You're doin' fine, Oklahoma! O.K.!

Guess what happened tonight? I watched the Royal National Theatre staging of Oklahoma! and I enjoyed it! When I was first asked to design this set, I accepted it because it was a tremendous opportunity, not because I wanted to. The last time I had seen Oklahoma! was the original film version years and years ago and I had fallen asleep, I think. So, needless to say, I was less than jazzed about designing a show I was bored with. Which, on top of everything, is so very similar (visually) to Sarah, Plain and Tall, which I designed this spring.

Tonight I watched it and loved it. Fabulous music . . . a little on the cheesy side (but what are musicals for, after all?) . . . and interesting historical significances I hadn't thought about before.

Anyway, I'm excited to carry on with this design not only because of seeing the film tonight but also because of my stellar meeting with Rory today. As a side note, I didn't much care for the set of the version I watched tonight. Usually, if I dislike a set, it distracts me from the entire performance and it is difficult to enjoy anything. In this case, I didn't DISLIKE it so much as I wasn't impressed. They used a turntable, so that was clever and interesting. I'm just not into miniature. I digress. My point is, that I have a renewed vigor for my project.

And, I learned why they put the exclamation point in the title. When they were first opening the show, it was first titled, Away We Go. During the initial tryouts/performances, "Oklahoma" proved to be the most popular song by far and "stopped the show". So, they changed the title and added the exclamation point out of desperation because they didn't know whether it would be successful.

Thank you DVD extras!

addendum:

1:01am - And now, I have finished my ten thumbnail and floorplan drawings for our production meeting tomorrow morning. When you start getting into it, the ideas just start coming and the pencil keeps moving. It is a feeling akin to adrenaline, actually. And, I only had to push my finish-time-goal back one hour!

Bollywood is really only entertaining for . . . 20 minutes.

I had a fabulous night tonight. Absolutely and completely fabulous.

Cambell and I went to an Italian party at the apartment of our mutual friend, Kristen. There were about twenty people there and each of the couples/groups/people brought some sort of Italian-themed food. As we were making our . . . uh, interesting pizza-like dish before the party, Cambell talked about what a good idea it is to have everyone bring food and contribute. It's a completely different attitude than just having people over and feeding them. I think he's onto something.

Like I said, fabulous night. Great company, great party, great conversation.

Sorry this entry isn't particularly witty or well-worded (the only word I can use tonight is apparently, "fabulous") but it's 3am and I'm tired. I'm going to have a long weekend. Lots to do.

existing now for the first time

I had two very important meetings today, and I would like to say that they both went very well. First, I met with Rory . . . my "co"designer for Oklahoma!. As he informed me during this meeting, he is basically wanting me to take the reigns and make the design my own. For clarification purposes, Rory is a brilliant designer and now the associate dean of the College of Fine Arts at BYU. He's busy . . . and he's there for support and ideas, but essentially, it's mine. Mine. Whoa---getting a little possesive there.

Secondly, I met with Tim, the director of the show. I have been nervous about meeting him for a while, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He seems very kind and even open to not only my ideas about his concept for this show, but also open to me developing my design beyond what he's given me. Which is great. Sometimes, directors are very specific about what they want and how they want it . . . in this case, I think I will have a good amount of artistic freedom.

Now the trick is coming up with something brilliant. It must be brilliant. It WILL be.

tonight . . . where do we go from here?

I have successfully made it through my first week of classes. Hallelujah. Looks as if this is going to be a good semester. As a small setback in my plans, Ms. Poulton did NOT extend me the hand of mercy and I am not in the Art History class that I need to be in. Instead, I am taking the first of two Dramatic Literature classes, which are also essential for my graduation. I hope to make it into ArtHC 300 next semester. I officially applied for an Art History minor this week to avoid the types of complications with that class that I ran into this semester.

Other than that, not much to report. I'm meeting with the director of Oklahoma! sometime this week. I am co-designing it with one of the professors here. He is extremely talented and I hope to be able to learn much from him through this project. He's an associate dean of the College of Fine Arts, so he's a busy man, but I think it will be a wonderful experience.

Oh, I bought tickets to Guster's concert in SLC in October this week. That's pretty exciting.

the past has passed and we cannot take it back

It has been a while since I have posted here. My apologies if anyone has happened to check. Work has been crazy for the last week or two because Ward wants to impress the new Tech Director. It'll be good, though. I like the new guy. I miss Doug, but Travis is pretty great too. PTC's season has been "suspended" because they don't have funding. I don't know if "suspended" means they'll try to get it going in a month or two after they've secured some money or if they've basically cancelled and "suspended" it until next year.

School began today. It's good to be in classes again. I think I'll enjoy my German class. I've been dreading it since I came here, but the professor seems genuinely interesting and easy to communicate with. We sang a hymn in German today. It rocked. Acting won't be TOO painful (ugh . . . I shouldn't have put it off for three years) and New Testament is going to be awesome. I've had the professor before and he is amazing. I'm still waiting on word as to whether or not I can add the Art History class I need to take before diving into the major. If I can't get in this semester, it'll be . . . bad. Ugh. I need, need it. Let's hope Ms. Poulton extends me a hand of mercy.

For the past couple of days, I've been spending the evenings with Cambell. Yeah. He's back.