RockU Solid but Driven D-Xirably Insane! Part 1

So, a lot has happened over this past week,

Sunday,
I had my first full run-thru for my show. It was interesting, that's the best way to put it. I am eternally grateful to my cast for showing up and participating though. Most of them are off book and have their lines memorized which I really love! Three members of the cast were excused for work reasons and I had one no show... Given the fact that I had four necessary characters gone, it wasn't too bad of a run thru. I had a couple of people late though but that's okay. I still need to work on my show though. I have to put some things together and work with my actors a little more. Alan Nichols came to the full run thru and he gave me some great advice. I will be working on incorporating his advice into my rehearsals. Hopefully, things will look at lot better for my next full run-thru! Not to mention, hopefully I will have my entire cast there! Other than that, I tend to be a perfectionist. So, I am freaking out a little bit. We have two weeks until the show opens and it's making me nervous!

Devon W., Kayla F., and Brian T. after Booby Trap full run-thru

Kily N. and I after Booby Trap full run-thru

After rehearsals, I had chapter. It was the shortest chapter yet which I really appreciated! The D-Xirables Carma R., Lauren H., Sarah D., and I worked on our (DXP's) homecoming golf cart. (Did I mention that homecoming week is coming up? Well, it is! I am excited for that as well!) Our golf cart represents Florida! Carma's mom had an amazing idea for our cart and it turned out amazing! I am so proud of our decorations for it! I adore the flip flops and the Minnie Mouse ears, bow, and hands! It looks really nice! We have oranges hanging from the sides of it which is cool too. I'm really proud of our cart this year!

Sarah D. by DXP's "Florida" golf cart

Carma R. working hard on DXP's "Florida" golf cart

Me and my sorority mother, Lauren H. by DXP's "Florida" golf cart

It's DXP's beautiful "Florida" golf cart! Look at the Minnie Mouse bow, ears, and gloves!
Plus the flip flops and oranges!

Monday,
After class, I had to teach Susan's Introduction to Theater Arts class. Only at RockU, with the permission of an amazing teacher who had to be out of town, can you be a student and get the opportunity to teach a class. I was really scared though! I've never taught a class of this magnitude. I was worrying about it all night! After all that worrying though, it didn't go too bad. My job was to teach them about blocking and to talk to them about my job as a director. Sarah B. took role for me since my job wasn't to learn their names when she already knew who everyone was. She is Susan's TA.

We started off with a warm-up courtesy of Sarah B. We did sound and motion. Not only did it get the class to participate but it got me to warm up to the class as well, which calmed my nerves a lot! We then had them break up into 4 groups.

Following Susan's instructions, I had the class do an exercise. I had one member of each of the groups be the leader or "director", and this person was responsible for creating shapes with their "actors". One director had their actors put their hands into two hearts, one director had the group do the YMCA letters, one director had his group in the shape of a triangle, and the other director had his group do a little "r" for Rockhurst. It seems I'm not the only one that loves RU! :) They were creative about it.

Then, I taught them the different levels of/in blocking. Again, following Susan's instruction, I had several students step in as my actors to show the different blocking levels and asked the class where the focus was or who caught their attention. They did this exercise really well and understood that levels play a huge role in blocking. Whoever is elevated on the couch, has the focus, and if they are on the same level, whoever the characters' are looking at has the focus. They also learned that if someone is standing closer downstage they will have the focus over someone upstage.

Also, I showed them how to play with space and sets in blocking. This is after I had a student use the space and set pieces (couch and table) first to block a group of their classmates or "actors". I then showed them that there is more than one way to block a scene with just a couch and table.

I talked with them about my job as a director. My D-Xirable mother, Lauren, stepped in and talked about her job as a director as well. We discussed our set ideas, costume ideas, the casting process, and any problems that has come up along the way. I was really happy when my D-Xirable mother stepped in because I was running out of things to say!  Sarah B. talked about her job as a lighting designer as well, which was amazing!

Lastly, Sarah B. had them improv a scene. She had them break up into groups and one student in each group had to "direct" scenes without their "actors" talking. They had to to do this in a way that the audience understood what was going on. They had 5 mins to prepare each scene and then they had to do them. Sarah B. and I was really impressed with the scenes that they came up with. All of them did a great job on it! The first group was super funny because he had an actor kill his entire group and get away with it. It was too awesome! Another group had musical chairs which was also entertaining to watch. It was fun to watch who won! One group presented a girl fight that ended with them hugging in the end. The last group had an actor assault a woman and then get arrested. Like I said, they were creative with their improv scenes!

The teachers for the day: Sarah B. and I!

The class was over after those scenes (It ended at 10:45am). All my nerves were finally gone! Hopefully they had some fun and learned something new. While I taught Susan's class, Brian and Sam did their rehearsal on their own and without me which I loved.

I had my rehearsals for Booby Trap at 12:15pm until 2:30pm. They went well. I was happy when Roberto showed up and finally got to work with Erica a little bit. He didn't change much though, he liked the scenes the way they were.

Finally, I had to watch the dance auditions for the musical from 3-5:45pm. The dance looked fun so I tried to learn it with those that were auditioning while Grace C. took down names for me and wrote some notes. She also took pics which was wonderful! Love her for that! The dance was super hard though (for the girl's part). I couldn't keep up, Chris (the choreographer) was moving way too fast for me! I felt bad for those that were auditioning! I only did it for fun and it was tough! I watched those that auditioned though and reviewed Grace's notes to see if we agreed on them. I will be the assistant director for the musical and since Susan couldn't be there I sent some notes that Grace and I had about the dancing auditions to her. I also went to the Players meeting. It was short which was really cool. I didn't get home until 8pm.

Chris with Danny G. during dance auditions

Another photo taken during dance auditions

D-Xirably,

LaTasha B. aka "The girl that always wear high heels"