A Hop, Skip, and Jump Over the Pond

I am in London.

It's hard to believe. The last 24 hours have been absolutely crazy.
I left on a plane while the sun was setting on the cornfields of Iowa and after two flights, bad airport food and security, I woke up in London. It's been a long day.

But I AM HERE.

I wouldn't want to be in any other place.

There is a sense of belonging here. (shhhh. don't tell my mom!) ;)
Already I feel at home.
The streets filled with people.
The fresh produce and baked goods in the shop windows.
The sense of community outside pubs and cafés.
The sounds of people laughing and listening.
The unique style of each individual.
The different languages and cultures.
The pride in their heritage left behind by great thinkers, leaders, teachers, writers, and artists.

I am wonderfully overwhelmed and filled with joy at this opportunity to spend three weeks in this beautiful city studying some of the best authors in British history. What an amazing adventure.

Here is what I did today:
Started my adventure.
Saw my first double decker red bus.
Ate my first European meal. Yes. I had to pay for water.
Went grocery shopping and bought some really yummy English Tea.
Went to Covent Garden Market and saw street performers and where Eliza Doolittle sold flowers in the play My Fair Lady. Classic.

Here are a few things I still have to learn:
Don't worry about the taxi cab driver's driving. "He has it under control"...or so he says.
Look left before crossing the streets.
Be able to convert pounds into dollars.

Well, I'm off to bed for more adventures tomorrow.

Until next time,
Cheerio!
Bethany Berger

Adventures Under the Sea: The Great Age Gap

This past week I had the pleasure of being able to work 2 on 1 with Ariel and Flounder for their "Part of Your World" blocking review. The age range for the show is 9 year olds to 16 year olds, and working with the different ages is a lot much of a difference than I would have expected. Every single one of our cast members is talented and smart, but you can definitely tell the different life experiences they have had by the way they interact with each other, me, and the text. The younger ones, for example are very bouncy energetic when they aren't working, but once you ask them to do the choreography on their own, all of the sudden their eyes are glued to you with a look of mild panic until you steer them in the right direction with a simple reminder of the upcoming movement. The older kids, however, tend to take more ownership of their stuff, even their mistakes which is really lovely to watch. The girl who plays Ariel is a bright, extremely talented 16 year old with nervous feet on stage. As soon as I pointed that out, though, she immediately began having a conversation with me about ways we could fix this. Flounder is a bit younger, but one of the smartest little kids I've had the pleasure of meeting. Her questions sometimes throw me for a loop, and require some genuine thought behind them. This is not to say that the younger kids aren't eager to learn, but I've found that I connect more with the older ones who can use their humor, intelligence, and passion to connect with me versus the younger ones who try their darndest, but aren't quite there yet. That being said, I'm enjoying interacting with the older ones but watching and helping the younger ones grow.

The Des Moines Playhouse: An Old Place, New Role

This summer I am interning at The Des Moines Playhouse in the education department. It is great to be back at this theatre as an intern, especially since I spent three summers in high school volunteering for their Pre-Intern Program (PIP). I get to spend the summer helping teachers instruct a variety of different children's theatre camps with ages varying from pre-K all the way to Freshman in high school. The program has expanded quite a bit and we get to work with a lot of new spaces this summer which were made available because the Playhouse recently finished stage one of their 3-phase renovation project. These past two days have been interesting because I've been busy at work, yet many of you may have noticed that public school haven't let out yet. Well, as a PIP I never realized how much preparation the interns must do the first two weeks before classes start up. Yesterday was great because Kathy, the Education Director, sent us off for the morning on a "get to know you" trip. It was not until hours later that I realized how useful it was that she had done that because that afternoon I found myself trying to hash out the entire summer schedule with the other interns. Remembering how collaborative work at the Playhouse is between interns, I found myself admiring Kathy's decision to send us off on team building exercises for our first morning of work. I'm not sure the work over these past days would have gotten done as quickly if we had not all already become familiar with each other in a more social setting first. Kathy certainly opened the door for the interns to become friends as well as co-workers from day one and that is a valuable management decision I will not soon forget. I look forward to informing you of my adventures this coming summer, especially after all the preparation and cleaning is done.

Boone Community Theatre Beauty and the Beast

This summer I am costume designing for Boone Theatre's Children production. I had a meeting a little over a month ago with the director and the rest of the production team. It's been an interesting process so far. The show schedule is between the start of rehearsal there will be five weeks for rehearsal and the sixth week is tech. The director does not live in Iowa, so she will not be here until the second week of working. The first two will be dedicated to music only and the last four will be based around putting the rest of the show together. This is a large show to costume design for and on top of that we have a very, very small budget. We will be using costumes that were already donated to the theatre or can be modified. We will also be making some of the castle creatures out of cardboard in an attempt to save money, but also because it is a sturdy material to build with. There are approximately 30 children in the show. The costume are complex in the essence that each child will have at least 2 costume changes, if not upwards of 2-5 for some.

Tonight however, I went to Boone to finish pulling and assigning some costumes before the first sing through on Monday, so that we could have a first round of fittings finished and to get a jump start on costumes. We have figured out most of the costumes and need only some minor assembly on some, while others need only to have the children bring in their own things such as tank tops and tan pants or shorts. I'm excited to get started on these costumes.

Until the next update, have great time,
Lauren Dursky

Adventures Under the Sea: Choreographing for Dummies

I've never been a very good dancer, and never thought that I would or even could choreograph a dance. Yet, that is what I have found myself doing lately for Little Mermaid. Working as Kivan's assistant for the show means a lot of different things, but the most surprising and nerve-wracking was that we were in charge of figuring out how kids were going to move onstage for several songs. And that's a bit terrifying. Today we worked on Human Stuff, which is a clownish song danced by Scuttle and three backup seagulls. We started out relatively strong, mostly because the beginning part of the dance is primarily acting based. Yet once we hit the minute mark, we were ready to throw in the towel for the day as we kept hitting wall after creative wall. Hard too. So while we were getting ready to leave to drown our sorrows in Diet Coke and Mcdonalds, we were goofing around as we are prone to do. And that is when we stumbled on this (we think) hilarious step that epitomizes everything seagulls are. And lo and behold, our second wind was found. Even though I know that I'm not on track to choreograph for Broadway, I'm starting to find out that children's theatre is something I can do. What I've stumbled upon are three simple rules. 1:If you can't get the step after three tries, the kids aren't going to be able to. 2: Videotape what you have so you don't forget, because there are many different bad variations floating around your head. and 3: Don't make it serious. Work with serious intent, but trying to make it the best dance ever just ends up clogging your head. We've found so far that the moves that make us freak out because they are so incredibly awesome are the ones that we discovered while we were goofing off or making fun of our complete lack of dance ability. Find your inner child, and the choreography will follow.

So serious question. Do I have to register for summer classes or how do I get the credit/how do I register for the class? Does anyone know?

Thanks,
Lauren Dursky

"Much Ado About Nothing" first read May 11

We had our first read-through for "Much Ado About Nothing" tonight at a couple of the cast members' house.  The show is being produced by Fourth Room Theatre of Iowa City.  The director Angie Toomsen explained a little of what she was thinking for the show.  At this point, we'll be in the time period of the early 1960's - think Mad Men.  Rehearsals will start in June, though there might be a couple workshops this May.  "Much Ado" runs August 15-17 and 22-24. Fourth Room has a goal to do a free Shakespeare play every summer for the community.  To make it free, we will be doing a kick-starter sort of campaign to raise the money.  We'll also be performing this show outdoors.

The read-through went really well. Angie has been working on cutting the script, and it ran about 2 hours. I have the part of Conrade, one of Don John's cohorts.  It will be a really fun role, and I'm super excited to continue my experience with Shakespeare. We have about 3 weeks until we start regular rehearsals.  I have several goals in that time: to be off book, to speak with Angie about her thoughts and mine for the character, and to do a thorough analysis and some research of the play.