Where Has It All Gone?

So, where has my life been? Good question. Since my last post I have teched and designed The Diary of Anne Frank, The Winter's Tale, turned in my U/RTA application, and tried not to let school drive me crazy.

Anne Frank went incredibly well. The move to Kingsbury Hall for the 3 extra performances was quite well. It was incredibly stressful as I had to nearly redesign the show in 2 days. It was certainly a learning experience. I got along really well with the director. I feel like I adequately contributed to the look of the show. It was incredibly stressful in another way, however, as I was trying to prepare for The Winter's Tale at the same time, and I was trying to complete homework for my History of Theatre class. I ended up turning in a paper proposal late. That class is going to be the death of me.


After Anne Frank I got a very short break, then it was off to tech for The Winter's Tale. This show had a very unique set of challenges for me. The set design was almost curtains. This wouldn't be as bad except that part of the way through the show they were swagged up to the ceiling and cut off most of my grid positions from any effectiveness. I basically ended up lighting the show from booms on the sides. It certainly created a lot of looks I wasn't used to. Another challenge was that the floor was painted very pale and had a tendency to really reflect light and fight my design. I ended up satisfied with this show, but it was quite a process trying to get there. During the tech process we started having more and more problems with the director. He seems to have an uncontrolled temper. He never used it against me, but I would get incredibly irritated when he would irrationally yell at the stage manager and sound designer, both of which are good friends to me. I wish I had stood up to him more. He was an incredibly irrational man to argue with when he was mad. It got to a point where we were counting down the days until he was back in New York. Every year the department does a show with a guest director hired by the Pioneer Theatre Company. This year's director was certainly not our favorite.

So now my big stress is getting into grad school. I am incredibly scared and overwhelmed by the prospects. I have turned in my U/RTA application. It is a grad school interview thing where I go and set up a portfolio and dozens of schools look at it. If any are interested I later get an interview with them. I have a lot of work to do to get my portfolio ready. I have done so little. My 3 top choice schools don't go to U/RTA. They are NYU, Yale, and UCSD. I need to complete my applications for these schools, then I will be traveling to NYC and SD sometime in February to go interview with them. Such a scary prospect.

I guess one of the reasons my stress is so high is because I have done so little outside of school and shows. I haven't played ultimate frisbee in weeks. It is getting too cold now, so the games have all stopped. It hasn't snowed enough to go skiing either. I am determined to make it out this winter. Katrina and I have decided we are going to go as soon as there is enough snow.


In the meanwhile the little relief I have had is from going shooting. I have been able to take a couple of people for their first time, and I am quite impressed at how well they shoot. I have, however been disappointed in my own progress. My aim is quite poor. I currently own a Springfield XD.40, I also bought a Mossberg .22 rifle at Cabela's yesterday, they were having a sale. I went with Ryan, Chad, and my dad out to a field in Cove Fort yesterday where we put some good use to my guns, along with a 30-30 rifle, 2 more .22 rifles, a sweet .45 rifle owned by Chad, 2 12-gauge shotguns, and a .22 pistol. We had several leftover pumpkins as targets, it was a great time, though I did worse at the trap shooting then usual. It was cold, especially when the wind kicked up, but it was well worth it.

So much has happened, apparently I need to update my blog more often. Keep reminding me.