Wow, what an amazing weekend!! Friday night I went out with my acting buddies and caught the new Harry Potter. Even though I was a few minutes late I still really enjoyed it!! It's definitely a must see. Saturday was a really long class day 11:30 to 6:00. It was my last day of mask class, I was a little sad but I'm so glad I got the opportunity to work with Per Bra and his amazing masks from Bali. He's such an intriguing person. I feel like I really learned a lot from him. Then Sunday I woke up and took a train into Hamilton, NJ and met Usery and her sister at the station. I went to her home and we all headed to a Philadelphia for the Phillies game. They took me down to south street and I passed Jim's steaks (the famous home of the philly cheesesteak.... so I'm told). We drove down the the Citizens Bank Park home of the Phillies. Grabbed a cheese steak there and it was fabulous. The Phillies unfortunately did not win the game. the score was 10 St. Louis Cardinals to 1 Phillies, however it was a historic game 10,000th losses, but no harm done it was still a great game. We were so close to the third base line I could have thrown a ball to it.

Today was the last day for the difficult object in class. and now it's on to a scene. So I've spent the last few hours memorizing lines. It's frenzied but I'm loving it here in New York. It's definitely becoming my home away from home. Usery, Kim, and Eric I'm so glad I got to see you guys!!! I had such a blast.

I have two weeks left and I plan on making them count! John Mayer will be on Good Morning America on Friday, so if you see me in the front row of his concert do not be surprised!!!

Hope all is well with everyone, drop me a line at Luckyduck1987@aol.com

All Love,

Ashley

Well it's the fifth of July. I can't believe the summer is going by as quickly as it is. I love it here in New York. I hope everyone had a fabulous fourth of July. I watched fireworks from my room this year. It was such a rainy day yesterday I didn't venture out into the elements. The Macy's show was fantastic. Not only could I see it on TV but I could hear the thundering booms as well. All in all it was a pleasant forth.
I have three and a half weeks of class left and I honestly can't believe how quickly it is passing. I feel like I've learned so much about not only acting but myself since I've been up here. I don't think I could ask for a more richer experience right now. This has really been a significant step for me to take, and I'm so glad I have the opportunity to take it.
PS. Night before last I saw Grey Gardens, it's a fabulous show. It's so moving you will leave the theater feeling it.


Ashley

Yesterday I saw an amazing play called Crazy Mary. Sigourney Weaver was one of the leads she is fabulous on stage. It's such an intimate setting the theater! I love it. Micheal Esper was also in the play. Fabulous show on Broadway. If you plan to see anything on Broadway soon, this one is a must!!! Thanks for all who are reading this!! I appreciate the support, I'll update in a few days!!

all love

What an incredibly whirl-wind weekend!! I am just now home from the first Annual Little Rock Film Festival, and I have been thoroughly impressed (65 films in 3 days)...where in the world can you do that??
So here's the run down of the weekend. FRIDAY, Russell and I pick John Byron up from the airport, he had a short film in the festival called Rose and Red Balloon (which received a considerable amount of praise I might add) and was shown among other short films created in Arkansas. Since John is the director of the film he was invited to attend the galla for all of the 65 directors of the festival. John invited us to the galla but we were in for a complete surprise, it was the most hopping party in town that night!!! It was held at the Clinton Presidental Library and was extremely ritzy!!! I felt so out of place but enjoyed EVERY minute of it!!! We rubbed elbows with other director's and Russell and John even got to meet the Governor!!! We definitely had a good time and it was truly an awesome surprise.
SATURDAY: We attended showing of category two short films in Arkansas and then caught the afternoon showing of "Where's my Close-up Mister Thorton?" This film won BEST in ARKANSAS. Both showings on Friday and Saturday for the film were complete sell-outs and an encore presentation was implemented for those who did not get to view the film before. The cast and crew are all fabulous people and it was a real honor to get to meet with them again this weekend.
John's film The Rose and Red Balloon also received much praise and was highly regarded at the show! He and Joe, the cinematographer for the film were also praised for the overall look of the film!
SUNDAY: We went to the awards ceremony for the show and and watched the encore presentation of :Where's my Close-up Mister Thorton?" and finally wrapped up the evening of Film Festivities.
This was amazing event hosted right in our own backyards'! For anyone who is interested in film young or old, EVERYONE should become involved or come out to support it. It was truly an educational experience and I feel like a came away with a deeper sense of the film community in Arkansas and how much talent is the Natural State!

All love

Wow it's been forever since I have posted on here! I didn't realize it had been since 2006! However I have some really exciting news. The Pettit kids have made their first movie debuts!! Sam and I had the opportunity to be in the upcoming Feature Film "Where's My Close Up Mister Thorton?" This movie is a fabulous film Directed and written by Tim Jackson! The story deals with an up and coming actor, Tim Holder, who thinks he is getting his big break by receiving a part in the 1995 movie "Sling Blade" with Billy Bob Thorton. Little did he know his role would be cut out of the movie entirely!! This movie entails Tim Holder's life ten years later and how he deals with his not-so-famous life. Check out the trailer at This location


Sam and I are in one of the opening scenes of the film. We are sitting in the movie theatre directly behind Tim Holder! The movie opens May 18th and will be showing at the Riverdale 8 in Little Rock! Come out to join us as we celebrate the Debut :)


Also, On May 11th Sam and his band An Autumn to Remember will be playing at Relay for Life at Cabot High school at 10:30 so come out to support these guys they are a really great band! I'll also be singing at 8:30 if anyone is in the mood for some fun country songs!!! We hope to see you there and thanks for all the support we receive from you guys!!
You really keep us going!!

Thursday was call back day and man was that exciting!!!!! Altogether I received five call backs two from film school in New York, two from Agents one out of LA and one out of NY, and one from a Casting Director in NY. I got amazing feedback from all of them and was incredibly pleased by the entire day. One call back in particular was from an Agent who is Shoshanna Bean's Agent (she took over Elphaba after Idina Menzel's contract went up on Wicked) this woman is amazing!!!

Awards Cermonies: OUR TEAM WON THIRD-RUNNER UP IN THE TEAM SING COMPETITION!!!!!! Out of Tons of performers we received that award!!!! I was so excited!!!! I also won four top ten awards including cold-read, soap, monologue, and commercial print. Overall, our team came home with over 70 AWARDS!!!! Check the IMTA website to look at pics of Excel People our team sing is on the top middle of the page:) Look at www.IMTA.com to check it all out!

Future Plans: I'm continuing school this semester and also going to save up some money so I can go to the Broadway Showcase in Sept. Please keep me in your prayers because I will be re-locating in January and I need all the support and guidance I can get! I love all of you guys so much and I reallly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers you have already given me. I appreciate everyone who sponsored me and I am truly honored that you have so much faith in my career. I will continue to keep you posted

All Love

Ashley

Obviously I didn't get a chance to post on Thursday, because I was so busy I never made it back to Central Park. Okay so that night our group decided to take a boat from pier 83 on the circle line tour. It was such a great time!!! I've been to NY several times and that was the closest I've ever been to the Statute of Liberty, adn by the way she's beautiful :) On the boat we had this huge dance party on the second floor of the boat!! We were having a blast, especially the guys on our team, they were incredible dancers, the would do this pop and lock thing and then pass it to oneanother almost like there was this other force making them move!!
Wednesday I went to a seminar hosted by Tom Logan, who is a television and film director and has been for 25 years. He was so animated and would make you double over in laughter. He had so many helpful tips about auditioning and making it in the business. I bought his book "How to act and eat at the same time" and had him sign it :) Then at noon I completed my final competition which was sitcom, it went well I focused and got into character, so I was pleased. I'll post again here in a little while about the rest of the week, it is simply too much to type at this moment :)

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS: Richard Thomas (georgie from IT, and John Boy from the Waltons) Kathy Griffin (Red-head comedian who I got a pic with), Jennifer Nickerson my team sing buddy saw Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes( she was paying her respects as an IMTA alumni and Tom is really short in person) Susan Surandon was across the street from the Warwick filming a new disney film Enchanted with Patrick Dempsey aka Dr. Mcdreamy from Grey's Anatomy, and it is rumored that Idina Menzel is also in the flim and was there that night :) and last but certainly not least Jewel's rodeo boyfriend was on our flight from LAG to DFW :) splendid time and I"ll update soon

muah

Wow!!!!!
Okay you guys sorry for no posts, but my laptop is on the fritz so I'm typing this from a fedex in Central Park, they charge 30cents a minute so I'm gonna have to go fast. Okay, well I made it to NY on Saturday around 2 oclock in the afternoon, it was pretty nice considering we woke up and left little rock around 3:00 am. I believe I was up 22 hours that day, we had so much to discuss before competitions and team practices and rehersals to do that it took until 1:00 the next morning before my head hit a pillow. Our Hotel we are staying in is so cute and quaint. The Warwick is my home for the week!!!! On Sunday we began our morning off as a team working on all of our monologues, sit-com, soaps, commercials, etc. with Dawn Jeffery-Nelson. She has one of the most impressive resumes I've ever had the priviledge of being next to. She has worked with everyone from Jim Carrey to Meryl Streep, she coached the first seven years of seventh heaven. She has won countless awards and our team had the utmost priviledge of having her critique our pieces. It was absolutely one of the greatest experiences I could have asked for. The way she would critique you was so lovely she would say; "here's some notes" and she would tell you what she thought. MAN, she was brilliant!!! I just can't explain it any better, she had this personality as if you had known her for years. Truly gifted.
This week, my hair and make-up was done by Beth who is the make-up and hair artist for the band Evanescence. I love her to death, she so down to earth and funny!!! It is amazing to wake up go down stairs to her suite in the Warwick and watch the city wake up as we joke about what's on television and playing make-up. Okay I know it sounds like I'm doing a ton of name dropping, so I apologize, but it's so awesome to have met such amazingly talented people here.
COMPETITION WISE: Sunday night Suzanne, Jennifer, and I all got picked to compete for individual singing!!! It was a blast!! I performed "out tonight" from Rent. It went well but the only thing is....I didn't take the mic off the stand, I'm kicking myself now, but I was 2nd and I guess I felt like it should be formal and I shouldn;t pick up the mic. But oh well, I did the best I could and I felt good about it. I"ll let you guys know if I make the showcase on thursday night. TEAM SING was so much fun!!!!! I still have to pinch myself to think that I actually performed "Wicked" in New York City!!! (Chills) Thanks Mr. Massey for your help ;)
So far I have only one competition left, Sit-com. I did cold read, monologue, soap, and commerical :) I've had the best time!!!!! I will keep everyone posted on the lastest updates. I"ll try to post sometime on Thursday if I get a chance!!
MUAH

All love

Wow!!! Okay sorry for my lack of posts here lately, but the past two weeks have been insane!! For starters before I can even attend Imta, I had to complete the Pro Acting course required at Excel. It lasted from Wednesday to Saturday. It was fabulous!!! We worked on our monologues with Danielle and she really gave us all some much needed critisim (sp). We did these really fun group improv games that really gave us a chance to work on thinking on our feet. Those were my favorite :D This one game in particular was called the Assassin. You could play it with anywhere from 7-10 people and with out saying it out loud you had to pick a bodyguard and an assassin. Naturally, in the game you tried to stay next to your body guard and away from your assassin, but with 7-10 people running around crazily, and not to mention if your assassin had picked you as a bodyguand things would get hectic pretty fast. The first time I played I had a triangle thing going on, where I was my bodyguard's assassin, completely crazy, but we spun in circles til we were dizzy, it truly was a good time. For the rest of the time we were given scripts to perform for class from different Tv shows and movies, my group got to perform a scene from the notebook. I kinda like to really get into whatever I'm performing, like scrapping myself til i bleed while doing sign language, or pushing Jordan (noah) til he got winded (sorry jordan). He understands :D
On Sunday we had our last team meeting, and let me tell you it was so amazing. This team is composed of some really amazing people, whom I love dearly. As a team we are really looking out for eachother and I know that we are going to have a blast. We had this group prayer that lasted quite a while, but it was so powerful....it brought me to tears. I feel so blessed to be apart of a team as unique as this one. We have a team song "For Good" and oddly enough I didn't pick it. That song seems to just follow me through life now. It's meaning still ringing true throughout every phase of my life, because of life, because of circumstance, because of people, because of destiny, I have been changed for good....
We also have a team prayer, it's called the daily prayer and it is amazing!
It covers all of us, all of our fear and doubt, hopes and wishes and gives them to God.
We performed our Team Sing song at Sunday's meeting too, and let me tell you I couldn't ask for a better set of ladies :D I was nice to return to familiar territory with "What is this feeling," but with a slightly different twist put upon it.
I think it is finally beginning to hit me in two days I'm off to New York to perform!!! I'm honestly so excited I can hardly wait. There is still much to be done before we leave for the Big Apple, but I'm not going to worry. It's in God's hands now.

Well last Saturday we had practice for our team sing competition!!! I always have a good time with those girls. "Then come together for the BIG BOO".....they know what I mean. Anyhoo, Saturday was really a great practice. It turns out that we all kinda weren't feeling our first projects, so we scrapped it and started thinking of new songs we could do. Suzanne wanted to do Wicked. We all thought that these songs would be a little more entertaining considering we could add blocking and really act it out. So as of Saturday afternoon, we decided we are doing "What is this Feeling." I can't wait, man NEW YORK in 13 days!!!
I have PRO Acting all this week, Wednesday through Saturday, so I'll get to hear some critics on my soap, sitcom, commercial, and monologue. I and plus the entire class will be with the team, and that's gonna be a blast.
Hope your weeks are beginning well!


all love

Hope Everyone had a wonderful fourth of July and hopefully didn't eat too much!! I'm pretty much BBQed out....well at least for a little while anyway. I had a great time with the family, watching the fireworks, eating, and just getting to spend some time together. I think it's definitely what we needed, just to slow down for a little bit, because life is really about to get crazy in a few days.
I have the week off to try to regroup and get things in order for the rest of the month. We got our music in for Team Sing just in time for practice on Saturday. Which reminds me we have to get it cut and recorded soon...and Pro Acting Class are soon approaching. IMTA is 18 days away and I'm really pumped about it. Today I just have had the urge to leave, I want to live in that city so bad. I have a few friends that are there already, so they could show me the ropes. I know I could live there, and be just fine.

Suduko puzzles should be considered a sport, because I love them so.
Drop me a line and let me know how you're doing at ashleyp@ashleyinnewyork.com

~all love

Okay so this week, Susan, Jennifer, and I are working on Team Sing. This portion of the competition involves a 3 minute performance of any song. This specific competition will be held on Sunday morning which means it is one of the very first competitions of the week!! Our group has decided to sing His Eye is on the Sparrow, from the movie Sister Act 2. If you haven't heard this song, slowly STOP whatever you are doing and rent the movie!! It's absolutely one of the most inspirational songs ever! Lauren Hill sings some of the main vocals and she has the voice to definitely melt all your troubles away. In the version we are performing at IMTA, we are doing this three part harmony throughout different portions of the song, which makes me a little nervous considering the last time I harmonized was during the production of Footloose. OH well, I'm still practicing and I'll get the hang of it soon, or at least by July 23 anyway!! I love this group of girls, I couldn't ask for a better group to Team Sing with. 25 DAYS TIL IMTA!!! I can hardly wait :D
On a different note, I got my new headshots in yesterday, so those photos will be up shortly, so if you want check them out and drop me a line!! I want to know how everyone is doing :D


And if you need an awesome book to read, pick up a copy of Live your best life Now, by Joel Osteen. He is truly remarkable and his message is very uplifting.

God Bless

~All Love
Ashley

Wow, I'm so excited to see this website up and running!!! A BIG Thank you to Micheal Hendricks for putting this all together for me. You made our ideas a reality, I simply cannot thank you enough!
Also, a HUGE Thanks to all of my sponsors, your support and faith in me is one of ways I am even able to attend NY. So once again, ~*** Thanks***~


IMTA is approximately 3 weeks and 5 days away and I can't believe it's almost here. I've been preparing for this for almost a year now taking classes in Advanced Acting at Excel with emphasis in Commerical Acting, Monologue, Soap, and Sit-com.

For now,

the site is finished. Obviously, there are still some issues that stem from browser specific features. I recommend using Mozilla Firefox to view the site. You can download it for free at this link. If you have any problems with the site, viewing the site, or anything, please let me know at webmaster@ashleyinnewyork.com and I will try to have it fixed as soon as possible. Enjoy!