Act 1; Scene 8: New Couch!

We have recently been baby sitting a friend's couch for them. We were originally supposed to have the couch until May, but plans changed, and we found out that we would be couch-less this week! So we decided to do a little comfy searching. We happened upon a clearance sale at the RC Willey Warehouse, and this is what we found! A pretty chocolate-brown microfiber couch complete with cushions (and a sunflower cushion added thanks to Michelle). It fits in with the apartment perfectly, and it is a great couch for a GREAT deal!



I hear it's pretty comfy, too. :-)

Act 1; Scene 7: Theater in Dixie

My last weekend was spent as a chaperon for the high school drama kids.

Wow. What an adventure.

Combine long bus rides, energy drinks, drama kids, loud music, hotel rooms, makeup, costumes, set, accents, cell phones, and St. George...you are in for an exciting trip.

Here a few highlights:

Introducing the beautiful Mrs. Banks! My co-student teacher and a dear friend. Playing with her awesome phone on the trip down!

The kids goofing around on the bus. They even made blanket bus "forts."


College friends who are now teachers or student teachers. Hurray! It was so much fun to see all of my own school mates who I never get to see anymore. Fun times, fun times.

One of the students, Facundo, was called up to the stage to help with an improv scene by "Off the Cuff." And yes, his name is Facundo, and yes, any time any of the students yell out his name (as the very frequently do) it does sound like another word. Did I mention that the students like to yell out his name? Yeah.

I even taught a workshop about audition etiquette, and that turned out well. Whew!

The students also got to bring their performance of "Antigone" on tour and perform for all of the other students. It turned out so well! The best performance yet. I don't have any pictures of "Antigone" yet, but I will try to get a hold of some. All of the boys in the cast were manipulating life-size puppets (that they basically wore) while wearing masks. It made for a really cool effect.

And now we're back, safe and sound, and more educated than ever in realms of theater. On to bigger and better for the future!

Act 1; Scene 6: FHE and Skype

Isn't technology wonderful? I've been so busy and so much away from home these past few weeks (notice the lack of blog posts...) that technology is the easiest way for Robert and I (and the rest of the world, might I add) to keep in touch. An occasional text here and there and a conversation on g-chat or facebook chat works wonders. Recently Robert and I have even taken to having family home evening via Skype. Does it defeat the purpose of family HOME evening if we are communicating about spiritual things face to face in very different locations?

P.S.--More to come about my first weekend field trip with the high schoolers to come!

Act 1; Scene 5: Sugar Cookies and Snow Flakes

Today was a splendid day. The day of wonderful, beautiful, much needed rest. During rest of the sleeping kind, I was awakened by a neighbor wondering if I had any cookie cutters. That reminded me of the tub of 100 cutters given to me by my dear friend Lisa. Boy, do I have cookie cutters! My neighbor and I proceeded to go through all of the cutters; holiday shapes and dogs and their bones and dinosaurs and ducks and trucks and cars--and letters. Letters! The entire alphabet, my friends. For some reason, this idea really caught my fancy. I decided that I would try (another first for me) my hand at sugar cookies and take letters for my niece and nephew to spell their names, and any other words they chose. I think I was more excited about the letter cookies than anyone :-). When we got to the Center's, we found a snowflake workshop in progress. Angie made me a beautiful 3-D snowflake. And another surprise--Robert LOVES making snowflakes. Joe and Robert and Angie proceeded in making all types of lovely cut snowflakes out of paper while I spelled works with my letter cookies. All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a rainy winter day.

Act 1; Scene 4: Delightful Surprises

I love little surprises. Like when I am watching The Jungle Book with my husband, who knows every word to every song, and sings them each with gusto and excitement. He even knows all of the correct shoobee-doo's in the monkey song. I was impressed. I don't get to see that very often. I think my favorite was his giddy excitement over singing along to "The 'Bear' Necessities." :-)

Act 1; Scene 3: Pre-production

This is it!

We are here!

Pre-production for Stage Door!

...again.

Last semester, BYU's production of Stage Door was nominated for a national college theater award and invited to the KCATCF Conference (Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival) in LA. Yes--LA. As in Los Angeles, California. That means that the cast and crew gets to pack up and head down to Cali February 7-12 to re-stage our 1930's, motion picture concept production.

Our production of Stage Door is black and white, just like a motion picture, since the play is about New York Stage acting versus Hollywood Movie acting. It is a play put on like a movie, to include both genres. The audience walks in to the theater, and is suddenly in a movie-theater, seeing a black and white play. For this to be possible, all of the costumes must be black, white, or shades of gray. The furniture must be, as well. And have you ever thought of the color of your skin and lips affecting a concept? The makeup designers worked hours and hours to create a makeup pallet for each actor to appear naturally black-and-white, just like the old movies. And of course, lights change everything. Countless hours were spent arranging and designing the blue and shades of gray and white lights used to make the furniture and set and actors look black and white. You should see the costumes without the lighting effect--you might spy some browns and greens! The concept is huge and challenging, which is why KCACTF wanted us to perform it the LAST day of the conference--so we can perform on the "showcase" (aka, best of the best) day at the Festival.

So now we are back to work, learning how to rearrange our set to proscenium style, with a new actress (our Judith is on tour with a Shakespearean troupe this year) and less crew. We will learn how to take apart the set and put it back together again inside the LA theater. So that is where I will be spending my evenings during January and the first of February--with the two tables worth of props, the 51 costume changes, the making of greenish water for "tea", curlers and sponges and fake mustaches. LA, HERE I COME!!!!

Watch the trailer for Stage Door here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVqTTifd_Mg

Act 1; Scene 2: Cheesecake and Resolutions

Can you think of a better start for a New Year than home made cheesecake?
I can't.
And this was a very successful first-time cheesecake-making for me--delicious!
Or rather, cheesecake-bite-making.
Robert told me today that I have made him a fan of cheesecake.
YES.
SUCCESS.
And along with every cheesecake-eating, card game-playing, noise-making New Year
come brand new Resolutions, of course.
I am an avid fan of New Year Resolutions. What a perfect opportunity to start fresh with new goals! And if I post my resolutions here, that will give me even more motivation to keep up on them. :-) Here are mine:

1. Be on time or early for every meeting/arrangement
2. Take a few minutes every day to ponder
3. Read for pleasure

I also wanted to have at least one family goal. Here is ours:

1. Family morning prayer EVERY morning

Robert (despite my pleadings) is emphatic that he does not make New Year Resolutions. So I have secretly made some for him ;-)

Are you a Resolution-making type???

Happy New Year!

Act 1; Scene 1: We Got Married

To catch you up: we got married! It was a blazing hot day in August, which is now long past ("long" being interpreted as about 4 1/2 months). Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are a few.