Better Get Focussed...

My final exam is coming up on Thursday of this week. I have done a bit of studying, but not all that I have planned. I am not really worried about it though. From the review I felt quite confident about what was expected of us. I need to review each of the 5 plays (I have reviewed 1.5 of them) and the terms for the course, but I only have the one final and I have all of Tuesday to study. I also will study on Wednesday because I can do some when Gibson is in Fun factory. I just hope I am not over-estimating my preparedness...

Charlie Brown auditions have come and gone. I did my best not to think too much about them and I am happy to hear that they cast it and it sounds well cast. I was happy to hear that Chris got in. Out of 15 guys, they cast 6 (4 leads, 2 ensemble) so that says something. I am being very cherry about it, because it was my decision not to audition, but man-o-man did I ever want to do that show! I am sure it will be a good show and I know there will always be other opportunities for me.

Deadlines...

Tomorrow morning my group presents for Drama 103. I think we are in good shape. I am waiting for one of the group members to send me his designs for the PowerPoint presentation, but other than that I think we are good. Then I am on my own for the class and the final. I spent a lot of today getting last minute things done for this project. Assembling as much as I can of the project hand-in (it is huge) and running through the slides again in my head and adding to the backdrop until I had no more black paint left. I will be glad when it is done and handed in because I will keep adding things to it until it's out of my hands. Did I mention it is huge? I am more worried about the kid exchange in the morning because I need to get there earlyish to set up the projector and I have to get Oliver to the store but Mark has Rotary and he doesn't seem to want to be flexible with his schedule to help me out.

It is also payday tomorrow and Mark didn't bring the hours sheet home on Saturday so I had to do that tonight. I am pretty fast at it now so that's alright. I got it done.

Tomorrow is also my self-imposed deadline for changes to Zachary and the Storytelling Stones. I haven't had much time to 'write in my head' on it so I am not sure what I will do with it tomorrow, after the presentation... I will take a look and see what happens.

Today I got a call from the director of the Staged Reading I am dramaturging. She is swamped so she asked if I could do her scheduling or find a stage manager to do it, or else she would have to drop the project. I said 'no problem'. I will have to look at that tomorrow...

Oh, I still need to match up Assistant Directors with Directors for next season at Walterdale. I have already had one director tell me they already asked someone (despite my email stating I would be doing that) so I better get on it before they all do that. It would be really annoying. I will do that tomorrow, or maybe Wednesday...

Overlap...

Busy getting ready for the final project in Drama 103. We have our big final rehearsal tomorrow and I am trying to make sure I have my things ready. I was Director for the project, by I also put together the slides for our projections and build the backdrop as well. I have been painting the edges of the drop so that it doesn't just look like a tea-dyed bed sheet. I hope the painting looks okay. There is no time to fix it. Of course, we can always do the *if we had unlimited budget...* thing in the talk back portion. I have been most disappointed by the talk back components of the presentations we have seen thus far. Only one of the groups really seemed prepared and cohesive with regards to production and discussion of concept. All of the productions had positive elements, but I strained to figure out why they made the choices they made. I hope we are clear.

I also took time to go to see A Year of Winter at Shadow Theatre last night. I ran in to friends which was nice since I had gone solo. One of them was the playwright. It was an intriguing show. I was involved in a Playwrighting Lab where this was one of the scripts so I had read two previous drafts so I was very excited to see it on it's feet and to see what had changed. I liked the major changes and I think it is a much stronger piece than I initially read (I liked it then, too, but I think it's even better now) I did spend some time wondering what the experience would be like for someone who did not have my knowledge of the relationships between the characters straight off the top. If you see it, let me know how it played out for you. It is a play I would love to discuss more...

Tonight I am off to The Rocky Horror Show at the Catalyst. It is one of my least favorite plays, but some great young friends of mine are putting it on, so I am going to support them and see what they have done. I admit, I am scarred by seeing a particularly bad production of this show. I am hoping this one will redeem the play for me.

Learning and Thinking with Discussion...

I have just finished the first week of my new class Drama 103 (Play Analysis). It is off to a great start and already has started me thinking about what kind of theatre I want to be doing and putting out there. The course is definitely aimed at the newly adult, but the instructor knows that I am in there. I think my perspective might add something new to the mix. We have spent most of the first 2 classes talking about what our role as spectator is and it makes you think about how theatres must sell seats and how that need conflicts with the need for 'art' to bring change and push forward instead of stagnating. Not all audience members want to be jarred or challenged. I don't always want to be. However, if you are only playing to the masses(and/or the lowest common denominator), then what contribution are you really making? I often get so annoyed by the amount of money poured into slop like Don't Mess With the Zohan or Deuce Bigalo, Male Gigolo (1 and 2), or Saw (2-4). Any one of those movies could fund hundreds of theatre productions or at least 5 good indie films (and maybe a few bad indie films that at least tried something new). It is one thing to say money is the problem, but there is a lot of money out there. I think the problem is where the money gets spent and what oatmeal people choose to go to rather than going to see something of real quality.