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!

The Maine Adventure!

It's been a great week!

Pestle previewed to a very nice crowd on Thursday and opened to a nice crowd on Friday. The crowd on Saturday night was quite, but I think appreciative.

Saturday we woke up for 9 am changeover training after being up until three the night before celebrating Pestle's opening.

Beka, me, and Beth at the Opening Night photo booth

 Audio changeover is nothing, so I helped Beka with props stuff and then went home and dozed some. Saturday was the day of all naps.

Sunday we started tech for Shrew, which meant I was sitting and watching until the night came. Then I actually got to run sound because we lose Wednesday night as there's a Pestle show. I'm actually really enjoying running shows because it means I get to read in the booth. I'm flying through books and absolutely loving it.

Josh and Ambien as Petruchio and Katherina

Today was a glorious day off. Beka, Beth, Amadi, and I went to Brunswick (which is near where Beka grew up) and ate glorious drive in hangover food and then delicious gelato. We went into Cool As A Moose which was awesome and brought back a lot of memories of the one in Bar Harbor that my family used to go to when I was younger.

Beth, Amadi, Beka, and I

We also went to Target to meet Beka's mom to get laundry (yeah...her mom does her laundry for her...must be nice) and pick up a few things. Then we stopped by CVS so I could pick up a prescription and some nail polish (more on that soon!)

Then we headed home and had a nail polish painting party while watching Shakespeare in Love. Now we're watching History of the World Part One and hanging out. Tomorrow we go right back into Shrew tech. Such is the life of a production intern.

I meant to post earlier, but it's been a rough day.

I'm having some personal things happening, and it's really wearing me down.

The good news is The Velveteen Rabbit opens tonight! We did our final dress earlier, and it seems like it's going to be a pretty good show. It's only 50 minutes, so the tech process was very easy and went very smoothly. And now the show opens and will run until my birthday (with all the other shows in rep).

My view from the booth!

In Toad news, it's Beka's 21st birthday tomorrow, so we're having an opening night celebration/21st birthday party here tonight. Beth and I made a cake, and Beth bought alcohol and mixers. Beka's not a drinker, but she did say she'd drink at least some tonight. I probably will too to keep me from thinking about my life.

Tomorrow Amadi, Beth, and I are going to set off to buy me and Amadi bathing suits since we have a company party on Monday and neither of us owns one.

Other than that, it's been pretty quiet. I've had some time off because the show's opening and tech wasn't until the night, so Beth and I went grocery shopping, and I read and relaxed. We're *fingers crossed* hopefully getting a new router soon, so the internet won't be so awful.

I'm sure there are some of you who are as upset about Google Reader dying as I am. I've been trying out replacements, and I have to say, I really haven't liked any of them. I'm a creature of habit, so I wanted something that was as close to Google Reader as it could be. I tried Feedly; I tried Bloglovin, and I tried Netvibes. I probably looked into others, but finally yesterday I found something I could live with. It's called The Old Reader, and it was made in homage to Google Reader. It has a crappy name, but if you're looking for a replacement that's almost a clone, I'd suggest it.

I've gotten some new and exciting things, so I will post about those as soon as I can get pictures taken. I think it's kind of funny that my beauty posts are all lined up, but it's the personal posts I have issues with sometimes. There's just not all that much to report!

But never fear! I will find something to talk about! Even if it's not that exciting!

We're still down three housemates, but we've all officially started! It's technically prep week, so we're working on setting things up and getting them working rather than working on an actual show. The actors are in rehearsal for The Velveteen Rabbit and are having a grand time of it, from what I've heard.

As for me, I got to relax a little on the first day, and then Rew and I set up the board and set up and tested the headsets. We have a brand new Behringer Xenyx X1832USB this year which will become my BFF from the summer. Also, we're getting SFX (an audio playback program) which I'm very familiar with, so I'm glad I won't have to learn a whole new program.

Everything about this little town is so quirky. The theater building also houses the public library.

 It's a little strange, but very quaint and charming. Plus, it's been absolutely beautiful here, especially weather-wise. I've been cold waking up in the morning! It's glorious.

The theater was originally built as an opera house, so it has that same, giant, decorated opera house feel in a little tiny theater that seats a little over 200. It's cute and (here's the word of the summer) quirky, and definitely very maze-y. I'm reminded of trying to learn the Taproot Theatre summer of 2011. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon, but for now I get pretty turned around.

I've never worked in legitimate summer stock before, so this will definitely be a new experience for me.  We spend June preparing as best we can and all of July in tech. That's going to be pretty crazy. But, I'm  already enjoying it way more than last summer.