Camp Weekend: Open House 2006

What a weekend.

This past weekend was the official beginning of summer for me. And what better place to spend it than at Camp Arc Spencer.

This was another Open House, which means we didn't actually have any campers over untill today. But we still gathered together.

Anyhow, I didn't show up untill Saturday, because of Quigley's show, and becasue I had to take my Praxis II Saturday Morning. But I still made it.

I met two new staff for this year: Heather Ortin, and Erika Davis. They are from the University Pittsburgh in Bradford. They were nice.

Anyhow, Marc, Raeann, their baby son, Nathanel Andrew, as well as Nicole, Jared, Zach, Rachael, and Becky were all there as well.

So, on Saturday we mostly baked cookies, and painted signs. I also took the cart-driving test, and (I think) I passed it. So I'll (Maybe) be a cart driver this year.

That night, we ate at the Olive Garden in Cranberry, after an hour wait. And that night Jared beat us all in a game of Monopoly.

The next day, Mitch showed up, and we prepared for the afternoon Open House. Mitch, Zach and I gave tours of the Men's unit, and talked about activities and other going-on's to newcomers.

So, Year 3 of Summer camp is in about a month. Looking foreward to most (but not all) parts of it.

Quigley's Bye Bye Birdie

What a night!

Earlier tonight, I went to see Quigley's 2006 musical, Bye Bye Birdie.

So, the show went quite well. I won't be able to make it to the Mancini's this year, but I see a few nominations in the making. For example Nick Bell (who played Joseph in their production of Joseph, last year), was wonderful as Alfred Bailey, Conrad Birdie's agent. Also Laurie Lacey, gave an amazing performance as Mrs. Bailey, Alfred's long-suffering, and non-mattering mother. Others gave great performances as well.

I ran into a few old friends there, as well. Some of them wish they could have been in this show as well. No matter how old I get, I will always wish I could be in the Quigley shows.

After the show, there was a "Desert with the stars" Desert. I got to chat with old directors Laura Yoerg, Marta Zak, and others there, and made the ladies costumes "Felt". (Get it)

So, a great show. Now, I have the Praxis II and a Camp Open House coming up. Stay tuned...

Fundamentals of Acting class

I usually don't talk about my classes on the blog. But this one, I just had to mention.

Fundamentals of Acting: Ann elective for me. It also kept me associated with the theatre, because I did not do any actual shows this semester.

So anyway it was taught by Barbara Burgess-Lefevbre. And John Locke assisted. During the many classes we did a LOT of activities on stage.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Pretend to eat something.

One group pretended to drink tequila, and then pretended to beat up a pinata, and eat what they thought was chocolate, but it wasn't. It was poop. Some of them enjoyed every bit of it, others fell over dead.

Example 2: Convince Barbara to give you a dollar. Best one gets the dollar.

There were a lot of attempts. The winner was Corey Nulton. He said "I'm on a scavanger hunt, and all I need is a dollar bill from the most beautiful acting teacher in the world."

Worst one: Adam Dumkovich. He laid on the stage with a sign that read "Need money for booze, drugs, and whores"

Example 3: Create an Alien Race

You had to have been there to understand that one.

Example 4: Make a Soap Opera w/ newspaper characters.

So we made one. My character's name was Ryan. A 19-year old who had fallen out of a window at a party. As the story ran on, my character got into a car accident w/ Derrek Fererrick (Tom Baum), tried to join a band, but quit when because of dissatisfaction with his role. Talk about a string of bad luck. He also lusted after a girl named Melia (Suzanne Montecalvo), who had been shot, and my character, also attacked her shooter (Corey Nulton) frequently. In the end, Ryan committed suicude, when Melia wouldn't be his girlfriend. But I fucked up the suicide scene, by walking after shooting myself in the head.

Busted!!!

Then, there were two scenes and a monologue that were graded. The two scenes were partner scenes, and the class was divided into teams of two, for each of them.

First Scene: Lone Star

Partner: Pat Nagle

Synopsis: Two Texan brothers are reminiscing about the good days before the older brother (Pat) went to Vietnam. But while he was gone, the younger brother (That was me) slept with the older's wife. And the older brother was deeply upset to learn this, and was determined to make his younger brother deeply upset about it.

Other scenes for round one, included: A robbery, a movie writing, a teacher's lounge, a couple arguing about "Who's the boss?", and others.

Second Scene: Brother

Partner: Leslie Wiernik

Synopsis: A live-at home party animal (Me) is complaining to his visiting older sister (Leslie) about how crummy his life is, while she tries to convince him that he should "Shape up".

Other scenes for this time around included: A child abuser, an pre-abortion, an austistic brother, and others.

What a class. Well it's over now.

So, untill next time...

Super Saturday 2006

At approx. 4:45 in the afternoon today, my mother got a call from someone asking if I was home. Aprox. 4 hrs. later, she tells me about it. I redialed the number, and it was Mr. Gary Ashley. He wanted to invite me to the 2006 Super Saturday dance.

Super Saturday is the Saturday before finals week, when the whole campus has a giant party. I never went before, but this time, I went.

So here's the story. I arrived on Campus at aproximately 10:00 pm. And I wove my way to a tent outside Washington Hall, where a huge dance was.

Whoopee!

I ate a shit-load of Hometown Pizza. And I danced with some ladies. Some of them I knew, some of them I didn't know. Oh well, it's all in good fun.

Also some people were apoligizing for my early elimination from RMU Idol days earlier. I had been a contestant on RMU Idol, but was eliminated in the first round. I think it was because I picked a bad song..."Lola".

I'll never sing that song in public again.

Oh well, Summer is coming fast. Stay tuned...

Camp Weekend: A lot of sports, cakes, and Disney Movies

Oh, what a weekend...

And it was actually a good one.

So, this past weekend, we had a lot of younger campers, and they were very entergetic. We spent a lot of time outside, throwing footballs, wiffleballs, basketballs, etc.

I was surprised too. I had been fearing the worst weatherwise. But the weather was actually semi-decent.

Also, we watched a lot of Disney Movies. There was one girl who had to be isolated from other activities, and she watched "The Little Mermaid", "The Lion King" and other Disney movies in her own personal room.

Exhausting.

I tired fast. On Friday night, the staff gathered together to watch "Rent". But I fell asleep through it.

Dang!

Saturday during more ball games, somebody, somehow managed to get a kickball stuck in the upper branches of a tree. Marc, Zach, and Jared spent hours trying to get it out. I was on a hike, when they finally pulled it off.

Then I made a cake with some camper volunteers. It went well, everybody enjoyed it.

Oh, now I'm exhausted. And I'm going to bed. Cya later.

"Quilters"

Yesterday, I went to see/usher RMU's latest musical Quilters. (Note: Play and book titles should be in italics, not in quotation marks)

This was the first RMU musical that I wasn't in. It wasn't a coed show, like previous shows. Oh well, the cast still enjoyed putting the show on.

Anyhow, I arrived to find Mike Mainier ushering along with me. He even bought me a new shirt at K-mart, because mine was well, stupid., at least in my opinion. The new one was snazzy though. Then while ushering Mike, and Acting class member Pat Nagle, wouldn't let me do David Spade's "Buh-Bye" in the "Total Bastard Airlines" SNL sketch.

Too bad!

The show itself was really good. It was a small cast of seven girls, including Barbara Burgess-Levabre, my current acting teacher, and previous cast members Emily Dewald, Lindswy Wright, Justina Rossi, Caitlin Varley, Christine Bower, and new girl Emily Korat. All did a good job. The show brought on happiness, sadness, excitement, humor and a lot of other emotions to the audience.

Nice.

I still think it would have been nice to have at least one guy in the cast. Maybe as a minister, a father, a husband, or "Jamie", the guy that the girls all dreamed about in one scene.

So what's next? A musical called "Assassins" is coming up in the fall. Maybe, I'll be in it.