Tuesday, February 17, 2009

34 Days And Counting

A continuing reminder about the upcoming auditions for the musical THE ROTHSCHILDS.

AUDITIONS MARCH 22 AND 23 AT RIVERWALK THEATRE.

For more detailed information click on the Rothschilds link under "All The World's a Stage" to the right or go to www.rothschildsatriverwalk.blogspot.com

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Prayer Bead Workshop





Are you longing for a way to bring more spirituality into your life? Are you looking for a practice that will focus your attention on meditation, prayer and growth?
If so, please join me a People's Church, 200 W. Grand River, East Lansing for a contemporary prayer bead workshop. We will be designing and making nondenominational prayer beads that are unique to you and will reflect your own story and journey. You'll learn about the history of beads and prayer beads, color and number theory, and jewelry making basics and techniques.


The workshop is Saturday, February 28 from 9-12 and the cost is $15. No experience is necessary.


Interested? Contact Robin Weber 332-5073
to sign up and receive a materials list and further information.


This workshop is ideal for women's groups, spirituality groups, church organizations, libraries, and shops . If you are interested in hosting a workshop please email me at Janefal@comcast.net

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentines Day


May it be a sweet treat of a day.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Story Guys


My friend Tom and his partner Scott, The Story Guys, are back with another hilarious video and I wanted to let everyone know about them. The StoryGuys have started a project called Stories From The Heart: Gay and Non-Gay Perspectives. They're running a series of videos on You Tube where you can find them. The purpose of the project is to collect stories from individuals about being gay, coming out, feelings about being gay, stories from non gay friends about their gay friends etc. The plan is to turn the stories into a play.



So check them out; watch their videos, subscribe to them. follow them, send them videos or stories.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Flash theatre




Take an empty stage, 2 timers, 45 minutes, some of the best directors I have ever worked with, 3 judges, honest and specific written and verbal criticism immediately following your show, points, and advancement at stake. Will you live to perform another day?

At the end of the day, when the shouting, crying, applause, awards are over the best part starts. Your prize? Two more weeks to "fix" everything; redesign, re-block. re-write, re-costume - all or none of them. Crazy you say? Yes. But, oh so invigorating and challenging! It puts the "life" in "live" theatre. These are the elements of the MIFA Theatre Festival open to high schools across Michigan

High School? Wait. High school? Isn't that just "high school" theatre. A resounding, absolutely not! I have had the pleasure and privilege (hmmm, sound like a show tune- Rothschilds perhaps?) to compete and judge this festival over the past 15 years and I have a passion for it.

The challenge? Find the "perfect" show for that year's genre and start slashing. Remember that 45 minutes mentioned earlier? Schools have exactly 45 minutes and not 1 second more , hence the timers, (unless they want to be penalized 5 points per judge, essentially knocking them out of competition) to put up the set, perform, strike and clear the stage completely.

I have seen some amazing shows and we aren't talking about "high school" one acts (although less savvy directors have fallen to prey to their easy format); Moliere, Ibsen, Neil Simon, Ragtime, Terra Nova, Once on This Island, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Noises Off , Museum, On the Verge to name a few.

This weekend across the state the shows that advanced in districts are performing at regionals where 1 show out of 6 will advance to states with an additional 5+ of the top ranking shows. the following week 13 shows will be at States in Chelsea. I plan to be there both days. Despite the fact that I see almost 60 shows a year, I'll rearrange my schedule, double up on the shows for several weekends so I can be free to sit back and enjoy. In fact, I could sit in the auditorium hour and hour and watch with fascination as kids work together during spike time to as an ensemble to practice moving the set on, spike, checking lights,sound levels, costumes, and projection.

As to those amazing directors. I will name them here because they are my theatre "gods"; the master of them all and winning dozens of State titles is KEVIN SCHNEIDER. You may remember Kevin when he was working and costuming here in Lansing. He's at Holland High School. Kevin will get a show out of districts and sometimes redesign the whole thing. I have known him to redesign a costume or two at states because they clashed with the theatre's seats. He's also been known to redesign an entire set before States. And he probably holds the record and works hard at getting a show timed between 43:30 and 45:00 on the nose. Malcolm Tulip formerly at A2Community and now a main stay at The Performance Network, Phil Walker at Chelsea High School. Joanne Peterson at Grand Rapids City, Jeannie Gilbert at Bay City John Glenn, and Nancy Fitzgerald at Grand Rapids Christian to name a few.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

BFF Update


I am shocked that it has taken me so long to follow up with the most extraordinary news. If you remember a few posts ago I wrote about my new best friend, Craig Wilson, a columnist with USA Today.

So....several days after posting I received a wonderfully wry email from Craig! (I can call him that, Craig, because after all we are best friends).

Two emails later and we had made plans to get together for drinks on a porch in an undisclosed upstate New York location but I'm pretty sure we're talking hypotheticals here.

Thanks Wendy for passing the blog along!