The Boy's Next Door play that I directed for my Adv. Directing class was a success. It was fun stretching the actors to play characters that were very different than their personalities in real life. The show is about a group of IDD (Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled) guys that live together in a group home. The fun story tied to this experience is when we had our one and only performance (besides the class preview) and a bus load of IDD people showed up in our small theatre space about 5 minutes into the performance. It was very disruptive. One guy started wondering around on stage looking for a place to sit. But my actors stayed focused and kept the play going. I thought that it was beautiful though. One of my goals for the show was to expose the audience to a world within almost every community that is hidden and often misunderstood. Once the IDD people came and finally found their seats the other audience members knew that they were there--they made their presence known. It was neat.
Over the summer I got to work the Harvest of Hope Leadership Academy camp in Lawrence, KS again. It was a great time! I got paid to live in the dorms with a group of migrant students. We went to World of Fun, a Sporting KC Soccer game, a theatre showing of The Odd Couple, build kites, danced, ate pizza, watched movies, (when did the work happen? What do you mean, that was the work! My kind of job --building relationships with people and offering them a hope for a better life -- loved it!)
I then got to go on a couple backcountry backpacking trips. I spent a week in the Great Smoky Mountains with a couple friends and then right when I got back to Manhattan I went to the Grand Teton's with my Dad and younger brother. Both were great trips. The one story that I like to tell is what happened on my birthday in the Smoky Mountains. I'll give you the condensed version. It was raining. We were continually stopping to take shelter and rest from the 2 day backcountry hike and into the second day I realized that my fly rod that my Dad gave me for my birthday 10 years ago was not in my hand anymore. I was about to go back for it but soon we met a guy named Brian that was doing our two day hike in one day and I I asked if he would look for my pole. When we arrived back at the parking lot we didn't see him or his car and he didn't drop off the pole at the place he said he would if he had found it. I was bummed. We went into town to eat and John and Wes told me that they would feel okay with camping next to the entrance of the trail that night so that I could get up early the next day to hike in and try to find the pole. I got up around 4:30AM because I couldn't sleep and put on a head light and ran into the forest. I made good time and looked all the way past the place I thought I lost it. Nothing. As I was wondering back towards a T in the trail I noticed that the weeds around the trail were freshly cut. I then decided to hike a mile or two up to the first place we camped because there was a crew of trail maintenance guys setting up camp there. I showed up at their camp and asked them about my pole. A rough and tough looking guy nodded when I asked if they found a Cabela's fly rod. They had it! But the reel wasn't on the pole when they gave it to me. I asked about it and they all started looking around for it...finally the guy that nodded at me went to his tent and pulled the reel out of his bag. I said thanks and happily ran down the trail victoriously! I then decided to stop and do some fishing. I was told of a good spot for fishing so I hiked to where I thought it was and I was running the line through the eyelets and as I pulled the line through about a foot of the pole broke off. WHAT! I thought...this is not a good way to end this story. So I thought of the movie True Grit and decided to boldly walk back to the trail maintenance camp to see if they felt like they owed me a new pole. Long story short I almost got in a fight. But they did give me an idea about Cabelas' customer service. Long story short I went to Cabelas and they said that my pole was last on retail in the sale's bin for $14.99. BUT on the way down the trail I happened to find my UPC tag and after showing it to the Cabelas' customer service they saw how much my Dad paid for it back in 2001. They then bought it from me for $70. So I bought a new and better pole for $50 and got $20 of store merchandise. Long story but at least it ended happily right?
I directed Jake's Women by Neil Simon for my masters thesis project this last semester. It was a stretching experience but I think that we turned out a fairly decent play.
I'm considering going to Oaxaca Mexico to work and to learn spanish. Oh did I mention I have a girl friend? Whaaat!?!? More on that later...
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