What a weekend!

This was a BIG weekend.

I had rehearsal this whole past week for the one-act play I was in, and it was a rush to make sure I was prepared by Saturday. We were doing random rehearsals trying to fit time in, and my scene partner and I were doing more outside work than we've done for shows in a long time. We had 3 separate rehearsals on Saturday. A morning one for a fight-call, and a run through. Then a 3 pm rehearsal with some Italian Run Throughs. This means you say the lines really fast (and normally you would accompany them with over dramatic movements, but we did it sitting down because the rehearsal space wasn't available). And then a 4 pm rehearsal for one last run-through before the 5 pm performance~!

Needless to say, the rush had my scene partner and I scrambling to make sure we didn't forget lines. The constant rehearsal was a help and a hindrance, just because we were trying to cram so much into our brains. But our director was amazing and she gave us a lot of freedom to build our characters and emotions.

The performance (for our director's grade--yikes!) went off perfectly! The energy was great, we didn't forget out lines, and we landed all of our naps in the fight scene. Naps are the sound effect made during a stage fight, usually by hitting hands together instead of hitting hands to faces. There was one line, after I get angry and throw a phone out of a window, where there was a pause because I had forgotten that director had told my scene partner to say her line early (and I was being a bad actor and I wasn't listening properly) before I remembered to say my responding line. However, it ended up working perfect for comedic timing. Everyone in the audience laughed when I said my line and we moved on and didn't make any mistakes. I felt so great after the scene was done, mostly because I didn't have to stress anymore, but also because I feel confident that we didn't mess up our director's grade.

If given the chance to continue working with the scene I would. The characters are very interesting and I feel like I only scratched the surface with mine.

Then there was the dance concert that I attended Saturday evening. Our college dance department put on a faculty directed/choreographed production. There were two guest artists: a Japanese woman and a circus arts man. The concert was really great! It's definitely one of the better ones I've seen here. There were so many interesting pieces. There was a piece called Lynchtown that was beautiful and powerful. And then I really enjoyed the circus piece. The dancers walked on stilts, rode unicycles, juggled balls (and did other awesome tricks with them), and mimed! It was very cool and made me wish I had been given the opportunity to take the Circus Arts class. It was full when I applied.

Today I made my final decision about the upcoming Warehouse Elections. The Warehouse is our on campus student-run theatre. And the elections are coming up for new board members. I originally wanted to run for Artistic Director, but I've changed my mind and settled on Public Relations. Doing this position can teach me a lot more for when I go out in the real world, if I ever wanted to start my own production company/theatre or something similar. Our AD position is unlike any professional AD position, because our faculty oversees so many decisions. I figured, I blog so--I could start a Warehouse blog! And then the local newspaper here has a blog and a YouTube channel, so I could definitely hookup with them to get a broader basis in the community. And I did a lot of PR when I was President of my Thespian Club in high school. I also love working with people, so--decision made! PR will give me a better business aspect, and AD would give me a more artistic aspect. I'm going with business.

I've done some research this weekend for my Global Village paper over the preservation of indigenous cultures. My TA was extremely helpful in the last meeting I had with her, and it reminded me how much more interested in international relations I used to be. It got me thinking a lot about studying abroad or what I might get my masters in one day. I'm definitely going to be looking into Study Abroad options for after my graduation date--look out Mom, here I come! The Dean of my performing arts department even mentioned how good of an idea she thinks it is in class the other day--so there. But really, there's so much more to learn and discover. And the best artists are the ones that experience a wide variety of things, so they can apply those experiences to their art. If all I ever do is theatre, I'll fail as an artist. And volunteer work in a foreign country would be fun!

I have a Theatre History II exam tomorrow morning to study for! It covers a pretty large time span, so I better get to work. I have to admit though, the lesson on the Theatre of the Absurd has definitely helped me research which absurdist play I want to pick for my Directing II scene. I better get on that too.