April Begins...

I'm probably going to have even less free time this month than usual, so I figured I better blog now or forever hold my peace.

I'm feeling a lot better than I did a couple weeks ago. My harddrive still hasn't been fixed, but everything else is seeming to look up.

The thing that I found out the day after my blog meltdown that made me not dislike the theatre department as much is public knowledge now. I was named Theatre Department Student of the Year. It was quite flattering. When Dr. Petrie called me into his office the morning after I had posted my angry blog, I was POSITIVE that somebody had ratted me out to him and he was going to bug me about it. I was shocked when he told me why I was there, though, and I told him that I really needed to hear something like that at that point in time. He said all of the faculty had voted on it, which was something else I needed to hear.

Last week, I had to go and get my picture taken for the program of the banquet that I'm supposed to go to for all of the School of HASS students of the year. I was really bugged because out of 9 or so of us, there were only THREE of us that dressed nicely for the photos. And we were the men. The women all dressed casually. It's called tact, people.

I'm going to the banquet in a couple weeks, and I'm bringing my mommy as my date. I could have used it as an opportunity to ask a certain someone out, but I figured my mom deserved it more than they did. She was really excited when I told her about it.

I'm still thrilled about my SAST show. I couldn't have asked for a better cast. My concept is turning out really well. The faculty advisor, Dave Tinney, came to our rehearsal the other day and seemed really excited about the show. He was very complimentary.

Smokey Joe's Cafe is going well, too. There are a few people in the cast who have a tendency to be divas, but other than that, I really like the cast - even though they're as bad at talking as the High School Musical cast was. As much as I've liked working on this show, though, I'm ready for it to open so I can focus on Wizard of Oz.

I ordered a new car this week. I'm very excited. My monthly payments are going to be REALLY good, and I'm going to use it to establish credit. I'm stoked. I've always wanted an SUV, and I've always wanted a green car. I'm getting both, but it's an SUV with great gas mileage. It's a Ford Escape, and this is what it will look like:

I'm bummed, though, because I had to order it and it will take 6-8 weeks to get here. At least it will be the color I want, though. NOBODY carries it in the green color.

School is starting to wind down, and it's feeling nice. I had one final last week, one tonight, and I'm down to just a handful of major projects left. My directing scene of The Monkey's Paw was awesome. My actors, Jana Grass and Wes Tolman, were fantastic. They really went with my classic Universal horror concept. I had fun putting together sound effects and making monkey's paws (I made a backup, just to be safe. And because Mr. Potato Head comes with two arms, so I figured I might as well use them both....)

I've been acting like crazy lately. Between the scenes I've helped with for directing class and my scenes from Acting, I've been memorizing at least one new scene every week. Last week, we had a theatre department showcase, and Chris asked me to do two of my scenes from Acting II. I had to rememorize them, but it was worth it. I did a scene from Doubt with my friend Laura, and it was incredible. I've never felt so good about my acting. My other scene was fine, too, but this one felt really good. I had an Acting final tonight, too, and performed a scene from Rabbit Hole. It felt pretty good, too. After Ah, Wilderness! I really didn't want to ever act again, but I'm not hating it as much now. Of course, doing scene work in class is completely different than being in a show, but I wouldn't rule a show out right now. I'll just have to make sure I work with directors who are really supportive and give feedback- even if its negative. I had no confidence in my acting at all after that show, but now I'm feeling pretty darn good.

I think that's about it for now. Here's a fun video that makes me happy. :)

Playing Catch-Up

Wow. Where to start? I haven't blogged since the end of October.

I danced for joy when Ah, Wilderness! ended. Even though I was feeling a little better about the show toward the end, I still didn't enjoy the experience.

After that show was over, I had to get right to work on the sound design for Canyon Suite. I hated the script for that show, so it was kind of a challenge to get through it and come up with a concept for the sound. Eventually I came up with an awesome idea and had all the pre-show, intermission, post-show, and scene change music come from a radio within the hotel room set. Then to tie it together, I added interstitials of myself as a radio announcer. The show turned out to be pretty good, despite the script.

The week Canyon Suite opened, my youth theatre had a touring show with the oldest group, which turned out okay, even though the kids really scared us for a while. Then, we had our fall parent performance with all of the groups and finished the year out.

For my final project in my directing class, we had to direct a scene from the play Some Girls by Neil Labute. I was given the first scene, which was twice as long as the others, and I was told it was because they knew I was good enough to handle it. One other student and I got long scenes and had to find a clever way to use 4 actors when it only called for 2. I had a really good concept, and then one of my actors dropped out the week before we performed. The concept kind of suffered as a result, but it stilled turned out really well. After it was over, the department chair told me that my scene and one other were the best.

Fall semester ended, and not a moment too soon. I didn't get my usual 4.0 because of one class - my stupid Educational Psychology class. I expected some poor grades in a couple others, too, but this is the only one that screwed me in the end.

Christmas came and went too fast. I got LOTS of great stuff. I know I'll leave some out off the top of my head, but some of my favorites were: a new laptop, a naughty Batgirl action figure, an autographed(!) copy of Amy Grant's autobiography, lots of DVDs, Guitar Hero III, and Rock Band. The last two were presents to myself. :) I felt like I deserved them after the rough semester. Especially because I had major money troubles throughout October and November, and I had saved up a lot of money and had been good about not blowing it.

January and school started at about the same time, and even though I rather like my classload so far this semester, I wasn't fully recovered from last fall. Also, I was really sick the first week of the year and missed my first day of classes. And I've had pretty much non-stop colds since Christmas.

I was on the selection committee for next year's theatre department season. I was really bummed because one of the shows I really wanted to do was "off-limits" because of a professor's request. BUT! We're still going to have an amazing season next year: Flies in the Snuffbox, Nosferatu, Tea with Mint and Lemon, Twelfth Night, Burial at Thebes, and Chess. (It's a European-themed season.)

After an incredibly rough start, An Evening with Jason Robert Brown is now underway. I have an AWESOME cast, and I can't wait for the show to run later this month. We have a great songlist, and the songs are AMAZING.

In youth theatre, we've started working on The Wizard of Oz. I've completely reorchestrated it and made it funky. There are some numbers close to the original, but now there are some jazz, pop, hip-hop, swing, rock, disco, country, and metal aspects. I'm really excited for it. The kids are doing really well.

I'm also currently working on Smokey Joe's Cafe. It opens in April (just before Wizard of Oz). We just had auditions and rehearsals start later this week. It's going to be an incredibly hard show to cast. I'm really excited for it to get going, hough. Especially because I know it's the favorite show of many of my friends...;)

Oh, and I had my birthday, and I feel really old now.

I think that's about it for catching up. I'll be better about blogging in the future, I swear. Dammit.