So, I have an announcement to make... I am a thespian. This year, I went to the thespian festival in my area. I had an absolute blast. Maybe I should just do a run down of the day. I think I may...Here it goes.
Warning: You are about to read a long blog. Be prepared.
3:30 a.m.- Wake up. Yes. I actually did wake up at this ungodly hour. It was quite refreshing, and I wasn't really tired.
4:30 a.m.- Pick up Amanda and then Tim at about 4:35ish.
4:45 a.m.- Pick up Connor, but don't actually leave until 50 after, and become quite worried that I won't make it in time to the school to get on a bus that leaves at 5.
5:00 a.m.- Get on the bus for a ride that will last for over 2 hours. Everyone's pretty tired, and we stop for food. Most people get Monsters and donuts with other junk-foody things. I got fruit and croissant with a V8 fruit juice. I was pretty energized. We drove through a ridiculous snow storm to get where we were going, and it was pretty funny because everyone kept saying that we'd die and we all knew we were fine. It was, however, ridiculously cold. Here's a photo:
7:30 a.m.- We arrive at the high school that we are to be having festival. We chilled in the cafeteria until going into the auditorium to watch our first play. The festival is centered around a One-Act competition that our troupe competed in, but the first play was full length. Yes, full length. We were not prepared for that.
8:15 a.m.- We watched a play called
Tartuffe. It was a full length play written in an older English that was a translation of French, and almost everything line-wise rhymed. I got irritated. It was quite inappropriate (in a good way?) It was alright. It wasn't the best play I've ever seen. The actors were okay, but I wasn't extremely fond of the script in the first place.
11:00 a.m.- I went to my first Workshop. I absolutely loved it. It was a Commedia Dell'Arte workshop. We got to use masks that were awesome and play characters that were fantastic. I had such a good time with my friends. I performed a little skit with two of my friends. Basically, the whole workshop, save four people, were made up of people from our troupe. It was amusing. Here's a photo.
12:00 p.m.- We watched a One-Act from another high school. I didn't like it.
12:40 p.m.- Lunch time. I had the worst sandwich I think I've ever had in my life. I couldn't eat it. I tried so hard, but it literally made me almost throw up. Everything else at lunch was pretty good we all had a good time. I sat with the cast of our One-Act and listened to them go over it again and again. I'm Female Understudy for the show, and I'm glad to say that I didn't have to go on stage then. All the girls were fine.
1:25 p.m- Workshop number 2 happened. It was a fantastic workshop. For those who don't know, I have an absolute love of all things Shakespeare. I own a copy of every single Shakespeare play and all of his sonnets in one book that my father got me for Christmas. So, when I say that there was an Acting Shakespeare workshop, you should know that I would definitely be there. I was. I learned so much in the hour that I was in there. We were in a room of about 20ish people (which is a lot) and we were being taught by
The National Players, which was really awesome. I learned all about Iambic Pentameter and Trochaic Tetrameter, verse vs. prose, and how to paraphrase Shakespeare in order for it to make more sense to the actor. We each had to write our own paraphrases for a
monologue from Sebastian in
Twelfth Night, which I did for a little bit (I ran out of time). Here's a line I wrote that one of the guys running it said was really nice: "Though my heart feels what my mind cannot." Nice, right? I thought so. Overall, I had an amazing time at the workshop. It was just my cup of tea.
2:30 p.m.- We got psyched for the BEST ONE ACT EVER. (Okay. I'm alright, now.) Anyway, we had a circle time and talked about everything. I was so proud to be around everyone. It was fantastic. We played My Pony, a game that resulted in the splitting of my pants. I had to go buy a pair of Thespian sweatpants. It was really funny. I cried and laughed with my friends about everything, hung out with the guys in their dressing room, chilled with the girls in theirs, and talked with the director. Overall, it was a wonderful time of preparation for our show. And in 3...2...1, they were on stage.
3:20 p.m.- This was the time for the performance of
Conform! I was doing the lights (something I've never gotten to do before) and I got to watch the show from up in the booth. The show was
AMAZING. The cast did so wonderfully. It's a very difficult show to explain, but all I can say is that it's about three men who try to make the world they think it should be, in a very dramatically comedic way, with some lesbians thrown in there with three girls who end up marrying the men, and a hobo lady. We had the
best kiss out of all the shows; we had people cheering for the non-traditional kiss between the girls, a choice that certainly worked in our favor, I think. Honestly, I think it was the best One-Act that performed. I don't know if I'm biased because I worked with the show or if it's how I feel either way, but I'm sincere. Here's my cast at talk-backs with the judges:
4:00 p.m.- Another group's One-Act that I could not stand. The accents were godawful. I hated story and the props head should have been shot with the nerf gun he/she gave the actors to use as a realistic gun in their Film Noir parody.
4: 50 p.m.- This was a One-Act that I actually enjoyed entitled
To Date or Not to Date. It was a really interestingly written updated mixture of Shakespeare stories. It was very contemporary, but didn't lose the beauty and wonder that is Shakespeare. They had a boy playing the Nurse from
Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet who just blew us all away with his awesomeness.
5: 50 p.m.- This was a musical theatre production from a school that just blew me away. I couldn't describe it if I wanted to, but it was such a mixture of a play with happy/sad/frustrated/musicality. The acting was amazing and it was so simply elegant. I absolutely loved it. I laughed and cried. It was long, but great.
7:00...ish p.m.-Awards and stuff happened at this time. Our show, which after much torment of waiting, did not win best one-act (really sad face), did win other awards. We won best ensemble and some cool cats in my cast won awards for their acting. My friend Rachael won best of state with a scholarship for her costume design. BEST OF STATE. I was so proud and we were so happy with how we did. We were very tired at this point, but we didn't/did want to go. It was an intriguing emotion. We were very behind schedule at this point, and were ready to go.
8:30ish pm- We all get back on the bus and head to Popeyes/Wendys. Good food. I had mashed potatoes, a biscuit, and onion rings with sweet tea. I felt like I was in Louisiana or something, but I suppose that
is the point.
9:20ish p.m.- We are back on the bus and we are headin' home. We all know that we will be late, but at this point, we are having such a great time. The front of the bus is made up of those sleeping and teachers, and the back was like a karaoke bar...until we got told by our Theatre Teacher to chill out. We talked and laughed and celebrated. We sang songs from the 90s and some of the boys rapped. Lots of songs from SNL got sung, and we drew the
Deathly Hallows sign on all of the windows. Overall, great busride. Here's another photograph of my awesome friends:
11:20 p.m.- We get back to school. It is 24 degrees outside. Yes, 24. That is ridiculously cold and I was tired. Now, time to drop off my friends at their houses and go home.
12:00 a.m.- I got home and went to bed. Have you noticed how long I've been up for? Oh, and I went to bed around 12:30 the night before. You can do the math.
Overall, amazingly awesome day. Or should I call it SUPERMEGAFOXYAWESOMEHOT!?! It was. It truly was. I hope to talk to you soon, dear reader. Keep enjoying your day and life. Hopefully, your day can be as awesome as mine was.
