Tag Archives: theater

The Camel’s back

The first weekend of spring term was surprisingly productive for me. I think I have discovered the secret for me not being a slacker–stay in the building in which the classes take place for which I must do my homework. Saturday morning I went to the art barn to shoot slides of some of my glass, and Steve asked if I could stay that afternoon and charge the furnace every half hour or so. I agreed, and actually got a lot of work on my casting project done.

Auditions for Chalk Circle are today, and I’m faced with a tedious decision. I’m already involved in the play, in that I’m going to help Katherine make masks, which should be awesome fun. I really want to do electrics as well, but judging how busy I’m going to be based on this weekend (and the glass slots haven’t even started yet!), I fear that would be the breaking straw. I certainly couldn’t sacrifice a large enough chunk of time to be light board op again, but I would still like to be an electrician. I’d even have tech weekend taken care of, as I don’t plan on picking up glass slots on Fridays or Saturdays, and the studio is closed on Sundays.

Still, I have a gnawing fear that it might be a bit too much for me. I don’t want to hurt myself, and I still have the big Decision-Making-March to contend with. And besides, there are tons of road shows this term, so I’ll get my electrician fix in regardless. I’ll wrestle with the idea a bit and decide by this afternoon I suppose.

Stomp revisited

I watched Stomp again last night from the catwalk, it was still just as envigorating. The sound collects rather well up in the catwalk, and the view was spectacular. I even went backstage early for the encore, it’s even *more* amazing when they’re 10 feet away. I’m jealous of Squirt, she got to work the show on props (meaning she got to toss them brooms and things onstage if one of theirs should break).

Load-out went well. There is a strange phenomenon concerning roadshow load-outs…whenever Katie Stubblefield and I are in the same proximity, we ALWAYS end up coiling cable. It’s some strange trick of fate. Anyway, I loved the Stomp electricians, they were all very friendly.

The load-out itself went surprisingly fast, and we were out by midnight (usually load-outs don’t end until 1 or 2 in the morning), and yesterday was Midnight Movie night (in which the college kids get to go watch movies at the local theater for free. We decided to be hard core and go, since D Flo hadn’t seen the second Lord of the Rings yet. So, D Flo, Tater, Eric, and myself drove out to the theater as the previews just drew to a close.

The idea didn’t work so well. Three of us had just finished a load-out, so the adrenaline quickly wore off. By the treck to Helmsdeep we were all nodding off. Originally, we were struggling to stay awake for Flora, since he’d never seen it, but even *he* was slipping away. Ultimately, we decided to savor what was left of the day’s strength and went back home.

I can now officially say I’ve seen The Two Towers 2 1/2 times. x_x

Stomp….and volleyball??

Monday I got a break from the manual labor of building the furnace to instead take part in the manual labor of the prehang for Stomp. I love working in electrics, and I loved having a separate day for hanging the lights. It was much more lightly paced, and I didn’t have to worry about tripping over the carpenters.

I was plotting to sneak up to the catwalk to watch the show, since both nights were sold out before break even started (curse my procrastination). However, a nice girl in my furnace class gave me her ticket, because she was unable to go. It was still as amazing and energizing as when I’d first seen it several years ago with my mother, and I still plan on sneaking up to the catwalk tomorrow night to catch another show ^_^

Of course, tomorrow in the dining hall there’s bound to be a slurry of rhythmic playfulness from table to table. It’s addictive. If anyone *hasn’t* seen Stomp, I highly recommend it.

In other news, we were informed by Steve on Monday morning that our furnace building class was also on a volleyball team (much to our surprise). It seems that Steve suggested the idea of class intramural volleyball for the winter term, and “couldn’t just suggest the idea and not sign up.” At first, we were a little miffed about being “volunteered” to have a team, but that soon wore off.

Our first game was that night, and we won! Sort of…Dr. Miles’ team didn’t accumulate enough players. We played a game for fun, though, and it *was* fun. Surprisingly, too, because I am horrible at volleyball. Next game tomorrow night! Then the load out for Stomp. A busy week already.

Mario Paint

The first week of furnace building has drawn to a close, and I think we’ve gotten a lot accomplished so far. We seem to alternate between a day of getting lots done and a day of disaster and error and getting nothing done. But, we’re almost completely finished with the substructure, yay!

The other day, elwe was explaining his experience in practical applications in math. Coincidentally enough, I had a similar experience this week, though it mostly involved figuring out how many insulating fire bricks we’d need and at what angles they’d have to be cut to fit in the circular glory holes. It served as further proof that the easiest facets of math–like adding and multiplying–slip beyond my grasp.
“Let’s see…12 x 7…uhhhhhhhhhhhhh………..::gets out calculator.” Oh well, at least there were some math majors there to help me out.

In other news, D Flo is a musical genius. Well, that’s not really news, but we were playing with Mario Paint last night. D Flo whipped out this amazing little piece, even under the limitations of only having quarter notes, only three notes together at a time, and replacement of traditional instruments with mushrooms, geese, and airplanes. I was amazed, so I made a little animation for him (a dancing kitten, to be specific). I’d forgotten just how fun Mario Paint can be.

Plus, the collaboration reminded me of how I need to get crackin on my entry for the film festival. It’s almost all storyboarded, and since Flora’s also writing music for Patrick for Chalk Circle in the spring, I need to give him as much time as possible to help me out.

For now, I’ll just get my laundry done…

Healing

This weekend, I’m staying in bed most of the day, under the watchful eye of the drama department. The drama department, in spite of the amount of drama that goes on within, is a good group of people, and perhaps the best at taking care of one another. Perhaps it’s just me, or perhaps it’s a running trend among art majors, but I tend to neglect myself at times.

So, for the past two or three weeks, I shrugged off my drama friends’ demands that I go to the wellness center, attributing consistent body pain to “just being sore” from glassblowing or some such, or maybe carrying one too many heavy things, who knows.

It wasn’t until yesterday, when my bones felt like they were on fire, that the drama department took action and forced me to go to the wellness center (Matthew told me that he was calling up Sheldon to say that if I showed up to painting class that day, I was to be sent directly to the student health center, and Jeff made sure I didn’t escape, and walked me over there. I went, got a check up, pulled out of my glass slot for the evening, and have since been watched over and mothered about by Brendan and D Flo and whomever else, to make sure I stay put and stay rested.

As such, I’m sitting and fretting about the work I should be getting done in the studio, but am getting some needed rest. I really think there should be a Drama Department to Art Department caretaker program, because I know *I* really have a tendency to shrug off potential threats of bodily harm. I don’t even realize how bad it is, until Brendan says “when you’re in too much pain to ride your bike there’s something wrong, and it’s not just lifting heavy things.” No wonder there are starving artists, we probably just shrug it off until it’s too late to do anything ^_^;;;

I suppose it works both ways, I tend to have a watchful motherly eye myself, just not for my own sake. Perhaps it’s the entire college environment, to need to take care of each other, so it doesn’t kill us all.

Free at last

The completion of a good show always brings a wave of intense satisfaction, spiced up with some other emotions that I haven’t classified yet.

Then there’s strike.

Collectively destroying a creation that has taken months of hard work to build within the span of a few hours is always somewhat tingly. It’s like Tibetan sand mandalas, only the destruction process takes much more physical labor than the wind whisking it away, and as such, the crew is by that time too exhausted to experience any meditative catharsis.

It didn’t help, I suppose, that I spent most of this last show curled up in a corner of the booth, crawling to my chair now and then for this or that light cue. It was the culmination of about a week and a half of peculiar body pain, which has been attributed to everything from carrying too heavy of a backpack to other people’s stress. Nevertheless, Jeff was kind to me in my strike duties, and afterwards while picking whether to come in the next day from 12-2 or 2-4 to finish up, Matthew and Squirt shooed me into the “not at all” pile.

So, no cast party for me, but I was instead rewarded with a long-needed recovery sleep of 12 hours exactly. As I woke up, the unusual body pain had been converted to a normal soreness that one tends to feel after a heavy workout (granted, I was half-awake at 10, and had trouble rolling over and opening and closing my hands, but 4 more hours of sleep processed that away). Of course, it does feel like my latissimus dorsi is going to suddenly snap away from my ribs with every movement, but it’s not the sharp, throbbing pain that it has been for the past week.

Today, then, begins the “Day of 10000 things to do to catch up with myself,” starting *sniff sniff* with cleaning my room and doing my laundry.

Will Johnston Can’t Pronounce Silent E’s…

Opening night was a success! The actors were wonderful, the tech ran smoothly, and there was much laughter from the audience (the play is hilarious, but makes you feel terrible later. Our drama department favors those sorts, I’ve been hoping for a comedy, and got one, but not without a slap of socio-political depressive seriousness to go along with it).

I did have one minor crisis. 5 or 10 minutes after the house had opened before the start of the play, I was fiddling to plug in a snake light so that I could see what I was doing up in the booth. By accident, I turned off the power strip…which the lightboard was plugged into. The whole plot went black, and Lyle (sound board op) and I exchanged glances of terror. Frantically, I got the board back up and running, and light back on the stage. Phew! It was good that it happened early, I think there were only a few people in the house by that time.

Otherwise, things went wonderfully! Looks like I may survive the Week of Hell afterall!

And so…

Well, it turns out that no kittens plummeted, though the comp sci kitten may have been bashed about a bit while being dragged back up. I talked to Dr. Shannon and she said that if I don’t turn in my lab on time, it’s not the end of the world. It’s fine, I guess, I’m doing well in that class, one poor lab grade won’t kill me.

To people entering college soon: Talk to your professors often.

In other news, I think the going-ons wore me a bit thin, and I was a little down today. Jeff was a great comfort, though, in my wonders about identity and social place. He told me that I have a better sense of myself than most everyone here, and that was a startling compliment to me. It gave me lots to think about and cheered me a bit. Go Electrician Solidarity!

It was also a cheer-up that Tommy ran around outside with me tonight(morning). The weather was beautiful, the first real autumn day stuck in after a long span of early winter.

All and all, I think I’ll survive the play next week.

Oy! Decisions

I hate it when things get so busy that you *have* to sacrifice one responsibility for another. It’s unpleasant, and is similar to having to choose which kitten you let plummet to its doom, since you can’t hold onto all of them as you struggle to drag them back up the cliff.

The predicament: my comp sci lab, I have to finish it. Options for the sacrifice…

1) Just don’t do it.
–theoretically, I could just turn in my lab unfinished and move on with my life. But, I’ve already missed a second lab which Dr. Shannon has graciously let me make up on my own, I shouldn’t take that for granted.

2) Bail on Jeff
–the big reason I can’t finish the lab is because I have to rush over to the theatre right after class and help hang and focus lights. No way I can bail, judging from last night’s run through, we have oodles to change and fix, and cue-to-cue is at 6. We’ll be working like ants, and I can’t leave Jeff hangin.

3) Painting
–this would be the easiest thing to do, just slip out of painting an hour early. It’s tempting, but my need to work on this current project and my devotion to Sheldon keeps me from doing it.

4) Lunch
–this is starting to look like the best option. That’s strange, too, because normally I’m the first person to give up higher responsibilites to satisfy a need on the base of Maslow’s triangle. However, it might have to be done, and that would not be pleasant.

5) Bail on weekly glass studio cleaning
–and face the wrath of DH and Ken? No way

Stay tuned for updates

Tech Ninjas Unite!

Today, I believe, is the first day of a several-week building period, at the end of which I will explode. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just going to be very busy with the play and all, and I’ll have to buckle down and be diligent with my work and painting.

Working a road show today. I love doing this, perhaps it’s just me, but waking up at 7 in the morning to load in a show is good times for me. Depleting my body of all of its energy stores in order to construct a set which will only be torn down at the end of the night is somehow pleasant to me.

I love working them, though, partially because the people are always good to work with. They’re always friendly and patient, because if it’s your job to load in a show every day with a different group of people which you have to explain what to do over and over and over again, you have to be patient and friendly by default. They always end up being slightly loopy, too, which is just more fun. Working on electrics is my favorite, and believe it or not, I haven’t had to use my crescent wrench *once* today.

I also visited Tony II (of England adventure fame) to bid him farewell. We discussed the interesting quirks of the States and his overall experience. I will miss him very much, but I’m sure I’ll see him again. As long as I make a point to write it down ^_^

Well, off to be studious, and rest up for load out tonight.