It has been quite the busy couple weeks.  Last week started as tech for Dracula at the theatre and then ended with my flying out to Ithaca for the first ever All Theatre Alumni Reunion.  The impetus for the event was the completion of the renovations on Dillingham Center, the home of the Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College.  Ithaca College (not to be confused with Ithaca University from the movie Road Trip), or IC, is my alma mater for those who don’t know.  Since graduation I have done my best to give to the college as my time there really made an impact on my life.  My family and I were part of the 430-some-odd donors who raised over $80,000 for the renovation project.  As such, I felt that it was important for me to go because of that and because it would be a fun opportunity to reconnect with friends from school and network with other alums.

The road to my getting to the reunion started well before waking up at 5AM to get to the airport last Friday.  There are not enough words to express my love for my girlfriend who also got up at 5AM to get me there.  However, before that I had to make sure that it would be OK with the powers that be in the theatre since I would be leaving town on opening night of one of the more technically challenging shows of the season which happened to be directed by our artistic director.  I got the OK to go and was able to make the appropriate travel arrangements and fit into some semblance of a budget, so I was pretty happy.  I sacrificed a ski pass to make it happen though, which I think was a decent trade off.

I flew into Syracuse, NY where I picked up a rental car and drove the rest of the way down to Ithaca.  It was kind of fun getting on the highways there and remembering driving them so many times over the four years that I spent in school.  Driving past the landmarks that I remembered and getting closer to Ithaca was very fun and very exciting.  Driving down the last hill alongside Cayuga Lake and then through town, it almost felt like I had never really left.  Realizing that the hotel that I had booked a room at was way on the opposite outskirts of town was a little disconcerting, but it wasn’t like I was going to be spending tons of time there!

The weekend kicked off with a welcome reception for all the alumni which was a little funky, but a good time.  People drifted in slowly as they arrived in town so there were waves of excitement as people recognized old friends.  It was a lot of fun to see all the people from my year and around my year and hear about what everyone is up to now.  Then there were the people who “know” me on account of my father (who is also and IC alum).  the most interesting of those people was my father’s college girlfriend Betsy.  She was quite excited to meet me, and I have nothing against this on account of her buying my friends and I drinks!

Saturday brought the real festivities.  The morning started with a tour of the newly renovated building.  It was almost a private tour as there were only three other people who showed up at 9AM and they still sent out multiple tour groups.  The new spaces look amazing, and the theatre department now has the use of the entire building, all the other departments that used to have offices there have been moved to other buildings on campus.  It looks fabulous even though they say that for a program of that size they are still a few thousand square feet short of what they really could use.

After the tours there were dedications of named spaces around facility.  I went to a few of these, but was not actually able to attend that one for named lockers, which I donated on of.  Could be worse.  I was at one of the student interaction panels where alumni got to talk to students pursuing similar fields of study.  This really was a great thing, and I wish that it had been a little more organized and structured.  I think it was probably a little overwhelming for both the alumni and the students.  For me, this was one of the big reasons that I wanted to go to this event, to get to talk to the students, so I hope that in the future this is something that gets a little more planning.

Following a barbecue lunch a group of us headed off on a Finger Lakes wine tour headed by one of the faculty.  This was a real hoot.  We tasted some good wines, a bunch of bad wines, but in the end, it probably didn’t matter as everyone was having a blast.  After two wineries we were definitely on the party bus as soon as Norm decided to put on some Lady GaGa.  Yeah, the whole bus was dancing and singing and drinking.

Upon arriving back at IC, there was a little time to change before heading to the cocktail reception and gala dinner.  I was smart enough to have put my nice clothes in my car when I left the hotel in the morning so I just found a bathroom and changed.  There was a little more schmoozing and boozing with the alums and I had a chance to meet the new President of the college who seems to be a good guy.

The dinner and festivities were nice.  Sitting with old friends was great.  Here are most of us.  The only thing that bugged me was the the photographer who was walking around would not take our picture with my camera.  I thought that it was a rather stuck-up move as he kind of scoffed at my little point-and-shoot.  I didn’t feel like lugging the nice camera around all evening.  But really, I am a professional photographer and I would never hesitate to take someone’s photo picture with their own camera, it is just a nice, polite thing to do.  Whatever.

Friends from my class and the years around it at the Reunion Gala

After dinner the Musical Theatre Majors sang for us, a song that I don’t actually remember.  I do remember thinking that it would have been much more meaningful and memorable if they had chosen something different.  The song that I would have picked would have been “What I did for Love” from A Chorus Line. I think that would have been very appropriate for the occasion, and would have made everyone cry.

After the singing, the party moved down the quad to Dillingham for the special Alumni-only performance of Chicago.  It was an excellent show.  The designs for the show were done by some notable alums including Paul Gallo (lighting) and Tony Meola (sound).  The students were excellent and the show was so much fun.  It was really cool to see Chicago at IC because it was the first show that I worked on after I graduated and moved out here to Utah.  I enjoyed the show so much, I went back to see it again the next day!

After the performance we shifted venues one last time for the “Sherry Party” redux.  Just one last occasion to schmooze with everyone before people started to go their separate ways.  AS I was staying through until monday morning, I said goodbye to a bunch of people.  Overall, it was a great time.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun.  I had time to talk to a couple students, the chair of the department and my old professors.  I saw the show again, and just generally enjoyed being back in Ithaca.  It was a great weekend, and hopefully the first of many such events.

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.

I think that every week I probably say something akin to: “I can’t believe that it is Friday again!”  The thing is, it is always true.  It is also always true that getting to Friday every week is an adventure.  Sometimes it is working on a show, sometimes it is finishing up the season.  Sometimes it is even getting in a car accident (yeah, that one sucked).  Somehow we get here though.  This past week I have done more drinking and partying in one week than I often do in a month.  I suppose we had a lot to celebrate at the end of the season.

Inevitably though, the fact that it is now Friday make sit time for my weekly photographic feature.  I have been using my own photos since I started this, and I like promoting my work, but if you have a photo that you would be interested in seeing featured, send it along and tell me about it.  Maybe, at some point I would consider having some small contests for featured photos.  We shall see.

For this week, I ended up going back a few years in my archives to when I was in college.  This image is from my junior year I believe.

Ithacan Oars

I captured this image using my father’s Nikon D100.  At the time I had not bought my first digital SLR yet.  In fact I didn’t get my first DSLR until I graduated and was heading off on the cruise ship.

My cousin was on the Ithaca crew team and so one of the times that my family was out to visit we spent some time at the waterfront watching one of his competitions.  I suppose it is a meet.  I don’t know the crew lingo.  I just thought the sun on the water and all the oars laid out made a very interesting shot.  I also love digging back through my archives to find something to share.

As always, please feel free to post any questions, comments or critiques that you might have!