What did you do in school today?

This week's stage make-up class was on learning to do bruises, cuts & scars.  We had fun making ourselves look like we'd been in a brawl or were zombies (two classmates are quite experienced - impressive skills!).    My "bruise artwork" wasn't great - I had my colors placed badly so it just looked weird - but it'll improve with practice.

After lunch I reported to the scene shop to get some more shop hours (I have to get 30 hours by the end of the semester).  We had to take down a flat that my Tech Theater class had put up the other day and dismantle it because some of the dimensions were wrong.  We had to close up early, though, as the materials we need to rebuild the flat won't be delivered until next week.  Three quesses what we'll be doing in the shop once that load of lumber arrives...

Past the midterms - whew!

Out of 5 classes that I'm taking this semester, only 2 had any kind of midterm requirement.  My acting class midterm consisted of a) a monologue; b) a paraphrase of said monologue, to be handed in before doing the monologue; and c) considered answers to several questions about the monologue (what's your character, what's that person's relationship to the one(s) they're speaking to, etc.).  The memorization of the monologue was the only scary or challenging piece; the two written parts were a breeze.  We drew numbers to determine the order in which we'd present our monologues.  I traded to get the first ("get it over with quick") slot.  I got out there, started, and quickly realized I was skipping pieces.  I took a deep breath or two and started over, after which it flowed reasonably well.  I don't know how I did, but at least I didn't crash & burn, so I'm optimistic that I got at least a B.  (I have no idea how the grading goes on these things - will we be graded on a curve? based on our improvement since the beginning of the semester? some other criteria?)

My Intro to Theater class had an actual midterm exam, on the history we've covered to date.  I was sweating bullets over that one, not knowing how involved it would be or how much detail we'd need to know.  All I knew, from last week's review, was that there was going to be a long-answer (3-4 paragraphs) essay as about 25% of the exam grade.  The essay questions weren't the ones I'd prepped for (we'd been warned we'd be asked to pick one of 2 topics to write on), but the one I wrote on was a subject I'd reviewed just before we had to put our books & notes away, so I think it went well.  My one problem was that there were 2 short-answer questions on things that I know we never covered in class.  We had to do a short answer "essay" (2-3 sentences) on 5 out of 6 questions.  I suspect he'll have to give everyone credit for one of those, as only 4 of the 6 were on subjects covered in either lectures or online reading assignments.  Aside from that, though, I thought it was a fair test.  I'm much more relaxed now that I've got that behind me and am satisfied with how I did.

Memorization

When we had to memorize and present a monologue in my acting class, I had two classmates ask me about memorization tricks and techniques.  (When I told them one trick I'd used to memorize my monologue was to learn it starting at the back, their reactions were entertaining.)  

Then tonight the Chief asked me about memorization.  I warned him that the techniques I use to learn lines and monologues wouldn't necessarily be much help to him with tax court rules and procedures.  He was a bit disappointed but took it well. :)

How strange that all of a sudden I have 3 different people ask me essentially the same thing in the course of just a week or two.

Trying to get the blasted audition video done is even harder than I'd expected.

A few weeks ago I started having problems when singing.  Despite bringing all my best technical skills to bear (breathing? check; posture? yep; placement? good), I would have to stop after half an hour or less.  Even when being careful to sing correctly and not push or anything, my throat would ache as if I'd been blasting away for an all-day sing.  As a result, I put myself on a singing moratorium while I tried to get an appointment with my primary doc so I could get an ENT referral.  this meant cancelling my Oct. 10th appointment to make my music school audition video. :(

Had the ENT appointment today.  I'm OK to start singing again, but I have a lotta ground to make up after not singing at all for 3 weeks!  Now I'm trying to match schedules w/ my accompanist and my friend who offered to do the video, but the accompanist seems to be teaching whenever I'm available to record.

The school of music application deadline is a week from Sunday, so I don't have a lotta leeway here.  I don't have time to find another accompanist - it took weeks to find this one!  If I miss the deadline, I gotta wait another year (they only accept for fall, not spring, semester).  I could have this behind me if only my throat hadn't decided to be uncooperative.  After working for months and months on this audition, I'd really hate to be unable to do it just because we can't get schedules lined up.  Waaahhh!

The down side of online homework

Got back from my reunion/family weekend, tried to do the homework for one of my classes; no dice.  We're supposed to go to a link and watch interviews with 2 actors, but when I followed the link, it only connected to a trailer for one of the interviews.  I can't do my homework!  This is frustrating beyond words!

My first on-camera work

Yesterday I did my first acting for a camera.  My community college's Communications and Theater Dept. was filming a series of vignettes for an in-house PSA and the director tapped some of us from her acting classes and the acting club to be in them.  I had 2 little clips to do.  

In one, I was one of a series of people reading quotes about change.  (Mine was by Maya Angelou: "I've learned you can't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands.  Sometimes you need to throw things back.")  They had me sit on a stool on stage in front of the theater's proscenium curtain and look straight into the camera lens to read my quote "as if you're talking to a friend."  I was amused to see that they actually used one of those clapper boards, although this one looked like it was made out of plastic rather than the wood or slate you see in old movies.

The other bit was an action scene.  I had to enter a hallway from outdoors to find a group of impatient  students waiting outside my office.  When I asked them who they were waiting for, they chorused "You!!!"  I replied, "But no one ever comes during my office hours!", then unlocked the door to my office (actually an empty office).  We ran it several times; first to tweak action, lines, and timing, then for the cameraman to try it with different lighting.

I may never see the results, but it's kinda fun to know it's out there somewhere.

I was also surprised to learn that not just one, but two of "my students" were named Maureen!  That's the first time in a long time that I've met another Maureen, and the first time I've met African Americans with that name. 

I still hate "Company"

The Chief and I went to see a local production of "Company" tonight.  I am not a Sondheim fan, and I don't like any of the music in "Company"; I only went to support a few friends who were in it.  Neither one of us liked the show, which is pretty dated.  The one thing I did like was Joann's "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch".  This Joann delivered it with all the bitterness it needed - well done!

A string of good lessons - I think I'm getting this!

Had another good voice lesson today.  I continue to hit snags, still have a few places where I'm trying to work out the technical things (phrasing, breath control - the usual), but it all feels much more solid and much easier.  As I told my teacher this afternoon, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this business. :)  Seems like I'm thinking about and applying the latest technique I'm working on even when I'm not working on my lesson music (i.e., at church or in "Mattress" rehearsals). 

My two uni audition pieces are far enough along that they're ready for a second opinion.  A previous voice teacher lives near (and was the one who sent me to) my current teacher, so at C's recommendation, we've asked K to sit in on the 2nd half of my lesson next week so she can hear my audition pieces and offer suggestions.  It's been a long time since she's heard me sing; I'm looking forward to showing her my progress.

Tomatoes! And other food

The cherry tomato plant (Sweet 100 variety) is really coming into its own - we've got about 2 cups of little red gems sitting on the counter waiting to grace a relish tray on Saturday, with more tomatoes expected to join them in the next few days.  The grape tomatoes have also been ripening; it's just that the other plant is so very prolific, it makes this one look like an underachiever, even though it's already produced more tomatoes than I got off my container-grown plant all last summer.  I've mostly resisted snacking on the tomatoes, but it's hard - they're just so good!

TW and I are having an open house Saturday afternoon.  It's been 21 years since I bought the house (!), so maybe we could consider it a coming-of-age party for the house?  (Of course, the house is much older than 21, having been built in the 1920s.)  I spent most of yesterday & today making party food - triple batch of hummus, double batch of dill dip, triple batch of salmon spread, triple batch of brownies, double batch of muesli cookies and gluten-free peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies.   We'll also do a deluxe veggie tray and a full batch (makes about a gallon, by actual measurement) of "awesome salsa", which has black beans, corn, and other goodies in it.  The lovely thing about making this kind of party food is that we can have leftovers for dinner and know that it's all good for us (well, except for the brownies & pb-choc chip cookies; even the muesli cookies are pretty healthy).

Last music-only rehearsal

Last night was our first music-only rehearsal in about a month, and our last until we get to the Sitzprobe in a few weeks (!).  I was reminded of the difference between doing this for a musical vs. an operetta.  Operettas tend to attract a LOT of trained singers, with the rest of us being amateurs with a lot of choir experience, all of whom can read music at least a little.  In community musical theater, on the other hand, you get a much wider range, from trained singers and instrumentalists to those who learn only by ear, or can carry a tune but have trouble holding their musical line when the people around them are singing something different.  That means a lot more time spent woodshedding parts.  I think that's at least one of the reasons we lost one of our ensemble members - didn't understand why others had so much trouble learning music he got on the first or second run-through.

So yes, in an ideal world we wouldn't need to spend nearly so much time on the music, but this is community theater, where the performers have day jobs.

Sometimes our good deeds do come back to "haunt" us

Yesterday I finally managed to line up an audition accompanist - hurray!  Better, she's someone I already know, as she directed a show I was in 4 or 5 years ago.  I also gave her daughter rides to several "Yeomen" rehearsals and performances last year.  Because of that good deed, D quoted me a rate for 4 hours of her time that is only slightly more than I pay for a 1-hour voice lesson - a very friendly rate indeed!  I told her that her daughter had already given me a thank you gift for the rides, but "this is from a very grateful mother."  Happy to oblige!

Here come the tomatoes...

Our two tomato plants (cherry, Sweet 100 variety; grape, Santa variety) have been thriving - the Sweet 100 is quite bushy and at least 6' tall!  Both now have a dozen or more clusters of little green tomatoes on them.  We harvested the first few tomatoes a week or so ago, and have been getting at least 4 or 5 a day the past few days.  Looks like those numbers will start rising steeply pretty soon, though, given the dozens of little greenies that are getting paler by the day and starting to turn orange.

These are doing SO much better than when I tried growing tomatoes in containers on the deck - we've already harvested more than we got all last summer.

Better yet, the replacement zucchini plant seems to be thriving.  I'd be delighted if we actually manage to get a zucchini off the thing before the weather turns colder.

I've got my books!

My books for the semester (well, all but one) arrived from Amazon the other day.  I could wish they'd bothered to put the box between the main door and storm door, as it was raining and my box was wet, but fortunately the books weren't damaged.  I got a better deal from another vendor for one of the books so that one is still en route.  Ordering online was cheaper than getting them from the school's bookstore; I managed to save about $78 with the sales tax.  (It helped, of course, that I already owned one of the books for my Intro to Stage Make-up class.)

They're all sitting on a shelf together, just waiting for classes to start 3 weeks from Monday.  Well, for two of them to start that week.  The other three don't start until 3 weeks later; odd schedule!

Again with the waiting game

Last night I reapplied to uni, this time for the Spring 2016 semester.  Aug. 1st is their early-admission deadline application; those of us who make that deadline will hear by mid-October whether we're in.  Sure would be a nice birthday present to get the electronic equivalent of the fat envelope this time.  (The last time I was going through the college admissions process, a thin envelope contained  "thanks but no thanks" letter, while a fat envelope contained a "welcome to our institution" letter and a packet of forms to fill out for financial aid, housing, orientation, etc.)

It's official!

I spent much too long this morning waiting to see an advisor (confluence of mis- and non-communications), but eventually I got myself all signed up for classes for the fall!  The book list is already on line, so I ordered all my books, too.  (I was pleasantly surprised to see that I already own the book required for the Stage Make-up class.)

Unless a discussion with someone in the Theater department causes me to rethink, I'm going to be taking Acting I, Technical Theater, Fundamentals of Movement, Fundamentals of Script Analysis, and Intro to Stage Make-up.  This semester is gonna be so much fun!  

Now for Plan B

I finally heard back - the university doesn't have a space for me in this fall's class.  (The Chief wondered aloud how many transfer student spaces went to out-of-state students, who of course pay higher tuition.)  Not what I wanted to hear, of course, but at least now I know how to plan.  Tomorrow I'll work on my application for the spring semester and send my draft community college schedule to my contact in the university's Theater department to see how many of the classes will transfer.  Depending on her response, I'll get myself signed up and start back-to-school shopping. :)

The university has an arrangement with local community colleges whereby you can get university credit for community college classes.  I'll start looking into that tomorrow, too.

I'll have to commute a bit further, then deal with transferring if and when the university sees fit to admit me, but at least I'll still be going back to school.  The Chief has offered to buy me a Cinderella lunchbox in honor of the occasion. :)

Any day now...

Now that we're into mid-July, it's getting harder and harder not to check my email almost compulsively for something letting me know whether I've been admitted for the fall semester.  Yep, "wait" is still a 4-letter word.

Zucchini 1.2

The first zucchini plant died pretty definitely, so Wednesday the Chief and I put in a new one.  He took some scrap lumber and built a frame to create the mound they recommend when planting zucchini.  He also had me filter the dirt going into the hole to make sure there were no grubs.  We filtered  2 or 3 cubic feet of dirt and only found a few grubs, but at least those grubs will not be attacking the new zucchini plant.

It's probably much too late in the season to be planting zucchini, but hope springs eternal. :)

At least we don't have to worry about keeping it watered.  With all the rain we've been getting (25 of the past 36 days), I'm more concerned that it doesn't get washed away!

Not the fabric I meant to buy

The Chief and I took a day trip to Amish country on the way to a birthday party last weekend.  He wanted to look at furniture, I wanted to look for fabric for that cloak pattern I bought.  I did find some Christmas-red wool, but at $21 a yard, I decided to keep looking.  I wasn't really surprised to find that, this being quilt country, 99.99% of the fabric on offer was quilt fabric.  In one such shop, the Chief ran into Irene, a Mennonite quilt saleswoman par excellence.  She had him helping her peel back quilt after quilt in a big stack, told us the name of each pattern, pointed out all the features (different types of work, "every stitch sewn by hand") that made them special.  Funniest was that she kept warning us that if we didn't buy this or that quilt, someone else would.  She got to the Chief; we walked out of there with not just one but two quilts, when we weren't planning to buy any!  However, he did show his own shopping skills by asking if we could get a discount, since we were buying two quilts.  We didn't get the markdown he asked for, but we did get one.

We stopped at one last fabric store on our way to our hotel, where the Chief picked out some flannel for another pair of flannel lounge pants.  I also bought some lavender dotted cotton to use for the mock-up for my first Regency dress.  I figure if my maiden effort goes together reasonably well, I'll end up with two dresses - the practice model and the "real" one. :)

Getting a little ahead of myself

I'm already starting to costume myself for a Christmas caroling group I haven't even auditioned for yet, and which only asks women to provide a "Victorian" blouse.  I checked their website, decided they're going for a vaguely Dickensian look, and the hunt was on.

The first pattern I ordered, which arrived yesterday, was Folkwear #205, the Gibson Girl blouse:





I also ordered Butterick 5266, for the cloak.  I may or may not ever get around to making it, but if I want a mid-19th-century cloak, I've now got a pattern that will suit admirably.  (However, I'd probably change the closure to something a little less labor-intensive than all those tabs.)

 

But the purchase I'm most excited about is the one no one will see.  It's a corded petticoat (worn in the 1830s-50s, before the invention of the hoop, to make skirts stand out and achieve more of a bell shape), much of which is handsewn!  It just arrived today.  I'll need to add a small extender to the waist but that's a trivial adjustment, and MUCH quicker & easier than sewing one of these from scratch! Because it's used and has a couple of tiny spots near the waistband, the price was eminently reasonable.


Now all I have to do is come up with an audition recording to submit and hope my voice is what they're looking for.  If so, I'm already half dressed! :D