Wrapping everything up

Well after the whirlwind of activity that was the past few weeks things are beginning to wind down. Camp finished up really well. My group of kids performed really well and I think they all enjoyed themselves. Midsummer did amazing and broke an attendance record for the season. We had an amazing crowd every night of performance. Unfortunately as soon as Midsummer and camp finished I was unable to ignore the annoying cough that had been steadily growing worse and worse. So due to an upper respiratory virus, I've missed a few days of work and been pretty sluggish all around (hence no blog update for last week as I was home in bed for the majority of the week). Good news though, it's only supposed to last 3-6 weeks. I'm most likely wrapping up week 2, so hopefully it's almost gone.

Yesterday and today were the camp showcases for the summer session. Because all of our classes were on two days we split up the performances so that we had two each night. It made it a little longer of a day for the staff, but got the parents and students in and out quicker which is always a good thing. I also got to help Ms. Megan with the Creative Theatre Fun classes some more. Because it's the 3 and 4 year olds she wanted an extra set of eyes and hands to help out. It also worked out well because these are the two classes that I've sat in on the most, so the kids know me pretty well. Last night I even got to fill in for one of the kids as Jill from Jack and Jill during their Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes performance. There were some hiccups tonight of students not wanting to play their part and a sick kid, so we just ended up with two little Miss Muffets and a couple kids got to play extra parts. Overall a very successful two nights of performances.

Up next is the General Grant project. We have an actor coming in to do a one man show about General/President Grant during the civil war. This is especially cool for Junior Theatre as our home used to be a civil war camp. His load in is tomorrow, but unfortunately I won't be there as tomorrow is the day that Monmouth gave me to move my stuff into school. But I will get to help out with tech rehearsals over the weekend and the performance on Sunday. Then on Monday Daniel is taking Morgan and I out for breakfast to discuss how the summer went and the internship and all that stuff. Then I'll pack up the last of my stuff, move completely back to Monmouth to start classes on Tuesday. Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it. It's hard to believe the summer is over already. I'm a little sad to be leaving because I've grown to love this theatre and all the opportunities it's given me so much. But I do feel better knowing I'm coming back for Spring Break. I also already have all their upcoming performances on my calendar so I'll be sure to come up for all of those.

half way mark

Well I'm now at the half way mark for my recent projects. We've performed 3 of our 6 shows of Midsummer and 3 of 5 days of camp.

After the first performance was moved indoors because of the storm we were able to have our second two outside in our original locations. We had a surprisingly good turn out and the audience was very receptive. Keeping the actor's energy up our in the heat is proving pretty hard. Especially since our director has gone back to New York. I feel like more of a water boy, forcing cups of water into every actor's hand the minute they step back stage.

Camp is also going pretty well. Morgan and I ended up having to team teach again. The last week went pretty well, but it was frustrating at times. This time we sat down with Daniel and talked about how to make team teaching a success. We planned out more specifically who is in charge of what and who will lead what class times. So far it's been seeming to work pretty well, but I think team teaching is hard no matter what the sitation. Definitely for me as I like to be in control so much.

We have a group of 9 kids, all 9 and 10 years old. They're all pretty excited about the Ireland theme for the week and learning to Irish step dance. Today we had our first rehearsal on stage and got the blocking all sorted out. Some of the kids are starting to memorize but some of them still need work. I'm a little worried about some of our kids, especially our "lead" actor being loud enough, but hopefully as they get more comfortable with the lines and blocking they can think about that less and focus on their projection. I know they can be loud when they want to be.

I can't believe it's already August. My last day of work as an intern is August 22nd, but I know I'm coming back for Spring Break to teach my own class then. These last few weeks are going to keep me just as busy as the rest of the summer. I've been taking lots of pictures and videos and can't wait to share with everyone back on campus.

Opening Night

Opening night was on Thursday and it went really well. We were scheduled to perform at the LeClaire park band shell, but because of storms that were moving in and out of the area pretty quickly all day long we moved the performance indoors at Junior Theatre. Making the last minute adjustments to blocking and preshow procedures was a little hectic, but luckily Jason, the director was still there to help figure it all out. While the actors didn't remember all of the changes, such as exiting into the wings instead of behind the set, they did a really good job. We also had a decent size audience considering we moved locations.

After opening night was done we packed up the truck and a few of the cast, Jason and I went out to eat to say goodbye. Jason flew back to New York yesterday so from now on I'll be completely in charge of warm ups and making sure the cast is ready and giving any notes back stage that they need. I've definitely confirmed in my mind how much I love stage managing though. I've also received lots of compliments from Jason, Jessica, the other stage manager and Daniel on how well I've been doing and what a good stage manager I am as it plays to a lot of my strengths.

We have performances tonight and tomorrow night and then a break until Thursday. I've also found out that on Thursday I'm going to be playing Show Time Pal before the performance. I'm pretty excited. It seems like a sort of rite of passage when working at Junior Theatre to get to play Show Time Pal. A lot of the staff went to Junior Theatre when they were kids and had the experience then, but Morgan and I are new here so we were both given a chance if we wanted to get the experience now.

I'll be plenty busy during our break before Thursday though. Our second week of camp starts on Monday. I should be teaching my own class for the week. It's going to be a busy week though. Tuesday and Wednesday we have classes going and they'll be on the stage for rehearsal before their final performance in two weeks. Then on Thursday we have the performance back in Illinois right when camp is over. I'll try to write more during camp week to share what my group of kids is like and how our next two performances go.

tech time!

Yesterday's rehearsal began our week of tech before Midsummer opens on Thursday night. Today the crew met at 11 and worked out the load in and out of the set. And boy was it a long process. For each show we have to set up the multi-leveled platform set, unload a variety of set dressing, all the props, 3 tents that have to be set up and placed properly for the boys and girls dressing room as well as front of house. Then the various other odds and ends have to be unloaded and sorted to the right spot. All of this also has to happen in 100 degree weather, while wearing long pants for protection. Whew! We managed to get everything set up in about an hour and a half, which is pretty good. Then after tonight's rehearsal we have to take it all back down and load it into the UHaul, only to come back in less than 15 hours to do it all again. Definitly a lot of learning going on. There's so many things that I wouldn't have thought about being important or causing a problem when trying to move a show outdoors to various locations.

Another project I'm working on is creating the program for the show. There is someone on the board that usually does the program who suddenly stopped responding to all forms of communication. So less than a week before the show opens I got a new project dumped in my lap. Luckily I could use the format from the last show and just do some editing, drop in new cast bios, new cast and crew lists. Then there was creating all of the break a leg notes and sponsership ads and getting everything to look pretty. As of now it's almost complete. I'm waiting on my boss to proof it, add some things he wanted to get in and then it will go to the printer soon.

The last big and exciting thing involved with this show is the music. Because it's set in the 1980's the music is a huge part. We have 2 boomboxes that some of the actors bring on and off stage playing the music off of cassette tapes. The stage manager did all the sound design, but I'm going to be the one back stage helping run the boomboxes from back there and making sure the right ones go on and off at the right times. We spend a good amount of time with Jason today tracking which boomboxes (one decorated in bright pink spike tape, the other in neon green spike tape) are used when and who takes them on and off.

This experience has been a whirlwind and all happened extremely fast, but I've already felt like I've learned a lot. Getting to meet Jason and work with a different director has been quite the experience, and I hope he's someone I can keep in contact with after he returns to New York on Friday after opening night. Well, back to work editing the program before dress rehearsal tonight.

12 days!

12 days till our production of Midsummer opens! It's also the third day of rehearsal with our New York director, Jason Bohon. As scary as 12 days sounds the kids are very prepared and doing really well on our time line. Jason's been going through and working on getting the kids to be bigger and less neutral, as he calls it. He's done a lot of organic blocking, of sorts, simply by having the kids get up and move around while reading and then giving them some direction and ideas. We haven't had any real blocking yet though as we haven't been able to get onto the stage and with our set yet. Hopefully we will today during our second round of rehearsal (4-8pm with the Mechanicals). If not then definitely on Monday we'll dive straight into blocking. It's a really interesting experience watching the kids wrestle with Shakespeare and a new director and style they're not used to. They are loving Jason's big personality and all his ideas however. He's also been very open to the kids' ideas. Just today we worked on stage combat with the lovers, and rapping with Puck for when he takes the enchantment off Lysander (the actor's idea). It's a little nerve wracking doing stage combat with the kids, but Jason was very precise with his instructions and explained how dangerous it can be if they don't listen and do only what he says. The kids were very receptive and excited to get to try some new things.

We had our last workshop this morning and now all of our focus is officially on Midsummer. There are still the summer classes going on, but Morgan and I are taking a step back from those now to work on Midsummer. I'm definitely getting a full experience here this summer with 7 hours of rehearsal a day. I've also learned a lot of new games, including the 12 step program and thee thou and nay. But I'm sure there's still plenty more I'll learn as I continue getting to know Jason and then get my own group to teach at our second week of camp during opening week of Midsummer. Now that will be a busy week!

"we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously"

Well, as the title of this post might have given away, we have begun Midsummer rehearsals. It's been a lot of long, 10-14 hour days between a variety of workshops around the community, rehearsal for Midsummer, and performance of our traveling summer rep shows. Starting this weekend however, our main concern is going to become Midsummer. Summer rep ends on Friday, we've accepted less requests for workshops, and don't have another week of camp till August. Also, our director is coming today! He was supposed to land at 12:30 and Daniel picked him up and took him to the hotel. Not sure when he'll be getting here before our 3pm rehearsal, but I'm extremely excited to meet him.

So far in rehearsal Daniel's led the kids in a line by line analysis of our cutting of the show making sure that every actor knows what all of his/her lines mean. It was really impressive how prepared a lot of the kids came in and were able to easily figure out their lines. We already have a few actors memorized, which is good and bad. Early memorizing is always good, unforunately they memorized breaking at the end of each line and now have to rememorize some parts in a different way. I'm extremely excited to start rehearsal today with Jason and blocking starts tomorrow. We already have our set ready so things are really about to pick up. For the next few weeks I'll be in rehearsal from 11am to 8 or 9pm Monday through Saturday, so it's going to be a challange. Hopefully a fun one however.

I can tell already some of the effects this internship has had on me. I've noticed my confidence growing as I lead more and more workshops. I've also taken on a lot of techniques that I've picked up from the teachers here and warm ups that are typical of Junior Theatre. It'll be interesting to go back to Monmouth and see how well I can blend these two styles. Plus I'm hoping to learn from Jason's style which could be another completely different thing. I'll try to write soon about our first rehearsal with Jason and how it goes.

PS The quote in my title is said by Bottom at the mechanicals rehearsal in act 1 scene 2.

End of June/Beginning of July

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Things have continued to be really busy here.

Camp wrapped up really well. It was definitely an adventure. Trying to figure out how to effectively team teach and share the class with Morgan was not easy for me. It was hard to let go of the control at some points, but we worked well together and I think our kids had a great time and learned a lot. Despite all of the times I thought our group was a little too insane for me to handle they really pulled together and put on a great show at the showcase. I felt so immensely proud of them hearing them onstage, remembering all their lines and blocking, and hearing the audience laugh at all the right times. It made it all worth it. My aunt recorded my group's performance of the play that we wrote, so hopefully I can figure out a way to share that with you later as well. I also found out that instead of team teaching the next camp Morgan and I will definitely be getting our own group of kids to teach.

Since camp ended we've been busy with the summer classes. Summer classes are about to start their fourth week. Last week all of the classes got their scripts and they're beginning to start work on them. So far I've been able to sit in and visit all of the teachers in a variety of classes. Seeing all of the different teaching styles has really helped me learn a lot about what my own style is and what I can work on to make better. I've also managed to go to the same class all 3 weeks, and hope to be able to be at every class to see the entire process with one group of kids from beginning to end.

Another big project going on lately is working on programming for the Fall and Winter of next year. My boss let me help him work on putting the classes into the Parks and Rec programing software, RecPro, and book the different spaces for all of the classes in Fall and Winter. It was really interesting seeing all of the work that goes into making sure the classes can be a success. Daniel and I were behind our computers pretty much all day working on it together. It was also cool to work on because Daniel said he usually doesn't let anyone help him because it can get messed up very easily and if it gets messed up it can completely ruin the class session and cause a lot of problems with enrollment and financial issues for the session. He said he likes to just do it himself and has a hard time letting go of control on it, but that he knew I could do it and he could trust me. So that was definitely nice to hear.

We also had an event at Arsenal Island. We went to where they have a day camp and led a series of workshops for the students. There were 4 30 minute workshops from 9 to 11. The different groups were based on age ranges, so we had the youngest kids first and the oldest kids last. The workshop was in theory the same for every group, but we ended up having to change it a lot on the spot. We had one group that had close to 50 kids in it, and the next only had around 10-15. So obviously those classes were quite a bit different. We also had to make changes once we realized that some groups were more self conscious than others. For the groups a little more weary of our games, we instead of switching into solo work continued to do things as one large group to make them feel more comfortable. Daniel was there with Morgan and I. He took charge of a lot of the leading in the first group and slowly gave Morgan and I more and more to take control of. It was definitely a tiring experience. We had to be at full energy and on our feet moving for 2 hours straight. And with the last group, the older kids definitely had a "too cool" attitude so trying to get them engaged was a little like pulling teeth. But throughout the 30 minutes we did get to see some breakthroughs where a couple kids realized this was actually kind of cool.

Finally, something else very exciting for the future. While working on programing I saw the date for the spring break performing arts camp. I checked and it happened to be the same week as Monmouth's spring break. I mentioned to Daniel in passing that it was the same week and if he was short on teachers I could work the camp. He got very excited and told me it was a done deal and put me on his list right away. So I'll definitely be coming back after my internship to do more work with Junior Theatre. This is such an amazing experience and I can't wait to see where it'll take me.