The day started off rough with the flight from Chicago. We loaded on time and all seemed well. Then we sat on the tarmac for around 90 minutes continuing to listen to the captain thank us for our patience but letting us know that storms were developing in our route and that it would be unsafe for us to proceed in that weather in our very small aircraft. We finally loaded back into the airport, waited another 90 minutes or so and re-boarded. Then we sat on the tarmac about another 45 minutes before finally leaving. We ended up arriving about 4 hours late. My wife told me later that Chicago would later cancel all flights and clear people away from the windows because the storms were so dangerous. I'm glad we got out before it got too bad and that I wasn't stuck in Chicago, though I did hate to leave.
Here's the view of the dorms from the cafeteria window. Nebraska sure is FLAT, FLAT, FLAT. When we were finally landing I noticed giant grids of green space, and as we neared the ground I noticed that roads between large square patches of land were dirt roads.
Here's an interesting sculpture on the campus of the University of Nebraska. This festival is huge and has brought about 3,000 students from all over the country together for one week to celebrate the art form of theatre. Below are pictures of two fellow theatre teachers rummaging through the local bookstore for good used plays for our students. I had already found a goldmine of plays in Chicago, but I still found a few more good plays to take home here as well.
I've already seen two presentations tonight, including a show called Making Magic, Defying Gravity which featured 12 young thespians performing onstage with two Broadway stars (Mr. Michael Mahany & Ms. Carla Stickler from the musical Wicked). Despite a few minor mic problems the musical revue was quite a success and it was great to see the young artist onstage with professionals from the industry.
Here's a picture of the Lied (pronounced Lee Yed) center theatre where the performance took place and where all mainstage shows will take place this week. It seats around 2,000. They have to divide the shows up between this theatre and another one that seats about 1,000 so all kids can enjoy the plays. Tonight they did Making Magic, Defying Gravity twice so all kids could see it.
The show also featured introductions from members of the board from the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), the organization that oversees the International Thespian Society. Two members of the EdTA were interviewed during the show on how they got into theatre and how they maintain success in an industry that is full of rejection. One member was a stage manager for a $14 million dollar show and the other had worked his way up to a leadership role at Disney where he worked alongside 2,000 Disney workers (he made sure NOT to say that his co-workers operated underneath him though it was clear he was the boss.) The gentleman who worked for disney started as someone who played tapes as filler music for a show in Epcot and the other gentleman who was a stage manager also started from meager beginnings.
It was a great introduction to the festival
Here are a few more sculptures from right next to the theatres.
Next I saw a one-act play by Davenport High School. This Iowa troupe #3994 presented I Never Saw Another Butterfly which was a dark, yet uplifting, story of hope in the hell that was the village of Terezin. This was a nazi ghetto occupied by Jews, many of whom would then be sent to Auschwitz never to return. The statistics in the program were staggering stating that 15,000 children were sent there and approximately 100 children survived. Some of these children were inspired by a teacher named Irena Synkova and as the play progressed a slide show was being featured above the actors' heads showing actual artwork from the Jewish children. One little girl kept saying, 'Today I missed my daddy' and having a daughter who has been saying that for 8 days now to my wife really struck a chord with me. The kids told of horrors they witnessed in the camp such as death, bed bugs, fleas, lice, starvation, the death of everyone they loved, and typhoid. However, there was a marriage in the play and new love by the main character of Raja. The other uplifting part was the effect Irena had on these young girls who found hope in singing, writing, drawing, dancing, playing games & laughing in a hellacious reality. The two actresses play Irena and Raja were super talented. Sometimes that makes a high school production more difficult to watch because certain parts stand out so much that the show as a whole might seem unbalanced, but the show was strong. All actors were doing their best, but it was clear that the most talented girls had two of the most pivotal roles. Great casting.
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