On Greeting a Stranger on the Street...

Oh let me tell you, I have seen...

Thespian Conference, 2003

Fun stuff. I went last year as well with a group of about 10 people and I was friends, or at least good aquaintences with all of them as far as I remember. It was a nice little group and we had a lot of fun.

...this year, there were about 60 students who went. Not quite the same atmosphere. This time there were so many people, and consequently, many more friends. The bus trip over was okay. Sat around Corey, Jed, Davey, Collin, etc and we just talked and such.. nothing special. We went straight to the conference. We wandered around for a bit, everybody getting their bearings. Nobody really did anything for a while. We eventually went to the basketball court where people were playing games and such ("Na-na-na-na-nana-na-na-na-na-nana-na-na-na-na-nana this is how we ride.. front to front to front, my actor, back to back to back, my actor, side to side my actor, this is how we ride")

We played games and such until we had to go to Noises Off at 6:30. Good stuff. It dragged quite a bit in the thrid act, but maybe thats just because the second act was so great. When I told my mom about it, she said she didn't like the show years ago when she saw it because it was too slapstick, but that's what I loved about it. And their set.. OHGOD. Was so beautiful. Though I think I acutally liked The Nerd's set last year more, even though it wasn't as impressive.

When we got to the hotel afterwards, we all went inside and to our rooms. I was rooming with Collin, Givan, and Eric. Givan and Eric, are.. to say the least.. not people that I would want to hang around with. But it was no matter. Collin and I bedded with each other (under different layers of sheets, of course), and we went to sleep almost right away. Except when Givan and Eric had to take showers.. Collin kept reminding me that only a few feet away, Eric was completely naked. Bastard.

We had to wake up at 5:30, as were putting on our show this year at the conference, which our school had never done before. Tired times for all - although i wasn't actually too tired. Had a good breakfast at the hotel. They had their own waffle maker :D. As anyone whos reading this already knows, the show is sub-par at best (unless you're one of those sick fucks who actually like it. sorry, had to put some Davey humor in there.), and we didn't put on the best performance we'd ever done, but it was still up there - but the audience this time was much more receptive. Instead of being parents and senior citizens, they were high school kids who actually got the humor, references, and knew the songs/show/story.

I messed up on two small lines, but nothing major. My beard was falling off almost the entire show, so that was.. fun. I was kind of distracted because of it at parts, and for some reason my performance was a bit off, but nothing bad. Everyone else seemed to be doing fine, and although the play dragged a bit in the second half, it picked up again. I was very pleased the audience got the "inconceivable!" Princess Bride reference - one of the biggest laughs of the show, along with "I am your father" and "bombe-bombe." Apparently the audience liked it because it was so campy, but I didn't get to talk to anybody firsthand, really. Probably because nobody recognized me without the makeup.

After we had loaded the set into the trailer and such.. well, I don't entirely remember what we did. Just wandered around, talked to people, sat.. probably something else. We eventually made our way to the awards cerimonies which sucked because you couldn't hear what they were singing/saying. After that we all wandered and such. I met up with some girl who I met at State speech last year, and she, Jed, Collin, a bunch of her friends, and myself all sat down and ate lunch together. Good times. Eventually we got dragged away from them and did.. something. It all kind of runs together, you know? It most likely involved wandering around and talking for a while until we had to go to the next show.

It was called "Every 17 minutes, the audience goes crazy" or something similar. It started off with a cool choral reading sequence with dancing and flashlights and newspapers and.. a lot of weird stuff, which was all very nice. For 5 minutes, until it ended. After that, it went into some shitty plotline about some girl who arrives home and shes insane and her brother is fucked up and.. well, I fell asleep about 5 minutes into that because.. I didn't see anything to stay awake for, and I was damn tired. The acting was terrible and the plot sounded bad. I woke up every single time the audience started clapping (though it seemed more like a pity clap), stayed conscious only enough to clap, then fell directly back to sleep. Very weird sensation, looking back on it. Well, afterwards I asked other people and they said it was awful, so just as well that I fell asleep. As Corey so wonderfully put it, "It should have been called 'Every 17 minutes, it stops sucking so much'" or something similar.

We then went directly to workshops. The first one I went to was Stage Combat. It was way too short for what he wanted to teach us, so he just showed us the basic stance, attacks, and blocks. I knew all that so that part wasn't too great, but the he showed us a bit to do with shields, with blocking out a fight, and some basic axe/2 handed sword stuff. It was pretty interesting.

Afterwards I want out and found Gemma and people, we sat down and just layed there a while, fully planning on going to another workshop. Too bad we're all perfectly content to sit around and just talk. The company was good, except Michael Smith (right?), but he wasn't all that bad. Jenny was feeling bad, so I tried to just comfort her by putting my arm around her and such.. maybe she was just sick because of the whole shingles thing, but.. maybe it was the Venesula thing? Well I wouldn't know, because nobody bothered to tell me about it.

We then had dinner which sucked. It was a sandwich with nothing in it, some barely decent cookies, classic lays (too plain.. bleh), and some godawful tang-tasting orance juice (they were out of chocolate milk :( ).. then was the auction which I somehow didn't make it to last year. Our poster sold for $18 (would have been $16 if it weren't for Slechta bidding twice in a row to get it up) - Carrie won the bet on how much it would be. I guessed $25. :(

Then, off to Godspell. The lights were amazing, the acting and singing as well.. just.. wow. By far the most professional high school play I've ever seen. Just amazing. Too bad Godspell sucks. Way too preachy for me, plus it has no plot and isn't too interesting. I mean, sure, it's a great way to show the bible, but.. not to me, sorry. During intermission, Sam (K) asked me how i was "doing," in reference to it. I said I was fine but it was too preachy, and she said something about barely being able to handle it. That struck me as strange, as.. I thought she was christian. Oh well. Godspell put all the other plays to shame in terms of technical quality..

I got some award which is supposedly impressive. All-state recognition. I had assumed that it was no big deal, as Jenny was called onto stage for set stuff as well, so I assumed Slechta picked people from the play to go up, as Jenny wouldn't have been known to the thespian people, but.. as Hosbond revealed, it was not so. Though.. I forget who it was, but.. somebody had a damn good point. probably quinn.. since there was one male and female up in acting from each play, who was my competition? Everyone who's better than me has a smaller part, and.. well, there's Eric and Givan. It's not like it's that big of a choice, but.. oh well. It'll look good on a college thing probably.

The ride home was okay.. Ann sat next to Sam, Carrie, and I.. we were being perverted for about half an hour in there and Ann didn't seem too happy about that, but.. eh, what are you gonna do? Carrie cheated in the.. ahem.. "eating" of the banana, and folded it up in her mouth (no I most certainly did not take place in the contest - I have my limits). Corey also sat near, so.. fun times with he, Collin, and Jed as well. GHOST is a damn good game.

Got back, unloaded set, met up with Quinn and Talon and walked with them as they went to their respective houses... told stories of conference (such as Miko - see http://www.collin-the-weak.com ). Got in late and did nothing. And that.. is about it.

Good times. Wish I could have spread my time out between a few more people, but.. so it goes.