Summer in Review

School starts in less than 12 hours. While I'm glad that it didn't start when Utah school districts start for the first time in ages, giving me an extra week, I'm still not excited. I should be. I have classes with all of my favorite teachers in the theatre department. Most of my classes this semester are fun classes and not required. It's my final senior year, meaning after two more semesters, I'm DONE. I should be stoked, right? But I'm not. Oh, well. Even though it was way too short, I had a GREAT summer. In honor of this, I decided to create a blog to award some moments of the summer and give them due respect. Drumroll, please...

Best Personal Theatrical Experience: The first full run-through of Saturday's Warrior/The White Star. I really teared up when Jimmy reformed and saw Pam at the end of the show. Other than one little issue I had to deal with, working on the show was an incredible experience. I would give my right eye to work with Matt Neves again, and I would cast pretty much the entire cast any chance I could get. There was such an amazing atmosphere (which I credit to the Spirit, but that's another blog in and of itself) that I've never experienced working on another show. I secretly hope that I get asked to do the show again next year.

Best Professional Theatrical Experience: In the Heights. Holy freaking crap. Loved every minute of it. And I not only teared up, but for the first time ever, I CRIED at a show. Very moving. From the moment "Atencion" began to the moment "Everything I Know" ended, I had tears streaming down my face. I really was the ultimate fanboy after the show. Brilliant theatre.

Favorite Music: In the Heights, OneRepublic

Favorite TV: Mad Men, Fear Itself, Psych (the 80s prom episode was one of the best episodes of any show ever), The Soup

Favorite Movies: As if it wasn't obvious, The Dark Knight. I really loved WALL-E, though, and I quite enjoyed The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

Favorite Activities: Hooters & The Dark Knight with Emily, Matt, and Melinda; relaxing bbq with Taryn, Megan, Taven, and Holly; meeting Ashley Brown after Mary Poppins; catching a ghost on film in the form of an orb at the Winchester Mystery House

Best Personal Achievements: Teaching the advanced acting workshop for youth theatre and seeing the progression in some of the kids - I may not be the best actor, but dang, I can coach kids in it; Various cleaning projects - I've never had such clean and organized living space; rewriting the majority of the vocal parts in Saturday's Warrior/The White Star - I had a blast, and I was really proud of how they turned out, especially when I was told that Janice Kapp Perry was pleased with what I had done with WS

Best Purchases/Gifts: Batman lunchbox, license plate, and keychain from Teri & Bristol, new iPod, new car, New York souvenirs (especially my 30+ scripts that I bought from The Drama Book Shop)

That's about it for now. I may come back and add some more stuff if I remember something. It's late, afterall, I'm dead tired, and I've got school in the morning. UGH!!!!

My Wish List...

...for this moment in time. If you can provide any of these things, please do. And God bless you.

• A no homework guarantee for the rest of the summer semester. It's all stinking busywork. I hate it. If it was stuff I didn't already know how to do, I wouldn't mind.
• A good role in a good play at a good theatre. With an awesome director.
• A good makeout session with any (or all) of the following: Kelly Clarkson, Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Fischer, Alicia Silverstone, Emily VanCamp, Elizabeth Mitchell, Evangeline Lilly, Yunjin Kim, and oddly enough, Kristen Wiig.
• Songs by the following artists for Rock Band: The Beatles, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, The Rembrandts, The Fray, Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, and Dashboard Confessional.
• A Batman trailer hitch plug.
• More free nights.
• Motivation to write.
• More time in New York in July.
• Better seats for South Pacific. So I can actually see Kelli O'Hara.
• To meet Kelli O'Hara after South Pacific.
• Time/desire to read more.
• More time for a social life.
• An orchestra score to follow me wherever I go. Complete with motifs based on the people I see on a regular basis.
• A greenhouse full of plants with googly eyes.

I think that's it for now. I may add things as I see fit.

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. :)

Think Positive

I was going to try to post a positive blog every night this week, but so far, this week hasn't been too wonderful. So, I'm going to post to remind myself all the things I'm thankful for. Be careful, though. Some of them are really things I'm bugged about but masquerading as things I'm thankful for.

Tonight, I'm thankful for:

Queer Eye. I'm about to start watching the final episode, and I know I'm going to tear up. I've loved this show from the beginning, and it always makes me happy when I'm pissed off. It's a good thing I've been recording it for Teri, who doesn't have Bravo. I'm going to copy the discs before I give them to her. Also, on tonight's episodes, they've made references to both Punky Brewster and Amy Grant. Nice.

Great theatre. I've been reading scripts like crazy the last two weeks to find scenes for my directing class. I'm obsessed with Take Me Out, The History Boys, and The Guys. I ended up picking Take Me Out for my scene. The Guys was my first choice, but since I was one of two people in the entire class (of a whopping six) that prepared more than one option like we were supposed to, I had to switch to a scene with three people. I got all of my first choices for casting, though, so that's good.

Stupid horror movies. There have been TONS on TV this month. The best way to watch stupid old horror movies is edited for TV. I watched Children of the Corn 2 last week, and loved it. I have probably 10 more to watch on my DVR, but I've been too busy. I've decided that I'm going to be brave and get through Hellraiser for the first time this year. In the past, it's made me feel too creepy to get through it, but by gosh, I WILL make it through.

Nieces and nephews. Gosh, I love those kids -- even the ones whose parents I don't always get along with. I've had fun watching scary movies with them in the few spare hours I've had this month. I'm crashing tomorrow night and hanging out with them all evening.

Non-blood nieces and nephews. I love my friends' kids. Bristol talked to me on the phone tonight and was SO excited that he gets to come trick-or-treating to my house tomorrow. And he promised he'd hug me, and then he told me he loved me. It was adorable. After seeing him for a minute last night, it got me thinking about how much I miss seeing Julie's and Wendy's kids. What kind of goshfather am I when I let school get in the way of my duties?

Shrimp Fajitas. Enough said.

Friends. I got to spend Sunday evening with the Pollocks, the Broadbents, Kimber, and Stephanie. It was great. I made incredible clam chowder, too. Then last night, Teri and Quincy came to my show, so I got to see them.

Nights off of my show. First Sunday, now Halloween! Even though the problems I had been having have pretty much completely disappeared and parties involved are acting like they never happened...I still am not enjoying the show. Tonight, we had a surprise photo call. I should have been home by 10, but instead, I got to stay for an extra hour. Guh. If this were professional theatre, I would have been breathing down the Equity deputy's neck BIGTIME.

Free songs on iTunes. I'm so broke right now that I'm not going to be buying any music anytime soon, but I've been storing up those free downloads, and I've started listening to them this week. Dang! There's some good stuff on there for free. Check it out.

Michael W. Smith Christmas albums. Thanks, Kimber! The new album sounds like a long-lost soundtrack to a Home Alone movie. I'm especially thankful that it's closer to the second Christmas album's orchestration than the first Christmas album's synth-pop feel.

Cars. They get us where we need to go. They run on gas, which gives us a great excuse to blow money. They get bad alignments which cause our tires, which are only 18 months old, to go bad. They cause us to blow $300 that we don't have on new tires. They require us to pay for registration and inspections every year. God bless them.

Homework. I sure do love spending every minute that I'm not at school, teaching, or at my play by working on research papers, studying for tests, and reviewing scholarly journals.

Kids who threaten to kill themselves for attention. Guh! I'm not a public school teacher, and I still had to talk to one tonight and try to convince him that it's not the best way to express himself.

The cast of Young Frankenstein performing on The Today Show. I'm stoked. I set both my DVR and my DVD-Recorder to tape it just to be safe.

New York trips that include lots of shows that only cost $850. What a bargain. It sucks that there's a $200 payment due this week, but I'll deal.

I've been writing this for over a half hour, and I'm about ready for bed, so I'm going to quit now.