When I signed up for the London trip, I told Tom I’d blog about it.  Then, I didn’t bring my computer along, and I was too busy being in London to track one down.  And then I got back, and I decided to catch senioritis and have better things to do (like drink bee— I mean, do classwork!)  So, Tom… I’m sorry.  Let’s just pretend I needed some time to reflect on the experience….

Here goes:

In short, going on the J-term London trip was one of the best decisions I have made in my life so far, and quite possibly the best decision I made in college. I mean it.  For real.  Worth every dime.  You should absolutely do it.

But let’s start from the beginning.

I was excited when I signed up for it.  I had to fill out a bunch of forms, and go to the doctor’s, and wait for a confirmation letter, and get a passport, and all sorts of important stuff.

Then, I went to the first meeting.  I had my pen, and my piece of paper, and I sat down at the table ready to take notes and get excited about traveling.  But then I looked around the room, and I realized that not only was I the only Design/Tech major going, but I was also the only senior.  And then I was horrified.  I was going to be trapped in a foreign country with a bunch of Musical Theatre majors.  Even worse, I was going to be trapped in an airplane for 8 hours with a bunch of Musical Theatre majors.

Do you know what the thing about Musical Theatre majors is?  They like to sing.  A lot.  They don’t actually talk.  They just sing.  Loudly.  In public.

Do you know what the thing about Technical Theatre majors is?  We like to wear black and hide in the dark and not get noticed very much.

Understand my concern?

To be fair, some of them were Acting majors, and some were BAs, and one was a BA who was quite involved in the tech side of things, and I was actually decent friends with some of them already, but that’s no fun for my story…

So, we met at the airport, and we hopped on the plane, and they slept most of the way, and I slept most of the way, and we ate airplane food in peace.  So far, so good.

Then, we got to the rooms, jet lagged and exhausted.  I unpacked.  I took a nap.  I took a shower.  I went exploring.  It was great.  Because this was technically a class, there were a few meetings during the trip.  We had a first one to hand out paperwork, and tickets, and just to discuss how the trip would work.  Basically, except for the assigned shows and post show meetings, we were free to do whatever we wanted.  Awesome.

The amazing thing about London is that the government actually supports the arts.  They want people to experience theatre, they want students especially to experience theatre, and they make it very clear.  The commercial theatre is cheaper, and some of the commercial theatres and all of the government sponsored theatres offer student tickets for incredibly low prices.  A group of us saw Twelfth Night performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company for 10 pounds.  Shakespeare performed in the country that invented Shakespeare… amazing!

Between the assigned shows and extracurricular shows, I saw 10 performances in 8 days (7, really, since one was spent on a tour of the surrounding area).  It was the perfect way to cap off my college career.  It helped me remember why I do what I do.  I saw amazing theatre, I saw good theatre, I saw mediocre theatre, and I loved all of it.  My only recommendation is to go on the trip after taking at least one Theatre History class, so that you can take full advantage of being in a country that’s been writing plays since before the U.S. was even a twinkle in it’s mother’s eye.

I grew to be very close friends with the performers that I had my adventure with.  I learned a lot more about the art of acting than I had ever known before, and I hope that I helped to open some eyes to my end of things as well.  I came home happy and tired, and chock full of new ideas.  It was invigorating and exciting, and scary and new and eye-opening and educational and everything that a study abroad trip should be.

My only regret is that the sequel to Phantom hadn’t opened yet.

…just kidding.

Go to London.

Love,

Kate

I want to make up for not posting as often as I should have by posting about my life as a graduate, and some reflections on the last 4 years of my life.  First things first, let me give you the grand update on my life.

I graduated!  I officially have a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Theatrical Production and Design with a Concentration in Technical Production and a minor in Visual Arts and New Media.  That’s fun to spell out  It’s true, I got the piece of paper in the mail that says that I did it.  And there are pictures to prove it.

The class of 2010!

I cried, I laughed, it was hopefully not the best 4 years of my life, but it was definitely up there so far.

Meanwhile, while this whole graduating thing was happening, I was also preparing to go off to work.  I’m currently working as the Props Carpenter, and now the Assistant Props Master, at Shakespeare and Company, a regional theatre in Lenox, MA.  I was here twice before, the summers of my freshman and sophomore year, first as a Carpenter and then as a Props Artisan.  I’m putting my education to good use building furniture, helping with scenic build occasionally, and building a lot of very cool hand props (some of which you can see at their website…I’m not going to include them here since they aren’t directly related to Fredonia).

Fredonia prepared me incredibly well for this job.  Although most of my production experience is in scenic construction,  I got a great classroom education in the artistic side of it.  Fredonia really focuses on training in all aspects of theatre, not just in your concentration.  This is perfect for a job like mine.  Last week, I was meeting with a director to discuss how furniture would work in a slapstick  comedy show.  Earlier in the summer, I worked with one of the designers to figure out how to turn table legs bought at Home Dep0t into authentic Jacobean table legs…without a lathe.  Just yesterday, I met with the Master Electrician to figure out how to wire a steampunk style helmet with four different lights.  Fredonia gave me the tools to solve these problems.  After graduating, I have the artistry to know what a designer is looking for, the technical skill to actually create it, and the good humor to have fun while doing it (because the pay isn’t good enough to not have fun).  Theatre is a collaborative art, and to collaborate effectively, you need to know what the other person is talking about.

I finish this job at the end of September.  After that, I head off to the wilds of New York City to gain fame and fortune.  Well, at least to gain friends and enough money to have a roof over my head and food on the table.  I’ll be living with two other Fredonia grads in Astoria, Queens.   One of them graduated a year before me.  It’ll be his first year in the city as well.  The other is my boyfriend of 4 years, who has been working as a Lighting Designer and electrician there for two years now (electrics pays the bills…).  I’m lucky enough to have a semi-regular job waiting when I get there.  A friend of mine from Shakespeare and Company is the Production Manager at the Rattlestick Theatre, and another friend is the Technical Director.  Their ATD recently moved on to bigger and better things, leaving a Kate-sized hole.  Luckily, I am perfectly Kate-sized, and I’ll be working my first gig there in October.

One of the most important parts of my education at Fredonia was the resume and portfolio training I recieved.  Building a good resume begins your freshman year, and the professors start encouraging you to work a summer job at the same time.  That first resume and that first job are what helped me meet the people who are hiring me now.

So, despite all of my late nights working on projects, my early mornings in Theatre Management (8 am… ew!), my impossibly short freshman through junior years, and my incredibly long senior year (4 years is just enough time to get restless…), I’m thankful to my professors, my friends, my not quite friends, and my not at all friends, for how they shaped my education and my life.

Wish me luck in the real world!

http://tada.fredonia.edu

You will need to make the changes to any bookmarks you have for this site, as this web address will go dead as of today Tuesday August 25, 2009. We will leave the blog on the web for this semester, but if you’d like to stay current with everything we are doing, make sure you change your bookmarks NOW so as to update our site location. After December 31, this site will cease to exist.

Thanks for joining us here, and we hope to see you there!

-Tom Loughlin, Professor and Webmaster

I’ve been back on campus for a week now.  Ted Sharon had hired me to be the music director this year for the drama day camp, Playground.  Playground is a week long camp for kids in the area to experience the thrill of theatre.  This year, we put a production of Suessical Jr. together.  On Monday morning, the campers auditioned for Marc de la Concha (an alumni of the department) who directed the show.  After lunch, Marc and I along with other staff ran callbacks and cast the show.  We rushed into rehearsals that day.

Over the course of the five days, the campers learned 30 musical numbers, 6 dancers, and also took classes in musical theatre, dance, and writing.  I worked the Musical Theatre Workshop with Aundre Seals.  During class, we taught the campers a range of things from storytelling to objectives.  We also worked on teaching the vocals to the show and telling the story through the lyrics.

On Saturday, the kids performed for their parents.  It was such a rewarding thing to watch these kids flourish so strongly.  By the end, every kids took something away from the show, whether it was a new friend, a new love for theatre or a new skill.  And that’s why I love camps like Playground.  Some of these kids will never step on stage again.  But it’s now a part of them.  They will always have this appreciation for theatre.

Today, the semester started for the campus.  Personally, I have a new pet peeve about Fredoina.  They are “going green” left and right and it’s becoming an annoyance.  We no longer are being handed out syllabi for our classes.  They are on ANGEL and we can print them out if we want or if they requrie us to.  So now, for the first day of classes, we do not go over the syllabus in a class.  So if there are important we need to know, we don’t get to see it written out unless they email or post it for us.  Also, we don’t get our bills via mail any more.  We now have an “ebill” where the only way to get your bill is electronically.  I’m sorry, but this is utter bull.  Call me old fashioned, but I like to have the paper in my hand so I can visually see what I need to know when I need to know it.  And I don’t always have an internet connection.  Personally, I think the whole “going green” thing is a bit of a waste of time.  Yes, I understand that we should be nice to the environment.  But we don’t have to become monks and inconvenience ourselves at every corner.

Alright, I think that’s enough for now.  Time for meetings and auditions!  Wahoo!

KAB

This summer the Department of Theatre and Dance undertook the process of enlarging its Drafting Studio. By switching one office and the old drafting room we were able to add four more tables to make the lab a total of ten. It will share a new digital projector with the CAD lab as well.

Todd Proffitt
Associate Professor Lighting and Sound Design.

It has been a very wonderful and productive summer here at SUNY Fredonia’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Students have been running around doing all sorts of things, and are now deep into preparations for auditions for this year’s season of mainstage shows. Faculty are getting those last few days of summer vacation in before buckling down and preparing for classes. Final repairs and maintenance to equipment is taking place. Our Summer Theatre Playground for Kids will commence next week. And in less than two weeks the curtain will rise for another semester of theatrical mayhem.

Our big announcement for this post is that the department is now ready to accept applications for auditions for the 2010-11 academic year. Auditions will begin in December 2009 and continue into the spring 2010 semester. You can find the online form and other information about auditions by clicking this link. We’ll be sure to keep you informed as to upcoming dates as the year progresses.

As we begin this new academic year, we hope to add even more features to this blog. If there is something you’d like to see us try or write about, don’t be hesitant to give us feedback in the comment section of each post. We enjoy hearing from you as we look for better ways to let you know what we’re up to, and to make SUNY Fredonia the place you’d like to further your theatrical training. The new academic year always brings with it an air of excitement, and we hope you’re just as excited as we are!

Facebook is a wonderful creation!  Now, I’m always the first person to chastise my friends for posting certain things on the site.  But I’ve recently discovered how to use it to my benefit.

My mother recently received a message from a friend of hers whose children are enrolled in a summer theatre program called Footlights done through the local YMCA.  Apparently, they were in desperate need of a music director.  The message was passed along to me and I was put in contact with the director of the camp.  I scheduled a phone interview and waited to hear back.  Now, I am NOT a piano player.  I can play vocal parts and I can teach SATB parts.  But I am in no way an accompanist.  Knowing this, I was still hired.  It is the most incredible job I have ever had.

The program this year is doing Wizard of Oz.  When I walked into the inner city school the first day, I found out I was working with the munchkins… the young children who are there for something to do with their summer.  As I sat down, I thought to myself, “What was I thinking?!”  But as soon as I started to teach them, everything clicked.  For some reason, the kids who don’t want to listen to anyone, responded to me.

The next day, I was working with the older kids who are the Ozians/Jitterbugs.  With a different approach, they also warmed up to me and were really making some fast growth.  I’ve also had some time to do one on one coaching with the leads.  I’ve spent a great deal of time working with Dorothy on the key song in Oz, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  The girl has a pleasant voice but I’ve been able to take her on visual journeys to the places she wants to sing about and it’s incredible to see how far she’s come.

I love this job so much.  I wake up every day excited to go in and work with music and theatre and kids who want to do it.  And, to top it off, I get to conduct my first orchestra, I dream I’ve head for more than half my life.  I’m seeing the truth behind the saying “do what you love and never work a day in your life.”  It’s so true.  While I’m hired to do this, I love being able to go into a theatre and work, whether I’m acting, singing or in this case, teaching the craft.  And if this is how I feel just teaching kids, I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like to go out to New York or London or some other city and just start doing my craft for a living.  But I think I’m getting a good idea.  And I love it!

            This summer, I’m still going to do those kinds of things, but with the addition of setting some actual realistic and achievable goals. Here’s what I’ve got as of the last day of school:

1. Learn to cartwheel (figured this one out about a week ago, thanks Kelsey Rispin)
2. Learn to juggle (I mean I can sort of juggle but it’s sloppy and bad-looking)
3. Learn to ride my bike without holding on to the handlebars
4. Bust out my the unicycle my mom got in college from the basement, pump up the tire, and learn to ride it
5. Learn more monolugues so I have more to fall back on
6. Worry less
7. YouTube all of the shows happening next year so I have a really good idea of what’s going on, whether I’m on the stage or behind it
8. If I’m feeling ambitious (and haven’t killed myself yet with the first two cycling escapades), learn to juggle and ride the unicycle at the same time – because that’d just be cool

I think that’s all. If I think of more later I will add them and I’ll be sure to post more later how things are progressing (especially in regards to the unicycle because I imagine that’s going to result in some really amusing stories).

Have a good summer everybody!

Well, it’s June.  The summer season has started.  And with that, many of us are working various jobs to afford the things we want.  For me, the thing I want the most is the ability to go back to school without taking out immense loan monies.  So here’s my summer work schedule:

• Working at Alto Cucinas- a high class restaurant in Erie
• Assistant Administrative Director for the Erie Playhouse Youtheatre camp
• Low Brass instructor/Marching instructor for my old HS marching band
• Various jobs around my home town
• Music instructor for Ted Sharon’s Playground summer theatre program
• Assistant director for a children’s show in Erie.

Along with all my work, I have some things to be working on for next semester already:

• I was selected to be the director for PAC’s production of Company.  Time to start conceptualizing.
• I will be working with Eliza Meunch on publicity next semester.

• Find audition pieces for Kiss Me, Kate, Electra, Fuddy Meers (which I cannot be cast in due to Company), and Charlotte’s Web (same situation as Fuddy Meers).

Within this busy schedule, I’m also having a hard time readjusting to being home.  This past year, Fredonia has become my home and in the last semester especially I became very close with my roommate, my class, and my faculty.  It’s a truly wonderful feeling to be able to knock on the door of one of my professor’s with a question and end up having a full conversation with them.  I also miss being able to walk down the hallway to hang out with my friends.

This brings me to question where home is for me.  It’s said that “Home is where your heart is.”  Well, where is home if you aren’t entirely sure?  I have my mother and sister here in McKean who I love dearly.  But my sister will be moving to Iowa to start her new life as a doctor of osteopathic medicine in a few days.  At Fredonia, I have the friends who have become my family.  In McKean, I have a house where I’ve lived for 20 years.  In Fredonia, there is always a couch or bed in some dorm or house that I can stay.  I know that when I graduate, I will not be returning to Erie.  I’m not sure where I’ll go yet, but it won’t be here.  I also know I won’t be staying at Fredonia.

I’m, therefore, forced to say that “home” lies with those you care about.  And for me, that “home” is scattered across the eastern coast.  I suppose this is how the seniors will feel for quite some time.  But it’s certainly hard to swallow right now.

But until August, I will have to make the best of my time here.  So, I’ll just chin up and work, waiting for my time to get back.  I hope the rest of you are all having a lovely summer.  I’ll check back with some news about my camp in the month to come.

KAB