My lighting design project went very well on Monday. I feel like our group accomplished what we wanted to. I'm very glad that I kept the amount of cues to a minimum now, I felt very nervous about it before. The other groups also did very well I think. I was a bit surprised at how many people felt that they didn't have enough time. For some reason, I have had a lot of group projects through college with limited time, so I feel like I was sort of prepared for it. I also like working with limited time, it keeps my procrastination to a minimum.

I actually don't have much to do this weekend, homework wise. Just a play to read for theatre history. But, on a completley unrelated note, I got to see the coolest thing at work today. Normally, we don't do surgeries at our clinic on Fridays, but a big shepherd mi had a tooth abcess and our doctor did surgery on him. It was so neat to see a sugery! I'm usually running around helping with it, but this time I was able to watch the whole thing! It was a bit gruesome, but totally worth it.

Last week school-wise was really fun. Monday in practicum I finished the ironing board that was started the week before. It was really cool to see that thing finished. In lighting design we learned how to program the light board again. That class is still giving me a heart attack! We have the renderings due Wendesday and I still only have three fully done. I'm still trying to figure out one of the cues.

On Tuesday theater history was first. We discussed some of the Elizabethan playwrights. Go Marlowe! We also watched this bizzare documentary on how, apparently, Marlowe faked his own death and a replacement body was thrown in the Thames. Instead of having script analysis we went to campus house instead. That was super fun. I hadn't had coffee in ages. I have to read A Moon for the Misbegotten for Tuesday and I'm having the hardest time with it for some reason. I really didn't have a problem reading A Long Days Journey into Night, but that might have been because it was during the summer and I really didn't have other things going on.

I also saw Camelot on Sunday. It was very strange to be in Shea's again. I hadn't been their since I have become a theater major and it was a very differerent experience. I've seen so many productions in smaller theaters and it was weird to be in a crowd that big. The show was amazing though! Lou Diamond Philips was one of my first crushes and I was totally star struck when he stepped on stage. His voice wasn't terribly strong, but he was such a charming King Arthur it didn't matter.

Classes are bit crazy right now, seeing as how it's getting towards the end of the semester. I have a paper due Tuesday that I completely forgot about. Luckily, it's not too long. Lighting design has been my hardest class this semester simply because I have never thought in terms of lighting before. We still have two projects left and I'm totally nervous. But, I was offered the opportunity to design the lighting for one of the segments of the dance concert next semester, so I'm extremely excited too!

Candace and I built an ironing board yesterday in practicum one. It was a very odd experience, but not as odd as our bed dilemma. We had to remove the bed and all of the headboards and backboards from TAB and bring it to Upton. But, the directing one class was in the theater at the time and we had to be very quiet when we were taking it apart and moving it. Luckily, Candace and I work well together so we were able to communicate very quietly, but that didn't stop us from having trouble. First, we couldn't get the sheets off the bed, then , I was having the hardest time unscrweing the headboard, and when we finally got it apart and put the matresses on the cart, we found out they were to wide to fit behind the risers and through most of the doors. We ended up having to pick up and carry them several times!

Lighting design has been very hectic. We have been designing for True West and working on our first light plot, which has been very difficult for me. I find it so much easier to work on the design or rendering aspect of the class than the technical side. Fortunatley, I figured out my design concept quickly, and that helped me with the plot greatly.

Theater history was amazing on Tuesday! We discussed english history and monarchs. We got to watch clips from Laurence Olivier's versions of Henry V (one of my favorite plays!) and Richard III.

Last Thursday I went to see A Winter's Tale at Canisius college. It was a lovely production. It began with a black tie christmas party in Sicilia and Bohemia was pretty much a hippie commune. The actors looked like they were having a blast in this production and they also understood the language very well.

The test on Thursday for theater history went really well. I think I did better than I did on the last one.

This past weekend my grandmother took me to the BPO for my birthday. It was wonderful! We were in the very last row but we were able to see and hear perfectly. It was a performance of the works of the Russian romantics, and the Shostokovich piece was amazing. The pianist was really great.

Hopefully, this Thursday I am going to see The Winter's Tale. I'm really excited because I love that play and I haven't had a chance to see it on stage!

We are still reading Macbeth in my script analysis class and it's really great. The play has such a strong mood and today's weather made it a perfect day to discuss it. Speaking of script analysis, I should be writing my ten page paper for that class. I was very distracted this weekend by youtube. Someone uploaded all of the episodes of the animated Shakespeare children's show that aired when I was young. A Winter's Tale is my favorite episode; it's done with really detailed puppets. Richard the III is absolutely terrifiying. It's done with painted glass and Richard has long, curly, blond hair!

I ended up doing really well on my test and project for lighting design. I was very happy with my project overall, but there are some glaring things I missed that I really want to go back and fix. I also have a test I really need to study for for theatre history. I hate being distracted.

I'm so glad that I really am enjoying my major so much. It's lovely not to have anymore doubts. With my previous majors, I didn't really feel that they were what I wanted to do career wise. I'm at the point now that I can safely say that I want to do this for the rest of my life.

I have a mid-term in lighting design Wendesday and I'm very worried. I feel as if the material is not sticking, like I'm not getting it. At the review Monday, I felt like everything we went over was new. Normaly, I don't worry that much about tests because I feel I'm fairly prepared, but I really don't know about this one . . .

I have to read the first act of Macbeth for script analysis tomorrow. That's going to be hard. I really love Shakespeare and I always try to take my time with it, it took me almost a month to read Troilus and Cressida over the summer. I'm gonna have to try and read fast!

My lighting design project went fairly well today. I have a hard time getting my ideas across when I'm in front of a group of people. I'm not nervous about the people, I'm just worried that I won't be clear enough. I was happy with the way my renderings came out overall though.

I bought tickets for my parents for Baltimore. My mom insists on seeing it, which surprises me. She saw Betty's Summer Vacation last semester and was wondering why everyone swore so much. She really enjoyed it though!

I have another lighting design project due on Wednesday. I hope I have enough watercolor paper to do it . . . We have to design the lighting for the Steve Martin play Picasso at the Lapin Agile and do renderings of the lighting. Our professor gave us gel books on Wednesday and I have been having far to much fun with mine.

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.

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!

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!