November has been a very busy month for me at both the Opera and CalArts. I feel that I missed out on blogging about a lot of things, so I hope to catch up a bit now.
The Strike:
I do not have a position on who is right or at fault over the Broadway strike, because I have not stayed informed enough to judge all the facts. I particularly feel bad for families that can't see a show this holiday season and spend some time together. Closing down Broadway is kind of like canceling Christmas for kids. On that note, at least The Grinch reopened last week for the holiday season. Broadway is part of the entertainment industry and unfortunately affects a lot of people who have nothing to do with the strike. The writers strike has also done the same thing for film and television. There is something off in the industry and I just hope it gets fixed soon.
Watercolor:
I have never had any reason in the past to work with water colors, but I had to paint a few landscapes for class this past week. I will have to admit that is was rather enjoyable and relaxing, even though I lack a lot of drawing and painting skills. It is something I hope to continually work on more as a hobby now. Below are some of my first attempts…feel free to judge as you wish.
LDI:
I was not able to go to LDI this year because it was in Florida, and I was working at the Opera the entire week. I didn't have that much time to really check out what was happening, but since it will be back in Las Vegas next year, I plan on going for sure.
Opera:
The Opera has finally slowed down now that our final two shows for the fall are opened. I have been working for almost 2 weeks straight on Don Giovanni or La Boheme. It was certainly a lot of work to get both of those shows up and running, and I'm not exactly sure how it happened still, but it did. Everyone at the Opera certainly deserves a lot of credit for their hard work to get the shows open for the public. There were lots of minor hang ups in a lot of areas that led to the productions needing a lot of tender loving care. One of the lighting departments biggest problems was adjusting to the EOS. It is a great board, but with minimal training on everyone's part, a lot of time could have been saved. This will get better though as time goes on.
Shows:
There are only two weeks of classes left at CalArts for the semester, which means it's almost time for me to pack up for a month and fly back east to spend some time with family and friends. It will be nice to be home, but I am not good at doing nothing, so I have a few gigs to work on while I'm back East. There is a great children's theatre that I grew up going to and working at about 20 miles form my house. It has certainly been a second family to me in many ways and I am glad to be designing two children's shows in rep there. The shows are the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and also A Midnight Cry. A Midnight Cry was a play I designed last winter at this theatre and is coming back for a limited run it seems. The BFG will be new and should be a lot of fun to work on. I also might get to spend a few days working on a tour of True West in early January that my undergrad is working on.