2018: Theatre and Travel By the Numbers

Excel makes me happy...deal with it...

Clearly, I am an artistic theatre type person, however I am also EXTREMELY analytical and love statistics and Microsoft Excel. Much of my life is actually recorded on Excel if we're being honest. This is how my previous job actually did make sense. For the last three years I have been recording all the shows I went to, but I've also been doing some statistics on them, just for fun. I haven't shared this in the past, but if you're interested I present:

The statistical post...

I don't say these things to brag about everything I've seen and done as some may think. Some people watch television or sports or read for hours, I don't, I go to shows. I do it in an economical manner, for the most part, and it is my love and my passion. I love to travel, but even more I love to watch shows and support the people I love. It's my life and I'm living it the best way I possibly can. :) PS I will be posting a series on how I travel and see all the shows that I do in the coming weeks so watch for it!

Theatre:
65 shows in 2018

Average: 1.25 per week

Down 13 shows from 2017

2 Types:
Plays: 33.85% (22)
Musicals: 66.15% (43)

5 States (Plus London)
Oklahoma: 50.77% (33)
Texas: 21.54% (14)
New York: 18.46% (12)
London: 4.62% (3)
Georgia: 3.08% (2)
Colorado: 1.54% (1)

2 Countries:
United States: 95.38% (62)
United Kingdom: 4.62% (3)

4 Lengths:
One Act: 18.46% (12)
Two Acts: 70.77% (40)
Three Acts: 3.08% (2)
Kids/Junior Shows: 7.69% (5)

9 'Levels':
Broadway: 16.94% (11)
Off Broadway: 1.54% (1)
West End: 4.62% (3)
Touring: 7.69% (5)
Regional: 15.38% (10)
Community: 23.08% (15)
High School: 3.08% (2)
Middle School: 1.54% (1)
Children's: 7.69% (5)

30 Production Companies/Theatres/etc (Broadway & West End were each lumped together):
Broadway: 16.94% (11)
Butterfield Stage Players: 12.31% (8)
Ardmore Little Theatre: 9.23% (6)
Brass Ring Performing Arts Center: 4.62% (3)
Lyric Theatre (OKC): 4.62% (3)

West End: 4.62% (3)

Chickasaw Nation: 3.08% (2)

East Central University: 3.08% (2)
Murray State College: 3.08% (2)
Oklahoma City University: 3.08% (2)
Oklahoma State University: 3.08% (2)
Serenbe Playhouse: 3.08% (2)
University of Oklahoma: 3.08% (2)
Ardmore High School: 1.54% (1)
AT&T Performing Arts Center: 1.54% (1)
Bass Performance Hall: 1.54% (1)
Dallas Summer Musicals: 1.54% (1)
Dallas Theatre Center: 1.54% (1)
Denton Music Theatre: 1.54% (1)
Denver Performing Arts Center: 1.54% (1)
Fresh Paint Performance Lab: 1.54% (1)
Oak Hall Episcopal School: 1.54% (1)
OKC Broadway: 1.54% (1)
Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival: 1.54% (1)
Off Broadway: 1.54% (1)

Southeastern Oklahoma State University: 1.54% (1)

Theatre3 (Dallas): 1.54% (1)
Theatre Tulsa: 1.54% (1)
Tulsa Performing Arts Center: 1.54% (1)
University of Central Oklahoma: 1.54% (1)

17 Cities:
Ardmore, Oklahoma: 20% (13)
New York, New York: 18.46% (12)
Gainesville, Texas: 12.31% (8)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: 10.77% (7)
Dallas, Texas: 6.15% (4)
Ada, Oklahoma: 4.62% (3)
London, England: 4.62% (3)
Durant, Oklahoma: 3.08% (2)
Norman, Oklahoma: 3.08% (2)
Serenbe, Georgia: 3.08% (2)
Tishomingo, Oklahoma: 3.08% (2)
Tulsa, Oklahoma: 3.08% (2)
Denton, Texas: 1.54% (1)
Denver, Colorado: 1.54% (1)
Edmond, Oklahoma 1.54% (1)
Ft. Worth, Texas: 1.54% (1)
Stillwater, Oklahoma: 1.54% (1)

The Rest:
I also went to 16 concerts/showcases, one dance recital, and 12 new movies in theatres. I saw one play twice in Gainesville, two movies twice in theatres, and stage managed four shows so there were duplicates there (5 more times, 3 more times, 2 more times, and 2 more times).

This is a grand total of 109 fine arts related events (not counting movies and shows broadcast over the internet). That is an average of 2.1 fine arts events per week. (You can see the full list here)

Travel:
I took 16 flights.

I traveled to 10 airports. (Granted one of these flights was to George Bush International and we just stayed on the plane on the runway, but I'm counting it!)

5 states

2 countries

and a partridge in a pear tree...?

I really should log the miles for each trip, driving and flying, but that's going a bit overboard, don't you think...?

TRUST: 2018 End of Year Review

For the last two years I've had a My Intent bracelet for my word of the year. I wear it every day, all the time as a reminder.

Since 2015 I have had a 'word of the year.'

It all started when a friend of mine from high school, who creates beautiful hand lettered items, posted a giveaway in her etsy store for a custom 'word of the year' creation. All you had to do was choose your word then comment the word and why. I didn't think too much about it, but the first word that popped into my head was 'home' so I typed it out with the explanation that I was determined to stay home more that year: cook at home, train for a half marathon, that kind of stuff. However, God took that word and ran with it. 

I'll go back and summarize the previous years in coming posts, but that's the background, now onto 2018: the year of TRUST.

Trust was my word of the year. I didn't really like it because when it came to me I was dealing with a sticky situation with a friend and trusting anything wasn't really what I was up for, however I know how this game works and trust was my word, whether I liked it or not. 

Clearly I had some preconceived notions of where I thought trust would take me and, as per usual, that was not the direction I went at all. I thought I would be waiting out this friendship snafu until it evened itself out, and I guess in reality I still am, but I chose to trust the journey along the way. I don't know whether that situation will ever sort itself out completely, but it is beyond my control and I have to just trust it will somehow fall into place.

I'll admit, however, that this word of the year did not present its colors with the grandeur of years before. Instead trust was more of a quiet companion who walked along beside me in the darker hours and was a constant companion in the lighter times. I fell very strongly that 2018 (trust) and 2019 (to be revealed on January 1) are going to go hand in hand. Frankly I have to trust that my 2019 word is indeed correct because it absolutely terrifies me, if we're being quite honest.

Enough of my blathering on...I started to fit the whole year into one post, but decided to do twelve individual posts.Some are short, some are long, all are heartfelt. This wasn't the easiest of years. Read what sounds interesting, ignore the rest. Please understand that this is what I was feeling at the moment that it happened.

 I am leaving the titles to the chapters with links here:

January (or, how to lose all your friends in ten days)

February (or, how to heal the heart in the greatest city in the world)

March (or, teachers take tests too)

April (or, brunette and Britain or bust)

May (or, flooding, firsts, flights, and feelings)

June (or, I bought a planner and somehow joined a cult)

July (or, standby aaaaand go)

August (or, a very wet birthday adventure)

September (or, ouch and the worst theatre experience)

October (or, how to put on a show with no cast and ten rehearsals)

November (or, a penguin, a kite, an umbrella, a margarita, a star, and an X)

December (or, is it Christmas break yet?)

So that was my 2018! I hope you enjoyed reliving it along with me. I'm not too sad to see this one go to be honest.

Bring on 2019...you can read more about my thoughts on that here... (to be posted on January 1, 2019)

TRUST: 2018 December (or, is it Christmas break yet?)

Time for much needed relaxation (and sleep!)

Friends, I love my job. I love my job that 99.9% of the time it just feels like I’m playing and not really working (for any administrators reading I work, a lot…I just live by that old saying ‘find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’!), but there were FOUR weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and that was just a bit too much for students and teachers alike.

I have this group of 8^th graders that I adore and I can’t talk about the end of the year this year without getting majorly teary eyed. They’re just a solid group and I’ve become friends with many of the parents too. It will be hard to watch them walk off to the high school in May (and I’m pretty sure them failing drama will not keep them in middle school, but I may still try…..I kid! I kid!). Because of this I cannot count down to anything because it is less days with them and that makes me sad, but the last week or so of school before break I was even struggling with that!

I think three shows in a row plus school finally caught up with me and Christmas break was a necessary break to recharge my introvert batteries. I still have a week left of break and I will soak it all up, but I do kind of miss the little devils!

December also brought two big events for Mary Poppins.

First off, our very own Mary Poppins from 2016 married her high school sweetheart at a beautiful Christmas ceremony (and I got to see her Los Angeles living sister). It was a lovely wedding and I got to catch up with some people I’d missed.

Second was the release of Mary Poppins Returns. We planned a Poppins reunion of dinner, the movie, and dessert for the Saturday after it came out on Wednesday. I couldn’t wait that long and my mom and I went to Dallas on Tuesday to a fan event to see it a day early. It was practically perfect in every way. I know some people weren’t fans, but being so intimately involved with the show for a summer and loving it so very much there was enough nostalgia to make my heart warm, the songs were catchy earworms, and the characters were enough like the old to make me happy, but enough different to stand alone.

The last major event of the month was our return to trivia night at our local watering hole. I had missed it more than I realized (and having friends!). We won our first night back (some of the team had continued to go, but we got the whole gang along with some new faces back together) and the next week…last week was disaster, but the comradery is the main part I enjoy and it has been nice to catch up with friends.

That’s about all for 2018. As I stand here on the last day of the year I won’t say that I’ll miss this one, but I’m once again hopeful of the year to come.

And with that I give you my 2019 word of the year… right here (actually will be posted on January 1, 2019).

TRUST: 2018 November (or, a penguin, a kite, an umbrella, a margarita, a star, and an X)

The locket I made after Mary Poppins: each charm represents one of us,
there is a ruby heart which is the birthstone of July, when the show happened,
in the background it says "Anything can happen if you let it"
and on the back it says "remember the director's house"

The summer of 2016 was one of the best. It was my first time to stage manage in a decade or so and we put on a fantastic production of Mary Poppins complete with flying. It is one of my most cherished theatre memories and I will forever keep that summer and those people close to my heart.

During the course of the summer I gained five of the best friends anyone could ever imagine. We spent sleepless nights talking and laughing, then woke up went to work, went straight to the theatre for rehearsal or performance, and then did it all again. At the conclusion of the summer we all went our separate ways: the director back to Durant, Oklahoma, three college kids off to Weatherford, Stillwater, and Tonkawa, our go to dancer/set coordinator/right hand man was off on an adventure to Washington, DC, and me bouncing back to a job I hated.

I have three photos on my desk at school: one of two of my favorite girls, one of my best friend and I from our senior year of high school, and a photo from closing night of Mary Poppins with ‘the director’s house’ crew. These are my people.

We have stayed in contact since then, going to shows, doing shows together, flying across the country…through facebook groups and snapchat…but we hadn’t all been together since we struck the set in July 2016.

Well we still haven’t all been together, we missed one, but we had five of the six reunited including our favorite penguin in from DC. We spent a lovely afternoon at our favorite post rehearsal haunt: Applebee’s.

I cannot tell you how wonderful just being in the presence of those four is. It refreshes my soul. Through the last few years the director and I have kept in touch through an app called Marco Polo where you basically video messages and chat back and forth on camera at the viewing convenience of the other person. She BRILLIANTLY came up with putting together a group for the six of us so we could keep in touch and see each other.

Now I get messages from them (well four of the five) several times a week with something funny that happened, sickness updates, show updates (we have a few musical theatre majors in there), kid updates, and practical jokes. It is amazing.

I posted the first bonus photo on Instagram and said that these were my people and if you didn’t have people like this you should find some…I stand by this.

PS I went back blonde and started getting my nails did…just in time for…

December (or, is it Christmas break yet?)

BONUS PHOTOS

My heart was so happy that day

The original director's house photo, which still sits on my desk

TRUST: 2018 October (or, how to put on a show with no cast and ten rehearsals)

I'm still so proud of these shows.

Working a show is extremely time consuming and I am very picky about what shows I will say yes to. There are only a handful of directors I really want to work with. Some I work better with than others. I’ll be honest the director of The Mousetrap (and Little Women last year) and I are pretty much the dream team of director/stage manager. We think alike and we have a tendency to be extremely ridiculous and garner very strange looks from cast members who don’t particularly know us.

The Mousetrap was hard for all of us. It was just a hard process, but we had a show at Murray State College looming on the horizon after it closed. We got a week off (in which I got to watch one of my favorite girls make her college theatre debut) and then had auditions. We were set to do two one act plays: a comedy and a drama. They were great shows, but the comedy called for five actors and the drama called for ten to twelve. Night one of auditions we had one person show up. This is a very small college and the theatre department is building (quite well in my opinion because there’s a ton of talent there we, eventually, realized). Night two we had three more! Except one of them had a wedding the day of one of the three performances so that wouldn’t work. We left night two to go out and recruit actors.

We took a week off (auditions were October 1 and 2 and we were set to open November 8…) and the director of the program went into recruitment mode. I don’t know how she did it, but she somehow delivered to us the absolute perfect group of nine actors which we made work with some creativity. Between school holidays, the director and stage manager being out of town (and the SM seeing Idina Menzel and Josh Groban (swoon) in concert), and other school conflicts we ended up with ten rehearsals and most of them didn’t involve the whole cast plus we were rehearsing the two shows on different nights so basically there were about five rehearsals for each show.

I’m going to skip ahead to November for a moment and finish this story in one post, but we somehow made it to tech week. The day before I had a Bedlam theatre day…I was missing Bedlam football (the University of Oklahoma (my alma mater) versus our in state rival Oklahoma State University) due to the show so I went to a play at OSU to see one of last year’s graduates in his college theatre debut at OSU and then went to see a musical I had been really wanting to see at OU. During intermission of the evening show I started to feel queasy. I managed to make it through Act II and about a mile from my house (85 miles from OU) before I had to pull over and throw up. I spent the rest of the evening puking my guts out.

Happy Tech Week!

I quarantined myself from the cast as we did dry tech. Luckily it seemed to be only a 24 hour bug and I was right as rain by Monday. We ran through the shows and realized that there needed to be major work on lines. Tuesday our lead for the comedy and a prominent character in the drama called to tell me she had strep. She had antibiotics and expected to be good by dress rehearsal Wednesday.

We had one rehearsal with the cast off book before we opened. I still don’t know how we pulled it off, but they ended up being fantastic shows and I am really proud of the work we all did. Those kids put their all into making the shows great.

We also proved that it wasn’t necessary to spend an arm and a leg on a show. All the set pieces, except one which had to be built, were found in the theatre and in storage. All the costumes came from the costume shop. The props were gathered by the cast and I from our houses. The director and I spent a grand total of maybe $30 on specific props we needed.

They were simple shows, but did what we set out to do: tell two stories.

Though that did bleed into the next month when all was said and done I had some fun things planned for…

November (or, a penguin, a kite, an umbrella, a margarita, astar, and an X)

TRUST: 2018 September (or, ouch and the worst theatre experience)

The stage is set for The Mousetrap

I don’t know why The Mousetrap was so horrible for me, but it was. I genuinely adored everyone we cast in the show. The crew was amazing. There was nothing wrong with the show, but I just did not enjoy it.

Technically, it was a super easy show. I think there were 37 cues, sound and lights, for the whole show. In Act II I turned the lights on and had 39 pages before the next cue. I think there were more preshow, intermission, and curtain call cues than the actual meat of the show.

That’s probably one of the reasons I didn’t love it. I didn't get to work much technical magic. I also just didn’t really like that show. It is the longest continuously running show in the world, but I just don’t understand why.

On top of not being particularly happy about the show I was also dealing with major allergy pain. This round had started in July at the end of Crazy For You and caused so much pain that it made me sick to my stomach. One of my dear ASMs brought me ice during tech week just so I could put it on my face to attempt to make it through the show. I’m sure that didn’t help with my attitude. Thankfully I checked the pollen counts and pieced together my symptoms with my local pharmacist and got myself some miracle medicine which alleviated the pain.

I also had to say see ya later to one of my favorite kiddos who moved to California with her family. I am so thankful for smartphones and the internet to keep in touch with people across the country.

Thinking back September was not a good month. I did not love it and I was not sad to see it go. I was already looking forward because I had three shows booked back to back and September gave way to…

October (or, how to put on a show with no cast and ten rehearsals)

TRUST: 2018 August (or, a very wet birthday adventure)

A very wet Wendy and Alfred waiting for the show to start back up for Act II

I have a saying when working a show: stage managers do not sleep during tech week. This was certainly the case for Crazy For You. One night during tech I was up around 3:30 in the morning perusing the interwebs and happened to see a video from Playbill about a production of Titanic the Musical set on the water where they would actually sink the boat.

Um…what?

Clearly I needed this in my life. I have a dear friend whose absolute favorite show in the world is Titanic the Musical so we HAD TO GO. To make the deal even sweeter they were doing a child focused daytime show of Peter Pan. Due to my name I’m kind of a fan…my friend is the boy who never grew up and has over 200 copies of the book. Not to mention our birthdays are just a few days apart and in August.

So I sent him a message in the middle of the night and said “now understand I am COMPLETELY serious when I suggest this…” From there we planned a quick jaunt to Atlanta to investigate this theatre.

Neither of us knew what to expect and this story will rightfully get its own post sometime in the future because it was too spectacular not to, but the highlights were this: the Coca Cola museum and Beverly (if you’ve been there you know what I mean), a very wet performance of an amazing musical, meeting some absolutely incredible theatre fans who we will likely travel with in the future, a fun time at a reimagined Peter Pan, and a ridiculous flight delay that led us to a plane diversion for refueling.

August also brought one of my dear friends moving to Connecticut (can I say how jealous I am of her?), but not without a sushi date and a musical and a brunch date the next morning.

Before school started I logged more hours than I care to count (and more money too…) to completely overhaul my classroom. I had wonderful friends without whom the project would not have been finished. The most fun part was making all the things for the room the week before and hiding them for back to school night, then spending 12+ hours working to put it all together so they would walk into a theatre wonderland on the first day. I knew that I would be spending most of my waking hours in that room so I needed it to be somewhere I wanted to be, but I also wanted it to be a home away from home for my students…a place where they felt completely comfortable to be exactly who they are. I’m pretty sure I achieved that as the little jerks won’t leave me alone!

The biggest news of the month was being asked to direct my first adult show at Butterfield in Gainesville: The Savannah Sipping Society. That won’t be until March, but expect more info to come.

We also auditioned for The Mousetrap at ALT which was show number two in a row to stage manage…more on that in…

September (or, ouch and the worst theatre experience)

BONUS PHOTO

It's a bit more lived in and I still have work to do on that back wall,
but I love it, and the kids love it and that's all that matters.

TRUST: 2018 July (or, standby aaaaand go)

Best view in the theatre...

July brought the return of my favorite part of working a show: actually calling it. I see calling a show as an art just as much as any part of the show and I work very hard to make it a beautiful show. There is something about the stress and adrenaline of all of it that makes me feel alive. I was working with my favorite lighting designer and family (they really can do all the tech…I love them) and we spent something like seven hours doing cue to cue in order to time the light and sound cues exactly perfectly. It was wonderful.

I also had an assistant stage manager for the first time because I was out of town several times during rehearsal and would have to miss a performance in order to see some of my favorite kids in Pippin. For the most part that worked out well. Some people may say that I have control issues…don’t listen to them…they know what they speak of!

This show introduced me to all kinds of fun people I’m glad to have in my life (including a very talkative teenager from Rome). I also reconnected with and became closer to some other friends and took full advantage of not having a day job and stayed out until all hours of the night just talking. It was a fun summer.

July also gave me the most shows I’ve ever seen in the shortest period: seven shows in four days (well technically eight shows in five days, but the others were in NYC). I flew in on a Sunday morning and hit a matinee and evening show. My best friend flew in Monday and we went to an evening show. Tuesday we saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts I and II, which was the most spectacular thing I have seen on the stage. She flew out early Wednesday and I saw a matinee and evening performance before flying out and back to rehearsal on Thursday. It was crazy. And it was HOT. New York in July is not my favorite. We stayed in the West Village at the Jane Hotel (my home away from home), but it is about eight blocks from the nearest subway station. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take advantage of Lyft at least once a day…

The heat steamed me into…

August (or, a very wet birthday adventure)

TRUST: 2018 June (or, I bought a planner and somehow joined a cult)

I cannot lie...I love stickers...

The nothingness of summer might have gotten to me, but a few weeks earlier I agreed to stage manager the Ardmore Little Theatre summer production of Crazy For You. I kind of felt like I was crazy for deciding this, but, alas, it would keep me busy (and give me a reason to get out of pajamas every day).

I also discovered something new: the Happy Planner! I decided that I needed a planner for school so a month or so before I had gone to Staples in search and found this pretty planner...

Then I found the accessories...

Then I found the stickers...

And the custom covers...

It was bad. I honestly did enjoy it all summer and REALLY thought I would keep up with it. The custom layouts and the organization, but, alas, those fancy spreads are time consuming and by September I stopped having time.

Crazy For You ended up being a very fun show with new friends and old friends alike. I got to work with a new directing team which I thoroughly enjoyed and stepped back into stage managing with an orchestra. Overall I give it a 10/10.

Mom and I also bopped to Fort Lauderdale for a few days of relaxation at the beach.

This led to...

July (or, standby aaaaand go)

TRUST: 2018 May (or, flooding, firsts, flights, and feelings)

First tournament photo

May was a lot. I don't think I realized this until I was trying to come up with the title of this chapter, but a lot.

First off was planning for my middle school drama team's first tournament, which went quite well until the day before the school flooded. If it had to happen it was in the best possible way: the teachers were at the school for a professional day and the kids were gone so we were able to stop the flooding without dealing with middle school kids. If the kids had been there we would have had to, obviously, focused on their safety, and if no one would have been there then no one would have known and it would have destroyed the whole school. We were sitting in a meeting and one of the sweet custodians came in and asked if he could talk to our principal because there was something 'important' happening. What happened next was a flash of teachers wading around barefoot attempting to save anything on the floor and the whole library. The gym floor was ruined and we got a lot of new carpet and the students got a lot of days out of school.

The next day was our tournament which went on as scheduled. The kids did PHENOMENALLY. I think there were seventeen entries, most broke to finals, and six placed. We got second in sweepstakes and likely would have gotten first if we'd had the whole group there (conflicts for several). It was a great day and I couldn't have been prouder of them if I tried.

The next weekend was the first of the high school national tournaments. I wasn't going to go, but found airfare at the last minute and flew to Denver and surprised them the day after they got there. No one broke out of the top twenty-four, but it was a phenomenal experience nonetheless.

Finally the year wrapped up with my precious 8th graders promoting to high school and my beloved seniors graduating I handled this a lot better than expected, but still...alllllll the feels!

I also got a new car (mine blew up in April).

With school out for the summer and three months of freedom looming we moved on to...

June (or, I bought a planner and somehow joined a cult)

TRUST: 2018 April (or, brunette and Britain or bust)

My biggest adventure so far...

April was the Oklahoma Teacher Walkout which was a BIG deal here. I did not go to the capitol because that many people in that small of a space was more than I could handle and someone had to actually be at school because we only closed for one day, so I stayed with the kiddies plus I had something up my sleeve for my personal days.

Prior to the first full weekend in April I went REALLY dark with the hair...dark like my soul at the time. Okay, not really, but it was a pretty chestnut brown and to be honest, I loved it. (Bonus photo at the end because I really loved it...)

We had State for speech and debate (they won) and I did one of the craziest things to date: I took all three of my personal days, pushed them up against a weekend, and went to London!

I figured if NYC wasn't going to heal my hurt then a visit across the pond might. Now, this isn't really as random as it sounds and I don't really jump on an airplane any time I'm having a bad day (just sometimes). Fifteen months prior to this particular weekend I had been in NYC with my best friend to see Hamilton for the second time. Well I had gotten a presale code for Hamilton West End tickets, and they were cheap, so I ordered them. Though I could have gotten my money back the truth was I really wanted to go, so I did.

I was only actually in London for two days (not even close to enough time) because I flew to NYC went to the opening of the revivals of one of my favorite plays (Children of a Lesser God...with none other than Joshua Jackson aka Pacey starring) then spent Thursday just flying basically.

When I got to London I saw a very little of a whole lot of things and declared I would return as soon as possible...that was until my flight home got canceled. I got something rebooked, but due to the time difference no one at home knew any of this was happening. When I rebooked I had to have a layover, so I figured if this was going to happen I should pick somewhere fun, so I was off to Shannon, Ireland! Prior to this I didn't know Shannon, Ireland was a place and I was only in the country about an hour and a half and it was all spent in the airport, but it was a lovely little adventure that I had that not a soul knew about. For a few hours I was somewhere that NO ONE on earth who knew me personally knew where I was. It was EXHILARATING.

I saw Hamilton too and made a new friend which is always fun.

So that healed me up quite nicely. I also found out after I got home that I had passed all three of the teaching tests I had taken in March (one by the skin of my teeth, but pass is pass!)

I wasn't quite in the perfect place, but I was definitely on the road to normal and that brought us to...

May (or, flooding, firsts, flights, and feelings)

BONUS PHOTO

I still think it was SO pretty

TRUST: 2018 March (or, teachers take tests too)

We had some type of spirit week or support the teachers week in March before the Teacher Walkout of April 2018

In the chaos of Christmas break last year (the longest I had ever been off work since I started a full time job...I was LOST) I did NOT schedule the three tests I had to take in order to continue to work on my alternative certification to teach. So I scheduled them all over spring break: two on Monday and one on Wednesday.

Spring break came and I endeavored to pass these tests without studying (because who has time...I really should be nicer to my students about not studying....) Well, what I thought couldn't be too bad was...they got progressively worse as the week passed.

The OGET (Oklahoma General Education Test) wasn't too bad, I felt pretty confident.

Next up was the Speech, Drama, Debate test, which I thought I had in the bag...um...well I had two out of three going for me...speech was much trickier than expected.

Last up I had to take the secondary education social studies test. Now friends, this is the history test, which is what my degree is in, piece of cake? Wrong! I have not picked up a history book in fourteen years since I finished my Bachelor's and you know what? THERE IS A LOT OF HISTORY! Like this test was EVERYTHING. I didn't study for it, but walking out of there KNOWING I bombed it I wondered how on earth you were supposed to...I mean it had EVERYTHING.

So I drowned my sorrows in Mexican food with two close friends and prayed for the best.

There were also a few fun tournaments during March and a particularly entertaining jaunt around the OU campus with some fantastic kiddos.

So that lead to...

April (or, brunette and Britain or bust)

TRUST: 2018 February (or, how to heal the heart in the greatest city in the world)

Secret trips are the best trips...

New York is my go to. NYC has been there for me when everything else has felt like it was falling flat, so in the midst of the chaos of January a quick trip to the Big Apple seemed the perfect remedy for a bruised heart and ego.

Except it didn't work. I know, right? New York! You let me down!

It was a welcomed secret adventure though: I didn't tell but a very few people I was going and it was over a school holiday so when I got back I was like 'surprise! I just flew in from New York' (my students DO NOT understand me :)). When I got back I knew I needed a change, so on Valentine's Day I made a hair appointment had some layers chopped and dyed it brown. My neighbor at school (male) was so confused by that.

That helped, but didn't really work either. And then came...

March (or, teachers take tests too)

TRUST: 2018 January (or, how to lose all your friends in ten days)

This was the third show I saw in 2018 and it seemed fitting for my January recap

Okay, okay, I didn't lose all of them. But a little hyperbole to start the year never hurt, am I right? There were moments during the first weeks of January that it felt like I had lost everyone. I have a lot of very close friends, but most of them live far away. In the latter months of 2017 I had cultivated a fun group of local friends and in what seemed to be an instant they were all gone for one reason or another.

I could type a whole lot about January, how hard it was, how I was hurt, and it what ways, but it's in the past and I have recovered from it and there is no sense in holding onto it, so I won't. When I was going back and forth about how to write my year in review post this is what I wrote. It says everything that it needs to say..

I won't lie, January was a hard month. Dear friends nearly lost their baby boy so many times I don't even like to think of it. My best friend in the whole world turned out to be not who I thought they were. Some supposed friends turned out to be exactly who I thought they were (read: not good). And a dear friend betrayed me in a way I likened to when my soul was crushed by a boyfriend in the past. 

In two words: IT SUCKED. But we moved on to...

February (or, how to heal the heart in the greatest city in the world)

Show 27 of 2018: Al-leluia - Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival, Durant, OK

My second 4 Guys Named Al musical

Saturday night my mom and I traveled to Durant, Oklahoma (about an hour east of home) to see the fifth installment of 4 Guys Named Al: Al-lelluia.

This was a benefit show for the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival in Durant and their kick off to the season. Over the last few years I have made friends with several people in Durant so OSF has become a regular part of my summer.

The 4 Guys Named Al are original musicals which incorporate old standards into a fun show which seems to always involve some sort of disaster (last year was a snowstorm at a telethon, this year a bus of gospel singers going off a cliff and into 'glory' before a gospel jubilee).

These four guys have been working together for quite some time and all have ties to Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. My friend Corey is an 'Al' as is our director for the summer, Dell. Dell writes all the shows and all four show up to put on a show that involves much laughter as well as some tender moments and a ridiculous amount of talent.

I always enjoy my theatre experience when we head over Lake Texhoma to Durant and this was no different. I am always amazed at the amount of talent that these little towns in the middle of the country produce, yet I'm always so glad because it gives people the opportunity to see quality theatre in their backyard without having to travel to New York or London.

Moral of the story: go support your local theatres! You'd be amazed at what you may find!

The 72nd Annual Tony Awards

Having the official Playbill in Oklahoma is the same as being at the show, right?

More than once I have declared the second Sunday of June my Christmas. If you don't know what the real holiday that befalls this date is, well, I'm not really sure why you're reading this blog!

It's the Tonys! Officially named the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, this awards ceremony celebrates the best and brightest on Broadway.

For many years I had a love/hate relationship with the Tonys. I loved it because Broadway, but hated it because I would see all these clips from shows and know that I wasn't there. In 2011 I wrote on Facebook how I needed to figure out how to go to New York quarterly just to see shows.

Then I did. I figured out the three 'cheaps': flights, hotel, and tickets, and boom I'm in NYC pretty much whenever I want to be.

Now, I watch it much more critically because I've either seen all the shows or I have read up on them. Last year I saw all the Tony nominated musicals before the awards show. This year, I didn't. It wasn't that I couldn't have, it was purely out of choice. The Best Musical nominees were: Spongebob, Mean Girls, Frozen, and The Band's Visit (the one I did see) and my heart just wasn't into three out of the four. I will see one or two of them on my July Broadway trip, but seeing before the show just wasn't necessary this year. Now, I did PLAN to see Spongebob in April on my way back from London, but I had flight issues and so it didn't happen.

For the third year in a row I called Best Musical long before seeing the show. I think it was last August when I walked by the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and was pretty certain it would win (I was also sad because I thought teaching would cut my NYC trips, which it has restricted them, but not cut them entirely, though I have to be more careful about them).

When I saw Once On This Island in February I knew it would win Best Revival of a Musical, though during the awards I was thinking My Fair Lady (which I will hopefully see in July) might have nailed it.

In the coming weeks I'll go back and give commentary on the shows that I've seen. I think I just got so far behind (from the beginning) and got overwhelmed and that's why the writing stopped abruptly. Now things may not be linear (which will make me slightly crazy), but they'll still happen!

Back to the Tonys. One of my favorite things about this awards show is the speeches and this year did not disappoint. Broadway has become a place for such diversity, especially over the last few years, and the speeches touched on this time and time again. From Lindsay Mendez speaking about how people told her to change her name to Matthews in order to get jobs to Ari'el Stachel talking about avoiding events because he was Middle Eastern to being in a show which celebrated the fact, the speeches were amazing.

One of the highlights of the night was Melody Herzfeld, drama teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, winning the Excellence in Theatre Education Award after hiding 65 students during the February 14 shooting. Her students then came on stage to sing Seasons of Love from Rent. It was beautiful.

In the end The Band's Visit swept, winning eleven Tonys. Spongebob actually won a few. Mean Girls did not. Neither did Frozen. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child swept the technical awards on the play side (I'm SUPER excited to have tickets to that in July!) which Angels in America (which, sadly, I will miss) cleaned up on the acting side.

Overall, it was a good show, though as much as I love Josh Groban I didn't really LOVE he and Sara Bareilles hosting...they were okay, but I'm kind of an NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) snob and I thoroughly enjoyed discussing the winners and losers all night with some of my favorite people. Until next year...

Crazy For Tapping

My first dance recital photo (age 6)

A little less than two years ago I discovered an adult tap class in Ada (about an hour from my house) and started to spend my Thursday nights (usually after driving all over creation for work) at the Chickasaw Nation Dance Studio tapping my little heart out again. I had danced as a child and always loved tap the most. After I stopped taking classes as a freshman in high school I would still paradiddle in front of the microwave or in an elevator.

One week I mentioned I would miss class the next week because I would be in New York. He suggested that I take my shoes and take a class there and he'd get me all the information. He didn't, however I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone, looked up drop in dance studios (just like in Center Stage) and found myself in a tap class on 45th street in the heart of Manhattan.

I loved every minute of it. It was exhausting and my legs felt like jelly at the end, but it was amazing.

After that whenever I would travel I would throw in the shoes and some dance clothes and pick up a class.

I wasn't able to take at the studio this year because of stage managing Little Women, but I've kept up classes when I travel (except London, because I was there for such a short period of time).

Crazy For You is not only a dance-ical it is a tap-ical. There is so much tap. And it makes my heart very happy. Being friends with the choreographer and assistant choreographer they both told me to tap in the show which I thanked them no because dancing in a show and stage managing is awful (yes I've done it before) and because I have ZERO desire to wear a showgirl costume!

However, I did decide that I would learn the choreography along with them, just for fun. I had planned to do this when I stage managed Mary Poppins (we had one tap number in that one), but we did the show with tracks instead of a live orchestra so I was confined to the sound booth running music. Thanks to our beautiful accompanist Michelle I am tapping my little heart out!

We've had three choreography rehearsals so far and I'm thrilled to keep up with the 'real' dancers (although I decided the kicks and booty walking on the floor was beyond my current abilities!). I think it's also been helpful because we've had people with conflicts so I've just stepped into their places (kind of like a swing performer) so the girls (and boy!) are still getting the idea of their formations.

Thus, I have declared myself the stage managing rehearsal dance swing...

Crazy For Stage Managing

Audition forms ready to go!

At the beginning of May I had plans for my summer: take lots of trips, spend lazy days in a coffee shop working on lesson plans, do a lot of reading...normal stuff for a teacher.

Then I got a text message.

I was asked if I would be willing to stage manage our summer musical, Crazy For You. I didn't say no, but I tried really hard to have them to say no to me (right down to having to miss a performance...). However, the fates aligned and I have found myself working on a musical.

We have a crazy big directing team for this one: the director, Dell; the musical director, David; the choreographer, Shannon; the assistant choreographer, Kelsey; the stage manager, me; and I requested an assistant stage manager, Riley, because of my conflicts (plus new blood in the theatre is a good thing!).

I read the show about a week before auditions and it seemed as though every other sentence was 'dance break.' I LOVE my community theatre people, but serious dancers most of them are not and when I watched the Papermill Playhouse production I saw that serious dancing this was! However, I knew if anyone could pull off this level of dancing it was Shannon. And if anyone could pull off these complex Gershwin tunes it was David. And if anyone could tie all of this together and involve a bunch of people who are eager to be on stage it was Dell.

I'd be lying if I said I was excited for the first night of auditions. I was nervous and anxious and, frankly, terrified of casting the show.

But the talent of Ardmore once again blew my mind.

By the end of night one we felt in a really good place to cast the show.

Night two was even better.

After a brief meeting we had a cast list! I think it took longer to type the cast list than it did to cast the show!

And once again we were off to the races on a show that will undoubtedly leave its mark on Ardmore, Oklahoma...

Last Day of School 2018

Pretty self explanatory! 

So in a crazy turn of events I became a teacher last August. (You can read more about that here)

Today was the last day of a very crazy school year (pay raises, walkouts, and a flood...oh my) and I have a few (okay a lot) of observations.

The girl on the left had NO idea if she had made the worst mistake of her life
The girl on the right knows that it was the biggest leap of faith and the best thing she's ever done

The girl of the left just left a job that she hated
The girl on the right goes to work every day and is amazed she gets paid to do what she does because she loves it so much

The girl on the left was worried that the kids would hate her
The girl on the right has to kick the children out of her room because they want to be there ALL THE TIME

The girl on the left thought she knew what happy was, and she did, but didn't realize it could carry over to her job
The girl on the right is fulfilling her life's passion and loving every second


So a lot has changed since August 17. I was really nervous that first day. I walked into my first day not really knowing anyone and terrified to face kids. The wonderful art teacher took me under her wing as I walked in the cafeteria and one of the instructional coaches never let me go a second without thinking I was completely cut out for the job.

At the same time as this I was stage managing Little Women. The first day of school we had our first blocking rehearsal. The director, a close friend and fellow introvert, spent his day teaching high school, followed by teaching a college class, and rounding out with rehearsal. At the end of the night he was dead on his feet and I was bouncing off the walls. As we were leaving he looked at me and said "how are you not tired?" I told him "this is the first time in years I have not spent my day saying 'I hate my job' over and over."

This year I'm pretty sure I learned more than the kids did! I've always heard if YOU want to become an expert at something then teach it and boy, oh boy, did I find that to be true!

At the middle school...

I watched kids who would not speak in class bloom into the kids I had to tell to be quiet over and over.

I watched kids who were terrified to speak to their peers go to contest and place.

I watched kids who had never been given a chance at a big role blossom with an individual event.

I watched kids smile and have fun and laugh and goof off.

I watched kids keep coming back for more even when I made them write notes from bell to bell for five weeks solid and gave ridiculously confusing tests (did I mention I learned a lot this year?)

I watched sixth graders grow from little kids to teenagers in nine short months.

I watched seventh graders gain more confidence and stand up for what they believed to be right.

I watched eighth graders who never thought they could do 'this' turn into the most passionate hard working kids I've ever seen.

I watched a team form and saw them band together to help and encourage each other

I watched that team take second at their first tournament and kids who had never performed in front of people take home medals

With the high school...

I watched two very brave girls get out of a comfortable suburban with their friends to get into a suburban driven by the new middle school teacher

I relearned debate and became pretty confident in judging it

I sang along (very badly) to Hamilton with debate kids on the way to tournament after tournament

I learned the value of the french and dutch braids and letting the girls braid my hair, especially on long tournament weekends with rain when a few more minutes of sleep is WAY more valuable than curling one's hair

I watched a group of kids pour their hearts into personal pieces that dealt with parents, disability, losing friends, and difficult teachers and watched them succeed week after week telling these stories

I watched kids who set the bar way too low for themselves vastly outdo themselves

I watched kids go from not knowing their piece at the beginning of the week to qualifying for regionals on the weekend.

I laughed (a lot) in suburbans and on buses and in hotels and in cafeterias

I sat on pins and needles waiting for results of rounds

I hurt with them when they didn't do as well as they wanted

I screamed and rejoiced when they won

I laughed at a million inside jokes over and over again

I walked millions of steps all over the place including a trip to a museum, looking for statues, shopping, and boba tea

I cried with them at surprises and watched them do amazing things outside of the team

I tried my hardest to be there for them when they just needed to know an adult genuinely cared

I came to love these kids with all of my heart at both schools. I cannot imagine not having my 8th graders next year every day and don't get me started on how much I will miss the seniors.

But the thing I saw more than anything in the last nine months was myself grow into who I was always been meant to be.

I thank every middle school student, the obedient and the challenging, who was with me day in and day out and put up with me learning along with them.

I thank every high school student who welcomed me into their drama and debate family and made me feel loved and appreciated with every hug, I love you, and invitation to watch them perform.

I thank the parents for letting me teach and love their kids day in and day out and for believing in our school district.

I thank the high school coaches for listening when a little voice said my name and taking a chance on me.

I thank the administration for taking a chance even when I seemed like a far fetched idea.

And most of all I thank God for speeding up my five year plan into a two month plan.

I grew up with amazing teachers that cared about ME, both inside the classroom and outside. The kind of teachers that you could go to when you were having a bad day and they would listen to what was going on or would just let you hide out when you needed to. Classrooms that became more of a home than anything else. When I took this position I wanted to be that teacher. I felt that I owed it to the universe to pay that forward. I wanted to be the solace in the bad days and the cheerleader in the good. I honestly thought it would take a few years to establish that, but somehow it didn't. Loving these kids, even when they are less than lovable, has become one of my greatest joys. And getting to do that while teaching them about what I love the most is just, well, perfection.

Every compromise (less travel, less shows, less sleep) has been worth it. This has been the best year of my life and I cannot wait for next year. Only 87 days until year 2 starts!

PS
While on break I'm going to try to update this thing and write about the shows from the past two and a half years! I did update the lists if you've been wondering what all I've seen!

I'm a Teacher?

Our first tournament

I haven't written in fifteen months and man a lot has changed...



Two years ago I stage managed Mary Poppins...one of the tag lines for the musical is 'anything can happen if you let it'. This year I found that to be overwhelmingly true!

Last May (I think, maybe June) I had dinner with my friend Lindsey and made the comment that it seemed that every year in May since college I could look back and see that my life had COMPLETELY changed. College graduate to terrible breakup to happy relationship to new house to engagement to broken engagement to first semester of grad school to full time grad school to Masters graduate to tornado to death/charter/pastor moving to flood to NYC trips to new job (2004-2017 in a nutshell). However you look at it May always seemed to be when I could see the most drastic changes in my life. Clearly I said this hoping that within a year I'd somehow be married and be thinking babies (she's a labor and delivery nurse ;)). Well, that's not what happened, though somehow in a year I did manage to have some kids...

...in the form of students!

Today was the last day of school (with students...I still have four more days of work) of my first year teaching!

You may be asking yourself: how on EARTH did you get here?

Well the very long story very short is that sometimes we tell God our plans, which are lined out in a totally reasonable timeframe, He hears them and says 'yup, cool, you're on the right track, but let's fast track it!'

Last summer I was hanging out with a bunch of teachers, going to NYC every other month (or less) seeing ALL the shows, and HATING my job...like A LOT. I got back from my pre Tonys trip to NYC and heard a DISTINCT voice say 'you can't keep doing this.' Well I took that as going to NYC all the time. I knew I'd had a GREAT run getting to see all the shows nominated for Best Musical last year and more from an amazing season, but it just wasn't practical.

So I go back to work and get sent on a wild goose chase to a site I'd never been to with a system I didn't know to do a job that was impossible in a building I couldn't find the door to which I had to drive sixteen miles out of the way to get to and avoid getting hit by 18 wheelers. I was NOT a happy camper.

After I left I had an epiphany. I called my best friend and said "I want to be a teacher. Do you think this is because of the company I'm keeping or real?" She said "well I think the company you're keeping has something to do with it, but I think if you taught drama it would be right." We had joked for years about growing up to be a dynamic duo like our high school music and drama teachers, but life took us different ways.

I ended up calling the show for our Childrens' Theatre production of Aladdin, but when that was done I went and gathered transcripts and necessary paperwork and sent in my application for alternative certification. I had a five year plan and this was the beginning of it. I knew that I only wanted to work in Ardmore City Schools. I knew that there was a proposed bond vote for a new performing arts center in November. I knew that there was an amazing competitive acting program at the high school, but with the PAC they would need more help. So my plan was to spend a year getting my certification, then apply for jobs probably as a history teacher, since that's what my degree is in, then when these new drama jobs opened up I could hopefully take the speech/drama/debate test and be able to teach theatre of some kind.

Always know that when you make plans God laughs...

I knew they were planning to start a middle school drama program this year. And I knew someone had been hired. Exactly one month after I decided to embark upon this little adventure I see a post on facebook by the head drama coach at the high school asking if anyone knew of someone who might be interested in the middle school drama coach position.

I should mention that I knew the high school drama coach, not terribly well, but had become pretty fast friends with the assistant coach over the past few months. I should also mention that these coaches had just taken kids to two national tournaments and had a student win the national championship at one and place fourth at the second. And I should mention I knew that student because of community theatre and we'd talked quite a lot leading up to the second nationals and during the tournament. SHE knew I wanted to be a teacher...the coaches did not.

So the morning of this post looking for a middle school drama teacher a song from Finding Neverland got stuck in my head: If The World Turned Upside Down. Now I realize most of you (probably all of you) have never seen this musical or heard this song, but for whatever reason I was listening to a random Broadway playlist I'd made of shows from the past year and this one just got stuck. What do I do when a song gets stuck in my head? Listen to it on repeat.

Essentially Finding Neverland is about J.M. Barrie having an existential crisis, befriending a family which had four boys, quitting his stable job, and writing one of the most popular children's stories ever: Peter Pan. Seeing that my name is Wendy clearly I love Peter Pan.

So the song is stuck. The lyrics go like this:

There's a moment you've been waiting all your life for 

When you find the very reason you're alive for

And it happens when you seem to least expect it

All at once you come alive and feel connected

I ignored the beat inside my heart for too long

Had accepted what was right

But always felt wrong

It's the second hand of time I'd been a slave to

But inside there was a feeling

Something I always knew

When the world turned upside down

And the earth and sky changed around

All the whispers of the possible became clear and loud

When the world turned upside down

When my world turned upside down

If you want to listen to it click here. I related to this song on a spiritual level. It was everything I was feeling. I WANTED this job, but had ZERO reason to believe that this nationally recognized team would want me who LOVED theatre, but had no formal training in it and no formal training or experience in education.

Through the summer we'd been going to karaoke on Wednesday nights. This just happened to be a Wednesday so I showed up and most of the regulars were not there, but it was drama camp week and the whole camp staff and the coaches were there. I felt like I was crashing a party, but I went with it and just asked what had happened.

I spent the weekend trying to make myself okay with the fact that there was NO way this was going to happen because I wasn't going to get up the courage to ask about it. Then Sunday rolled around and I went to a local community high school production of Sister Act and watched the kids that I would be working with from the high school if I got the job (which I had not applied for). I tried really hard to make myself okay with this idea and told myself there would be other amazing kids, but it just didn't sit well.

Then Tuesday morning happened. I woke up to get ready for my job that I hated and had a message from the head drama coach that just said "Wanna be a drama teacher?" I said "Actually yes."

The rest, is history. Well, history that was very stressful for about a month waiting to actually make it happen. Each day that ticked by was one day closer to school starting and one day of increasing my anxiety of needing this change in my life.

I played phone tag with the superintendent for about two weeks and finally got the call that I would meet with him the Monday before school started on Thursday. I spent that Sunday gathering references. I had the best interview ever Monday morning which ended with me asking what I would be teaching. I was under the impression it would be four sections of English and two sections of drama. He countered with 'how about drama all day?' I walked out of his office thinking I probably had the job, but not 100% sure. I called to follow up the next morning and was told to come in at 2:30 by the HR director. When I arrived she placed my contract in front of me, expecting me to start the next day, which I couldn't because I still had to quit my job! I went and met my principal (who I'm certain thought this whole ordeal was a CRAZY mistake and who I knew I would have to win over) and see my classroom, which had been used as a storage room. Wednesday I called my boss' boss who was a long time friend of mine to tell him that I would be resigning. I wrote a lovely resignation letter, sent it, cleaned out my desk, did my fingerprints and had my first day of teaching along with the first day of school.

It was a HUGE leap of faith. I had no idea if the kids would like me, if I could handle a classroom, if I knew what on earth I was talking about or anything else....