The Alaska State Fair

Well, here it is again, the Alaska State Fair, one of my favorite things each year. These past few years we (as in the TBA Theatre gang) have been working at the fair. We MC a variety of events including Kids Day Games, Homesteader's Events, Scarecrow Building Contest and more! We produce a show in the Imagination Station that happens multiple times each day. Last year was Funky Farmworks and this year it's Fee Fi Farm Fun. We perform a Folk's Tales show (That's us on the stairs of the Colony Church). This year we perform all of Labor Day weekend. Friday - Monday at 5pm and a 7pm show on Saturday night. And we eat. At: Pork Chop on a Stick, Denali Cream Puffs, Corndog Corner...HUSKY BURGER! Just to name but a very few.

It's been absolutely amazing being at the fair on a daily basis. Because I never have to overeat to get all the things I want. It used to be I'd go on one day and try and cram all the activity and food into a few short hours. Now I have time to do different things on different days. And there are so many attractions at the fair I had never noticed before.

All in all it's a great time. And it reminds me of being a kid at my aunt and uncles. They lived right across the street from the Middlesex County Fair in New Jersey (my uncle still does). My cousin Hali and I would go over every day and ride rides, eat cotton candy and play the games on the midway until we had too much. Then we'd just run across the highway to home until we were ready for more adventure. They were the carefree days of youth, that's for certain.

So where ever you are, go to your state fair (or your county fair or whatever small fair, with dinky rides and good food and games with horrible odds at winning are located). Where it's too crowded, and too expensize and too noisy and too EVERYTHING. Just go. Have a Husky Burger (or whatever your local calls them). And remember what it was like when you were a kid and the fair grounds and the rides seemed huge. Remember what it was like to eat all the food you wanted without getting a stomach ache or if you did you just didn't care! Remember what it was like to have no responsibilities except meeting your parents at the designated time.
Go to your local fair. Have fun.

I'm going to mine.

The Head That Wouldn't Die

Photos from the 2007 Last Frontier Theatre Conference
of TBA Theatre's
The Head That Wouldn't Die by Rand Higbee

So, one week New York City, the next week...Valdez, Alaska!

Just three days after returning from our Off-Off Broadway excursion and New York debut, TBA Theatre was off to Valdez to present a wacky, campy sci-fi spoof for the Theatre Conference. The script was read as part of the Play Lab last year and Dawson Moore, Conference Coordinator and good friend, thought it was a great script for the conference and for our company!

It was a challenge to bring such a big show to the conference especially with half the cast in New York right before we left but hey, we pulled it off! The audience absolutely loved the production and the script. I have to say, it was a lot of fun, and people have been stopping us all week to say how much they enjoyed it. So... thanks Shane for casting me in this crazy part and for having faith in my abilities even when I did not. Thanks to Lindsay, Elle, Leif, Carl, Wayne, Krissy and Todd for being so damn good in your roles. Thanks to Rand for the absolutely fun script and outrageous character. Thanks Megan for the wig and that great poster. Thanks Petra, Wayne, Shane and Dave for late nights on a crazy perfect set. Thanks Charlotte for making us look so good. And especially thanks Dawson for bringing us here!

The conference has been quite an experience - more on the conference in specific soon...

Broadway Bound

The New York Trip Cast

Okay, so the title to this post is a little unfair since I've already left New York, but hey, it's my blog I'll call it what I want.

Wow. What an experience. TBA Theatre was invited to present 2 shows which I directed at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Arlitia Jone's Grand Central and 42nd and P. Shane Mitchell's The Resurrection of Humpty Dumpty. So I now have an official NY directing credit. And Shane has both a NY acting and playwrighting credit. And, most importantly, TBA has these credits!

At three years old, we are a young company but damn, we've been kicking some but lately! Now, I don't want to sound pretentious or cocky, I'm just so proud of all of us - as a team. Of Shane for leading us to this point. Of Arlitia, and Shane again, for writing such beautiful scripts. Of my cast for making a good impression on and off stage. Of Dave & Zieh for being my volunteer crew and all around good people. Of Wayne and Megan and everyone else in Anchorage who sacrificed so much to get us there but didn't get to go themselves -the glory is theirs as well.

It was an experience I will always cherish and, though not a perfect trip, will reflect on fondly.

My deepest thanks to everyone who encouraged us over the years, and stuck with us through the hard times when others fell by the way side. I will forever be in your debt.

And I would be remiss if I didn't thank the good people at Love Creek Productions who organized the festival - they made our experience even better with their mad organizational skills and great attitudes.

Here's to where we've been and where we are going!

Ode To A Square Egg

square egg of goodness
your four sides bring me great joy
much better than round

see slideshow

Brayton Chapel Fire

There are so many things that have happened in my life since I started (and then quickly abandoned) my blog. But to truly complete my homework assignment from Rik I thought a real post would be necessary and the event that stands out to me most significantly is the Brayton Chapel fire. Nothing like watching your church burn to put things in perspective.

It's a little surreal actually. I first attended church there as a visitor when I was in high school. I had been dating Shane for a while when he invited me. Fast forward 20 plus years...

...I was baptized into the LDS church...moved back to Anchorage...sporadic church attendance...Shane and I got married...started working in theatre in Anchorage...very public job change...depression and anger...started attending church regularly...happiness and contentment...ANOTHER job change (less public)...easier to handle this time...many blessings in my life including purchase of TBA Studio and becoming Sunday School Teacher...church burns...

As I said, there's nothing like watching a building you are attached to burning and yet, in the end I know it is merely a building.

No lives were lost, no one was injured. Sure we lost some property but, after all, it was only material goods. And even though it was my church, where I went each week to refill my spiritual cup, as it were, I know that it is just a building. And though meeting these past two weeks at South High School has its challenges, I still have a great many blessings in my life. I still have my ward (congregation) family, I can still take the sacrament each week, and I can still try my best to bring the spirit into a meeting thru music or strive to impart some wisdom to teenagers.

Visiting the grounds after the fire I watched a parade of cars almost like a funeral procession pass thru the parking lot, all of us had come to say goodbye to our friend...

In the end I was reminded of what really matters to me, that it is not the building that brought me peace and joy each week but the fellowship of those who share my beliefs and the spirit of that in which I believe.

Has It Been A Week Already?

Okay, so I may in fact be the world's worst blogger, but in my defense I couldn't log on cause they changed everything and I had to get a new google acccount and password and...yeah, yeah...excuses, excuses.

But here I am. Problem is I have both too much to say and nothing to say. So much has happened that I don't know where to start. And so I start with a simple "I'm back."

No promises to myself that I'll fail to keep, no grand statements, wise words or cool pics to post. Just a simple "here I am."

Oh and Rik, I know I'm late but the dog ate my password, can I still turn in my assignment?

A Day Off

Well, it has been a week since my last post and if I'm going to honor my "once a week" claim I guess I better say something. Today is the 4th of July - Independence Day - which I celebrated by not setting an alarm. It has been a busy time these past few months and today is the first day in at least a month I have no obligations (other than spending time with friends and that's a pleasure not an obligation). What amazes me about me is that I spend all my busy time wishing I had free time to do this or that and when I get free time I squander it on the couch watching old TV programs on DVD. On the other hand there's a lot to be said for spending time at home with Shane and the dog and cat.

One of the hard things about getting started with this blog is not knowing where to start. So much has happened in the past few months alone that I find myself trying to decide what to chronicle first, or at all. With that in mind a brief overview then, perhaps more detail later.

In April & May I directed a production called Aesop's Runaway Fable for Theatre for Young People - my last for this company as it exists now (more on that later). The show was a joy and I was very proud of the overall production. While the show was in production I was also working on the Three Barons Renaissance Fair which performed the first two weekends in June. At the fair I perform as a member of the Blue Court in Akbar & Amid's Circus of the Damned. I also direct a work from Shakespeare for the Tomato Show. Between the two performance weekends of the fair staff started to arrive for the summer theatre program that I oversee. The Tuesday after the fair students began the program and that Friday I drove to Valdez for the Last Frontier Theatre Conference. I spent a week in Valdez during which time I directed a production for the Overnighters (fully realized performances written & produced in 24 hours), helped produce and directed two shows in an evening of original works presented by TBA Theatre) and read in several of the plays being presented in the play lab. At the end of the week we drove back to Anchorage (stopping to admire the scenery a few times) and the next morning I returned to work at the theatre. It was now production week and we had a few late nights on top of the regular workday, which brings us thru Saturday July 1, and the last show of our first three-week session. By now new staff is coming in, new paperwork is going out as we're preparing for another three-week camp that starts on Monday. The good news is that Sunday is mostly a day off, however I serve as the chorister at my church and that starts at 9am so...that pesky alarm clock rings at 7:30. After church, which was a joy to return to after two weeks in Valdez, even if I still had to set an alarm, a nice nap and then some time with friends at Matt's house. (More on Matt and his incredible generosity later). Then Monday alarm at 6:15am and the first day of session two of our program! After a full day and a half of work an escape to see the new Superman movie with friends. Then...

...home to sleep and NOT set an alarm. So you can see how a day off is much appreciated! And now I'm off to my friend Leif's to enjoy the day, the fireworks and my indepence from a day of work!

Well, that pretty much sums it up for the State of Schmertopia as of July 4, 2006. Happy Independence Day to all!

Thanks Lindsay!

Well, this is my first official entry and I just wanted to say thanks to my good friend Lindsay Lamar for helping me! I decided to set up this blog because I've really enjoyed reading hers, as well as my other friends blogs (or NOT blogs as the case may be). It's a great way to share thoughts and events and I hope that I can even be half as faithful or interesting in my entries as my friends have been. Only time will tell.

My plan is to make an entry a week - basically a "State of Schmertopia" address about whats happening in my life and the life of my friends. Those of you who know me (and if you don't then why-o-why are you reading this?) know that theatre is both my hobby and career, so expect a lot of posts on shows and the arts in general as well as the "all about me & my friends" stuff.

As soon as I figure out how (hint-hint Miss Lamar) I'll even set up an email list for those of you who want to know when I have a new post!

Well, that's all for now. It's late and though I want to stay up and write the most amazing blog entry EVER, what I really need to do is get some sleep.

Thanks for all your comments so far, and wish me luck on actually keeping this blog going!

Schmerin

It's begun...

Welcome to my blog!