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

Meet Me In St. Louis

This past weekend I went to St. Louis, MO to participate in the technical interviews at the Midwestern Theatre Auditions or MWTA's. This event is similar to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. (I blogged about that event in January). At this event there were employers for different theatre and opera companies from all throughout the midwest (some came from even further).

In order to participate in this event, I had to send in an application in November to be considered for auditioning. My technical application went through, but the acting time slots filled up in October, which is the month you can start sending in your information, so they fill up quickly.

I went on this journey with two Simpson theatre majors: Emily Ledger and Kelsey Swanson (aka Kswans). Emily had an audition session in the first half which started 8:30AM. Kswans and I didn't have our interview session until 2:00 so we explored St. Louis! We drove everywhere. We even somehow ended up in East St. Louis which is supposed to be a bad area, which I believe is true since we saw a stop sign that had bullet holes in it. After I took about 30,000 pictures of the arch and the St. Louis Cardinals Stadium we headed back to the University.

I interviewed with every theatre company there. The two of them really liked me, so I hope I hear back from them soon. Kswans had an interview with the Ford Theatre from Washington D.C. (where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated). The interviewer told her that she wished she could hire Kswans right then and there. That would be an awesome place to work.

Now we're back on campus and working hard on two shows at once. This Saturday, the Theatre Simpson company will be working from 9am - 5pm having a work call setting up the set, lighting, sound props and everything else for the next production of Eurydice and this will be my next blog topic. Stay tuned.

Simpson Students Show Their Skill and the Audience Doesn't

West of E Street, the 2011 winners, play the crowd.

On weekends it seems that the Simpson campus is usually barren. The parking lots are empty with students heading home or on other off-campus adventures. The opposite happened this weekend because the popular spectacle that is Simpson’s Got Talent reeled in the masses.

            The talent this year consisted of eight musical acts and one entertaining dance number. Most of the performers sang their hearts out, but their acts ranged from songs from musicals to classic rock to pop and everything in between. One of the two acts that didn’t consist of vocals still rocked the audience. Senior Kevin Rice wowed the crowed with his acting and piano expertise. The other non-singers were Sam Elsner and Braden Everding who did a dance and lip-synch act to Grease that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John would guffaw at. The performance that got the crowd to their feet was the rocking band of West of E Street. Their rock and roll got the audience jamming along and this is what won them first place.

            Even though students flocked to this event to support their friends and peers, one could say that their overall attitude toward the show left a negative effect. Audience etiquette lesson #1: If you’re feeling antsy before the show starts, do something to prepare yourself for the performance. Walk around. Go to the bathroom. Get a drink of water. Do NOT go to the balcony section just to shake the tree that grows in the BSC and watch the leaves fall on the audience below and laugh at their disgusted reactions. It’s not fun for those who do get “rained” on and even less fun for those who have to clean it up. Lesson #2: I realize that you are at this event to cheer on your friends, but we are all here to cheer on all Simpson students. Therefore don’t talk while someone is performing. It is distracting to the performer and all in all rude. Lesson #3: Drunken behavior is never smiled upon. Drunken public behavior at a school function is worse. It not only makes the person doing the idiotic act look foolish but also shines the school in a bad light. Student Body President Macy Koch tweeted that she saw students “humping, smacking air asses, and taking shots during ‘To God be the Glory.’” This sort of behavior should not be tolerated.

            Though this did happen it is something that we can take away and use to learn from for next year. Then with the combined powers of  talented people and positive attitudes, the future performances of Simpson’s Got Talent will always end with a bang.

Vocal Repression

Did you know that with each year you're alive, your voice is taught to go against it's natural structure? As people grow up, society trains people's voices to behave in a certain manner, yet this manner adds tension to your voice and in the end, harms it. When people scream at a football game, their voices go hoarse. Yet, babies can cry for hours upon hours without anything happening to them.

This semester I'm taking an acting class that focuses on fixing these habits. Through different and strenuous breathing exercises, my class and I have been first finding our habits and have been working on correcting them. One of my habits is that when I speak, I don't always use my natural voice. I tend to speak in an upper register when my natural voice is lower. Most women have this habit. Other habits happen because social norms teach children when to be quiet, to stifle yawns and sighs, and more. 

So far the exercises have been pretty exhausting at least three students have had to stop in the middle of class because they have feelings of nausea and dizziness. We just have to tell ourselves the old saying: No pain. No gain. I have 21 years of vocal habits to correct.  

Update Into Meghan's Theatrical World

Design work on Eurydice keeps getting further along, yet Theatre Simpson is already getting ready for their final project of the year. The list of design positions for Festival 2011 has been announced. This festival is directed by the seniors and is entirely student lead. Two actors from this production are nominated for the Irene Ryan Scholarship like the other shows and all design work are up for possible awards at next years Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

With this said, I would like to congratulate the newly announced design team for Festival 2011.

	Festival of Short Plays--2011
	"John F. Kennedy Center/Performing Arts"
	Production Leadership (current as of 1-28-11)
Falling From Grace				Bunnies
Director--Tiffany Flory				Director--Emily Ledger
Stage Manager--Eliz Hewitt				Stage Manager--Shelby Burgus
	Producer--			Tom Woldt
	Production Stage Manager--			Meghan Vosberg
	Lighting Designer--			Kelsey Swanson
	Scenic Designer--			Cassandra Ring
	Student Technical Director--			Paul Privitera
	Costume Designer--			Lindsey Oetken
	Makeup/Hair Designer--			Natalie Hining
	Props Designer/Master--			Samantha Aaron
	Sound Designer--			Heather Powers