Sunday, September 18, 2011

Scene Shop

This past friday, I had a few extra hours in my evening and made my way down to the Fine Arts building on campus. The scene shop is open on weekdays from 1 to 5, and they always have people in there working on a show.

Currently, the theatre department is focused on God of Carnage. A brief synopsis: two pairs of parents, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into chaos. It sounds like a rather funny play that I'm excited to see! That, however, is not the topic of this post.

I went into the scene shop, and immediately met two theatre kids (whose names escape me - I'm terrible with names) who were working on two tribal masks that would eventually hang on the walls in the play. The graduate, a male who had the same major as I do, had me take a jigsaw to some foam and carve out teeth for the masks. After I did that, he worked on fine tuning the teeth while I helped the younger girl, who I'd guess is a sophomore or junior, secure one of the masks with glue and a nailgun. The details on the two masks were very ornate, yet ingenious in their simplicity. At about 4:50, we needed to start cleaning up, so everyone (and I mean everyone, not just the few people who wanted to) immediately got to work, sweeping up and cleaning up the shop. We were done in less than ten minutes, despite how spacious and dirty the shop was!

At the end, everyone went over to a board to sign out. I didn't know I needed to sign in, so I went over and asked someone. They asked me if I was in the scene shop for credit for a class or I was paid. I told them I'd come simply to volunteer my help. They were ecstatic! I guess they don't have people coming in "to volunteer" all that often, which puts me in a very small but enjoyed minority. If I do this a lot more (which I plan to), it'll give me great experience along with showing the people who work in the scene shop that I'm dedicated and care about theatre. Heck, maybe in the future, I can work there for pay!

Monday, September 5, 2011

USD!

Well, I just finished my first week at the University of South Dakota, and I'm loving it here! Sure, I've got a ton of homework, but it's been good so far, especially my theatre class! And, I have some sweet news, suckish news, a silver lining, and sweeter news:

Sweet: My college is putting on Avenue Q in December! I LOVE that show! If you've never heard of it, please do yourself a favor and click the link. It is a very funny show.

Suckish: Because of the intensity of the show's practices (and I can understand this), the auditions were held before I moved into town. So, unfortunately, I can't be in the show.

Silver Lining: I'll still be able to see the show, which I've always wanted to do. And I can do backstage work for it, too!

Sweeter: I'm not keeping Theatre as my minor... I'm changing it to my major! And I'm planning on getting into prop design, as well as acting, and I'm psyched to do so.

Hope all's going well for you guys. I'll catch you in the future!

P.S. I've been having epiphanies for Breathe. Check back soon for info!

College Bound

As the summer slowly winds down, and I must once again enter my schooling career, I plan to make my way to the University of South Dakota :) what my major will be, I don't know, but I do know I will be minoring in THEATRE :D I'm already signed up for Intro to Theatre, and I'm super excited!

That's all I have to share today. Hopefully as I get into the swing of things in college, I can work more on some of my musical and play ideas. Take care!