Off to See the Wizard!......

One of my projects keeping me busy this summer is being the Musical Director of "The Wizard of Oz." I have directed kids shows for the past 4-5 years so its not a big stretch. There are a couple of differences this time around though... we used to do shows in a Black box or a small proscenium theater. The Black Box sat about 150 people and it is literally a black room so we are limited to what we can do set wise and instrumentalist wise. The theater was an old church converted to a theater. This theater seats about 200 people with a small overflow area. I would much rather be in the old church but we didn't always get our choice. Lights are always limited and sound systems are pretty much an ipod or a CD player, nothing else.

This summer we started a new Theater company Youth Theater Carson City . This company is performing out of the local Community Center. This theater is a full functioning proscenium theater seating over 700 people!! Now i don't think that we can fill this theater and pack the house but its a nice thought. We also have access to so much more then before. We can fly out set pieces, we have wings that they can enter from, spotlights, lots of lights, full working sound system, AND wireless microphones! We have never had the option of using microphones in a show let alone wireless ones. We also will be using overhead and floor microphones.

I am really excited for the kids to get this opportunity to perform on this stage. For most of them this is the biggest stage they have performed on. I grew up performing on this stage. I performed with the local Community College and still do. They do all of their performances at this theater. Most of the students i have in the group have seen performances at this theater but never thought they would get to perform on this size of a stage.

So to get ready for the show i have been working on music, going to rehearsals, and working on costumes. I have so many green sequins around my house its not even funny!! But it will all be worth it in the next couple weeks. There will be 40+ children singing and dancing up on this stage with smiles on their faces and loving performing. That is worth it!!



oh we also have a touring group that performs around the community, at various activities around town. here is a picture of the SHOWSTOPPERS (their group name) performing at the Carson City Relay for Life event last weekend!!

Summer Vacation... whats that?

ok so it is about a month into summer vacation and i have never been busier!! This is the first summer that i have not had a job during the break. So what do i do? FILL IT!! I have many projects going on and i will hopefully post individual posts to go into more depth about each of them, but here is just a preview of what has gone on and what i have planed for the rest of my summer vacation! My vacation started right out of the gate with going to visit my brother in Huston Texas. He has been going to college near there and i had yet to get to visit. My brother and i are 4 years a part and pretty close so 6 months of not seeing each other wasn't working with either of us. He is attending Prairie View A&M and his baseball team made it to the NCAA regional playoffs in Texas. This is a huge thing in baseball and our family is BIG in to baseball. So my parents and i flew out to watch him play at Rice College, and even play agains the Rice Owels. Unfortunately they where out of the tournament in 2 games, but it was nice to see him play and see where he lived. I then spent 24 hours in a car driving back to NV with my brother. When i got home i jumped into cleaning and purging my school classroom from the year. Though i have been teaching at my school for two years now i didn't get a chance last summer, due to a summer job, to clean out the last teachers files/ organize the room to my liking. SO i moved some things around and cleaned out some cabinets that REALLY needed it. One Project i have started this summer, and fingers crossed will finish in the next couple months before school. I am cataloging all of my music in the choral library. The choir program at my school is substantial and has a nice size library for a middle school, BUT nothing is written down. Thats right i decided it was time to get organized. This project of course sounded like a good idea in June and now a month into it.... i will be glad to get through christmas!! (but more to come on that later) My other large project is Music Directing a "The Wizard of Oz". For the past five years or so i have been a Musical Director of a local kids theater program, working with a close friend as the Creative Director and the Director of the shows. After a fall out with the program we where working with, (building managers and board/ creative team) my friend and i decided to start our own theater company. We have partnered with the local Community Center and started our own Youth Theater company check it out at Youth Theater Carson City . I love working with these kids and they make it so worth giving up my summer to see them glow on stage.Each of these projects is time consuming but are worth it in the end. I also have been looking on Pinterest (my new FAVORITE site) and getting lots of fun ideas for school. I am loving the organization tips and am working on getting organized for the upcoming school year. If you have not checked out Pinterest yet click here and be amazed. Well i guess that is a good update, i am determined to keep on top of this better then the last time i tried to blog about things! 

Bri