sights: year two

In just 7 days, I will be beginning my second year. CRAZY! I am actually astounded at how fast the first year went by and how significant the start of the second year feels. And I'm not even there yet!

I am really excited about my production assignments this year: a new play, a huntington assist, and an opera in the new year. of course, I also have BB at the NCT and some other small projects---and I'm hoping to get a really good handle on my thesis topic (Electronic Music and Light, or something like that...). I'm taking some more art classes, a nice class about light and movement with Mark and Judith, and a class on EM so that I can perhaps make this thesis pipe dream a reality!

Im really really excited about getting back to my little apartment and the daily routine of going to the theatre and working with other people. I didn't realize how much I loved the BU system until this summer when I didn't have the BU system.....not that there is anything wrong with that, but there are a lot of awesome things about the SOT that I take for granted and I DEFINITELY know that now!

At this point last year I didn't know what to expect. At this point next year I will be on my way to an internship and a thesis. For now--well, let's go second year!

summerstock reflections

it is finished. summerstock, that is. i am not sure how i feel completely about my time at the h******, as it is so close to me still....but i can say some things with certainty. 1) i met some amazing people there who i can look forward to working with in the future. 2) i learned a lot about how to talk to/deal with/convince/disagree with/win over to my side/make the best of OTHER PEOPLE. that is probably the most valuable lesson that i have learned this summer at hangar. sure, i got to design a lot of shows (6 in fact). some were beautiful and some were just good. some i loved, some were not my style. but everything got done.

i put up some photos on my website from the summer--one of the costume designers took most of them. i wish i knew how to take show photos/had a nice camera to do so on. check them out here: Mary Ellen Stebbins Lighting Design

PS22 Chorus

I wanted to share a recent find that I've had in the world of YouTube. Im not quite sure how I stumbled upon this, but I am WILD about this group of children and their music teacher. This group of 70 odd NYC public school 5th graders is taking the world by storm--particularly as a result of their popularity on Perez Hilton's blog.

These two videos are especially moving for me:

"The Call" (Regina Spektor) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bTtLPO5ao&feature=related

"Dont Dream It's Over" (Crowded House) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LutJSqspl4w&feature=related

These kids remind me of the Langley School Music Project, 1976-1977. I wrote about this before, but PS22 is the same sort of thing, just moved up a few years. Read about Langley here: http://keyofz.com/langley/

So right now, listen to PS22's version of "Dont Stop Believin'". It's totally worth it.

rotation 1 & 2

Major breakthroughs:

I am 23 now, a fact which was celebrated with much rejoicing and a pinata.

I have designed 2 of the 6 shows I am to design this summer and they have opened. I would post pictures, I issue a caveat on the professional ones and I haven't seen any of my friend's yet.

Minor accomplishments:

I have managed to endear myself to the shop, which I consider a good thing.

I like my preset cue sheet format.

I got a new printer for my images and it has a copier/scanner part, which is AWESOME.

summerstock?

In about a week, I head off to Ithaca NY, as one of the Design Fellows at the Hangar Theatre Lab Company for the summer. Now, I honestly dont know what to think--except the part where everyone is really excited and says that its tons of fun. what I do know is that im terrified. weirdly. we shall see...

epic fail

today was a giant fail. it all started when i was unable to save my project on the Hog and thus ERASED my project (note to self: "new show" and "save show" are not the same thing...). and then the light lab was completely booked until 11 am the next day (and i mean EVERY hour of the night as well) and then although i used the offline editor (which is a hot mess in and of itself) the Hog wouldnt read the disk (or ANY of the disks that i tried) and then i had no project. and then there was a fiasco with whether or not I was going to the preview tonight or colloquium....and that was a mess bc both sides of the question got mad at me about it when it wasnt my fault in the slightest...and then i came to the BCA to reprogram the end of Act I and ended up having to do WAY more than i expected and i wanted to cry.

and im sitting here at preview, with a full night in the light lab ahead of me to do this Hog project and a Mariann to do and a Roger project to do...

why am i in grad school?

my first foray into this so-called professional realm

so: the show I am assisting on for HTC went into tech today. Focus was yesterday--and I was TOTALLY scared. However, it went really well, and I got complimented on how well it went from the LD so I was happy. He was skeptical of my method of keeping track at first, but it works for me so all was well.

And now we are in tech. a LONG tech. today is very slow--slower than normal. i am doubtful that we will reach the 2nd act by the end of the day. And I started at 7:30. The end of the day is midnight. Yea. Im a wee bit tired. Thank goodness we have tomorrow off.

I dont know what I think of him yet. Ill have to sleep on it.