askawarbler: Happy birthday, Rachel! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

Thank you Blaine! I wish you could be too. Hopefully I’ll get to see you sometime next year.

thepuckinator replied to your post: Happiest of b-days to the hottest Jew I know. Hope…

It’s going pretty awesome. He’s a cool kid and it’s sweet to have a chance to get to know him better. Heard you won some awesome thing at your fancy school a few weeks ago. Way to kick ass, Rach.

I’m glad everything is going well and that you two are getting the chance to know each other. That I did! I’m the first freshman to ever win the NYADA Winter Showcase! I’m still pretty excited about that. Thank you!

thepuckinator: Happiest of b-days to the hottest Jew I know. Hope your Hanukkah was sweet too.

Thank you Noah! It’s been pretty great so far. Hope your Hanukkah was nice as well.

I hear you’re on a roadtrip with your brother. How’s that going?

tcochang: Happy Birthday, Rachel! I hope you have an amazing day!

Thanks Tina! It’s been pretty great so far, hopefully the rest is just as good!

asksupermotta: Happy birthday, Miss Berry!!

Thanks very much Sugar!!

Anonymous: Anne's I Dreamed a Dream did really breathe new life in a, well, sort of boilerplate song. You do that, too -- reinterpret the song, give it new life. Do you have a creative process for making a song your own? Do you worry about 'ruining' it, in someone's opinion?

I agree completely. While I’ve heard versions by some singers that sound absolutely gorgeous, sometimes they lack the emotions that the song truly requires, and Anne manages to bring both to hers. As for myself, I really try to immerse myself in the lyrics and how the composer intended it to be sung, and I’ll try to adapt that into my own performance while projecting the emotion and energy I trying to put across. Part of it is acting, but when I sing, it really is about expressing how I feel so it’s about letting my walls down and wearing my heart on my sleeve. I don’t worry about ruining it for two reasons: I am masterful actress and singer, and as long as it achieves what I need it too, there is no way it can be ruined.

Anonymous: Happy last night of Hanukkah! Did you do anything special?

Thank you! You too, if you celebrate! No, nothing special really. I’m seeing my dads in a week for a cruise, so we’re going to exchange presents then and have a belated Hanukkah dinner.

Anonymous: Did you hear they didn't dub the Les Mis movie vocals -- they performed them on set, like a play? I cant' decide if that means an authentic performance, or bad vocals -- and which is more important for a good movie. Opinion?

I have heard this, and while I’m slightly wary I’ve already fallen in love with Anne Hathaway’s “I Dreamed a Dream” so I’m feeling pretty confident that the vocals will be incredible. It’ll also give the performance real emotion, which is sometimes difficult to get when the music is dubbed, as the actors have to match their intonation perfectly. There’s no way to be sure until we actually see the movie, but as of now I choose to be optimistically confident.

Anonymous: Thoughts on female folk singers?

Great! There are a lot of great voices in the folk world that I do listen to, like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. Go ahead and give them a listen if you haven’t already!

tcochang:

I heard that you won! That’s so amazing, I’m so proud of you, Rach! And I’m okay. Well, as okay as I can be after our humiliatingSectionals loss. That was pretty disappointing, but I’m not letting it hold me back from performing.