Silly rumors!

So Winny's ex worked at Weathervane a few summers ago, and when he found out I was working here he was like "Oh no, I wish you'd told me before you accepted the job there- their SM quit halfway through the summer because the company was so awful!" which of course freaked me the hell out. I finally got the skinny on what actually happened- two years ago (my SM's first summer here), the current SM was hired as the ASM, and this girl got hired as the SM. She quit after the first week, on her day off, and didn't even tell anyone. So they bumped the ASM up to PSM, which is the job she's had for 2 years now. According to her, the original girl was a terrible SM to start with. Anyway, that makes me feel a LOT better. I mean, nothing that I have experienced so far would make me think that conditions here would drive someone to quit- most of the backbone of the staff is the same as it was 2 years ago, and they're all pretty great.
We "ran" the whole show today, sort of. It's rough not having a stage crew yet to handle the scene changes. What's worse is that a lot of the furniture will be on wheels, so it can be moved on by one person, but our rehearsal furniture isn't, so it takes 2 people to move it. I can't wait until I'm not the one having to carry this furniture around!

Also, I found out an interesting tidbit today- Weathervane's tech rehearsals are from 5PM-midnight, which SUCKS, and is NOT the norm. Turns out that the reason they're so late at night is because the theatre wasn't fully enclosed (hence the current incomplete renovation) and they couldn't start tech rehearsal until it got dark, because they couldn't set any light cues while there was still daylight. My SM was hoping that since we have a roof now, we could move the rehearsals earlier in the day, but the answer to that request was a resounding no- they've scheduled focus and scenic painting to be on stage during the day, so it's a no-go on us moving earlier. That was such a foreign concept for me- having to start tech at night because of the daylight. Also, we're concerned about actors not being used to actual blackouts now. We'll see what happens on Monday!

You know that old phrase...

So you know that old saying about theatre, "Never work with children or animals"? Well, we have decided that it should be changed to "Never work with old people." It is seriously ROUGH. You have to explain things to them over and over and over and then they just forget it again by the next rehearsal!
Speaking of never working with children or animals, we've cut the dog from Miracle Worker thank the lord, and we also requested (and were given) a child-wrangler for rehearsal. She's the associate choreographer/dance captain, so she doesn't technically have a job during Miracle Worker.

The lack of responsibility is refreshing.

I haven't been an ASM in a while, and I was afraid that I was going to despise it, but in all actuality I am loving the fact that I have almost zero responsibilities.
Today I:
-sat at a door & let people into the building (aka 2 people, the rest of the time I just read my book & drank my coffee)
-turned pages for the music director
-ran errands (for myself, not for the theatre)
-hung out with the shop staff in "the cabana"
-sat in rehearsal and drew pictures
-moved a few pieces of furniture around
-talked to the props designer

That's pretty much my day every day. I have to say, it's nice not to have to be the one in charge of things for once.

Scrumbles

We stumbled-through Act I today! Sort of... we didn't make it all the way through. I'm just amazed that we have Act I blocked in 6 days of rehearsal. That is so insane to me, it is SUCH a short period of time.

It was SOOO hot in the gym today, we opened all the doors to the outside to get a breeze in, and from where I was sitting (hidden in the corner so I could plug my computer into the one outlet with a ground so I could do paperwork) I could see these little boys playing in the yard of the house by the back door of the gym, and they climbed up on a picnic table by the fence and watched our stumble-through. It was absolutely precious.

Talking to Meg last night, and talking to Corey today, I realized I've been pretty lucky to work with legit companies and legit programs. I mean, as much as we bitched about our department, Auburn has a pretty good theatre program (definitely better than Belmont's!). And then talking to Corey today, the theatre she's working at right now? Geeze. Her SM is apparently a Nazi about where people sit in rehearsals. And also called 3 ASMs for table work. I'm just sayin, I've worked for some legit companies.

Day off, sort of...

Last night was the welcome picnic hosted by the Board of Directors. It was cute... also kind of a waste of time for everyone but the Board. We just ate, and then sat in the theatre and listened to board members introduce their children. But they give us money, and do things for us so I guess it's a fair trade.

Today we had our first day off... sort of... there was a production meeting and maintenance men interrupting it. Also ice cream and wandering around downtown Granville with my SM. And getting my car fixed for free! I'm a fan of this place.

I really wanted to write something tonight, but I'm SUPER tired and have rehearsal at 10AM so I'm going to bullet-point:

- My SM arrived today (had a flat tire on the way, poor thing!). So far she's pretty fantastic, I really like her personality and she was super competent in rehearsal today, even running on literally no sleep in 36 hours.
- A bunch of us went to Columbus tonight to a pay what you can production of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women at a theatre called Theatre Daedalus. The play was fantastic, I'd never read it before and I really liked it. Two of the three women were fantastic, the other one was only meh.
- Theatre Daedalus literally has lights made of coffee cans and paint cans. It was amazing, I was absolutely enthralled.
- Went to dinner after with the sound intern, costume intern, artistic associate, and artistic director at a fabulous restaurant downtown. Stupendous. Ate fried green beans and had a great conversation with them all.

This is my 2nd day of rehearsal for My Fair Lady at Weathervane. My SM won't be here until tomorrow, so I've been running rehearsals for the last two days. People keep saying "OH you just got here and you got thrown into this blah blah blah," but it's nothing that I haven't done before. Sitting in music rehearsals and taking basic blocking notes are the same no matter where you are, and the rest of the staff is super helpful.

The weirdest part of this whole situation is the fact that the theatre is still under renovation. They're almost done, supposedly. They keep telling us that the mainstage will be completely done by the time My Fair Lady opens in two weeks, but I'll be interested to see how that goes. It's been really rainy for the last week, which has thrown them off.

The result of that is that we are rehearsing in a borrowed space- the gym of an abandoned elementary school that was bought by an architectural firm, which obviously has no use for a gym. It's actually a fairly nice rehearsal space- it's pretty much the perfect size, has good bathrooms and kitchen we can use, so as borrowed space goes it's pretty sweet. It's really close to the theatre, too, and easy to find. The weirdest thing about it is that this elementary school is so old, there is only one set of outlets in the gym that have a ground! All of the outlets only have 2 plugs, and of course the one with the ground is on the opposite side of the room from where we set up the tech table. There's also no internet here, which blows, and the internet has been super sketchy at the theatre because of the construction. I had to go to a coffee house yesterday to email production meeting notes to the SM! At least it works on campus.

This town is the definition of "quaint."

I made it to Granville! I'm all moved into my dorm at Denison University, where the theatre staff is staying for the summer. It's pretty nice. A little bare, but it's a pretty big room that I get to myself, so I'm not complaining.

I went down to the Broadway Pub tonight after Mom & Dad dropped me off- there was a big gathering of theatre people there tonight. There was a lot of reminiscing about past productions from people who are returning company members, but I ended up staying to talk with the Artistic staff well after most of the rest of them left.

I've got a HUGELY busy day tomorrow- my SM isn't arriving until Saturday (she's walking at her graduation) so I'm in charge, but I have noooo idea where anything is or what's going on. I'll manage though! It'll be an experience, that's for sure.

Set sail on the failboat!

So this whole journal thing epic-failed. Being in rehearsal left me very little time for working on the show itself and still doing homework, as little as I had, so I did not have any kind of time left over to blog every day. I think it's pretty obvious from the dates, but Spelling Bee is over, as is Auburn Pops! which was the second show I SMed this semester (3rd of the year- I did Intimate Apparel in the fall). I got an A on it! ...I think all of us got A's. The only faculty members I got responses from were Dan and Daydrie, so there's that. I still don't know if I got a KCACTF nomination- I don't know if I didn't get one or if Dadyrie just didn't tell me, but the only noms listed on the website are the acting nominations done by the respondent.

In other news, I am officially an Auburn grad, class of 2010!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Granville, Ohio- I have an internship at Weathervane Playhouse for the summer! I'm the ASM for 4/5 shows in their summer season, and I'm SM for Alice in Wonderland, which is the 4th show in the lineup. Looking at the rehearsal calendar just about makes me nauseous- 10 days of rehearsal for a 10-day run, rehearsing the next show during the run. Geeze.

My SM for the summer is the same age as me, which is a little daunting, but it's her 3rd summer at The Vane, and she's from VCU so I'm hoping she's a powerhouse. If she's not, well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Weathervane has been around for ever, but they hire really young. I believe my SM's words to me on the phone were "You're over-qualified for this job, so you shouldn't have a problem."

After The Vane, I'm going to Playhouse on the Square in Memphis. I'm a member of the Associate Company there, and while I'm technically an intern, I am the SM for all of the shows in their smaller space, The Circuit Theatre. They're a professional, non-union company that hires AEA artists (Guest Artist Contract? Small Professional Contract? I need to find that out).

I got both jobs at SETC, I'm really excited for them both. Neither is an Equity theatre, but they both had huge draws for me- Weathervane is doing a season of huge musicals (My Fair Lady, The Producers, & Hairspray, along with The Miracle Worker & Alice in Wonderland) and I have a dearth of shows like that on my resume, and that's what big theatres look for- SMs who have done big shows. Playhouse has a really great placement quota for their interns, especially for the Circuit SM- I will have basically spent a year as the PSM of a theatre, working under AEA rules without actually being union myself. I turned down Orlando Shakes for those reasons (and because spending a year as an ASM and only getting half the necessary EMC points out of it made me want to vom), so I hope it's all it's cracked up to be.

I'm going to try and actually blog this summer, and beyond. We'll see if I can stick to it any better than I could before... Maybe the fact that other AU theatre kids are blogging too will keep me motivated.