Higher (and Lower) Education

I wrote this blog RIGHT after graduation, but for some reason I didn’t post it. So, almost a month later (wow! time flies), here it is.

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In my blog about graduation, I talked all about how much I hated most of my classes when I first went to UVSC. When I went back, my experience was MUCH better. This entry is a tribute to the highs and lows of the last three years. I’ll go into great detail with praise, but on the bad stuff, don’t expect to get names. I’ll dish dirt, but not THAT much.

Best Professor (Generals): Ben Moulton. I had him for my FIRST class when I went back to school. A math class that I was “placed” in from my computer testing score. I should have been placed in a higher math class, because I had an A+ throughout the entire semester. Ben made me remember how much I loved algebra (yes, I love algebra). He also helped all of the haters do well in class. He wrote songs about formulas and equations, he found real-life applications, and he provided several ways for people to relate to math. I planned my next semester around having my next math class from him.

Worst Professor (Generals): In the last 3 years, I didn’t have many bad ones. If I could tell one was going to be bad, I transferred. Of the ones I kept, the one I liked the least was probably the history teacher who was retiring, so he didn’t really care anymore and just rambled a lot and strayed off topic too much. I’m sure he was a great professor in his day, but he was worn-out by the time I got him.

Best Professor (Theatre): Ugh. SO hard to choose. I can only narrow it down to two, so Chris Clark and Dave Tinney tie. Both men were so knowledgeable about their subjects that it was kind of disgusting. I can’t think of a time that there was a question they couldn’t answer. The real clincher, though, which made them beat out their competition, was the way they cared for and respected their students – even the obnoxious ones. In the three years I was in the program, I never once saw either man disrespect a student. They’re probably the only professors I had who I can say that about. Some of my professors seemed to think that I was stupid and incompetent, and both of them treated me exactly the opposite. In fact, Dave wrote in an e-mail to me once when I was bugged by how some of the faculty had been acting towards me, “You are NEVER a lowly student.” I hope I get to work with both of them outside of school many times in the future.

Worst Professor (Theatre): I can’t list one, because it’s too specialized, and you’d know exactly who I was talking about if I listed it. Hmm… maybe the secret blog?

Best Professor (Education): Kristen Wright. I took her Exceptional Students course, and loved every minute of it. I feel sorry for people who had other professors. Kristen was dyslexic as a child, so she teaches from the point of view of someone who has been there. She knew the subject inside out, and she provided SO much more information than a textbook ever could (or did).

Worst Professor (Education): THREEWAY TIE! First, the jerk who gave Laura perfect scores on the same work that he gave me C’s. He was out to get me the whole time, and I had THREE classes from him. Second, the guy who didn’t really know what he was doing, and he made me redo assignments because he hadn’t looked at them when I turned them in. After stressing about it, I resubmitted, and he told me I probably didn’t need to go to the work. Third, the old man who I was afraid was going to fall over. He was so old and shaky that I couldn’t read his handwriting, and he docked me points for not using APA style, even though my papers were perfect APA style. Jerk.

Best Class (Generals): Gonna have to go with Ben’s math 1010. Loved that class. Miss that class. Would take it over again.

Worst Class (Generals): English 2010. Yuck. So glad I never have to go through that again.

Best Class (Theatre): Another tough one, another tie. Acting II from Chris and Acting for Musical Theatre from Dave. I felt more growth not only as a performer, but also as a person in these classes than any others. I got HUGE confidence boosts that I really needed at those points in time. I also liked almost every other student in the classes, and for a picky butt like me, that’s really good.

Worst Class (Theatre): Introduction to Theatre. Blech! I should have been allowed to test out of it.

Best Class (Education): I don’t really have one. I liked Multicultural Instruction, Exceptional Students, Instructional Technology, and Content Area Reading & Writing. All of these classes dealt with topics I’ll actually use. They also had a minimum of busy work.

Worst Class (Education): Curriculum and Assessment, Educational Psychology, Foundations of American Education. All three included WAY too much busy work, and I didn’t care for the professors I had, either.

Most Mind-Blowing Class: Katie Farmer’s Script & Text Analysis. I struggled with her as a director, but I liked her as a teacher. She is one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known, and her methods of analysis are accurate and ground-breaking. I can’t believe UVU is the only place that benefits from her methods. I hope she finally gets around to publishing her stuff, because I want to teach it to my own students.

Least Mind-Blowing Class: Production Practicum. Death to this “class.”

Best Production Experience: Chess. You probably either loved it or hated it, or you didn’t see it. I loved almost every second of working on this. Out of all the shows I did at school, this was the only one that didn’t make me feel relief when it ended. I was kind of bummed that it didn’t get extended at all. The Tempest is a close 2nd, and might have edged out Chess if I hadn’t been feeling burn-out already when I worked on it.

Worst Production Experience: At one point, I declared Ah, Wilderness! as the clear winner. Now, I can’t decide between it and Oh, Pioneers! The worst thing about AW was that I felt absolutely worthless. I’ve never had a director ignore me like that, and I’ve never gotten so depressed working as an actor. The worst thing about OP is that it went on FOREVER. Other things I disliked about the shows: clashing with directors (even though I love them as professors and maintain positive relationships with them OUTSIDE of the shows), dealing with cast members and/or crew members from Hell, and the overall stress they caused. Watch out, though, AW and OP! An Evening with Jason Robert Brown is a VERY close 2nd.

Best Experiences with Fellow Students: I have a few of these. Working on Dinner for Four with Trisha Nozumi, Amos Omer, and Katy Baxter. It didn’t feel at all like work, and the good times helped the quality. Also working on my scene from The Monkey’s Paw with Jana Grass and Wes Tolman. Such talented actors, and they had fun experimenting with the concept. Finally, anything to do with my good friend, Laura Garner. We hit it off immediately the first semester of our first year back, while we were working on Nunsense. We had most of our classes together from then on, and we were able to study together all the time. We also had good laughs, such as when BFF 4evr, Sara, and I convinced Laura that Shakespeare talked about how Lady Macbeth had her husband’s balls in her purse. Laura frantically searched the text for at least 5 minutes trying to find the passage. God bless you, Madame Valedictorian! Oh! Also, the trip to NYC! That counts as school since it was through the department, and it included several of my favorite fellow students.

Worst Experiences with Fellow Students: #1) When I was directing a show as a TAG benefit, and a member of TAG told me I had to do what he/she said because, and I quote, “there are five of us and one of you.” It was poetic justice when the department chair told him/her to his/her face that he/she couldn’t pull off the show, but I could. Then, he/she supposedly tried to sabotage the show by talking crap about it to others. I don’t know how valid this is, but based on how he/she acted when he/she house managed a performance, I believe it. #2) Dealing with a certain student who was constantly making others feel like crap. I don’t care if you were married to Marie Osmond, do not disrespect me or my friends. Oh, oops! Did that make it obvious who I was talking about? I’m so passive-aggressive.

Best In-Class Assignments: I really enjoyed most of the projects in Stagecraft II. Steve Purdy is a painting genius, and it was fun to work on projects with him. I think I liked the 5-board bench best of all. The stinking thing really looks like it was made of marble!

Worst In-Class Assignments: All of the busywork in my education classes. Having to write extra papers in Theatre History & Literature because the professor got cranky a couple times at people who weren’t doing their work.

Best Acting Scene: Overall, the best scene I was part of was probably when Laura and I did the climax of Doubt in Acting II. We both grew a lot, and when we performed it for an audience, we got several compliments about how people could really feel the tension (in a good way). A close runner-up would probably be the scene from Lysistrata that I did with Jaclyn Hales in Acting Styles. We had a lot of fun with that, and I felt like we got the Greek style down pretty well.

Worst Acting Scene: In Acting I, I did a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest with a really nice guy who was NOT an actor. I think he was a technology student. I could have gotten more out of a piece of cardboard. Luckily, Chris was nice when it came grading time.

Most Fun Acting Scene: Tie between Tartuffe with Sara Preston and Mark Oram in Acting Styles and the commedia scene for the same class, with Sara and Laura. In one, I got to hide under a table while my wife tried to seduce a man. In the other, we got to rewrite the Bible – commedia del’arte style. Good times.

Least Fun Acting Scene: I love Mandy Lyons to death, and our scene from Angels in America turned out to be pretty darn good (Chris told me it was my best performance all semester). However, it was NOT fun to work on. What a downer! We couldn’t go through it too many times because it got so emotional.

Other moments I want to remember:

• Working on a scene with Elfi as a crooked doctor and me as a crooked businessman
• Telling Laura via MSN during class that Kyla had the look on her face that she gets when she’s gassy, and having Kyla coincidentally pull the WEIRDEST face right as Laura looked. All three of us laughed. We got in trouble.
• WTF?! moments during Chess where Dave and I would try not to laugh and would pass notes to each other.
• Discussing the brilliance of The Office, Pushing Daisies, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly, and more with Joe Fox while working in the shop. Sometimes Steve joined us.
• The one time I actually went to KCACTF, and it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Saw some good theatre, saw some BAD theatre (Little Shop of Symbolic Female Genitals, anyone?), attended some good workshops, attended some BAD workshops. However, I had fun hanging out with friends, and it helped to solidify my desire to teach theatre. And I met Mrs. Joe!
• Being asked to perform two scenes at a showcase night. Granted, some people performed a lot more, but for someone who at that point had no confidence in their acting skills, that was big.
• Being told by James Arrington after AW that he really believed I was a guy out looking for a prostitute. Pretty sure it was a compliment, but it was a little too Three Men and a Little Lady for my taste.
• Doing sound design for Canyon Suite and totally pulling my concept out of thin air when I was trying to convince Dr. Petrie to not make me do his idea. I loved the idea I came up with, and it was executed pretty well.
• Being chosen as the Theatre Department’s Student of the Year.
• Being asked to be on the season selection committee my junior year and having a say in what we did during my senior year. Too bad the season got completely messed up after the plans for the new theatre came to be.
• Analyzing The Village in Katie’s class and finding out that I’m not crazy for thinking it’s a bad movie.
• The time we dressed Joe up as a gypsy car salesman in Stagecraft I.
• Spending TONS of time working my butt off scoring Nosferatu by cutting, pasting, and deciding what clips to use and when. It was actually a blast to set up Sonar and edit the score like a Hollywood mixer. Not so much fun was having members of the cast and crew tell people that I had nothing to do with the show. I totally snapped at one person when he tried to tell my friend, Lindsay, IN FRONT OF ME that Chris did all the music. Had it not been such a miserable experience, I might have actually stayed with the show and put myself through Hell to write a complete, original score for ACTF. As it was, I passed.

I think that’s about it. I’ve blogged about school so many times that I guess I could easily go back and reminisce through them. Overall, the last 3 years of school were pretty great, with just a few bumps along the way. I already miss some of the people I saw all the time at school, and I miss classes where I can actually do scene work myself, and not be coaching kids. I miss LEARNING, too. And sadly, I miss algebra. :)