I’m back in action this month in my community! I’m currently a volunteer helping out at my old highschool, where I’m the assistant director for a fun little show called “Bye Bye Birdie”. “Originally titled Let’s Go Steady, the satire on American society is set in 1958. The story was inspired by the phenomenon of popular singer Elvis Presley and his draft notice into the army in 1958. The rock star character’s name, “Conrad Birdie,” is word play on the name of Conway Twitty. Twitty is known as a country music star but also was one of Presley’s rock ‘n’ roll rivals.
The original Broadway production was a Tony Award-winning success. It spawned a London production and several major revivals, a sequel, a 1963 film and a 1995 television production. The show also became a popular choice for high school and college productions.” My hours are pretty crazy. I have to be at the school for 8 AM and I don’t usually come home until 6:30 PM. If I have to work at the theatre later that night I don’t usually see my bed until 10 or 11 at night, which means my days are incredibly long. I like doing this though. Right now I’m waiting for a letter or e-mail back from my preferred university, so the faster the days go the better. I can’t wait to hear back! My audition at York University was at the end of January. I had to head into the big city and do a couple of monologues in front of 3 adjudicators and the other students auditioning. It was fairly nerve-wracking but I’m confident that I did well. I’m trying to envision my life surrounded by theatre, so it’s a good thing I’m so heavily involved in “Bye Bye Birdie”. I’ve never put that much effort into the planning of a show. I’ve always been an actor or a temporary aid. I’m looking forward to all of the great experiences that lie ahead. I’m sure as the show progresses into it’s development I’ll be stressed out and crazy… but that wouldn’t be any different than how I act in my day-to-day life. Haha! I had a little moment today where I yelled at the students in the class because they were being extremely talkative. Sometimes it’s necessary to suspend your will to chat, and focus on the task at hand. I hope all of these students realize that in just a few short months they’ll need to be up on stage giving it their all. We’ll see how that goes… !
In other news: I’m so so so looking forward to the nice weather. In fact, I’m looking forward to ‘weather’ period. We haven’t had any this winter. Right now it’s extremely frigid and the grass is showing all over the place. The last time I checked this was still Canada folks. Where’s all the snow? I’ve never experienced a winter quite as green as this. Heck… there weren’t any snow days last semester either. Grumble…grumble…
