stage-meister-blog

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BROADWAY ART GIVEAWAY!!!

im gonna draw any shit from any musical u want, nerds

da rules: • u gotta b following me (im def gonna make sure u are my guy) • u gotta reblog (likes dont count dude) • that’s all, bros

I will draw: • pretty much anything • your favorite underrated musical that nobody even knows? yeah • your favorite extremely popular musical that you’re afraid to ask for fanart of because you’ll think you’re being annoying? totally, hmu • porn? maybe. depends on the ship. also im a minor so if getting that shit from me bothers u don’t ask for it

I wont draw: • incest • r***pe • characters using slurs • furries (or dolphins guys dont make me ple a s e)

that’s all! I’m gonna pick the winner on June 3rd, 2017!

[stage-meister-blog]

BROADWAY ART GIVEAWAY!!!

im gonna draw any shit from any musical u want, nerds

da rules: • u gotta b following me (im def gonna make sure u are my guy) • u gotta reblog (likes dont count dude) • that’s all, bros

I will draw: • pretty much anything • your favorite underrated musical that nobody even knows? yeah • your favorite extremely popular musical that you’re afraid to ask for fanart of because you’ll think you’re being annoying? totally, hmu • porn? maybe. depends on the ship. also im a minor so if getting that shit from me bothers u don’t ask for it

I wont draw: • incest • r***pe • characters using slurs • furries (or dolphins guys dont make me ple a s e)

that’s all! I’m gonna pick the winner on June 3rd, 2017!

[stage-meister-blog]

Inspired by a flier I saw for a bassist wanted for a punk rock girl band.

[stage-meister-blog]

it perturbs me when people think technicians are failed actors. not just generally because it’s incorrect but because it’s so disrespectful to technicians who genuinely love their jobs. I love doing tech theatre with all of my heart and I hate being the centre of attention. why is it an expectation that we would rather be doing something else? 

[stage-meister-blog]

All too much of the man-made is ugly, inefficient, depressing chaos. Good design should not dominate things, it should not dominate people. It should help people. That’s its role.

(via industrialdesignfan)

[stage-meister-blog]

When we took Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” into a maximum security woman’s prison on the West Side…there’s a scene there where a young woman is told by a very powerful official that “If you sleep with me, I will pardon your brother. And if you don’t sleep with me, I’ll execute him.” And he leaves the stage. And this character, Isabel, turned out to the audience and said: “To whom should I complain?” And a woman in the audience shouted: “The Police!” And then she looked right at that woman and said: “If I did relate this, who would believe me?” And the woman answered back, “No one, girl.” And it was astonishing because not only was it an amazing sense of connection between the audience and the actress, but you also realized that this was a kind of an historical lesson in theater reception. That’s what must have happened at The Globe. These soliloquies were not simply monologues that people spoke, they were call and response to the audience. And you realized that vibrancy, that that sense of connectedness is not only what makes theater great in prisons, it’s what makes theater great, period.

-Oskar Eustis on ArtBeat Nation (he told the same story on Charlie Rose)

[stage-meister-blog]

Welcome!

Hey guys! Welcome to my blog.

Why am I blogging?

Well, a professor once told my class to have one moment each week dedicated to being uncomfortable in order to become a better person and be better suited for democracy. 

So, here I am. Uncomfortable. Hope you guys stick around for a while.

-SM

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10 Things I Learned: Freshman Year in College as a Theatre Kid in Alabama

Yes. Theatre with an -re.

1.       Legitimately everything is scary and awkward.

If you move into a town where you don’t know anyone, of course it’s gonna get a little weird. I remember walking into the theater for the first time as a student shaking like a feral chihuahua. I didn’t know anyone. No one knew me. I felt like everyone was watching, like a spotlight was pointed on me as soon as I walked in and I only had a minute to impress the students, faculty, and staff. What I didn’t know was that everyone else had also been in my position and knew what I was going through. So my advice to anyone who will soon be in my place: roll with it, kid. It sucks, but roll with it. We’re all here to help. 

2.       It’s just like high school, all over again.

Drama, drama, drama! If you were like me, you were ready to ditch all of the petty and unnecessary drama and gossip from high school and move on to a more professional and balanced work environment.

 And, if you were like me, you were wrong.

People love gossip. Especially here in the south. And especially theatre people. And I hate it. But, when there’s no escaping it, what do you do? I ended up being thrown into a lot of it and had to carry a lot of weight and try to keep all of my equally-inexperienced-also-freshmen friends happy. And you know what?

3.       It’s not that deep.

It never is. Bad things will happen. Friends will fight. Breakups will be had. But it just isn’t that deep. You shouldn’t let things hurt you and you definitely shouldn’t pry into other peoples’ business. None of what comes is worth it. If a friend comes to you seeking for advice, sure, that’s one thing… but don’t go looking for trouble. It’ll find you anyway. 

4.       You don’t have to be friends with everyone.

You don’t have to be friends with anyone, in fact.  I tried to make and keep as many friends as possible, and it was wearing me out. A friend group I was a part of was full of liars, kiss-ups, and downright downers. It took me going through the last three weeks of this year to realize something: They don’t need me. I don’t need them. And that was okay. It is okay. We’ve been out of classes for about two and a half weeks now and I haven’t heard from any of them, even though I have texted most of them to check in with them. 

As far as making friends with upperclassmen, that’s fine, but something I had to remind myself of constantly was the fact that we were all students there to learn. For whatever reason, I always felt that I didn’t even exist on the same plane as them, they all felt so untouchable. But going back to #2, it isn’t that deep. They’re all just people, just like you and me. Don’t kill yourself trying to impress them-most of them are on the same level as you. 

5.       The only person you need to impress is yourself. But a couple of professors wouldn’t hurt…

I can’t tell you how many nights I stayed up working on perfecting projects for no real reason. It was almost like an absurdist play, most of it was a blur. It took my final performance for the department (and by final I mean my final “exam”; it was a a group performance, as you guys will soon learn, I am not a performer) to finally have my “forget it” moment and come to terms that I really didn’t have to impress the whole department. A few professors being impressed would be cool, though. My peers did not have to be wowed with what I did or how I did - they are going to have to work with me at some point [on a show]. What the upperclassmen think of me doesn’t matter. As long as I feel accomplished, then who the mess cares what junior musical theatre major Bob thought? Sure, Bob may have some insignificant amount of sway on a professor, but I’ll have my own time to shine and prove my worth.  

6.       Group. Projects. Suck. 

Theatre is a collaborative effort. It is and always will be. When you are at the point where you are the voice of reason and everyone refuses to listen to you, you may do like me and shut your mouth and see what happens. As the group descends into chaos, you can only watch as the craft [theatre] you work so hard at bettering unfolds and warps into this misshapen thing that you don’t want your name attached to. But you do. Because it’s for a grade. 

My advice? Communicate. Communication is the only way we can know what someone else is thinking. I was once in a group where one girl was acting as the group dictator and had one vision (and only one) for our group. Well, that’s fine and all, but none of us agreed with it. It didn’t fit the rubric, it was too convoluted, and we already had to work around everyone’s schedules to make it work, so the rest of us felt it would be better to go a different direction. Unfortunately, when this was communicated to her (by another girl in the group), she stomped out crying. While she later apologized (and didn’t mean it, but we had to work), we had already wasted so much time dealing with the aftermath.

So. Just from group projects alone... Don’t be a dictator. Listen. Communicate. Formulate opinions and express them. When providing feedback, be constructive. 

7.       Casted is not a word.

Breathe, little SM, breathe. I have volunteered to help work three auditions and all I heard buzzing through the lobby was “casted” this and “casted” that. Yes, I know, thank you spell check for underlining the word with a red squiggle. No, I’m not adding it to the dictionary because it isn’t a word. Please, please, please, if you are theatre major... casted is not a word. I repeat, casted is not a word. 

8.       Your latest nights begin to seem early to you.

Ah, yes. College. The smell of coffee and anxiety becomes well known to you. I remember thinking that 10pm or 11pm was late, which was a thought instilled to me by my mother, but I quickly came to see that nights that went on beyond midnight were very normal. I don’t think in my second semester I ever went to sleep earlier than 2am. Coffee is your friend, my friend. Just try your best to get some kind of sleep. You’ll hate yourself less. 

9.       The key to surviving is balance.

But what does that even mean? I don’t know. You have to find your own balance in life. I hate to say it, but there’s no “secret way” of achieving this. I still haven’t achieved it, but I have three more years to do that. Find what works for you. You have to try and be sociable, healthy, involved, well-rested, and on top of your classes all at the same time. But above all else, even above your balance, you must...

10.   Be kind.

You never know what someone is going through. You don’t know their battles, you don’t know their pain, you don’t know their life. All you can do as a decent human being is be kind to them. All we have in this world are our ideas and each other, so we have to take care of both. We all have come to this college to get educated, no matter our background. We’re there to learn, not beat each other down.

So be kind. Be insightful. Try to understand. And, if that person or group of people ends up being a complete dingus, remember you have to work with these people, probably more than once. If anything, kill them with kindness.

At our end-of-the-year banquet, the seniors had a common lesson they wished they had learned earlier on in college: Be kind. Be kind. Be kind. 

We are all fumbling in the dark trying to find ourselves. You are not alone. Freshman year is awkward, scary, hurtful, eye-opening, fun, amazing, painful, a lesson, and an experience. Live it, love it, hate it, learn from it, and move forward.

-SM