Things are happening here in Chicago

I’m pretty long overdue for some updates from the Windy City, so here they are! 

Back at the end of May, I packed up most of my things in Florida and sent them away on a moving truck to Chicago. In early June, my possessions and I were reunited at the funny apartment in Roscoe Village where we now reside. “Funny” because this ground floor unit clearly used to be a storefront of some sort that was connected to the other rooms and thus converted into the space it is now, which is part of what I love about it. (Unfortunately, technically not all of my things and I have been reunited yet as I still have boxes to unpack.)

With little idea what I was going to do with my life in my new city (besides continuing to sell Jamberry, shameless plug), I have logged lots of hours auditioning and applying to jobs and wasting time on the internet trying to find jobs and looking at jobs that weren’t a good fit and stressing over cover letters and fine-tuning the millionth adjusted version of my resume, etc.

Luckily, the auditioning landed me in The History of Alcohol in Chicago at the Public House Theatre, and we were in rehearsals for our comedic look back in time before the end of June.

Jump ahead to now when I can happily say that my first Chicago show is on its feet, playing Sundays at 7pm through September 27. It’s a silly fun show that features sketch-style scenes based on events from Chicago’s past, like the Lager Beer Riot and Prohibition, paired with trivia drinking games. Come see it and have a drink with me if you’re in town!

Not long after our first rehearsals for The History of Alcohol in Chicago, I embarked on my first day ever on a network television set… a day that started by waking up at 3 o’clock in the morning in order to actually make it to the set of Empire by the 4:45 a.m. call.

Despite being very prepared with outfit choices and being asked to change again when the costume designers looked over all the extras as a group, when we finally got bussed out to the shooting location hours later, I ended up back on the bus to the main set location to completely change once more. The costume change was a good thing though, since it was happening because I had been one of the handful of extras selected by director Lee Daniels to populate the VIP section of the concert we would be filming. That meant heading back so costuming could scramble to find looks for us newly-minted VIPs (since we as extras had only been instructed to bring outdoor festival concert attire). I spent much of the rest of the day back at the outdoor location sinking into the grass in costuming’s stilettos, but it means you may actually see glimpses of me behind some of the stars of the show at the concert in the season two premiere on September 23rd. (I did a second day of filming for another scene in the first episode too, so definitely keep yours eye peeled for me if you watch the return of Empire!)

With that we move from the news of what has happened and is happening to the upcoming!

At the end of July, I got the news from The Second City Training Center that based on my audition I’d been invited to join their Conservatory program. More updates on that to come after orientation and the start of classes in less than a week!

The last report I have for this update is that I’ve been cast in the upcoming Chicago Kids Company production of Beauty and the Beast. The writers are still working on this original musical adaptation of the classic fairytale, so I don’t know the full details of my role yet, but I’m really excited to be doing theatre for young audiences again and will report back in October once rehearsals are underway for our October 30th opening day.

Thanks for keeping up with me and my Chicago shenanigans!

— Shannon