Last night there were two music events scheduled at Hiram. First, in the Frohring Music hall, were Tina Bergmann and Bryan Thomas, a hammer dulcimer player and and bassist, respectively. My colloquium professor encouraged us to attend and write a one page review of the concert for class. The music was amazing, and I was surprised by how much variety the two musicians could muster with their instruments! I filmed two of their songs:
After the Hammer Dulcimer concert, I ran over to the Kennedy Center Lounge, where another concert was underway. KCPB managed to get Jason Reeves, an up-and-coming musician most known for singing with Colbie Caillat, to have a little concert here at Hiram! His music is amazing and I got three videos of him. I also picked up a CD after the show.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Playing
We have been making great progress in African Drum Circle! We have learned each of our rhythms and a dance to go with the last one. At the end of the semester we will be performing in a concert to show off what we've learned. Now we are going through all the acts to make sure we know how it'll go along. I can't wait until class tonight, to see how it's looking so far.
Immediately after African Ensemble tonight I have to go to play practice for W;t. We are moving through pretty quickly, I think. By now I have all of my lines pretty much memorized and most of my actions as well. The equity actress hired to play the lead role arrived recently so we've only recently been able to rehearse with someone actually playing the lead role. On Thursday we had a rough run-through of the entire play, trying to recite without our scripts as much as possible. As the days count down towards the opening night, our rehearsals will get more intense. I hope that we will not have rehearsal during trick-or-treating night, but I'm suspecting that we will, which is unfortunate because I wanted to hand out candy and have a costume planned out already.
Immediately after African Ensemble tonight I have to go to play practice for W;t. We are moving through pretty quickly, I think. By now I have all of my lines pretty much memorized and most of my actions as well. The equity actress hired to play the lead role arrived recently so we've only recently been able to rehearse with someone actually playing the lead role. On Thursday we had a rough run-through of the entire play, trying to recite without our scripts as much as possible. As the days count down towards the opening night, our rehearsals will get more intense. I hope that we will not have rehearsal during trick-or-treating night, but I'm suspecting that we will, which is unfortunate because I wanted to hand out candy and have a costume planned out already.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Fall Break
This weekend was our Fall Break. We had class from Monday through Wednesday, and Thursday through Sunday we had off. It's a nice little break from college right around the time when stress just begins to pile up on the average college student.
My last class on Wednesday ended around 11:00, so I left about an hour later. I worked for half a day at my summer office job in Cleveland. On Thursday I visited my High School, NDCL, which is in Chardon. That is such a strange experience! It feels so surreal to be walking around the halls of my alma mater like so many alums before me have done, feeling rather superior in my non-uniform clothing despite myself. (Ah, the feeling of Jeans and a t-shirt is so much more sweet when surrounded by others in oxford shirts, dress slacks and skirts!) I was able to see all my favorite teachers and no-longer-underclassmen. I ran into five of my old classmates which was a nice surprise, and I picked up my yearbook. Also, I borrowed one of the English textbooks I used last year -- it would be very helpful this semester in my Intro to Literature class!
I worked in Cleveland all day Friday (yay, Christmas shopping money!). On Saturday I caught up with my homework and went shopping for Halloween supplies. On Halloween (or a few days earlier, this year) all the children from the village come to the dorms for Trick-or-Treating, so students like to decorate their doors and dorms a bit for Halloween. About $20 at the Card Factory Outlet fetched some great supplies for decorating! And I also stocked up on a lot of candy to give to all the little ghouls and goblins. I returned to Hiram Saturday night, and put up some of the decorations.
Today I finished what little homework I had left and spent most of the day so far doing all the laundry I left accumulating over the past two weeks.
My last class on Wednesday ended around 11:00, so I left about an hour later. I worked for half a day at my summer office job in Cleveland. On Thursday I visited my High School, NDCL, which is in Chardon. That is such a strange experience! It feels so surreal to be walking around the halls of my alma mater like so many alums before me have done, feeling rather superior in my non-uniform clothing despite myself. (Ah, the feeling of Jeans and a t-shirt is so much more sweet when surrounded by others in oxford shirts, dress slacks and skirts!) I was able to see all my favorite teachers and no-longer-underclassmen. I ran into five of my old classmates which was a nice surprise, and I picked up my yearbook. Also, I borrowed one of the English textbooks I used last year -- it would be very helpful this semester in my Intro to Literature class!
I worked in Cleveland all day Friday (yay, Christmas shopping money!). On Saturday I caught up with my homework and went shopping for Halloween supplies. On Halloween (or a few days earlier, this year) all the children from the village come to the dorms for Trick-or-Treating, so students like to decorate their doors and dorms a bit for Halloween. About $20 at the Card Factory Outlet fetched some great supplies for decorating! And I also stocked up on a lot of candy to give to all the little ghouls and goblins. I returned to Hiram Saturday night, and put up some of the decorations.
Today I finished what little homework I had left and spent most of the day so far doing all the laundry I left accumulating over the past two weeks.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Sarah's Daughters
Last Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday there was a play called Sarah's Daughter's. It is about a woman whose grandmother and mother died from breast cancer. Later she learns that she has the BRCA gene and is diagnosed with breast cancer as well. She worries that her two daughters will get breast cancer as well.
The play is a one-woman show, with senior Kelly Hanahan as Joanne, and another student, Emma Strong, played the cello throughout the performance. (The play is Kelly's "Senior Capstone Experience"). The show was very good, and the ending is simply amazing. I can't imagine memorizing almost 90 minutes' worth of lines!
I saw the opening and closing night performances. On closing night, the Canadian playwright, Jeff Nisker, was there, and we got the opportunity to talk with him and ask him questions afterward, which was very interesting. Also, this was actually the American Premier of Sarah's Daughters! A US premier, here at Hiram!
Sarah's Daughters is part of a series that Hiram is putting on this year called "Cancer and the Arts." So far we've had the play Sarah's Daughters and a discussion with the creators of a musical called Unbeatable, A Musical Journey. The next play will be W;t by Margaret Edson (I'm playing one of the lab technicians in the hospital, an English student, and a rehearsal assistant). Also, the artist of the local comic strip Funky Winkerbean will be visiting campus as part of the "Cancer and the Arts" series (Linda, a character in the strip, dies of cancer -- today, I believe).
The play is a one-woman show, with senior Kelly Hanahan as Joanne, and another student, Emma Strong, played the cello throughout the performance. (The play is Kelly's "Senior Capstone Experience"). The show was very good, and the ending is simply amazing. I can't imagine memorizing almost 90 minutes' worth of lines!
I saw the opening and closing night performances. On closing night, the Canadian playwright, Jeff Nisker, was there, and we got the opportunity to talk with him and ask him questions afterward, which was very interesting. Also, this was actually the American Premier of Sarah's Daughters! A US premier, here at Hiram!
Sarah's Daughters is part of a series that Hiram is putting on this year called "Cancer and the Arts." So far we've had the play Sarah's Daughters and a discussion with the creators of a musical called Unbeatable, A Musical Journey. The next play will be W;t by Margaret Edson (I'm playing one of the lab technicians in the hospital, an English student, and a rehearsal assistant). Also, the artist of the local comic strip Funky Winkerbean will be visiting campus as part of the "Cancer and the Arts" series (Linda, a character in the strip, dies of cancer -- today, I believe).
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