Happy New Year!

Hello, everyone!

Hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and first couple days of 2016! Unfortunately, I experienced a very rocky start to my New Year, but I am getting back on track. I think concentrating my efforts into AYAA will help me work through some of the sadness that came into my life recently.

In any case, I have one interview lined up and will be posting the second post in our job's in theatre series today. However, I just wanted to give a little update about what my plans are for the rest of the year in regards to the website.

Part 1: Continuing Things

• Interviews: I will continue to conduct interviews with young actors around the Valley. These have by far been the most popular posts on the website, so it would clearly be prudent to keep doing them. The next interview released will be from Asher Sheppard, but then besides a few people who I have been waiting for a couple months to hear back from, I don't have anyone else lined up. I will be looking for new people to interview, so if you or someone you know would make a great interview subject (kids and adults!), please feel free to e-mail me at mackenna.azyoungactors@gmail.com or message me through the AYYA Facebook page or my personal page.
• Bedroom Sessions: Thank you to Becca Webb and Sarah Davidson for sharing their talents with us last year. For more information on Bedroom Sessions, info can be found on Becca Webb's submission. If you are interested in submitting a Bedroom Session, e-mail it to me at mackenna.azyoungactors@gmail.com.
• Reviews of Shows: Thank you to Sarah Davidson for sending a review in last year. If you see a show and write a review -- I know a lot of my friends write reviews for theatre classes as school; send them to me! -- e-mail that to me at mackenna.azyoungactors@gmail.com
• Guest posting: Again, thank you to my absolute rockstar Sarah Davidson for her guest post about being in the ensemble last year. A few people expressed interest in being guest poster to me, but I never received entries from them. :( A guest post can be anything as long as it is theatre related. Send them to me at mackenna.azyoungactors@gmail.com. (How many times will I type that e-mail in this post? Who's to say??)
• Auditions + Current Shows: I have been terrible at updating these pages (boo me!) but I will 100% do a better job of that this year.

Part 2: New Things

• Dream Casts: This idea came to me, as if in a dream. I remember sometime either last year or in 2015, there was a big fad going around Facebook where you would get assigned to created a dream cast for a show. I loved that, so I want to to them on this site in two ways:
• Self-submitted: If you have a dream cast for a show, send it to me at mackenna.azyoungactors@gmail.com or via Facebook. MUST BE WITH VALLEY ACTORS, NOT BROADWAY HUMANS.
• Facilitated by me: I will be reaching out to 4-5 actors/actresses periodically. I will give each of them the same show and see the diverse ways they cast the show. I will only be able to ask you if you are friends with me on my personal Facebook. Same thing, it will be with Valley actors, not people on Broadway.
• End of the Year Awards: I introduced this idea in my initial letter opening the website. Starting on June 1st, I will be accepting nominations for a student-run youth theatre awards. I know some people are kind of wah-wah about these group vote awards because of the issues with the Broadway World awards, but I am very militant about being fair and organized, so I hope they will run better. The awards will range from typical ones like Best Musical, Best Director to more fun, silly-goose ones, like Most Likely to Fall in Love with Elf or Most Likely to Kill of a Bunch of People in Hopes of Becoming the Primary Heir to a Family Fortune. More info about that will come in May!
• My other pipe dream: I really would like to do some sort of cabaret with young actors and actresses from the Valley during the summer, but I just don't know how possible that will be. 
• Reviews from me: I realized that I see a lot of shows around the Valley, so I will also start posting my own reviews of shows I see.

Thank you all for participating in the website over the last year and let's make it another great year for youth theatre! Any questions, comments, or concerns can be sent to me via e-mail (mackenna.azyoungactors@gmail.com) or on Facebook.

♥Mackenna Goodrich