Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

I had a bunch of kids turn out Saturday to help me paint. We got a ton of stuff done, but not quite everything. I called it quits at 6:00 after we watched a spectacular sunset over the mountains out the back doors of the theater. We're not supposed to prop those open, but the paint fumes were getting to everyone.

About halfway through the day, we paused for a moment to watch the trailer for the show that my assistant director made:



We also watched the clip from Friday where one of the columns on stage fell over and nearly hit a bunch of actors. We actually watched the clip several times. It's a popular one.  If Slade ever sends me a link, I'll post it here.

What was not so fun was discovering that the students had not been too careful about where they swung their rollers and brushes to dry them:



No one has fessed up yet, although I also discovered this on my back window as I was driving home:



I'm taking it as a sign of affection as well as a sign of living at the top of a dirt hill for the last month.

I went up to Rachel's place on Sunday with my stack of work. We watched "Hello, Dolly!" together while I graded papers, pausing midway for a quick break to take Jack to the park. I had packed some of those bouncy-balloons, so we had some fun with those and with bubbles.





Every once in a while Jack would let go of the rubber band and the wind would take the balloon. Fortunately, they're durable enough that the brittle grass wouldn't pop them. Like some of my students, Jack's solution for the lost balloon was not to go after it himself, but instead to stop what he was doing and cry. Ever-patient Rachel would hop up and show him how to scurry after it:





It was a pleasant way to spend a day full of work. I got my midterms graded and posted, figured out the cast for the Drama 1 play, and got a draft of the program for the musical done (thanks in part to Rachel's typing!). I also had a phone call from Jason who has been diligently studying the Michelin Guide for New York. He called to say he has taken charge of the meals for the trip and has made a series of reservations. You will hear more in two weeks when we go, but rest assured that we will be eating very well.

I wore paint clothes to work today and, with a lot of help from my classes, we finished painting the set just in time for the afternoon dress rehearsal. I stayed late after rehearsal to run some new fight choreography with Belle, the Beast, and Gaston (the fight scene at the end is my favorite part of the show), and got back to the condo here in MT a little after 8:00 PM.

We start state testing tomorrow. On one hand, it's nice only having to plan for one class a day. On the other hand, I dread those days because when we are proctoring we are not allowed to do anything except watch the students take the test; which is boring when you have nothing to do and  is downright aggravating when you have a ton of stuff to do.

I can promise you, though, when I'm walking up and down the aisles diligently in my head I'll be singing "Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test..."