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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Stop Kiss

*sniff* Ah, the smell of a brand new blog. I thought that maybe this one could be a little more general than my tour blog, since it was created strictly for touring. I would like to open this blog with a post about Stop Kiss. Stop Kiss is the current - and last - show I will be working on for a while, and I'm very excited by this.

We've had a good time for the most part. Our design team is entirely student-based, which is a rarity in this department, and we all seem to get along together really well. I'm TD with Brandon as my scene designer, and that fact could not have made me happier. We're both very forgiving toward each other and try our hardest not to make the other's lives any harder than it needs to be. The design for this show is in the round, which also hasn't been done for at least four years here. It's very unique, I really like it. Perhaps on a more ambitious day I'll post some pictures and a ground plan.

That said, we're also the smallest show this semester, with a $200 budget and a two-week build period. We're also the first show to go up. Because of this, labor is a little sketchy in the shop, since we've just got in a batch of new students and they haven't learned everything they really need yet to be completely functional.

The start of the build was really amazing. We got 75% of the set in within three days. Since that day, however, things have been a mite slower. It's been getting down to detail work, which isn't terribly complicated, but takes some time. I always hope things will go so much faster than they really do. My load-in date was yesterday (Friday the 15th) but there is still a couple things that need to happen. We have Monday off from school for the holiday, but I don't really want to be at school that day - nor does anyone else for that matter. So I've enlisted help for tomorrow afternoon to go finish up what we need to do. I think we should be done in a couple hours, and working when there's no students around and you can just relax and take your time without the stress of trying to finish before rehearsal is really lovely. Brandon is also going in in the evening to finish up painting, so if all goes well the set should be entirely finished by tomorrow night. How exciting would that be? Whoo!

I have very mixed emotions about the process for this show, but overall it's been a really wonderful experience. I am glad, however, that after next week I'll have my afternoons back to myself again, and that after March 8th I'll be completely free of any commitment I have to the department. I've enjoyed most of my time here, but I am very ready to be somewhere else doing something else. To not be in school will be a very welcome vacation.

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