Taylor Underwood

Actor ~ Singer ~ Dancer ~ Writer

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Artist Anxiety

'A New York City transplant tries to overcome her loneliness with her art, but learns that judging her artistic abilities will only lead to her eventual coll...

Here is my physical theatre piece ‘Artist Anxiety’ that I created and performed back in September 2017.

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The Miser - Presented by New York Film Academy's 2nd Year Students

In the second year of New York Film Academy's Acting for Film Conservatory program the students put on a production for family and friends. This year the stu...

Here is the full performance of the New York Film Academy’s Two-Year Acting for Film Program’s ‘The Miser’ done in September 2017 directed by Amy Van Horne.

Starring:

Elizabeth Pickering Hopland as Harpagon

Lawrence Blake as Cleante

Taylor Underwood as Elise

Angez Hedwall Schmidt as Valere

Abigail Wilson as Maryanne and Master Simon

Jamel Anderson as La Fleche, Chief of Police, and Count Anselme

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During the second year of New York Film Academy’s Two-Year Acting for Film Program the student take a class called Stage-To-Screen. Where in the third semester they put on a classic play. In September of 2017 my classmates and I put together ‘The Miser’ written by Moliere and directed by Amy Van Horne. 

At the beginning of the semester we had a teacher, Luis Vega, who had to leave us for an acting job. It took two weeks before the school brought in Amy Van Horne to direct us. We were Amy’s first class with NYFA and we fell in love with her. We are so happy we were able to work with her during our third semester.

During the fourth semester we had a screenplay written by Andrew Mendez that was every so loosely based on ‘The Miser’ entitled ‘Strongbox.’ We then filmed the screenplay and previewed it at our graduation in January 2018. Currently they are finishing up editing and we shall have the finished short film soon.

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In addition to creating a solo piece for the physical theatre performed at the New York Film Academy we also put together an ensemble piece. We performed ‘America Hurrah - Interview’ written by: Jean-Claude Van Itallie. Directed again by Paul Warner. 

Each student played several different characters. And because of how this play is written there is no context and each actor needs to create a different character and circumstances for each. And each student had one or more monologues to perform during the thirty minute play. I performed two monologues during this show. One I said simultaneously with my good friend and classmate Agnez Hedwall Schmidt. Agnez and I work together very often so luckily we were able to get it together before show night.

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During the third semester of New York Film Academy’s Two-Year Acting for Film the students put together a physical theatre piece. Physical Theatre is so incredibly hard and takes years to put together a complete piece. We students had sixteen weeks. During these weeks we put together two different pieces. One an ensemble piece with the six students and one where each student created a solo piece after observing a random person in New York City. 

My piece came about after watching a man on the Staten Island Ferry for 30 minutes. Weeks of work went by and I had created my solo piece entitled ‘Artist Anxiety.’ My piece turned into a story about a young New York City transplant striving to do well as an artist in New York, but realizing that if she continuously looks for absolute validation it will lead to her destruction.

I loved creating and performing this piece and thanks to the incredible Paul Warner I was able to put together this piece. Paul pushed me so hard while I was working this. (I will have a video of this performance soon.)

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Finding Even More Compassion Within Myself

Over the past couple of weeks I have experienced something that I never wanted to and it has humbled me greatly. Being that I am a rather busy acting student I have found that I do not have time for a regular job outside of school.

I've been living on student loan checks and help from my parents. Well, I made a big mistake and my parents had to help me financially to fix it. Which meant that I had very little money left in my bank account until I got my check from my school. I was on the phone with my mother and had told her that I was living off the quarters that I was finding in my house. And she yelled at me. I feel so bad every time I have to call home and ask for money.

So I finally got my check from my school and quickly deposited it into my bank account thinking I would finally be able to eat again. At least have more than one bagel a day. But I hit another snag in being financially able. The deposit was put on a hold because my bank suspects that my school's bank doesn't have the funds to transfer to my account. Which means I have another week without any money.

Having to live off of quarters and eating one tiny thing a day has brought up some bad feelings about myself. I've barely moved from my bed all weekend. I had to ask my roommate to pay for the laundry I promised I'd pay for this week. I feeling so worthless writing this. I tried to keep my mind occupied with knitting and rewatching Arrow on Netflix. I worked on character stuff for this movie I'm going to be shooting in December. Then I managed to open up the Expedia app and look for flights home for Christmas. Which didn't help my mental state.

Now it's Sunday night and I have a full day of school tomorrow and we are filming most of that. I haven't eaten since 1PM on Saturday. The only good part about this experience is that I have found more compassion within myself. As I counted my dimes for tomorrow's breakfast I thought to myself 'I will never judge when someone in line at the cashier who is paying with coins. If I can I will help them out.'

I was listening to Disney music today and The song 'Colors of the Wind' came on and I've been able to relate that song to everything in life lately. Even my situation now. I just hope that more people will find more compassion for those who do not have as much as them. I've been very lucky in my life and now I'm feeling very alone, but I know I'm not. I know that my situation is very temporary and I will be going to my school to see what is going on financially because as a student who pays $33k a year I deserve to know.

I urge everybody to find compassion in life. Put yourself in someone else's shoes for just a day. See what they go through.

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My final monologue for my Acting For Film  II class. I wrote this monologue about a real event in my life dealing with my father. 

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Here is the first scene I ever filmed that I wasn’t on a stage for. I cringe watching it knowing that now I could do 500x better than what is in this video. But it’s nice to go back and watch the older videos to see how far I have come.

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Live and Learn

So every day I go home taking two different trains to get from Battery Park to where I live in Brooklyn. I always have my headphones in my ears and I have my book ready to read on my twenty minute ride home. I put my backpack on after I leave school with all of my stuff in it. Including my wallet. I always have my wallet and my house keys easily accessible for when I need to get my debit card or my keys to get inside my building.

So today I was riding home as usual reading my book listening to my Broadway tunes in my ears and I get off at my stop in Brooklyn after riding from Manhattan and continue to dance and mouth the words to my favorite showtunes on my short two block walk home. I reach to get my keys out of my bag and see that the front pocket was open. The pocket that I keep my keys and wallet in for easy access. And my blue wallet, that was beyond cute, was gone. It had my two debit cards and one credit card. A book of blank checks and my Michigan driver’s license. So naturally I called my mom first, because my mommy can fix anything. She told me to calm down and start calling banks to block all of my cards quickly.

So here comes the best parts of this story. 

1. I have no money so this jackass stole the wrong wallet. I’m an acting student living alone in New York City. 

2. All of my accounts are overdrawn as it is so the cards will be declined anyways. 

3. My credit card had been cancelled three months ago because I haven’t made a payment in months because as I said I have no money.

4. The douchebag got off the train at the same stop I do and tried to purchase a metro with my card. And that bank texted me because it was for a weird amount instead of the $121.00 I normally spent on metro a month. I quickly texted back that it wasn’t me and the card was blocked.

This guy literally went into my bag and stole all of my stuff and got NOTHING! I have cried and screamed tonight and now I’m just laughing because this guy couldn’t have chosen a worse person to rob tonight. 

It’s been said that you’re not a real New Yorker until you’ve been robbed so I have officially been invited to the club I guess. I learned several lessons today in how to handle this type of situation and how to avoid it. I’ve been here just less than a year and I’ve been robbed. 

And to top it all off I spilled the last of my wine and I don’t have my driver’s license or anything and I look like I’m twelve, I’m exaggerating a little, but I still get carded to purchase rated R movies. Luckily it was pointed out to me that I have a passport and my mother is overnighting me my birth certificate because I’m supposed to go out with my friends and teacher this week. And my mom is putting money in my accounts so I can eat for the next few days until she gets here.

I’ve had quite the night. And now I want to sleep.

XOXO

[taylorunderwoodm]

First video on my youtube channel. Be sure to subscribe to watch me embarrass myself on a weekly basis.

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HELLO!

I’m Taylor Underwood and I currently go to acting school in New York City at the New York Film Academy. I’ve started putting myself online to maybe gain some momentum before I graduate in January from NYFA. I’ll be posting my acting videos and some vlogs. I could possibly put some snipets of writing up once in a while. I will be taking many classes outside of school in hopes of getting into a theatre program for the summer of 2018. So I’ll be posting videos of those types of things as well to keep my instrument tuned and in shape. So enjoy laughing at all of my acting attempts and attempts at doing other things as well.

You can follow my twitter account: @/TaylorMUnd12.

Follow me on Instagram: @/taylormund

And like my page on Facebook: @/UnderwoodTaylorM

All The Love,

Taylor