From Ms. V-
Congratulations! I am very proud of each of you and think the 2008 show was outstanding! I'd like to second Ms. Houston's request for a post-mortem reflection on the plays, the process, and what you learned going forward.
Please write us a reflection about your experience - think about everything from writing, to auditions, to rehearsals, tech and performance. Also let us know how you feel about your finished product -- was it worth all the work? We would also like to hear any suggestions you have for the future. Keep in mind that next year, Ms. V will be not be here with us at school, so we are looking to streamline and pare down the show quite a bit.
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15 comments:
The show was wonderful. I think I accomplished everything I wanted to and more, and it was a huge success. What more can I say, my actors had fun, I had fun, the audience enjoyed it, or at least pretended to, and now a very large arc of my life comes to a close.
In terms of improving, more rehearsal time would be nice, perhaps next year there won't be as many plays so that will be easier.
It's been great guys.
-Ian
I beleive that the bookie diaries was a great success. I think all of my actors had a great time getting to know and understand their character. At first I was a little worried when people were not memorizing their lines...but in the last week things started to fall into place. Even with as few rehearsals as we had, we got a lot accoplished. I will say I actually really enjoyed directing, and I finally now know how Ms. Houston has finally felt over all of these years. I think there was only one point that I was extremly frustrated and that was when i realized Ms. Houston deals with this every day. The tech rehearsals were probably my hardest thing to deal with becuase of the music and the lighting. However I beleive the final project was a great success. This opportunity has opened a new world for me, and I now hope to go on to directing shows in college.
I agree with Ian in the fact that fewer shows would obviously make things a little easier and allow for more time to rehears
my comments about BOOKIE CHRONICLES are that all my actors were atrocous and my director could have been better with ever phase of the show. He really didn't do anything correctly and made my video, a serious documentary, into a travesty a sham and a mockery. A travishamockery. The play was meant to shed a flourescent light on the illegal catfighting ring in southern Illinois. My play was not intented to have laughs but to shed tears. Tears of saddness and shame. Everybody in that audience on Friday was ignorant to the addiction and terribleness of catfighting or feline brawling as they called it in the Saettle Tribune. I was deeply touched when I heard that Mike Vick was going to jail as he was not on my fantasy football team. What I saw on Friday was not a play it was a manifest destiny. I could not be more ashamed as I am of James my director or any of my actors except for Darby who took her character of a young intelligent student seriously even though she cheated on her history tests Junior year. All for now
I had a great time doing the spring play, and I think it was an awesome way to end my 13 show career with pennington drama. A lot of hard work was put into the show on everyone's part, and I know a lot of me was in EQ. I am glad I made the decision to take a risk and do something different, and this process has been a life learning experience for the future, not just in theater but in leadership and working with others.
I don't think having 6 shows was a huge problem, we had six my freshman year as well, but I think more communication between directors and adults and perhaps teching during the sr. sem. class could be improvements, if thats possible. I think the blog is a great start.
I had a lot of fun doing this show so thank you other directors, houston, ms. v, alia, and mr harding. I miss it already, which is pathetic but it's so weird that I don't have to go to the blackbox after school.
P.S. You're not coming back, Ms. Vander Schaaff?!? That makes me so so sad!
Just a thought about the number of shows--as you continue to mull over these ideas--if we limit (I say "we", but will be only hovering from a distance (as in my back yard a few blocks away, a baby in my arms) that would mean setting up a process by which we "judge" or evaluate which submissions would actually be produced. Or, early on, tell the seniors that only one, or two, whatever number is decided upon--will be produced. Comments?
Hey all! its alia
i'm alittle late on the whole blog thing but i wanted to say how happy and impressed i was/am with all of your talent and i had a great time working with all of you. thank you for your comments and for continuing to teach me, as i am and will forever be learning about living and making drama :o)
The entire spring play process was so gratifying and definitely worth it in the end. I had such a wonderful time with my cast and really learned a great deal about leading a larger group of people and taking everyone's opnions/ideas into account. Although there were some frustrating times, all in all, I would do this process over again if I had the chance. Everything came together and the spring play cast put on 6 incredible shows! The feedback that I have recieved has been nothing but positive and people already can't wait till next years.
Thank you again to everyone! I really appreciate all your help and support!
Ms. Vander Schaaff- i think your idea about reviewing the play selections beforehand is good suggestion. Might be a good motivation for people. Despite the limited amount of time in the black box, I thought 6 shows was a good number to have. It worked out nicely and was a good mix!
i know six is a lot, but i think one or two is too little. having multiple vignettes give the show variety and a flavor unique to the spring play. and it gives everyone a chance! however, there are a ton of juniors involved in drama, so reviewing and limiting is probably a good idea.
i think that the whole process was wonderful, we all had our rough times, and six shows was a lot of shows to build sets for, but luckily not all the directors needed a lot of pieces. 4 or 5 would probalby be an easier number if it is decided to limit the shows for both the dicretors/actors in terms of rehersals and for the tech people to give us more time on each person's set. I would like to thank Mr. Harding and Alia escpecially for their help, as well as the directors and greg for helping me and just being amazing overall.
A Techspearean-Techsperian-Techspearian-Techsperean Tragedy was a great experienced both writing and directing it. What I really loved about the show is how the cast and myself could just continually come up with new jokes and lines every day, create new characters and plots and still execute it brilliantly. If we had continued to rehearse for a few more weeks I feel that the show would probobly be about 20 pages longer and just as hilarious, not to say that the play was too short, what I just liked is that we added Logan's character a week before dress rehearsal and added about 5 lines saturday night. I wish we had another night or so to show everyones the plays because they were that good. As my first time acting, I apprreciate that Evan let me use the ideas that I came up with and invent my character and cake. Can't wait to see the DVD cause all the plays were amazing.
I would like to thank the tech crew for building me the ladder and chairs.
The shows were outstanding. I had a lot of fun in my first stage production. (musical doesn't count because i didn't actually sing). Thank you to all my directors for dealing with me and I'm going to miss you all. I hope that we keep in touch for the next several years at least and that we can bother the next series of bloggers.
hey so i forgot my password... again
I thought the spring plays came through very nicely, personally I was pleased with the way that my play (as well as Mikes) came through. I thought Evan did a great job with the actors he had, and the limited time he had with the Black Box because I know that out of all the plays it seemed like he had to the least time to have the black box, so I am proud for him coming through with such a good play.
Everyone else did a great job and I think that overall we were a hit and put last years spring plays in the dust.....
respect.
mattyb
hey so i forgot my password... again
I thought the spring plays came through very nicely, personally I was pleased with the way that my play (as well as Mikes) came through. I thought Evan did a great job with the actors he had, and the limited time he had with the Black Box because I know that out of all the plays it seemed like he had to the least time to have the black box, so I am proud for him coming through with such a good play.
Everyone else did a great job and I think that overall we were a hit and put last years spring plays in the dust.....
respect.
mattyb
My reflection is late... sorry!
I felt that writing a play was a great experience for me. There was a certain thrill about it to because when Matt and I wrote it, i know i envisioned it in a certain way, and it was fun to see how it actually came out. We basically handed the show to Evan and told him to do with it what he wants, and even though i helped out in 1 or 2 practices, i still didn't really have a good idea what it was going to be like, but nonetheless, i was happy and impressed with the final product.
Also, writing a show is more difficult then i expected. I realize Matt and I left some confusing things to Evan that i thought he handled very well. I felt that when Evan made the set simpler and got away from the idea of making it seem like a practical set-up of a plane, the quality of the show escalated. I guess the lesson is less is more...
ML
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