Moving Right Along

Well the second semester is actually starting to wind down. It has been long and tedious and all I want to do is skip to graduation. I am kind of excited because I started working on my projects for the senior showcase. So far I will be directing 2 pieces. I will be doing a piece for my two frinds Kyle and Danielle that I have not chosen yet, and I will also be directing a scene from References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. I have cast a very talented senior named Chelsea as the Cat, and I am looking for someone to cast as the Coyote.

I am also in the midst of registering for conferences and job contact stuff so that hopefully I will be employed when I graduate. Unfortunately everything is so expensive! I'm sure we will be able to work it out somehow.

Right now I am just looking forward to a weekend of good food, family and friends. I hope all is well with everyone!

Back in Cape

Well it has been almost a month since I said good bye the the Hangar and went off to enjoy a couple of days in New York City. The city was bright and shiney and fun, just like in the movies. I saw a couple of broadway shows and on the first night we were there, we second acted rock of love... meaning we snuck into the second act. It was quite an adventure. I can't wait to go back. Hopefully sooner than later.

Now here I am back in Cape Girardeau. It is as boring and depressing and stupid as I thought it would be. Wish me luck in making it through the rest of the semester

Long time, no posting! :(

I guess I have really been neglecting this thing. And right now, I am using it to procrastinate on some other homework I need to be doing. Oh well. Life here has been crazy and busy! And the days are numbered. Only five official days left, but we will see what happens after that. But, nothing is winding down at all. Tech is in full swing and my show opens tomorrow night. I can't believe it. It is going to be amazing and profound. I am really excited. Then I have to start packing and cleaning my car in prep for the 16 hour drive back. Ugh. Not looking forward to that. I also have a ton of homework that I still have to do in the next couple of days. PLus I just got over the flu. Anyway, I am sure I will be blogging about everything I skipped in all the hecticness as soon as I get back. I am so sorry for not havong written anything in such a long time!

XOXO! I miss you all!

Katie

24 Hour Play Festival

So much to tell and so little time.  I am going to keep this brief although it should take like pages to tell.  I still have to do some homework, line notes and research and shower before I can go to bed and it is after 11 already.  oh well.  Anyway, it seems years ago already, but the 24 hour play festival was a blast.  Saturday all of the roles were posted and then that night at around 10 we had a meeting.  the playwrights selected their actors and their location and then around 11, the left to write all night long.  No body really slept that night though because everyone was so anxious to get their scripts etc.  then we met at 8am to get our scripts and rehearsals started at nine.  we rehearsed until about 5 that day, got dinner and then the performances started.  the first performance was downtoan at the state street diner.  It was a love story sort of.  It was great.



then the next one was a traveling show where we followed three brothers several blocks as they ran from cops after robbing a bank. here is a picture from the final scene

This post is going to have to be continued. I cant get the pictures to upload properly. Its weird. And I am too tired... Ill finish later... but itll be worth a read when i do.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July everyone. I am so sad to be missing out on fireworks and kettle corn and barbeques. I hope everyone is really enjoying the festivities. Try not to think about how much fun you are having without me. haha.

I am about to go to rehearsal which will last unil around nine and then we have a two hour playwrighting kick off thing and then the festival begins. After that we are all encouraged to go to bed as rehearsals will begin around 8am. bleagh. So no fourth of july partying for me. Oh well.

I will be acting in the playwrighting festival which is fine with me. I think it is really dumb that we cant direct... they say it is to give other people a chance, but 1) I think it would be a really valuable experience to direct something like this and 2) everyone has just as much chance to direct side projects as we do, they just choose not to. Whatever. I havent acted in a while so it will be interesting. Especially memorizing those lines in such a short period of time. We'll see. I'm sure I'll take pictures tomorrow and then I can post.

By the way, happy belated birthday, Grandma! I hope you had a good time and are enjoying today as well.

Loves to you all.

Tired and bored post

hey all

Just thought I would let you know that I finally got a camera... unfortunately I have been busy in rehearsal and haven't been able to take pictures... yet. Just my luck though, right? Miss all the great photography moments and then when I finally get a camera, there is nothing to photograph. Oh well. Soon I'm sure.

I was sitting out on the back porch last night talking on the phone and Titus, this adorable little stray orange and white cat with these big pleading eyes, came up and started rubbing on me for attention and to be pet. Well how can any animal lover resist that? Of course then my eyes started itching like mad and swelled up and I couldn't breathe. I wish I wasn't allergic to cats. They are so cute... I also need to burn the clothes I was wearing yesterday. Oh well.

It's been raining a lot and I have been rehearsing like crazy. I'm looking forward to a little down time on thursday and friday. maybe a nap? ok, well, I'm TIRED!!! I'm off to bed. I'll post again when something interesting happens.

well...
sorry it has been so long! I am exhausted, so I am not going to write much. What a crazy week it has been! My family came in town, and it was really great seeing everyone, although I have to admit, it is nice being back to eating good food again!

They got in town around 1am the on monday. we pretty much went straight to bed.

On tuesday, I had a short rehearsal and then I met them for lunch afterward and showed them the gorge. Then I had another rehearsal in the afternoon, and in the evening, we went to taughannock park for a picnic on the like and kim and i walked around in the waterfall with oliver. He is apparently a big fan of waterfalls. surprising considering how much he hates his baths. Then we got ice cream at purity!

wednesday I had a really long tech day and had to get there by 7:30. blah. they met me for lunch though which was fun. and i had a meeting in the evening, but i got dinner with my grandma and kelly afterward. my dad fixed my car, my mom met up with her friend, Julie, and Kim went horse back riding, of course.

thursday we saw snow white (the play i have been working on) and everyone loved it. then we went to a winery and got fudge and wine for my aunt lori, then we got lunch and headed up to auburn to hand oliver off to jess. it was pretty stormy so we didnt stay long. we got back to the hotel, found out about poor michael and farrah faucet (everyone forgets her!) and then we headed up to see once on this island. after that everyone went back to the hotel and i saw one of the wedge shows.

on friday we got lunch, said our good byes and they left while i headed off to another meeting.
here is a slideshow of pictures kim took over the week, in no specific order. Ithaca is Gorges!

Over a Month Already!

I can't believe I have been here for over a month already (and still no loan check! grrrr!), and it has been a roller coaster! Crazy stressful nights, opening night parties, adventures in waterfalls and farmers markets... with only more crazy things on the way. Two weeks from tonight is the 24 hour play festival. more on that later I suppose.

It is going to be so weird and interesting to spend Fourth of July anywhere but on the banks of the missouri in downtown st. charles. It's a mark of growing up, I guess. I can remember riding down there in my little red wagon. It always took FOREVER for the fireworks to start in those days; I had no concept of time. And now, hear I am in New York, and I will be spending the fourth of July at my computer, writing a play probably, but hopefully I will be able to catch some of the fireworks on Cayuga Lake. We'll see.

Tomorrow my family leaves to come up here. I am very excited to see everyone, especially Oliver. I think my mom might be a little jealous at how excited I am to see him, but come on! I have been able to talk to everyone else, but poor oblivious oliver thinks I up and abandoned him, of course I want to see his noodle butt! haha. But really, I am REALLY looking forward to seeing everyone and showing them around this gorgeous city.

Oh, and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! My dad is pretty freaking cool, I hope he knows that I really do appreciate how hard he works, and I can't wait to see him this week. It also makes me think about my Grandpa McCulloh, as I am sure it does a lot of people in my family. I hope he knows that I was thinking about him today.

Well I am off to bed. Good night all!

A Weekend of excitement

It has been a few days since I have posted anything. I was kind of hoping that someone would put some pictures from this weekend online before I wrote anything about it, but oh well. I'll add pictures later. I did find a few which ill add that are just general from online, but they will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

On Saturday I went to see the first KIDDStuff show of the season: Really Rosie. It was fun to watch and entertaining since it was taking place on the dirty blonde set. then I had my first KIDDStuff rehearsal for Snow White that afternoon. Can you believe it? We started the show with a read through on saturday and had it completely blocked and did a stumble through, mostly without scripts mind you, last night. three days! I have never experienced putting things up so quickly! It is going to be really exciting to get it into the theatre and costumes and everything.

Saturday night there was a party. It was fun but not as spectacular as it was cracked up to be. Some friends and I left early (early being 2AM) and went to grab some food at a 24 hour cafe. when we got back to the dorms, a bunch of people were already back, and they were in the kitchen dancing to Love Shack on the tables and eating popcorn. Priceless. Needless to say I got to bed pretty late.

I slept in late on Sunday, and when I finally got up, everyone was getting ready to leave to go to a waterfall or gorge, so I decided to go too. We ended up going to Taughannock which is down the street from the hangar. We ended up getting into the river/stream thing and walking up it for about a mile to taughannock falls. It was really fun, but I definitely had not been planning on swimming, and of course i ended up falling on my butt on multiple occasions because of the muddy, mossy rocks that we were walking on. My purse fell in the water and everything got soaked, but overall, it was a really fun walk/swim, and it was a beautiful warm day out. Below is a map of the park. We walked from the point on the upper right side to the point in the middle where it says taughannock falls:

When we finally reached the waterfall, it was amazing and breath-taking. It is actually the tallest waterfall i think they said this side of the mississippi. It is taller than niagra falls though not as big. I hope everyone gets a chance to see something like it some time in their life. Here is a picture I found online, but it doesnt do it justice:

After we made it to the waterfall, we took some picters, and then we took the gorge trail back. After a long day of excitement, I went with a few people to get ice cream at Purity which is this cute and delicious corner ice cream shop. Mmmmm!

good times!

Now I am back to a long week of classes and rehearsals. Fun but exhausting! Speaking of rehearsal, I have to go! Bye!

Fort pictures are here!

just came up with a couple fort images. The first is a picture of the fort from the foyer into the living room, and the second is a picture of the inside. I am sitting next to my friend Vincenzo who is wearing a mattress pad as a cape... the last picture is just another photo of inside, but I am not in it. enjoy!

Missing St. Louis a little...

I just got off the phone with like twelve 8-13 year-olds. My campers from the Y the last couple years. They were all begging me to come back and see the Jungle Book. It broke my heart a little to tell them that I couldn't. Each one kept grabbing the phone from the others telling me things that they were doing in camp, plays they had been in over the year and all begging me to come back next summer. What a nice feeling. They are such funny kids. I miss them all. Apparently they wrote me letters which I will be getting in the mail sometime soon I hope.

There are a lot of things I want to do in my life, but I definitely want to spend as many summers at the y as possible. :)

Also, my mom was telling me what a butt Oliver has become. I wish I was home so I could deal with him and figure out how to get him to stop acting like that. I want him to be a dog that people can approach without him barking or snapping like the stupid little thing he is.

As far as things here, despite the generous offers, I decided not to go to the city this weekend like I was going to. Several people are going to bbqs and parties and then to the farmers market and to see waterfalls, so it will be a good weekend anyway. I start rehearsals for Snow White tomorrow and I am very excited about it. It promises to be a very fun cast and a really interesting show.

Have a good weekend!

me

A day of fort building excitement!

Just a few fun things that I would like to add here before getting to sleep.

First of all- tonight we made a giant fort (you know, like the ones you made with sheets draped over couches and chairs), yes we did, in the middle of the living room. We stood a giant couch on its end and surrounded it with couches, rehearsal furniture and a piano. We had secret entrances and everything. Someone even brought in a tv and a stereo. It was really funny and entertaining. It is like being ten years old again. I wish I had known everyone here for so much longer.

haha. I will definitely upload a picture of it as soon as people get them up and on facebook. I wish I had a camera so I could take my own pictures, but I will have to wait until I have some more money.

The first lab shows are opening tomorrow and everyone is planning on attending. Really Rosie is the KIDDStuff show which promises to be very funny, but I cant see it until saturday because I have a design meeting in the morning. In the evening our two wedge shows open (the wedge is the triangularish shaped performance space where the edgy, controversial shows take place) and they are Origin Story and Dr. Faustus. I do not know much about either of them, but I have been hearing a lot of great things, so I am really excited to see what they came up with.

In other news, I found out today that everyone is planning a trip to New York City for this Sunday because it is one of the very few days that we all get off this summer. I am kind of disappointed because even if I do go, I won't be able to see any shows or anything. I wish they were going to go on the next day off. Oh well. It will all figure itself out, I'm sure.

I am really looking forward to my family coming in town. I have not seen anyone in so long, and this is such a great town, I can't wait to point out all of the cool places (and hopefully go to some places I have been wanting to go to). AND I get to see OLIVER. I miss little buddy a lot. someone give him kisses for me.

Love you all! Thanks so much for the comments. It is really nice to hear from everyone! I will keep you updated and post pictures as soon as they appear online and then more frequently once I finally get a camera. For now, you just have to imagine all of the coolness.

ttfn!

Katie

The low down on my first few weeks

Hi everyone!

So obviously it has been well over a month since my last post, and I am sure that everyone has been anxiously waiting for my next post. Haha, or perhaps not. Either way, I do apologize for the delay, my computer picked the worst time to break. Fortunately all is well again, and thanks to Ian (the RA here) I finally have internet access. Joy.

Wow, so much has happened since I got to New York. It has been incredibly, and the scenery is so gorgeous! I knew this was going to be a great city when I read about it and saw the pictures online, but the pictures just dont do it justice. It is so amazing to visit the waterfalls and sit out on the lake at sunset. You wouldn't believe it, it's breath taking! Ithaca is also amazing in that just living here makes you feel healthier feel like you are being a better person, you know? All the food is organic and delicious- healthy, not just low fat. Everyone is walking and riding bikes all the time, and it is impossible to throw anything away here. Everywhere you like there are recycling containers and compost, but not a trash can in site! Did you know that is is actually free to recycle here, but you have to pay for every bag of trash you put out? It sucks a little (it's expensive to throw stuff out!) but at the same time it is very cool and eco-friendly. I'm learning a lot about that.

Outside of adoring this city, the Hangar is possibly the greatest professional theatre ever. It's an odd little place, not quite the gleaming lobby and fully equipt shops that I invisioned. It's very minimal, the box office is under some steps and the whole building has concrete floors no tile or anything. But there is sefinitely a charm to it. And to give them some credit they are in the midst of a 4 million dollar campaign to refurbish the parking lot, lobby, bathrooms and seating. Everyone here has been really fun to work with. I just finished Assistant directing Dirty Blonde under Peter Flynn, a well known director and several professional actors including Emily Skinner who was a Tony-Award Nominee. It has been really interesting.

I live in this great little community dorm that is kind of like a big house occupied entirely by lab company actors and ads. It is so much fun and there is always something going on.

The days here are really long class from 9-12, rehearse from 1-5 and 7-10. sometimes later. it's a crazy life. Right now we are jumping into pre production for the next show that I am working on which is Snow White. It is going to be very interesting as we are performing on the Once on this Island set which is basically a giant island. Imagine a cartoonish carribean style snow white. I am very excited.

Well everyone, it is getting late here. There is so much more that I would love to tell you about, but I will have to save it for another day. Feel free to comment so I know if anyone is even reading this anyway.

Hugs and kisses all around,

Katie

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome!

If you are reading this, it's probably because you were invited to keep up with what I am doing this summer. My plan is to update frequently with photos and maybe even some videos... but I am getting ahead of myself. Let me give you some background:

I am a second year theatre student at Souheast Missouri State University. I am an Acting/Directing major, but my emphasis is definitely in directing. Because of some death wish I must have, I have taken 20-22 over the last two years, and if everything goes according to plan, I should be graduating next spring. I am hoping to go to graduate school and maybe even get my doctorate eventually, but I do not have specific plans for right after graduation.

Anyway, as part of our degree program, we are required to complete a summer internship. For the past two summers I have worked at the YMCA as a theatre (and other) camp counselor, and loved it. I love working with kids. So often at this school we are constantly reminded how much work theatre is, but it has been so refreshing to go to the Y each summer and hang out with kids that just think its fun. Unfortunately, SEMO won't allow me to count this as my internship, so I was forced to look elsewhere for work if I wanted to graduate next year. I attended a couple of theatre conferences where job contacts were offered, but at the Midwest Theatre Auditions, I interviewed, as a stage manager, with the Hangar Theatre. After looking at my resume, the representative I was speaking with said that I would actually be a perfect candidate for the assistant directing program, and, well, the rest, as they say, is history.






The Hangar is located in Ithaca, New York, a small, liberal town in the heart of New York. They do lots of experimental shows, and lots of famous directors such as Michael Mayer, Tony-award winning director of Spring Awakening, got their start there. I will be leaving on May 16th. My contract starts on May 18th and ends in August.



Well, there is a ton to do to get ready for this summer including cleaning our house in cape, packing and getting ready for finals and final projects. I probably won't be posting again until I am in New York. Wish me luck!