This is going to be a pretty quick post today. I was working at Junior Theatre from 8am to 7pm today, and will be doing the exact same thing tomorrow. This is following another long day this past Saturday.
There was an event in Davenport called Juneteenth that Junior Theatre went to all day Saturday. We set up a table to do facepainting which is what Junior Theatre does usually at these kinds of outreach events. Morgan and I also tried to play games for 15 minutes every hour, however that didn't work too well. Everyone was moving around a lot and didn't stay in the same place long enough for us to start a game. We did get to lead some games to a group of 5 or 6 kids that happened to come to get their faces painted at the same time as we were getting ready to start games. It was a very long, interesting day, filled with literally thousands of mayflies. I've gotten very good at face painting and still have nightmares of mayflies crawling all over my body and swarming around my face.
In other news, camp started on Monday and it has been quite the adventure. I started all by myself on Monday because Morgan was at a dentist appointment. Our group of kids are a little bit of a handful. We have 9 9 year olds and 1 10 year old. None of them really ever sit still or stop talking. But they have calmed down some since the first day. Some of this I think is because they're getting used to each other and over the novelty. Part of it is also how I've learned to handle it. If the kids are talking Morgan and I just sit and stare at them. They realize pretty quick what's going on and we remind them that they're wasting their own time and they get quiet pretty quick.
The first day was a lot of playing theatre games and introducing them to theatre terms and basics. Yesterday we started talking about what they wanted to write their play about. Every group is focusing on or incorporating the weeks theme of Greece somehow, and our group has decided to have the gods and goddesses of Greece competing in their own version of the olympics. But when they don't invite Persephone, Hades' wife, she tries to ruin all their fun because she's tired of being left out. Morgan and I finished writing it based off their ideas today and we got to read through it a couple times and begin blocking. We have a couple kids that have complained that they don't have enough lines, but it hasn't become a major issue yet. Tomorrow we get to tour the props and costumes cottage and begin to pick out things to use for our show on Friday. Well I'm off to bed. Those kids wore me out and it's going to be another early and long day tomorrow. More to come.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Lots of Excitement
Well, a lot has happened here since my last post. First of all I attended the first production meeting for Midsummer. It was a very exciting experience. The beginning of the meeting was a lot of signing contracts and filling out paperwork for the designers. Then we called the director in New York and put him on speakerphone to begin discussing the show. He has decided to place our production in the 1980's and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. There's going to be fun costume and make up and the set will also be very cool, especially considering we have to be able to take it apart and move it around to our different touring locations.
Next, that is both exciting and a little nerve-wracking is that Morgan and I have been bumped up from assistants at the first week of camp and are now going to be team-teaching right away. I'm extremely excited, and it is definitely a great opportunity, but I am a little nervous, never having experienced how this camp works before. Luckily we're going to have an assistant that's been there before to help us through it, possibly even my little cousin who's been tagging along all summer. He's become a sort of honorary intern with all of the work he's been helping us do.
The spring classes are all wrapping up now as well. We have one more day of showcases on Saturday and then the summer classes start on Monday. I'm really excited to get to see how some of the classes are handled and how the teachers begin, as I've already seen some of the ending class periods. I also think this might help me prepare for camp. I can see generally how Junior Theatre runs and interacts with the kids in the classroom setting and apply that to what I'll be doing during the camps.
Well, I think that's all the exciting news I have for now. Today Daniel, Morgan and I (and my cousin Matthew) went over the schedule for the rest of the summer and started talking about some of the outreach events that Morgan and I will be running, so that's something to look forward to. Our first one is on June 18th where we'll be doing facepainting and running a bunch of theatre games at the top of each hour. More news to come.
Next, that is both exciting and a little nerve-wracking is that Morgan and I have been bumped up from assistants at the first week of camp and are now going to be team-teaching right away. I'm extremely excited, and it is definitely a great opportunity, but I am a little nervous, never having experienced how this camp works before. Luckily we're going to have an assistant that's been there before to help us through it, possibly even my little cousin who's been tagging along all summer. He's become a sort of honorary intern with all of the work he's been helping us do.
The spring classes are all wrapping up now as well. We have one more day of showcases on Saturday and then the summer classes start on Monday. I'm really excited to get to see how some of the classes are handled and how the teachers begin, as I've already seen some of the ending class periods. I also think this might help me prepare for camp. I can see generally how Junior Theatre runs and interacts with the kids in the classroom setting and apply that to what I'll be doing during the camps.
Well, I think that's all the exciting news I have for now. Today Daniel, Morgan and I (and my cousin Matthew) went over the schedule for the rest of the summer and started talking about some of the outreach events that Morgan and I will be running, so that's something to look forward to. Our first one is on June 18th where we'll be doing facepainting and running a bunch of theatre games at the top of each hour. More news to come.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Week Two
Well I've now finished my second week of interning at Davenport Junior Theatre, and I'm already exhausted. This last week was the beginning of the rush of the summer. We started having tech rehearsals for the class showcases which will be next week. This means that each class of students has a given amount of time on the stage to practice their scene with sound, lights, the whole shebang.
While observing this I saw many different strategies of trying to control the students and get them to stay on task. Some worked really well, while others did not. I was able to see why certain techniques didn't while others did. One teacher referred to her students as "friends" and treated them as equals giving them a desire to act well and live up to that treatment. Another teacher let her frustration at the students apparent "failure" get to her and took it out on the students, raising her voice and saying repeatedly that the students should know this because they've already been over everything. The students did not respond to this at all and simply got more out of control. They felt the teacher's frustration and loss of control and took advantage of it.
Also during this time I was able to meet the junior staff. The junior staff is made up of high school students that work for the theatre. Each junior staff member is responsible for one aspect of the theatre: props, costume, lights, sound, and set. The high schoolers have really mastered their respective areas and work well together in a very interesting way. The light expert showed me the light "board" and helped me figure out how to work it. They run all of their lights off of a computer program called PCStage. It's actually very easy to use and made more sense than Monmouth's giant light board. I'm really excited to learn from these junior staffers as well as teach them whatever I can throughout the summer.
Next, I am pleased to announce that Midsummer Night's Dream has been cast! I was able to sit in on two of the three nights of auditions. Because the director is in New York he was unable to be at auditions so Daniel, the producer of the show, was in charge of casting. Once he ran his ideas for casting past the director via phone the cast list was solidified. I was able to help create the contact list, address envelops which will be used to mail out scripts and more information, as well as make some phone calls informing actors of the casting. I'm very excited for this show to get started, it should be interesting. We have a girl cast as Bottom, and a rising sixth grader as our Puck. It should definitely be an adventure. Our first production meeting, including a phone call with director from New York, will be on Sunday night. I'll make sure to let you know how that goes.
Finally, some interesting information on the business end of the theatre. Because Junior Theatre is part of Parks and Rec Morgan and I have had to go through mandatory training the past few days. A lot of the training was directed at the high school lifeguards for the summer, but it was still interesting to see the types of things that they have to worry about including OSHA requirements and the such. There's a lot of safety issues to worry about when running a theatre, or any sort of organization. Next Morgan and I are going to take a defensive driving course so that we can be certified to drive city vehicles when we go out to do workshops.
For now I'm taking the weekend off, but I'll be back on Sunday for the production meeting, then class showcases all next week. After that will be the start of summer classes and then summer camps, which I will officially be assisting at the first week of (150 extra dollars!) and then hopefully teaching/team teaching with Morgan for the second week (an extra 400 dollars!). So I'm taking this weekend to prepare for the rush of activity that's about to begin and keep running all the way through the end of the summer.
While observing this I saw many different strategies of trying to control the students and get them to stay on task. Some worked really well, while others did not. I was able to see why certain techniques didn't while others did. One teacher referred to her students as "friends" and treated them as equals giving them a desire to act well and live up to that treatment. Another teacher let her frustration at the students apparent "failure" get to her and took it out on the students, raising her voice and saying repeatedly that the students should know this because they've already been over everything. The students did not respond to this at all and simply got more out of control. They felt the teacher's frustration and loss of control and took advantage of it.
Also during this time I was able to meet the junior staff. The junior staff is made up of high school students that work for the theatre. Each junior staff member is responsible for one aspect of the theatre: props, costume, lights, sound, and set. The high schoolers have really mastered their respective areas and work well together in a very interesting way. The light expert showed me the light "board" and helped me figure out how to work it. They run all of their lights off of a computer program called PCStage. It's actually very easy to use and made more sense than Monmouth's giant light board. I'm really excited to learn from these junior staffers as well as teach them whatever I can throughout the summer.
Next, I am pleased to announce that Midsummer Night's Dream has been cast! I was able to sit in on two of the three nights of auditions. Because the director is in New York he was unable to be at auditions so Daniel, the producer of the show, was in charge of casting. Once he ran his ideas for casting past the director via phone the cast list was solidified. I was able to help create the contact list, address envelops which will be used to mail out scripts and more information, as well as make some phone calls informing actors of the casting. I'm very excited for this show to get started, it should be interesting. We have a girl cast as Bottom, and a rising sixth grader as our Puck. It should definitely be an adventure. Our first production meeting, including a phone call with director from New York, will be on Sunday night. I'll make sure to let you know how that goes.
Finally, some interesting information on the business end of the theatre. Because Junior Theatre is part of Parks and Rec Morgan and I have had to go through mandatory training the past few days. A lot of the training was directed at the high school lifeguards for the summer, but it was still interesting to see the types of things that they have to worry about including OSHA requirements and the such. There's a lot of safety issues to worry about when running a theatre, or any sort of organization. Next Morgan and I are going to take a defensive driving course so that we can be certified to drive city vehicles when we go out to do workshops.
For now I'm taking the weekend off, but I'll be back on Sunday for the production meeting, then class showcases all next week. After that will be the start of summer classes and then summer camps, which I will officially be assisting at the first week of (150 extra dollars!) and then hopefully teaching/team teaching with Morgan for the second week (an extra 400 dollars!). So I'm taking this weekend to prepare for the rush of activity that's about to begin and keep running all the way through the end of the summer.
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