I don’t really think that it would be great for me to publicly talk about what I have been working on quite yet as all of the details are totally up in the air and I don’t want to send the wrong impressions to some people.  I do feel however like I need to say something, mostly on account of there is great potential for exciting opportunities for me.  It was really a chance happening that led to my flurry of impulsive work, but with a little luck I think that I may have set in motion a series of events that could be very good.

Isn’t it interesting though, how things kind of sneak up on you?  I was helping out a friend when I stumbled across the impetus for all this.  Totally unplanned and unpredicted.  I never really thought that I would be pursuing such a course of action at this point in time, though I have always known it was something I would do eventually.  It kinda made me a little stressed out just thinking about things and getting excited, but it could all be for naught so I don’t want to go nuts.

I have never been one for making long term plans.  I have always kind of lived by what comes my way.  Maybe it is the nature of what I do?  I have never liked feeling locked into anything way out in advance, because I always worry about what would happen if things change in the interim.

There is, however, something exciting that I can talk about.  I got the go-ahead from my boss to be able to take time off to go to the Theatre Department Alumni Reunion at my alma mater, Ithaca College.  Now I just have to plan out the logistics and I should be good to go.  The aspect of this trip that weighs heavy on my mind is finding a place to stay while there.  They blocked some hotel rooms, but they are kind of expensive.  I can fly out on miles, but I am not sure that I could afford to stay unless I can find better priced accommodations.  Thus, I don’t know if anyone from Ithaca reads my blog, but if you do and are going or live there and want to split a room or loan me a bed or your sofa, that would be cool!

So, pile all that on with opening the first show of the season this week at the theatre, it has been quite a long week and I am quite tired.  There is still a lot left to do, though I should be able to take most of tomorrow off after I go and shoot photos of the U of U Theatre Department’s production of Alcestis, which is part of the annual Greek Theatre Festival.  Since it is always done in traditional Greek style, it is outdoors at nine in the morning.  So tomorrow could be a long day.

Many people look forward to the time that they take off from work.  Some may not really care one way or the other.  For me however, it is fun to be back in the swing of things at work.  Now I suppose most people who visit here know that I work in theatre, but now anyone who just showed up knows as well.  It is certainly an interesting and crazy world to work in.  now as we push on into fall and winter (fall doesn’t last too long in Utah) we get less daylight, so pretty soon, I won’t really see much of it.  Well, I say that, but in reality, it probably isn’t true once we get into ski season.  It is always fun to get up when it is still fairly dark out and not go home again until it is dark.  We did get new curtains for the bedroom windows that let a lot more light in so that it is less like a cave in the mornings and it will be easier to wake up.

So, tonight is the first tech rehearsal for the first show of the season, and it really is fun to be back in the groove.  We have been off to a flying start with Hamlet since I got back to town, but everything has been going very smoothly and we have been very efficient.  This is a great thing considering that I have a bunch of new people working for me and this is the first show.  We also have one of my favorite lighting designers lighting this show, PM.  He calls himself “the other Jew in Salt Lake City” (it is our little joke, me being Jewish and all), and while he isn’t always the easiest to keep up with, he is always fun to have in town.

Last season, I had a hard time keeping up with PM on his show, which should have been one of the easiest shows of the season.  I think it had a lot lot to do with the fact that I had been sick for most of the tech process.  It happens.  This time it seems like we really have kicked things off on the right foot, and that is good because PM will be back for White Christmas in a couple months.

The crazy think now is that we will probably be running at what feels like full tilt until we get to the end of the season.  Like camp, the days will feel long, but the weeks will go by really fast.  The season will be over in the blink of an eye.  I can’t actually believe that I have been out here for five years!  It has gone by really fast (kinda scary), but it has been really great as well.  I am doing what I love in a place that I am quite happy to be, so life is good!

Today I was given another award type thing from the wonderful Debbie over at Debbie: The College Years.  Debbie is another theatre person, in fact she is currently studying theatre.  We theatre people seem to have a knack for finding eachother in the world, it is a very bizarre and cool thing.  This award is the “You are Going Places Baby” award which I suppose is kind of more like a meme than an award, but hey, we don’t have to play down calling it an award!  Who doesn’t like to be loved a little, right?  The idea behind this one is to share where you see yourself in ten years and then pass the award on to ten people.  I think that I can handle that.

I actually get asked often what I want to be when I grow up.  I started to find that a little odd after I graduated from college and got a job.  I mean, I am doing what I love to do, what I went to school for, and I am enjoying doing it.  I am working at a great theatre and living in a fun place, and I am happy.  The fact that I have a job, support myself, and live on the other side of the country from my parents makes me feel pretty grown up.  However, I am pretty sure that I can’t really stay where I am forever.

Ten years from now I will be 36 years old and certainly see myself still working in some aspect of the theatre/entertainment industry.  I have always thought that at some point in my life I would end up back in the academic world, teaching theatre, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I was doing that within ten years.  In this industry you often have to move out in order to move up.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and where I work now, but I think that in order to continue to grow as a professional I will have to move on eventually.

People often ask if I see myself ending up on Broadway.  To be honest, I am not sure if that is the kind of theatre that I really want to be doing.  Sure, there is lots of money to be had working on the big commercial shows, but it is a very different beast than the theatre that we produce on the regional level.  I also just don’t really see myself living in New York City and being happy.  I know that there are plenty of people who love being in NYC, but of all the times that I have been there, I could never see myself living there.  A vacation there for a few days, not so bad.  Living there, I just don’t think so.

Hopefully within ten years I will have settled in to whatever job I have to the point where I can be happily married to my wonderful girlfriend.  I am not sure if children will be on the table at that point, I suppose it would depend on what we were both doing, but it it possible.  I certainly would like to have a family at some point down the road.  When you live in Utah, you are the odd-ball-out when you are my age, not married, and don’t have at least two kids, but hey, I was always the odd-ball!

In general, I am not really a person who does a lot of planning of things far in advance.  I like to live life as it comes at me.  I don’t spend a lot of time worrying or even really thinking about the future.  I feel like if you are too concerned with where you see yourself that you don’t spend enough time where you are.  Life is relatively short and if you don’t enjoy the now and only work towards your “ideal future,” will you really feel fulfilled when you get there (if you get there)?  I am very much a person who lives by the saying: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there!”

I suppose my answer to where I see myself a decade from now is a little ambiguous, but that is how it is in my mind.  The future is what it will be!  So, the lucky people who I would like to pass this little award on to are:

• e_mily from The Infamous Sun she doesn’t call herself a blogger, but if I am lucky maybe she will do this one
• Island Gal from NYC Island Gal
• Risha from You can Read me Anything
• Penny from There’s Beauty in the Breakdown
• Mel from Mel Learns her Lessons
• Ruth from Ramblings of Ruth
• Kris from Because or Why Not
• Kisekae from Diary of a Doll
• Bobby from Inside the Mind of Booya
• Ms. Harmony from Miss You Love

Rick & Rocco’s Final Exam

This year is the last year that classes will be held in the building that I went to high school in.  Frankly it is about time.  They have been working on the new building and it will open for use next year.  The class of 2010 will be the last class to graduate from the Newton North High School that I knew.  Ironically, my mother’s class was the first to graduate for this building.

Over the past week there have been lots of celebrations, commemorations, and events related to the move.  Last week the theatre department had a big reunion performance called Kiss the Stage, which I was a day late to be able to go to.  However, last night, in the very last performance on the Lasker Stage was the final Rick ‘N Rocco Show.  Rocco is a 50′s rock and roll show that started when my mother was in school and continued until I was in school and then stopped, and for one last time they got the band back together to do one final performance.

When I had heard that they were doing the show and I would be around I knew that I wanted to go.  Of course yesterday morning some of the guys at NNHS gave me a shout to ask if I wanted to help.  So I ended up being involved with the show which was a lot of fun.  I got to run the lights for the last show at the theatre.  Sure, some people may say that it is only high school, but it is kinda sentimental.  I mean, I haven’t really been back there for a long time.  There were a bunch of alumni involved in the show and there were even more who came just to see it.  I can’t think of a better send off for the building.

The other really sentimental thing about the night was that we also celebrated the retirement of T (yes, we all called him T or Mr. T when we were in school and he also plays Rick in the show).  T was the choir director at NNHS and he also was the musical director for the musicals that the theatre department produced.  As I spent four years singing in the choirs and working on the shows it was really great to be invited to his retirement party.

T was an amazing teacher and a great friend.  I spent most of my weeks at school looking forward to the times that I would get to spend in his classroom.  I loved to sing then and I still do now.  I sang first in the freshman ensemble, then in the Concert Chior and in the Family Singers both my junior and senior years.  Yes, that meant that I was in two choirs for two years.  We had the opportunity to sing some great pieces and do fun concerts.  I even was a soloist in The Messiah which was a great experience.

Here is one of the piece that we sang in Family Singers.  Right now it is one of the only ones that I have on my computer.  I have more on some of my other drives, but they are not with me right now.  This piece however is a good one.  It is called “To You I Call.”

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Singing in the choirs in high school under the direction of T was probably one of the most important things in my musical career.  Learning how to sing in both large groups, small groups, solos and quartets was invaluable.  Learning to sing in mixed groups not standing with your section or singing with an orchestra was great.  We learned how to be independent, to work in groups and collaborate.  There were plenty of life lessons that came out of that classroom, things that are probably more important and more useful in day-to-day life than came out of other classes.  I certainly never asked myself: “When will I ever use this?” about anything in the choir room.

Mr. T had a great influence on many people’s lives.  Going to the show and then to the party and seeing not only the people who I knew from school, but the alumni spanning a whole range of years was amazing.  As T put it, everyone who came to wish him well you could sit with and talk to for hours about their experiences at NNHS and in his classroom, and how that helped get them to where they are today.

Of course, when you put all of these musical people in the same place at the same time what should happen but the instruments come out and the singing starts.  We had people playing guitar (including myself), we got T playing the piano and everyone sang.  Songs from all over the place.  It really was a great thing to stand around the piano again with a whole bunch of people who stood around the piano with T over the years.  This is what we do, it is really the best way to celebrate anything!  I mean, we sang until 1:00 in the morning.  At least we didn’t get in to singing something like “Kiss Today Goodbye,” because, while it might have been appropriate for the occasion, I think we all would have been crying by the end.

Well, everyone has to move on sometime, and while NNHS will be a different place without T, hopefully whoever takes over that position will have the same lasting impact on the students.  I am sure that I would not be the same person I am today had it not been for the time I spent in Room 127 at NNHS, had it not been for T.  I wish him and his family all the best and I hope that he enjoys his retirement.  I will always keep the memories of his classes close, and I will always be thankful I have them.

Thus ends an era as we bring down the house.

I made my PTC stage debut today in quite an unfortunate situation.  We had a flying piece that snagged on one of our curtains as the curtain was moving and it broke one of the pick lines.  These pick lines are made of 1/8″ steel aircraft cable, so it take a pretty goodly amount of force to break them.  It seems that as our nice velvet drape was going out (up) it snagged the scenery, a lighted sign, and probably lifted it and then dropped it, breaking one of the two cables.  I think that my electric cables were probably bearing some of the load of the sign.

Well, we saw this thing swing into view and immediately stopped the show.  We cleared the cast off the stage and removed the piece of scenery.  In all it probably took less than ten minutes to do all the work, but it felt like forever.  The adrenaline was still pumping as I started to write this.

It is amazing how things slow down when you are in action mode.  I also think that it is interesting that some people feel like the shows problems can be solved with the biggest hand-held cutting tool that you can find in the shop.  All we had to do was disconnect the rigging hardware and unwire the electrics and the piece was free.  It was probably a good thing that I was mostly calling the shots with the removal of the piece or things might have ended up getting cut.

I remember getting out on stage and helping one of the ASMs get the piece on the deck.  Then there was some cheering from the audience.  Then I disconnected the electrical and rigging hardware and the crew took the piece off stage.  I capped the electrical and then they were about to take the lineset out when it finally occurred to me that the aircraft cable had broken and was just hanging on by tape.  So, we removed that as well and got the line out and clear.  The strangest thing was that I left the turnbuckle in the shop but for some reason I ended up taking the broken cable back up to the booth with me.  Stranger things have happened.

That was the excitement of the evening.  It wasn’t good excitement, but it excitement none the less.  One more show for the books I suppose.