Bram Stoker's "Dracula" adapted by Smyth and Meads @ CUAA

So it's Sunday September 30, 2012 about 9:15 pm and I'm about to head into a very exciting and scary week. I'm currently the Assistant Director for my University's production of "Dracula" adapted from the Bram Stoker novel by Robert Smyth and Kerry Meads and premiered at the Lamb's Player's theatre in 1987. The play is very true to the novel with only a few modifications that are necessary to keep it short and feasible for theatre. It has a narrative like quality with journal entries very similar to the layout of the book. It casts a different light on the book and vampire theory. Count Dracula actually has less stage time than most of the characters, though his presence in the course events is very evident. The Count and Lucy are the only vampires seen and they tend to represent evil rather than sexuality and gore. The play focuses on good verses evil, love over hate and unity over greed.

 I have been very blessed to be apart of this and I know the cast has put a lot of hard work and we have overcome many obstacles, just like the character of the play. This next week we start to prepare for tech week and we should finally be completely off book very soon. At this point things can start to go very smooth or they could get rocky as patience is tested and stresses build. If we get to where the director and I want to be the whole cast will be experimenting with different aspects of their characters and perspectives of the events, rather than settling down and losing their energy and enthusiasm. We want them to be comfortable with the process and be willing to try different things rather than pinnacling too soon.

This is my first experience as a director and it's very exciting though I wonder if I'm acting like a director. I'm the assistant so my director does a lot, I just feel like the second voice and another brain with ideas for making a scene work. I also feel like another actor giving the less experienced actors guidance and tips. Which I guess is part of being a director/assistant. I'm not all unsatisfied but I just wonder if I'm doing enough. Though I suppose that this is a learning experience and hopefully I'll be able to learn from my director's example.

Anyway, with my own insecurities aside I'm looking forward to this week with apprehension but also knowing that I need to move forward and face those fears to help the actors and the whole crew get ready for what's going to lay ahead.

This production is certainly going to be a very exciting step for the Department and  the University. If any of you are in the Ann Arbor area I encourage you to come to Concordia University on October 11,12, and/or 13 at 8pm for "Dracula", I'll post a link about ticket information below and hopefully keep you updated on progress and if and when online tickets are available.

http://www.cuaa.edu/KnowConcordia/arts/drama.html

"Dracula" by Bram Stoker

Adapted for the stage by Kerry Meads and Robert Smyth

When: October 11, 12, 13 at 8:00 p.m.
Where: Kreft Center Black Box Theater
Tickets: $10 ($5 students and seniors)

This version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula premiered at Lamb’s Players Theater in San Diego. It invites us to witness a more presentational, unapologetically melodramatic form foreign to the postmodern eye and ear. But be patient, watch and listen, for despite its de-emphasis of blood and gore, the strength of its story ushers us in to a redemptive dis-ease. The evil embodied by Count Dracula is spiritual more than physical, and the play casts a light on our own moral shortcomings and on the monsters that lurk within each of us.

Finals Week

        Finals Week, those two words usually strike fear and terror into college students. This week seems to the most crucial and trying time for current students and still stirs graduates to the core. A huge percentage of a students grade usually lies in the outcome of a final. Even if your grade is not dependent on the result of your final there usually is a tidal wave of work, study and preparation required to make it through this week of immense stress. The thing that is nice about being an English major at Concordia is that I haven't had a lot of "cumulative" finals. The bad thing is that there are usually enormous papers to write and just like most college students I procrastinate and end up writing the whole thing the night before. I must say that I had to take Principles of Biology as a gen ed. and I absolutely manhandled that class. If it weren't for my abhorrence for Black Board and my inability to remember to take the online quizzes I probably would have aced the whole class. Instead I ended with an 88% but on the "final" which was actually just the last unit test, I scored 114 out of 100. This professor gave extra credit questions on the test and she also curved because she had her baby over thanksgiving so the last two weeks were independent study. Needless to say I was the curve, or broke it. Now that finals are over and I'm back home for the Christmas Break/ til next semester starts I have another predicament.
        I'm home which means I'm in the middle of no where. Yes i enjoy being home and with my family but there's only so much you can do and after awhile I'll get sick of it. I also start to miss my friends from college and I can't visit them and I start feeling "college sick". Like home sickness but the other way around. College has become my home and also where I have the most opportunities to go out with out driving thirsty to forty minutes. Most of my high school friends are doing their own thing and frankly I haven't even talked to all but my closest friends. Well I do need to get my stuff unpacked and go through old stuff and see what we can get rid of. So there is stuff to do but I seem to lose motivation so quickly.
        I also need to watch what I eat. I've lost some weight and I need to keep it off if even lose some more but with a refrigerator and pantry full of munchies and a sudden feeling of lethargy it's going to take a lot of will power.
       So to my fellow college students take your break to release your stress have fun and enjoy it while it lasts. Also please feel free to click on ads and show some support to a fellow broke college student. It's like a possible ten cent free donation and it costs you nothing. I also look forward to any comments that I could use to blog with or engage in conversation. Seriously I'd like to get feed back, or email me at SycoFox (at) gmail.com

"Appliances"

Yeah right now I'm thinking about appliances. I had a fight with my coffee maker over the weekend. It's a cheap little thing and on the front it says Mr. Coffee (I assume that's the brand? and I hope I can use that name on this inconsequential blog). In all reality it was user malfunction and not the products fault but you think after 3 year with it, it would have been more considerate to it's faith friend and courteous owner. When making coffee I put in the proper amount of water and coffee grounds in the filter, and flip/push the on button. The contraption to supply the power is awfully strange, at least to me. It resembles a switch but you push it more than you flip it.  The little thing starts to gurgle after awhile and and then it starts to percolate or whatever. The boiling water goes up and and then falls into the filter and scorches the unsuspecting coffee grounds, which release their aroma though it's just  Seattle's best Coffee found at Target.

It's level four coffee and in small print it says Henry's blend. I hope Henry's taste in coffee is respected cause it's tastes fine to me, but I wouldn't want to drink something that would be considered substandard. The other description given says that it is a coffee both for the connoisseur and those who have trouble spelling it. So I guess it must have some report with food critics. Or it's just a piece of marketing deception. I digress.

What happened next was I usually like to let the filter fill up before putting the pot underneath to drain the coffee. I'd like to believe that this lets the ground "cook" longer and release more of their nutrients and flavor, mostly I just care about the caffeine. Anyways I left the maker pot-less for a little too long so when I did put the  pot in  I noticed that coffee grounds drip trough with the coffee for they had floated above the filter. This has happened before, I usually just restrain the coffee. I stopped the machine and let the coffee drain. When I opened the lid I noticed little brown bits on top of the filter holder thing, and then I noticed them in the unboiled water. So I had to rinse the whole thing out and I feel some grounds got pulled into the tubing and what not. I hope that doesn't cause problems later. If I smell burning I'm throwing it out but I'd rather not because I probably wouldn't be able to get a new one for awhile.

The next day I made coffee again and prayed the poor thing would function. It did, but the filter failed. some how part of the filter fell down and the specks of caffeine producing goodness plummeted into the coffee pot. I poured the coffee into my trusty Tin OSU Buckeyes Mug. I added half a pound of Domino sugar four heaps of Meijer Brand Non-Dairy Creamer and a splash of some other brand of Vanilla coffee syrup that I got at target with the filters and coffee. I usually have to let the coffee cool off significantly before consumption. By the time I'm down to the last ounce of coffee it's technically cold. I love to take the last of it like a shot, just shooting it down. I actually think this last bit of coffee is the best, I prefer frozen coffee beverages any way and the sugar tends to settle a bit. Unfortunately due to the creamer clouding the drink and therefore making me unaware of the spitefull bits awaiting revenge for stealing their precious caffine and scorching them they just sat at the bottom patiently waiting, I took in the last of the coffee. Instead of the euphoria of caffeine and heavenly delight of sensory stimulation, I got a mouthful of bitter fiends of leftover bits.

So there's my coffee anecdote.