How to Blog a Back Pat

It's a tricky thing, to have a public blog and still feel like you can fully express yourself - especially when saying exactly what you feel might reveal you to be petty and selfish and/or has the potential to really tick somebody else off.

Sigh.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to try.

*clears throat*

It is possible (and possibly probable) that a particular student did exceptionally well in an annual drama competition held at my southern alma mater due to the participation of myself and a retired mentor/educator, in addition to the student's own preparation. It is possible that the probability is more likely than the possibility, due to current circumstances at the current student's current alma mater. Also, there is some likelihood that an associated team's unexpected (though very welcome) level of success was encouraged more by current student leadership, reflecting backward onto previous training situations, than by traditionally accepted forms of direction and normally upheld expectations.

Or, CONGRATULATIONS MADELINE AND BHS ENSEMBLE!!!






Confucius say: When in doubt, vague it up.
I say: When in doubt, make it up and blame Confucius.

Graduation Tunes

With all the things I could be writing about and catching up on, the one thing that keeps coming back and making me giggle is the memory of the principal's speech from Graduation. (Side note: She and I have the same first name - spelled the same way, even - and both have shoulder-length red hair - well, DID: I just got mine cut - which was crazy to work around, because people were always saying my name and asking questions I had no clue about, until I realized the principal was standing right behind me, etc...) At the ceremony she outlined her speech with music ("quoted, not sung"). She used songs from John Mayer (pronounced my-er), Bob Dylan, U2, and a couple of others, finishing with a "popular song that talks about the importance of appreciating the journey, and remembering that it's all about 'the Climb'."


People. At a high school graduation ceremony, the principal quoted MILEY CYRUS. My brain, she is still a-blowin'.

Yearbook: The Recap

One week ago, I closed the first full-length show, first musical I've ever directed. Technically, I didn't do it all myself - Phaidra started off the whole thing, staged entire numbers, and got things going with great concepts and ideas. She's all about telling people it's my show, but she really does deserve more credit than she's taking (which is none). She really is fantastic to work with - she brings the ideas, and I polish them up, whether it's Shakespeare, musicals, or the awesome skit we worked up for the End-of-the-Year Drama Club Banquet (it's going to be EPIC). Her work doesn't necessarily NEED my polish, but she always makes room for it and is always appreciative when I offer it. She's an amazing person, truly.

Anyway, we all made it through the show - though after Friday's performance with the cast at Applebee's, Chance did tell me that, in reality, this show was a "sin against God". Snerk. I stood up and very seriously announced that with this rather severe condemnation in mind, we would instead be staging "Charlie Brown" the following evening - and as an experimental piece, each part would be triple cast, and all three actors for the respective roles would all be on stage at the same time. I think it could work.

All joking aside, the show really did turn out pretty well - the music was never anything to write home about, but some of my actors injected real emotion and connection into their parts, to the point of choking up the audience a couple of times. Also, my set really was incredible. I'll get production shots soon, but in the meantime:

I know it's a little dark, but doesn't it look like a shot out of "High School Musical"? All the kids coming together to pull off a miracle and make the show happen, the cheesy lights hanging from the first electric (complete with mirror ball), the dramatic lighting on the rest of the stage, the cameraderie... Ah, high school.

It was a very clean set, with long lines and interesting angles, and had a very cool balance even though it was technically asymetrical. The ramp coming down from off-center was painted by one of my students with the "school mascot" and logo, and it looked terrific. It was honestly tough for all of us when we had to tear it down - up until the last minute my tech crew was still asking if we could leave it up, and save it for next year. Those boys will destroy anything they can get their hands on at the drop of a hat, so that's really saying something.

Some backstage shots:

(This one gets the "bad director" award for taking flash photography backstage in the wings. Oops. Also, "Sue me - I'm just the substitute!")

Quite frankly, for a substitute, I think I'm doing a damn fine job. There, I said it.

And one last time:

Ah, Yearbook - I don't think I'll miss you, but I'll certainly never forget you!

The GAME

In which we shall see: Drama-related non-drama FUN.

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I know I haven't been around for a while - I've been so busy trying to figure out how to teach high school AND have some kind of life outside the "job" AND clean and pack my house (hint: only the first of those three things is something I've made any headway with) that I haven't thought really at all about blogging. If you live for my blog posts, sorry... no, really, I'm sorry - that's just pathetic. (Ironic future blog post: List of Current and Exciting Hobbies That Do Not Involve Keyboards.) But I still love you.

Last weekend I spent all day Saturday (unpaid) at the State Drama Competition; quite frankly, it was oodles of fun. No, I'm not being sarcastic. (Seriously.) I was hoping to sit in on a few of my students' competition rounds to watch their final performances, but instead I was corralled in the library with the other teachers for the day tabulating all the scores as they came in from the judges. Instead of being cranky and surreptitiously ticking off the half-hours in mechanical pencil on the wall, I found myself at a table with the teachers from West Jordan, Jordan, and Skyline High Schools. It was FANTASTIC. First off, to combat his ADD, WJ started a "State Competition Bingo Sheet" complete with odd gestures, swear words, and bodily functions relating to another teacher's newborn baby. Listening to him trying to get random people to say some of the things on his sheet was hilarious. Watching the other people at the table try to keep straight faces as he did so was just about as good. (Next year, J plans to bring official Bingo cards for the entire room.) It took me back to "Fred Bingo" from college (also referenced by a teacher that I went to school with) and that's just good times for everybody.

Second, S taught us an absolutely BRILLIANT game - once we learned how to play, it was nearly impossible to focus on anything else. Evidently, back in college S and one of his roommates realized that every person resembles one of four animals. The full extent of the game is looking around, identifying an animal, and sharing your results with another player. That's it. We pegged our table (we had one of each), all the remaining occupants of the room (under our breaths), and then on the lunch break wandered the halls of the school and zeroed in on students. You don't even know. I got a better workout from laughing that day than I had doing anything else in months. YOU HAVE GOT TO TRY THIS.

The animals:

RAT: It's all in the teeth. Pointy chin, slightly (or not-so-slightly) bulbous eyes. Females are rarer than males in this group, making for much more exciting finds. WJ.

MONKEY: Round face-shape. This has to do more with cheeks, forehead, and ears - it's hard to describe, but you know it when you see it. Me.

PIG: Nose, of course. Otherwise monkey-ish faces will slide over the line if the schnooz has a tip-tilt. Big eyes, small eyes, ears, cheeks - it all comes down to the nose. J.

BIRD: In a way, this one is about the "direction" of the face. The long, straight nose, the delicate bones, the lines that move the eye in a smooth swoop down and out, with the chin and mouth pulling into a ski-jump. They're also just "bird-like". One woman who was sure she'd be pegged as a pig turned out to be a bird because of the actual shape of her facial features. S.

Once you start noticing, and passing on your observations to someone else, it's really hard to stop. My students have no idea why I was stepping into their conversation groups, "listening" intently (I haven't a clue what any of them said), and then ducking out just as I was about to burst into laughter. We four teachers would wander around the commons area where our kids were gathered, make a few mental notes, and then re-group to giggle and nosh on fruit salsa and cinnamon tortilla chips WJ had liberated from one of his crew. It was a very good day.

Honestly, a day like that (even unpaid) would nearly be enough to make me reconsider becoming a real live high school teacher. (And apparently the school's administration is interested in keeping me on as a real teacher, too - but that's another story.)

Family Home Evening, Date Night, Shopping at the Mall - you haven't lived until you've tried The GAME.

(Oh, and apparently an excellent way to combat boredom in church is to set up your own "Testimony Meeting Bingo". Why didn't I think of that?!?)

Watch for falling rats, monkeys, pigs, birds, AND turtles -

Cyd

It's Official...

... for the very first time, I've been asked to the Prom.

(Edits made to protect the innocent, and because I was having a good time with photo editor.)

I figure in seven months he'll have forgotten all about this, but in the meantime he went to a lot of effort and did what I asked (see previous post) - complete with creative illustrations. Who says kids aren't learning anything in high school?