Posted in Uncategorized on January 30th, 2020 by Eric Appleton
It’s the end of the second week of classes, and construction of “The Addams Family Musical” is forging ahead.
Megan has been leading the students in the shop on getting the platforming up. Here it is, in place. Today’s projects included cutting and labeling the facing pieces:
Ruth, our TD, has given the students in the Technical Direction class various items of the production to engineer and build. Here’s Alden pulling caster blocks for the portrait unit:
Posted in Uncategorized on January 13th, 2020 by Eric Appleton
This past week, we accompanied a group of our students to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 3’s annual conference. We had a number of design/tech/stage management (DTM) entries, as well as Irene Ryan acting nominees. The conference was held in Madison, WI this year.
Here are the students, in the hotel lobby, waiting for conference check-in time to arrive. What an eager bunch!
We had a little trouble with registration for Sam P, since the the festival website had a few too many layers. It got sorted out though, thanks to the helpful festival staff and volunteers:
Here’s Megan’s boards for the scenic design of “Twelfth Night.” One of her stated goals was to do as much of the design work via digital means; this effort was noted by the responders. . . . more on that in a below.
And other things to do! Besides the seminars, workshops, design presentations, and performance auditions, there’s participation in the new play readings! We had a number of students audition for and be cast in the readings. Nate directed one of the ten-minute plays. Here’s Kory, in the cast of one of the one-act plays, waiting to start:
Kory went on to the semi-finals of the Irene Ryan competition, and Alexa, Abrya, and Sam P went onto the semi-finals of the DTM competitions! Here are Abrya, Alexa, and Sam P waiting for their second round of respondents:
Another activity at the festival is Design Storm. Students sign up, are put on a team with students from other schools, and given about 24 hours to come up with a design/dramaturgy/directing presentation on an assignment play. Here is Sam H’s team setting up their presentation for “The Legend of Georgia McBride:”
While none of the semi-finalists moved forward to the finals, we did have some pleasant surprises at the closing ceremony. Sam H’s team won the Design Storm competition:
Megan won the Vectorworks Award for her efforts in using digital media in the creation of her “Twelfth Night” scenic design. She recieved a full, unwatermarked copy of Vectorworks as her prize!
In all, an excellent experience. Our students went in with good solid work, received some recognition, but just as (if not more so) importantly, were active participants who sought out learning and career opportunities. I am so proud of them all!