Today I saw Legally Blonde, The Musical. It was cuter than I anticipated. I assumed that I would be miserable through it, but it wasn't bad. The lead female character did a great job with her songs and the storyline was pretty interesting. There were 14 teenage girls, clad in all white and the majority of them in high heels, that served as her Greek Chorus and I thought that was an interesting twist to the plot. There was also a character named Kyle who worked for UPS and he helped propel a subplot line and served as a love interest for the main character's friend. All of the high school girls were screaming like they were at a Kings of Leon show when he arrived in the hair salon and bent over the package he was delivering to the stylist. The stylist, of course, fell for him immediately. I thought it was so funny because I have a brother who worked for UPS for many years. His name is Kyle. The musical was produced by a Texas high school and they had multiple sets which included a courtroom, a graduation ceremony, the hair salon, a dorm room, a real golf cart, a house, another house (both homes featured full stair cases), Harvard, along with a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting. The story is about Elle Woods and her pursuit of her college sweetheart from UCLA, all the way to Boston. Elle enrolls in law school at Harvard and against all odds gets in, shortly after she is dumped by her boyfriend. The story is about Elle proving to him that she isn't just a pretty face, but is in fact very intelligent and smart enough to pursue the same career that he is chasing. The play also featured two 'real' dogs that both seemed to get the most applause from the teenagers when they came onstage. This play had a few minor body mic issues, but nothing near the amount of the show the night before.
This red bike was another great part of my day. I rented it from the UNL outdoor recreation facility. I had noticed that a number of 'festival' students were riding around on them and I was super jealous. I asked one of them where he got it last night and he instructed me on where to secure some wheels for the remainder of my festival. These wheels allowed me to get about 20 blocks in around 8 minutes. It would have taken me much longer to walk this distance and I would have arrived at the Region III celebration dinner for troupe sponsors embarrassingly late after completing my two part Long Form Improv Workshops this afternoon.
The Long Form Improv Workshops were quite interesting and were taught by a gentleman from LA. He had created his on improv group in Madison, Wisconsin, where they performed sold out shows for approximately 4 years. He then migrated with his improv group to NYC and currently resides in LA where he works for E! entertainment television and NBC. He taught an enormous group of high school students the basics of long form improv and provided some great pointers. I was in the workshop with only one other teacher and towards the end of the 3+ hour workshop, I was once again reminded of the importance of deodorant for teenagers. These poor teenagers just don't know how to apply enough deodorant so that they can not reek to high heaven when in an enclosed space for long periods of time.
Tonight at our Region III dinner, one of the directors of EdTA was reminding us how much our volunteer work was appreciated. She emphasized those volunteers that worked the dance(s) because of the incredibly strong smell of body odor that radiated from the young people after they danced for a couple of hours. Oh, the young people and their sweaty ways. That was another reason I was so thrilled to rent a bike for the next couple of days. I don't mind the walking, it's just the incredible sweating that drips down the back of your shirt and down your legs after you have walked around 20 blocks in stifling heat and humidity. The bicycle allows me to move through the campus and the downtown area with a constant breeze. Here is a picture of the Nebraska state Capital I took while cruising a few blocks this afternoon.
This was a really neat used record/CD/tape store that I found as I pedaled around downtown Lincoln. For any fan of music, these little places are just like used bookstores for the book lover.
Generally they are rather dusty and you have to get after it if you want to find something, but they usually have an interesting man or a woman working at them with loads of information about music. This gentleman had been running his used music store for over 20 years. His hours were from 1:30 PM to 9 PM. I guess he wasn't a morning person, but he was a very cool guy. This type of establishment is the antithesis of your big box store like Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy. However, his selection was much more vast with a focus on vinyl. Gentleman like this are great studies of character and that is why dropping in and talking with him for 30 minutes about music helps me become a better artist and actor. The more people you meet, the more you soak in, the better characters you can create when it comes time.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment