The Trip to Riley

The seven of us left South Bend at 6AM in one of the University’s nicest vans to perform at the Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. Google Maps was right; the trip only took us about 3 hours, which gave us a lot of time to kill between about 9:30 and our 11 o’clock start time. Luckily we had a few things we had to do to prepare for putting the performance in a space that we hadn’t rehearsed in.

Riley Atrium

Now this picture to the left from the Riley website is actually a great shot of the space we were working in, but as I know from experience, it’s a little difficult to interpret what you’re actually seeing. The door in the center looks like the original facade before an expansion. We weren’t sure if this was the actually the case or not, it might have only seemed like that to us because we’re used to seeing that in the stadium. To the upper left are twin glass elevators; at one point we caught a guy glued to the glass watching our show. I don’t think he knew we saw him. To the upper right you can see balconies on the second and third floors. As the woman from Riley explained to us, some of the kids aren’t allowed to leave their floors, but they were still able to watch us from up there. As you can see from the floor space shown, there really isn’t any good open performance space; the narrow part in the lower right is actually a wheelchair ramp.All the floor space you see in the picture we used as “backstage” to enter and exit from, and we performed in some relatively open space in front of that. There was a smaller triangular space on the other side of the ramp that worked pretty well for an “offstage” so we managed to utilize as much of the space we had to work with as we could. The key element of space that you can’t see in the picture is the fountain that went around two sides of the room, and added such wonderful back noise to the already challenging acoustics.

Our audience was probably about 30, but we also caught the attention of a lot of the staff walking by. Most of the kids were in the under 10 age bracket and had a staff member hanging out with them. A couple of them were in wheelchairs but for the most part they were all mobile and active. A couple of them approached us after the performance to say hi or take a picture with us. They seemed to relly like the performance, not so much the plot or the characters, as much as the fact that a bunch of people in cowboy hats were talking to them, they didn’t seem to know what was going on but they all had smiles on their faces. A lot of laughing at us more than laughing with us.

The fan favorite part of the show was by far the entrance of Buster the Evil Pig. At one point, Buster is trying to count to six, but gets hung up trying to remember what comes after three, and this kid right in front held up four fingers, hoping to jog the pigs memory. My other favorite reaction was from a very little boy, also in the front, who watched the whole show with mild interest, but during one of my lines about “Giant radioactive ants eating and smashing everything in their path and making strange noises from their antennae like AWOOOOGAH! AWOOOOGAH!” he went nuts and got super excited. It was pretty adorable. One of the most bizarre reactions wasn’t from one of the kids at all. About a third of the way through the show, this rando wandered right through the middle of our show and up the ramp, then, noticing one of the props that I had left up there, waved over the woman working there. She wanted to make sure that the staff was aware of the giant red tubes of plastic dynamite that had been so cleverly concealed in the middle of the wheelchair ramp. Luckily the staff was more amused by the woman than concerned about anything s. he wanted to draw their attention to. We couldn’t understand how she walked right through the middle of us without figuring out there was a play going on.

Overall, it was great experience, even though it felt over and done with pretty quickly. I only wish that the acoustics could have been better, but it didn’t seem to effect what our audience thought of the show, so maybe it was for the best.

New Business: Othello

This semester, my buddy Steve and I are directing Othello in an effort to revive the Shakespeare club which hasn’t mounted a show since Tempest my freshman year. We’ve been rehearsing for about a month now, and I’m having a blast with it; our cast is great and I think our approach is relatively fresh. We’re setting the play in the civil war and trying to produce the show as an American tragedy. The biggest change that we’re making from sort of the standard model is moving Desdemona away from this image of angelic, naive perfection, and trying to make her more modern and real for our audience. We’re also maintaining a lot of the comedy, which I would argue is inherent in the script. The show goes up around the weekend of April 16th, which is that Thursday, but we haven’t finalized which nights we’ll be performing yet. Still, I’m very excited to see what we come up with over the course of the next month; I have a lot of faith in this being a strong show.

Spring Break

That’s right, you heard it here first, I am officially on Spring Break. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean a tropical destination. I decided to stay in the Bend instead of going to Florida, so I’ve got a week of sleep, MK, and cleaning ahead of me. The big thing that I’m doing is working on a Children’s Theatre piece that a group of us are going to perform at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis on Friday. I’m playing the highly touted role of Goofy Lester in Cucumber Phil, a simple play about farmers having a tough time dealing with change and outsiders. We did a few run thrus of the play today, and my only concern is that I’m might be more entertained than any of the kids watching. I’m excited though, I haven’t really done anything like this before.

New Business: Day Job

I actually started this last semester, but I took on a job working as a research assistant for one of the professors of the FTT Department. Right now he is working on two books, both of which are textbooks for computer programs designed for the theater. The book on AutoCAD, which set designers can use to draft their sets, is nearly finished. My job was to go through and edit it, checking mostly for errors in the exercises prescribed in the book. The second one is on WYSIWYG, which is a program for lighting design, and so far all I have had to do is become familiar with the program to help him begin the book. I also do a little office work for him; this week I am organizing his receipts so he can do his budgeting for the year. Not very glamourous, but its good for me, and again makes me look responsible on a resume.

New Business: CCC

I figured I would attempt to start a series of posts talking about some of the new things that I am up to this semester. First up, I am now a part of student government at ND! I serve as a member of the CCC, which stands for Club Coordination Council. The main purpose of the CCC is to manage the budget for the money that the University gives out to all of the different clubs, but we also help to keep the clubs organized and informed. Basically in the spring of each year, each club makes up a budget and asks for a certain amount of money to be allocated to them from the club fund. Our job is to go through those budgets and recommend how much each club should actually get, based on their need and organization. I serve on the Performing Arts division, so I work mainly with theatre groups, dance groups and choirs. It’s fun for me because I get a chance to really pay attention to how performance groups are financed, but also, according to one of the girls in my division, it looks really good on a resume, because the budget we manage is close to a hundred thousand dollars.

From the Fossil Records

Over the weekend I was finally able to dig up the name and location of an Irish short film I saw last year before a screening of Once. The 2003 short is called Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom (My Name is Yu Ming) and features a Chinese boy learning Gaelic and moving to Ireland. Its pretty simple, but I liked it; I thought it was pretty clever. You can find it in parts on youtube, but the full video is at http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/name_yu_ming. I highly recommend if you have 14 minutes and a decent connection.

Home with the Family

My return to Alaska after being outside for about a year and half was unfortunately unaccompanied, as Alaska Airlines has no idea where my bag must have walked off to. Now this wouldn’t really be a problem accept for the fact that I donated all of the clothes that I had kept at home. Which, of course, wouldn’t really be a problem if I hadn’t slipped in the driveway and split my only pair of pants from seam to seam. So I’ve been spending the last couple of days swimming in a pair of my dad’s pants. Oh well, there was nothing major in the bag, just my clothes, so if I have to replace those it isn’t the end of the world.

So far, being back in the AK is fantastic; it’s great to see the fam, and somehow reassuring that not much has changed here. That’s excluding of course the sweet new HDTV and the obnoxious new puppy, but overall not much feels different. Kenai is actually pretty cute, just a total spaz. Tonight I’ll get to reacquaint myself with the part of home I miss the most: steak dinner!

Tomorrow morning, Mom and I and, I’m assuming, Kaitlin are going to go into Anchorage so she can do the last of her shopping and I can do the first of mine. I had no idea what I was getting people when I left South Bend, but an hour at Fred Meyer’s with Kaitlin took care of all of my ideas, so I think I’ll be good for Christmas.

I don’t have big plans for my time in Alaska, hopefully something will develop between now and when I get my wisdom teeth out (New Year’s Eve). Otherwise I’m more than happy kicking back with the family and reading the Physics of Superheroes, my Christmas gift from Jane. At some point I have to do some Loyal Daughters and Sons stuff and prepare for spring auditions but for now I’m straight lounging.

Go Irish, Beat Warriors!

Fall Videos

Here are some videos that I was in this fall. The first is a student film entitled Sink, and the second is an episode from On Campus, a student run TV show at ND:

This is an excerpt from On Campus – Episode 304.
Watch the full episode and more at www.ndtv.net.

Sorry for the short post, but I’m about to board my flight to Anchorage.

Holla!

New Addition

I killed two birds with one stone today. I finally put together the birthday/Christmas list that my mom wanted me to make for her, and I got to play with the multiple page feature of my WordPress blog. On the right hand column under “Extras” I have added my new page “Wish List.” This way anyone who is interested can take a gander at the list, but it is well out of the way of anyone who could care less.

Originally, the page was showing up as a tab along the top, next to “Blog,” which I thought that was a little too prominent. I like it better how it is now; it took a bit of a trick to get it to only show up on the side bar so I had fun figuring that out.

Fall Break

The first half of my semester’s been pretty busy, but I finally made it to fall break. It’s been great to have a couple days to relax at the house, but I am definitely looking forward to my trip to Seattle this weekend. I’m going out to the Washington game, and I’m feeling pretty good about our chances, because so far this season, the Irish have only lost games that I didn’t attend. I think it will also be nice to take my girlfriend Jane out west to meet a little bit of the fam.

Spurt of Blood was an enormous success! We sold out every night! We even added extra seats to the house in the middle of the run and sold those out almost instantly. It was a huge surprise, because we went into this project not even thinking that we could successfully put up this “unstageable” script, and expecting to play to an audience of coerced friends and quick-forgiving loved ones. Our packed audience actually loved our performance, with a lot of people saying that it was the most fun that they had ever had in the theater. If you’re interested, there our reviews here and here. Krysta, our translator and the first director I had at Notre Dame, was able to come to one of the shows before moving to France, and was very pleased with the performance. It meant a lot to me to be able to see her again before she left, because I didn’t think I would get that chance.

Right now, there are only a few more weeks before we open Loyal Daughters and Sons, and I’m getting anxious. At this point there isn’t much left for me to do on the creative side. I just have to let the rehearsal process run its course, but I can’t wait until we have a final product to present. I really think this year’s show is going to be very successful, and I’m excited to hear what people think about it. I do still have quite a bit to do on the production side of things now that the script is more or less finalized, meaning I have to make sure we have everything prepared for when the show goes up. Just last Friday, I met with my friend Kristina who designed our posters this year. I can’t really say anything about them because we haven’t finalized anything, but all of the options she gave us we’re really solid, so I’m excited.

Last week I also finished with a student film. I was only acting in it, so it didn’t take a lot of my time. I had to go to three shoots, which we’re each about 3 to 5 hours. My acting professors say that it’s important to be able to put both theatre and camera work on your resume, and I definitely understand why after working on “H2-Oh No!” (Don’t ask about the title). I was surprised by how nervous I was when they were filming me, but it feels like a lot more pressure than when you’re doing a play, because if you make a mistake on film, there’s no way to make up for it or move past it. Also theatre doesn’t have to worry about continuity; keeping track of how my tie looked for five hours was kind of a challenge. I’m curious to see how that actually turns out.

Alright before I sign off on this post, I’d like to leave you with a video I stumbled on the other day. Its a promo that the University did about Macbeth. You can briefly see me in the fight scene at 0:34: