First Act Run-Through

Hello all,
So today was a huge step in the improvement of our production of the Wiz. We had our first "run through". Previously, we had been doing walk throughs, which is where Ms Tino and the other directors stop the show so that they can fix things that they don't like. A run through though is going all the way through without any stops. To be honest I was pretty nervous because at least in my opinion, it felt like my first performance. I had to remember when I came in and the dance steps. Although I had some jitters, I think that in the end I overcame them. I think that this is primarily because I feel that I have improved my stage presence and feel much more comfortable than I did in the past. I think that this was an important realization for me because now I can continue to improve and grow as an actor, singer, and dancer.
The production is in a week, so from here on we will really be putting the pedal to the metal.
April 7th-10th at 8 or April 11th at 2. BE THERE!!!
Yours truly,
Casey

Weekly Rehearsal Schedule

Now that we are getting closer and closer to the production, the rehearsals are getting longer and more frequent for young Mr. Williamson. I will be at every one of these and involved in pretty much all of them except for the rehearsals from 8 to 9:30 on Tuesday which I will most likely sit in on and observe the actors so I can improve my own acting

Rehearsal Schedule

[updated 3/26/2011 listserve posting by Director Tino - kevanoski 3/26/2011

Sun. 3/27
6:30 to 9:30
Act II work through Company


Mon. 3/28
6:30 to 9:00
Sing through with Pit Orchestra Company


Tues. 3/29
6:30 to 7:30
Everybody Rejoice Company
7:30 to 8:00
Tornado Ballet Company
8:00 – 8:30
Emerald City Ballet Friends, Emerald City Citizens
8:30 – 9:00
He's the Wiz Dorothy, Addaperle, Munchkins
9 – 9:30
The Feeling We Once Had Dorothy, Aunt Em


Wed. 3/30
6:30 – 9:30
Act I Work Through Company


Thurs 3/31
6:30 – 9:30
Act II Work Through Company

In Class Project Share

Today we had Ms. Gergely, I hope that's spelled right, sit in on our class because Ms. Lord was out sick. I think it was very interesting to see the different ideas that she brings from her WISE class and learn from what they have been struggling with. Because of today part of me wishes that we had more interaction with the other WISE class. I think that if we were able to have some sort of time when both classes could convene that would be awesome. This was also apparent to me when Ms. Gergely recommended that Chelsea talk to one of her students because she thinks that she could really help her. I think that this shows how much could be gained if the new knowledge and even connections of the two classes were pooled together and used. I know that I would love to be able to work in coalition with someone or even share contacts with someone. This would be very helpful in securing some much needed contacts. The WISE program is created so that we go out and create new connections with people in the community but I think it would be awesome if we could build connections with students with similar projects and have that connection assist us in our progress.

In class we also talked about how to get funding for your project. I personally need no money at all but many of the other students who are making things such as jewelery, clothes, and pretty much any finished product are in dire need of funds. I hope that the WISE program's limited amount of funds doesn't hinder their progress.

Finally we did sharing:
Chesna kicked us off by sharing about her cooking project. The things that she has been making sound delicious and really complicated, but mostly delicious. She seemed very happy about her progress as a cook and the way her project is turning out.

Next was Chelsea's jewelry. She passed around this really cool ring that she had made herself and although I couldn't fit it on my stubby little fingers, it looked awesome. I think that when she said that everything takes longer than she thought it would that really struck me. I think that I completely agree with that and know that many other WISE students share my sentiments.

Tomer- Nice Goggles Dude! But he seemed to be happy with his progress too.

Kyle- So Kyle needs actors... But wait haven't I been working on my acting? Could this be my big break that gets me to Hollywood? Probably not but I would still like to be in his movie because it sounds great, filled with suspense, soft drugs, and comedy. What a great combo!

Weekly Rehearsal Schedule

So this week will be a busy one, I have rehearsal every day so I will have to try to miss as few lacrosse practices as possible unless I want some angry coaches.

Rehearsal Calls
Time	What’s Being Worked	With	Who’s Called
Sunday, March 20
7-8p	Everybody Rejoice	Todd & Tino	Full Company
8-9:30p	Act 2, Scene 7	Tino	Friends, Addaperle, Glinda, Glinda’s Escorts, Quadlings
Monday, March 21
7-8p	Pgs 30-31, 33-35	Tino	Friends
7-9p	A Rested Body	Todd & Tino	Glinda, Glinda’s Escorts
Tuesday, March 22
7-8p	No Bad News	Tino & Todd	Evillene, Singing Winkies
8-9p	Everybody Rejoice	Tino & Todd	Company
Wednesday, March 23
7-9:30p	Act 1 Work Through	All	Full Company
Thursday, March 24
7-9:30p	Act 2 Work Through	All	Full Company

Mentor Meeting

Today I had my meeting with Mrs. Sadusky.
I just want to start off by saying that she is awesome as a mentor and is just as excited as my project as I am. We talked a good amount about my progress with the second part of my project and how I had been learning a lot of guitar for my upcoming events that are yet to be decided. In addition we talked about some problems I have been having such as scheduling conflicts and she gave me some reassuring words and ideas. I know that because of this meeting, my planning will improve and hopefully I will be able to balance lacrosse, the wiz, school, and college stuff. It is becoming stressful with all these things going on at one time but I think that with Mrs. Sadusky's help i can make it through.
After this meeting i had decided that by the next meeting I will have:
Picked out some of the pieces I will be performing.
Perfect the dance moves i have been having trouble with
Find one or two plays to review in the future
Improve my schedule/ utilize my google calendar for once
Oh and of course do more journal entries and catch up with everyone else
If I complete all these things, I will be happy with my state in my project

In Class Project Share

 Today in class we had a very fun yet very informative day of class. Many of my classmates shared the progress that they had made on their projects. To my surprise, everyone had made immense strides toward their goals. This was both exhilarating and somewhat depressing because although I was excited to see how much my classmates had accomplished, it made me think about how I could be putting in more effort and time into my WISE project.
Here is how class went:
Natanya shared first and gave everyone a chocolate chip cookie which were pretty darn good. So tasty that I may have taken more than one, but if you told anyone I would deny it. She also had a bunch of stories of her baking woes and successes. Great Job!
Jimmy followed and talked about his training in mixed martial arts. He put me in some weird chokehold to show his progress which i guess was cool at first but then just turned painful. I will no longer be volunteering to be his practice dummy
Carrie shocked me in a good way with her presentation of her slam poetry progress. This girl had some soul! She read one of her slam poems but she didn't just read it, she READ it. She put so much emotion and I can see that she has made great strides.
Then Mary came up and talked about her progression as a clown and the carnival and how that had been a huge success. It was awesome to watch as she juggled AND talked to us at the same time, now that is some talent! What made it most memorable was that she gave me the orange giraffe that she made from balloon animals.
Jordan came afterwards and talked about how he had finally found a producer from his history of the galaxy book. Me being a star wars fan, I cant wait to see how his book turns out and I hope he continues to progress through his project.
Dylan's project? Well Dylan made something that had to do with physics and although during his explanation my mind may have wandered just a wee bit, it was awesome to see how he had already finished his project. I wonder what will come next for him.
Finally Tara brought in her sketch book and talked about her project and working with sew green, which i would assume is a sewing company. Although her project sounded kind of expensive it was awesome seeing all the types of clothes she was going to try to make.
This whole day was awesome and really got me thinking about ways i could present my project and improve my work ethic and scheduling

Hero Enrique Iglesias

So I looked up "easy songs on guitar" and this was a song that I like and didnt force me to play too many chords. I know it pretty well and may be putting up a video of it if I can figure out how to do that. This was awesome because it has helped me improve my chords.

This youtube video helped with the strumming and chords

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asqLhOOyISw&feature=related

and this is is the real video for your viewing pleasure. The video is a little weird maybe creepy but i mean, it happens.

Hopefully I improve playing this song and will post it up for you guys

Cheers,
Casey

Weekly Rehearsal Schedule

I have decided to start putting up my rehearsal schedules up for two reasons. First off, to keep my trusted followers up to date as to what I am doing for my project. Second off, it also causes me to look at the schedule and gives me that extra reminder to check the schedule for the week.




I think that this week I only have rehearsal Sunday and Monday so I will sit in on one of the other rehearsals depending on how my lacrosse schedule looks

My Parts are:

• Tornado Ballet
• Poppy Dance
• Singing Winkie
• Glinda's Escort
• Everybody Rejoice (Full Cast)

Rehearsal Calls
Time	What’s Being Worked	With	Who’s Called
Sunday, March 13
7-8p	Tornado Ballet	Todd	Friends, Tornado Dancers
8-9p	Ease on Down	Todd	Friends, The Road
Monday, March 14
7-8p	Y’all Got It	Parker	Wiz, Pit Singers, Emerald Citizens
8-9p	Everybody Rejoice	Parker	Full Company
Tuesday, March 15
7-9p	Funky Monkeys	Todd	Friends, Monkeys
Wednesday, March 16th
7-8p	Who Do You Think?	Parker	Friends, Wiz
8-9p	Act 2, Scene 5	Tino	Friends, Wiz
Thursday, March 17
7-8p	Glinda Music	Parker	Glinda
8-9p	Act 2, Scene 6	Tino & Todd	Friends, Glinda, Wiz, Emerald Citizens

Guitar Day

Today I accidentally missed my mentor meeting due to a test I had to make up so to make up for it I was set on getting on the guitar and really buckled down and learned a bunch of chords. I used the aforementioned Complete Guitar DVD and I was on my way. By the end of the session I learned the E Major C Major and since I am lazy, I will summarize by saying I learned all the major chords. In addition I tried doing some minor chords, which are the "sad" chords but they depressed me so I stopped. All in all it was a pretty productive day

In Class Peer Share

In class we worked more on the projects that we had been grading and learning from. First in class we talked a little bit about blogs/journals and Ms Lord collected the hard copy of journals later in class. What really stuck with me is the six parts of journaling. I have primarily been writing about what I have been doing and my reactions to those things but have been lacking especially in planning and could probably do more research. I think that breaking the daunting task of journaling into much smaller, more manageable pieces is a great way to tackle this project. Now that I know more about what the six components are, I think that I will try and add some variety to my posts.
The majority of class was spent on the sharing of projects though. The projects that we were given in class last week were supposed to read over, commented on, and graded by today. My project was that of a former IHS soccer player and after reading over his project I was amazed by how much he learned throughout the WISE project. I am hoping that I can have the same amount or even more growth by the end of the year. In addition the time we spent sharing information about the old projects was well spent and really helped me see how regularity of entries enhance your project immensely and was also impressed by the amount of learning that each of these former WISE students encountered during their project progression.

Problems...

So today was, to be concise and to the point, bad at least in terms of my WISE project and scheduling. This is primarily due to the fact that as we progress further and further into our production of The Wiz, I have more and more time commitments. This includes the beginning of the Varsity Lacrosse season, the beginning of spring soccer season, and a plethora of college overnights that I have to plan and attend now that I have been accepted. Today is the first time that I saw how prioritizing is going to be a big deal. I was supposed to have a dance rehearsal for a scene in which I both sing and dance, cool right. Well, it turned out that our dance teacher had an emergency and could not come to the rehearsal. So instead our head coach? instructor? leader? I am not totally sure what to call her but she decided that we should have a shortened practice. I was ecstatic because I had planned on having to miss our entire practice for rehearsal. Yet when I sprinted over to the locker room and informed my coaches that I would now be able to make half of the practice, they were not as pleased as I was. After a short lecture about my commitment to the team, I left, feeling pretty dejected about my current situation. This feeling continued through rehearsal and the second half of lacrosse practice and threw me off my game. I have made a commitment to both my lacrosse team and the musical and I foresee some or, if worst comes to worse, many conflicts between the two . I will definitely have to think about this debacle and figure out a medium at which both sides are content.

"Complete Guitar" by Steve Mackay, Research

Due to the recent closing of Borders, a nearby bookstore, I have been able to get a bunch of new reading material and research for my WISE project at a cheap rate. One of these that I am excited to learn from is called Complete Guitar. This is a book and DVD set that gives the reader a basic overview of guitar playing such as chords, tuning, and actually playing it. With my mom's old guitar being currently tuned and fixed at a music shop by our house, whose name eludes me, I am ready to begin work on the second part of my project, the half that includes the performances at local coffee shops and/or talent shows. I feel that if I am able to learn at least the basics of an instrument, it will make my shows in the future much better because it won't be just me singing. In addition I feel that because of my inevitable nerves, my hands would fidget and a guitar will fix that problem. After going through this book and DVD I hope to have a basic understanding of how to play the guitar and will be able to learn the chords of the soon to be determined songs I will perform. I have wanted to try my hand at guitar for a while so this is an especially exciting time for me.

Here is a picture of the set

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Complete-Guitar/Steve-MacKay/e/9781741823905

Wish me luck and come to the performances of the Wiz (April 7th to 10th),
Casey