Monday, April 13: A Week in the Life

So my week has been pretty complicated. Want to see the schedule of the life of a grad student? Here's what mine was last week:

TUESDAY
8:30am - 9:00am - frost cake for Iceman's birthday, head to school
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:15pm - 12:45pm - Student Rep meeting
12:45pm - 1:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
1:00pm - 4:00pm - Acting
4:10pm - 5:30pm - Text Analysis
5:30pm - 6:00pm - group meeting with O.D. and Two-Shots-Up regarding Mr. Marmalade
6:00pm - 11:15pm - rehearsal for Three Postcards
11:30pm - 12:30am - homework while Skyping with boyfriend

WEDNESDAY
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:00pm - 1:00pm - study Winter's Tale lines, type blog post from day before, eat lunch
1:00pm - 1:30pm - group meeting group meeting with Director A, D-Train, O.D., and Two-Shots-Up regarding Mr. Marmalade
1:30pm - 2:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
2:00pm - 5:00pm - Acting class
5:15pm - 5:45pm - move props for Three Postcards from classroom building to Historic theatre
5:45pm - 6:20pm - dinner break
6:30pm - 11:00pm - rehearsal for Three Postcards
11:00pm - 12:00am - group meeting with Director A, D-Train, O.D., and Two-Shots-Up regarding Mr. Marmalade
12:15am - 1:00am - bake cake for Two-Shots-Up's birthday while doing homework and Skyping with boyfriend

THURSDAY
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:00pm - 12:30pm - go home to retrieve laptop, type blog post, eat lunch
12:30pm - 1:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
1:00pm - 4:00pm - Acting
4:10pm - 5:30pm - Text Analysis (my group's presentation on Mr. Marmalade
5:30pm - 6:30pm - dinner break
6:30pm - 11:00pm - first day of tech for Three Postcards
11:15pm - 12:00am - homework while Skyping with boyfriend

FRIDAY
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:00pm - 12:30pm - watch video tape of Winter's Tale in student lounge to brush up on lines before understudy run
12:30pm - 1:00pm - type blog post, eat lunch
1:00pm - 1:30pm - meeting with Acting Professor
1:30pm - 2:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
2:00pm - 5:00pm - Acting (final day of Chekhov work, with invited audience)
5:00pm - 6:30pm - dinner break
6:30pm - 11:15pm - rehearsal for Three Postcards
11:30pm - 12:30am - reviewing lines for Winter's Tale

SATURDAY
7:50am - leave to pick up D-Train
8:00am - 8:45am - warm-up for understudy run
9:00am - 11:50am - Winter's Tale understudy run
11:50am - 12:00pm - notes from Voice Professor regarding Winter's Tale understudy run
12:00pm - 12:30pm - drive to Burger King, get food, eat lunch in car on way to rehearsal
12:30pm - 5:10pm - tech for Three Postcards
5:20pm - 6:40pm - dinner break, talk to roommate, type up "Quotations" blog post
7:00pm - 11:15pm - tech for Three Postcards (we were actually called until 12:00am, but got out early)

SUNDAY
10:30pm - 11:30pm - Easter Mass
11:45pm - 12:15pm - grab lunch, head to theatre
12:30pm - 4:00pm - tech for Three Postcards (this was originally supposed to be a 12:00-5:00, 7:00-12:00 day, but was drastically shortened because 1. Tech was going well, 2. They didn't want to actors to wear out their voices)

MONDAY
Sweet freedom
(a.k.a. time to blog about how complicated the last week has been)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Saturday morning was the final understudy run for Winter's Tale, and it went really well. Afterward, I was on a massive Shakespeare-high. It feels so great to perform that work. And playing Paulina gave me this sense of power and authority. She's such a bad-a**. It was awesome. I hope that someday in the future I can play that role for real.

One of my donors came to watch the run, which made my day. :)

Voice Professor was there to watch and give notes (normally it would be Analysis Professor, but he asked her to cover for him because he's in tech for Three Postcards, which he directed). Her notes to me were:
"Angela. Excellent. Good sending and landing from upstage. Beautiful work."

I'm very proud of that. Especially since earlier in the day I had gotten this e-mail from her regarding Friday's final Chekhov day, which she attended:

hi Angela

i very much enjoyed hearing your 1st year class selected scenes from the three sisters! i did take a few specific word pronunciation notes, but mostly i listened for overall voice/speech issues. keep up the good work! namaste, [Voice Professor]

-sometimes you fell off vocal energy on your final words
-you cannot throw lines away and go off-voice, we must hear what you are saying; you need to act "outward" not "inward", even with a character like masha, or you will fall into a trap of not being able to be heard and/or going off-voice

I have a feeling those notes had a lot to do with the nervousness that Acting Professor commented on the day before. But I'm glad to know that once I got on the stage in the big theatre, I didn't have any vocal issues. I think the class notes were mostly the result of an off-day. I just need to be aware that going off-voice is a danger for me, and do what I can to combat it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I've been in tech for Three Postcards this weekend, and it has gone pretty well.

Big Show and I are responsible for putting together all the food props. For this play, that involves:

- 1 Rob Roy on the rocks
- 2 lillets with twists of orange
- 1 bottle white wine
- 1 bowl of cream of fennel soup with parsley
- 1 seafood mousse with chives and crackers
- 1 roast duck with rice, chives, cherries, cranberry sauce, and honey
- 1 Cornish hen with Bulgar wheat, parsley, asparagus, carrot, and honey
- 1 veal paillard with rosemary, rice, asparagus and carrots
- 1 rum-flavored apple aspic with apple slices
- 2 cups of coffee

Can you keep a secret? We're using half fake food and half real food, and the majority of the real food is not actually what it's representing. SHHHHH!

Not only do we have to put all the food on plates, but we have to put them on with specific presentation so as to give the appearance of them being from a fancy restaurant.

Of course, this means our job also involves a lot of clean-up.

- 6 spoons
- 6 forks
- 4 knives
- 3 rocks glasses
- 3 water glasses
- 4 white wine glasses
- 2 martini glasses
- 1 tumbler
- 2 coffee cups
- 2 saucers
- 3 dessert plates
- 3 entree plates
- 1 soup bowl
- 1 wine bottle
- 1 creamer cup
- 1 ramekin
- 1 tray
- 1 pitcher
- approximately 24 fake pieces of food
- 1 tub (that we carry things in)

Now, let's talk about the complications of the theatre we're in...

1. The only area where we are allowed to handle food is on the second floor. The theatre is on the first floor.
2. There is no dishwasher.
3. There is no sink in the designated food preparation area.
4. The only three available sinks are in single-stall bathrooms; 1 is in the men's dressing room on the 2nd floor, 1 is in the women's dressing room on the 2nd floor, and 1 is on the first floor but has no place to put the dishes after washing them or drying them.
5. The refrigerator and the microwave are both on the second floor.

So basically...
It's impractical to wash dishes downstairs, since we need them upstairs (and because it's the smallest bathroom and tricky for 2 people to maneuver in, and has no space to put all the dishes). There are three women in the show and most of the crew is female, so the bathroom in the women's dressing room is constantly in use. Therefore, we've been using the sink in the men's bathroom.

That's right. All those things above (somewhere near 70 items, although I typed that list from memory and might be forgetting something) I am washing by hand in a shallow bathroom sink, aided only by a bottle of dish soap and a sponge. I wash things, put them on the seat of a chair in there, and then Big Show picks them up, dries them, and sets them down on the seat in the shower stall. We have to do all of this before the two men in the play are called (or, at least, before we're too much of an inconvenience to them).

At least Big Show is around to help now. When I first started, it was just me. Then when he came on board, he was pretty ill, so we made the decision that he should stay away from all dish-washing and food preparation in order to protect the health of the cast. He's now well enough that we've decided that he can dry the dishes (I'm still doing the washing), and he can mix the drinks. I'm still handling all of the food preparation on my own for the time being.

I'm also transporting most of the food on my own from upstairs to downstairs, most of it mid-production. The coffee, for example, needs to be made in the middle of the show. Three of the dishes (the soup, the mousse, and the aspic) need to be refrigerated until just before they go onstage. That means I have to carefully time when I have the ability to go upstage and am not needed backstage (either to give props to the actors or take them from the actors) to make the trips to prepare and transport the food items.

My legs are getting a workout.

And, although food production and dish washing are the largest parts of my job, that's not all I do. I have to do a couple of quick prop exchanges with one of the actors. And Big Show and I also have to do all the prop presets... which include napkins, menus, a wine list, coats, replacing a battery in an electric candle (which needs to be done before every show, as it only lasts about a show and a half), pushing in chairs in a way that doesn't affect the shape of the tablecloth, etc. It's not that it's difficult; it's just a lot to do.

While I was rushing around on Saturday to get the food, I didn't notice that a leaking water cooler on the 2nd floor had left a huge puddle on the tile floor, so I slipped and fell. I hurt my ankle and my leg in the process. Not significant injuries, but enough that it makes all the stairs trips a little less simple and a little less pleasant. I hope that having today off will give me a chance to recuperate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The first preview for Three Postcards is Tuesday night (we're getting out of afternoon classes to finish tech), and it opens Wednesday. If you're in the area, I hope you'll be able to come and see it. It's really a fun show, and I'm proud to be working on it.


All good things,

~A~