Mme de Rosemonde is played by Dechen Garza. Come see the show!
Thanks to Mara Westerling, one of our other cast members, for the backstage pictures!
February 2006
February 27, 2006
Mme de Rosemonde
Mme de Tourvel
Jeanette Steiner is playing Mme de Tourvel. The costumes and wigs for this show are fabulous!
Merteuil and Volanges
Kara McKenney plays Merteuil and Megan Townsend is Mme de Volanges. I guess someone surprised them.
Dangerous Liasons Crew
Here is my Dangerous Liasons Crew. Aren’t they adorable in their costumes! I don’t know why the powdered wig ever went out of style!
Classes
Classes are good. It’s just that I am so tired from everything else, I don’t want to go. I contemplated not getting up this morning, but I know I will just feel guilty if I don’t go to class. Today one of my classes is cancelled, sort of, my professor is at a conference, but we are still supposed to meet and work on a project. That’s great because my partner and I have not worked on this at all, but I know when 1pm comes around, this movement piece is the last thing I will want to work on. I am glad I do not have many general education classes this semester. Those professors don’t understand or care about the difficulty of the rehearsal or tech process. Which is understandable. But it is nice to have theater professors you can talk to, an who understand what you are going through.
Tech Weekend
I thought this morning I would wake up exhausted, but I am not. Mostly because this weekend went great. This weekend was our tech weekend, where we work out all of the lights, set, sound and especially costumes and wigs. It is usually a tough and long process, but for some reason this weekend went quite smooth. We rarely had to hold and fix something. I think we only had to go back twice the whole time. The set crew is fabulous. i never have to worry about if someone is in place or ready to go. They are all responsible. That makes me relax a little. The cast is doing well. I think the costumes helped get them into the world more. Plus, they all just look great. I am soooo relieved. Opening Night is Thursday I hope we get a good turn out.
February 22, 2006
Still Going Strong
Well, I just realized that I had forgotten to write this past week. I apologize to all you faithful blog readers. It has been hectic. Tonight is crew view for dangerous liasons. It is kind of exciting. I am ready to move on to this stage of my job. The rehearsal process gets long, for the stage manager, I am ready to do my tech work! Although, it is more difficult and I am responsible for a lot more. I think that this show will not be too difficult. There are a lot of set changes, but I don’t think the light changes are complex. I don’t know for sure though. We may be meeting this afternoon to do a dry tech. That is when the designers, director and I sit down and go through each cue, on paper, so we know what to expect the next few days in tech rehearsal. It makes me feel more stable and in control. It also makes sure that everyone is on the same page and we all understand what the others are doing.
I hope all my crew comes and come on time. I hate people who are late. It screws everything up and punishes those who come on time or even early. I also don’t really like being the one who must discipline. It is difficult to get your peers to respect you on another level when you are a stage manager. I guess I need to learn and suck it up, be mean! I don’t know. I will let you all know what happens tonight!
February 15, 2006
A Hard Major
It seems to me that being a theater major is one of the hardest majors to choose. We have a lot of outside work, rehearsals for shows, class, for our own pleasure. It isn’t just coming to class and doing homework. Heck, I am lucky if I even get time for homework. Although, despite the intense schedule it is somewhat fulfilling. Most people will tell you they are ecstatic about what they do. They love to perform or design. I am enjoying it all, but haven’t found the one thing I am fully committed to doing.
College is for exploration. It is a great time to learn about things you may never think about again. I took anthropology last semester it was amazing. I thought about minoring in it, then again I thought about that the semester before in music class, and before that in sociology. Oh yes and I can’t forget my three week long investment in becoming a lawyer. There are so many choices in the world. Sometimes I wish I lived in a place with less choice, or freedom, because then everything would be decided for me, and I could just complain about it!! But that is wrong, and for now I must take on the task of searching and discovering.
February 10, 2006
Rockettes
Here is another backstage shot of the Rocky cast. In this photo you have the Rockettes and the Band Singers. Most people have probably not seen me or Jessica, well not you can. And you may see more than you wanted!! Jessica is far left girl, with the long pink Hair. I am second from the right, in blue. The other ladies, left to right are… (pardon girls if I spell your names wrong) JessicaHube, Ashley Hyjek, Eve Everette, Latoya Codner, Jenny Kennedy, Emily Vredenburg (me!), and Sayaka Watanabe.
Backstage at The Rocky Horror Show!
I know that everyone has been wanting to see some pictures on the blog site, here is one I found from The Rocky Horror Show. That is one of the shows we did last semester. It was great, I think I may have written about it earlier in my blog. I will continue searching for pictures so everyone can get a better taste of what we do here at Buffalo State!
Friday
It’s Friday. I never have classes on Friday’s but I always seem to end up at school anyway. Generally there are production meetings, but today we do not have one, and yet here I am at 10am in the computer lab. I am in this building six days a week, I think I may begin to go crazy soon. Right now I am waiting for my movement partner. We have to perform a movement duet on weight and space. So far it is going well, we just have to refine it. I am glad that Gerry, our movement professor, gave us class time to work on this project, since Ebony, my partner, and I had not gotten to work outside of class. We have to perform this on Monday, it should go well, I don’t think it’s my best work so far, but it is a work in progress.
This upcoming week is going to be busy. I have a costume design project due Monday, we have to present our designs for the show Antigone, with research. I still have to finish my seven drawings, photocopy them, mount them, and justify my choices. On top of that!, I have my first period styles folio. This is like a portfolio of research we have found on the topics we discussed in class. These must be primary sources, good quality pictures, centered and copied on white paper, put into plastic sheets and bound together. Oh yes, there is a also a works cited page and a short paper describing our choices. All this would be fine but……..
DID I MENTION THE SHOW OPENS IN THREE WEEKS!!!! I am so busy and under the gun. The pressure is now on me and on the cast. And of course this is also the time when all our teachers want to give us work, and soon mid-terms. I still don’t know how I have juggled this amount of work and gotten really great grades the past 3 years. I always feel rushed and pressured, but maybe that is when I do my best work. Who knows? I just keep thinking I wont have this much going on when school ends, the real world isn’t this crazy, but I believe now I am just fooling myself. Life does not get easier after college.
Oh yes, and it is my casting hall vice president’s duty to plug the show mercilessly, so here it is
COME SEE DANGEROUS LIASONS…….HALF PRICE PREVIEW MARCH 1, THEN SHOWS MARCH 2-5 AND
MARCH 9-12 TICKETS ARE $6 FOR STUDENTS
TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW IN ROCKWELL HALL AND THE STUDENT UNION…..PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS!
February 06, 2006
All Right…What to do next?
Ok well today was kind of disappointing. Friday I auditioned for the new outreach, recruit program. I really thought I had done well and I still believe I have everything it would take to perform in the program. However, I did not get in. I really don’t know why and I understand I shouldn’t dwell on not being cast, but it still makes me upset. I really wanted to do it and I know I would do a great job. I guess I just shouldn’t have set my heart on getting in. I am acting in Gerry’s movement class, but other than that I do not get to work on my acting.
Our professors always tell us to find ways to act, put something together ourselves, do a Thursday series, but in reality that is not that easy. It is a good idea to do student run work, but finding people who will fully commit to the show is difficult. People put other shows or activities first. If I am going to work on something I don’t want to do a crappy job. I understand everyone is busy. I am extremely busy as well, but I know working with friends that we don’t always get work done. Other things get in the way. It is hard to be disciplined.
I want to be a great stage manager, but I have always wanted to perform. The work needed to successfully stage manage has gotten in the way of my possiblity of performing. Also, I only one acting class this semester, it is helping me grow as an actor, but I want more. To be a good performer, one must perform. Sometime this semester I would like the chance to act outside the confines of my tiny apartment. Singing in the shower is not acting. I don’t want to sound as if everything is always rough, but it is easy to share the hardships of this major and of my academic career with everyone here.
February 02, 2006
Another Day
I guess my blog does not show the fun and exciting parts of our work here at Buffalo State. But I would be lying if I said school was easy. I enjoy it here, otherwise I would not spend thirteen hours a day in the theater arts, now the the Donald Savage Theater and Communication, building. It is just exhausting working so hard. There is little time for outside fun, and when I do decide to go out shopping or get coffee with friends I feel guilt, because I know there is some project or homework that I should be working on.
It’s great to be surrounded by friends all day. We see each other periodically throughout the day, since the computer lab is the place to be. Generally there are way too many people in the computer lab. There are eight of us crowded in the tiny room and a sign above us staring down: OCCUPANCY LIMITED TO 5 PERSONS! Looking at that sign always makes me laugh. Right now it is quiet in the lab, but that is because it is before noon. There is rarely anyone here in the mornings. At this time it is actually possible to get work done. Although I am not doing any of the work I should. I actually have to go and study. I have two tests today.
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