blog

Blogging about who knows what

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:30:40 +0100

Hey guys!!!
Well it is my first post of the year so I am still trying to get back in to the swing of things. Sooooo.... I dont really quite know what I came on here to say but I will talk anyway. State is coming up! Forms are due on Wednesday!!! This is so exciting :) I am so pumped but so sad about my last thes con. I have been going to THespian Festival since they started doing it for Middle Schoolers. Making this my 6th Thes Con! (Not including Nationals which I have attended 3 times) Therefore, you can say that I really enjoy my time at these shin-digs. I am nervous for State this year as I am a State Thespian Officer. This means that I will be spending time doing jobs for the Convention rather than specifically for our troupe, which as a Thespian Officer I would be doing. This is going to add a whole new twist into convention. But, I am very excited to take on this challenge and see where convention takes me. I also will be auditioning for colleges which is about as scary as it can get. As I sit here writing this blog I am thinking of my project due tomorrow and of the "perfect" monologue that I feel like I am completely in search for and always let down by. But, when December rolls around I will be performing whichever pieces I choose for way too many colleges than I want to think about. asdjflasjdfoiewulfjksdl. But that's life I guess. So back to the point.... Convention! I hope everyone is getting very excited and can't wait to be monitoring the elevators and weaving my way through life on December 5th-7th.

P.S. Induction invites will be going out so soon! If you are a new thespian you most likely have enough points and the list will be posted tomorrow :) Please try to attend inductions if you are a new inductee its a lot of fun and our sincerest attempts to welcome you in to this honors society.

Andie (Veep)

Hann here...

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 23:03:58 +0100

So today in our officer meeting, the thespian officers begged ME to blog. :P Here I am...

I guess closing Beauty and the Beast last night filled me with a desire to reach out to non-theatre majors at DSA and say- go for it! Step into your fear! Join thespians! Come to state. Perform an IE. Or just come and participate in workshops. The hard part about DSA is that you only get the chance to experience your declared major art form daily- so those of you who love performing, take the chance on Thespians. Even if you don't know who to room with, or are unsure of what IE you want to do. There are so many people who will welcome you and help you. If you want to be a part of it, then DO IT. There's nothing stopping you, except maybe going outside your comfort zone. I'm always here to help, stop by my office and let's chat about it! :)

And then audition for Thespian Cabaret too-- it is just too too fun to pass up!
XOXOX

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Thu, 15 Aug 2013 13:22:54 +0100

Well we’re back! That 19 day excursion to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was beyond marvelous. We got to be real actors for a couple of days, thrown into this crazy life that they have. It was truly eye opening to see how this process unfolded on such a large scale. This privilege we were given, was humbling and a once in a lifetime experience. I personally enjoyed the culture of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. There were no rules to what could happen. Anything was possible through the art of theatre. Original pieces that made me laugh and cry, made me want to pursue this business that we have thrown ourselves into. This business that gives itself to us. And in some cases we were able to speak with some of the cast members after their shows. It was incredible to hear the excitement they spoke with. Finding out how it all started and where it is going, that excitement is what I want to have. Most of us walk away from this experience in awe of what we had just witnessed. But don’t get me wrong, it was hard. We challenged ourselves every day to keep the shows fresh, to keep the show alive, to perform that show every day and still make it better and better. Because when you see that child smiling back at you during curtain call, there is no better feeling in the world. That feeling that got me into theatre. There are so many ideas pulsating through my head at the moment that it is difficult to put it onto paper. So much has happened and I’m not sure I’ve had enough time to come down from it yet. I wish I could be back there now walking the Royal Mile in search for the next show to see, the next show to make me feel, to make me connect, and to make me love. Isn’t that what theatre is about? I would like to personally thank everyone who made this trip possible. To Hann & Becker for trusting these kids hundreds of miles away from home. To the parents who let their kids go those hundreds of miles away. And to anyone in-between who helped us to make this experience possible. We are home!

iT IS LaTE

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 08:15:55 +0100

It's 2:10 am. And your new thespian board is hard at work making this year run as smoothly as possible. There have been smores and strawberries and lots of cat loving (like the genuine petting of cats not anything weird.) By the way this is Alessandra. But Maia says eyooo.
Anyway. It's 2:11 and I just want to sleep but I love you all so much that we are still up. I don't know why I am even here right now except to test my coherency.
adieu little ladies and lords i'll be back tomorrow with better syntax I swear.

Why Should I go to Nationals Anyway?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:16:40 +0100

Hi Thespians,

It's your Creative Writing Rep, Shawn Cremer, but anyone and everyone should read this! So, let's see... Are you a junior? An I.E. performer with two superiors? An eighth grade thespian? If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, then you don't really have to keep reading (unless you're waiting to hear on the results *hint, Ave. Q, hint*) So, you could go to National Thespian convention. But why? I mean, it's expensive and let's face it; Lincoln, Nebraska isn't everyone's favorite city. But, put those facts aside and let's see what you could get out of the trip. If you are a junior, then of course, college auditions for theatre, musical theatre, and technical theatre are all very important. It's a great place to show off your talent to a bunch of colleges at one time and try for lots of scholarship money. If you have an I.E. it's a great chance to continue working on an already good scene and who knows, maybe you could perform on the main stage. (HUGE DEAL!) (P.S. That sounded sarcastic, but it wasn't supposed to be. Actually, its super cool.) Now, what if you want to go, but there's no I.E. or audition in it for you (Talking to eighth grade/ I.E.s who aren't going to perform) You get a multitude of really wonderful workshops (much better than state) and, in my opinion, best of all, you get to see, what is it? TEN shows. I'll admit, not all of them are good. In fact, both years I went, there was at least one that was pretty rough, but you learn from that too, right? And the jokes about the good and the bad last for years.
In short, I think if you have the chance to go to Nationals, you should take it, especially if you've never gone before. It's quite the experience. My recommendation: spend as much time with people outside of your grade/major as possible. It's a great place to be with school mates in a semi-non-school setting where you can get on each other's level.
So, if you're wavering, talk to some other people who have gone in the past. I'm sure you'll get honest feedback and I hope you choose to go.

I'm out.
-Shawn

Avenue Q........ what up with that?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:45:03 +0100

       Ok so here is the thing. Avenue Q is such a weird show. Amazing, but so incredibly weird. It is a show with actors onstage carrying around puppets. Huh? The first time I saw the show I spent countless minutes before questioning and hypothesizing how I was going to watch and enjoy the show. Will I watch the puppetts? the puppeteers? who is really the character? who will be acting? But somehow this wonderful show manages to do it flawlessly. The audience is able to bounce their eyes between all the members of the ensemble without getting distrcted or overwhelmed, or at least I was. This is something that I have had the pleasure of wittnessing in this last week particularly. As one of the Assistant Directors I spend most of my time wtching the show, and until recently, though still hillarious, the puppets were somewhat dead. Well this is no longer the case.
      This process begn with a lot of intro. We learned the songs, the basic of puppeteering, and when having to block every arm and head movement made blocking takes forever! So, much of our rehearsal time was spent on those invaluable parts. Without the support how can you build the building? Answer: You can't. Well our building has now skyrocketed and we are a tall and sturdy skyscraper.
    This show is so incredibly difficult for the actors involved. Think about how hard a normal show is, walking, talking, and trying to be in charcter seamlessly. Now imagine that with a weird growth on your hand or maybe even a person wrapped around your waist. Yeah, that makes it difficult. Each actor had to score when they opened and closed the mouth of their puppet, get their blocking, harmonize and still be a good actor. Lets just say tht I am convinced that it is impossible. But of course both the red and the green cast have proven time and time again that they are up to the challenge and will conquer it. One last little tid bit. The double casting has also presented new challenges. If you have ever been in this situation you know that competition is normal and natural. Luckily both casts are so supportive of one another and are truly acting like an ensemble.
    I hope this gives you a little look in to what the process is like. If you have any questions message or tell me about them and I will nswer them in my next blog!

We ready for da rest of da year, yo

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 02:27:09 +0100

Hey thespians!
VP here. Last semester was crazy for Thespians, primarily because of state convention. Thank you for being wonderful and representing DSA the right way!

This past weekend, the officers had a day long retreat where we reviewed our goals from the beginning of the year and reminded ourselves of what kinds of leaders we want to be. What we concluded more than anything was that we wanted to have more thespian events in order to unite our troupe! This semester we will have a thespian outing (like lasertag or bowling), thespian get togethers before shows, and spring cabaret!

We hope you all had a great winter break, rested up, and are ready to dive into this semester! Just a few reminders of upcoming events:

January:
Avenue Q runs the 17-19, 24-26 at 7pm in the schomp
Mandatory thespian meeting is on the 30th

February:
Nationals registration is due Feb 8
The intermediate plays run every weekend in the blackbox

That's all for now!
NICKI

THES CON!!!

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:57:43 +0100

What’s up thespians it your tech rep – Kelsi! Let’s talk Thes Con:

So to start off let lets talk workshops! Can I say I loved the directing workshop, the presenter was amazing – he walked us through the process he goes through when he is first handed a script. I really LOVED this workshop and hope there are more like it next year. I also got the chance to talk resumes with another presenter and I thought her ideas about it really helped me to understand ways I can improve my own resume and portfolio.

I also got the chance to see some brilliant IE’s one of my favorites was Justine’s costume design for Medea. She put some much time and work into her IE and it showed. If you’ve never seen a tech IE it might be worth stopping by to watch one.

The main stage shows were fabulous as usual. I loved the all-state show – I couldn’t stop laughing!

DSA finally got a Tech Olympics team to state – which was a ton of fun. We completed the events in 7 minutes and 5 seconds. It was challenging but lots of fun and I can’t wait until next year!

And the best part was the energy running through the air – a huge group of people all who love this living art form; how so many different artists can come together to live and breathe their art for a couple of days. This is something I love about Thes Con being a part of the energy and livelihood of this conference and even though we just finished this one I CAN’T wait till next year!!!!!

ThesCon 2012! Part 1...

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:25:25 +0100

Hey guys its Jimmy your Freshman Rep!
Here we are at the "last ThesCon ever"...if the world ends.

I'm sitting here at a Starbucks with Ms. Shawn Hann talking about how awesome this ThesCon is going to be, currently our wonderful Jr. Troupe is doing amazing performing their IE's and enjoying workshops. Marlo & Julia are super busy running around being fantastic State Student Officers! It's the most wonderful time of the year..Yes that one time of the year where all the "Theatre Geeks" come out and really show off their love for Theatre. I love being a Thespian because you learn that theatre is beautiful and very powerful to those who use the magic of theatre to their advantage.
***Don't get Eggnog Lattes from Starbucks.. I'm very sad.

Well anyway Ms. Hann and I are off back to watch our little JRT kick butt.
I'll blog more tonight.
Have a great thescon to all and all a good night!

Thespian Convention: SSO Report

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:23:56 +0100

Hello Thespian members!
   I hope you all have been having a wonderful Thanksgiving Break. November has been a crazy month and we, as students, have been in need of a time to rest and spend time with our families.
   Today's blog is going to be centered on the Colorado State Student Officers (SSO's).
   Over the past two months, the SSO's have been intensely planning the State Thespian Convention, which is in just two weeks! (Crazy, right?!) Currently, we are securing donations for the Silent Auction, where Thespians will be able to bid on theatre related items like: tech supplies, costumes, makeup, tickets to shows, etc. The SSO's have also been brainstorming on ways in which we can fundraise for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which is a non-profit organization that contributes health services to AIDS patients. During the Convention, we will be on the Wells Fargo Stage, assisting/teaching IE workshops, and running around with collection buckets for BC/EFA. it would be AWESOME if each one of you could donate a dollar into these buckets at any time during the day. When you donate, you receive a cool red ribbon, a smile, and you help someone in need, so it is worth the one dollar. Added detail: the female officers are competing against the male officers for the most money collected... Let's just say I will take this competition seriously :)
   There is also a raffle on a dinner with the SSO's at the Hyatt Hotel on that Friday night. It is a great way to get to know us/ask us any questions about the requirements of being an Officer, in case you are interested in being one!
   State Convention is going to be a crazy, but extremely exciting experience. Those of you who are attending for the first time, I must say you are in for many surprises, as well as meaningful experiences. Prepare your IE's to the best of your abilities, attend workshops, and have a blast.
   Hope to catch up with you soon!

Julia (DSA Secretary and SSO officer)