Be not afraid of greatness..

Hi friends!

Patience has officially closed and with it, my time in Toad. I moved out Monday night, and am now in my home stay in Winthrop with the Knights. The house is nice (and heated!), my room is small but cozy, and the Knights and Teddy (one the actors for the tour who also lives in the house) is pretty cool. I'm feeling a little watched, though. It's hard for me to be in someone else's house. I liked being able to do my own thing at Toad and not feel like I was intruding. Also, apparently I have to move Thanksgiving week. I'm really ready to not be picking up my entire life every two or three months. It's starting to get really old.

What's not old is being out of that drama-filled house. Seriously, you guys, it was so negative ALL the time. I stopped even hanging out with them because all it was was one bitch fest after another, and it really drained me. Dawn even noticed. I ended up crying about it in her office on Friday because I was so emotionally exhausted from being around it. It's nice to be out of that living environment.

In better news, I had the day off yesterday, and I went on another date! We met up in Auburn to go apple picking and then got Thai food at one of his favorite restaurants. He's a really great guy, sweet with a good sense of humor. I'm not sure if I'm romantically interested in him or not (and there's other stuff going on - that's a complicated story) but he could absolutely be an awesome friend. I'm looking forward to seeing him again sometime.

In the office I've been working hard on the This Wonderful Life materials. I wrote a press release draft and made up some dummies of post card fronts for Dawn to look at. I also spent some time fighting with Dreamweaver to make sure the Twelfth Night resource guide was available to schools. I finished the day stuffing envelopes. Not the most glamorous of jobs, but at least it's not frustrating. Tedious and mind-numbing, yes, but not frustrating. And the most exciting news of all, I'm now on the TAM voicemail! It's like I officially work there and stuff!

So this isn't just a wall of text, I will leave you with one of two new phones cases I ordered recently.

I'm kind of obsessed with it. My phone never looked so good! What purchases are you guys super excited about lately?

You put my love on top!

I apologize that this is late. It was a crazy, chaotic first weekend of Patience, and my blog got away from me.

The good news is, we're very busy and the audiences seem to really be enjoying the show!

I had my day off yesterday, and my Toad family and I went on an adventure to Two Lights State Park, Portland Head Light, and Portsmouth, NH.

Instead of boring you with words, look at gorgeous pictures of Maine instead.

Cape Elizabeth, Two Lights State Park

Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light

And, no, I haven't edited these at all. It really was this beautiful.

Hope you all have an excellent week!

Learning the ropes

It has been a crazy week!

So to catch you all up, I picked up Alex from Portland, and we made our way to Monmouth.

I now live with seven other people: six actors and the stage manager. There's John and his wife Shannon who are big into the opera scene; Connor and Matt, two actors from Philly; Marie, who just finished seven months in contract with Disney on one of their cruise ships; Christine, the stage manager who's from Utah, and Alex, who lives in New York.

They all seem like wonderful, lovely people, even if I do feel a little out of place with so many actors around.

On Tuesday, I jumped right into the Marketing world. Dawn and I created a whole list of things for me to be working on, including press releases, website work, eBlasts, graphic design-y things, and a couple longer term projects or ideas for me to be thinking about. I'm also in charge of getting the mail and general office-y things like that. In addition to all those responsibilities, yesterday I got trained in box office world, and I sold four tickets!

It's actually been really fun. I went postering on Wednesday to the towns of Gray and New Gloucester, and today my very limited knowledge of html helped me fix something on the website. Small victories are definitely good when you're just starting out.

Tomorrow James is coming by to talk about the new website he's designing for us, so that should be exciting.

Overall, it's really good to be back. I actually like being in the office a lot. Now I need to see if I can get Dawn to unleash the social media stuff to me, and get some new things up on the TAM blog!

This weekend I'm off to Vermont to go to my college roommate's wedding, so look forward to that for Tuesday. And look forward to my Mall of Maine haul on Sunday! Hope you guys have had a great week!

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The end of the end

I know I've been MIA for about a week now, but I was not at all prepared for the explosion that was the last week in Monmouth.

Let's start with my birthday: Thursday, August 15th

It was also Write On day, and I spent from 2 pm until around 7 pm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Seriously, I spent the hour of Velveteen Rabbit working, then helped change over, then spent until 3 working furiously. From 3 to 5:30 we teched all the shows which meant that I was running back and forth between the booth and the stage, making notes, talking to directors, and performing. At 5:30 I ran to the dining hall to shove food down my throat before high tailing it back to Toad to work furiously from 6 until about 6:45 when I ran over to the theater to put the finishing touches on all the shows plus preshow and intermission music before the house opened at 7. From 7 until 7:30, Hannah did my hair and makeup.

Birthday selfie with Bethy!

Despite (or maybe because of) the crazy day, the show actually ended up great! There was one mishap sound-wise, but everyone was really great about what happened, and I was really impressed with myself. In previous similar situations, I would've been a raving bitch, and while I was frazzled as all get out, there was no bitch to be seen. I'm (finally) learning to handle stress!

Then we went back to Toad and celebrated my birthday for real. You guys. There was so much alcohol. We made what we lovingly called "theatre juice" (see around 4:33 for the inspiration) and it was ridiculous. I've never been so drunk.

Friday and Saturday were normal two-show days, and I spent any down time recovering and/or packing for my trip home. Sunday Amadi, Beth, and I went to Slates for the last time and had a lovely brunch before coming back to do our last Shrew ever.

Afterwards was strike and cleaning for everyone. I stowed most of the sound equipment, restored the old board, took some stuff back to HMH, and then tidied the booth. Monday I helped electrics haul equipment and take apart instruments for parts. The best part was getting to throw old instruments off the fire escape into the parking lot. Destroying stuff is fun.

I had my exit interview at 4 and said goodbye to a lot of people. Then the rest of us sat on the porch and watched cars go by.

The Leftovers

This group (minus Luke because he'd already left) went out to dinner at Margaritas, and then came back and cleaned the hell out of Toad. Our kitchen was disgusting.

Yesterday morning I woke up, put up the fall index page for the website (after AD helped me break into the office because it was locked and Dawn had a meeting) and then got on my way. I'm back in Baltimore now.

I'm going to try to keep putting up personal posts, but those might be few and far between until I get back to Monmouth in early September. I'm not sure how much I'll have going on here. But never fear! There are a lot of beauty posts ready to be written. Next up is my birthday haul, so be ready for that! (I promise it'll actually happen this time.) I enjoyed this summer a lot, but I'm glad to be home and relaxing for a little while, and I'm excited to start doing the marketing thing when I get back!

It's been a good couple of days!

Rew and I have been cleaning and tidying up, and stuff's actually starting to look really nice! Plus, he's actively helping me learn. Explaining things to me and asking me what I want to learn more about. We went for coffee and ice cream one afternoon, and we talked about my goals, and he drew me a map of how the monitor system was set up. It's so nice to have someone who cares as much about me learning as I do. I feel like I may actually be finally understanding.

He also taught me to solder today, and I fixed a cable! I feel really comfortable with him already which is nice because I have a hard time learning if I'm not comfortable around the person who's teaching me. I feel like I can't make mistakes or ask questions, and I get really self-conscious which is unconducive to the learning process. But here I feel like it's okay if we go slower and it's okay if I have to ask about something I should (probably) already know. Not having the time to learn in school hindered me, but I'm determined to make up for it here!

I'm excited to start working on shows. I know that once I fall into being a board op monkey, I'll get bored, but I'm excited to go through tech and have it not be a massive disaster. Though I do wish I had more access to things like live mixing here.

Since Rew doesn't have an actual office, we've been spending a lot of time in the library. If there's one thing I love above everything else in this town, it's the library. It's so small-town, and the atmosphere is so friendly and warm. I love sitting there and listening to the people come in and the librarian talk to them and make suggestions. There's such a charm about a small town. There's also a book sale in the basement, and I am definitely buying at least two books.

I said I'd get tired of the atmosphere in Toad, and it's already started. It's loud and energetic most of the time, which is just not something I like. Thankfully, I can hole up in my room most of the time and escape it, but it's hard that this is the base for most of the activity because it means there are people here all of the time. My introverted self is trying hard to adjust. I'm definitely glad I have a car, though, so I can strike out on my own when I need to do so.

The Tang of the Salty Sea will Call Us Home..

I've been pretty lucky in terms of theater experience. I spent the last two summers in Seattle and California, and I landed a pretty awesome sound internship for this summer as well. And this one gives me room and board as well as a small paycheck!

This time, I've traveled up the coast to Monmouth, Maine which is about 20 minutes south of Augusta (which is the capital, in case you, like me, are not up on your Maine facts). I left Baltimore around 10 am on Sunday and drove, drove, drove for ten and a half hours (an hour and a half longer than Google said it would take me) and finally made it! I moved into Toad Hall (as it's affectionately known) which is this huge old Victorian-era house that sits right across the street (literally) from the theater.

The first night was quiet, as only three of us were here. The next day, I woke up and traveled into Augusta to find breakfast and explore a bit. I found a Walmart to pick up some necessities (there's an Ulta in the same shopping center...Lord save my paycheck) and then headed back to finish unpacking. One of my two roommates arrived not long after I did, so I met Beka and her mom. 

Then everyone started to arrive! I share my room with Beka (Stage Management Intern) and Beth (Props Intern), and we share our bathroom with Matt (Lighting Intern) and Simon (Acting Intern). Through the living room are two more rooms where Sam (Master Electrician) and Daniel (Production Manager) live. Upstairs there are four more bedrooms. They hold Aislinn (Actor) and Hannah (Actor); Ardarius (Actor/Shop Foreman) and Ryan (Actor/Box Office); Sarah (Costume Intern) and Armadi (Marketing Intern); and Luke (Actor) and Alex (Actor). The last three haven't arrived yet, but other than that we're a full house! 

There are four bathrooms (one of which also has laundry), a kitchen, a living room, a game room, and the scene shop and costume shop are both attached to the house. It's a crazy environment! Last night, everyone who was here went out to dinner at Margarita's and that was fun and ridiculous. Then we hung out in the living room until bedtime. It's a creative, energetic environment, and for now I'm loving it. I know eventually my introvert side will kick in, but for now I'll enjoy the talent and passion of everyone around me.