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I'm leaving in May
I'm gonna be a part of it
New Jersey Shakes!

This is my clever little jingle to say that I finally have a place to go this summer!  I have taken a stage management internship with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.  I will be assisting professional stage managers on professional shows which will be a tremendous opportunity to learn more about stage managing, help sort out what it's like in the professional domain, and meet lots of people who are working in the industry.  Currently this is a summer position, but there is an opportunity to continue during the year if I'm available and they want me.  I'm looking at a couple other full-year internships, but don't have anything definite lined up.  Splendidly enough, this is the company I interviewed with at USITT.

Thanks for all the prayers!  I am so grateful that I've been given this opportunity!

Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City

Fortunately this song only passed through my head a few times as I spent four days in the heart of Kansas City.  The occasion was USITT, a conference for theatre nerds to gather.  The conference was AWESOME.

It consisted of several sessions on various related topics.  Some of the sessions had their dull points, but many of them were useful in one way or another.  I picked up a lot of useful tricks for the future, filled in a few more puzzle pieces of how professional theatres work, and received a lot of confirmation that my education at Baylor is a solid, empowering one.  

USITT also includes an exposition floor with booths selling all manner of new technology and several rows of schools and theatres.  I found it fascinating to see what's being made for theatres and was pleased to see that there are more companies than I realized making products specifically for theatrical events.  I also had the chance to interview with a theatre in the middle of the conference just because I was there.

In the evenings we were able to see a bit of the city.  A couple of our professors were also at the conference and we joined them for dinner a couple of nights, including one meal in a revolving restaurant above a hotel.

Overall, I am pleased to report that the trip was very fun and empowering.  I'm keeping it in mind for next year...

Testing one of the flying machines

The four of us and the city

 

On the road...

Just an update from a Crowne Plaza from Kansas City, MO.  I have spent the day driving up here with three pals (a rather successful trip in spite of the territory we were passing through) and we're now planning out our next three days at USITT (probably standing for United States Institute of Theatre Technology).  Looking forward to a couple days with good friends and many, many theatre related discussions/sessions.  Woohoo!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Alex!  Hope it's full of fun!

White Precipitation

Okay, so last semester it "snowed" which resulted in this:

See it?  It's kind of on the edge and fallen between the petals.  Can you make it out?  

On February 11, I woke up to the sound of rain once again.  I was not happy, but bundled up and went on through my day.  It was a day of great rejoicing despite the rain; it was Anna's birthday, photo call was behind me, and so was my first mythology test.  It was also the first time that I was able to sit down and eat a meal with someone else.  For dinner, I ended up at McAlister's with a friend and  as we sat in the restaurant, we noticed the rain getting whiter and heavier until we could confidently say that it snowed.  The result was something more like this:

This picture was taken early in the snow, but is already more impressive than what we had experienced before.  By the time we had finished the show and I was headed out for Anna's birthday, my car had a healthy covering of snow on it.  I brushed off the back window and couldn't resist what I had in my hands.  I made this snowman who stayed with me all the way from the theatre to Applebee's: 

About two weeks later we had our third and most legitimate snow.  Class was canceled starting two hours after I was done for the day, but we made it feel like a holiday anyway.  The result of this last snow was something like this:

I love the Narnia feel of this lampost and how it shows the very strong directionality of the snow.  I was the first to walk across this field, the snow deep enough to sink my feet into.  An hour or so after I walked by here, this field was flooded with people and an army of dirty snowmen were raised from the ground.  The theatre freshmen (plus Andrew S.) posted themselves outside the building to pelt anyone who passed with snowballs.  I might have been more surprised when they got me if they hadn't yelled, "Ready?  Go!" right before they hit me.  We convinced Mike to join us in the fight, but the counterattack didn't go as well as planned.  Oh well.  Next time though, we need to inform them that the cameraman is immune:

Living Under a Rock

You may have noticed my long absence from this blog, but there is a very easy explination -- I've been living under a rock.

I just finished up my last mainstage at Baylor, The Seagull.  This turned out to be one of the most difficult shows I've done, taking away all of my time and energy, and yet it was invaluable and enjoyable.  Happily, family from two different cities were able to come and see it.  During the run of the show I had my birthday, immediately preceded by one of my good friend's birthday.  We ended up at Applebee's two nights in a row, but with great company and free ice cream.  It was a good weekend of celebration with the two birthdays and the show.

The Seagull marked the last of my mainstages at Baylor.  My time has been opened up greatly and I've been recovering and playing as much as possible.  Softball season started the week after the show ended.  Our girls have been doing pretty well, but unfortunately haven't been challenged too much yet.  I've been playing tennis with a friend at least once a week, although we're hoping to make it happen more often.  We're trying out new restaurants and frequenting the dollar theatre (half price tuesdays!), doing our best to fill the time without a mainstage.  So far we've met with pretty good success, possibly because there have been at least eight birthdays to consider, but possibly because we're all so relieved to be out from under the rock.

Happy Birthday!

Happy (belated) birthday, Julie!  I promise I didn't forget!  Hope it was beautiful.

By the way... the picture is one I found for Hannah's Prayer, since I know that you're really involved with them and I think it is a good representation of your heart.  Love you!