One Of My New Favourite Books!

   As many of you know I am a book worm and so I was very excited about this book:  "Cue For Treason" written by Geoffrey Trease, which I was required to read for English, and to finish over March Break. After reading it I realized how much I enjoyed it, and considering I haven't come across the kind of book where you are so engrossed in it that once you start flipping it's pages you can no longer hear the people around you, and are isolated from reality in quite a while, I decided to put this on my favourite book list. This book was written in 1940 and takes place in England in the late 16th century, evolved around a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I. I was actually surprised that I liked this book as much as I did becuase I didn't think I was interested in older, historic ones, but then again the majority of the books I have read have been modern ones, so I automatically assumed. Many have read this book for school, but for those who haven't I highly recommend it. I not only loved the story itself but I also learned various things. The next novel we are supposed to read is "Romeo and Juliet", which I have heard is a fantastic book, so I am looking forward to it!

Snowday......in spring?

Yestrerday was the first full day of spring and there was a warning about a drastic weather and temperature change scheduled to occur today. Well, I woke up this morning aware that it had snowed and that there was a lot, but then as mom and I were watching the news our schools were cancelled! So much for spring.....however this isn't the first time something like this has happened. It has snowed in April before. Today if the weather is ok to drive we are going to buy t-shirt transfers and t-shirts becuase I am making these geeky t-shirts for two of my friends and mom and Diane. A picture will be coming soon! For everybody that does have a snowday.....enjoy!

St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Tonight we are having a green dinner!

St. Patrick's Day!

   This Thursday is St. Patrick's Day! We don't yet know what we will be doing, but we always do something special, as this day is very special. Last year, we made a pretty festive, yet disgusting meal. However, on OLN from 7pm-11pm there is a live ghost hunt from Ireland for the Banshee ghost, that I will be watching.

SDF Award's Show

   Last night mom and I went to the last two performances of the Sears Drama Festival, and we stayed for the karaoke and the awards. We (as in the Ancaster High drama group) signed up to sing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", but the awards started before it was our turn. Even at 10:30pm listening to numerous people jump up to the mics and shouting out the lyrics to songs they don't know, with the mic volume set on high, the karaoke was fun. Songs such as Dancing Queen, YMCA and You're The One That I Want were played, and many people had choreography. Afterwards, the two main characters from our play got an award! Yay! By this time it was about 11pm and mom and I were hungry so we went to McDonalds and got fries and probably my favourite special, limited time only fast food item ever.....the Shamrock Shake!

Check Please

   On Wednesday the cast and crew for the Sears Drama Festival put on the show for "Check Please!" We went to our two morning classes and halfway through lunch we met in the auditorium to load our set into the truck. Then we got picked up, mom took James (a friend) and I for ice cream, and we met at Sir John A. MacDonald school for 2:15 and most of us hung out in Tim Hortons for a while. Once we got into the school we were shown our dressing room, and our 2 hour tech rehearsal started. We worked out the lights and we cleared up the rolling on and off of the risers. We used purple tape to strike our set and we showed the overall stage manager the tops and tails of our show. We practiced with a cue on cue and I wore a headset to practice the opening and closing of the curtain. We were all released from the rehearsal at 4:30, and most people went to Swiss Chalet for dinner in the 1 hour we had until we were to be back again in the dressing room getting ready. When I walked into the dressing room that was holding 20-something people and could probably only have about 7 comfortably, the mime had already started her makeup, some were in their costumes, and hairspray was in the air. Once the cast and crew were ready to go, we did some warm-ups, prayed to the theatre gods, and everybody took their places for the beginning of the show, with Olivia and I up in the lighting booth. The stage manager came up and told me I could start the show whenever I wanted....and that's when it started. The show went very well, and some actors added in small things that they hadn't before, that in my opinion, made the show better. The show ended and once Olivia and I got back down to the stage, the last riser was being hauled off, and the water that we used was being mopped up. Everybody was happy with their performance and the adjudicator had positive things to say about it. On Thursday, there was the private adjudication for our show and the other three that occured the night before. I took a notebook and pen to jot down notes as I learned many things from both our show and the others that I will put into use in the future. This Saturday I am going to see the last two shows, and then the awards are supposed to start around 10pm, with a cast karaoke party afterwards. I will miss my drama friends but hopefully our school will participate in the festival in the future, and we will all be a part of it again, or in a musical that might happen next year!

Ancaster High's 2011Performance in the Sears Drama Festival, "Check, Please!"

   This year Ancaster High is participating in the Sears Drama Festival and I am the stage manager. We are performing a play called "Check, Please!", that is approximately 40 mins. long, and it focuses on the two main characters: Girl and Guy (no kidding, those are actually their names in the script) that go on various dates that go wrong in many different ways, and at the end they meet up.....and they live happily ever after! The play is very funny and to name a few some of the dates include: a girl with numerous identities, a guy who has every phobia you could ever think of, and a girl who has planned out their whole relationship after meeting only 30 seconds ago, and not even knowing the guy's name. (We even have three brides to walk across the stage so she can pick out her wedding dress!) The show has been pretty hectic recently with people in and out of positions and with finalizing particular details. Today's rehearsal was definately crunch time, as we go on stage tomorrow. We are performing at Sir John A. MacDonald school at 7pm (we are the first show) and there will be three other shows after us. We get to miss our two afternoon classes tomorrow so that we can all figure out tech, set-up and strike time during the tech rehearsal. Then on Thursday there is the private adjudications for that night's shows, and on Saturday there is the award show after that night's shows and then there is a karaoke party to follow, so we will all be up all night. I am excited for the show, and I know that the cast and stage crew members will do an awesome job!