the BREAKing of me

thanksgiving break has arrived. and i have been totally remiss in updating this chronicle of what it is to be in graduate school for an intangible art form. In the last four months I have designed DIVENTARE in the TheatreLab@855, assisted on Paula Vogel's A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS for the huntington theatre company, started work on the huntington opera SUSANNAH, begun to plan out the next two stops for DIVENTARE (NH and then NYC), and am halfway through tech for BATBOY at Harvard. *sigh*

also these four months: a tenfoot boom fell on top of me and hit me in the head. i declined to design INTO THE WOODS, but I took the classical club play. i became the second quarter graduate ME advisor for the Lighting Department. I became WAY better at drafting and I focused half of the huntington show that I assisted on--a process which was TERRIFYING. i find that i havent had a second to myself since school started---and that is just plain ridiculous. my mother asked me if it is always going to be like this--i just dont know.

and NOW: i have to sign up for classes for next semester...which i have failed to do. and i have to figure out my summer...AND what i want to do for my internship next year....!!!!! its all going by so fast--im basically halfway through my MFA....and that is scary.

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?