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Saturday, February 27, 2010

awesomness

just a quick post at a late hour because i just got home from the most EPIC performance ever!!

opening night on thursday was really good, last night was pretty good [a few technical snafus, acting was always good], today's matinee was awesome for a matinee but there were a few more mess-ups, and tonight's show was EPIC EPIC EPIC.  House was sold out. Standing ovation. The audience was AWESOME, they clapped at every full stop and laughed at all the jokes (yes, R and J has lotsa funny shtuffs). 

the energy got really intense right before the show and never dropped. 


I AM HAPPY     ;)    =D


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Performance Week!

Wellwellwell it's been a while!  
I'm not dead yet.... :D

College Algebra/trig has been going well....so far it's just been 'review'  :P   But it's a good class...very small actually. The teacher is INSANE but very awesome :) and I've got a whole page of quotes from algebra...some from students but mostly Ms. Kimes  :)  It tells you something that she's got a little note on her filing cabinet: 'C___ High School,  ___ Kimes   Evil Cackle'   :D

Rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet are also going...well...ish. INTENSE.  Things got fast and furious about Tuesday of last week, with long rehearsals and lack of sleep.   Wednesday night I came home from a late rehearsal, did math, and around 10 PM I came to the realization that 'Oh crud we really should have competed for the Woodie Flowers award.'  (Robotics stuff: in honor of one of FIRST's founders, Woodie Flowers, it celebrates the mentor [robotics coach-type] who best embodies the spirit of FIRST.)  Well as usual our whole team was too busy building the robot to write an essay, and nobody actually thought of it except ME the DAY BEFORE the essay was due.   And of course I was finishing up Chairman's Award essay and stuff. 

One of our mentors has worked harder than anyone for the past 8 years or so, the team wouldn't exist without him.   Nobody from our team has ever been nominated for WF. I decided that if he can give hours of time, work practically a second job (that's what robotics is :P ) I can stay up and write an essay....

Thankfully there was a word limit, so it only took me about two hours. Writing an essay at midnight is a really exhilarating experience, as was getting up for school next day, Thursday. Rehearsal as usual.
There was a happy moment when I was curled up on the floor backstage trying to catch 40 winks when somebody shouted onstage, and I panicked, thinking it might be me needed, and sat up and banged my head on this pile of heavy metal thingees. Promptly cracked up. Later I managed to stand up directly under another hard boxy thing....fun times :)

 Friday our rehearsal started as usual at 3:30 in the afternoon. Cue-to-cue: the tech people are working on lighting. Actors say a line, stop. Wait. Wait some more. Skip to the end of the scene and wait some more.  Took hours to get through the first act. We were there til 11 Pm.   
It was also the first time run crew (shlepping sets and props and furniture) was actually working with servants (moving more shtuffs for scenes). 

As a Capulet servant, I (with 4-ish other servants) move these four potted trees on and offstage a LOT. Like after every third scene. We only started doing this in the past few days. Oh, and we're still acting in a couple scenes.  
Those confounded trees haunt my every waking thought. Before Friday's rehearsal I had been on top of things, and printed out a list of every scene and what had to be moved on stage. (We are now on the third revision of this important list.)

Run crew and fellow servants love me. There are a total of three people on run crew which is NOT enough. It got really exciting when the four trees blossomed to six, spread amongst us four servants (has to be servants because it's in the scene). 
And there's this miserable bench that I and another girl have to get on and offstage. There was one time when she wasn't there and I raced out onstage to grab it, to cheers from the techies in the audience....a great moment :) 
There was an issue getting home, so I got to hang round the theatre later than almost anybody else. My dad was working late on the robot and did not get home til 1:30 that morning. 
I dreamed all night about rehearsal, and those bloody trees! XD

Saturday proved even more interesting, with a second revision of the master-list, which has made run crew adore me :P   
 This time it was my turn to miss my cue with that blasted bench. Twice. The first time because I thought I had more time than I did, and was marshalling the troops for the next tree-moving bit. ARGH. Then I was all primed to make sure I didn't miss the next bench-scene, and took a SECOND to try and find tree-people, and BAM missed the entrance. Apologies all round, franticness. 

After about 1 pm I rushed cross-town to robotics scrimmage; big pre-competition thingee before the robot is boxed up Tuesday night. We did pretty well, except for a tip-over which resulted in something coming loose, and also the treads came off one wheel....thank goodness for epoxy! 

Stayed there til 7 when my mom came and rescued me from the deadly-dullness of standing-around-not-being-able-to-help-much (as was most of the team, it was just programming issues at that point.) 
My dad was really suffering, he couldn't help much either and was holed up trying not to fall asleep....commented that it was almost like being stuck in an airport at 1 AM.   He got home pretty early thankfully: 9:30. 

I went to bed at 8:30 and got about 12 hours of sleep...off to rehearsal at 1 this afternoon to find it had been cancelled :( I was really wanting to run through again with crew, those trees....Director was beyond enthused about my scene list and general preparedness, commented on my responsible-ness =D  which made me happy. 








Monday, February 8, 2010

and so we embark on the next project

Well well well....It's been busy!   

The four-day weekend proved only somewhat relaxing, but very fun.....Thursday and Friday was mostly taken up with sleeping and rehearsals/robotics. Saturday was a grueling 10-hour day at robotics.....most of the crew peeled off by 5 PM or so but one mentor and one other student and of course my dad and me stayed til after 7  O_o
After that it was off to a sleepover with my best buddy :) which was oodles of fun...we watched the second Star Wars film....stayed awake way too long chatting :)   Off to church next morning....then home where I proceeded to crash, and help parents clear branches and such over at grandparents' property......then to folk dance last night....good times :)

Today was the first day of the new semestre....you'll notice I spell it the British way....I just have one math class at CHS but it looks like a beast.....there were reviews from past students handed round, advice for us....and suffice it to say that the homework will be insane.......we also learned that the class (College Algebra) is one of the hardest math classes at school....yowps.  

This is going to be SO fun.   hehehehehehehe

Look for me tomorrow and you'll find me an insane gal.....heheheh. Rehearsals also go well. 

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

ADRENALINE

Just a quick and over-capitalized note from Bethie-the-Insane! :D

Today got back our math tests from last Friday (finals week....fun times). We graded them in class, as well as turning in our calculator project (have I actually not posted on that? The assignment was to use a graphing calculator to draw a picture of a cartoon character, using equations.....fun but lotsa work).   
Me calc proj. (Charlie Brown :)  turned out well.....glad to be done. AND the math test was AWESOME!!!!!!     I thought I did rather poorly on it.....but NO.........
WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! 

COLLEGE ALGEBRA, HERE I COME!!!!!!
Came out of class and could not stop smiling XD  


Oh, and rehearsals are AWESOME :)  Three weeks til the show, yowp!   Tried on half of one of my two costumes yesterday, so puurtyy!  hehehehe    Blue tapestry-sort bodice. All the costumes are really awesome. It's so fun to be part of a huge production like this!!!!  We had a hysterically funny and awesome rehearsal yesterday, people running around with costumes, we've got a set onstage, balcony etc. and during the balcony scene bit they've got Romeo climbing part way up to talk to Juliet, and it was a really long scene.......the people watching from the wings were treated to the sight of the guy playing Capulet coming quietly up onstage with a long pole used in a later scene.....with Directorial approval, he later said.....well Romeo did not respond well to being poked whilst ten feet above the stage.........he just escaped falling off laughing......while the rest of the cast went into hysterics, more or less.....good times XD  


and with this, dear friends, I leave you......off to rehearsal! :P