Winter Break?

Sleeping in... eating leftovers... drinking beer... working on scripts for work... procrastinating working on said scripts... Playstation... more beer... I woke up today to a breaking news report about the assasination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister (sometimes the world world is a terrible place) ... Meanwhile, I've become an associate of the Corleone family and can't get enough of my Godfather video game.

The Very Idea...

The email entreated me to stop by whenever I had the chance to discuss 'plans for next school year'. I misread the message and believed that the teacher had questions about my the coming semester and the classroom production we are developing. I stop by the Asperger program and she takes me aside and says something to the effect of, "I want you to seriously, seriously consider teaching the new middle school class next year." (Apparently the program is adding another class between the two existing Aspergers classes, and this specific teacher is suggesting, to not only me but the director of the program, as well, that I be the teacher.) "Just think about it."

I can only imagine the puzzled look on my face.

I came to this school to combine my two interests of performing arts and special education, and for now that is what I plan to do. Maybe sometime in the future after I go back to school I might feel more secure stepping back into the classroom as a head teacher but for now I think I'll stick to the 'Expressive Arts'.

And Cue The Applause!

December In Our Town, the Holiday Concert, was a monster hit. Well, the friends and family loved it anyway. The students stepped up, and put in the effort. Students who have not sung one note all semester suddenly were singing out loud and waving at their proud parents. The songs sounded great. The spoken parts were greeted with much applause, and my boss was thoroughly impressed with the performance. My coworker and myself exchanged relieved looks, and accepted the praise.

Holiday Stage Fright?

My first Holiday Concert is tomorrow afternoon, and I'm am completely stressed out and nervous about. I'm the 'Expressive Arts Specialist' at a school for Special Needs children and I am more nervous about our Holiday show than I ever was about performing in Professional Theatre.

Perhaps it's because I myself am not performing, and I am not directly in control of what actually happens onstage. Am I a control freak? I've directed shows for theatre companies before and I believe I was very trusting of my casts and able to 'let go' when the time came.

I am still fairly new at my job here, I am exploring lots of approaches to dealing with my students, and I am finding out what does and does not work with each student. Unfortunately I am having a harder time nailing down the staff. Some staff are very eager to help, and extremely accommodating and then again some... are not so much. We rehearse our chorus once a week, in 4 different sessions. This Friday will be the first time we've been able to assemble the entire chorus in the same room at the same time to go over our show. I also cast several students in the show, giving them speaking roles and hoping to stage a few scenes between Holiday songs. Unfortunately I have never been able to rehearse with all of my actors at the same time. The scheduling conflicts, school wide assemblies, forget fullness of some staff members, and other unforeseen circumstances have made the rehearsal process a nightmare. Couple this with the spacing restrictions of our stage, and I have had to scrap the script all together. Instead the few students whom I have been working with will introduce each Holiday or celebration to the audience before the songs.

Every actor/performer has the same nightmare to a certain degree. In this horribly stressful and all too reoccurring dream the actor is thrust onstage for a performance of a show. The catch is that they do not remember rehearsing for the show at all. Maybe there's a instance of forgetting to attend rehearsals, caught completely unaware, or even that the actor just hasn't kept up with the demand. The actor is completely unprepared, unfamiliar with the script, and caught up in a whirlwind of frenetic energy as the performance goes on around them and they stumble to keep up appearances and deliver a convincing performance. I myself have suffered from this nightmare many times.

"What if the audience knows? What if they see through me? What if they figure out that I am a phony? What if they think that I'm awful?"

That's what it's all about, I think. The dream is all about being discovered; of exposing your weaknesses. The dream is all about insecurity.

"I could've done more! I should have done more!"

We'll have to wait and see how the show goes over. I'm more leery of the parents than I ever was of Lawrence Bommer or any other 'critic'.

*WARNING - ALBERTA CLIPPER _ WARNING*

Beware! There are small, tiny, white mositure flakes falling from the sky! The white flakes are starting to gather into a fine thin powder covering the roads! Lock your doors! Close your windows! Don't go outside! For God's sake do not operate a motor vehicle! It's madness out there! Insanity!

After a 3 hour commute to work for our school's half day, I was a little bitter. It was smattering of snowflakes and the Beltway was a parking lot! It was ridiculous! Fenderbenders, Rubber-Neckers, and even cars who lost control and swerved into guard rails because of a snow flurry! As if my commute were bad enough... Old Man Winter sneezes and everyone forgets how to drive with a snowflake on their windshield!

Best Laid Plans...

Left work a little early today, at the request of my wife, to pick up the dog and take her in for a heartworm & Lyme Disease Test. (A few weeks back we found a gargantuan mutant deer tick on Tootsie's neck, and... well, some us have a tendency to worry.) I also needed to work on a few script that I am developing for my classroom productions and needed my home computer to do my revisions so I had planned to head home early anyway.

I cannot get into my neighborhood! There is only one entrance into Epping Forest and the blustery wind that has been blowing all day has apparently knocked down some powerlines leading into my neighborhood. No one gets in... no one gets out!

Isn't that just typical?

Don't Make No Sense...

Couple days ago Evel Knievel died from health issues relating to diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis. He was a world famous daredevil! With his motorcycle he jumped over buses, cars, and live sharks! He tried to jump a canyon with a rocket-cycle! He'd broken 40 bones in his many horrific crashes and he dies from a lung disease.

Heroes were never meant to age gracefully.