Warm Return

Hello, all!

As I'm sure you all (AKA the one person who probably reads this) know, it's been a year since my last post. My apologies; there's just been so much going on. Here's a nice, concise review for you:

- We performed Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by my friend Rachel Plantz, in which I played the drunk surgeon Dr. Herman Einstein.
- We also performed Father of the Bride, and I was lucky enough to secure the title character!
- You remember my close friend Crystal, from my last post? We went to Prom together. and I asked her out less than a week later. Just a week and a half ago, we celebrated our one-year anniversary :) I love that girl.
- School let out, and I wasted a good portion of my summer (Which is a very important thing to do!)
- School got back in, and I got some very challenging courses added for my Senior year. I can't complain much, though, since I signed up for them!
-Our new tech director, Mr. Kaiser, put on the show I Never Saw Another Butterfly as part of his Masters thesis from UNC. It was an amazing performance.
- We performed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and I was the "Comfort Counselor" Mitch Mahoney, as well as Logainne's gay father Dan Schwartz and Olive Ostrovsky's father.
- We went to the Thespian Conference in Denver, which was very enjoyable. We saw a performance of Spelling Bee there, and it was different enough that we could compare the things we liked that they'd changed and what we didn't.
- In the Spring, we performed The Sting (yes, like the film). After doing a small-cast play, our director Mrs. Estrada went back to a big one. And I mean huge. I was the Co-Assistant Directer as well as FBI Special Agent Polk. I got to fire a gun! Granted, it was fake, but it was LOUD.
- My girlfriend Crystal and her best friend Lindsay student-directed the play The Education of Angels. Considering the small amount of time we had to get it all together, along with zero budget, we did an amazing job! I played Dave, an obsessive-compulsive guy who's about to get married and gets some help from above.
- In theatre class, Crystal, Lindsay, Jillian (our main costume lady), and I vented our own personal problems about Estrada after we finished a pointless project she had us do (FYI, we don't like her teaching "style" all that much). Some of the comments: she's deceptively hateful, she doesn't really teach us anything about acting, she gets in over her head, she's a self-centered hypocrite, she's never on top of things... the list is infinite. I personally hope that Kaiser replaces her in theatre. His play, Butterfly, also had a short time frame to be put on, and it was phenomenal. He's a great teacher, who knows what the heck he's doing.

Anyhow, that's the review. School's about over, we're just about two weeks from graduation. I'll miss some things from this school; other things, not so much. I'm gonna be going to the University of South Dakota in the fall, and possibly major in theatre :) maybe minor, though, so I can earn a Bachelor's degree that will allow me to get a real job haha. They also have something called the "Student Theatre Cooperative" which is theatre run by students. I definitely planned to get involved in that!

Until next time!

No, not the Unicorn..

This is it. My brainchild. My big break. This… is Charlie.

To set the stage for you, Charlie is the name of my school auditorium's poltergeist. Although he doesn't really exist, his 'presence' is made known by a set of lights that occasionally flicker in the back of the auditorium. They cannot be controlled, and nobody knows why they flicker – probably faulty wiring. Anyway, somebody down the line made up the story that it's a ghost named Charlie that makes the lights flicker. Many people simply ignore it, while some of us playfully interact with 'Charlie'. I, on the other hand, have decided to bring him to life through a play!

Here’s the story so far: Windsor High School has been haunted by Charlie, an old student who unintentionally hung himself in the auditorium, for 50 years. A new kid moves into the town of Windsor. He tries out and gets the lead role for the school's play. He doesn't believe in Charlie, and likes to make fun of those that do. After a while, two seniors get fed up with the new kid and dare him to stay the night in the auditorium – on Halloween, of all nights. The kid, not wanting to look like a wimp, accepts the challenge… but the next morning, he is gone. Police are searching, the seniors are paranoid, the director might have to shut down the production… but the day before the play, the kid shows up again, laughing. He explains it was all a joke, that Charlie didn't do anything, and that he ISN'T REAL. As everyone leaves the auditorium, they suspect that maybe the kid was right, and Charlie was just in their imaginations.

However, once everyone is gone and the only person left is the new kid… Charlie shows up. And teaches him a lesson.


Now, I can’t take all the credit for this. One of my very best friends, Crystal, gave me the idea in the first place, as well as some fantastic specifics. I just put in some filler.

At the current moment, this is what I’m focusing on. I plan to spend at least a little bit of time each day on 'Charlie' so that I don't end up losing interest and giving up on such a wonderful prospect. Crystal and I are planning to spend some time today getting a LOT of work done on it. Any ideas we come up with – I’ll post right here for your waiting eyes.