Whirlwind

This last weekend has been insane (more so than the particular week). It began Friday night--due to free NJ transit week I went into NY with a few fellow graduate designers to begin an East side pub crawl that lasted from only 7 pm to 10 pm--but eight to ten very string drinks later we were stumbling around trying to locate our next stop when a taxi to Penn station suddenly sounded very appealing. Needless to say, I was not up as early as I would have liked the next day to start working.

Saturday progressed as most do...with a feeble attempt to get work done before our nest foray into New York, this time to see an interested performance art piece titled Miles of String at the Chocolate Factory. This piece featured dialogue, interviews, and journal entries of modern artist Eva Hesse. While the performance itself was not that gripping (though very engaging), it made me want to look into the work of Eva Hesse.

Prior to the show, I received a phone call from my mom (which I ignored, an unfortunate but good move in retrospect) and one from Nicole--the one in London, not my sister. I got around to calling my mom again on Sunday morning to find out that Sheltie, our dog of 17 1/2 years, was taken in on Friday. Poor dog just wasn't that strong anymore. That was a tear jerking morning. Eventually I made it to campus to work on some homework. Not soon after I heard from Andrew--they had made it safely to Queens that afternoon. Which gave me the motivation I needed to plow through a little more work and go out there to see him. After an hour long train ride and an hour fifteen on the subway I stumbled upon their flat--a nice little three bedroom. All this of course meant I had to either leave that night to plan on getting up at 5 in the morning to fight the commuter rush and arrive in New Brunswick in enough time for my first class.

The semester is clipping along at an amazing pace already. Proof opens this Friday. Cloud Nine is in the shop already (unfortunately our designer cannot seem to move beyond the sex in the script, which makes me worried others in the cast and production team also have the maturity and intelligence of a pre-schooler). My internship is moving at a snail's pace as I continue to play phone tag with my designer. Hopefully that will pick up as well once she returns to the East coast and begins fittings and tech. But as it stands I am already exhausted with even less of a work load than I've had in previous semesters. Once the build for Cloud Nine really gets underway, the dance concert begins and my designer returns I won't know where too turn first, but right now the lack of work as only increased my ability to procrastinate. Sheltie and Cinnamon in 2004

Number 100

Has it really been a year already? A year and a hundred posts apparently.

Today I returned from the whirlwind weekend of prodcution meetings. More time was spent on the trains than in meetings, a queen sized bed was shared (with much commenting and heckloing from the other designers about how to earn and keep a position as an assistant), a fabulous bit a fringe theatre viewed (the COnvent at the Arden in Philly), and an awful bit of burleasque endured (a post meeting social outing that will more likely than not be edited from my thesis journal--if ever even added.

The weekend included a meeting in Philly for a show in DC, the fringe fest, a meeitng in Delaware for a show in Delaware, and the trip back to NY (Dev had yet another production meeting to attend today for a show that doesn't really begin until after my internship is over).

Everything went smoothly except for a near miss of the last train. But I'm back safe and sound in New Brunswick (if not a little exphausted) and mentally prepping for the next task--swatching. Thankfully it is only 4 or 5 fabrics for two costumes. A piece of cake compared to Audrey and even a few of David's projects.

Hit the Ground Running

As par usual, Mason Gross wastes no time. Meetings are done and over with until individual productions get underway (two mainstage are already being worked on), and we are slowly settling back into some sort of abnormal schedule. It amazes me every time how difficult it is to go from a 9-5 (or in APT's case 8:30-6:30) schedule to chaotic schedules here. I only have two scheduled classes and my TA this semester (I am teaching makeup design to one student--another graduate nonetheless). The remainder of m y time is spent in the costume shop or at my internship.

"At" is relative in regards to the internship. Devon is an extremely active designer. She was just heading to Utah few weeks ago when I reminded her about the internship, and now she's heading back this Friday with 3 more shows to gear up for. I've caught in the beginning stages of all three shows--an excellent place for this internship. Of course this means the first few weeks will be spent primarily in front of a computer of buried in books as I do research and paperwork.
Sunday and Monday I will be attending two production meetings with her for separate shows--one in DC and the other in Delaware. Thankfully, we're traveling to Philly instead of DC for the one meeting. And Delaware is a mere hour 15 away from New Brunswick so the commuting is not as frightful as I originally thought. After being in WI for three months I've forgotten how compact much of the East Coast is.

Shortly after arriving in NJ, I picked up some extra work through a classmate on a commerical. Elf hats for Black and Decker. As I don't watch much TV, y'all will have to let me know if they ever show up. This is the sort of quick work that pays off right away.

So busy as usual...