Lots to do!

I'm one of the freaky artisty people who work better at night

So instead of going to bed early (ok...early for me), I am going to start this monster of a paper and save me some serious heartache later.

Goodnight, I'll see you in my dreams

Adrianna Wellisch

I had the privilege of working with Adrianna Wellisch for 4 years. She was the main costumer's assistant at Catalina and at PacRep theater and helped us out in so many ways. She passed away of lung cancer last Tuesday and although I am sad that we lost her, I'm glad she is no longer in pain. She battled this for a very long time.

Thank you for always being there with a quick fix, a solution, or just a smile. You will never be forgotten.

Things I need to do

To Do List: Week of September 28

-Write 8 page paper for Reid

-Write a fake press release

-Practice for jazz and ballet

-Fit in 4-5 stage craft hours

-Memorize monologue

-Actually prepare monologue

-Take car in to be fixed

-Compose prop lists

-Transfer info from one script to another

-See Midsummer on Friday

-Talk to parents. Talk to sisters. Talk to friends. Remind them that I acknowledge their existence, I just don't express it as often as I should.

Off to read Midsummer (so glad I know this play well!) and Don Quixote. Can't wait to move onto the Tempest for Thursday's reading :)

Amazing Night

Homework is super easy tonight and nearly completed.

We have a guest in Foundations tomorrow--the understudy for all the women's roles in Brief Encounter who is a friend of Reid's and was part of the original broadway cast of Titanic

Rehearsal was hilarious per usual. I can't even really describe what happens....just that it makes me smile

The costume fittings were awesome. The boys look incredible in their tuxes (I swear, I wouldn't be surprised if they all ended up in relationships by closing night. Combine 4 attractive men with tuxedos and British accents and you're asking for magic) and I love the girls' costumes.

Danielle and I bonded over burritos at late night and I'm really happy that we get along so well. Especially since we will be part of an awesome SM team for the next couple of years!

And I had the most AMAZING talk with one of my Catalina BFFs Stephanie. Dear Stephanie, I am so happy we were able to talk tonight and I hope you will be transferring up to SF next semester! I would be so happy to be closer to you. I'm glad we got to talk about Catalina and our lives and have therapy sessions.

Ok Mey. I'm off to bed :)

Dear Glorified Furniture Mover #3,

Congrats on your first weekend of previews!

Moving furniture is awesome. Well...okay so that was my job in theater for 3 years so I became slightly attached to it but I also ran into multiple pieces of furniture backstage and that was not so exciting.

Sleep soon :) I will hopefully do the same tonight. But the prospect of relaxing soon is not looking promising.

I love you. Talk to you soon :)

Love Munchkin

A Brief Encounter

Today was great.

-Got car fixed. Well...it's fixed to an extent. I will probably need more done to it.

-2 hours of dance

-BART to the city to see Brief Encounter!

Highlights from the night:

-Accidentally stealing a map from a homeless man

-"Well....at least we got a map...?"

-Eating in subway to avoid being harassed on the street only to be bugged by a man near us.

-Getting handed a flyer for happy hour somewhere

-"Was that a hooker?"

-Our theater horror story session in Starbucks to kill time

-Finding our group outside the theater by spotting McCue and Tatiana dancing to an a capella group song

-Danielle and I in love with the theater and convincing ourselves that one day we will stage manage in a theater like that

-Liam Andrew Hannah and Renee sneaking in late. While the rest of us stared at them.

-The show! So amazing.

-Reid trying to come up with a theater project for us to do because he was so into the show and excited and creative

-"Why am I wet?"

All in all it was a great night. Oasis was tonight too. I did not attend but that works just fine for me.

Have a great preview weekend Mey! ♥

This will be my sporadic blog

First:

I just found this photo and it touches my heart in ways that moves me to tears currently but at the same time makes me smile. This is Father's Day 2004. The two men in the middle are my Uncles Rob and Joe. Most of you know they passed away a few years ago (Rob to skin cancer, Joe to a tragic boat accident) and to have this photo of the two of them (with my cousin and his father-in-law) means so much to me. Plus I find it hilarious.

I've had what feels like the longest week of my life. It concludes with my car battery dying yet again. The up side is I have no class until 1:00 and those both are dance classes which can be missed if necessary. Hannah and Andrew have talked me through what they thinking is causing the problem and as long as I wake up early enough tomorrow to get this sorted out, all should be good for spending time with Renee on Saturday!

Oh yeah. Renee is one of my campers from the summer. Freshman in high school now, incredibly sweet, outgoing, and awesome. Can't wait to see her.

Going to SF tomorrow to see Brief Encounter with my Foundations of Theater class. Super excited.

Okay. That's all I have to say. I think. Knowing me I will find something else to say at like 2 am...

Dislike

I miss the days of Mey and Christina and Kate and Jillian showing up hours early for rehearsal. I really do. I have 3 who plan ahead in this cast and the rest saunter in at like 6:29 or right at 6:30 or even 6:35 and then get insulted when I tell them that they are late. I got numerous eye rolls today. That's really getting old. I know they don't like being told they are late but we are going by my clock and we start at 6:30 on the dot. If you aren't in the building when I say we're starting, then you're late.

Breathe in...breathe out...Friday comes soon enough and then I will have enough happiness to carry me through till next week.

I also made a really big decision today and the enormity of it hasn't hit me yet. That's going to be exciting. Haha.

All Done

Homework is finished. Thank the lord. I could rant and bitch about it but I spent enough of my night doing that and I need some good energy for sleeptime.

Kate Cooper made a surprise visit to campus this afternoon and completely turned my day around. I wasn't having the happiest of days (busy. and everyone around me having awful days. I did multiple therapy sessions in the Ageno A parking lot) but then I arrive at the theater, I see her, we talk, we catch up on life, and suddenly everything is so much better. Rehearsal was also hilarious. I must say, watching Liam and Andrew Talbot flutter around stage (yes the text does call for fluttering and they respect this with the utmost dignity) kind of made my night that much better.

Now I am off to clean, to dance, to read, and to sleep.

:)

This is fun

I am currently focusing on not having a mental breakdown

and will give you the happy updates once I have accomplished this

because I promise they exist

Awkwardness is invading my room

St. Mary's has a new cable plan. Comcast guys came around this morning to install it. I now have an awkward and unattractive black box and cable protruding from my wall completely exposed because there is nothing to cover it. Very nice.

And I have a strange but very strong urge to do a rain dance to make fall weather arrive quicker. I'm not sure how socially acceptable that would be though.

Late at night

I enjoy late at night entirely too much.

I am perfectly content to be working late into the night and am usually happiest at this time.

Except tomorrow morning I will not be so pleased. 8:30 comes awfully early when you stay up till 2 am.

I need my ASM back

And by ASM I mean Jen. I have an ASM. I've had other ASMs since Jen. But I want her back. Why? Because she was always at rehearsal without fail. I knew I could count on her for everything and she knew everything I knew about the show. She understood the show, she lived the show, she could answer any questions. Of course I had no backup person which was a bit panicking but luckily it never came to that.

Now I have too many rehearsal assistants+1 ASM and none of them are here every night. 2 come one night a week, 1 comes 3 nights a week, and 2 come 2 nights a week. Much too complicated for this show...which I discovered about halfway through rehearsal when we sent an actor home sick and I had to send my brand new rehearsal assistant up on stage to stand in her place while I attempted to A) Record blocking B) Read absent actors lines C) Make changes to the line division. while also yelling at actors who got too close to the edge of the set and were bound to fall off. Needless to say, rehearsal was slightly more stressful. But while all this was happening, I couldn't think of a reasonable solution that would work with my current situation. This show is so precise and ever changing that I need someone who will understand the show as well as I do and be here every single night. The line division changes hourly so an actor who once said part of a certain line suddenly does not and that line has been divided up among 5 other actors and if someone besides me isn't keeping track of this, something is going to go missing. So. My plan for this week is to coerce one of my numerous rehearsal assistants to spend quality time with me 5 nights a week.

Besides that my day was...haha...hectic!

10:20-11:20: Lighting design

11:30-12:00: Foundations quiz

12:00-12:30: Reid speeding through his lecture and then assigning more homework than any of us have time for

12:35-12:50: Lunch?

1:00-2:00: Jazz dance

2:15-3:15: Ballet

3:20-4:20: Stage craft lab hours

4:30-5:00: In room. Showering. Attempting to make sense of my life. You know, philosophical things.

5:00-5:15: Reading for pleasure in theater

5:15-5:30: Dinner

5:30-6:30: Rehearsal set up

6:30-10:0: Rehearsal rehearsal rehearsal.

And now, I am finishing up my research assignment (also for Reid!) on Peter Brook to present to the class tomorrow and someone find time to do my seminar reading. Don Quixote needs to be done....now.

And my ceiling is leaking. Fantastic.

Bright side? Jazz dance was amazing. Actors are happy. I haven't officially screwed anything up yet (though the actors tried to make it seem like I messed up their schedule. I hadn't. They just need to learn how to read. Okay that was harsh but seriously, when it says Wednesday, everything written underneath that until you reach Thursday will happen on WEDNESDAY).

Reason Why I Love my Life

-My cast

-The boys: Talbot, Galindo, Liam, Frank, David, Kevin

-British accents

-Sweeney reminiscing and explaining all the chaos that went on with that show to the newbies

-My supremely organized Dalloway binder

-Delia, the best director I've ever worked with

-All the fun we have in rehearsal

-Watching the random actors onstage make faces

-My dance class

-The new dining hall

-Building sets

-The script

-My (current) grades

-Having friends in classes and always being greeted by someone

-Lighting design

-Having a job

-Singing all the time

-Keeping in touch with last year's seniors

-Keeping in touch with all the camp friends

-Loving my classes

-Visits to the city

-Suitemates

-My family

-Sisters

-Confidence

-Fall is approaching

-My clean room

-Happiness

I need it to be fall

There was one day of cold weather including rain last week

That was enough for me to get really excited for summer to be over

False alarm. It is most definitely still summer up here in the 925.

Forecast? Sunday: 88. Monday: 94. Tuesday: 103. Wednesday: 100. Thursday: 95.

Fall/early winter is my happy time. I am extremely content October-December. I love the rain and warm clothes and holidays. I love the feelings associated with this season. People are happy and grateful for what they have and I often have my best memories during this time of year.

So Moraga. Let's go get some cold weather soon, shall we?

FRIDAY

I love Fridays. They make me happy.

So far my classes are going well. From what I can tell, I'm doing well in them too. This is a plus.

Bought a cute new dress today. As Sami puts it, this is my Stage Manager dress. This will work.

Went to a concert tonight. That was fun. And now I must sleep so I can wake up early for my first day of work :)

I don't even have words right now...

Tonight I found out that one of my newest friends has a completely awful situation going on at home.

I have always known I'm extremely blessed when it comes to family. I feel so lucky to have my parents, my extended family, and my friends (who are like family) in my life. I have lost very important family members but my family has always stuck together. Tonight has made me realize that even more. I love you all so much and honestly don't know how I would live without you. My heart aches for my friend and I only wish that there was more we can do. But we are going to do everything we can to help her out.

I only wish that I could see all of you right now and give you a hug and tell you how lucky I feel to have you in my life. But since it is past 11 pm...and most of you live elsewhere...I will be calling/texting/emailing all of you instead.

I love you.

Haha. Oh Abundance. Thanks for helping my complete my homework assignment.

The Night in Which We Did Not Have an Abundance of Good Luck

Picture a faded greenish-brown textured stage with pieces of carpet interspersed among the traditional paint to give the setting a more lifelike quality to represent the boundless American west. Add two representations of log cabins, 6 painfully obnoxious (from a tech’s perspective. They were actually very visually pleasing) ground rows, and a cyclorama flanking upstage to represent the expansive western sky. Add one director, 5 actors, 8 crew members, and 4 ushers and you are caught up to where our story begins. To give you a brief description, Abundance details the lives of two young women, Bess Johnson and Macon Hill and their husbands, Jack Flan and Will Turner and their journey through hardship, prosperity, and the underlying truth of friendship. I, Shannon, will be telling this story from my perspective on that one fateful performance when everything just seemed to go wrong.

The point of attack occurs at 6 pm on November 15. The crew is setting up the stage, my co-stage manager is meticulously organizing her prop table, and the actors are perfecting their make up, costumes, and hair, and, every so often, interjecting with comments about the day, the costumes that tend to pose problems, and how they wish they could skip the last scene before intermission (for reasons that will only make sense to those involved). Everything appears to be going perfectly. I am constantly pacing back and forth from backstage left, down the hall, out to the lobby to the box office when I quickly turn around and retrace my steps while the house manager asks me for the 5^th time why I am in the lobby. And then I repeat this. I appear more nervous and excited tonight because my parents are coming. 7:30 approaches and we open the house. I am not the only person nervous tonight. Macon’s parents are coming as well and she is concerned that the fires California always seem to be plagued with will prevent them from arriving. Her parents arrive well before the curtain goes up. I am happy for her. However, mine do not. I do not like this and become more agitated each moment. At 7:53, 5 minutes before places, I receive a phone call telling me that my parents will be late. I instantly become frazzled and disappointed but am aware that the show must go on. Minutes pass and soon the clock strikes 8. I know I must start the show. I slowly climb to the booth and join my two comrades who live in the lighting booth with me. Sounds go, lights go, and…I miss my cue. The very first lighting cue. Here comes the climax of the show. Although a missed lighting cue should easily be forgotten, the sense of tension in the booth leads us to believe that this is just the beginning of something. Per usual, Bess comes on stage with her characteristic frightened but curious look and takes a seat. Soon after Macon enters. She is empty handed. This is not supposed to happen. Suddenly everyone on headset goes wild because we are full aware that she is supposed to carry on a plate of biscuits which are really the beginning of their friendship. In essence--no biscuits, no friendship, no play. I then spend the next 5 minutes sending as many good vibes to the actors and constantly talking to myself telling me that they are extremely capable and will find a way to improvise this scene. By this point, the light operator and sound operator are looking at me like I am crazy and have stopped responding to anything I say. I am flustered again because not only am I concerned that my friends are terrified on stage but I also have no idea where my next light cue is going to happen. While on this is happening, the actors are successfully continuing onstage. By some miracle the scene finishes (with plenty of improvisation, random entrances, and powerful good luck chanting happening in the booth). The overall feeling is that that was certainly a terrifying moment for a theatrical production but we survived and the show went on. Little did we know that there was one more trick to completely throw us off guard. I call for the lights to come up for the next scene. We see Jack cross upstage towards stage right and reach out for a rope which will pull on a set piece that represents his cabin (it connects with a small platform that expands their playing space). Halfway through pulling the cabin on, it suddenly stops. I can see a panicked, yet masked well, look on Jack’s face. He is aware that this piece is essential for at least 3 scenes in this show. Once again every goes crazy on headset trying to solve this problem. He makes the wise decision of leaving the set piece halfway. Stage hands are trying to figure out what happened, I am once again praying that the actors aren’t losing their minds, and the poor guys in the booth with me are shaking their heads and trying not to get caught up in the pandemonium. The moment of release comes when we finally reach intermission. I am able to go backstage, give hugs, tell the actors I am extremely proud of the work they did onstage and glad they remained composed. We then continue the show with no mistakes.

(If I actually directed this show, I would also include numerous flashbacks to rehearsals to give context and backstage. It would also provide for some entertaining moments).

Let's not overschedule ourselves shall we?

Note to self:

When you have a free afternoon, DON'T BOOK EVERY POSSIBLE MOMENT. That results in A) Hunger B) Stress C) Irritability and D) lack of time to do the important things like homework.

My day:

10:20-11:00: Lighting design. Got out early. Had a mocha. Very relaxing

11:30-12:30: Foundations of theater. discussed medea. loved it.

12:30-1:20: Standing in line for lunch. Following people around to find a seat till I decided the theater is way cooler (in more than one sense). Bonded with Renee (transfer student)

1:20-3:40: Stagecraft lab hours. Built scenery. Bonded with Kevin (new tech student). Faced/conquered my fear of the saw.

3:45-4:20: Watched senior dance pieces. Tried to get inspiration for Marissa's lighting since I am designing it. Haha. I fail.

4:20-5:51: Driving to Linda's.

5;51-5:10: Played with Sadie!

5:10-5:40: Driving back

5:40-6:00: Dinner?

6:00-6:30: Set up for rehearsal.

6:30-9:40: Wonderful rehearsal. Lots of laughter. And inside jokes. This cast knows how to cheer me up. And Jenna got me a pink pencil to indicate her color in my script. She was originally black but she didn't like that. So now Jenna's lines are marked in pink.

10:10 ish: I arrive in my room. Tired and realizing I don't get a break (well... a legit break. I get mini teaser breaks) until 10:00 pm. Upside? I talked to Linda and her tech went well and she was happy. I watched the DVD of the dance show and was reminded how happy I was at that time last year. And by my standards, I had a good day.

What is my grading scale for a good day you may ask?

1. Are actors happy?

2. Have I not screwed up yet?

3. Is my homework started before rehearsal?

The answer to everything was yes. So really, today was a good day :) I was actually extremely content right before my chaos began. Love my classes, my friends, my show, dance...everything really. Now I need to finish my homework and go sleep and then be awesome in class tomorrow (and yes Mey, you will be my inspiration to be awesome in class).

Stairs are not my friend

Stairs. Some find them to be a slight inconvenience. Some regard them as exercise. Most couldn't care less.

I currently hate them. My knee has decided to take a long time to heal and thus makes stairs my worst enemy. It also is limiting my dancing at the moment.

Anyway. I have seminar in an hour and a half. And then driving out to Linda's to check on SADIE while Linda is in tech. Yay puppies. Then rehearsal. And....oh yeah homework at one point. That would be good.

I am in love

With my cast. and show. Completely in love.

But I still miss last year's seniors. Dear Christina, Mey, Marc, Kyle, and Kate. COME BACK and visit.

Watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R12QVtuB0_Q&feature=channel

How I Define Success

I have decided my days will be successful if:

A) My homework is at least started before rehearsal

B) Actors are happy

C) I haven't screwed anything up yet

If the answer to all these are yes, then my day is good :)

A Day in My Life

So I have random videos I like to post...

This first one is from camp. We are playing a game called Sumo. And I totally miss this.

I love my cast

Can I just say that this cast is amazing?

Mrs. Dalloway-Laura Miller

Mr Dalloway-Andrew Talbot

Prickett Ellis-Andrew Galindo

Miss O'Keefe-Tatiana Ray

Lilly Everit- Francesca Crebassa

Bob Brinsley- Liam Callister

Mabel Waring-Jenna Stich

Hubert Waring-Frank Moreno

Rose Shaw- Annie Efremsky

Violet Searle-Kim Sturiale

I'm kind of in love with all of them. This show is going to be amaaaazing.

My knee is still dead. I will be voyaging to the health center tomorrow if I actually finish this homework for Reid...meaning I should go do that right now.

I'm sorry if I haven't called you/talked to you recently. I am in the process of getting everything ready for the show and once I fall into a regular routine, then I can talk again.

Love to you all <3

Pick One

I have an audition in a month (ish)

I need to choose a song

Options:

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered (Pal Joey)

Someone Else's Story (Chess)

As Long as He Needs Me (Oliver)

For Good (as a solo. Wicked)

I'm leaning towards Someone Else's Story

Suggestions?

Good Plan?

Let's get more than 4 hours of sleep at night. That would be excellent.

Auditions were wonderful last night. The callback list is up and they run tonight and potentially tomorrow as well. I know who I want in this show and that may not quite match up with who Delia wants in the show which is sad but part of theater. However I will rope in those who are not cast and make them do tech :)

I need an off switch for my mind. Because I think too much at inopportune times. Thinking in class would be ideal but oh no my mind is working full time at like 3 am. Dislike.

Alright. Off to get fingerprinted so I can officially be hired at the church.

:D

Lani

My cousin Lani is amazing at hip hop.

Like I said, we couldn't be any more different but I LOVE her

I should update this

I should recap my life since my last post

So I've been back at school for a week but it already feels like I've been here forever. In a good way. Classes are AMAZING. Absolutely love them, even seminar. Love having friends in classes, love taking theater classes, love everything about them. Got a job working in a church nursery which is great. Auditions have been wonderful and we have more this week. This is my first 3 day weekend in 6 years and I am super happy. My living situation is great minus the horrible cell reception. My suitemates are really great. Dance is wonderful. In general, my life is awesome right now. Let's hope this lasts.