Birthday!

I had a great Birthday! I'm officially 20 years old.

Global Village tutorial was an interesting discussion about how to solve the problem of AIDs in Africa.

Theatre History: We took a quiz on Fences, which was easy. Everyone in the class sang me Happy Birthday, which was very sweet. We had a great discussion about Fences and August Wilson. He really is an important voice in theatre. I really enjoyed the play and found all the characters dynamic and sympathetic (though not everyone did).

I didn't have work today because the children's school had the day off. Awesome! But sad too; the kids always brighten my day.

I had a quick rehearsal of my auditions songs with Voice Professor C. I'm singing Somebody from Celebration, and Stop and See Me from Weird Romance.

We had a meeting tonight about our auditions tomorrow and our summer theatre in general. We were given a bunch of information pertaining to what's expected of us as a professional company and how the summer is going to work logistically. They talked us through tomorrow. We have headshots at 9:15, warm up at 9:45, musical auditions start at 10 AM. They go until 1. Starting at 1:30 we'll have the cold reads for all the shows. That should probably take a couple hours and whenever we all finish (we'll just be going in and out of rooms, not waiting to be called necessarily as I understand it) we're free to go. They promised us the cast list would be up by Wednesday, which is a lot earlier than I expected it.

I just spent the night with Kaitie, Katie Mac, and Gillian going over the plays and reading excerpts out loud just to make sure we had some semblance of characters and relationships. I always find it so interesting how different it is to read with different people because different people give you different emotions to work off of. It was a useful night, for sure. We also practiced our songs several times, which is mostly what everyone is worried about. By now, cold readings (which is what our auditions for the straight plays are tomorrow) are our favorite things to do. They're easier than monologues, and you get to dive right into the script. The musical auditions I've definitely had to prepare myself for mentally. I'm a beginning singer and I find it daunting, but I know when I'm done with the day that I'll be proud I sang instead of backing out.

It was one crazy Birthday, and one crazy day in general. I'm really stoked for tomorrow, and a little nervous. But if I wasn't nervous, there would be no excitement in this job!

Last Hour of Being a Teenager

I can't believe that in an hour I'll be 20 years old! I feel extremely old, even though I'm young. It's like saying goodbye to childhood. Too bad I'll always be a kid.

Truly though, it's crazy! This will be one of those Birthdays where I actually feel older instead of feeling no change. I'll actually remember to say, "Oh, I'm 20," when somebody asks me how old I am. High school seems like a thing of the past. And in one year, I'll be graduating from college. Boy, does time sure fly!

I'm not sure how much will actually sink in tomorrow because I'll be focusing on the upcoming auditions. There's still some rereading that I can do before 10 AM on Saturday morning. I've got my pretty Chicago dress ready, and I've talked to the 3rd years (I know, it's like I'm in a Harry Potter novel) about the process. We're going to have a meeting tomorrow evening about the auditions themselves, so after that everything should be crystal clear.

My rescheduled voice lesson had to be rescheduled for tomorrow because my professor was sick again. I'm hoping she starts to feel better soon! But I'll be going over it, and then I should be ready to sing on Saturday!

I finished reading Fences today, and it's definitely an awesome piece of writing. I loved the fact that there were so few stage directions written in. It leaves it up to the director and the actors to decide exactly how a scene should play out. The dialogue was witty and true to the time. It was one of those plays that was hard to put down, and I love coming across those! I'm excited to have a discussion about it in class tomorrow.

We got the sad news today that one of our male classmates is leaving us. We only have 2 in my class because we had another leave at the beginning of the year. He's a very talented young man and I wish him all the best in his future. I'm disappointed that I never got to work with him personally in class, though I have been in a play with him on stage here. He has a bright future ahead of him and I hope he doesn't let anything hold him back!

All in all it's been a crazy, hectic week getting back into school. But I'm ready for auditions, I finished all of my homework, and I even had some time this week to ride my bike and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Theatre Management

It seems these days I really have to focus on managing my tasks more. I have so much to do, it's crazy trying to keep it all in order. Of course, that's the best thing about school I think--otherwise I would be bored.

So Global Village: We talked about the AIDs/HIV epidemic in Africa, which is just horrible. It was interesting to talk about statistics and compare with the rest of the world. South Africa has the highest rate of infection, followed by the countries in the Carribean. So sad. The US isn't too far behind, and neither is Asia really.

We discussed the conspiracy that the people who invent medicines and research cures dedicate their time to things that will bring them money, instead of things that need to be done. Of course...I think if someone had the cure to AIDs it would bring in a lot of money.

Theatre History: We had our first lecture in a long time! It was awesome. We talked about Contemporary Theatre, the Regional Theatre movement, and Post Modern theatre.

Contemporary theatre involved the beginings of Off-Broadway (because Broadway was only in it to make a buck) and Off-Off-Broadway (when Off-Broadway began to make a buck). I've never attended either of these in New York, but I would love the opportunity to really watch some artsy, avante garde shows!

Regional Theatre is most likely where I will be working for the better part of my life, so it was cool to talk about it. The Alley Theatre in Houston was mentioned, which is cool because I'm from Texas, so that's near home. I'd love to come back home to perform one day, but to start off with it doesn't seem like the best option. Regional Theatres hardly do Repertory style anymore (like doing 3 shows in one weekend), the modern approach is to do one long running show before switching to the next in the season. But if I had the chance to do Rep. Theatre, I'd like to give it a shot. It sounds challenging.

It was also interesting to hear the differences in the amount of African-American and Feminist theatres now and in the 40s-70s. The numbers are so much lower. I think it's sad that so many specific groups don't have voices in the artistic community anymore. But I suppose that means they've flowed into other groups and are being heard in different ways.

We also touched on Post Modern theatre, which is mostly taught in Grad Schools and professionally it seems. I can talk more on that later when I understand it better.

I finished my second to last summer play, and I'm ready for another day of reading!

Another Day Closer to Summer

That's my motto at the moment.

I had my voice lesson cancelled this morning because my instructor is sick! That's really bad, because she's the musical director of the musical at the moment, so she definitely needs to be in shape to be at rehearsal, because they're learning music this week! I really need to rehearse my 2 songs for my audition this Saturday too, so I'll be rescheduling with her for later this week to get my time in.

I had Acting IV today, and my scene partner and I met early to go over our lines and blocking before class. We knew Acting Professor R would want to work the scenes and run through them with each pair, so we made sure we were as prepared as we could be after a week off.

We both knew our lines and we really just needed a refresher on our blocking. So we moved through the scene a couple times and got our spacing down. When it was our turn to work the scene with Acting Professor he let us get about half way before back tracking and giving us some pointers. He told me to be more in style, bye being more melodramatic when I'm near the window. I also had to practice using the shawl a couple times. I was having a little trouble getting it on and off, but we slowed it down and made a 'moment' out of it, so I can take my time and not rush through it. I have to make sure to set it down in an accessible way because there are two actors who continue our scene (it's split in half) and they need to be able to use it for their part.

It was a lot of fun to get back into the swing of things. Acting Professor told us our acting and our dialect was great today and he didn't have to work with us very long. All in all, it was a quick day in class because he split the class up to work half the scenes today and half the scenes Thursday. This means Thursday, I won't have class because my partner and I have already worked our scene! We have advising day coming up next Tuesday, so we won't be performing these scenes until next Thursday, but we're definitely in good shape for then.

I'm extremely excited for our upcoming summer auditions. We have a really great season planned out that I realize I haven't talked about. So here it is, in the order it's being performed in:

1. The Fantasticks
2. Girls of the Garden Club
3. See How They Run
4. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds
5. Company
6. Unnecessary Farce
7. The Chalk Garden
8. Rabbit Hole
9. Beauty and the Beast

So we take 2 weeks to put up each show, and they all run consecutively for one week. So if you're in one, you can't be in the one directly following it, because you would miss the rehearsal period. It's crazy, and it sounds deliciously fun. I can't wait. We get to crew, tech, and house manage shows. We only have one free day per week, which is Sunday; so it will be non-stop theatre for 3 straight months.

After our auditions I hypothesize that it will be 1-2 weeks before the cast list goes up. When that happens we'll all collect our scripts and start memorizing!

There are also 3 ( I think 3) children shows that are put on. They cast those before telling us what they are, so that's going to be interesting as well.

Anyway, the rest of this week I'll be reading summer plays and Warehouse plays because we're picking our season this Sunday. That means I'll be posting that soon as well!

First Day Back

Well, I spent a very relaxing weekend at Katie's house in the country for the duration of my Spring Break. It's about 4 hours away from our college, so we had a nice drive on Friday.

We checked out her Grandmother's awesome quilt shop, where I picked out some cool pirate fabric that I'm going to make a wallet out of. Then Saturday we took a day trip over to Springfield where we went ice skating and purchased me some 1st edition plays (The Iceman Cometh and a collection of JM Barrie's work). We also ate at a restaurant called Nonna's that had the best mushroom ravioli I've ever eaten. Then we went over to the airport and picked up Katie's sister Hero (named after the character in Much Ado About Nothing).

The next day we had an incredible homemade breakfast prepared by Katie's parents and her grandparents. French toast and Huevos Rancheros. Yum. We packed everything up and went to go fix up Katie's van with some transmission fluid before starting the trip back. We only made it 2 hours before the van (Sally) died. We got a tow truck, called Kaitie and Gillian, and had a ride back to school! We didn't end up heading back until around 7 because we stopped and had dinner.

ANYWAY: Now that I'm done chronicling my journey over Spring Break I can get back to school!

I finished reading Girls of the Garden Club,Rabbit Hole, Hold Please, A Raisin in the Sun, and most of Chalk Garden. I only have a play and a half left to read to be prepared for this weekend's auditions for the summer season!!

We had to read A Raisin in the Sun for Theatre History and it's definitely now on my list of favorite plays. I loved it. The characters were so clear, and the story so real and accessible. We had a really great discussion about that and about our breaks in Theatre History today.

Many people went to New York and saw some awesome shows, and a lot of the students went home and saw community theatre. It was great to listen to everyone's experiences and to share ours!

I got my directing scene scripts copied for my actors and I checked out some more plays for the Warehouse season to read, because we're deciding the season next week! All in all, a good first day back.

Chicago Day 5

Thursday, the last day of the Chicago trip!

We woke up early, packed our things (well, I packed, everyone else packed the night before like responsible young adults) and took the sheets off our beds, then we left!

We took a bus down to Union Station and found a big locker to put all of our bags in until we could come back for our train. Then we called K's cousin (a Chicago native who lives in Wicker Park) so she could come pick us up and give us a tour of her neighborhood (a possible place for college grad's to live).

She drove us around and showed us the different kinds of apartments and told us about where the crime is (on one side of the traffic light, not on the other), and where the dog parks are, and where the best artsy places to check out were. Wicker Park is definitely a nice, pleasant neighborhood. Everyone has a dog, and they're allowed everywhere, even in the shops. The apartments are nice, and she said they aren't too expensive. However, my best friend has informed me that Wicker Park and Lakeview (which is the other neighborhood we all loved) are the most expensive places to live. So I have some research to do.

We ate outside at a nice diner, and then Katie Mac's cousin dropped us off to shop and take the El back to the Amtrak station. We checked out some vintage shops, still looking for my dress for summer auditions. We were stopped by a camera crew after our 1st shop. They were looking for some extra actors to stand in line at a restaurant they were filming for a Best of Chicago segment. We did a couple takes before they finally thought they had it. There were 3 guys, and they were all extremely nice and we got a card so we could be notified when it airs. So we continued to shop, but it was only about 5 minutes before one of the men came in and told us they had technical difficulties and needed us to do it again! So we got to go back out and do a couple more takes, which was fun! It made me love Chicago that much more.

We eventually found a vintage shop that had my perfect dress, a nice blue one, which I purchased. Then we ran to an old bookshop we had wanted to see. We spent 10 minutes (in which I purchased 2 plays) and then ran to the El to make it to our train station.

Of course, it was Easter Weekend so everybody was waiting for their train and we were delayed an hour. Then we were delayed more on the track because a freight train was delayed in our way. And then we were so behind that all the trains that were on time had the right of way, so we had to wait on them. I didn't mind the longer train ride because it gave me more time to sleep before I had to drive everyone back home!

Our 5 hour train ride turned into about 7 hours. We made it back home around 2:30 AM and I fell asleep right away. I woke up in the morning just in time to spend the weekend at K's house in the country!

I thought Chicago was absolutely amazing. I honestly didn't expect to like the city that much, and I thought it would be very similar to New York. But the people were polite, helpful, and nice. It was easy to navigate, and the art scene was so exciting. I loved the neighborhoods and could honestly see myself living there eventually. I could also see myself on a stage in that city someday. So many of the actors were so young! The neighborhoods also seemed friendly and there was always a lot to do in the surrounding areas. All in all, it's a very possible choice for an after graduation situation.

Chicago Day 4

Wednesday! Day 4!

Today was the day we booked 2 plays to see. So we woke up early to make the train to Lincoln Park and De Paul University. Sean was supposed to come show us where our first theatre was. However, when we arrived we realized we could find it ourselves, so we went exploring instead. We found a nice Thai restaurant by the campus that served cheap meals to students and we had lunch.

After lunch we went to find our theatre, The Greenhouse Theatre. It's a theatre with the same layout as our Warehouse Theatre at school, but with a smaller stage and larger seating area. It has seating on 3 sides. Basically, this theatre houses 3 theatre companies that perform all of their shows in the space, instead of one company owning the space. I think that's pretty awesome, because the audience that comes to this theatre has the chance to see a diverse range of performances.

We got our tickets early and then hung out in a coffee shop to wait until the show started. The stage our show was on was on the second floor. So at show time we went to go take our seats. We were in the center section to the stage left side. Awesome seats. We were seeing Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons). Melissa and I had performed a scene from the play in Acting III, so we picked the show to watch because we loved the script so much. It's Georgian Period, right after the Restoration, during the 1780's. We took a Restoration class last semester, and we had to learn the language of the fan(because all ladies carried a fan, but never to actually fan themselves with), and the proper way to move in the dress of the period, as well as how to sit and stand properly. It's all very intricate and it was so exciting to watch professional actors do it right!

The man playing Valmont (the main male) was especially adept at sitting, standing, and flirting properly. They didn't use fans, unfortunately, except in one scene and it was slightly distracting because they didn't practice it time period.

Overall, the play was just incredible. The space was intimate, but the actors were spot on. They did Standard American dialects (taking out all regional accents and implementing the vowel changes of the British dialects (been=bean, after=AHfter)). The characters were interesting and engaging, and the sword fight at the end was just the most amazing fight I've ever seen, especially on stage. I took stage combat this past summer, and watching a professional fight was exciting. It was fast paced, very intricate, and the sound effects by the actors were really good. I don't know how they did this fight so well in such a small space, but it was just amazing. I left the theatre wanting to learn that fight.

The actors also did a great job ignoring interruptions. There happened to be a wasp in the 2nd act that found its way onto the main actress' arm, and she didn't miss a beat (it was an important scene) as it crawled up her arm and flew into her wig. It also flew onto Valmont's jacket and he didn't break either. I cringed through the whole scene hoping it didn't sting someone!

We took the El down to the Magnificent Mile right after Dangerous Liaisons. We wanted to find a sushi place to eat at before we headed over to the Looking Glass Theatre to see Trust by David Schwimmer. We ate at a place called Friends Sushi, which was really good. Then we got our tickets and headed over to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop to have awesome ice cream. Then we went back to the Looking Glass to find our seats.

It was the same staging with a thrust stage (3 sides for the audience). The set for this piece was really cool. The show itself is about how technology tears a family apart when a 14 year old girl meets an older man in a chat room and starts a 'relationship' with him. So there was a huge 'screen' upstage that was made of white blocks (actually 3-D). There was one block missing, and it was on the floor stage left being used as the girl's bed.

There weren't many props, most actions were pantomimed such as eating, packing bags, driving cars. However, if the family was eating dinner, their dinner would show up on the screen upstage so the audience knew they were eating. Or if the scene changed to a different location (a bedroom, school, dining room, outside, a party) the location would be showed on the screen too! Whenever Anna (the 14 year old) was chatting on IM or taking pictures on her laptop or cellphone, the conversations were on the screen so the audience could read it.

It was a really interesting idea to have technology run the show the way it ran this girl's life. And the acting (once again, in such an intimate space) was just phenomenal. Especially Anna, who happened to be 19 like me! We got to talk to 2 ensemble members after the show, after the talk-back about the issues the show raises, and they were very nice. Raymond (who played the older man from the chat room) actually knew where our college was (which is rare) because his mom attended our school when it was a 2 year institution!! Talk about ironic.

We also had the opportunity to talk to Anna, whose real name is Allison, because she was leaving the theatre the same time as us. She asked about our school, and her mom asked us about what we thought of some of the issues of the show. It was one of the best things on the trip, to get to talk to actual cast members of an awesome company. I would love to work at Looking Glass after I graduate from school. They have such a different outlook on theatre, and I'm really interested in it. So many of the members in the Trust cast were extremely young too, which is promising.

After the show we took the El back to the hostel and slept!

Chicago Day 3

Sorry this is taking so long to get out. I've had limited time and Internet access. Anyway, onto the information:

On Tuesday we decided, since we weren't seeing any shows, that it was the perfect day to explore Chicago and visit some vintage shops. So we looked up directions, picked our El route and then headed out around 11. We went up North to Belmont. It's near Lakeview. We found one shop that had cheap clothes and I found an awesome pair of boots for $5, and a wallet. After that we found a cute bakery that made incredible pastries, and everyone got a little something to eat.

We realized belatedly that we were travelling in the opposite direction of all the stores we wanted, so we turned around and found the right street to shop on. We found some awesome vintage stores on Belmont (the other side) where I bought some presents, and the girls found some cheap dresses and cowboy boots. We wandered a little more and ended up on Clark street which actually took us back to where we had been the day before!

We went to a restaurant called Lucky's where they serve huge sandwiches. They actually have a contest where a person picks 3 of their sandwiches off the menu and has to eat them all in under an hour. I thought my dad would enjoy that. So each half of these sandwiches are about the size of my head, and there are people on their wall of fame that have finished them all in 5 minutes! I don't know how that's possible.

I actually had Terriyaki wings, and they were amazing. The girls also enjoyed their lunches. Katie Mac got buffalo tenders, thinking they were buffalo meat...instead of really spicy. She didn't enjoy her's so much. But Katie ate her entire sandwich. She deserved a round of applause.

We looked at another vintage store down the street, but weren't very successful. We refound the book store where we had bought some scripts the day before and we looked around a little more.We didn't find anything else there either, so we decided to move on. We wanted to head over to find Broadway street, where there was supposed to be more used book stores and vintage clothing. It took us a while to find it, but when we did Katie Mac was excited to see a Buffalo Exchange, which is apparently a chain that they have in Denver, where she's from. We spent over an hour trying on clothes and all the girls found something they liked. We also tried out the other books stores. One ended up being a new store so we didn't stay long. In the other I found an awesome monologue book and a script, and Kaitie found a good vegetarian cookbook.

We were extremely exhausted from the day of walking and clothes trying, but we took the El down to China Town to meet Melissa's friend Sean. He goes to De Paul University in Chicago as a Theatre Tech major, and so he had a lot to tell us. We searched for a sushi place in China Town, but the one we wanted was closed, so we picked a random restaurant to eat at, and it ended up being very good. We asked Sean a lot of questions, but he didn't have much to say about Chicago because he's so busy with theatre. But it was interesting to hear about another student's life in theatre at a different school. He gets to do a lot of outside professional work, which is cool. We don't have that option or opportunity at our school really, but it seems most Chicago Universities do that sort of thing. They allow their students to work professionally while at school because there are so many opportunities so close. We stopped at a Sanrio store for Katie Mac so she could look around and we ended up purchasing some cool China Town trinkets. I bought a headband--very cultural, I know.

We took the El back to our hostel and called it an early night. All the girls had found great purchases. I had an awesome pair of boots, but no dress. We were all trying to find dresses for our upcoming summer auditions. I had to keep looking. This was definitely the most exhausting day of our trip, by far.