The One With The Links

Jambo!

Doesn't the title of this blog remind you of "Friends" episodes? I'm trying to figure out like, a signature blog thing. Somthing personalized that I can slip in here, sort of like how the Desperate Housewives episode titles are all Sondheim Musical Numbers? I wish I'd thought of that first, 'cause who doesn't love Stephen Sondheim? I've been reading a lot of blogs lately to get some ideas which, thanks to the [title of show] blog, leads me to why there are so many links in this blog. They're little fun surprises in case you get bored.

So I have to first admit that I am not blogging this blogtastic blog from Cal Shakes like one may assume. I'm actually blogging from my comfortable room at home in San Ramon. I know, this is outlandish and promiscuous but on Friday (my alotted blogging day) the phones went down as well as the internet. So I started a really funny blog on microsoft word assuming that I'd just email it to myself and then post it when I got home. Then I realized that email requires an internet connection, the upside is that I have a lot to talk about so be excited.

Like the links? Me too.

So I started off my Friday with the weekly hello to the bullpen, but this morning was particularly fun. I had been raving about this incredible semi-new musical called Bare to Beth and Paul and brought a copy of the cds for them to share and pass around. As we were discussing it, Marketing Goddess Susie Falk chimed in with the incredibe fact that her friend has a lot to do with the show itself which was, I have to admit, really exciting.

The reason I bring this up is because after working for Cal Shakes for about eight months, I'm still completely stunned at how tight knit the theatre community is. It extends from New York city to San Francisco to all over the U.S. and is possibly one of the coolest part of working in a major regional theatre, everyone is connected.

Back to the day: after saying my hellos I went up to the artistic office which was soooo warm and cozy. The work for today was really fun. We had a New Works/New Communities meeting at which was so great because we're really getting started and settled into the project. We're currently making connections with historians, farmers and members of the Monterey Bay County so that we have some people to talk to when we make our trips out there. So right now I'm trying to make some of those connections and planning fun activies for us to do while we're there.

I'm sorry for the excessive links. But they're funny right? Or too much?

OH! I still need to put in pictures from last season/summer. Here they are:

So these are the Lancasters. When I was interning with Artistic Learning I co-Assistant Directed Richard III with this group and under the direction of the extremely talented Trish Tillman.

And this is me with two of the five campers who played Richard. They were pretty rad, y'all. Word.

This was the last scene in Richard III.

And these are just a few of the incredible friend that I met over the summer. Francesca to your right, Douglas (also seen on intern blog thing), Margaret and I. Fun times all around.

WOW this was a long blog! Hope you enjoyed it!

Peace and Love,

Derek

Back to Steinbeck

Hey Y'all!
(like the way Britney says it)

So after a long first week of the semester I was fortunate enough to end it with Cal Shakes. Today I got back to the core of my personal internship which is with New Works/New Communities. We're gearing up for a trip to Salinas in order to find some of the historical feel for where The Pastures of Heaven took place. I've always had a fancy for the history of the golden state so doing research on such a beautiful area like the Monterey Bay County has been a really fun adventure for me.

We're going to be meeting with some of the farmers, artists and basic members of the community in order to create a forum where we discuss the origins of the area specifically involving the 1920-1940 era.

In the other shoe, casting is still going on and that's always exciting to hear about. After spending last summer with CalShakes, I've been able to get to know actors and other theatre companies within the bay area. So now it's fun to discuss what's been going on with some of our resident actors at other companies as well as who will be returning this season.

Although this has absolutely nothing to do with Cal Shakes, I happen to be a huge musical theater fan and would just like to say how terribly sad I am that RENT will be closing on Broadway June 1st. *moment of silence*
And moving on....

So this is pretty much it for this week but "stay tuned" for next week because I'll be posting pictures from my experiences as an intern for a few different departments as previously promised!

Peace and Love,

Derek

Who Would've Thought...?

Who would have thought that working for a theater company would be so much fun! The atmosphere of everyone is so positive that the work gets done so fast. It's like they say, "time fly's when your having fun", a little cheesy but true. Watching the auditions are my favorite part because its SO much different when you're on the "other side" of the audition, its a great opportunity to see what directors look for in auditions, and what should've stayed at home ha ha. So far its been great here at Cal Shakes, lets just see what new thing are up for the future!

Your Local and Lovable Intern
:) Johnathan (:

Ello

Hello Web World! Whats the dizneal? Para me--Welcoming the new year and trying to keep warm! Lets see.... First i can say that our intern production of Savage Love was SUPER fun! In less than a month we came together and put on a show, and rocked it! We practiced and performed in a little art studio in downtown Oakland; super cozy and quaint. The cast only consisted of five {two of whom go to Laney college para me and three i just met} so we were just super cozy period:). Even smaller than our cast are the founding members of the theater company us interns were working with. The company is called Rough and Ready--coming soon to a theater near you-- no seriously, we are definitely going to do something like that again. Within the movement and language we worked with View Points {origins from NYU-my dream school-} which is something i personally have never worked with. It was really interesting, a lot of running and jumping and turns and chaos, but very controlled chaos. Our director, Corinne, was trying to teach us how to respond to our own kinetic senses simultaneously with one another. We did exercises such as sun salutations in unison, rhythm in unison and counting with one another without knowing who would say which number or when. The connection that was built was amazing. We knew so well the energies of each other that it made it a breeze to work with one another during the production. The version of the play that we were working with was a serious of poems that followed one another with some relation. The poems were really relavent to relationship issues like "Acting", "Babble" -ing, and "Killing" {not in the literal sense} but thats all the time i have for today, hope to be read by u again soon:)
Adios, Antonette!!!!

THE FIRST POST!

Hello World!

My name is Derek Smith and I am a proud Cal Shakes intern! Being completely aware of how generic that first sentence was, I must forewarn you all that I've never kept a blog before so I hope that my writing fulfills you like Perez Hilton on a boring day. I also hope to be just as funny and incredible as the breakout internet celebrity of 2007, Stephanie Kalem of The Cal Shakes Bullpen Blog ( calshakesbullpen.blogspot.com ).

So just to give you some of my background at Cal Shakes, I started off as an intern at Cal Shakes in the Artistic Learning Department. As an "AL" Intern, I was the assistant director for a camp production of Richard III and acted as a teacher's assistant during all of the camp classes for middle school students. Doing the AL internship was possibly one of the most fun and educational experiences that I've ever had. I became great friends with the other interns and was given a chance to expand my theatrical perspective.

Today, I am a New Works/New Communities intern. I'm helping out our Artistic Team with taking one of John Steinbeck's books The Pastures of Heaven and turning it into a stage play to be debuted in our 2010 season. I do a lot of basic research about the time period and about the basic history of migrants in California- The California Dream, but not today.
Today has been such a blur of craziness! We're casting for our 2008 season, which I think is really fun. As interns we get to watch most of the professional actor's auditions as well as help out with the general audition process. So lately we've been dealing with converting all 5 million of our head shots and resumes to a digital database. This means scanning many many many head shots manually which is not the funnest thing to do. So after a thrilling hour and a half of scanning head shots into the computer, we go to match the head shots to the online resumes and find just blank, white pictures.

I had scanned 124 head shots on the wrong side. Just one of the many mindless moments that I have at Cal Shakes.

Almost like when Paul (Devo Extraordinare) and I went to the post office with 1000 stuffed envelopes and put them in one by one rather than all at once in the bulk mail door.

I'm so excited to continue this blog and hope to entertain you all with wit that I don't have!

Peace and Love,

Derek