GLACURH!!!!
Jenny, Taylor, Allison, Me and Kenya in our pirate costumes!
So the GLACURH leadership conference was an experience and a half - i loved every single minute of it!!! It was such a cool idea, getting all the leaders from 56 universities around the Great Lakes and letting us have fun and share ideas together!! We journyed from Milwaukee, through Illinois and Indiana to get to Central Michigan University where it was held - it took a whole 7 hours, but it was worth it!! We did so many activities and things - we did a lot of cheers and shouting (where my English accent was so obvious it was funny!), we danced on stage as pirates in routine (a video that shall never be seen ever again... hilariously bad!!! But at least we tried :-D And it was kinda fun in the end, i sorta miss being on stage, it was nice to be on that side of it again rather than the technical side of things!), we went to lots of workshops that taught us leadership things and cool activities (i had an entire hour workshop on laughing, it was fabulous!!! and a really cool coloured bead leadership activity that makes you reflect on your leadership stuff.... all this stuff that i really wanna bring back to the UK with me!! ) We collected clothes pegs that every team decorated to swap before they came to the conference. We talked to people a lot! We entered the banner competition and the display competition, won neither but had lots of fun!!! We had a banquet wearing posh clothes - the waitresses hated us and it was hilarious - and then there was a disco and everyone danced for hours... like in a club. But with no alcohol. It was really wierd, but kinda coool! There were some REALLY cool chants that i learnt - like, for applause, you would clap once, and then use the deaf sign for applause. Or we would click - it was really rather cool! And when someone did something we liked we would chant 'We are proud of you, say we are proud of you' and things like that - i am writing them so i remember to take them back to the UK!!!! Things like they would shout 'HEY GLACURH' and you would shout back 'HEY WHAT'... it would be really useful to use things like this in the future....childrens theatre, woooo!! They had some really cool chants about Wisconsin milk and such like - it was just an awesome atmosphere!!! It gave me some really cool ideas that i am going to investigate whether they are possible... YAY!!!! Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend, and despite initial doubts i am so happy that i went!!
STAGE MANAGING THE READING
This was also a very good experience!! It was interesting working on my own, after working with so many people on my past two shows. It was far easier than i thought to be working with Equity actors and timing breaks and stuff - it was really refreshing to be working with people who were over the age of 21!!!! Also, the play was AWESOME. Actually Amazing! Seeing the rewriting process was super interesting as well, from a playwriting perspective. My english accent was saught after, which was amusing - one of the actors recorded me reading some lines so to help his actors do English accents in a Caryl Churchill piece. He thought i read well, which was flattering, as i barely get time to act anymore, sadtimes. All in all it was a fabulous experience!!! Admittedly, i am so addicted to Stage Management at the moment! I think thats where i am heading too... i think thats where i am going to find work, and i enjoy it, and it doesn't feel right when i'm not doing a show... At the moment, i enjoy the stage managers life! Stage managing children's theatre may be where i'm heading - but i'll do my 4th Year in Applied Performance (hopefully!) first, and then see where it leads!!!
CANADA!!!!
Alison and Me outside the Peace Tower (Houses of Parliament, Ottawa)
So, my 'Thanksgiving' trip to Ottawa was my next exciting adventure, starting on the 24th November and ending on the 29th November! I set off from my house, (Meghan kindly gave me a lift to the airport - yay!!!) and flew to Detroit as part of my journey to Canada. And when i arrived there, it was quite late at night, and i found that my plane from Detroit to Ottawa had been cancelled due to 'bad weather' (whatEVER!). So i was stranded for the night - and they wouldn't even pay for a hotel for me! So, for $70 i had a very comfortable night in a bed big enough for 4 me's - it was quite an adventure!! My flight the next day was at 2pm, and it went without event, until i arrived in the airport. My phone died, and wouldn't work in Canada, so i couldn't contact Alison! I waited for a bit. Then i tried various methods. Eventually, after a few hours, we managed to contact each other, she managed to get her car out, and everything was okay!! Firstly, we went to sort out her horses, which was cool (a bit like being back in England with Lucy!) then we just chatted for a bit then slept :-) Alison was unfortunately ill, so the next day i slept in for a long time (bliss!) then i went on a big adventure!!! Well, it wasn't that big, but it involved two busses and not knowing where i was going! I went to the Canadian Museum of Nature, and it was kinda cool - the dinasaur bit was the bestest! We had a quiet evening of board games, movies and poutine (mmmmmm chips, gravy and cheese - delicious!) pizza and sleeeeeeeep! The next day, Alison was feeling a little better, so we did all kinds of exciting things, like going to see the awesome Art Gallery in town, and going to see the Nutcracker ballet! It wasn't the traditional Nutcracker, but it was a brilliant version of it! It was the first ballet i had ever seen, and i REALLY want to see more, coz it was really good! The next day was even busier!!! We went to the dog park with Sabin, Alisons Westie - this is a 'scary' park that hundreds of dogs go to to be walked - they all make friends and run, its kinda cute - but a place i would have been scared of not long ago!!! We then went to the Parliament buildings, which were awesome!!! We went to the market afterwards and looked at the amazing hat stalls, and bought beavertails, which are like these delicious pastries - mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! We went and bought candy, then went to the Museum of Civilisation on the Quebec side of Ontario (they speak more French over that side!) - there were awesome displays about aborigionals (lots of totem poles and canoes!) and a town back in time, lifesize, which seemed like it was outside, which was pretty cool! We then were tired out, so we went home and Alison cooked us an AMAZING meal (it was wierd to taste real food and see it being cooked!) mmmmmmm. We hired out some movies: My Sisters Keeper, which is actually the saddest movie in the world EVER. And Up, which was pretty good, not amazing! I loved My sisters keeper, but i think its almost too sad to watch again. SUCH a good movie! The next day (my last day, sad times) we went to see The falls, which was a beautiful waterfall thing, and then to the dog park again, then i had to travel home :-( Hopefully i'll be back to Ottawa again, or at least Canada this year! I want to visit Toronto!
MY 21st BIRTHDAY!
This was yesterday, and it really did pass without event! I got some lovely gifts -some photo albums/scrap books from Jess, some candy from other people, and some very funny gifts from Bexi and Ash of including an Elf hat, a cool book and my own mini geek, teehee!!! We went out for a meal (Jenny, Jess, Jana, Jack and myself - all the J's!!!!) at Palermo Villa, which was a very nice Italian restaurant, but had HUGE portions!! Other than that, i was in class most of my birthday, yuck!!! But it saved me from getting bored, i spose! My Stage Management teacher gave me a cupcake with a candle in it, which was my only birthday cake, which was very cute, and i really appreciated :-D I am going to have a birthday celebration with my family on the 24th Dec when i get back to England - i am having a hair cut, and we are going to Jamie Olivers 15 for Lunch -mmmmmmm!!! Exciting!!
OTHER STUFF
My classes are still going well - my storytelling group is still frustrating, but thats the worst problem i have!! My play writing is going quite well, i am having to work quite hard on it, and sometimes it is hard to concentrate, but hopefully, most of it will be finished by the time i submit it in two weeks time, eeeeeek!!! Next semester i might have a (perhaps paid) position as one of my lecturers Research Assistants too, which will be fabulous!!! In my Theatre in Elementary Education class, we had to make a puppet show: the product of which can be seen on youtube, wooo! Have a gander:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLbkMLPDP0c
hahaha i can't believe i do this for a degree!!!
Anyway, i better go now, i have like 10 tonnes of homework, eeeek! and an early class tomorrow!
Ciao ragazzi xxx
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