There is a giant decoration in the back of the room of a champagne bottle opening because the reception celebrated 50 festivals, but there was no alcohol, only sparkling grape juice. Some of the troupe directors were clearly let down that we didn't get a drink. I mean after all, we are overseeing 3,000 teenagers for a week. But the reception was great.
Everyone refers to this event as 'Festival' and it strikes me as a little odd. I would say 'the' festival, but everyone just calls it 'Festival' as if this is the only festival in the world. It's just the way they communicate it.
Today I went to two workshops. The first one was about creating a Director's checklist and I found the information very useful. I took copious amounts of notes as I've done throughout my fellowship. The little keys on my iPad keyboard are getting a workout. Unfortunately, I am not, and I think I'm gaining weight sitting down and watching so many shows and not moving about. As we neared the 3rd hour of the musical tonight, I thought that I was going to have to run out because I hate being still for so long. The other issue is that here on campus when you dine at the dining hall you can eat as much as you want. That is not a good idea for me. I eat really fast and usually I'm eating my second plate before I realize I was full from the first one. I've got to learn how to slow down at some point in my life. I'm eating salads too, but they taste bad to me because all of their salad dressings make me want to vomit in my mouth.
The second workshop was on creating a Compelling role. The instructor had just gotten in on a red-eye flight from Boston and was weary and tired. He was a gentle and positive spirit, but he really seemed tired. Soon he was allowing students to read from scenes he brought in and giving them notes. I am always happy to receive any instruction, even if I don't get it at the time. I just write down everything I can that feels useful and I'll sort it out later. I know that all teachers/instructors/professors have something to offer so I think it is MY job to figure out what I can pull from the information. Overall, I think he had some good ideas, but I probably would've gotten more out of his workshop on Wednesday after he had caught up on his rest.
After that I came back to the dorms and showered for the second time today. Nebraska heat is pretty stifling, particularly if you are walking around all day. The theatre and adjoining classrooms are about 15 blocks from where we are staying and I venture into the downtown area too during down time so I'm always moving. I found another used book store today and two more plays. Theatre teachers are naturally drawn to used book stores and we will siphon through the loads of copies of Shakespeare, Strindberg, Ibsen and Chekhov to find the rare play that we need for our collection. It's really not even for us, but for our students. We take them to school and throw them on the shelf and they may never make it home again. Today I also bought some new plays from Samuel French (a very famous Theatre publishing house) and picked up 6 new scripts including two books of monologues. Now I would never need a book of monologues and I frankly detest them. They are an easy way out for a student to locate a monologue, for someone who doesn't want to read the whole play. But I teach about 180 kids a year and there's a good portion of them who WILL NOT read an entire play and must find a monologue out of one of these monologue book collections. It makes me angry that I buy them and I wish I didn't have to keep them at all, but they are necessary when you are teaching 34 kids in one classroom. If you don't have monologue collections for kids to easily locate monologues, I'll be forced to tell at least 15 kids that there are monologues located in plays but they just have to look for them. Then I'll end up trying to find one for them and I simply don't have that kind of time in the middle of class. With a monologue book they can flip through, spend 1-3 minutes reading a piece, and if they don't like it, move to the next piece. So I'm buying the books for them, but it also helps me focus on useful instruction instead of trying to complete a student's work for them.
I took my first video of the trip tonight at the kids late night event called a Glow Party. The kids can do different things each night before curfew including improv, games on the quad, or a dance. When I went up there to get some footage, the dance was wrapping up. Imagine a ballroom with hundreds and hundreds of sweaty 14-18 yr. olds. The smell was like a football locker room in the dead of summer. Yes, we educators love our students, but dealing with their adolescent stench is not an upside of our profession. The video is a few minutes long and you can't really see any kids, but you can see their glowing accessories.
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