Well I’m sitting in the Syracuse Airport (typing in Word
because the internet connection is having issues this morning) waiting for my
flight out of here! I am flying to North Carolina to visit Dad and Caleb and
attend Dad’s retirement ceremony in a week. Next Saturday, Caleb and I will be
flying back to San Francisco in order to spend time with Mom. In early January
I will be traveling down to Santa Barbara to attend the first couple rehearsals
of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and
then I fly back to Syracuse early in order to start working on the first show
of the semester, Two Trains Running.
Have I mentioned that I am going to be attached to 3 different shows next
semester? Yes, you read that right. THREE SHOWS. I will be the stage management intern for Two Trains Running, a costume dresser
for Top Girls, and a follow spot
operator for Violet. On top of that I
have 19 credits and a job. I am going to be so busy next semester!
But yay my first semester at Syracuse is done! The last
couple weeks have been a mixture of up and downs. The definite highlight was
being able to go backstage and have a tour of the set of the touring company of
WICKED!!!! One of the supporting leads is a SU Drama alum and so he gave me and
a couple of my friends a tour of the set after the show. It was by far one of
the coolest things I have ever done! The first thing we saw when we walked
inside was the Oz head, and immediately I was overwhelmed with emotion and knew
I was going to be having some of the best moments of my life. Then I realized
that we were standing on the stage. The techie inside of me immediately got
excited so I started looking everywhere, starting to piece together how they
did all of the crazy things that happen in the show. The actor explained how
some of the key moments in the show are done and explained how the stage is set
up so that it is easy for understudies and new actors to be able to step into
roles without too many problems. He showed us where all the props and costumes
are (there is a dress in the show that is literally onstage for only 20 seconds
and it cost $15,000!) and then spent 20 or so minutes just answering our
questions and talking about what it is like to be on tour with such a well
known show. We, of course, had to ask him which part of his education at SU was
most beneficial to him (where we found out he had 2 of the teachers I had this
past semester—weird to think about because he graduated 25 years ago) and if he
had any advice on making it in this crazy business. I was so thankful that he was
willing to take the time to talk to us and renew our faith and hopes that we
will make it. He ended the tour by saying that we could find him on Facebook
and that if he was ever involved in a show we wanted to work on, he would put
in a good word for us! After the tour I was completely in shock that we had
just that and I started crying (good crying of course) because it was exactly
what I needed. Talking to someone who had been me 25 years earlier and is now
touring with one of my favorite shows made all my dreams that much more real.
It IS possible and I am determined to be successful in this business. It will
happen for me.
I also had my finals--which I don't even really consider them to be finals. I had a final project for theatre design, a paper for intro, and actual tests in stage management and theatre crafts. I feel pretty confident about all of them!
Anyway-it's time to board now! I'll resume writing when I return to Syracuse in January! <3
