What I've Been Up To Lately...

[Jodo]

Very cool! I love the idea about the silient monks (hey, sounds like a band your son listens to...). It definitely sounds very promising!

I made a second draft of the play after meeting with the professor on Monday. The only changes he said should be made were the ones I had already listed on the front page that I had decided on the night before, but just hadn't added in yet. They were all fairly minor, such as adding about 10 extra lines of dialogue for the final goodbyes between characters, as well as adding in another line in the final speech one of the characters gives at the very ending. I also ran an alternative ending by him, which I had in mind, and we decided it was better than the one I had already written.

Tonight I'm going to do the sketches for set design, another area I have never been involved in. When I'm in the theater, I'm on stage, so I'm hoping to have some sort of role in that. This way I can dictate what the flats need to look like, LOL. We really don't have someone for that, and you can tell. For A Christmas Carol, a girl who was an actress decided she'd rather be in charge of the sets, and that was a mistake. Two flats looked exactly alike, when they were supposed to be two completely different places. One of the other flats featured two store fronts and alley between them, but she drew the buildings wrong, so they looked like they continued on forever into the distance. Additionally, she put "Toy's" on one store's window, and "Butch's Butchers Shops" on the other. She said that she meant the one store belonged to a man named Toy, and the other was a mistake.

It's pretty hard to not die a little when I look at that flat.

[Big Red]

I never got involved with the theater in high school or college, which is something I regret. The closest I came was when I was in the art club in high school. Despite being in the club, I didn't actually do anything. I think I was even elected to one of the posts (not president, possibly treasurer or secretary), but I never showed up for any of the official meetings. Me being in the club was mostly a way for my teacher to get me out of other classes so I could work on my art. This raised some eyebrows with a few of the folks who actually participated in the club so one time I had to help paint sets for the school play. I went down, opened my big jar of blue tempera paint, painted a door frame then complained that the sets sucked and got sent back to the classroom (my arch-rival was the set designer and didn't like the criticism).

Once I get a few of these more recent stories finished, plus some of the other stuff polished, I may self-publish a short volume of stuff. It would mostly be for family and some friends with any money brought in going to my daughters' college fund, but I'd gladly offer the link to others once it's done.

[Guido]

(my arch-rival was the set designer and didn't like the criticism)

hahaha- that killed me! High School arch-rivals! Do you still remember how important all of the ridiculous "kid stuff" seemed back in those days?

[Big Red]

hahaha- that killed me! High School arch-rivals! Do you still remember how important all of the ridiculous "kid stuff" seemed back in those days?

What's crazy is that it's still just as important to some of them. My arch-rival unfriended someone on Facebook because they wouldn't unfriend me. This guy was pretty nuts, though. He was the primary art teacher's favorite and the two of them destroyed all the artwork in my portfolio the day before several colleges showed up for a scholarship fair. Having slides of my work didn't help me any, and since the teacher backed him up, I couldn't prove what they'd done (his boot prints all over my portfolio, but without the actual art the school refused to do anything).

[Jodo]

He'd have my boot...A swift kick in the ***! Wow. That is freaking rediculous Red!!! I would have woopin' some booty if I were you!

And you mentioned painted the sets for the theater...that is one thing that bugs the crap out of me at the college. There is no cohesiveness between the departments. There used to be, because the girls from cosmo have done the performers' makeup in the past, but haven't done so for years. The different sections just keep to themselves. The guy over the music dept. is a total jerk, however he does helps the theater with the sound system, but only because the system is "his", and he doesn't want anyone else to touch it.

However, the administation has asked the theater, music, and vocal professors to all come together in Fall and put on a musical. Betweem the three departments I would have to guess there will be about 4 students capable of handling this. Our actors, admittedly aren't the best. I've hear the choir "sing", and I've heard the bands "perform". I honestly have no idea how they'll pull that one of. I'm just glad I won't be there as a student to witness it.

[Big Red]

I tried to get at him after I found the portfolio but the dean stopped me. He'd stomped all over some of my artwork a week or so earlier so when I found my portfolio in the trash with his matching boot prints all over it I knew what had happened. I started keeping my slides in a folder in my locker after he stomped all over my actual artwork, which is the only reason those were spared. Regardless of the boot prints and the earlier incident, the school still refused to do anything. The head art teacher backed him up and gave him an alibi so the only thing I could prove was that he'd somehow stepped on my portfolio at some point. I had a chance to do something a couple years later when I drove through Wendy's with a few friends and found him sitting in the grass outside as we got out of the drive-through. Enough time had passed that I didn't feel like risking any legal problems from beating him senseless, although we did toss our drinks and a mayonnaise covered bun on him as we drove past. It was somewhat cathartic, even if he didn't realize who I was.

Our theater club in high school had little cohesive interaction with the other clubs. While the art club handled the sets, that was about it. The "orchestra" was usually made up of band members, but anyone could audition. We had a glee club and school choir but neither of them had any official part in the play. All the singing parts were taken from the cast. Things usually worked out in the end, but I think they would have had better productions if they'd had the full band playing and the choir and/or glee club providing the singing parts/chorus.

[Jodo]

Hmmm, not bad throwing the drinks and bun on him! That's hilarious!

I agree that our productions could be much better if the departments would just assist each other in a few basic things. It really is sad that the dept. heads can't get along enough to work something out.

Rant:

As for the script I wrote, I finished draft #3 after we met for class the second time. This also marked the first time the professor and I disagreed about something. We ended up having 19 people for the cast, and I had written 15 roles. I fully support the idea that some people do not act well enough to be in the production, and that we can better utilize their talents backstage, or in the sound booth,etc.

Long story short, we had 4 new people sign up in the class. That morning the professor texted me and said one of the best actors he knew was going to be there as well, and that I should "write a new big part for him". I told him I didn't plan to write any more additional parts, let alone a new lead, and that the new people (enspecially the new "good kid") would have to be cast in the current roles. The story was already a bit looser than I wanted it to be, and I didn't plan to expand the cast any further.

Fast forward to last Monday when we met the first time, all we did was do introductions, and then he talked about not needing to have auditions. We are still maintaining the illusion that he is currently writing the play, so I couldn't stand up and ask why we wouldn't have auditions for me to see the new people. Additionally, the "good kid" we argued about that morning, who dropped out of a university to attend out college, also dropped out of our class. So I'm glad I stood my ground on not writing another main role into the darn thing.

Monday night and all of Tuesday, I began to try and adapt the cast list to the new people there, moving a few roles around, and to accomodate a request by one of the actresses to "never play Little Red Riding Hood ever again". This specific girl is a horrible actress anyway, and during her introduction mentioned that if we "didn't get to know her now, she wouldn't talk to us when she was at the Academy Award". >< She went on to say that she never got a role in HS, but at our college, she always got a good part, and that really meant a lot to her. The professor texted me that night and asked me to write her a lead role as well, because he didn't want to let her down. I told him she didn't deserve one, and I didn't plan to.

The professor pleaded with me all of Tuesday to expand the cast, because it would cause a lot of strain in the class. I finally decided to write 2 new roles, and to finish an optional character that I had already written, which simply needed to be placed into the play. For the 2 new roles, I simply split 2 existing characters' dialouge into 4 characters. That brought us up to 18 roles, with an extra person left over.

Tuesday evening the professor decided we probably should do auditions, so Wednesday morning, we held them on the fly. One girl, who I honestly had no idea what to do with dropped out, bringing us down to 18 performers. (18 roles, 18 performers!) The kicker was that our stage manager and assistant director auditioned for roles. So once again the professor asked me to change the script, as we now had 20 "performers". >< I once again recast the play, and finally convinced the professor the 2 crew members HAD to be crew members.

After this last recast, I am actually more pleased with the roles than I was the first or second time. I still maintain the 2 new roles do not need to exist, but I also think that it makes a few more elements in the story funner for the kids that will be watching it. All I need to do is update the narration to reflect that there a few new characters, and it is 100% DONE. We print the scripts tomorrow, so after this last minute addition, there will be no going back! LOL.

[Big Red]

I had my writing professor ask me to add a character then take out another character in a story I turned in once. The one character he wanted removed was the main character. I had to explain that if I did that, it wouldn't be the same story. I sarcastically told him, "Yeah, then get rid of that Hamlet guy and throw in Juliette and it will be perfect!" He didn't like my attitude, but he got the point.

[Jodo]

LOL, I hate being asked to change things anyway...Let alone a main character!!!

Well, I'll be short with this post...We got the scripts printed yesterday! 27 copies, a few extras to be passed out to the Dean of Arts, Vice-President, as well as one for archival purposes!

[Jodo]

Just an update for the curious, and a small rant. We're entering week 5 of school, which has given us 10 potential class days to practice, in which only 3 have been utilized, plus the original read through. Let's see how well that goes. XD

Also, it's Valentines Day...FOREVER ALONE.