Inspired by others… Here’s my Year in Review (2015)

Inspired by my friend and fellow blogger/podcaster, Kerry Hishon – I’m going to try my hand at a review of my year. Here’s the link to her exceptional review: http://kerryhishon.com/2015/12/31/2015-the-year-in-review/

 

January:

The year began slowly as I was recovering from my production of Henry V at my high school. I was also suffering from four months of vertigo symptoms with no idea of the cause or the cure. January is always busy at school since it is the end of the semester and exams and final projects take up a great deal of time and effort. A special social event was attending Art Fidler’s official retirement party from Original Kids. It was a great evening to celebrate a really great guy.

January is also where Kiss a Ginger Day lives…. I recall that no one kissed me that day. Goal established for 2016!

Kiss a Ginger Day!
Kiss a Ginger Day!

February

This month really took off with activities. Brock was already busy with the combat for a friends production of Macbeth and I began rehearsals for Freckleface Strawberry with Original Kids. By the end of the month we’d already closed Macbeth – it was a great show!!!! I also experienced an Escape room with some of the other teachers from my school and Brock and I were invited to join the OKTC trip to NYC for March Break!

Delightful Show!
Delightful Show!

March

Brock and I created the violence for a pretty cool production of Miracle Worker – essentially an extended food fight scene – very, very cool. And then we were off to NYC! It’s always a great trip and this was the first time for Brock to join with OKTC. We saw tons, had a nice relaxing time and managed to average our ticket prices at $50/show.

NYC Trip - March 2015
NYC Trip – March 2015

April

Come April we were waiting for spring to arrive, Brock was helping with a production of West Side Story and yet another Peter Pan! We managed to go together to stage the final battle for Peter Pan – it is always a big deal, but we almost have it down to a science. We can stage it in about 90 minutes with a cooperative and attentive crew of actors! At the end of the month, I rejoined my buddy Kerry to work on another production called The Big Bad Musical – even though my production of Strawberry was still in rehearsal. Gotta love it when things overlap!

May

May saw us renewing our Pyrotechnician licences, Freckleface Strawberry hit the boards – and was a HUGE hit, especially since it was a story that people had not heard of before our production and our support of Peter Pan and West Side Story was completed. May is a busy month for shows, that’s for sure. I also had my first production meeting for She Loves Me – a show I’m currently choreographing that will see the audience in February of 2016.

She Loves Me - Coming in February!
She Loves Me – Coming in February!

June

June FLEW by with the OKTC grad night, a trip to the SHAW Festival with my Mum, the London Fringe Festival and the end of school with exams and projects. All the while, I was writing a script for a show we’d be rehearsing and performing in New York in July! not to mention finding the costumes and props we’d need for the show.

July

July was INCREDIBLE! We flew to New York, stayed in a very convenient and comfortable hotel, saw the hilarious production of Drunk Shakespeare and began rehearsals for our Doctor Who themed combat show with Art of Combat. It’s an intense week of rehearsals and classes that ends in two performances by the end of the week. I was pretty proud of the script I created to make a show out of the workshop scenes and also proud that I managed to memorize my part!

Doctor/Donna in NYC!
Doctor/Donna in NYC!

We flew home Sunday evening and by Tuesday afternoon I was traveling again! This time with my Mum to Great Britain! We had the most amazing trip seeing relatives and checking out all the places Mum used to go to when she lived there. We even took a quick day trip to London to see TWO shows. One glorious musical and a Shakespeare at The Globe! Bucket list items!

The Globe Theatre - Bucket List!
The Globe Theatre – Bucket List!

August

After returning from Britain, I had a week at home, to sleep and do laundry before I was on the road again. This time, I was headed to Connecticut to attend the Puppeteers of America Festival. This is a week long festival of workshops, performances and celebrating the art of puppetry. 2015 was my second time attending the Festival and at first I felt a little disappointed that it wasn’t the same as my first Festival, but before I made it half-way through the week, I couldn’t possibly imagine not attending the next one in 2017.

Leslie, Lolly and Me at the PofA
Leslie, Lolly and Me at the PofA

The end of the summer wrapped up with relaxation, yard work, meet ups with teacher friends and a production meeting for The Trials of Robin Hood! Oh, and I finally had laser surgery to correct my vision. Should have done it ten years ago!

September

By comparison, September was a pretty quiet month. Sure, school started up again, but the only other projects on the go at the time were auditions for She Loves Me and The Trials of Robin Hood. Both of these were incredibly fun although extremely different. At the time, I had no idea what was to come with these two great shows. Who knew?

October

October was a month of work. Rehearsals, rehearsals and more rehearsals. Also a few eye check ups to ensure that everything was progressing as it should. Which it was.

We also presented a workshop at the Annual CODE Conference – a special weekend for teachers of Drama and Dance. We raced in, did our workshop, said hi to a few friends, and then raced home. So we’d be back for rehearsals. Whew.

November

November was pretty similar to October with a bunch of rehearsals and promotions for the shows. We participated in the Santa Claus Parade with a bunch of Merry Men and Women – that was a great time! And Brock was pretty busy getting different props ready for a variety of shows. By the end of the month we were into our tech weekend for Robin Hood. It surprised us in the sense of how quickly it arrived, but we were ready for it. Many of the cast were doubtful going in to the weekend, but I could tell that we were right on track. All they needed was the audience.

Robin wins with a spoon!
Robin’s Lusty Stunts!

 

December

And it arrived! The Trials of Robin Hood opened on December 4th and was a big hit. It received four glowing reviews during the run (deservedly so, if I do say so myself) and it consumed the month for me. It ran for three weekends which is a longer run for our local theatre scene, but part of me wishes we were still doing it.

We became a really tight crew during the process and even went to play Archery Tag together a couple of times. There were many hugs and even tears when folks were saying goodbye on the final night. I’m very proud of the feelings that were generated by this show, for the audience AND for the cast and crew.

We all line up to shoot Brock!
We all line up to shoot Brock!

Tonight, I’m celebrating my wedding anniversary by shooting arrows at my husband. We are returning to Archery Tag for an unusual NYE celebration.

And Brock takes the hit - and catches it!!!
And Brock takes the hit – and catches it!!!

It’s been a while… and what a while it has been!

So it has been a while….

It has been an intense Spring and early Summer with all the shows and projects and while it is supposed to calm down in the summertime and I generally look forward to that – it really hasn’t happened this time around.

To kick off the season we decided to spend some time in New York City. I registered for the Broadway Teachers Workshop and we visited with friends from the Art of Combat Workshop. It was a super time with lots of shows and lots of exploring the city. We did have a little dampener on the whole trip when our car broke down on the way to New York and for some strange reason New York mechanics could not (even given a full week) figure out what was wrong with it to repair it. (More on that later – details and such)

We saw some great shows including: Once, Peter and the Starcather, Pippin and Alan Cumming in Macbeth. We explored a number of Muppet related locations in the city and that was delightful. Also, we met with some friends from toughpigs.com and it was pretty cool to meet those folks in person – next time we will have to plan for a longer visit!

JimHensonBench

After making it home (that was an adventure with the car) I had a short, but lovely trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake with my Mum to see more shows. Still an adventure, but a lovely time.  This was after another puppet building workshop at The Palace Theatre, which was another great time with more lovely monsters coming into the world!

PuppetGroupShotOutside

And now… I’m deep in the process of building puppets for the City of London. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about the project at this time, but I’m sure they’ll be making a scene around town seen enough, so you won’t have to wait too long to see what they are about.

And next week, I’m off to the Puppeteers of America Festival in Philadelphia. I’ve never been there – and I really hope that my car makes it there and back with no troubles this time. It’s going to be an intense, busy and exciting week. I just hope that I can take it all in and savour the experiences.

It’s been anything but a slow, sedate summer. But what are you gonna do? Take what life brings and make the most of it all, right? I know I’m certainly lucky to have all these experiences, so I’m taking it all in and savouring it. It goes by fast.