Well, it has been just shy of eight days since I arrived here in Fairbanks. And I have to say that I need to start writing down what I think of writing in this blog when I think of such things...which, generally, occurs at points when I am nowhere near a computer or when I have classwork that takes precedence. Sigh. All that said, while I have a sure certainty that there will be items I am forgetting here goes this entry:
First, my classes seem to be going okay. There are moments when I have flashbacks to sessions at either College Of Lake County or University Of IL: Urbana-Champaign. Like the making of my "sewing sampler" in my Costume Design And Construction class. It echos work I did at UIUC during the costume shop section of Theatre 108. And some of my Theatre History class recalls Frank Harnish at CLC....tho' the text here is much less bulky then the Oscar G Brockett theatre history text we used there.
Anyway, the first week of classes went, I believe, well. No major faux pas so far as I can discern. Still getting used to the social dynamics of a college again. And such things as which Professors want to be called Professor or Mr (or gender appropriate term) and which want to be called by their first names....etc.
As previously mentioned, I had a meeting with my Dramatic Lit professor. It went well. Tho' he asked, as others have, "Why ?" Why come back to school now ? And why come back to school in Alaska ? I've described some of that here in other entries and will probably do an entire entry on the subject again at some point so I won't discuss it much now. But I have to say, it is a conversation starter....And maybe, in addition to everything else, it has something to do with emulating Cortes at Vera Cruz.....maybe.
On Saturday (09/11/10) I had the portfolio review session for Fall 2010.
It went okay...
Each student (there were/are about 8 of us total, including costume, lighting, scenic and film...) had about 1/2 of an 8 foot folding table to use, plus the space nearby for dress forms, etc and the walls for pinning stuff to....should they choose to. Plus the room has a computer, digital projector and screen built in so students could use that system for videos, larger scale imagery, etc. The evaluators/faculty went from location to location and we did a "presentation" on ourselves (I was the second one to go), much as I understand SETC and MidWest Regional Auditions function. The evaluators/faculty then gave a public review/critique of everything right then, as well as taking some notes on a form, which I suspect will be discussed later in one on one sessions...or that might just be for faculty uses. Not sure......
The evaluators/faculty had some issues with my resume (which I had figured they would and which I have been working on) and some tweaks regarding size and notation of the plates in my portfolio book and how I could "sell myself" more strongly....Plus they recommended that I have more than one portfolio (ie: 1 for design, 1 for carpentry, etc) and more process imagery if possible (for the carpentry especially).....My adviser (the Dept head) did say that I had a nice layout and he called the drafting style on the larger plates I had there "strong". And they seemed to like that I had something to say about each plate in my portfolio book (a reason it was there or some detail regarding the production, etc). So those were pluses.
Funny side story - near the end, during a lull, my Costume Design/Construction (and Theatre History as well) instructor says to me: "So...I've been needing some furniture for my office...." It made me smile. She was mostly joking but I admit it felt sort of good to know that my furniture building skills as displayed in my portfolio had been noted.
Speaking of Theatre History (see how I did that ? That is what is called in college writing a "transitional bridge"...or "segue"....of course, my pointing it out makes it less of a segue but.....shrug....anyway....)......Speaking of Theatre History, I had to write my first college style essay for a class in about 27 years last weekend. Yes, I have had to write essays for scholarships and such which were formatted much akin to college classwork would be but....sigh. So this essay was the first classwork one in a long while. And while I am still waiting on the grade for it I have to say that I feel I did some okay analysis on the subject.
One thing that is VERY different since I was last in school is that now most everything has some form of digital linkage. One professor (Dramatic Lit) wants our papers submitted electronically only. No hard copy. And we get a good percentage of our assignments via an online system called "Blackboard" where we can check our grades, enage in group discussions, bookmark webpages so that others can access those bookmarks, etc. The closest thing we had to that back at UIUC was the PLATO system. Which was awesome for it's day. Looking back at it today tho' it seems terribly....quaint. Here are a couple of webpages about it...Take a look...It's okay. I'll wait: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_%28computer_system%29 and http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/plato-computer-system-/the-plato-online-community.html .....See what I mean ? Tho' I do sort of miss the monochromatic orange plasma displays. Lots of memories there. Of course, at the moment as I am writing this I am also listening to online radio. And while the station is a nearby local one, it could well be one from Urbana...Or Orlando....Or St Louis...Or Tokyo....And I am typing onto a portable computer system that probably has more data storage capacity than an entire PLATO "node". Let alone the broad spectrum color display and such. How things change.....
One other subjects: I had a meeting today regarding possible scenic design/assistant design assignments for the Fall mainstage production of three one act plays. There is another tech/design student who is also interested in working the shows and she and I sat down with the department chair (who is also the resident TD) and talked in general terms about which of the shows "spoke to us". And so we both will be meeting with the department chair again next week and showing him some thumbnail sketches and such of our design ideas, which we will then (potentially) be presenting to the director. The department chair was very specific in that he wasn't putting us in competition with each other. That said, I have to admit I really, really want to have my design be accepted. If that makes me seem petty well.......sigh and shrug.
Alright....speaking of classwork and such it's time to close this for the moment. More later.
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