Update 4: A Conversation with Mr. L

On Wednesday, Bryce, Lena, and I met on campus at the Upper School to pull props and costumes and to meet with Mr. L. We were able to find a few of the things we needed in the upstairs balcony, but we still have some searching to do. Since Mr. L wasn't available until after around 11, we worked out blocking for all of the songs and went out to lunch. I happened to have gift cards, so I treated Bryce and Lena to Subway.

Unfortunately when we got back, Mr. L still wasn't in his office, so we had to wait for him until we could do anything else. Luckily, he didn't disappear forever and we had a nice chat with him when he came back. He showed us what kind of lighting was possible in the auditorium and we gave him the music to the show so that he could see what it was like. He told us that we should come up with a basic idea of what we wanted the lights to look like and that he'd work with us on it next week.

After our meeting and through today, we finished a rough light plot and completed our press release that we're planning to send out soon. One of the cast members, Joanna, has a degree in Arts Management and works in that field at Cain Park and agreed to help us with the publicity aspect, which was really nice of her. We're still waiting on the final poster from Phillip, but he said he should be done tonight. Fingers crossed!

Update 3: A New Cast Member

On Monday, we had our second rehearsal, but it was the first for one of our cast members. We also had our on-site visit. I almost didn't make it to rehearsal that day because I accidentally missed the shuttle to the lower school. Luckily, I was able to catch Jenny on her way out after track practice and she was nice enough to give me a ride down to the Lower School.

Rehearsal went alright. Ms. Samet seemed to enjoy sitting in and was overall pretty pleased with the situation, I think. The only downside to Monday was that one of our performers wasn't as prepared as we would have hoped, but I think they should be able to pull through. Now I see why Mr. L always liked the people who learned all of their music and lines going into rehearsals. At this point, Kelly is definitely the person who knows her stuff the best, but I'm not particularly worried about the rest of the cast either.

I should really get better at posting these blogs on time, but by the time I get home after our rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they always seem to slip my mind. Maybe when my track season is over (mine might end this week), I'll remember, since I have less to worry about.

Chapel: Middle School War Flashbacks

Thursday morning started bright an early at Hawken Lower School. We sat in on the last chapel talk of the 2013-2014 school year, which was strange for me, considering that I haven't attended a chapel talk since I was in eighth grade myself. It was an interesting talk about Stand Your Ground laws, and at the end we stood up and announced our project. Hopefully some of the middle school students will come see Edges. Several teacher approached us afterwards and expressed interest in coming to the show as well.

After chapel, we headed over to Peet's, our usual meeting spot, to work. I had coupons for free caramel macchiatos and had already consumed a double cappuccino before leaving my house. Needless to say, I was jittery for about an hour, and am now barely awake. At our meeting we also assigned ourselves specific jobs. Up to this point, we have split up the duties of producer, director, and stage manager, but we think that it will be more productive for each of us to have a specialty. Bryce will be directing from now on, because she is most comfortable in the role due to her assistant directing experience with HPS, Rose has the most backstage experience, because she took stagecraft sophomore year, and I will be producing, because I enjoy talking to strangers. We have had a productive week so far and are looking forward to rehearsal tomorrow. 

4: Making Plans

Today was definitely our most productive day thus far. We met at school to start pulling props and look at the stage and really see what we could do with blocking, lighting, and sound. We realized that this is a show that didn't really need that many personal props, which is good because there is less for us and the cast to keep track of. We also knew we needed to make the stage smaller because as is it is way too big. Mr. L was really helpful today because he gave us ideas with spacing and design of the set that we didn't even realize we could do. Instead of just having a black curtained background we be able to move the cyc closer downstage and that would become the new back of our set and we'd be able to light it in many different ways.

This is what a cyc looks like:

We were also struggling with where we'd put the band because Gary needed to be able to see the cast but not block the audience, Mr. L told us we could put the band on stage which would be great for sound and not block the audience. He also brought up a concern that we had and that Ms. Samet voiced through email, that we weren't be assertive enough with the cast and taking control. Mr. L suggested we do a small divide and conquer where each person becomes a "head of a department". One person would be the director and they'd be the go to question for blocking and things having directly to do with the cast, one person would be the stage manager who would deal with cast and crew and making sure everyone is where they need to be, and one person would be the producer who would deal more with public relations and publicity. I think this a really good idea because before we tried so hard to make sure everyone had and hand in everything it took much longer to make sure everything got done.

Since today we finished blocking the show and created a mental set, next on the agenda is to create a lighting plot for each song. Mr. L will help us cue next week and we are hoping to be able to get a rehearsal in at the Upper School so the cast can start getting a feel for the space and the set. We still need a drummer but we are very close to getting one.

3: Samet Stops In

On Monday's rehearsal Ms. Samet dropped in to see what we had been doing so far. We were able to show her our program and poster. Ms. Samet gave us some good ideas for publicity and for organizing all of our work. She was also able to stay long enough to actually hear some of the singing. This rehearsal we had Kelly, Joe, and Joanna. We were confident in Kelly and Joe and last week Doug really surprised us with how prepared he was so we were nervous adding a new person into a mix that was already working really well. Unfortunately Joanna was not as prepared as we had hoped. Luckily Joanna has a great voice and once she gets where she needs to be she will be great. The unpreparedness hindered our rehearsal some because we really don't have enough rehearsals for the cast to learn their songs from the start, we need them to at least know the songs go and some of the words all we really have time for is polishing during rehearsals. One of the hardest things I feel we have had to deal with learning how to be leaders with our cast and actually have/show authority. It is really weird to be a bunch of students directing adults. I hope we can figure this out soon because it is really important that the cast is confident in our abilities to direct.

Making a Business

For my project on Monday I met with Mr. Doody at his office where he taught me about creating a new business.  He started my telling me about the 5 P's of marketing.  1. Product 2. Price 3. Place 4. People 5. Promotion.  He really focused on number three and four when talking about it.  He used two businesses in the area to talk about the Place part.  He compared Waterway to another car wash on Washington Street in Chagrin.  Waterway's location makes it very visible and accessible because so many cars drive through that circle, and that is why they are able to charge $30 for a carwash.  While the carwash on Washington Street only charges $5 dollars per wash and yet it is always empty because not nearly as many cars drive that way each day.  And the People part he told us if you're going to start a business, pick a location where the people living there have disposable income.  He also empathized that whatever you are doing, to be successful you have to be the best at that particular thing.

Never A Dull Moment

Bishop Cosgrove today was eventful as usual today. After I finished gathering information for this brochure that I am helping the Bishop Cosgrove Center revise, I went to the cafeteria to volunteer. Keep note, there is never a dull moment in the cafeteria. Today I was in charge of making the fruit punch for today’s lunch and I had to help pass out drinks to people while they get their meals. I returned to the loud noisy people playing dominoes, rolling up tobacco or people who just like to converse loudly. One of the most astonishing things I saw today is the lack of thank you the workers and I received for feeding them. You would expect that a lot of them would say this considering the rough position that they are in but yet appreciation from them today was rare. Also for my first time today I saw a woman go into labor! While I was in the midst of passing out endless rows of cups full of fruit punch, I saw this lady standing on the wall gasping for air while one of her friends was dialing 911!  I kid you not, this was a very unusual experience for me because everyone else in the cafeteria continued to go about their business.

Update 2: The List

The project I have been working on over the course of the weekend and today has been a spreadsheet of all the clients of Mr. Simms’ company, Players Rep. The information I have to find is the players’ college, high school, and hometown.  Mr. Simms explained to me that a big part of having success in the agent business is having connections.  Now one of the main ways Mr. Simms makes connections is through one of his clients knowing another player in the NFL through either growing up in the same hometown, playing together at football camps, or potentially going to the same college.  If one client knows another player, he can give Mr. Simms some sort of contact with that player, whether it be a phone number or email, and this is one of the main ways Mr. Simms expands his business.  The background information on Mr. Simms clients is key because if he can find any sort of connection with the players who are going to be in the NFL draft in 2015, it can give him a direct in with the new potential clients.  After I finish making the list of Mr. Simms clients, I will begin to make a spreadsheet of the players to be drafted next year with similar background information.  This list is something Mr. Simms said that he updates all year long, and I am giving him a solid foundation.  Anything I can do to help.

Negative Splitting

Negative splitting is one of the most difficult concepts to explain to developing swimmers.  What’s even harder is getting them to successfully execute a negative split set.  Negative splitting a race means swimming the second half of a race faster than the first half, contrary to how the body would normally perform. 

 “The reason swimmers generally don’t negative split a race is due to the mental component of swimming: specifically, a loss of concentration.  98% of it is loss of concentration, and the other 2% is due to actual physical fatigue,” coach Tim says to me at today’s practice.

Yes, that means if a swimmer goes off into la-la land, he or she will not negative split a race.  Negative splitting doesn’t even require a swimmer to be in peak condition.  Negative splitting is solely due to swimming smart.

Tim tells me the set ahead of time: a 50 (2 lengths), a 100 (4 lengths), a 200 (8 lengths), a 400 (16 lengths), and an 800 (32 lengths).  “I don’t want them to kill themselves on the 50.  It’s all about control.  The 100 should be an okay effort.  Then for the 200 they should start to build it up.  The 400 should be good.  Very good.  And the 800 should be an all-out sprint.”

I provide sendoffs for the respective lanes, depending upon age and swimming ability.  “Stay long and in control for the 50, otherwise you’ll be in trouble for the 800 if you sprint it,” I tell some of the younger ones, who have a tendency to eagerly start a set quickly, regardless of its intended speed.  “Grab hold of the water and really catch it with your hand and forearm.  But you should be thinking about moving your body forward, not your hand backward.”

Getting ready for the main set!

Nova's Project 2

On Monday, I went to Nova's first real agility class. There were several other dogs there with their handlers and Nova was a little bit behind since they'd been in class much longer than him-- he still had fun, and I got some pictures of him using some of the agility course obstacles:

 

Tonight, Tuesday, I have another group class with Nova where I will be going with Amy to walk some dogs down by the Polo Field. Again, we will work on obedience and heeling. This Friday, I have my third school assembly at U.S. Lower school at 2:15! I'm very excited for it.

Rehearsal Two, a site visit

Yesterday, we had our second rehearsal, and our site visit from Ms. Samet. It was an extremely productive session, in which we plowed through the two group numbers, two duets, and three solo songs. We have also had little guests in all of our rehearsals thus far. Kelly and Joe's sons sit in the back pew and play video games on Joe's phone, until the younger one (three years old) gets bored and starts rolling around on the stage (which is fairly adorable). It is nice to have kids around, but it means that we haven't gotten to rehearse "In Short", a popular number with a fair amount of profanity, and an entire section where Kelly sings "die die die die die die", for about twenty five seconds. Another song, "Pretty Sweet Day", includes the line "and Santa isn't real", which was a close call at rehearsal on Friday, but Joe managed to recover before it was too late. Ms. Samet dove right in at rehearsal, helping us out with possible publicity contacts, and humming along to the music. Over all, it was a pretty productive day and we are trying to finalize the poster. I have attached a draft.

2: First Rehearsal

It's the most amazing feeling in the world when all the anxieties you feel are taken away when you hear people sing. This is what happened to me on Friday. We started rehearsing the opening song of Edges, "Become" and the first person who sings is Doug. None of us had ever heard him sing and we were all pretty nervous. Lo and behold he has this fantastic tenor voice and he sounds AWESOME! And that is when I thought "wow, we can really pull off this show". Things have been going surprisingly well. We got a poster done in the first few days of project. Our program is done except for bios. We have been getting a really positive response on out Facebook event. I'm excited for us. Todays rehearsal will not have Doug but we will have Joanna. Although everyone is very professional and have been learning their songs. I'm worried about the limited time they have together. I'm also worried about all the behind the scenes stuff we need to do in terms of tech. Later this week we have a meeting with Mr. L to talk about set, lighting, and sound. I will also be looking for props and small costume pieces. Everything may look good apart but putting everything together will be a very interesting challenge. Of all of these things I'm most nervous about the lighting and sound. I know some about both of these things but not enough to really do anything with them. Thank goodness we have people willing to help us along the way with this whole process.

Miscommunication and Missed Meals

Friday began productively, with another several hour meeting at Peet's. We went over everything that needed to get done that day, and then dispersed for a little while before rehearsal. Unused to such a self structured schedule (with both meetings and rehearsal during normal meal times), I kind of forgot to eat...

I had a super light breakfast before going to our meeting, which went through and past lunch time, and after our meeting I went to my grandparents' house to teach them how to use Facebook. Rehearsal was at six, and I forgot to grab dinner beforehand, so it was a bit of a challenge for me to get through, luckily, I was able to steal food from Rose.

The rehearsal itself went really well, and one of our cast members, (our sponsor Kelly), already knew everyone else's lyrics, which was really helpful. As Rose mentioned in her post, there was a bit of a debacle surrounding our use of the chapel. I spoke with Mrs. Libbey, head of the middle school several times, and she told me that we were good to go, and to call Mr. Newcomer. I did so, and he too said that we were all set for rehearsals at six pm on Mondays and Fridays. Needless to say, we were a bit surprised when one of the custodians walked in and had no idea that we were going to be there. Luckily, we were able to explain the situation, and now we are actually set to continue our rehearsals.

Post 2

On Friday I started off the day with learning about how to create business plans with Mr. Doody.  He showed me plans of restaurants he has already created, and also plans or restaurants that are still in the works.  After learning about the business plan he taught me how to manage a budget.  He took the budget from one of his restaurants, and explained why he gave certain categories more money than others.  After learning about it, he gave me the numbers to a different project and asked me to make a spread sheet using the numbers.  I created the spread sheet and before sending it to the designer he checked it over.  Following the spread sheet, Mr. Doody let me shadow the head builder in his project, Scotty.  Scotty showed me around the new building and introduced me to all the others guys working on the project.  All along the tour he was talking to me about how he runs the building site.  His main focus is that the other workers and him can joke around with each other, but once he needs them to do something, they need to know to respect and listen to him and get the job done.  This mentality is why Scotty and his team were able to construct an addition in 1 month while other construction groups said they could only finish in 3 months.