Well well well, look who it is...... me. It's me, writing on my own blog. What the hell am I doing back here? Seeing as it's been over a year since my last post, I thought it might be time for a little visit.

Not sure if I can really summarize the past year in a nutshell, but - tour ended and was INCREDIBLE every step of the way, came back to LA to my boyfriend and my cat and dog and my friends, booked a few lines on a couple TV shows, auditioned a lot, booked some shows, and decided to write a blog post. Yep, that's what's up.

It was so bittersweet to close American Idiot. As I said the other day on my facebook page, each and every Idiot changed my life. The cast and crew became another new family, people I know I can feel at home with any time I see them. Every single person that come to the show and enjoyed it or didn't enjoy it or came to the stage door to say hey or get photos or just be weird with us were so so cool. My family, sorry guys but you became Idiots too and I love you for it. There was one show in San Francisco that my dad brought I think 16 people to come see it and I gave them all a backstage tour afterword. I'm not even sure I was allowed to do it but who cares, it was awesome. I really hope it doesn't bother people around me too much when I reminisce about the show because it's probably never going to leave my bloodstream.

And what else? Well I was someones #WomanCrushWednesday on twitter a while ago so that was new and fun. The play I'm understudying in - The Boomerang Effect - closes next weekend and if all goes according to plan I should have one more performance. It's been great working on a straight play for the first time since probably when I did A Midsummer Night's Dream, I must have been about 15 or 16. Summer has been slow and relaxing but it seems as if the auditions are starting to pick up again for episodic season as well as a bunch of musical projects I'm excited about. As a matter of fact I have a callback for one this Monday! When I went in for the audition a few days ago I chatted with the casting director about American Idiot a little first, then sang for about 10 seconds before he stopped me and said that he was going to call me back. It's not often that that happens, I've only had that happen to me a couple times before, but when it does it's a huge boost of confidence! I'm so thrilled to go in for the creative team on Monday.

I think that was a pretty good recap, yeah? In closing I'll leave you with this video of me and my best friend Katherine. It's called Song Time, but it's less about the songs and more about how weird we are together, about an hour of us condensed into 7 minutes of the good stuff. You'll find a little bit of singing in there, and even some sound relationship advice. Enjoy. I love you.

Song Time with Katherine And Nicci

Your Questions Answered...

Ladies at our opening night in Minneapolis

Has it truly been nearly two months since I last blogged? I felt like I had made a promise to myself  - maybe even to my readers - that I'd blog more, and now I've gone and done the opposite. Or maybe I didn't make that promise. It's been so long, I can't even remember.


We've made it all the way to State College, Pennsylvania by way of Toronto, Detroit, Boston, Raleigh, Chicago, and Minneapolis. To sum it up briefly: Toronto was cooooold but we had a lot of fun; Detroit was much more friendly than we had expected; Boston was so cool to explore and had great food; Raleigh was nice and relaxing; Chicago was wonderful and I had my first real deep dish pizza there; and Minneapolis was confusing with it's skyway but gave us some of the best audiences yet! Now we're in the  home of Dan Gleason's alma mater. We opened to a pretty big but polite crowd on Tuesday, and last night we had a great, loud audience for closing. That's right, only two shows and now we're off to St. Louis!


To help me get the ball rolling, I asked people on twitter if there was anything they wanted to know, so here we go...


@cgtheatregeek - "What are your fav and least fav parts about being on the road all the time?"
   + I love being able to travel to so many places I've never been before, and I'm a big foodie so I love to see what the local favorites are! Least favorite part would maybe be living out of a suitcase and trying to keep it under 50 lbs. It's also tricky to eat well sometimes, depending on the area we're staying.


@whatsername43 - "favorite things about the tour and playing extraordinary girl :D"
   + The company I keep is one of my favorite things about tour. Cast, crew, everyone... all so cool. My favorite thing about playing Ex Girl is probably that once I "become" her, I get to take a little break backstage! The first half of my show is dance/sweat/sing/sweat more. It's nice to finally take a breather after I fly.


@alyson_leonard - "Have there been any big stand-out moments for you that have happened while on tour? What has been your favorite stop so far?"
   + There have been a couple not so great stand-out moments involving flying... I guess it can get weird  going from city to city, dealing with different power sources and new dressers. There was one time in maybe Boston (?) when Scott's mic fell off his head and I somehow got it back on to a degree, I felt like a hero :) And last week we had a huge fiasco... for anyone who saw the Sunday matinee on the 26th, just know that you didn't see, or hear for that matter, what the flight was intended to be.
   On that note, there have been lots of great stand-out moments as well! On our travel day out of Raleigh, all the girls decided to dress like "elegant ladies". We got some interesting looks at the airport. Being on TV for the new year's eve celebration in Canada as soooo much fun! Looking out over Chicago from the Willis Tower was really incredible. Lots of good moments so far.
   I've liked different thing about each city we've been to, but I'd say that so far Chicago may have been my favorite stop so far because...


@NikkiRandom1 - "how it was being in Chicago & what was your favorite thing being in Chicago for the 2 weeks?"
   + ...One, we were there for more than a week! I actually got to unpack my suitcase and have a whole free day. Also, my boyfriend was able to be there for a few days including Valentines day <3 and we got to explore together. And also, deep dish pizza!


@armedwithlysol - "...how do you feel about fangirl stalkers at your shows?"
   + Haha, I love talking to fans after the shows! 
@armedwithlysol - "Please also finally confirm the cast vote for best deep dish Chicago pizza. What's the best thing you ate on tour?"
   + I don't know about the whole cast, but I dined at Lou Malnati's and Pizzeria Due (because Pizzeria Uno was too packed) and I'd have to say that while Due was nice, The "Lou" at Lou Malnati's has my vote. Wow. Wow. Like, really.
@armedwithlysol - "Legit: How'd your pilot audition go? How do you find time to audition on the road? Also, how do you guys choose roomies?"
   + The audition went great! My manager in Los Angeles got me the audition, it was just lucky that they happened to have a big casting office in Chicago. Several other people from the cast auditioned for the project as well! 
   As for roommates, most of the cast opts to have their own room, but once in a while Krystina, Jillian and I will choose to room together for a little extra per diem. Sometimes it's every other city, it just kind of happens. 


@IdiotOnTourFan - "So much has happened since your last post, would love to hear some highlights! What's a typical day like?"
   + A typical day... generally most of us sleep in, then get some food. Maybe a trip to the gym for the muscle twins (Vince and Dan), and maybe a little exploring, more eating, often a lot of relaxing. We get to the theatre an hour before showtime (plus 15 mins for whoever is doing flight call) to warm up and get ready, do the show, then have dinner and sometimes go out for drinks.


@evan71788 - "can we get a video please?"
   + As a matter of fact, I'm working on one now, I'll put it up as soon as it's done :)


Well that was fun! I love answering questions you guys have so keep 'em coming. And I mean it this time, I will try to blog more often!!

I was sore last week. I've been bruised almost every day. I've gone through Lorin Latarro's and Steven Hoggett's warm-ups. But today was the first real day of fatigue.

I think it was pretty much across the board a rough day for everyone. As Talia put it, a kryptonite day. I could tell by the end of the warm up that my body wanted to say "no" already. Just absolute fatigue, and all we had done were some sit ups, stretches, and galloping across the floor.

Luckily we started by blocking We Are The Waiting which is pretty low key. Phew. But being so low key, it didn't take long until it was in our bodies and we moved on to Novocaine. What a song. There's definitely a lot going on in different story lines, but this is where a group of us had to throw our bodies around the stage, flopping like very precise fish all over the ground. We're supplied with knee pads for whenever we want to use them, but by the end of the day my knees were still stinging.

And it wasn't just because of Novocaine but because right after that we did St. Jimmy. That's a lot of flopping around in a different drug-crazed-like way, more being on our hands and knees. I love the choreo/staging/whatever you want to call it. It's precise and hard hitting and looks great but man oh man... it's a beast! I get the feeling it can only get better from here though. I'm definitely not feeling the soreness that I was last week, and through I'm getting more bruises the big ones are fading and I'm figuring out ways to try and prevent getting more. I really would love to get my hands on a measuring tape or scale and see what awesome damage these rehearsals have done :)

Although it's not written on our schedule for tomorrow, I get the feeling we're going to do a run of everything we've learned so far tomorrow. That means from the top of the show through... Give Me Novocaine. That means we've learned half of the show in a week, plus bits of other things we'll string together later. I'd say that's pretty good! And I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be spending every day with learning this stuff. I had a good feeling about what I was getting into during fly week - the five other people were so easy to be around and ready to help each other. That was definitely a preview of what everyone else would be like. I could gush about everyone but you'll learn soon enough how amazing they all are.

Two final things: One, if you haven't already you should check out Kelvin's blog. He cracks me up and speaks the truth!

And two: BJA's email to the cast. I'm keeping the "Ps" a secret.... for now

Last Day Before The Adventure

You have no clue how many times I start writing an entry here and then get busy and it turns into nothing . I apologize. I know you're dying to hear how things are going in my world...

The truth is that things are good but exciting stuff just comes in little bursts. I really should write about them when they happen, because it's mainly emails with bits of information about the tour. I really could put all of my updates into one post - which I will attempt right now:

I've received several emails. Mainly flight itineraries and housing options. I also got an email yesterday about what clothes to wear for the FOY training. The cast list was announced a few days before Halloween and because of it I for a bunch more twitter followers and a couple more fans on my facebook professional page. I'm also friends with a few of my fellow cast members on facebook! As a matter of fact, I found out through one of them that we were responsible for finding our own housing for the rehearsal period in New York, so my dear friend Lauren whom I've mentioned here before has offered up her couch for me to stay on for three weeks.

I'm all packed already. I've actually been packed for a week now - my bff Katherine is subletting my room at my place and her lease was up at the end of October so for the first week of November she stayed with her boyfriend and this past week I've stayed with mine. It's worked out well because I've had a week to figure out what I don't need in my suitcase and I can just drive up the street and drop it off at my place. In total I have about 70 lbs. between my two suitcases. Given, one of the suitcases itself weighs 10 lbs. But that will be a lot to haul around when in New York.

Not sure if I've mentioned it yet, but my sister is moving to Los Angeles the very same week I'm getting to NY. I'll arrive on a Friday and go to her going away party, we'll stuff ourselves with meatballs and lobster rolls on Saturday, and then she's leaving on Sunday for a road trip to California. So there's that.

As for the present, it's my last day in California before the adventure begins. I'm still in bed and I can smell the brisket that's cooking next door - that's my big plans for today. Brisket for dinner. Nils' neighbor is a master at the grill and there's not much more I'd like to do today than spend time with people I like and eat some good food. It's been four long months that I've been waiting to get going on this and it's finally here! I'm mainly excited, a little nervous, but so ready. I'll be sure to blog more often - no really! I will! If you were aware of this blog when I was doing RENT in Alabama you'd know that I was blogging at least once or twice a week. If I'm not completely exhausted, you can expect that again.

So here we go!