TITP

I have decided today I want/need a lot more experience in technical theatre.  A coworker and I had minor panic attacks today about wtf we are going to do after graduation and where we will get jobs doing what... This is not the first attack of this kind either of us had experienced.  I sometimes wonder what I'm going to do in the "real world".  Do I have enough experience? Do I know well enough what I'm doing?  Is anyone going to hire me?  Is there something more I could have done in school or did I just coast by?  What should I look for a job in...dance, lighting, waiting tables? I don't know!  Does anyone else have these moments?  Just us?

From Stage Crew Chief land, part deux

Day two at Mallory's went quite well.  After getting all the designs down on the flats and finishing up building and base coating the stonewall flats, we called it day.  Day two got off to a rainy start, so we had to wait for things to clear up a bit before continuing on our adventure.  Once we did however, we got a lot accomplished.  The second coat of paint for the stonewall flats went down, with us using a sponge roller to create texture for the stones.  My fellow artiste and I worked on the two larger Room of Requirement junk flats, since they had less design work to be painted in.  It took the whole afternoon, about 5 hours, to finish up painting all the details on these two flats.  I was so grateful to have her there, since she was much more astute with mixing paints to make certain colors and etc.  Again, I have to reiterate my respect for designers.  I know that there is a whole lot of work that goes into the creations that we have the privilege to act in front of or move around, but I did not know exactly how much until I started trying to do it for myself.  I know that I will leave all of that up to the designers themselves, but a big thank you to all of you for making it look so easy!

So that was the summary of my weekend down at Mallory's.  In the mean time, she has had various cast/crew members helping her out down there as well to help finish up the painting and building of the flats.  HOWEVER, as these things usually go, we have had a rather interesting wrench thrown into our plans.  Mallory informed me the other day that the Leaky Con people informed her that at the back of our stage is a line of LED screens that are right up against the stage.  Well, the plan was to have the taller, stonewall flats up against the back of the stage and have room for the actors to walk around and enter through them.  Now, we do not know if we have that space, which is a problem.  And, since Mallory needs as much of the 16ft wide stage as she can have, we can't have the flats on stage with room to walk behind.  However, Mallory has a friend who is making the designs that we are using into pictures for the LED screens so we can have some background.  But, as I'm sure most people know, lights like to reflect off of/bleach out screens sometimes.  So after that long, complicated description, my plan, and now the overall plan, is to air on the side of not being left without a set and we are doing both.  Once we get to Leaky we will know a lot more, so right now, we are going to finish up the actual physical set and all the props to go with it, but also have the designs for the LED screens, just in case.  Foolproofing it seemed like the best idea, and so here we go.  As the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.  I am going back down to Mallory's this weekend, so I will have more to report after that  and then on to Leaky we will go...one week from Monday.  I am equally parts terrified and excited, since I have never done anything quite like this before.

From Stage Crew Chief land, part une

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted on here!  My apologies, but since TFB(The Final Battle) doesn't really get rolling until we are done in Florida, I haven't had much to say.  However, I do now!  I went down to Mallory's house (Mallory is the director/co-creator/producer/wonder woman of TFB) during Memorial Day weekend to work on the flats for the show.  We began painting the stonewall flats that will serve as the standard background for all of the scenes in the show.  Also, we designed and drew out the "junk" that is in the Room of Requirement.  I will say that I have most certainly learned a new respect for artists/designers.  Taking something from a concept on a piece of paper to actually trying to draw it to scale on a wooden surface is not easy.  However, I have found that it is not only my father who has artistic (in the way of drawing/painting) genes. I may not be the most amazing artist ever, but I am proud of what I made.  Day one was a little confusing because Mallory just told my fellow artiste and myself to just put stuff on the flats.  Just random things.  So, in brainstorming, we came up with just that.  There are various references to other things we all know and love, such as Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings, but hopefully the majority of it looks like it belongs in the Harry Potter world.

All things come to an end

So my internship for the summer is now completely finished. We had our
last show and I think that we really went out with a bang. The audience that we had that afternoon was loving every second of the show and the cast and crew really gave their all that day. This whole process has been really great for me. I have had so much fun in the past month, made some really good friends, learned lots, and I will never forget everything that we have accomplished together. Its really cool to look back at where we started and think just how far we went. When we started we were basically a nice community theatre but by the time we closed we had become the theatre that Pip and Rod had wanted and more.

I have mentioned before how the cast and crew have become such really good friends and that is another part of the journey that has been great. If you would have asked the cast about adding to the run time of the show it would have been a pretty strong no. But as we were starting the last show there were lots of comments about how we should
have added more shows and things like that. Nobody wanted to be done because it would mean that our family that we had created was parting.

One thing that I really like that I think would be fun to bring back would be how we started and then how we finished. The very first time that the cast was together we all made a circle and did some introductions and sort of started the show as one group. Then at the end of the show we all got together again in our circle with the crew members as well and finished the way that we started. It was a nice little beginning and closing thing with everyone.

Great River Shakes

It has been a while since i last posted. We have been unbelievably busy as expected and as usual i supposed i could say. We opened two of our mainstage shows last weekend with great reviews. I am running spot light for Midsummer and back stage for Henry. The Technical Rehearsals for The Fantasticks start next week and then shows begin shortly after. Now that we are into the runs of the shows things are slowing down. Some of the staff have left for the season since they are no longer needed and we arent working 16 hour days anymore.

I was selected to be the Technical Director for the Apprentice Production of King Lear, which started rehearsal yesterday. We havent had a production meeting yet so the extent of my role is yet to be determined.

Things are going well. there are a lot of great people here and the support from the community for the festival is unbelievable.

3 shows down, 1 to go!! PRT Update

Hey everyone, things are going well here, just getting the last push done for our last show "Crazy For You" and it's a big one! We spent today rigging and hanging several fly-in units one being a gigantic flat sort of thing that has 11 bricks and counting on it. Quick note, we have a double purchase system here so our weight is 40 lbs a brick to be exact and having to load the arbor with them gives you quite the workout. Other than the fly-in units, the scene shop is trying to put together rather large roll-on platforms that don't seem to fit in the wings...but I'm sure it'll be fine, always is.

Tonight we had a full runthrough of the show and it went better than expected. There are some spots in the choreography that are a little off because we haven't done them full tempo with the piano yet, just the CD and of course they are different. And this leads me into a mini vent, should be fun for you guys, here it goes: So the past week or so the entire company has been frustrated with our choreographer. The reason is because she has come in multiple times and said, "Well, I didn't know we were doing this number today...." You can imagine why this might be frustrating because we have had the schedule out since we started, and how can we expect to learn the choreography well if she doesn't even have any of it planned out already.

We are taught to come prepared to every rehearsal, unfortunately she has not been on various occasions and she has even given the responsibility of choreographing to the lead actor and actress, for their duets. We have two really big numbers in the first act which we spent two full weeks on staying an extra hour after the afternoon session. Now that we are on act two, all she does is average dance steps that are really easy for some people the rest are just doing various tableaus and acting interested in the others who are dancing. I see this as just being lazy and not putting in the time to make these numbers as good as they can be. The choreographer and even sometimes the director seem to be doing things with the mind set of getting them done, instead of taking the time to actually do it. Take the finale for example as it's blocked now, 5 cowboys (including me) don't even come on stage until the bows. And the final tableau consists of the 6 show girls and the two leads, remember this is the finale we are talking about. I asked why the 6 dancing cowboys aren't at least coming on to make the last pose more interesting, and the director told me it was because he didn't want to have to make costumes for us to match the girls' and that he wanted us in the cowboy outfits for the bows.  You can take this two ways, saying "okay that makes sense." or "Really? You have "been ahead" in the costume shop for two weeks, and can't come up with simple vests for the guys to wear". I totally get wanting us to be in the cowboy costumes for the bow, but just the way he said it and what has been happening with the choreographer it kind of came off as the costume shop being lazy as well.

This may seem petty, but if you were here, you'd understand my frustration. It seems everyone is just lethargic when doing everything and I don't get it. This past strike took just as long as the strike that needed to take 5 hours and that's real irritating. People here just take their time with what they are doing, there's no sense of urgency. Anyway, I'll be done, just note that I will have a lot more patience for people when I get back.

And don't get me wrong, I do like it here, we are just going 5 weeks straight and I need a break. We have 8 more rehearsals until we open Crazy For You. Hope we'll get to performance ready. I'm sure we will, it's theatre, everything works out because it has too.

Ta-Ta for now

Curtainbox Theatre Co, Seventh Post

Today in class we introduced the sound ball game to the kids, where we pass around an imaginary ball that can grow or shrink with each pass, and is accompanied by a sound each time the ball is handed to someone. Because the students have a difficult time with abstract concepts like this, we started out by practicing just the imaginary ball part without sound. The kids got very involved in the game to the point where the student next to me made his ball too big for him, and he collapsed and was "trapped" beneath it. Fortunately, another student picked the ball up off of his peer, shrunk it down to a manageable size, and passed it to me.

We also had a going-away party for one of our teachers, a therapist who got a job in Arizona. The students and teachers were all sad to see her go, as the class was her original idea, and many of the students had grown close to her. Kim has been interviewing people to take her place, but they will have some very large shoes to fill.

Kathleen

Shows, shows, and more shows

Hi All,

So the past two weeks I have been busy attending a lot of different original musicals.  One of my favorites was called The Trouble with Words, which is a song cycle by an up and coming composer named Greg Nabours.  I got to meet Greg after the show and what a great guy! I honestly could see this show on Broadway, and the LA critics have compared his works to composers such as William Finn and Jason Robert Brown.  I look forward to hearing his music in the future.

Speaking of Jason Robert Brown, I actually met him and his wife Georgia a few nights ago at Disney Hall.  I was attending Eric Whitacre's new musical entitled Paradise Lost.   For those of you that aren't familar with Disney Hall it is this a one of a kind music hall located right in the middle of downtown LA.  It was designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry and is one of the most gorgeous buildings (both inside and out) in all of LA.   As for the musical, it was very interesting.  It was about a group of angels that were abandoned, without wings, and their journey to find these wings.   The music was spectacular, (although I must say it was more of an opera than a musical) but the book needs some work. 

Then the past few days I attended a show called Lemonade, which was written by two high school seniors, and I must say that I was impressed.  And yesterday I saw a musical entitled Twist at the Pasadena Playhouse.   The Pasadena Playhouse is such a gorgeous theatre, the building was built by Spanish architecture design in 1926.  As for the musical, again it was great!  The composer Tena Clark and the director and choreographor Debbie Allen both hope to move the show to Broadway, and I could definately see that happening.

So that is just a very brief description of just a FEW of the shows I have seen in the past few weeks.  Besides seeing shows I continue to help coordinate The East Side Initative project for the festival as well as coordinating many other meetings and events.   My time here has flown by, and I can't believe I only have a little over a month left.  =(   However, I am excited as miss Sara Jensen will be flying in to see me this Thursday night!  =D   

Th th th that's it for now folks!

Beauty Plays 8

Woo Hoo! 4 performances down and many many more to go. The first 4 were a great success. With the exception of a couple minor hiccups, everything went smoothly. No major set issues (as of yet). No major costume issues (all so as of yet). Now, crew has week off till the 2nd, then we go full throttle to finish up Reasons to be Pretty and start up The Shape of Things and Fat Pig before we strike everything on the 17th. Here's to 4 down!

Dress rehearsals--Faust & La Boheme

Yes, you read that right--TWO shows dressing on alternate nights! Last night was "Faust", and it was a bear, mainly because of its massive size. I went in to work at 9AM, and didn't get home until almost midnight! Today, we started work at 10AM (Woo hoo!) and I was home by 11, after "Boheme" rehearsal. Whew! (Well, I didn't have to stay for the ENTIRE rehearsal, just until I was released by the Costume Shop Manager.) Sunday's off, then we go back and start it all over again on Monday! Each show has 2 more dress rehearsals, (that I will NOT be required to work--I'll watch final dress), then the season opens on Friday with "Faust", then "Boheme" on Saturday. 2 down, 3 to go! But I'm going to bed now! Happy Sunday, everyone!

To get an insider's view of what we do, go to the Santa Fe Opera web page, and check out "The Back Deck", their blog. There was a great article about Lara Berich, one of the drapers in the Costume Shop, and how she created a fat suit for one of the "supers" in "Faust". Really cool! And other articles about props, sets, etc., for the rest of you production types!

Good night!

TITP

We open Les Mis tomorrow night and I can't wait to just open the show.  This changeover has been terrible, no plan, nothing getting done the way it should by the time it should and I am becoming really frustrated with some of the people I work with and even more frustrated that there isn't really anything I can do about it.  I am also supposed to be running spot ops for this show but they decided to put up a vinyl backdrop (its sort of a galactic stars thing so it's like Les Mis IN SPACE!) and the drop is INCREDIBLY reflective so all the spot cues look terrible (much like a lot of other lighting) so we aren't having any spots...which means two of us have nothing to do during this show but sit all night every night.  At least the show is going to be good; singing is outstanding, costumes look great, set is nice, the director is great.  I'm sure we'll have a huge turn out.

And next week we start our second changeover, I have been warned that this one will be just as bad and that's just delightful.  I would love for everyone to do their job for once and allow everything to run smoothly.

Beauty Plays 7

We just finished up tech rehearsals and a preview for Reasons to be Pretty. We have 3 people backstage, including myself. We don't have a lot to move, but we help with costume changes after our three big set changes. We got nearly everything down to the second. We open tomorrow, so if your in IA still, you should come see it!!! It's gonna be good...

Almost There

So we are in the final push to get the last set complete, can't wait til it's done. But our third show, Almost, Maine opened tonight and there was a great audience. One reason why I enjoy this place, is because we get such a well rounded theater experience. For example, I'm ushering and working box office, along with painting, building, rehearsing and some costume shop stuff. We have been going none stop since memorial day weekend and it is really beginning to take it's toll. However, we get 3 days off starting next saturday! Can't wait for that! Some other things to note, foam is really fun to work with, but frustrating. And I wish we had a double purchase system in fisher and some of the tools in the shop here are really handy, like a panel saw, but that's okay...maybe something to add to the wish list!

As for other news, I have 3 days straight of dance coming up, and the weather has been kind of crappy!

Hope all is well back home!

Makeup/Mic Meetings

Had the makeup meeting just after I posted last night, and after the disappointment of finding out I was only to be responsible for a significantly smaller portion of the makeup designs, I did feel quite relieved to know that all I need to do now is find a beard, a wig, some spirit gum, some latex and scar wax, and a few wheels of F/X and shadow and highlight creme (we're going to ask the actors to purchase their own foundation and other "everyday" makeup pieces, but we're going to get all the fancy and specifically "for-stage" stuff). I just finished up my sound tech meeting, too, and things are a bit up in the air right now, so much so that I feel perhaps better prepared than the sound rental people who have so far failed to contact my director. I was able to provide her with contact info for a number of different companies from whom we could rent, or whom we could hire to install our sound equipment. I just found out that last year they ran this show with a 12 channel board, with only 8 mics to pass between the actors. I tried as well as I could to put my foot down and ask for a 24 channel board, since the company is supposed to provide the equipment and it shouldn't cost any more than the 12 channel. That way, we would have 20 mic packs, 3 hanging mics, and one channel for backstage communication, which would solve a significant number of problems as far as passing mics between actors is concerned. I'm amazed how complex this whole sound system issue has become. It was never this bad when I've worked with sound before, even old in-house patch systems. But maybe the fact that the other systems I've worked with are in-house is the major problem here. Despite all the pain of those old patch systems, all the pieces were already there. With this show, we're having to bring every single element from the amps to the mixers, audio snakes, mics and packs, receivers, etc. ALL in from the outside. All I can say, is that no matter how much I feel like complaining about the untimeliness of the sound company we're working with, I have immense respect for people who can figure all this crap out!

Hassle and Confusion for me at TFB

I've become more and more frustrated with the process of working on the Final Battle, because I feel so horribly out of the loop. I'm not required to, and in fact most of the cannot, attend the cast rehearsals, so I don't have day to day updates about the cast or deadline or other info on the show that I might need. That being said, I could try harder to be a part of those rehearsals, so I guess it's just my own fault for missing out there. I also have a huge number of questions concerning budget for the different tasks I've been assigned. I don't know what the budget for microphone, packs, mixer, and speakers is going to be. All I know is that I was supposed to price out options, but having never done this before and knowing almost nothing about sound, I don't understand even where to begin looking, since the equipment and companies I've been talking to may be far outside our budget. I was also told that I was to be part of the team of makeup designers. Ok. Awesome. The only piece of info I received from the director for weeks was the suggestion to learn from the other designer's which of us was going to be in charge of which characters. I never heard back from them, over which I contacted the director. She informed me that she would attempt to contact the other makeup designers. I never heard back until yesterday evening, when I was abruptly informed that the makeup/hair/costume designers were to have a meeting with finished renderings. I scrambled madly to finish the forty-plus designs required for the show, assuming full responsibility for all the characters since I had never heard a single word from the other designers or the director about my assigned character designs: I assumed responsibility for them all because I feared that no one had taken responsibility for any of them. I contacted the director directly and personally today, to inform her that I had complete renderings for all the forty-plus characters in the play accept for three minor characters. She abruptly informed me that I had only been assigned about six characters. I am VERY upset about this, since I put many, many, MANY hours into the series of renderings and a great deal of thought into the themes and color-palettes of each family line and type of character, depending on how they were grouped or related to one another in the show. All of those ideas have gone to pieces, since I've been assigned individual characters from what I assumed were different groups that would have entirely different color-palettes. I suppose I could have tried harder to contact/receive info from the director and other designers... but I'm still pretty upset about the whole thing. I don't know that I will be able to work on a show with such a distant and impersonal rehearsal process in the future.

PRT Day what? I don't know

Hey folks,

Sorry it's been a little while since I have posted up here. My first show, Arsenic and Old Lace, opened this weekend so I was busy and exhausted with that. The run was crazy fun and we had pretty good houses all 5 nights. However, having 10 straight runs in a week, and working at our work area (scene shop) during the day really puts a number on the body. I haven't been this tired in a long time. Building four shows, while rehearsing for 2 of them, all in 6 weeks makes you really tired, but I think it'll be a great endurance boost for me!

I really enjoyed that my parents got to come up this weekend and see where I work, they asked me if I was working out because I look like I did back during my freshman year and I said no, that they have me on the scene shop workout ;-)

Again having loads of fun, can't wait to get everything built so that we can possibly having maybe a morning session off here or there.

Oh, one thing that I have noticed is that, not being from here, I have had a lot of catching up with all the inside jokes and what not. However, the hardest thing is that everyone here, faculty, students, etc. are so comfortable with each other and know how everyone works that I see that people are just plain lazy. I know I have a big work ethic, but it's been frustrating sometimes because I don't think they get that we do need to put up 4 shows in a month and people's priorities seem off that's all. Hopefully it'll get better.

See ya later!

Curtainbox Theatre Co, Sixth Post

This week I have to work every day at my other job, which means that I won't be able to get many hours in at the Curtainbox. I did, fortunately, manage to make it to the autism class today, where we introduced improv to the students. We did this by pairing up the students and giving them a first line from which to start a conversation in front of the class. While these ended up being slightly disjointed at times, it was wonderful to see the students interacting with each other.

The biggest goal of our class actually isn't to teach the students how to act. Instead, it is a way to allow the students to partake in personal interactions and work on social skills. Using a theatrical lens helps the students because the imaginative aspect of the class decreases the stress that autistic children feel in social situations.

Kathleen

Hi all. It has been great to hear about so many of the exciting projects you are working on. In addition to what I read here, I have met quite a few alumni of the program who are out working professionally or have traveled to see some of the projects current students are working on. Each experience makes it increasingly clear how many good things are happening in your ensemble here at Iowa State and how unique, independent and special the theatre students are that make theatre here.

I met Carrie Taylor in Chicago and got to hear about her work at Chicago Shakespeare and how smart and hard she is working to make a life for her in that theatre community there.

I met her because I was traveling to Chicago to see Michael Brandt’s work with my former students from Detroit (and ended up riding the bus with Chris King, who was going to Chicago for headshots in preparation for his move to Chicago to start his professional career.) Brandt stopped by my office and asked for information on what shows to see in Chicago and what leads I could give him on summer work there. To Michael’s credit, he called that day and ended up not only doing a whole spectrum of production management work but acting in the inaugural production of Naked Theatre’s “See you in the Mourning.” This company just formed and is made up of students from Wayne State in Detroit—all kids who got into lots of trouble with me when I was there. Each came up to me and said how impressed they were with Michael, how hard he worked and how much of a theatrical “Swiss-army knife” he was—a guy how could do anything they asked of him. I think this would be true of most of our students who spend four years working and making theatre here in Ames, since so many of you spend as much time building and preparing shows as you do performing and directing them. Maybe less glamorous of a way to learn, but infinitely more worthwhile, I figure.

I ended up traveling back to Iowa with alumni Jordan Whalen. We spent some time in Detroit together as his MFA training at the Hilberry overlapped with the last two years of my PhD work. It was great to hear about his experiences at the Moscow Art Theatre and the work he was putting into starting his next step—transitioning from grad school to the professional world.

Even though I have only been here a year, I am continuing to meet more and more former students and get to know our current ones better. I’ve met and been so impressed with former students who are at or about to begin graduate training, like Eleanor Kahn and Amanda Mullen, and excited about many of you who are getting ready for a move to a theatre community and starting to work.

That has been the most exciting part of my summer, hands down.

Outside of that, I am in my office most days, trying to type madly in hopes of finishing my dissertation. I play softball with a number of ISU theatre folks on Sundays, and I am rehearsing for a production of “As You Like It” that will play for a weekend at the end of July at the Salsbury House in Des Moines. Colin and Maddie are in the play, Kelly is designing costumes…and Brad Dell beats the hell out of me as Charles the Wrestler.

If you are taking or have taken an acting class with me, I’d love to invite you to come see the show. I think it could be a good learning opportunity to have a discussion on what you see—what’s working, what’s not—especially in the context of the conversations we have in class.

Some of you have gotten into touch with me about trips to Chicago or New York and what plays are playing and what I would recommend to see—please feel free to contact me if you are going and want a scouting report, or if you want to go but need help figuring out hostels and megabus and the like. I’d be glad to help.

Looking forward to reading more what you all are up to and looking forward a great deal to starting back up in the fall.

Best,

Matt Foss

Santa Fe fires!

OK, no worries (so far). Just in case it made the news, the Pacheco Canyon fire that started today is not (relatively) near the Opera. It's to the east, and with the winds out of the west, we're not in any imminent danger. (The Opera house has burned down once or twice in its 50+ years, so it wouldn't be the first time!) It was pretty amazing to come out of work at 5:30 today and see this immense plume of smoke rising over the mountains to the east. We've been dealing with the smoke from the Arizona fire for the last week & a half, the entire state is under major fire warnings, and there's no rain in the foreseeable future. About all we can do is pray that some yahoo doesn't carelessly flick his (or her) cigarette butt off into the brush or something equally stupid!

So, on to more pleasant subjects. I get to see "Company" after all! They've held it over here, and there's a show at 11Am tomorrow (Sunday)! It may be blasphemous, but I remarked today, that I'll gladly worship at the Church of Sondheim on Sunday morning! Then I plan to treat myself to brunch/lunch somewhere (I got paid for Week 3's overtime yesterday!) and THEN go see Sir Derek Jacobi (in person!) perform readings & music from/inspired by "The Tempest". Well, there's a music ensemble who will perform the music, but Sir Derek & Richard Clifford will perform also! (OK, it's getting late! Time for bed?) I also need to shop for groceries for the coming week. The first 2 operas start dress rehearsals on Friday (Faust) and Saturday (Boheme). So lots of long hours are in my immediate future! (But we get off at 6PM on Thursday--the Rodeo's in town! Woo hoo!) The summer events are really starting to gear up. I've been here 5 weeks, and I have 5 more to go--so I guess tomorrow's "Hump" Day, in a manner of speaking!

There was a great article in the local paper yesterday about Faust, which has never before been performed at Santa Fe. It was great, IF you're a carpenter or props artisan! Several photos of them, creating carousel horses and fake pies! No costume pics though! I felt slighted! Paul Horpedahl, the Production Director, said some nice things about the Costume Department in the article. That was lovely. We're ALL busting our butts to make this show spectacular!

TITP

We are currently coming to a close on Sound  of Music (only two more shows).  Sunday night, all night, we do change over to Les Mis, educational version. The whole cast is high school students, over 26 schools are represented in the show.  It should be a fun show to work but we are doing a TON for the change over so it will be busy and tiring few days/nights. 
We are having some trouble with crew dynamics in the sound department.  It has been this way for the whole show and everyone is getting to a breaking point.  Our boss, who usually isn't at the theatre, had to come in last night to "encourage them to be different".  Hm. People are all being a little to heightened self-aware and there is strange sense of entitlement they think they have.  Everyone is getting tired of the fighting, backtalk, and crying and if it were up to me (which it obviously is not) I would quit wasting everyone's time and start some firing and hiring.  It is incredibly important in the theatre that everyone does their job and does it well and without question.  Yes, some jobs suck, we all know what they are, but they have to be done.  Quit bitching and get up there and do it, because once it's done, the sooner we get to leave and grab a beer and at that point, bitch about it all you want! Honestly, I do some complaining, I know that.  However, I still get my job done the best I can.  There is a balance and right now, as a team, ours is off something terrible.  With the change over upon us, we need to pull it together to make it happen.  And if people don't straighten up, as far as I ( and others) are concerned, we don't need you.
On another note, I had my first royal F*** up of the season.  (Just so everyone doesn't think I'm up a little too much on my high horse after the above...)  I am running SFX for Sound of Music and last night I caught myself dozing off during the show.  I had nothing to do for the rest of the first act so I was just leaning on the table and fighting to stay awake.  About then I thought to myself, I sure don't want to bump that mouse, I should move that..... so I went to slide it off the 'GO' with my elbow and .... DING DONG.  Big doorbell in the middle of the scene.  Ooops.  I've never felt worse for a fumble in a show.  At least I didn't hit the Hitler speech.  Hope everyone is doing well. 

More ISU Theatre News

It is past time for me to post on ISU THEATRE.

At the moment I am working as the Lighting Designer for Neil LaBute’s Beauty plays Trilogy. Today we started the light hang and it went very well. I am lucky to have an assistant. Olachi Anaemereibe, who some of you may know, is a Design College student, who took Theatre 255 last semester. She is working with me as part of her summer internship. For me, it has been a great joy, to introduce Olachi to more of the theatre world. These three plays share a general theme, but have different characters and plots. Designing the lighting for three works on one set has been an interesting and rewarding challenge.
Another interesting aspect about these plays is that I HATE every character in all three plays…… Not the actors, not the plays but there is little to like about these people. They are vain, manipulative, egoists who seem to care little for the people around them. Thank God the people working on these plays are the exact opposite!
Working with StageWest feels like a second home. I am working with Todd Buchraker(director of Marigolds 2010) Emily Ganfield(Costume Designer for Marigolds and Mockingbird spring 2012) and Jay Jagim (Set Designer for Hedda) along with many other past and present ISU Theatre people. StageWest has really proved to be a professional outlet for ISU Theatre! If you have not worked with the people at StageWest, please consider it. Jane, Kelly, Brad and I would be happy to help you get involved. As you have noticed from reading this BLOG Charlie Ziemann, Caleb Woodley, Jeff White, Michael Heath and Austin Kopsa are also part of this project.
I also have been working at The Ames City Auditorium. Mostly watching rehearsals of Annie Jr. Directed by ISU ‘s Kelsey Kovacevich, Stage Management by Brittny Rebhuhn, Musical Direction by Colin Morgan and a design team of Brook Berg, Nick Veenstra, and Madison Welterlen. It is amazing the quality of work coming from that stage. Story Theatre is another great opportunity to flex your theatrical muscles.

Keep up the good work everyone. Reading this blog has been great fun.

Jim Trenberth

Beauty Plays 6

We're getting closer to tech week! Moved the platforms and walls over to the theatre. Got them set up. Note: Make sure you bring everything you need the first time. We didn't have a level to check if some of the wall were even. All that's left is putting up the shelving that goes across some of the walls and the plugs that go between walls as well as some painting. It's looks great!

And I've had a change of plans. I'm now working backstage as the "crew chief" instead of the sound board op. I guess we were running short on stage hands...

First Chorus Rehearsal (music)

Last night I attended the first one 3 "introductory" music rehearsals for the chorus scenes within The Final Battle. Our composer/conductor, Lena, covered all the songs that have chorus parts, no matter how big or small the parts in the song are. Because singing as a group would be very difficult to do online, all she did was go through each song and covered technical aspects of the music, such as crescendos, accents, ending consonants, etc. As a new cast member, learning all this new music has been a little bit of a challenge. First, acquiring and downloading it, then finding time to listen to it. For the latter, however, in retrospect I had more free time than I thought that i could have been devoting to learning the music quicker. All I had managed was one full play-through of each song while following along in the score (which I printed off and organized into a binder). Having listened to the music though, I was very impressed by what Lena had created, and could not wait to keep working on it.

A couple things that I learned from this: I need to work on my time-management and preparatory skills. If I have any sort of role to play in a show, I need to put all my effort into preparing for that role, in order for the show to be at its best. If I want to make this my career, I need to take this seriously. there is so much competition out there, and if I want to make a name for myself, I have top pull out all the stops, even if I'm only in collegiate training right now.

Curtainbox Theatre Co, Fifth Post

I am beginning to realize how fascinating autism is, as it manifests itself differently in each of my students. Some of them are very quiet and withdrawn, while others have difficulty remaining in their seats or refraining from talking over others. One would think that this dichotomy would make the class a frustrating one to teach, but the students all share a common willingness and eagerness to participate in class, which makes my Monday evenings incredibly rewarding.

During this past class period, one of the students brought in a short play that he had written. He had assigned a part to each student, and requested that we do a read-through of it in class. What ensued was a wonderful display of these children, who typically have difficulty interacting with others, working together to bring their peer's creation to life.

In addition to helping with the class, I also finished collecting scenes and monologues for the adult acting classes. My boss recently started reviewing the scenes, and so far I've gotten good feedback! I hope she enjoys the rest of my selections as well.

Kathleen

Coming to an End

The fist weekend of shows went really well. We have had lots and lots of great reviews and people have been trying to come in and get more tickets for this coming weekend and have had to turn them away. Its kind of sad that this little adventure is almost over. The past four(ish) weeks have been really great and I have made lots of really good friends and it will be sad to say goodbye.

I am the worst student ever... but turning into a great teacher!

So my gmail account, for some reason, kept sending the emails for the blog to my spam folder and I couldn't figure anything out. I probably should've emailed Jim about it, but I've been the busiest person in the world.

So as for my life so far...
I participated in the Spring Graduation Ceremony in May and then drove the 12 hours back to Plano, Texas. Man am I glad to be back here! I started my summer class here at the community college and passed (one more thing off my list). I've been working part time at the American Eagle at the mall here and working as a nanny until my internship started (which was Monday).

I am teaching Summer School at Ursuline Academy in Dallas which is an all girls Catholic school. I am teaching Speech and Theatre. I love it! The girls are really sweet and want to make sure they have everything perfect. I was completely clueless coming into the job. I had never done actual teaching, just lab teaching for Dance 385. So many of the games and tricks I had learned in school at ISU have really helped me in working with the girls.

Right now they are working on speeches (the curriculum is heavily speech with theatre history and such added in). They are all really afraid of public speaking but here's hoping I can help them overcome it!

LA Update

Hello All,

So it's been a while since I've written, but I've found some free time so I thought I would write.

So the Festival is in full swing! I have continued to attend musical premieres all over southern cali.  The lastest one, was a gay rap opera entitled: Bash'd.  It was outstanding. The cast consisted of only two actors, both of which were fabulous.  And funny enough one look really familiar to me, so I went home and googled his name.  Turns out he was in the production of The Scottsboro Boys which I saw back in September!  This is his first project since ending his run on Broadway.  I found it very interesting to think about what it would be like to go from performing on Broadway for hundreds to performing in 99 seat theatre!  Quite the change.

So besides seeing new musicals, I've also have been helping with another new and exciting project for the festival.  The Festival of New American Musicals would like to sponsor a nation wide search for the next big musical created by college and high school students.  There would be two separate divisions (high school and college) and the top ten winners would be flown to LA to compete for a scholarship to help further their education. My boss is currently in talks with Dreamworks and NBC for a possible collaboration. One of the big questions was where we could host the regional competitions.  I made the suggestion of a possible collaboration with KCACTF, since there eight different regions all over country.  So I contacted Gregg Henry, the artistic director of KCACTF, about the possibility.   He seemed open to the idea, and I'm very excited where this might go.

My main responsibility though is to help coordinate a project called the East Side Initiative, which is a program designed to help take underprivileged kids from the east side of LA (90% Hispanic) to many different musical theatre performances throughout southern California.
 My responsibility for this program is to work with the people at The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation to make this project a reality.  I am in charge of contacting the different theaters in the area and ask if they would be willing to donate tickets so these kids can attend a show free of cost. Then once I have finalized everything with each theater, I then relay the information to LA County Parks and Rec so that they can arrange transportation. It's a pretty cool program and I have enjoyed working with the people at LA Parks and Rec.  Oh with the program we will also organize a training day in which we bring in professionals to work with kids (ages 7 to 19) interested in musical theatre. There will be three different instructors and the kids will break up into groups to attend each of the three training sessions including dance, voice, and acting. This will take place in July.  

Tonight I had the opportunity to go to a discussion in downtown LA about "The role of Los Angeles in the National Theater Scene".  The discussion was led by Charles McNulty, the theatre critic for the Los Angeles Times.  The Panel consisted of Michael Ritchie, the artisitc director of the Center Theatre Group; Marc Platt Broadway producer of Wicked, Three Days Rain, Edward Scissorhands; Tim Robbins  oscar-winning actor from Mystic River, Beth Henley playwright of Crimes of the Heart and many other plays and films, and Sheldon Epps Broadway director of Baby It's You. There was a great turnout and it was a very interesting discussion to say the least. 

Well that's it for now.  Tomorrow I'm off to see the West Coast premiere of the opera "The Difficulty of Crossing a Field." 

Over and out.

Strikes again

The Ghost of Jenny Wiley....damn her.

Not even 30 minutes into the work day, the scenic designer for Annie shows up to help out some. Shatters his ankle on the mountain.

boom.

Some one needs to call Ghostbusters

Prairie Rep Theatre stuff

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been blogging that much, we just had a show open last weekend, and are getting ready to open the second one in two days! So basically what we do here is that 9 hours a day we work on ultimately 4 shows, either rehearsing or building and doing tech stuff. We had a successful run of Church Basement Ladies at the SDSU auditorium with only minor fixes I had to quickly fix before the first couple of nights. Sunday was the big day, because we had to strike CBL and put up Arsenic and Old Lace which consists of 4 platforms 8 feet in the air plus a fancy staircase and a lot of flats that have to be put in funky angles. This process took a total of 5 plus hours counting the loading of a set from the shop and having like a 30min dinner break.

Note: I will never complain about a 3 hour strike at Iowa State ever, because at State all we have to do is tear it down, here we have to just take it apart and go store it and put up an entirely new set. Do summer stock or rep and you'll know.

AOL is the next show and opens in a couple days, I play Officer Brophy in the play and I love it, we have had a total of 15 rehearsals counting today in less than 4 weeks. And I believe we have a great show to put on. However, we only get 5 performances before we load in the next one and continue the cycle. I'm Master Carpenter for the next show so I'll be real busy finishing the touches on that when I'm not performing.

It has been a month since I have started working and it's crazy, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. I'm working in the theatre all day everyday and the people are great and the pace that this goes at is right up my alley. We hardly have any down time right now and when I get back to school in the fall, it's going to feel real sluggish when we have 6 weeks to put up one show. I'm learning a lot about time management when it comes to theatre and the whole process that goes with putting on 4 completely different shows.

These blogs can't express how much fun I'm having with all of this and unfortunately it's going too fast. The only down fall is that there is a lot of Taco John's and McDonald's in my meal line up, because I don't have any time for anything else...hopefully that'll change.

Peace out everyone!

-Sterzy

Beauty Plays 5

Just got back from the scene shop. Built a couple more items for the stage and worked on some shelves. Got a 101 in how to use and angle grinder and a roofing nailer (I know its not usually used in a scene shop but it works very well and it holds everything together!) We also built a flat rack to keep them out of the way of us working.

Not much left to do except move everything over and get the flats set up. Then the fun stuff starts...

The Ghost of Jenny Wiley

Might hate us.

We've had more hospital trips this year than nearly ever.

TD-Broken finger (bone in half)
Swing carp #1-Me- Thumb in table saw 4 stitches (healed now)

Swing carp #2- scratched cornea (needs to be aware of his surroundings)

Master Carp- thrown out back

Master electrician's assistant- stomach issues

We may have made it out of the woods. The first show is open, I saw it last night, looks pretty.
We are busting out Annie's steel flats like its nobody's business.

Theres another show we have to build now...its a touring show, I haven't got any clue what its going to be, but its not going to be a problem I'm sure.

Last year's TD showed up to help out a little bit. He's a really cool guy, knows the space better than any of us, and loves JWT more than the administrative staff, I believe.

We're soon going to put up some portals, I'm not exactly sure how since we can't find a chain motor anywhere in Eastern Kentucky....but I'm sure it'll happen.

Come on down and see us.

Great River Shakespeare

Things are going really well here. I saw a run through of Mid Summer just the other day, and it is really wonderful. We do three main stage shows in repertory, so for the last 4 weeks myself and the few others that are in the shop have been assembling and fabricating three different sets. Primarily I have been getting experience doing things that I do not get a lot of opportunity to work on at Iowa State such as metal fabrication and pneumatic pistons and such.

One thing that is becoming very evident is that for any one task, there are 100 ways in which it could be accomplished. Some better than others but many just as effective. The biggest issue that arises from that is that everyone around has a different idea of what is proper, rather than what will work and what is the fastest way we can do it. Instead of one person throwing out an idea that works and going with it, everyone gives their opinion and we spend a good chunk of time discussing what we should do, and therefore wasting the time we could be using to get the project done. UGH! It is frustrating, but at the same time it is nice to hear different ideas on how to accomplish something.

Another thing that is brutally clear to me is the need for communication. We, as theatre artists do that very thing for our profession. We communicate with people, yet, there seems to be a great lack of communication within the theatre that increasingly frustrating.

I found out the other day that I will be a follow spot operator for Mid summer which is exciting because I actually get to watch the show. I have to be back stage for Henry though.

SOLD OUT

So we have preview tonight with a full house and then shows show shows. All of which are completely sold out!!! (really exciting) Sadly we had to say good bye to our director Rod Casper last night, he had to be back in Austin today. Our space is a little crazy to have such a large show in it but I think that we have really just made it one big River City and have included everyone in the space as part of the show and part of the town. Last night during rehearsal we had some audience members here so that actors could start working with an audience and it went really well. Not even an hour after we had finished the show we already had the first email talking about how they loved the show. Its been really great to have the community so excited about the show.

Earlier in the week we were having a lot of technical issues with scene changes. The crew was just really having a hard time. I think mostly because they were very unfamiliar with the show. But they wouldnt come in early to watch a few rehearsal so that they could have a better idea. I have also learned better how to create scene change lists that are really clear and have very specific cue lines and such. What I had before was hard to follow because from where we are back stage we can not see any of the stage without being seen by the audience. Part of the issue of working in this space and having the stage almost completely surrounded by audience.

Oh and just one more little thing... I am in costume for this show (not really something that I am enjoying very much) and I look like I belong in Little House on the Prairie. Straw style hat and all.

Get out there and Do Stuff

I understand the networking emphasis in the internships now.

Natalie, my mentor/boss/Naked Theatre member, has really pushed me to meet new people and get out there and find something to do in theatre. After emailing 8 or so companies seeing if they needed volunteers and getting nothing back it was discouraging that I can't give away my help. She then said she might be able to get me in with Chicago Dramatists. Chicago Dramatists is a company that deals with new plays and playwrights. The put on shows and classes with local playwrights. Natalie had become a good friends with the managing director while she was an intern there so she sent my resume to him. It took a while for him to get back to me because they were so swamped with work, but he did and wanted me to call or come in for an interview. I called the office repeated trying to catch him at a good time which was impossible apparently. I knew my help was needed if he didn't even have a chance to talk to me on the phone, so I sent an email instead and an intern got back to me. I went and got interviewed for an hour or so and became part of the team right then and there. Persistence payed off (which we also learned when talking to the press in Naked Theatre).
I am now an administrative intern at Chicago Dramatists. Answering phones, printing, organizing, letting people in for classes. They trust their interns a lot. Brian gives us little jobs to be in charge of to make his work easier. Like I am working on taking in new rental requests and replying to and organizing them. He has the final say in who rents their space but it is cool to be trusted with such responsibility.

Natalie also sent me links to websites for what shows are happening in Chicago theatre (theatreinchicago.com) and theatre job/audition postings (leagueofchicagotheatres.org).
I was just watching for something to do after see You in the Mourning was done. I saw a request for a lighting assistant/ followspot operator and was like 'I could do that.' I sent in my application in and they got back to me right away that they were a new opera company, Verismo Opera, they had no money in their first or so year and they needed some help. I interviewed with the assistant director Jennifer Cox (eerie right? JCox) and got the position and also said I would help with anything else they needed aide with. She was really grateful for my enthusiasm. Now this was just going to be like an I come in on tech week and work with them thing which I was fine with. I just wanted some more quality theatre time. But a few days ago I get an email that the company has had a shake up and they lost their director and their lighting designer along with them. Jennifer was promoted to director and the first person that came to her mind for the lighting designer was me. She knew that I had no true experience with designing but they are just a small company and she liked the excitement I had just for the followspot job and working with opera, something new to me.
Without hesitation I said yes. I love a new challenge and part of my theatre philosophy is being able to do any and all jobs if you are asked to do so. I have very limited experience in designing lighting other than watching others do it and typing in and tweaking cues. Verismo has limited resources, equipment, and apparently the space is tricky too (lots of windows, 8 dimmers, only 2 light trees to hang from). More challenging but also makes me more comfortable that I don't have to create something extravagant with as many lights as possible. I'm really looking forward to this new experience in this realm.

Update: I don't post enough so already things have changed. Verismo's owners have decided to shut down the show due to lack of funds. They had poured to much into the previous production and couldn't afford to do another when they lost a major donor. It was really sad to find this out. I was really excited for this new challenge. I was at the production meeting the day before they canceled show and the people seemed fun with a lot of big ideas. The show was Madame Butterfly and they were going for like a collision of East and West look. I hope that someday the company will be salvaged.
As for me, I'll find something to do. Maybe more stuff with Dramatists than just what I do now. Who knows. All I know is I like the theatre scene here and can't wait to be more integrated into it. You just have to get out there and start doing things and great opportunities may find you.

SFO 6/8/11

My housing is really great this year. (Not that's it's ever been shabby down here!) I have a really cozy studio apartment to myself! In past years, I've had a housemate from the Costume Shop. (One year there were FOUR first hands in one house!) Apparently there were a lot of single apartments offered in Santa Fe this year. It makes no difference in your rent--the Opera deducts a percentage of your paycheck (depending on your position), and subsidizes the rest.

The Apprentices stay in an apartment complex the Opera owns. There was talk a few years ago about building housing on the Opera grounds, but they couldn't get the required water permits. (Don't quote me on that--just what I heard.) So instead they bought these apartments, and I think it might actually be better--they're in town, walking distance to stores, restaurants, the Plaza. The staff are housed in apartments & houses around the city. I've lived all over Santa Fe--from way out near the airport, to just off Canyon Road, the art gallery district! I love it when I'm walking distance to the Plaza--so much happens down there--arts fairs, free music on the Bandstand in July, Pancakes on the Fourth! I'm in a new (to me) neighborhood this year, and it's really nice, but I'm farther from stuff than in previous years. Oh well!

TITP

So today is Wednesday....open is Friday...and as of last night's rehearsal we still have yet to do a complete run through.  Not even a complete cue to cue.  The set is also not fully painted, the stage deck has not been finished, and we are waiting for the Park maintenance to hang four giant sliders (the Alps for Sound of Music currently) to be hung....  Currently this is a huge charlie foxtrot but we have two whole days to pull it out of nowhere.  I have faith in us.  Sort of.  Every night we find more awkward dark gaps.  We have added about eight instruments, and somehow actors STILL find dark spots.  We have requested the SM to keep the actors for focus so they can locate these mysterious dark gaps for us.  Our rigging in the grid is so ghetto everything keeps moving in a breeze and I think that is strongly contributing to the gaps.  We are still trying to bust it out with what we're working with though.  Oh, and one of our super troopers went out last night.  If anyone has an idea of why the amperage would be SUPER high and it keeps shutting it's lamp off, let me know.  We dug around at the cooling system and all seems fine but it's still damn hot.  No one knows enough about them to fix it I guess.  Our ME asked our board op. if he could bring the percentage down on the spots from the board ( I guess to try to lower the amperage is what he was going for...?)  Um no, idiot.  I have lost patience for some people on our crew and I know everyone else has as well.  There are also some ugly dynamics happening in the sound crew as well.  We arent sure what the deal is this summer but it's looking like we might have to have a personnel come-to-jesus chat.  But before that, we have to worry about getting this show up!

Final Dress of First Show PRT

Hey everyone, after a couple days of craziness, and me working my butt off, the first show had it's final dress tonight and it went great, except I need to fix a door knob, the serving window curtain (it was plastic (crap) and was ripped tonight...grrr), and other minor things. It's a really good show and I'm glad I had a big part in getting it up. Unfortunately, I have to spend my day tomorrow fixing everything so that the opening night runs smoothly. After this weekend, the second show goes up...yay!

Curtainbox Theatre Co, Fourth Post

Yesterday I got to experience my first Theater Class for Children With Autism. I am one of four instructors for the class, which meets every Monday at 5:30 through August 8th. The class is a new challenge for me, and I look forward to using acting as a tool to help these children develop social skills and build confidence. In addition to the class, I have also taken on the responsibility of finding short scenes and monologues to be used in the adult acting classes, which has provided me with an excellent opportunity to read some plays.

Kathleen

Naked Theatre's Debut

Hey All.

This summer I have a lot of things going on in the theatre world of Chicago. I moved here in the middle of May. Foss referred me to a group of his past students that had started their own company Naked Theatre and could use some help. When I joined them, it was the 4 actors, a lighting designer, and a stage manager. They were still in the rehearsal process so I just really showed up to watch and get to know the show. This is really a production all about collaboration. These actors direct, produce, designed the show themselves, along with one also being the playwright. This is the core that all theatre should have with all theatre productions. It proved to me how important listening to every part of a production team is. People may bump heads but a stand still is not productive, compromise and move on.
They were interesting rehearsals. A scene or a few would be done then someone may respond with some notes or they would talk about how it felt. Then do the scene again. The stage manager would also chime in every once in a while with line notes or questions about something that looks strange.
The production is called See You In The Mourning and is about 4 siblings that only meet at funerals. It is being done in a theatre that used to be a funeral home, an embalming table is in the dressing room, weird huh. After working in the space, I can't really picture the show anywhere else. It is really dark with an eerie appearance. It only has 12 dimmers so the lighting really plays on shadows and stark white/amber light. Naked Theatre's mission is to create theatre that strips away the excess and over-production, and get to the root of storytelling.
The set then well really doesn't have much, a casket, bench, occasional chairs, and only a few props here or there. The focus on story and the words is refreshing. There is no 'look at the cool stuff we have and can buy' because they really don't have much money.

Now my role in this whole thing is to be as flexible as possible and help where ever I can. I am house managing and the crew during productions. There is a lot to do with the publicity side of things such as emailing the press and others for publicity. It's a lot of time to send so many emails so I have helped by taking some of those responsibilities. I believe I'm also the only one with a car so I use it to pick up things from stores or set pieces from around the city as well a chauffeur people around if they need to get somewhere CTA doesn't get to easily.

It has been a blast meeting and working with these people. I can see the importance of the people you know in the industry. A lot of Naked's donations are from either family or friends in the industry which has helped them put on the show they wanted. And they have helped me jump in to the industry and starting to make connections with people who know people. More on the people you know later.

Santa Fe Opera

Hey Everyone! Bear with me while I get the hang of this blogging thing!

I've been out here in Santa Fe since May 16. We worked regular hours the first 2 weeks--9-6 with an hour for lunch each day. No Saturdays the first 2 weeks, but last week we added that in. The Drapers, the leaders of each team in the Costume Shop, determine the next week's hours in a meeting on Thursdays. Tonight I just got home from working my first 9-9 day. We have a 30-minute dinner break when we go into the evenings. So actually, we're working 2.5 hours overtime when we work evenings. We're working 2 evenings this week, but the apprentice stitchers go home at 6 as usual. They may get to work evenings later, the closer we get to dress rehearsals. But right now, we can use the space to cut out big garments in the evenings!

There are approximately 70 people working in the Costume Shop. A few of us started on May 16, then a few more the week after, and last week the Apprentices started. SFO has a terrific apprentice program, in every area--production, front of house, A-V, Orchestra Services, and of course, singers. The Apprentice singers comprise the chorus, and sometimes get to sing smaller featured roles. There are 2 evenings of Apprentice Scenes, where all the Apprentices get to present scenes from operas, and the Costume , Scenery, and Lighting Apprentices get to design for the scenes. It's a great opportunity! I've never seen the Scenes--they take place in August, after I leave. One of these years I'll either stay for them, or come back.

Right now, the biggest problem is the smoke coming in from Arizona's Wallow fire. It's a pain to all of us, but just imagine what it's doing to the singers' voices! They started arriving late last week, and the principals for the first 2 operas started today, so the timing couldn't be worse! It's been so dry here, there are fire warnings, and water conservation measures, etc. We're all crossing our fingers for the arrival of monsoon season, when we get pretty regular afternoon showers that come in from Baja California. That'll help immensely!

The 5 operas Santa Fe is presenting this year are--Faust, La Boheme, Griselda, The Last Savage, and Wozzeck. Boheme and Wozzeck are remounts of rented productions (costume-wise, anyway!), so our main focus is fitting and altering costumes for the singers. Faust is a new production, and some of the costumes were made in Slovakia and shipped over here. We've been doing fittings the past few days on those costumes, as well as The Last Savage, which is set in 1963, so we have a fun "Mad Men" vibe going for that, at least in the scenes set in Chicago. There are scenes in India too, so we have purchased costumes for the chorus, and we're building costumes for the principals. Griselda has no chorus, and a small cast, so it has only 15 costumes! My team is building one dress--a Quinceanera-style dress for the daughter's character. Big, poofy skirt, lots of ruffles, etc. Should be fun!

Well, I think that's a good start. I'll post more on Santa Fe, and what we do around here for fun, when we have time! And about some other great qualities and programs the Opera provides. Hope you're all having a great summer!

Doris

Directing and Acting in Des Moines

This is my first blog post. I am working as a professional actor and director in Des Moines this summer. I am directing Fat Pig at StageWest as a part of their Neil Labute Beauty Plays Series. We are producing three of Labute's plays - Fat Pig, Shape of Things as well as Reasons to be Pretty - in repertory. I am also acting in Repertory Theater of Iowa's production of As You Like It, playing the roles of Corin, the shepard and Charles, the wrestler.

We have been in production meetings for the Beauty plays for about 4 months. That has been a really interesting process since there are 3 shows with 3 different directors being performed on basically the same set. Early on in the process we had a lot of un discussing the thematic similarities that existed between all three shows, and just what we as StageWest wanted to say by doing all 3 shows in rep like. The three directors really then turned to the Scenic Designer Jay Jagim to take the lead on how to unify the shows in the same set. I'm really excited about the world that we have created! The other two shows began rehearsal in the beginning of May. Fat Pig began rehearsal last week. One of the 4 actors wasn't expected to arrive until today, so we were focusing on the scenes that didn't include him. We worked for three days on the scenes involving the two leads and got some really excellent work done, I think. The show is very interesting. It is extraordinarily naturalistic. I typically direct sweeping, grand, epic shows that have some level of elevated reality...like all musicals do, or like Tennessee Williams does with the poetic language, or even like The Seafarer does with one character being the devil. But Fat Pig is really just a play about relatively normal people of today dealing with the challenges that many of us face every day. It's pretty cool to be working on something like this...kind of refreshing. The other thing that is unique with this play is that the majority of the play requires the characters to be seated most of the time. The idea of "blocking" for this show is quite different. Exciting though! We did have a set back. The actor who was supposed to arrive today had to drop out of the show due to health reasons. We are all saddened by this. But I was able to find a replacement for him, who I think will be quite solid. We get back on track with the show tomorrow. :) I'll keep you posted on how things progress.

I'm really excited to be a part of As You Like It. The show will be performed outside in the beautiful gardens of the Salisbury House. I really like the roles I am playing. Even though they are not very huge, they will be quite fun. We have only had the read thru, but have another rehearsal tonight. I'll keep you posted!

Woohoo!

More Alumni News

Since I graduated from the Theatre Program at ISU in May 2007, I obtained my Masters in Education with an emphasis in Higher Education, Student Affairs at ISU in May 2010. I currently work at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD as the Union Services Manager. My day is filled with managing the campus information desk, the student run design center, indoor/outdoor recreation center, central reservations, and advising the Union Student Managers. My days are filled with new adventures; from selling 1400 tickets in one day for a Major Concert on campus to learning the mechanics of large format printers, there is never a dull moment here. I work with approximately 50 students and love each and every one of them! They are truly special in their own ways and love playing practical jokes on me.

I also have been blessed in my personal life! On July 7, 2007 (yes, 07-07-07), I was blessed with a little boy, Hunter James Carstensen. He is all boy when it comes to trucks, tractors, and playing outside, but he does love having random dance and singing parties with me. Another milestone to my life is that I will be getting married this July 16th to my best friend Christopher Noble and we will be joining our two families together. If you are ever around Brookings, SD or the Ivanhoe, MN area, look us up! We have plenty of food and a warm bed if you need one. J

Hope this helps…I love the blog idea.

Jillian Carstensen
Union Services Manager
The Union
South Dakota State University

Greetings from PRT

Hey all! Just letting you know that we open a show in two days! and the set is nearly complete, just need to sand a door and touch up on paint, then we can cross it off the list! Other than that, it's hot and these next three weeks are going to fly. (that's the time until our 4th of July break we have)

Peace.

Beauty Plays 4

Worked on the flip flats again on Friday Cut the 1x4s on the bias and put them together. Couldn't go down to today to finish them up cause I had car trouble (blown out tire may be a problem). One more work day and then we send over everything to Stoner Theater. After next weekend, I'll be running sound for the plays. It's gonna get crazy!

Curtainbox Theatre Co, Third Post

Today was my first official day at the Curtainbox! Basically I will mostly be doing typical office work. For example, today I made copies of Four Places, a script that the company is considering for their 2012 season, and stuffed envelopes for advertising forms to be sent to local businesses. However, I will also get to experience various other aspects of the company, such as helping out with acting classes.

Kathleen

Music Man

Things are starting to move really quickly here. Things are getting down to the nitty gritty last few things as we get to the last few normal rehearsals and get ready for tech week to start on Sunday. Last night was my second night with run crew so we have been working through scene changes already before we even get to tech week and should have them all ready to go come Sunday. My biggest issue right now is really having no wing space to keep things and very very limited back stage space. I have been playing a very tight game of jig saw puzzle to make things all fit and have some sort of walking space. Its been fun.

More days with PRT

So it's been a couple days since I have posted. That's because we had two days off for memorial day weekend, which was a great time to recover. However, now that we are back in the swing of things, we don't get another break till the fourth of July weekend...sigh. Anyway, the first show "Church Basement Ladies" opens next Wednesday (Tuesday actually because they have almost a full house for the final dress!) That means, being Master Carpenter, I have to make sure the finishing touches are being made to get the set done. This may seem easy, but I have rehearsals, and when I don't, they are rehearsing so we can't use the space...urgh. However, I have hope that it'll get done, because it always does. The second set is almost complete for Arsenic so that's fun, and yeah, that's my life.

Hundred Degree Glory

Its real hot here in Prestonsburg Kentucky at the Jenny Wiley Theatre. Real hot.

Dixie Swim Club build is done, we load into the convention center tomorrow. We have a good start on Annie, and are starting to think ahead to Frog Prince. The historical drama: Legend of Jenny Wiley needs some fixing and repair, but other than that its a complete set that they use the same every 2 years.

Despite being "low man on the totem pole" as a swing carpenter, I've impressed the TD and the shop and have been given big building responsibilities, and even advised the installation of the convention centers stage.

I didn't mention that there are both indoor and outdoor shows here at JWT, Dixie is indoors and Annie, Frog Prince, and Legend are all outdoors and have the possibility of moving indoors to the Convention Center.

The convention center really isn't a space thats designed for theatre as stereotypically thought of, but it can work...there is a stage. Get it.

I wish I'd done summerstock muuuuch sooner. Its pretty cool

Hairspray update

Rehearsals are continuing! We had Sunday and Monday off for Memorial day and came back yesterday. The two days off were surprisingly disorienting, but it'll be okay. We typically rehearse three hours a day almost every day. We're just having vocal and dance rehearsals so far - the acting will start sometime beyond the reach of my current rehearsal schedule. Most of the show is song and dance though, so this will be fine too. This is my first show at the Playhouse, so I'm getting to know the cast and directors; it's a huge cast, so this is no easy task. Dance rehearsal for "Miss Baltimore Crabs" tonight and tomorrow's is dedicated to "Cooties!" Yay!