Doing new things

The week ended with me doing some new things.  Two other interns have joined in, one from Kenston High School, and another from Walsh Jesuit High School.  With the entry of these two, the interns are able to move around a little bit more, and do more than office work.  I continued answering phones and such this past week, but also was able to go out to other places.  On Thursday I went with my sponsor to the grand re-opening of the Goodyear Tire headquarters in Akron.  Goodyear was considering moving their headquarters away from their historic home, but a host of local and state elected officials, business people, and community leaders worked with them and kept them in Northeast Ohio.  While we were there, we presented to a representative from Goodyear a congressional proclamation and shook some hands.  I also had the pleasure of meeting Summit County executive Russ Pry.  The next day I was again out of the office and was able to meet and shake hands with congressman Joyce.  I met a lot of local business and community leaders these two days.  Everybody that I have met  has been very nice and professional.

Rough week...

This past week was pretty rough. Considering the fact that it was tech week for the company's production of "Dumbo", I was unable to take dance classes with the company and was pretty much made to do office work for six hours. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed and frustrated with this. Although my initial attitude was somewhat bitter and a "I didn't sign up for this!" mentality, I figured that I was stuck doing with what they told me so I might as well learn what I could from it. Throughout the week, I did learn that, just like my dance studio, it takes a whole lot of behind-the-scenes to make a production as successful as possible. With each program I folded, enveloped, and taped, I appreciated more and more the effort of every person who ever comes together to make a production occur. On Thursday, I saw the production of Dumbo come alive for the first time in front of hundreds of kids, students, and adults. After watching the company rehearse the numbers over and over again for the past couple weeks, it was nice to see it all come together with costumes, makeup, props, etc. This week consisted of a little more work and a little less play, but it taught me that in order for something as big as this production come together, people have to sacrifice their time and effort, which is what I did. I'm hoping next week will consist more of what I came here to do - dancing!

Office work

Today had a much different vibe than the day before it, in which I visited Eastlake High School to see GLT's Student Residency Program in action. Today I faxed out forms, mailed letters, worked on spreadsheets, organized boxes,and loaded those boxes into cars. Although all of that work was tedious, I am glad that I got to see a much more behind-the-scenes look of the Student Residency Program than yesterday. I learned how schools signed up, picked which play they wanted, and how they organized the time. Each Residency lasts for five days, with five classes that the Residency teaches per day (if the school wants six classes instead of just five, it is extra). I also worked a bit on organizing the auction paddles, wine, staff uniforms, subscription packets, and raffle tickets for this weekend's "Starry, Starry Night" Gala that Great Lakes Theater is hosting (which I believe Courtney talked about in her blog post as well). It sounds like a really fun event, but unfortunately I won't be able to attend!

Competition!

This weekend is the last regional dance competition for seniors at JCD. Yesterday the senior project girls (there are four of us now!) helped organize the props for this competition so we could distribute them to others to bring to Lorain County Community College, the venue for the competition. We also revised the picture schedule for Monday and Tuesday while Jordan burned all of the music for this weekend (while each competition has different rules, most, including this one, require that each song be burned on a separate CD - that's around 90 CDs to burn for each competition).

This competition is Kids Artistic Review (KAR) Regionals, and because we are going to KAR Nationals in Las Vegas, it's an important competition. Tonight are intermediate level solos (there are four levels at KAR: primary, secondary, intermediate, and elite. Every participant is assigned a level by the competition's computer system based on how many hours a week they dance and how many years they have been competing), and Maddie and I are competing in this division. Tomorrow we also have all of our group numbers which include small groups, large groups, lines, superlines, and productions (basically just based on the size of the group performing and whether or not the dance has a specific story line).

We'll update you on how it goes!

Sigal and Maddie

Running Around with Deb

I have been extremely busy since starting my project with Deb Smythe Hermann at Ghostlight Productions, LLC. I immediately dove into meetings with Hathaway Brown's Alum Head to talk about their upcoming event next weekend. We went over what we exactly needed and how it would be presented in their atrium, which is beautiful! That meeting was short and very successful, and we were able to cut down significantly on our budget. We then ran off to the Great Lakes Theater Offices in downtown and dove into a meeting about their upcoming event this Saturday at their Scene and Prop shop. This meeting we basically went over logistics and who was going to do what, when, and where. We were also able to get a definitive diagram of where people would be sitting, bar and buffet placement, and where all bathrooms and break rooms would be. I was very impressed with how efficient the committee was and that everyone was on the same page. It was a really cool experience to see everything finally come together for them and see the excitement going into the event. I will be attending the event this weekend, so pictures to come! We then went to the Headquarters, which is right now an abandoned warehouse on Hamilton that they're renovating. Super cool! It's going to be a super edgy and urban office when they're done. We ended out day by actually going to the Scene and Prop shop and seeing it pre-event. It was a real mess but I could definitely see Deb's vision for this event. I got to see a lot of Cleveland that I have never seen before. It has definitely been an eye opening look into the city I leave near by. I never quite realized how "up and coming" the scene is in Cleveland. I am very excited for the rest of my project and to see how all these events come to fruition.

Much Ado About Nothing: Student Residency Program

Today, I headed out to Eastlake North High School to shadow Great Lakes Theater's Student Residency Program, which I talked about in my last post. Basically, the purpose of the program is to supplement and augment any school's English curriculum by teaching them classic plays, including Shakespeare, The Glass Menagerie, The Crucible, etc. The program is especially helpful for schools that may not have English classes that aren't particularly strong. This is because the Student Residency Program focuses on bringing the plays alive for the students through rehearsals of key scenes and student-run performances. Because of this, students are immediately more engaged and interested in what they are learning. Usually the program stays at the school for about a week teaching a classic play. At North High School, the students were learning about Much Ado About Nothing with the program, and the focus of today was stage combat. The students learned the basic technique behind stage slaps, fake pulling hair, stage throw, and fake elbowing someone in the stomach. I had a lot of fun, and I got a chance to participate in some of the activities. It was really fun, and I can see how the Student Residency Program is a great educational outreach program not only to introduce students to plays, but also to acting techniques and the theater. All in all, it was a 10/10 day!

First Day of My Amateur Film Career

Hi all! Yesterday was the first day of my three-week project. But, before I get into my day I’ll first give a brief description of my project as you may not be able to tell exactly what I’m doing through my blog posts. Over the next three weeks I plan to meet with different blue-collar workers (plumber, seamstress, electrician, mechanic, etc.) and learn how to do different tasks (sew, change tire, unclog sink, etc.) I will also interview these professionals in an attempt to learn something about their lives.

My first day was really nice not only because I wasn’t at school but because my sponsors are great! My main sponsor, Sara Sullivan, is a Hawken Alumni who started her own film production company with her husband and two associates. I spent the day in their home/office learning how to conduct interviews and about different filming techniques. They also let me watch them work while they edited film. All four were extremely welcoming and eager to help. Although they were supportive I am a little nervous to interview. Not only am I an amateur filmmaker with amateur equipment, I will also be all on my own and am solely responsible for the quality of my production. Video/audio quality and editing aside, I am most nervous to conduct the interviews because I am responsible for making the person I am interviewing feel comfortable and natural in front of the camera. These next few days I will prefect my script and practice using the camera; hopefully my nerves will subdue with much preparation.  

PS: Your projects all sound great, hope you’re all having fun!