USITTTT: Day One

Success!

This day actually began a long time ago for me. Tuesday was a pretty normal day off, sleeping late but punctuated with extra tidiness and packing. Nine-thirty in the P.M. I leave my apartment for the airport. The usual L.A. drive -- dense traffic, construction in inconvenient places, and a little misdirection from Google at the end of my directions -- and to the airport in plenty of time for my minutes-before-midnight flight where the plane would take off then I would sleep. Right? No. I read for a while, tried to sleep, read some more, tried again, read another chapter, laid my head down on the tray table, almost drifted off then a super trumpety song came to my headphones and it was all over. (Note to self: remove ALL songs with trumpets from phone.) I read until we landed then it was just enough to transfer to the new terminal, grab a small bite to eat, and board again. The second flight gave me a row to myself to stretch out, but two minutes after the captain made his "we have reached cruising altitude" speech, the plane started to descend. All right. It is now 10:00 am in North Carolina (7:00am back home), I have not slept, and I have a full day of conference events to attend.

Got myself to the hotel and met up with my former cohort and conference roommate, Lisa. Both of us half-starved we went on the prowl for food. Came upon a Jason's Deli (there is only one in the entire state of California and while it is within driving distance, I have yet to go), the perfect fix and just as we were settled met up with another Baylor alum who graduated two years before ourselves. Lunch with an unexpected old friend=best way to start a day. We made our way to the conference center for a painless registration and had plenty of time to chill and meet new people before session one.

Session One: Paperwork. Something I do very well. Still, despite my previous successes this was perhaps one of the best sessions I'll attend here. The lecture was concise and thorough, informative and helpful; coincidentally just how you want your paperwork to be.

Session Two: Tech riders. Sounds incredibly boring, but something I have absolutely no prior experience with. Fortunately, the presenters were well-informed and personable. They came from different positions which together formed a very holistic picture of the topic. Altogether, a very good session.

Session Three: Dance Management. Particularly interesting because I just finished a show in which I did all the choreography notation (my first attempt). This session was a great deal more involved than just notation, and as such very informative. Both of the presenters were given the session rather last minute so they didn't have any fancy slide shows or anything, but I think it was better that way. From what I could tell, they covered all the bases which I scribbled down furiously so that next time I do a dance show I have a starting point at least. Another useful and enjoyable session.

Session Four: Food Props. Somewhat less interesting than expected given that it was props-oriented and less stage management-oriented. A lot of SMs were there and we were able to glean some useful information so it wasn't a complete dud, but it wasn't the most insightful session for me.

This was the end of the USITT day for us. We ran through the rain to a pizza place across the street that was out of basically everything, but we were able to get a simple pizza before returning to the hotel. Both of us were exhausted so we hit the sack pretty early (although I did write the first half of this last night -- can you tell?) and after 30 hours of waking, I slept good.

Touristing

Today I was finally a tourist. I have spent over six months in the L.A. area, but I had not been to any of the sights. But this week a group of Baylor friends are in town for their Spring Break so I traveled with them to Hollywood. I have to admit, I found it dirty and with very few attractions, but I had a great time with the ladies and now I can say I have been. After Hollywood, Anna and I met up with some other Baylor girls in Santa Monica. We walked along the promenade and down the pier. I imagine it can get pretty crowded during the day, but it's certainly a place to revisit, a very comfortable place to walk with plenty to keep your attention.

Tuesday night I fly to Charlotte, NC for USITT. Hopefully it will be another good conference and a good vacation. I leave you with pictures from today:

Crazy hats cannot be ignored!

He's just super awesome.

Chia pet fountains in Santa Monica.

'Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!'

Christmas

Home again from a three week tour of Texas -- without a car. As most of my readers participated in the trip, this post will be less a description of events and more a list of thank yous.

Thank you for...

...opening your homes and cars to me.
...driving far out of your way, twice.
...going back to Target for a jacket.
...teaching David cribbage while I was there.
...sharing the pilot of Bones.
...Season 2 of Fringe.
...pastistio.
...your generosity....Lego Star Wars.
...hugs.
...getting me into the zoo.
...a post-season sweet potato casserole.
...Pride and Prejudice....Disney Princess card games
...teaching me to aim and making me use the .38.
...Chick fil A milkshakes.
...big Christmas surprises.
...the flights....reading the book first.
...sharing French fries at Five Guys.

Thank you for being a great big loving family!

Thank you for a Christmas worth waiting for!

Let Me Entertain You

Hello.  I know it's been forever since I updated, so I want to check in.  This last weekend I was blessed with a visit from my mother as she was making her way to Texas.  She was able to see one of my shows for the first time since early sophomore year and I was able to entertain my second guest in my new place.  

My explorations of this place have been pitifully few (hence the lack of posts), but we achieved a fair amount of Christmas shopping, spent some time dressing up my place for Christmas, went on a few outings, and wandered through a few antique shops in downtown Pomona to find a surprising number of treasures.  One of the best features of California is that you can visit the beach and the mountains on the same day if you wish.  We decided to break it into two days and went to the mountains first.  We drove for a while enjoying the scenery and jumping out at various scenic outlooks.  The sun was shining and the weather was perfectly not-cold and not-hot.  I've been looking at these mountains every day since I moved here, so it was a wonderful thing to go into them.  The next day, we planned to go to the beach.  Unbeknown to us, winter arrived over night.  We went down the water, took a couple photographs, and ran back to the car.  But, we still got to wander along the coast and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of beach towns.

It was a short visit, but really great to show off this wonderful city and the amazing job that I get to do out here.  And the good news is, I'll get to see her along with the rest of the family ten days from now.  Who could ask for anything more?

Mountains!  A very new experience.

My Christmas decorations.  This is how I get away with not having a tree.

New Haircut...

...success!  Taking pictures of the actual haircut...

...somewhat less successful.

Intermission

I haven't done many shows with intermissions and I certainly haven't been on stage for a relatively relaxed intermission for a long time.  For this show, I was given a costume (a store bought, somewhat plastic costume) and tasked with all the on stage scene shifts.  Also, the audience comes so close to the edge of the stage that they can - and sometimes the trashy people do - prop their feet on the stage.  When it comes to audiences, the interesting things happy at intermission.

The theatre offers assisted listening devices to the hard of hearing, but you are supposed to remove and turn off your hearing aid when you use them.  Well, one night a lady sitting in the center of the front row neglected to turn off her hearing aid so during the entire first act there was a constant beeping.  It drove the actors crazy, but the house manager couldn't get to her until intermission.  During the scene change I went much slower than usual so that I could listen in.  The conversation went something like this:

 
House Manager: Hello, ma'am.  When you take your hearing aid out during the show, could you please turn it off? 
Patron: It was turned off.
House Manager: It was beeping during the show.
Patron removes hearing aid and messes with it.  It beeps.
Patron: It's off now.
It beeps.
House Manager: It's beeping right now.
It beeps twice.
Patron: No, it's turned off.
It beeps.
House Manager: There it is.  It's beeping.
It beeps twice.
Patron: Well, I don't hear anything!

Um.  May I point out that you wear a hearing aid for a reason?
(Fortunately, it was somehow turned off for Act 2.)

By far the worst for me was last night.  Some man was very interested in the set and took intermission as an opportunity to get right up close and try to show off for his friend (for a second I thought he had actually come on stage, but fortunately he held back from doing that.  The stage's personal bubble was definitely invaded though.)  All of a sudden, he's exclaiming and laughing about something that doesn't belong.  Then he mentions that it is moving.  Horrified, I look over and sure enough it is a cockroach of all things.  Well.  I can't very well leave it there, but I hate them extraordinarily.  I normally spray them with flying bug spray and vacuum them away.  Stamping and picking up is not to be considered.  Well.  I took my time and went through my routine (working in the other room first).  Meanwhile, the man has his cell phone out and is taking pictures of the cockroach (um?).  When it was no longer avoidable, I walked to the edge of the stage and gave a solid stamp.  Much as I did not enjoy my costume, I was grateful for the solid, hard soled shoes I had available for the killing.  I then collected about four paper towels and wrapped them up inside a hand towel that I could take on stage and carried the gross thing off.  Bleagh.  The joys of intermission.

Photo Hunter: Minature

I haven't done a photo hunter post (or any other post for that matter) in a while, so I thought this would be a good time to start it up again.  This picture is from a time my friend and I went to Whataburger.  She ordered a small fry and a small milkshake and this is what she was given.  I think Whataburger is a restaurant that has a skewed perspective of what it should mean to be miniature.

Photo Hunter