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Monday, March 17, 2008

Consider it Stricken

Well, this post is a little late in coming, but c'est la vie. We had strike on March 8th for Stop Kiss, and it went really well. We started around 9:20ish and wrapped up at 11:45. I think that's the earliest we've been done with strike since I've been here. It was a little like locusts swarming to a fallen antelope carcass, to use Jess Owen's phrasing. It was there, and then it was gone.

I cannot possibly express in words the relief I feel now that I'm completely uncommitted. I haven't felt this ... free ... since my freshman year. It's wonderful. I go home in the afternoons and actually get to work on things that I've been meaning to do for a long time. Papers, crafts, etc.

My next big adventure is coming up very soon, I will be leaving this Wednesday to fly to Houston, TX for USITT. Oh the fun we will have! I'm very much looking forward to that, and you can bet I'll keep you posted. Also coming up directly after my return from Houston, is a trip to Las Vegas. You can imagine my excitement. My parents and I are going down for Spring Break, whoo hoo! I've also got a meeting with a potential employer while I'm there, so that should be interesting. Let's hope I actually like the city enough to live there. If that's the case, you can be reassured that my blog will be much more exciting. :)

Also:

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! :)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Yakkity Yak.... Um, Talkback

So today we had talkback for Stop Kiss. I don't like talkbacks for a few reasons.
1) They interfere with the flow of my afternoon. I get to leave campus early, only to come back in 3 or 4 hours.
2) All that happens is the design team sits in front of the tech department and says "I did this because....do you have any questions?" Which no one but the faculty ever does.
3) I feel it's not really productive because usually everything that's said is really sugar-coated. What someone THINKS is "Oh my God I couldn't stand working with them, they did nothing on time or when I asked. I never want to work with them again!!!" What they SAY is "Well, overall I think it was a good experience, but I feel we could have communicated better." Which is tactful, yes, but not necessarily reflective of the experience.

No one is tactless enough to REALLY say what is on their mind about the experience they had, which sort of defeats the purpose of having the talkback sessions. We all have problems, and the people who need to know about the issues we had are very aware. So when someone asks, "Well, how did this experience affect you?" You really can't give an honest answer, because really, it's not everyone's business how well or how crappily the people you worked with functioned.

Speaking of which, there was an interesting incident that happened last week. The acting classes had been meeting in the Masquer, and apparently they were being particularly vigorous in their acting exercises on Wednesday. One of the girls tripped on the corner of one of the walls, broke some of the bricks, fell over the wall into the set, landed on the concrete floor and wound up with a concussion. Now, she is ok, I would just like to clarify, no harm done to her, so that's good. But I was not informed of this incident. Apparently Mike fixed the bricks for that night's performance, so that's good as well. However, I should have still been told. I found this out Friday only because I happened to be bringing lunch to some people in the shop and ran into Jason. This is the kind of thing I mean when I say instances that can't really be discussed at talkback. I haven't gotten a performance report for the whole week. I got one for opening night (the next morning) and one on Saturday. That does not help me if I need to go in and fix something. I realize that it's my responsibility, and I'm more than happy to do it, but I do have other things I need to do and would like to be informed so I can fix it as soon as I can when I have some spare time. *sigh*

I don't know. I mean it went well, it was very standard talkback material, so I guess we can be glad of that. Only one more hurdle on the way to the end, the last of which being strike on Saturday. Yay strike! I hope that goes well. I'm projecting that we should be out of there by 11 or 11:30 at the latest. Mmmm....and then....beer. Lots and lots of beer. :)