Haven't been able to post very often. I don't have a computer at home, which means that I have to go to my dad's office and hope the computer is both free and working.

Beside that, I have been quite busy working on the set for this performing arts camp that I mentioned earlier. We still don't have any scene crew as far as students go. But my sister has been helping out some and one of the other TAs has been pitching in. Tomorrow another friend is going to be coming in. So things are moving along, although we are still desperately behind.

We still have to finish painting three flats, put together the huge paper back drop, build the free standing portion of the backdrop, build the triangles that the flats are going to be attached to. We also have to make a pirate's ship wheel, a pirate flag, a restaurant sign, create a baroque style frame around a door, as well as a frame that looks like an attic to another door. Oh, and also a giant taco that is attached to the top of a taco stand (the door), which is removable and can be flipped upside down to become a boat.

I'm sure this doesn't make any sense to anyone but me and the rest of the crew, at least not written down anyway, so I'll have to put some pictures up with better explanations.

Oh, yeah, and all of this has to be done by five p.m. friday--this friday.

It should be pretty cool though, if we can pull it off.

I'm grumpy and I'm not really sure why. I suppose one theory may be that I am tired, and this would be a good theory. I am tired.

I think also, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed. By which I mean, things are not going so well at work.
We have two weeks to pull off this simple stage set. But some of the materials that we vitally need to get going will not be arriving until Friday at the earliest or next Tuesday at the latest. Leaving us only a couple of days to finish the back drop along with any specific props or costuming from the three directors (the props and costuming also can't be worked on until the teachers decide what it is they are doing).

The stage is another problem. It looks great, but once you get into logistics there are all kinds of issues. For example, there is no rigging to hang set from, and we don't have the time or money to build free standing sets. All we want to do is to hang a few banners with a city scape painted on it, but we will have to jerry-rig everything with out harming the facilities. Also, there is a light bar, upon which to hang the stage lighting, but no electricity outlets to hook up the lights to.

Here's the kicker: When we started the camp on Monday we had three students in our behind the scenes crew. However, do to some confusion in the catalog, each of them signed up thinking they would be part of the actual performing. So they have switched over to the performance half of the camp. Therefore, we no longer have a crew. It's just me and the teacher.

We are trying to pull some junior high schoolers from yet another camp, but it will be a day or two until we know for sure. My sister, Pilar, aka [Bad username: cherryluscious"] also agreed to come and help out next week. So it's not a great, but at least that problem is on its way to being solved.

Sorry for venting. Please go about your business as usual.

Today I started my first day at the performing arts camp. I've worked for this camp for several years, and it's always great fun. I love the creative process and helping kids get involved makes it quite rewarding.

It's a really great camp. The first week is workshops, in which kids get to experiment with dance, drama, music, and art. The next two weeks is a performance camp, where the kids help write a short skit/play and then are a apart of a large performance at the end of the second week.

I'm always involved in the stage design, and for a no budget small stage show, I'd say it's pretty darn impressive. One year we had two life-size elephants flanking each side of the stage. Another year we had to make a giant converse sneaker out of cardboard, which the kids used to travel back in time. And last year, we created a jungle scene that included about fifty, hand-made vines hanging down from an arch above the stage.

This year the theme is "mysteries." Already I'm thinking about different ways to do cityscapes, maybe more stylistically. Other ideas include having little doors in the walls that open and reveal some secret thing/person behind them. *concentrates* But we're still thinking about it.

I can't wait to see what the kids come up with and what creative challenges we will have to face.

I stood outside on the lawn in front of the day camp and tye-dyed thirty-five tee shirts with thirty four different kids and one adult. I did this in about three hours nonstop (which is actually impressive speed, and I must thank my two pint-sized assistants, who began to drive me nuts after they got tired and bored).

The result of this are some very cool looking shirts and a very tired Andrea, who happens to have hands that look slightly diseased (will not go away for about a week).




And to think, my project was the only one that happened to go smoothly today. Everything else bombed.

The big yellow school bus rumbled down the freeway. Gusts of wind came through the windows relieving the stuffiness that generally comes with being in a bus full of kids on a hot day. In front of me two girls sang the same songs and clapped their hands to the same patterns that my friends and I sang when we were kids.

Ms. Sue from Alabama, her real name is Suzanna
sitting in her rocker eating Betty Crocker
Watching the clock go Tick-tock, tick-tock banana rock...

Down by the banks of the hanky-panky, where the bull frogs jump from bank to banky...

Ms. Suzie had a steamboat the steamboat had a bell--ding, ding!
Ms. Suzie went to heaven, the steamboat went to--
Hello operator, please give me number nine,
if you disconnect me, I'll kick you from--
behind the refrigerator, there lay a piece of glass....etc.

I couln't help thinking about all the bus and car rides I was on as a kid and how interminably long they felt at the time. Those songs never made much sense, but they made us laugh inside (little belly giggles) and saved us really, from boredom.

I think at least part of the appeal was that it also mildly tortured the parents and any nearby adult. I remember one family trip in which my brothers, sisters, and I all chorused "The Twelve Days of Christmas" at the top of our lungs; it was July.

What really amazed me was that this was the first time I had heard these songs in years. I didn't expect to ever hear them again, and I had mostly forgotten about them. I think I figured that they would have passed into obscurity (even though I'm not that old), at least that these kids would have come up with their own songs and rhymes by now. But there they were, singing all the old songs I remembered. Somehow, somewhere they heard them, probably passed from babysitter to sister to younger sister. I guess it kind of makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that a bit of my childhood is still alive.