Emily's First ever and long, blog!

I have to say that my first week at Cal Shakes has been both exciting AND inspiring! Both, you say? Ah but yes, and I'm looking forward to more. Oooof course there are those long office hours labeling, seeing Excel in my sleep... but honestly, I've gotten to hang with some amazing people during those times, AND I actually do enjoy learning how to use these new programs and being a part of the operations of the fabulous theater company they call Cal Shakes. In admin the other day I got to organize the donation tickets that are given out, which was really nice because I called some schools that had requested donations to let them know that we are still planning on sending them out, and they were so excited... made me feel all gooey and warm inside. I would also like to mention that I would have hoped to blog a bit sooner than this, but had been working a pretty heinous work schedule along with my internship. I am still working during this internship, but have switched to night hours (makes a HUGE difference). I thought it'd be too intense to work at the same time, though I have no choice. However, I find that when I am here I'm having a pretty amazing time... and I even get a sec to relax here and there, so I think I'll be able to pull it off.

Now, a special happy color for the special experience that they call the Student Discovery Matinee. Last Thursday (yes, this is long overdue) I was assigned to Joaquin Moraga (middle schoolers) and in, all honesty, I was a tad worried about it. I didn't have such a great time in junior high and I know kids can be pretty awful to deal with at that age. So I wasn't expecting angels. But I was very pleasantly surprised. They were so cute! They listened to me, I didn't see any dirty looks or eye rolling, and they even had conversations with me! I went around and met each table, asked them about themselves and/or told 'em about me. By the end of the day they yelled "We love you Emily"! Eeeee! I was a bit verclempt. And to get to watch a Romeo and Juliet performance again was so great. I've seen it quite a few times now, but I haven't really got tired if it yet. It inspires me, I think it's a totally amazing representation of the play, and the actors are really talented—It inspires me and reminds me that this always has been the only thing for me, and I want to be up there on that stage!

Also within this week, I worked at a Tasting Night (ate SOOOO many peaches courtesy of Farm Fresh to you... mmmmmm) and attended an evening performance w/ comp tickets for me and my hubby!

I'm thrilled to have this opportunity and to be a part of Cal Shakes, and so far I love you all. I look forward to the rest of the summer and what there is to come.

Hot Days and Jello (Just Don't Mix)

Dallas here with another update from the intern world! We just completed performance number eleven of Romeo and Juliet and the show just keeps getting better! This past week has been pretty exhausting—two Student Discovery Matinees, one Meet the Artists matinee, one Shindig, two Tasting Nights, a smattering of backstage tours, not to mention Opening Night. It's a testament to the work ethic of this amazing cast and crew that we have even survived, but that's not to say there haven't been plenty of fun times. There have been countless Vespa rides around the Bruns, made-up lyrics to "Shut Up and Drive," mind-numbing games of Sets in the green room, and fight calls. Fight calls are slowed down versions of the fight scenes in the show that take place 45 minutes prior to curtain. With a slower pace comes room for improv and comedy, with versions of the Tybalt/Mercutio fight including Southern, Lisp, and Bored, with Julian (who plays the Prince) sitting in the audience, simultaneously reciting lines and reading The New York Times. It all leads to the seamless and realistic fight the audience then sees, ending, of course, in plenty of fake blood. I have included a photo of Craig Marker (Tybalt) taken especially for this blog just after said fight, and you can thank him for enduring the blood for this special photo shoot. Blood cleanup is messy at best, but things get especially difficult during matinees. After only ten minutes or so on the deck (the stage), which can become hot enough to burn bare skin, the Jello/Kool Aid mixture literally bakes in and becomes a black, sticky mess that resembles tar and is just as tricky to get up. It just goes to show that sometimes hot days and Jello just don't mix.

Craig Marker (Tybalt) bloodied after a run-in with Romeo and a chair

Intern Class 2009 with Daunielle (the internship program coordinator)

Lauren, SM Intern, riding a Vespa used in the show

Alycia, Deck Manager, enjoying an afternoon ride on the Vespa

Caitlin, Lauren, and Private Lives Stage Manager Liz taping the floor in the rehearsal hall

Romeo and Juliet and Berkeley

Hi all—this is Daniel Chavez, the Lighting Design intern, posting live from the intern house. I'm currently enjoying a night off and reviewing life out here in the Bay Area while I'm at it. I'm from Washington, D.C., and before this, I'd never been further west than Ohio, so it's been interesting adapting to life out here. I'm already in love with Berkeley, and I spend a lot of my free time going on long bike rides around the area, finding cafes, used bookstores, art supply stores, taking yoga classes, and all that.

We don't get into San Francisco much—it's a long train ride, and most things to see or do are worth a full day trip. Our first weekend here, my roommates and I went into the city for Bay to Breakers—which was unforgettable—stopping by Chinatown and riding a trolley on the way home. The fog in and around San Francisco and the hills of Berkeley is absolutely gorgeous, by the way. After that, it was time for orientation, and then we hit the ground running!

Tech week is always intense, and Cal Shakes is no exception. Working in electrics meant working an average of twelve to sixteen hours a day until all of the lights were hung and focused and the cues were built. I was lucky enough to be shadowing the assistant lighting designer during tech, so I got a great firsthand look at the process. The lighting designer, Russell H. Champa, is an incredible guy to work with, along with the assistant lighting designer and the master electrician—my boss, Heather. Still, it was a relief when we survived tech and transitioned into previews. After helping to set up the opening night party, work has consisted of operating the light board four days a week and general intern-y work.

With more free time since then, I've had more time to see the sights, like Muir Woods and the Golden Gate Bridge. Did I mention that I'm in love with this place? I don't have any pictures up from Golden Gate Park or Haight-Ashbury, but trust me, they're great, too. There are still more interns and more company-wide events to come, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more posts soon!

A few quotes from R&J tech:

Dir: We need Friar John's letter!
SM: What would you like?
Dir: Well, I'd like something that's not a piece of paper that says "Friar John's letter" on it in sharpie.

"The director's patting himself on the back. That means you guys did great."

Like Butter

The Intern blog has taken off once again and, as a blogger myself, I decided that today, the holiest of holy days, My Day Off (yes, it's a proper noun) would be the perfect time to hop on the bandwagon. I'm Dallas, Artistic Learning and Stage Management PIP, a kind of hybrid intern that may have just as easily hopped out of our Artistic Administrator's imagination as I did Florida.

I am one of the eight interns living in the intern house (you have read Carrie's entry, right?) and I could be known as much for my habit of singing Sheena Easton's "Morning Train" before work as for my love for baking. More dedicated Cal Shakes patrons could recognize our living room for being oddly reminiscent of last summer's Twelfth Night set, mainly because that's where a lot of the furniture came from. I've started the summer off on the Stage Management side, joining the brilliant team of ladies who make backstage at Romeo & Juliet the seamless and, might I say, highly attractive place that it is. Seriously, these ladies knows what it takes to make a transition run—and I quote R and J director Jonathan Moscone—"like butter".

There's more to it, of course, than moving chairs and locking the wheels on Juliet's bed; there's the side the audience sees yet never sees: the ridiculously clean moat. Yes, folks, this is like a backstage tour but without those pricey tickets. Let's review:

First, there's a stage to sweep. Easy enough, right? Wrong. It's textured and there's those darn stairs, not to mention backstage where actors lurk barefoot (a Stage Manager's nightmare, yet our time to shine). I won't spoil any details of the show for you, but let's just say it wouldn't be a daring Jonathan Moscone show if the actors simply stayed put on the stage. Mopping and vacuuming follow the sweeping, and a few groans follow thereafter. There's chairs to place, towels to hand off, props to set, torches to light, and a whole mess of other little details that go into making a show run night after night "like butter".

Hello from the costume shop!

Hi, I'm Courtney and I am the Costume Design intern in Cal Shakes' 2009 Professional Immersion Program.

A lot has happened in the first two weeks of starting the program ,and I am finally able to get into the flow of what is going on at Cal Shakes.

As a design intern, I will be doing a lot—going here, there, and everywhere in a couple of weeks' time. I will be shadowing and assisting the Private Lives costume designer in their creative process from concept to reality. I will also be designing the Five-Week Conservatory production, I believe, and that will be loads of fun. I am hoping to update more in the future about all of my experiences, so you can have a better idea of what happens in the costume department.

So far, the ladies in the shop are wonderful and so helpful, allowing myself and Kimberley, the costume shop intern, to become comfortable with where things are. I was also able to attend a tech rehearsal with costumes used for the first time for Romeo and Juliet last Sunday. It was great all this week to see how the shop crew, wardrobe crew, Naomi the shop supervisor, and Raquel, the designer, all work together to solve "blood" challenges with the costumes. It was truly a team effort to make the blood believable, and the shop and crew make it occur effortlessly show after show.

Most recently I helped out with a majority of the other interns for the Opening Night party, which went very well! Lots of cake, champagne, mingling...everyone had a good time during and after the show. As I was passing out champagne, I had many audience members tell me how they loved the show, and offer congratulations to Cal Shakes and their 35th anniversary! Cheers!

I am hoping the week to come has some more great learning experiences...so here's to a new week!

First PIP blog of 2009! (Or, blood packs)

...And thus begins all Cal Shakes summer blogging!

I guess I should start with an introduction: I am Carrie, Artistic Learning intern extraordinaire and lover of brightly colored tennis shoes. Two weeks ago, I boarded a plane out of the great city of Baltimore (Go O's!) to the Bay Area where I began what will be my three month stint as an intern at Cal Shakes. I, like seven of the other interns, am living in the intern house, which we have nicknamed Real World: Oakland (except that we are never at home, and we all get along). But this stuff all seems boring compared with the subject I want to discuss today.

Blood packs.

Yup, I said it. Blood packs. Romeo and Juliet is one gory show. I mean, this ancient grudge leads to some seriously bloody mutiny. It is AWESOME. But here's the thing about live theater: Every show is different. Sometimes, Juliet will put that happy dagger in that sheath and... nope, nothing. This may be, in large part, due to the fact that her blood pack somehow landed under Romeo's legs. Or Tybalt will just keep stabbing Mercutio until we can suddenly see a scratch—just a scratch.

Over the course of a tech, blood packs stop flying across the stage, blood finally reaches a realistic thickness, and everything comes together as it always should. Tech leads into previews which finally leads us to one of the most magical times in all of theater, Opening Night.

Tonight that magic begins. The Bruns will be filled and everything will be perfect. Especially, the Opening Night Party music mix. Just wait... it's worth it.

Okay, that's all for now. Go see Romeo and Juliet!!!!!!!!!

just who are those jonas brothers anyway ?

Hi. I'm Ava.

As five-week conservatory has sadly just come to an end, two-week conservatory is gearing up for a exciting beginning (and Hannah and I have just had our final YWCA Hip-hop class), I feel it's time to stop and reflect for a moment on the summer thus far. My five-week group were the 8th, 9th, and 10th graders, appropriately named the Dashing Danes (please note the alliteration). Last Friday, along with the rest of the highly talented camp, they performed our post-apocalyptic interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The show, as with the four others performed that day, was a huge success and I commend all the students on their high level of dedication and creativity. In one of our final circle-ups as a group we reflected on the great deal I had learned from them (most notably, who the Jonas Brothers are and just why we hate Miley Cyrus) and the pearls of wisdom they took away from me ("how to flirt with boys!" and more seriously: how to be collaborative owls). To be honest, the positive experience of it all has left me a little bit nervous moving into two-week conservatory. Hannah and I will be working together with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, and that's a whole new challenge. Will I be entertaining/patient/helpful enough for the younger students? Will a 30-minute version of Pericles even make sense? Who's going to explain what a brothel is??

Time will tell. And, regardless of my doubts, I'm having a blast trying to figure it all out.

Peace,

Ava Jackson