So busy…so sorry…Ive been acting though…a lot.

Ok, so I see the last time I updated was in June. I was in a play at a theatre in NYC called The Flea. While I was doing that play I was cast in another independently produced play called 'Anthropology of a Book Club' where I played Zora Neale Hurston!!!!!…I then went home to Los Angeles for 10 days and while I was there, was cast in a third play at the Workshop Theatre Company called IYOM which just closed about a week ago. In IYOM I played a Nigerian mother to a very rambunctious daughter Zaki…so….I have been working…and the stuttering ups and downs have been many. But man, I tell you, facing your fears…conquering them, then going on to the next project with more confidence and strength feels like a million bucks.

So within the past 5 months I completed 3 full productions…as someone who once had it in her mind that my speech will keep me from fulfilling my passion as an actor in life…I feel amazing. I guess what is next on the list is finding an agent. Its so difficult to find an agent…both in NYC and LA…and whoever I eventually end up working with has to be someone who sees past what could be thought of as a flaw or a hindrance and see it as a reason to represent me in this industry…thats the hard part, I know it may take time to find that person, but all I can do is continue doing the best work I can do.

This is the choice I made…I'm proud of it…I missed you guys, I hope you are all great out there…ok Im going back to prepping for this audition…stay blessed.

Im Open...The Play I Mean! *Stuttergirl*

So we have been doing previews for the play I am currently in ('a cautionary tail' at The Flea Theatre) for the past two weeks. The theatre that I am working with really knew what they were doing because that was the perfect amount of time for previews. So that is why I have not updated in a minute. But Im back, and a lot of my friends have already come to see the show, I appreciate that so much. I wanted to show you guys the Playbill for the show, so you can see my bio. Its below, and here are some pictures of the show as well.


Jacquelyn J. Revere (sonya) is excited to make her Flea Theater debut. She would like to thank the stuttering community for being a constant source of support while she pursues her career in NYC. Once Again (Our Time Theatre) Henry V (New School) Cherry Orchard (New School). MFA from The New School for Drama. BA from Hampton University. @JacquelynJoyce www.StutterGirl.blogspot.com 

I had to shout you guys out, cause I love you.

We have also had a lot of support and good reviews from theatre goers. I love every person in my cast and am really happy to have met all of them. It feels wonderful to be doing what I love every night.

Again, for anyone in the NY area who would like to see the play, here is the Link to Play...Id love to meet more of my fellow stutterers. 

I love you and stay motivated.

Stutter Girl: Stuttering is the New Black...Stuttergirl...Props ...

Stutter Girl: Stuttering is the New Black...Stuttergirl...Props ...: While at a bar last night sharing oysters with a Tuesday night American Institute for Stuttering support group, I received three text from t...

Stuttering is the New Black...Stuttergirl...Props to our community!

While at a bar last night sharing oysters with a Tuesday night American Institute for Stuttering support group, I received three text from three different people telling me that there is a stutterer on the show 'So You Think You Can Dance,' at the moment, I thought "Ok, great people are now learning about stuttering, great, wheres my drink?" So I googled it this morning and included the video below. The one thing that bothered me is, Shane allowing other to finish his sentence. We as stutterers often feel like we are taking up too much time and I personally feel that allowing someone else to finish my words is me giving up my given right to share my thoughts and giving the listener undeserved control on what I have to say. In a way it make what I have to say less important. Also listeners also usually finish your sentences when they are being impatient. Oddly enough, you can learn a lot about a person when they talk to a stutterer. Ive lost some respect for certain people, just from their lack of listening skills. I can also usually tell how receptive another actor will be on stage by how well they listen and maintain eye contact with me during a conversation. In other words

Don't Finish My Sentences!

Last night at my support group, I really felt how much other stutterers appreciate what I do. I often get caught up in comparing other people stutters to mine, and how much more I could or 'should' progress. This is my own personal issue, but yesterday, I had a room full of stutterers applaud me for even attempting my dream of becoming an actor. Its amazing, because we have a built in support group. I have a built in connection with thousands of people around this would, who want to see me succeed and I could not have wished or prayed for anything more, and I thank God for this community.

Ok so along with that...I am in a play and we are selling out and I want to invite all of you to it. We begin previews next Tuesday and open on June 10th, and I am excited, very excited, and a bit nervous also. So any of my New York Supporters who would like to come and support, we still have $15 dollar tickets left, but not many, here are the breakdown of $15 dollar tickets left.

Sun - June 2 @ 7:00 - 4 left

Thur - June 6 @ 9:00 - 6 left

Frid - June 7 @ 9:00 - 1left

Sun - June 16 @ 7:00 - 1left

Fri - June 21 @ 9:00 - 2 left

Thurs - June 27 @ 7:00 - 1left 

Fri - June 28 @ 9:00 - 3 left

Sun - June 30 @ 9:00 - 5 left

After all the $15 dollar tickets are gone they go up to $20, so I say strike now while the price is low.

I also like to tell people, that I am not in tons of the play, I have a great scene at the end of the play, but I also think that the play itself is worth the ticket price whether you come to see me or not. Im just sayin I think it would be really cool to see a bunch of stutterers in the audience, plus I get to mingle with you before the show even begins, so we can chat it up!!!! Lets make a night of it!

My Cast, Playwright, Director, and Artistic Staff at The Flea, have been overwhelmingly supportive as well, and I would love to take the time to thank them for their belief in me as well.

Here is the link for tickets!!!!

Here is also the video from So You Think You Can Dance, I love you and Stutter Beautifully!

Be Aware of Your Own Awesomeness

Im late on this...but its Stutter Awareness Week, so heres a little fact. 1% of the worlds population stutters and 1 woman in every 5 men stutter. So the fact that Im a black woman that stutters makes me a unicorn...respect.

This was my facebook post yesterday. A few years ago, I would have never post anything like this. Time brings change!

A Little Stuttergirl Sunday Love.

Some stuttergirl rattling off that maybe has nothing to do with stuttering....I think.

Ok, so lately Ive been really into positive thinking and progression, and a lotta Super Sunday Oprah Marrianne Williamson type of higher power type stuff. It cool, its take discipline and hard work, but then the day comes when you realize that you are not your thoughts and little by little you train yourself to remain in that head space. It pretty effin awesome. Well that is what I have been doing for the past few weeks (well the past few months, but Im just now noticing the change), and I fall off the bandwagon sometimes but Im figuring out how to fight the temptation to get into a slump more and more and succeeding. I say all that to say that, learning to look at your world and your life in a new way can literally change your life in unspeakable ways. Dot It!

On to Updates.
Im still in the rehearsal process for the play that I am in a cautionary tail by christopher oscar pena, yes the lowercase is on purpose, here is a press release for it.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/177195-World-Premiere-of-A-Cautionary-Tail-and-NY-Premiere-of-White-Hot-Will-Play-The-Flea

Exciting Right.
It feels good to be able to get on stage again, its been a while. Ive done some camera work but nothing much besides that. And the adrenaline of going on stage every night for an extended amount of time is something I really need right now. And sometimes its scary and sometime when I have bad speech days, it scares me but I get on that stage and put more of myself into than ever before and still do it. Because I have no other option, I chose this, it was my choice, I love my choice, it was a hard choice to make but it was mine and I made it. I took the hard road. This isn't just for stutterers, but also anyone who has decided to take the hard road because they knew it was going to be more fulfilling, I salute you, I love you, I respect you, and I fight for you.

Wow,what just happened. Ok im gonna bow out, before this turns into a session.

Hard speech week...when there are ups there will be also be downs.

Its always easy to write a blog post when things are going well and you feel like improvement is in a constant linear process. Well for the past week and a half or so, I have not felt that way at all. I have felt as though I have regressed. I have felt more fear speaking to people than I have in maybe over a month, I am tensing up more than I have in a while, and keeping eye contact has been incredibly difficult.

Whenever there are ups there are also downs, and right now I am in a down, but its ok, I have to remind myself that it is always ok to be in a down, success nor progress is linear. As an actor, these down days can be difficult, on days like these, in rehearsals or in auditions, I have to forces myself to be super present. So present to the point that I forget that I stutter. When I have memorized lines to recite, its a tad bit easier, but once I have to answer a question off the fly, my awareness of my speech begin blaring like loud music in my mind.

I have continued to voluntary stutter with three people that I do not know daily, I have also begun doing thirty minutes of practice, doing easy onsets and prolongations. Hopefully this will get me back on track. I am also trying to become more aware of myself before the moment I begin speaking, I usually tense every muscle in my body. Awareness is invaluable. When times like this arrive, I sometimes just want to give up, but I have learned and am still learning that the best thing to always do is up my practice. Its exhausting and relentless but its what has to be done.

Onward and upward.

Acting and Stuttering all have breathing in common, who knew? Stuttergirl.

Man Man Man. Ok so Ive just begun rehearsals this week for the play that I am in. I AM POOPED!!!! Not to mention this week I also got some virus that has been circling around the city...it has been crazy!!!!!!! But I am back and with an update.

SO as far as speech goes, I have been voluntary stuttering with 3 people that I do not know daily. For three days this week, I let myself off the hook, and didn't do the assignment...I know GASP! But I was sick, and the last thing I care to think about while trying to keep from getting nauseous on the subway is how to breathe and control my secondaries while speaking...too much for any human.

However this week we had our first reading of the play as a cast. This was only a high fear situation for me because for this reading, all of the staff of the theatre that I will be working at attended this reading. This is where they find out if they hired the right person and can quickly swap you out need be. So for this reading I made sure that I was very familiar with the script, but also, I gave myself one thing to focus on and that was breathing. I told myself, "don't worry about the acting or being a good actor, just make sure you continue to speak on breathe." And this worked for me...it actually worked so well, that I have begun incorporating this now in my daily voluntary stuttering assignments. Now that I am no longer as fearful as I once was in these situations I can work on these tools. And even though I have just begun this new phase of this process, I can see the change, it is slow, which I expect, and I am trying to learn to stop looking for progress and continue doing what I know is helpful and good for me without need for  immediate change, but sometimes being able to see some sort of change absolutely propels me to work harder and become more and more disciplined.

Thats all for this week. All in All this week was interesting, but it flew by, the beauty of being constantly busy. I hope for this to continue.

My Oprah AHAH moment....sincerely Stuttergirl

I just had a thought. I was cleaning up, while dancing and/or maybe twerking to Beyonce (Im not ashamed). But I just had a thought.....ready?

So ever since I began speech therapy, I have been working on the importance of feeling shame and recovering. As a stutterer I can say that I feel shame often. Its less now than it has ever been, but there are moments of shame that come, specially is high anxiety situations. In the past I would dwell on speech situations that went horribly (in my mind) for sometimes days after the event occurred. Now, I force myself to not dwell on these events, but make an assessment and continue with my day. Getting to this point even has taken a lot of time....this is where the big Oprah AHAH moment comes.

We as stutterers have the opportunity to practice recovering from shame (for myself) multiple times a day. That makes us so resilient. Such fighters. We can choose to go through this life, picking ourselves back up over and over, thus making us stronger and stronger. . We just have to make the choice to make the shame make us stronger. (can you say that 4x's fast) 

The average person doesn't have this.^^

The average person, and when I say average I mean someone who does not have an ailment or disability that is apparent and not hidden. The average person can more easily decide to hide their shame until moments in life bring it out to the forefront.

I urge you and myself, to see this challenge to build yourself stronger than you ever thought possible. Shame and fear is there for us to learn from not hide from. Getting to the other side only makes us stronger, better, more compassionate, and much more interesting.

Let's Do It!

Stuttergirl In a Play...Yay!

I know its been a minute since Ive updated, but I was going through this callback process for this play, after 4 Callbacks, I am a cast member!!!!! I wont slip the details yet, but you are all invited once I can spill the beans. I can say, that its in NYC and its by a wonderful playwright, and Im excited...ok now on to stutter business.

This weeks challenge thought up by myself and my speech pathologist, again is to openly voluntary stutter to three people that I do not know everyday. Its not easy, sometimes I just don't want to talk to people, some days I already feel insecure and stuttering in front of a person feels like standing in front of them nude...and somedays I just want to stay in and eat dark chocolate all day. But those are the days when I have to push the hardest...I actually just finished making 5 phone calls to restaurants (for practice), because the phone call I just received to accept the role in the play, caught me completely off guard and all my secondaries came glaring out...and I didn't disclose/advertise womp womp.

Desensitization is the key...I hope this really is the key. Otherwise I might as well be at the wrong house.


BTW crossfit has been amazing, I am addicted and now go 5-6 times a week. This morning I crawled to the gym in the snow, and was very happy I went once the 'After Workout Happy Hormones' began to hit me.

Im going to post a longer blog this evening (I think) talking about bracing for the stutter. With my speech Ive trained myself in such a way that before I even open my mouth I brace for a stutter, I always expect a stutter. Im now trying to ways to combat that...I will elaborate of this later.

Until then, have a wonderful day my lovelies, stutter beautifully, and pray for spring to show its face PLEASE!!!!!

This weeks stutter homework! And some acting stuff too!

Ok so, my super awesome wonderful speech pathologist and I have come up with a challenge for myself, to openly voluntary stutter with three people that I do not know every day this week. Not bad. I can do it. I actually began this exercise on Saturday, and so far so good...now this is where I connect crossfit to stuttering

I love crossfit, Ive only beein doing it for a week, and I LOVE IT!!!! The thing I love most about it, is that we often tell ourselves that we cannot do something...when I look at the weights this trainer guy wants me to pick up, I always think, "WTF I CANT DO THAT"...then guess what! I DO...I ALWAYS DO IT!!!!! ITS AMAZING! So needless to say, crossfit is helping me develop mental strength, and I AM LOVING IT!!!

I Also have a callback today....big whoop...I get called back a lot, its my thing...the getting cast part is the hard part, you have to pretty much be 80% of what the person wants when you walk in the door, despite how great your audition is...otherwise, its back to the drawing board...thank God for my crossfit or Id go nuts.

Ok yall, Ill be back with maybe a VLOG!!!!! Any topics you guys are interested in me discussing?

Peace, Love, Soul, and sexy stuttering to you all!

Some days are hard...hello hard day!

Well, the title says it all. A little over a month ago, I completed the intensive program at AIS (American Institute for Stuttering), it is amazing, I recommend it to everyone, and one of the biggest things I took away from it is, if I do not tackle my fear of stuttering, I will barely be able to use any of the techniques that I learned, because the fear of stuttering is stronger than the will to correct it (this was the issue for me). So now I do objectives daily, whether it be walking up to a person on the street and asking a simple question or making phone calls, or focusing on monitoring my secondary behaviors when with friends.

The past two weeks have been low fear, for me, I have been stuttering openly with little fear, disclosing with little fear, working through my stutters with relatively low fear, it felt amazing, and because of the reduced fear, I am also having reduced tension, which mean reduced secondaries, win Win WIN. Until today duh Duh DUH. I knew today would be difficult when I blocked and stuttered uncontrollably as I asked my roomate to buy another Almond Butter (She is someone I hardly block with). As a Paleo chick...almond butter is not only insanely expensive, but its one of very few foods in the house that I can eat, and she uses spoonfuls of it in her "protein shakes." This would normally be a low fear situation, but I blocked the entire time while I was trying to ask her to get a new one.

During my past few weeks of low fear speaking I would have looked at the situation and said, ok what was I feeling in that moment of the block, what was I thinking? I would have taken a step back, and examined the situation to learn from it. Instead my mind went strait to, OOOHHHH NOOOO IM STUTTERING!!!!! Which only exacerbates it, of course. This started the wall of fear, because of course if I stuttered like crazy in that encounter, I will absolutely stutter horribly in encounters with people I don't know. Well, I told myself that, and guess what happened. I did. Our sub-conscience is programmed to do whatever we tell it to, and it listened. It listened all day. Thankfully I volunteered to watch baby stutterers as AIS today, and had a chance to reprogram my thinking while there, they are always so incredibly helpful in moments like this.

I have now chosen to hop back on the forward moving bus. Since the past few weeks had gone so well, I had stopped giving myself praise for each block I worked through. I wasn't aware of how much my mind and stutter ego needs constant praise, until I stopped. I also sat down and made 10 phone calls to random restaurants in the city (a pretty low fear situation for me) asking random questions to re-instill the positive reinforcement. I also gave myself an actual pat on the back for a good pull out, or for sticking with a block, why not give yourself verbal accolades, what we do is not for the weak of heart or mind.

I still had my pity party though, don't think I didn't. I am an actress, whose emotions tend to go from 0-100 within milliseconds. But now, these emotional peaks don't last as long and aren't as traumatic, and pulling myself out of it, usually included setting an objective that I can succeed in. We have to be overly nice to ourselves in every way. I hope this reminds you to be nice to you, because as humans were usually nicer to strangers on the street, than we are to ourselves


My Group from AIS, I love them like blood.

This made me smile today...smile with me!!!

Look at Grandma, gettin it!!!

Crossfit Day 1

Yesterday was my day1 of crossfit, Ive committed myself to doing 4-5 days a week of crossfit, I can say that this SH*# is no F*&%$@* joke. But it is now the next day, and I am alive and well, and ready to see how much further I can push myself. Its fun, I enjoy seeing how far to the limits I can go...upward and onward.

 BTW as someone who carries a lot of tension...which effects my speech as well, I have been forcing myself to be aware of clenching in my jaw, both during workouts and during daily life and speaking situations. Always trying something new. Ill keep you posted.

 These are some hardcore chicks.

Link to an interview I did with Stutter Social

I did this a while ago with one of my mentors. Its a good read. For those of you who do not know what Stutter Social is, its a site, that uses Google Chat to connect stutterers from all over the world through video conferencing. Because so many of us have never met another person who stutters, its a great way to get out there a bit. Stutter Social. Check it out. My interview with Stutter Social

Much Love
Jacquelyn Joyce Revere

Crossfit Challenge

Well, today I begin my 30 day crossfit challenge. Over the past month I have gone Paleo, so I have omitted dairy, legumes, grains, and such from my diet, and Who would have known but I really really enjoy it. I had no idea how intolerant to both wheat and dairy I was until I took it out of my system. So today marks the day where I GO HARD IN THE PAINT! I would post a before and after, but at the moment im too vain for that, I will take the picture and maybe post it, when I post my after...hey you guys, I AM PROMISING that I will post an after so hold me to it ok. As an actor my body is my business so I have to keep it in tip top performance. Be blessed yall. Oh yeah, last night I was having a talk with my roomie Tracie, and I worked very hard on speaking on the breath, it was successful.

New and Improved or in Progress...

Ok friends, so its been some time since I have been on here, I am so sorry, but I had to take time to figure life out, being an adult is super hard. Anyway, well, I have graduated grad school, May 2012, with my Master in Acting...(you should be happy that I wasn't blogging during those years, you would have been worried) and now I am beginning my career. I shot a commercial in December that aired all month on the USA Network. Ill find it and post it...they cut my speaking part, but you can still see me in all my actor glory...wish my speaking part was still in it though...and now, I am just auditioning, and auditioning...like a crazy person...so let the fun begin. I like the idea of vlogging, so I'm going to do a bit of that as well, I hope to build a great repoire with ALL OF YOU!!!!