Last night I was poking around on the Internets and came across something that made me the happiest I’ve been in months.  Apparently, the University of Iowa has one of the top ten Theatre programs in the country!  And apparently, auditions are open to the public—not just students at the University!!!! 



I was so happy I almost cried.



You see, my husband Alex recently got accepted to the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa for Fiction Writing.  When we received the news, I actually did cry.  I cried because I was so happy that he’d been accepted to the most prestigious MFA writing program in the country, because I was so proud of him, because he inspired me so much by showing me that if you put all your time and effort into your goals they can and WILL become reality…but I also cried for myself.  I cried because now I was suddenly faced with leaving Los Angeles, the city I love so much, the only place I’ve ever wanted to live, the best possible place for me to be for my acting career.  I cried because I thought my world was going to come to an end.  I thought my acting dream was going to shrivel up and die in a cold, dark, snow-covered cornfield in Iowa City.



But now, a light!  A speck of hope!  Maybe Iowa won’t be so bad after all? 



My newly formulated plan of attack is to take this as an opportunity to get out of LA for a little while, to take a step away from all the hustling and the fierce competition, to be the big fish for a change, to further hone my craft and perfect my instrument on the stage, where it came from in the first place.  Ali Larter (my new idol since the March 2008 issue of Shape Magazine—ugh, those abs!) took two years off in the middle of her career only to come back and land a lead role on one of the biggest television shows in years, Heroes.  I could do that!



And so, I will go to Iowa in August and do some theatre.  Maybe I’ll do a show or two in my hometown of Chicago, too—there’s fabulous theatre there.  Don’t get me wrong, though, I still plan to be in Los Angeles as much as possible while Alex is in school—for pilot season, of course, and as much of episodic season as I can stomach, and I will be more than happy to fly out for great auditions and for shooting, no matter how big or small the role.  We might even keep an apartment here.  (Have a guesthouse you’d care to rent out?)    (…I’m actually serious.)



But all those LA bitches better look out when I come back for good in a year and a half.  I’ll be coming back with a vengeance.