Amy's Blog

Wow this week has been busy!

Monday was a nice laid back day. Practicum one was canceled so I helped Nick sweep out the scene shop and watched him mop for a while. Lighting design was wonderful! We had a dress form set up in the TAB theater and we drew it with different angles of light shining on it. We used pastels and it was very fun to try and get it perfect and life like. I had been going through a little bit of design withdrawl and that certainly helped cure it!

Tuesday I had a test in my first class of the day, history of theater. I had a hard time on it and was almost sure I had bombed it, but I found out today I did rather well. I was very happy about that! We dicussed School for Scandal in script analysis and learned sbout medieval fashion in period styles, which I had a test in today. I’m feeling pretty good about it. We went over it in class after wards and I don’t think I missed too many…

Wendesday was my first day working on The Baltimore Waltz. Well, technically I didn’t do any actual work, it was just crew view, but it did little to quell my fears. Seeing how many costume changes and props are in that show made me extremely nervous! I have my first actual rehearsal tonight and I am super scared.

I think I caught what pretty much everyone in the theater department had, or has currently. I don’t feel so hot, but it could be worse! When I get sick it tends to be really bad, but right now it’s kind of a mild cold, which I can deal with.

Posted by Amy at 03:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I’m so glad it’s Saturday. I actually got to sleep in today and my homework load is pretty light this weekend. It is really is the calm before the storm though, because I start working on The Baltimore Waltz on Wednesday.

On Thursday night I went with my script analysis class to see The School for Scandal at The Irish Classical Theatre. It was so hard to get there though, it took us for ever to find a parking space and we ended up practically running for the theater to make it there on time. As it turns out, everyone was still standing in the lobby when we got there. The play was absolutley lovely. It was full of actors I really love and they all did a wonderful job.

I saw Arsenic and Old Lace last night at The Lancaster Opera House with my freinds. It was very cute. It was weird to see a professional production and then an amatuer one in two days. We got to meet and speak to the actors afterwards, which was very cool.

The lighting design project went well. It was very nerve-racking to just stand there, hold up pictures, and not say anything. The songs everyone chose were really cool, I even downloaded a few of them!

Posted by Amy at 11:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I found out my assignment for praticum 2 the other day. I’m going to work on the set crew for Baltimore Waltz, which is really exciting. It’s going to be my first time working on a show other than building and I’m pretty nervous. I’m not sure what to expect.

Practicum 1 is going really well still. I was nervous about starting to build again, but I’m doing better than I did in tech theater in terms of fear of power tools. Candace and I actually built a whole platform together and I didn’t mess up too bad! It was really fun too. I think it’s going better because I know what I’m doing more than last semester.

I’m going to see School for Scandal tommorrow with my script analysis class. We read it in class and I was surprised at how much trouble I had reading it! I’ve read a few restoration plays before and didn’t have as much trouble. I think a lot changes when I read something and try to understand structure and theme as opposed to reading it for fun… On another note, I am going Friday with my friends to see Arsenic and Old Lace at the Lancaster Opera House. I can’t wait, I love that play!

Posted by Amy at 07:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It has been a very eventful and lovely week so far. On Tuesday playwright Tom Dudzik visted my Script Analysis class to talk about his career and the play Don’t Talk to the Actors, which we had read. He was very funny and interesting. Many of his answers to our questions were very surprising to us, most especially how he said that he followed dramatic structure very carefully and used books to help him with this. It was surprising considering a few of us, me included, had a problem picking out the inciting incident, it was very subtle. It was also very enlightening to hear how he developed his plot and characters.

Later that night, we were lucky enough to attend the very first preview of the play at Studio Arena. That was very exciting! The audience was extremely responsive, there were several points in which the laughter and clapping of the audience was so loud that the action onstage almost had to come to a standstill! Which, as Mr. Dudzick pointed out today, may have been because Kathleen Gaffney worked the audience up by telling them that this was the first time the play had been seen by human eyes, but it was still one of the most fun audiences I’ve ever been a part of. I really enjoyed the play, there were a lot of jokes that I missed in the script that almost had me in tears when it was performed. The set and costume designs were wonderful, the huge illuminated signs behind the set were a personal favorite.

Mr. Dudzick was in our class again today to ask our reactions and to answer any other questions we had. It was cool to hear how some people’s opinions changed a great deal after seeing it. It really goes to show how important it is to see live theatre, instead of just reading scripts or plays. It’s hard to get a feel for the play unless it is seen. A friend pointed out to me that that’s probably why so many kids in school dislike reading plays. It’s one thing to read and disect Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s another to see it performed.

On Wednesday our lighting design class took a field trip! It was only to Upton (which I had been earlier that day), but still, it was fun. We got to go up on the cat walk and see the instruments and learn how to operate a light board, which I promptly forgot. I really have my work cut out for me this weekend … I have a project in that class that I’m sort of freaking out about.

Posted by Amy at 08:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It’s certainly a bad sign that I ‘m tired and the week hasn’t even started yet. It was a surprisingly hard week at work and I think it’s begining to have an effect on me. I work at an animal hospital and we lost a puppy this weekend, yuck. But, I’m actually really looking foward to school tommorrow, if only for practicum one. I had been worrying about that class all summer for some reason, probably the table saw haunting my nightmares due to my tech theater class last semester, but it’s turning out really fun. On one of the first classes we had to wheel a bed over to TAB for the rehearsals of The Baltimore Waltz. It must have been absurd to see us with a huge bed on wheels running around. It was quite a challenge to get it in the elevator! It’s also really interesting to learn things I never dreamed I would learn, like putting together and moving risers in the flexible theater. I have sat on them so many times and never appreciated how frustating they could be…

I also read Medea this weekend for History of Theater one. I read it way back in seventh grade and it was weird to read it again with a whole different perspective. I think the play was tainted for me because I hated the version of it we watched in class for whatever reason. I can’t say I completely enjoyed it this time, but I felt more compassion for Medea than I did when I was younger. In seventh grade sort I of felt like, “Why would anyone write a play about this horrible, horrible woman?!”, but now I sort of have a perverted kind of respect for her.

On Tuesday my script analysis class is seeing “Don’t Talk to the Actors”. I’m super excited! It’s the world premier and I’m sort of going crazy trying to figure out what to wear. I want to look nice but I don’t want to have to run around campus in something really uncomfortable. At least it isn’t on a day when I have my practicum … I’m also really excited to see I play I’ve read a ton of times on stage. It will be interesting to see if my views of the characters and sets match what is presented on stage.

Well, I have to go for now, but, hopefully I’ll be posting later this week!

Posted by Amy at 07:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack