Who's who now?

We created a new student group to lead and support the technical and support areas of our little theatre program.

We called it the Committee of Seven for no reason in particular. I guess we just thought it was funny. And it sounded kind of secretive and ominous. We are creating a logo with the help of the art department. I had drafted a simple idea with the letter /c/ and the number /7/ intertwined in such a way that it looks rather like the letter /G/. I thought it seemed a little cryptic and played into our initial concept of the organization. My colleague immediately said, "Oh, just like the Fantastic Four logo." my heart sunk a little. I had to concede his point, of course, but asked him to make sure it wasn't too much like this other copyrighted material.

We joke about the Committee of Seven being our secret theatre society. The first rule of the Committee of Seven is that no one talks about the Committee of Seven, we sometimes joke aloud. We have announced meetings by saying that there is NOT a meeting on this time and NOT on this day. The announcement works because more people ask about it and we always tell them the whole story. Our bylaws of course strictly forbid secrecy and require that all our meetings and decisions are public and open to any interested person. The whole point of the committee is to give students a more active role (and voice) in the process of creating theatre. And to recruit more and new students to our activities. It's not a secret . . . it's just not very well known. Yet.

Or is it?

I was told today that we are not alone. Apparently there is some book out there in which a private boarding school is secretly run by a small group of students who call themselves . . . wait for it . . . yes, that's right . . . the Committee of Seven! Maybe they have a better reason for naming themselves this -- or any reason at all, perhaps. To me, sharing this name is funny and disapointing all at the same time. I laughed a long time about it and then sighed. Dang. I guess we'll just have to share our name, if not our mission, with these fictional students in a book I've never heard of.

In the meantime, we elected officers, planned our first meeting with the stage crew, and brinstormed ways to recruit designers and crews. You might hear about us later . . . . but it won't be for secretly running the school.

This could be the start of something big

The very first official meeting of the brand spanking new Committee of 7 will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. If you have not been notified --and I think you have-- you should plan to attend.

The Committee of 7 is a student group we created in the spring to help manage all elements of technical theatre and support areas for the theatre productuions during the school year. It is an innovative way to get more studetns invovled in the decision-making process and to help train student leaders now and into the future. My expectation is that studetns will take more ownership in their productions if they serve a more direct purpose in its planning and execution from a technical perspective.

Students fill the various chairs and oversee and lead their own departments. The are chairs for Lights, Sound, Props, and Stage Managers, for example, as well as a postion of house manager, publicity manager, auditions manager, and a shop foreman. I expect that a meeting will be held of the stage crew in the opening weeks of the school year so that all interested parties will know what is going on.

My expectation is that one or more of these chairs (or managers) will blog here, too, so that we can keep even more people informed of our activities as time passes.

Working on the Car Wash

Your Thespian Officers will meet at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, August 27, 2007. All elected officers and class representatives should attend this meeting.

Topping the agenda will be planning for our next fundraising Car Wash tentatively to be held on Saturday, September 1, 2007. Past car washes have been very successful in terms of participation and funds raised. The most recent car wash raised almost $300.00, half of which was placed directly in personal Thespian accounts of the participants so that they can use it to offset Thespian related expenses during the year. Thespians used similar funds last year to pay Thespian dues, register for Area and/or State Conference, and to mitigate the expense of the London Theatre Trip.

Mark your calendar now for the Car Wash to be held at the corner of Pershing and West Market in Akron from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 1, 2007. If you are a Thespian or Thspian wannabe we should plan to attend and participate. Otherwise, bring your dirty car to be washed.

Car washes can be work, because washing a car well is not a walk in the park . . . but the Thespians who have participated in the past have SAID that they had a good time. We ahve the pictures to prove it, too.

thoughts on Lady M

contributed by Zoe

I've never had a problem with heat before, perhaps because it's what I grew up with, but that's not to say I don't feel its effects as much as the next person. Today was probably the worst of this week's 'working conditions'. I know everyone had a hard time concentrating--if I seemed to be in a zombie-like trance, I can't say it was acting. The weather sort of sucks the life out of you.

I was excited to get some of my scenes up on their feet, though. I spoke to my mom about how glad I was to get some of Lady Macbeth's physicality out there, and she brought up a good point. She said when she was acting, she always began her process from the inside out--analyzing everything completely before actually rehearsing the lines. She thinks, and I agree with her, that I happen to be the other way around. The more I get to be on my feet and moving and interacting with the other actors, the more her character develops.Before yesterday's zombie exercise, I pretty much had accepted Lady Macbeth as the memorable character she was and hoped to portray a similar interpretation as I had seen last year at Shakespeare in the Park in central park NYC. However, today as I was working through Duncan's murder scene, I felt like I was beginning to connect with how exhilarated she must've felt, almost drunk with giddiness.

The zombie gimp is beginning to develop on its own, too. I'm starting to let my pelvis lead my movements, and my legs sort of drag behind me, but I can feel this twitch developing, a jerk in the neck that really becomes more pronounced as she loses more control. I really hope to put out there a much more physical portrayal of Lady Macbeth than I'd seen in New York. She knows perfectly well how to conduct herself as a distant, dutiful wife, but on her own, when she's in complete control of her surroundings (including her husband), it's a different story. She's free to do as she pleases.If everyone really commits to the Zombie plan, this could really work. It's only the first week however. I can't wait until I'm not tangled with a script in my hands and can really explore the space. It's actually quite exciting. My interpretation of her morphs by the minute.

It's almost too hot to think about Scotland

Rehearsals for the Scottish play started appropriately enough on Monday with dark skies, heavy rain and lots of thunder. Even though we were closed up inside teh theatre with no direct access to the outside world, we were well aware of the weather conditions as we could hear the rain on the roof as well as the numerous claps of thunder. The rain had cleared up by the end of the first day of rehearsal but it was still a very gloomy day. It helped us all get in the right frame of mind to think about evil deeds and the lust for power, and deadly revenge.


Cool temperatures and rain clouds soon gave way to high temperatures and even higher humidity . . . making rehearsal in our uncooled theatre nearly unbearable. In spite of the low confort factor, attendance has been good so far and all have been in good spirits and ready to get some work done. We have been working steadily with two days of table work, a first day of staging, and another day of situation based improv and more staging.


The building had really heated up by today and was already miserable by our 9:00 a.m. start time. I have been told that the humidity was 91 percent at 8:00 a.m. so you can imagine how muggy the theatre was after sitting closed up with no fresh air for at least 18 hours. By noon, I had had about all I could stand of the conditions and asked how many people would be mad if I sent them home early. No one seemed to complain. Not to me, at least. We'll just ahve to pick up what we missed today later on in the rehearsal process.


It is early enough that falling behind a little bit is not that big of a deal. We might miss the time later if we really get stuck. But for now we can take a few liberties.


Our choreographer worked in the dance studio with the wierd sisters today and said that it went great. She has lots of good ideas and it is going to be so much fun to collaborate with her. The good doctor stopped by, too, and we talked a little about the music for the show. He told me that he is planning to incorporate some vocals along wtih our disordant, dirge-like score. We are still brainstorming about how to get a theramin or theramin-sounding device into the show. The kids who know what a theramin is are pretty excited about its possible inclusion. I hope that we can figure it out so that this unique instrument can be included in our little show.


We'll take the weekend off, of course, as well as Monday. We have rehearsal on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week. If the weather cooperates we should get a lot done then.

it was raining in the park

There was a lot of rain and a little thunder but we still had our picnic on Monday. Attendance was very good considering the weather. The picnic is always a good chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones, too, as several of the first-year theatre students were in attendance. The first-years seemed to fit in great and are already looking forward to a great year in their new school.

We are looking forward to a great year, too, in addition to working with them for the first time as they are friendly and very talented.

The officers conducted their first Thespian meeting of the year after dinner. They played some fun theatre games that included everyone and talked about a few of the plans for the coming Thespian year. Those plans will be spelled out here in the coming weeks as we and your thespian officers blog more regularly about our activities.

We have also asked two members of the cast of the Scottish play to blog here about rehearsals of the Scottish play, or "M" as we sometimes call it. So this blog space will be a good place to come and peek behind the closed doors of the rehearsal hall. I will post their remarks as soon as I receive them. I am looking forward to reading their thoughts about rehearsal and the play as it develop over the next 6 weeks.

Feel free to submit an entry of your own if you have somethng interesting or exciting to write about.

Weather Don't Fail Me Now . . .

The weather forecast does not look promising for tonight's Annual FHS Thespian/Theatre Picnic. But fear not: the picnic will go on rian or shine. The site has an enclosed pavillion so that is in the event that the heavens open forth, we can stay dry . . . at least until we make a mad dash for our cars.

Nevertheless, we will proceed with our plans regardless to the weather. This is but one samll hurdle for us to jump.

See ya there!

A Picnic by any other Name . . .

Sometimes a picnic is more than a picnic.


Your thespian/theatre picnic to be held on Monday is also the first Thespian Meeting of the year. There are a couple of things that have to happen at this first meeting as required by your newly ratified constitution. So if you are already a member of Thespian Troupe 5570 you should definitely attend. If you are not yet a member of the troupe you are more than welcome to attend, too, because all of our events are open to all interested students.



One of the most important things that will happen at Monday's Thespian Meeting is the election of class representatives. Your officers are already making plans for the year and need the help of four more students who want to be part of the planning and decision making process. It looks like one member of each class will be elected Monday evening to serve as a Class Representative for your Thespian Troupe.

The officers will hold a quick meeting Monday night to make some final decisions about process but it looks like the senior, junior, and sophomore Representatives will each need to be active Thespians in Troupe 5570 and that the freshman representative will not. This makes sense because no freshman will yet have earned points toward membership. This is all subject to oversight by your officers but whatever is to happen with Class Representatives will happen on Monday (or not at all) because that is how it is mandated in your newly ratified Thespian Constitution. If it doesn't happen then it won't happen at all.

So be prepared to nominate your colleagues for your Class Representative at Monday's Thespian Meeting. Nominations will be taken from the floor and I suppose that it is possible for a Thespian to nominate themselves. Voting will take place with seniors voting for their representative, juniors for juniors , and so on.

Let's Get Started

The 2007-08 Firestone Theatre Season gets underway on Monday, Auguat 20, 2007, with the annual Theatre/Thespian Picnic. All active Thespians and members of the academic theatre program are invted to attend and should have already received an invitation.

The Picnic is designed to be a fun event to kick off the new year. We meet up with old friends and meet new ones. We get to know the incoming freshmen and share schedules and other information.

The first Thespian Meeting of the school year will also take place at the picnic.

If you have not already planned to attend this meeting, you should do so now. We want to see all of you there so we can have the best time ever.