the world. My cast spent countless rehearsals explaining everything Australian to me, bringing me new chocolates to try, and debating word pronunciations. They answered all of my questions, no matter how stupid, and always kept me giggling at theirs. They even all spent several hours trying to teach me how to phonetically say the word "no" the exact way Stevie says it. I finally did it, and ran around the theater saying "NO!" to everything like a 2 year old, to much congratulations.

#incharacter

 They gave me a space to really assimilate myself in, and become an honorary aussie (an-hon-aussie, as Stevie would say!). There is really something about theatre people that can not be beat. They're unlike any other group, and I've been so blessed to have been taken in by such a brilliant and kind cast. They all came into my journey at the perfect time, and going to rehearsals kept me moving and smiling even when life got tough this semester. Most of them will never know the extent their impact has had on me, but they all will know that anytime any of them is in the states to give me a call, because it can't be goodbye, only see you later.

After the show we did speeches and presents. I got a Queen of Hearts sweatshirt from Emma, quite a few wonderful cards, heart earbuds, and an awesome queen bracelet!

My new favorite sweatshirt! 

Next we went to Maccas (where else?) and then a cast members house to spend the night. We were up all night talking and laughing around the campfire, and I was soaking in all the in-jokes and show references I could. We woke up bright and early and had another maccas stop before going back to the theatre for bump-out. This is when we strike set and put the theater back together after the show.

After party

Then the goodbyes started... Emma, who became one of my best friends this semester, was leaving for holiday in London that evening, and stopped by the theater to say goodbye to me. I've said goodbye to tons of people since then, Americans and Australians, people I know I'll most likely never see again in this life, and people who I'll most likely see again in the states, but this first remains the hardest I've had to do.

Emma has driven me everywhere, been there to talk to at all hours of the day, and always knows the perfect playlist to put on no matter my mood. I can not believe someone I became friends with just a month before could already give me a look and it was like she'd just planted a novel into
my brain. True friends are few and far between, but thank goodness they exist around the world too. Somehow, as Stevie, Emma and I hugged for one last time, I knew we'd be together again. I don't know what country or what year it'll be, but to know it'll happen at some point is enough.

Love,

Queen Beth

Photo cred to Michael Twomey, Sophie Nyssen, Jo Finnis, Courtney Werner, Wayne Gross