Show is over, another show begins!

Me (ASM), Meredith (PA) and Colin (SM) = the most awesome tech team ever!!

So, things have been pretty busy since the last time i updated (when are they not?!?!) and, i have officially done my first show in America!!! My life has been filled with theatre and rehearsals and tech and dress and performances, so things have been more than a little crazy! But, i have loved it - almost every single minute of it, apart from when i was deathly bored backstage, or when a stagehand was driving me crazy! Things were a lot more formal here, but i did almost everything right, and i didn't get shouted at once! It was the calmest, quickest, least eventful tech i have EVER had in my entire life - it was so refreshing after other technical processes i have recently been involved in, which was such a relief! I like stage management now!!!! I was working with the best team ever, so good that it was even better than my team for Lieutenant of Inishmore, although my stage hand team was a lot better for Annie than for this, the rest of it was great! Everyone kept putting on posh english accents, which was pretty hilarious, and there are always so many in-jokes that are amusing - we want to write a musical about backstage, with a romantic number called 'I'm only a headset away' and other funny things! I am REALLY going to miss WIDLS (i'm already missing it!), and the people involved in it - i just hope we all stay in touch!! Smashing!

During tech week, for my playwriting class, i wrote a scene about backstage, which was fun! We are having to do quite a lot of writing now for playwriting, which is cool, and i think i am starting to get into it :-) - at first i found it quite difficult, but i think its beginning to come more naturally! I keep leaving homework stupidly to the last minute though, which has resulted in some VERY late nights and lack of sleep, which i have GOT to stop doing! It is hard to keep on top of everything though, which i suppose is part of the fun of it! I am enjoying doing things like lesson plans for Theatre in Elementary education, although i am missing quite a few of the lessons due to tech and shows - it makes me think that teaching could eventually be a possibility, if it has to be! I'm not sure i could ever be a professional stage manager, so it may have to be! For storytelling, i recently had my midterm exam where i had to stand up in front of the class and tell a 7 minute story. It was completely and utterly nerve wracking, and i'm not sure if i enjoyed it or not (it's all a bit of a blur!) but i got a good mark for it, which was good! Most of my grades are very high at the moment, so hopefully i will be able to keep that going!

Paradise, my other show, is going into tech this week. This show is completely different than WIDLS, in the sense that we are all students, so i think tech week is going to be an interesting experience. I will be cue-ing using hand signals, which will be hilarious, and running tech will be interesting - i just hope it is easier than i am imagining! I'm really going to get on top of paper work in the next couple of days, so then i can have a head start in being organised. I seem to be giving a reasonably good impression at the moment with my skills, so i'm not worried. I'm also trying to get a headstart with my homework, as it always seems to be pushed to the back of my mind when shows are concerned!!

I had a meeting for the leadership conference last night, which is amusing! It is going to involve a lot of chanting, some dancing/doing a skit on stage and a lot of spirit activities, which will be very funny. I'm looking forward to it, although it is a little daunting!

I am definitely going to Canada for American Thanksgiving! I am so excited!!!!

I am still in love with America, very much so, although i am almost definitely going to go home for christmas, as i feel it would be the right thing to do. It just hits me sometimes how lucky i am to be able to experience all these things, and have so many exciting things to do, and lovely people to meet and stuff. I'm just lucky, i guess!

Anyway, i better go to rehearsals now,

Ciao ragazzi xxx

Getting busy!

Me, Jess and Jana at with the Panther - UWM's Mascot

So, another chunk of time has gone by, and I need to update!!! Things, as always, are going fabulously, and I am still totally in love with America – I think if there were going to be problems, it will be when it gets bloody cold (its starting to get chilly now!), but at the moment, I still just love what I am doing over here, and all the new stuff I get to do and everything! The majority of the time, I am happier here than I was at Kent – and I was pretty happy at Kent! There have been quite a few people this year that have dropped out of being in America, and I can’t even imagine doing that – anyone thinking of doing a year abroad should DO IT!!!

So, what have I been up to? Not a lot it seems, apart from rehearsals!!! The schedule is intense, and it is still the balance of boring and fun, but it is bordering on the so much fun and will be sad when its over part now – I think I’ll miss the social side more than anything, but hopefully that will continue! Tech week is next week, and i am a little bit worried about it, because its quite formal here, and i'm worried i will have done something wrong or something, and people will shout at me - but, as i'm still learning over here, i will have lots of supervision, so that is good. The only bad thing about being in rehearsals all the time is that i have to eat at Palms (or nowhere on Fri and Sat nights as nothing is open!) which only really serves fast food - it feels like i am poisoning my body a little bit. C'est la vie. I try and balence it out by going to the free gym every so often! In other news, I have just taken on another play, this time as Stage Manager! Its called ‘Paradise’ and I’ve got my first meeting tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that – soon I will be as busy as I was in Kent, and it will be fabulous!! Classes are still going pretty well – I got some well good marks for my last assignment, over 100% (:-P) which isn’t physically possible, but still! It made me happy! Maybe this year i have a chance of getting a 2:1 or first after all! Although, being snowed under with homework really isn't that much fun!

I have still been doing some exciting stuff! Last weekend i met up with some of my friends from Leadership camp (and John), and we went out for food, and played funny board games, then went out for ice cream, then rented Sweeney Todd and watched that - it was so much fun! Ice cream over here is AMAZING, and the ice cream shops are even better! I wish they existed in the UK! Hopefully i will meet up with them again soon, although my schedule has just got crazy, so my social life is going to have to wait a little bit (gahh!). Tomorrow (Saturday) i have a day off, so i am going to go round to my friend Meghan's house and we are going to cook savoury pancakes and something sweet, which is very exciting, as i haven't been able to cook since August! Its surprising how much i miss it!

I am starting to become neutralised to the American accent - i no longer can tell when people are speaking with one!! It is really wierd - it didn't take long for it to become normal! I haven't really managed to pick it up, apart from the odd word - i am never calling Candy 'Sweets' ever again!! I have found that my structure of speaking has changed a little too - although it is said that if you talk to someone, you imitate the way they talk so that they understand! Many, many conversations i have had are centralised on differences and simerlarities - today we had the ladybird/ladybug discussion, which was funny!

There are a couple more exciting things coming up for me in the near future! On 13th-15th November i will be representing UWM as part of a leadership team at a leadership conference in Michigan! I am very excited about this, as it means i will be able to visit a different state, and meet people from all accross the 'Great Lakes' part of America - and do fun things for a weekend too! Although it does mean squeezing it in to my very tight schedule, i think things will be ok! Also, this week, i am going to visit a local milwaukee children's theatre company, one of the biggest in the mid-west, with the possibility of being a teaching assistant and gaining some work experience with them, which is very exciting! I might have a meeting with them tomorrow, which i am definitely looking forward to! If not, i will be meeting them later this week! They want to hear about my experiences in the UK too, so that is a little bit exciting - finally, some children's theatre to learn about and enjoy, rather than just the methods class i am doing! The final exciting thing is that i am hoping to go to Canda on 24th-29th November - YAY!!! That has yet to be finalised, but i will definitely be going at some point!

Anyway, i better go now, its probably time for me to sleep, or do some more work, or something crazy like that!

Ciao Ragazzi xxx