Another One Bites the Dust

This weekend was a serious fail as far as NaBloPoMo is concerned, however, I blame it on The Foreigner and am resolved to try to continue for the rest of the month (until I get busy again).


Speaking of Foreigner, it's over. Two months of hard work has come to an end, and the only thing that remains are memories and dried droplets of paint on the black stage from careless brushes. And maybe some stickiness from spilled Coke. That reality is one of the hardest things about theatre in my opinion. It's so temporary. You work on it for a set amount of time, then you do it, then it's over. I don't think I would want it to keep going much longer, but I still miss it when its gone. For me, taking down the set is the hardest part. We spent weeks putting it up, getting it to where it needed to be, painting, building, taping, painting some more, hour after hour; the whole thing came down in three.


The only thing that makes it easier for me is knowing that there is another show coming in a few months. There are already things I'm working on and planning for December and January. I have not one, but TWO one acts in the works, one with 6th period as an in-school performance, one with 4th period for Districts. I'm only sort of directing them, acting more as a consultant/producer for student directors. I wanted to put it in my student's hands and see what happens. Hopefully they will rise to the occasion.

21 Hours and Counting

"The Foreigner" goes up tomorrow night, yet I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's because I've done this before. Maybe it's because I fell strangely detached because I've had to be at ESOL class two nights a week rather than at rehearsal. Maybe it's because I'm just having a hard time caring this year. Maybe it's because I've lowered my expectations. Regardless, I'm calm, and I'm trying to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I've realized that regardless of my mental/emotional state, the show will go on, and it will probably be relatively good. Sure, the run time might be a little long, but that's okay I guess. There's nothing I can do about it at this point, so why should I worry?

In fact, I think this is the most comfortable I've felt about the technical side of things. We actually programmed light cues this year. I have three reliable people running the boards. I think I can actually sit and watch without having to worry about the house lights not coming up. Or maybe I do. Maybe I'm being foolhardy.
Anyway. There's that.

Blog Re-Design

I did a minor blog re-design today, so if you generally read this (people actually read this?) via RSS feed, please check it out and let me know what you think. I figured that after four years of the same thing it was time for a change. The picture is of the fly rail in the PAC. It is in serious need of some maintenance as you can tell by the loose ropes, which is one of those things that I'm hoping will be fixed this summer. Fat chance with the current budget situation.

Hello 2009

Well, the new year has arrived, and with it the promise of January 5th--the first day back to school--looming in the near future. I have decided that I'm not a fan of the Spring semester. It brings with it more stress than I'm paid for. In an attempt to stave off the imminent anxiety for just a while longer, I have begun working on the set design for "Guys and Dolls," our spring production.

So, for the first time ever on this blog, I'm showing you something that I've drawn. Pardon the darkness of the photo, I tried it with flash, but it just got really washed out. This is the view of the main location, Broadway of the 1950s. The things with the darker edges are meant to be flats built with a little bit of forced perspective (hurray for the Italian Renaissance and forced perspective!). The lighter stuff is a rough idea of what I want for the backdrop (and yes, I know the Empire State Building is a little weird looking).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what people think.

P.S. The cat is asleep next to/half on my pillow. I don't want to move him because he's so darn cute, but he's kind of in the way.

Making the Magic: Flying Plate of Spaghetti

In theatre, we have to do things that would never ever happen in real life, like throwing a plate of spaghetti...sorry, linguini, at a wall four nights in a row (plus rehearsal). The problem is that spaghetti, when thrown, goes everywhere. The noodles don't stay on the plate, and the poor techie on the other end of the flying sauce-er (bad joke, I know) gets a large mess to clean. Compounding the problem is the need for one of the actresses to take a bite of the soon to be flying spaghetti.

The solution to the problem: Elmer's School Glue and tape. You cook the spaghetti first, then put it on a plate, toss with glue and nuke the heck out of it. The resulting pasta is rubbery and sticks together, and most importantly, can be taped to the plate. Spread a little bit of fresh (i.e. not glued and rubbery) spaghetti on top of the glued spaghetti (hurray for non-toxic glue) for the actor to play with, add a little red sauce, and no one is the wiser.

The picture to the right is the spaghetti post nuking, before the extra glue dried. The white stuff is glue. Yum!