Warriors Take Care of One Another

For those of you who haven't heard on Friday a young man entered Arapahoe High School with a shotgun and some other weapons intent on doing harm. He fired several shots and set off a molotov cocktail before taking his own life. Arapahoe High School is were my sister and cousin both currently attend school, but also where I went to high school.
I have tried now for a couple of days to put down in words what happened at Arapahoe on Friday but nothing that I write seems to do justice to the event or really express the sentiments that were on my mind. This afternoon I realized it was because I was focusing on all the wrong things. I was focusing on what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and how it affected me. Then I read this article here and I realized that all that stuff didn't matter, what mattered is the Arapahoe High School motto "Warriors take care of one another" is more than just a motto. The warrior that is in every student, teacher, police officer, swat team member, parent, sibling, neighbor, friend, and stranger that sacrificed, prayed, hoped, helped, acted, supported and loved is what made it possible that over 2,000 students went home to hug their families Friday night.
The article explains that a group of students who had recently experienced a couple of the most horrifying hours of their lives thought not of themselves but of their fellow fallen Warriors. They organized a time and place for friends, family, neighbors, and teachers to gather and pray for the young woman who was shot. I am so impressed with the response of the whole community which has been nothing but supportive and positive. My Facebook page exploded with pictures of the Warrior, prayers for those affected, and thanks for those brave people who did anything and everything to keep the students safe.

My sister, cousin, neighbors, friends, kids that I babysat, and kids I grew up with were all in that building that day. And thanks to the brave teachers, many of whom had family and children of their own in the building, knew exactly what to do and were willing to do whatever it took, the injuries on Friday were minimal.
One young woman was shot in the first few seconds of the attack and she is still fighting for her life in the hospital. So please if you are reading this take a moment out of your day to pray for and send positive thoughts to Claire Davis as she is still in critical condition.

Designed by Dylan Pierpont Arapahoe High School Alum

I have never been more proud to be an Arapahoe Warrior!

God Bless Us, Every One!

If life is indeed cyclical and history does repeat itself then it seems fitting that the first show I worked on in college should also be the first show that I work on professionally!
For those of you who have no idea which show I am talking about here is a hint:

Do you get it?

And for those of you who are still struggling I will lay it out in black and white print for you: I got hired by The Goodman Theatre to replace the Young Performer Supervisor (YPS) for A Christmas Carol! 

I applied for this job back in October but by the time I had my application in they had already hired someone else. However, the YPS they hired wasn't working out and they were out to find someone to jump into the production and finish up the last couple weeks of the run. Sharon, my theatre angel, had heard they were thinking about replacing the YPS and asked me if she could pass along my name and contact info to them (to which my response was "Of course! You can pass along my name and contact info to almost anybody!"). A couple days after that I got a call from the Assistant Producer at The Goodman and he asked me if I would be available to step in to finish up the run of the show (to which my response was "Of course!"). 4 days later I was running around backstage of The Goodman for my first ever professional show! 

My day has been crazy! There is nothing like coming into a production after it has been open for 3 weeks and trying to pick up the rhythm of the show... but there is especially nothing like being thrown into a production that has been open for 3 weeks in which you are responsible for 6 rowdy 8-14 year olds. Needless to say I was glad that I am familiar with A Christmas Carol! My orientation and introduction into the job duties was less that 30 minutes at which point all 6 of the children were under my care and acting as crazy as ever! 

SIDE NOTE: apparently these kids are so rowdy one of the Stage Managers had to have a "coming to Jesus moment" with them today when I arrived. 

During the first show of the day one of the Stage Managers walked me through everything as it was happening backstage and showed/explained everything to me. Then for the night performance she hung back but was available if I had any questions or needed help. Tomorrow I will be more or less all on my own and I honestly couldn't be more excited!! 

Here are some of the amazing, wonderful things about this job: 

• I am actually getting paid to do theatre! 
• I am working at an award winning regional theatre! 
• I have my foot in the door here in Chicago! 
• I am making connections and witnessing the inner workings of a professional theatre! 

I am dying from excitement! 

I am now done being a braggart.

The downside of this job:

• I don't get to go home for Christmas :(

God bless us, every one! 

The Jessicas!

Last week I stepped foot on a Second City stage for an official performance for the first time! If you remember, a while back, I got cast in a coached ensemble and my group has been rehearsing for about 8-10 weeks now for these shows! Our group has been fondly termed The Jessicas after our wonderful coach and cheerleader, Jessica Mitolo, who was so encouraging, thoughtful, and tolerant of our craziness.

Jessica thought up a new form (yet to be named) in which the show starts off with each member of the ensemble doing a short character monologue based on the suggestion given. These characters don't have to be kept throughout the show but can be brought up throughout when appropriate or just for kicks and giggles. Then two people start a scene and at some point one of the characters will step out and do a monologue that reveals something about their character. When another ensemble member is inspired they will go on stage and bring that character into a new situation (related or unrelated to the things said in the monologue). Then theoretically the other character at some point would step out and do a monologue and you would continue on. However, it's not even that simple. Because you can also do tag edits, sweep edits, a character from the sidelines can start a character monologue that relates to the scene or even brings the audience to a whole new location! Eventually if your lucky you can make connections between seemingly unrelated characters and events, and isn't that often the goal of improv!

It was a blast! We got the unfortunate and slightly touchy suggestion of Nelson Mandela, but we did a great job of using those monologues to steer away from that and open up a whole vault of interesting characters and situations!

We have two more shows in the Skybox at Second City so if you are in Chicago and want to come see them I would highly recommend it! Tickets are $10 and if you have a Second City ID it is only $5! You can and should buy your tickets online or at the box office ahead of time because most of the shows have been selling out or very close to selling out!

I mean look at us! Aren't we an attractive, dapper group of improvisers?

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks playing with these incredibly talented people! 

Wicked!

I had the unique opportunity to meet and hang out with the stage managers of the Wicked touring company. My former employer, Sharon, stage managed for Wicked a few years back when it was produced in Chicago and she got to help out with some of the shows while the touring company is in Chicago. So, being the great person that she is, she set up an opportunity for me to meet the stage managers and watch the show from back stage! It was a really incredible experience!

Molly, the SM who called the show tonight, was a lot of fun! She only graduated from college 4 years ago and she worked with Wicked in New York and has been touring with Wicked now for almost 2 years! Getting to watch her call the show was super impressive, not only was she totally on top of all the calls and cue lights but found time to answer my questions, talk to me about my life, and still goof around with actors and crew backstage.

With the touring companies the stage manager is usually not located in a booth at the back of the house but is set up with monitors and everything right in the wings backstage. This made my experience even better because I could hear everything going on over the headsets as well as get to see the chaos and precise "choreography" of the crew, set pieces, costumes, actors, props, and everything else backstage. From where I was located, right next to the stage manager right off stage left, I had the perfect view of Elphaba hooking herself up to the rig to fly at the end of act 1, the monkeys being hooked up to the rigs, and the riggers controlling the flight of the moneys.

I had so much fun getting to be backstage for such a big crazy performance! It made me realize how much I miss working on productions!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family and I daresay it turned out quite well! We planned for our friends to come over the day after Thanksgiving for a pot luck dinner since many of us are without family in the city. Megan and I spent Thanksgiving day cleaning and getting every thing ready, but we did manage to make a nice little Thanksgiving dinner of Buffalo wings for ourselves.

It took a lot of prep time to get our apartment ready for guests.
We did a lot of cleaning:

Some crafting: 

Some food prep: 

I cheated and ordered Boston Market sweet potato casserole

Megan did not cheat and made pie! Pumpkin and Pecan! 

A little bit of Decorating:

My dollar store center pieces turned out quite nicely indeed

And it all turned out to be worth it because out apartment was incredibly quaint when everyone arrived:

All in all it was a lot of fun! There was too much delicious food, some really incredible friends, and so much to be thankful for! 

I have only known these crazy kids for 6 months but I couldn't be more thankful for them in my life!

Turning Over New Leaves

So this past Saturday I had my last day watching Des, which made me very sad because he was really a joy to take care and put a smile on my face every day.
I mean just look at this kid!

We had a lot of fun together! 

So it was definitely hard to say goodbye. But unlike most of my other nanny positions I am not leaving the state so I will hopefully be called upon to babysit every now and then. 

So here was my job in review: 

• I got really caught up on my reading: 
• The Hunger Games Series
• Bossypants
• The Boxcar Children (because they had it and why not? You know for nostalgia's sake)
• Wicked (just in time to get to see Wicked in a week!!)
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
• Mirror Mirror
• Truth in Comedy (Just started this)
• Devil in the White City (I just started reading this and I am super excited!)
• I got to read lots of Children's books and practice different character voices, because you can only read the same book so many times before you have to mix it up for your own sanity!

• Because Sharon works as a stage manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre I have had a lot of opportunities to meet people and see theatre in the city that I wouldn't have had otherwise
• Shadowed the SM of Shrek at Chicago Shakes
• Shadowed the SM of Pullman Porter Blues at The Goodman
• Got tickets to see Cyrano de Bergerac at Chicago Shakes 
• Travis got the see The Table at Chicago Shakes
• And next week I get to shadow the SM of Wicked at the Oriental Theatre!! 
• Plus Sharon helped me with my cover letter and resume for the Young Performer Supervisor at Chicago Shakes for their production of Gypsy in January! 
• Most importantly, I got to play with a wonderful little boy every day who made me smile and laugh and play like a kid again! Which is great not only for improv but also just to be reminded of how wonderful and exciting the world is. 

I recentl just got hired at a toy store called Timeless Toys for the holiday season. Then after the holidays I will either have a job working theatre professionally or I will go back to nannying... either way I am very excited for the new year.

And since this post will be going out on Thanksgiving here is what this job made me thankful for:

• Sharon and Geoff for giving me a job and then for being incredible and helping me out in the theatre world as well
• Des for bringing joy to my days
• For having a new job to help me make it through the end of the year and the holiday season

And those are just a few of them!  

Looking forward to Thanksgiving with friends tomorrow! 

The Never Ending Halloween

Having never experienced Halloween outside of the suburban bubble or a small college town, Halloween in the city is a totally different beast.

Growing up in the suburbs Halloween is easy and exciting! After having planned my costumes (and trick or treating route) sometimes for months in advance being set loose in the neighborhood was a few hours of joyous (generally freezing cold) bliss! With an average 8-10 pound haul of candy I was set until Christmas. At a very early age we were set loose (chaperone free) in the neighborhood with a watch and a check in time... otherwise we were about as free as you could be! I am proud (or ashamed) to admit that I trick or treated all through high school and don't regret it for a second.

My first experience with Halloween in the city made me realize how easy it was to be a kid in the 'burbs. It had never occurred to me that children in the city can't go door to door to trick or treat. Instead they often collect candy from businesses in the area. My first encounter with this was jarring and eye-opening. I didn't realize what was happening at first. As I got off the train on my way to class I was immediately surrounded by hoards of young children dressed to the nines in costumes running between all the different shops and restaurants. My initial thought was "aww, that's cute! All the businesses decided to have a trick or treating event for the kids on a Sunday afternoon." And then it came to me, "kids can't go trick or treating door to door knocking on strangers doors asking for candy!" I thought to myself "man, they are really missing out, they have no idea what trick or treating is really like..." That is suburban naivety right there. Of course they are not missing out, that is just what Halloween and trick or treating is to them.

Different areas of town had their trick or treating extravaganza at different times on different days all last weekend and this week. (If I were growing up here I would see that as a perfect opportunity to make it Halloween Week and trick or treat every night).

This leads me to my second observation about Halloween in the city (although this is true of college as well). Halloween is not just one night! There were parties all last weekend, wednesday and thursday of this week and I can only assume that there will be a few more this weekend.

So what does that mean for me? That means that I have to continue reminding myself that seeing a guy in a luchador mask, a teletubby on a motorcycle, a man with no pants crutches and an Obama mask (ObamaCare), and Poison Ivy are still mostly socially acceptable.

My Halloween was a nice low key party with friends. Here you can see me with a pirate and a cowgirl. I was Rachel Berry circa Season 1 of Glee (although you can't tell in this picture).