Summertime & the Livin' is THEATRICAL!

Hello friends who actually enjoy reading what I have to say!
I haven't posted for a long while because I've been a busy bee. After my study abroad class in the Netherlands ended, I headed straight to good ol' Spencer, IA and started my internship at the Spencer Community Theatre. I must say, I LOVE it here. If I could do this full-time, I think I would take that offer. I teach classes during the day and at night have play rehearsals.

Billy serenades Cindy and "Rick Rolls" the audience with "Never Gonna Give You Up"

The first show we  did was "Back to the 80's, the Totally Awesome Musical." I gotta say, it was "totally awesome!" I was the stage manager for the production and had "The Time of My Life" calling fun cues like fog... GO... Mirror Ball... GO... & Mr. Miyagi Voice over...GO!!!
The play was like a stereotypical high school sitcom. There was your nerd character, Feargal, who sang "Video Killed the Radio Star" and evidently helped Bill Gates/ "Gatesy" invent the internet! There was also a Star Wars dream sequence. Yup, Yoda mask and all! So, you know that we had a blast with this show!

Me leading some of the 80's kids in the Spencer Flag Fest Day Parade! Yes Ronald, wanted in on the pic. :)

And the Curtain Closes

The semester is winding down. Finals are upon us (word has spread that someone has even passed out in the library computer lab). And as everything must close for summer adventures to ensue, so must my Theatre Simpson Adventures. Last week we had our end of the year awards banquet. We ate good food, danced to some classic rock (my fave), said goodbye to the seniors, and celebrated all of our accomplishments from this year.

This blog is going to be short, sweet and to the point. Next week I'm going to Holland and Belgium for a MayTerm class. I may blog about that, and some of it might be theatre related. But I have a new camera that's ready to make this blog look pretty with pictures so until then, good by Theatre Simpson. See you next year.

Celebrating Over 50 Years of American Theatre

Tomorrow is the opening of another Theatre Simpson production. Festival 2011 is put on by all Simpson College students. It is student directed, stage managed, and designed. Tonight as a way to wrap up the first ever Simpson Symposium Day, a preview of this weekend's performances will be given.

Tomorrow night a respondent from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival will come and review the performance. Since the theme of the Festival is about student written plays by the Kennedy Center for the performing arts. It will be interesting to see how the respondent will think of it. 

The plays that will be performed are Fall From Grace by Jason Martin—a powerful, highly theatrical dreamscape that considers what goes through one’s mind when he’s hanging suspended by a single rope, having fallen off the third highest peak in Alaska.


The second play is Bunnies by Michael Obrien—an hilarious fictional riff on how Hugh Heffner MAY have gotten the idea to start Playboy magazine. 


Both plays are award winning plays and have been performed at the Kennedy Center. These two shows will be performed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon.

I Want To Run Away & Join the Circus

After being busy weekend after weekend, I found myself lost yesterday because I actually had some time on my hands. Two of my friends felt the same way and we saw that Cirque Du Soleil was having a show that night in at the Wells Fargo Arena. Of course we jumped at the chance to see it!

Heather and Sammi had both seen Cirque before but this was my first time. It was fantastic! There are many different types of Cirque shows but the one that we saw was called Dralion. It was a salute to Eastern philosophy, it even included a dragon dance! My favorite acts were the clowns, the sash dancer people, the acrobatic jump ropers, the juggler, and the gal who can balance on one hand and then move her body into weird positions. I can't believe the talent all of these people had.

Also being the theatre lighting geek I am, I would like to give props to the girls who had to shimmy up the most wobbly ladders and sit in a rigged catwalks during the whole performance (intermission and all). The whole performance is about 2 hours long, so for them to sit through the whole thing while keeping their heads in the game to be spot lights without having a bathroom break is awesome! You go girls!

I would also like to give props to the clowns. One of them was planted in the audience and acted like an audience member. I almost felt cheated when I found out that he was a member of their company, but it just proves what a good actor he is. He acted just like a normal guy without any acting experience who was forced onstage, until toward the end of the show when he started doing fancy flips.

All in all, I feel that I now need to see all of the shows. Cirque Du Soleil is like pokemon. You gotta see/catch em' all!

Another Opening Another Show

Today is the last showing of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice presented by Sarah Ruhl.
It's been a great run so far. The first night Brad Dell, one of the director's from Iowa State's theatre program came and reviewed our performance. One of his comments was that he wished that he could have sat in on production meetings and see the whole process that led up to the performances, because every aspect is just so fluid. The set, lighting, props, sound, and acting each are amazing but together the show as a whole takes the audience on an emotional journey.

Since my job as Dramaturge has been completed, I have been working on the front of house crew as a part of audience services. It's kind of neat being out with the audience. I get to see their reactions after the show. Some people have told me- Good show! That was intense. Wonderful! Interesting. as they left the theatre.

The play revolves around the relationship of a father and daughter. My family came to the show yesterday and I was excited to see my dad's reaction to the show. I was hoping that he would bawl like a baby. If he can cry during war movies, he can sure as heck cry at something as emotional as this play. He didn't. My mom did. My brother said that he was bored, but then again he's an angsty teenage boy who thinks that he's a stud. My dad overanalyzed the play and thought that the play was about how the Greeks thought about death. As it's stated in the program, this play is only based on a Greek myth. My mom, on the other hand, was caught up in the emotions the characters were feeling.

Summer Jobs!

After searching for jobs at Midwest Theatre Auditions, I finally found the perfect job for me in my home town! Over this spring break I had a job interview at the Spencer Community Theatre for the position of the Children's Theatre Director and Education Intern. With this job I get to direct two children's theatre shows and stage manage the third. I also get to teach various theatre classes to children. This will be wonderful! I get the experience and everything to build a resume', but don't have to pay the extra money for housing, food, and laundry!

The Spencer Community Theatre is offering three internships the Tech Director's Assistant, The Musical Director, and the one I got. :) I was pumped to find out that my best friend, Elizabeth Taylor (not THE Elizabeth Taylor. This one's much more wonderful) will be working at SCT too! She got the Technical Internship, so she will be building sets and I will help the children act on them.

Another cool thing about this summer is that one of my housemates here at the performing arts theme house is going to live with me for the summer. One of my Simpson best friends, Heather Powers, will be starring in three shows at the Treasure Village Children's Theatre in Spirit Lake, Iowa (about 15-20 minutes from my house). It's a wonderful family-owned theatre and also doubles as a mini golf course. I've worked there for three summers in the past, but since last summer I've been having new theatrical adventures.

The Cast of Rumplestiltskin (2009) 

Date Auction and Creating the Underworld

Thursday night was the Date Auction Underground. Simpson Students played host to perspective students. The perspectives toured the campus, attended acting classes, auditioned, and attended a rehearsal of Simpson's spring production of "Eurydice." Once they were finished with that, they headed to the Underground.

The girls of the Performing Arts Theme House host a Date Auction to raise money for the AIDS project of Central Iowa while releasing their "wild" side. :)

About $100 was raised for this charity. Songs were sung, skits were performed, and thanks to the Holy Grounds Coffee Shop, the first 15 people at the Underground got a free cup of coffee.

Saturday was filled with another full day of theatre. From 9am-5pm, Theatre Simpson students built a new world for audiences to enjoy. The lighting crew hung all of the lights needed for the show without the designer being available for consulting. This show is sure to be a spectacle, especially with the help of guest lighting designer, Jason Amato, from Austin, Texas. Based on the Greek myth of Orpheus, this play will take you on an emotional journey. Though it is based upon a Greek myth, the playwright Sarah Ruhl specifically states in the script that it should not be read as one. Come see Eurydice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZyRn14IrZ4&feature=player_embedded