Seth 10-25-2012

Well, it's been a pretty hectic month here at Florida Studio Theatre. Time sure does fly by though. I love it, but if I could only get rid of the heat I would love it even more.

The job I have taken here is an Acting Apprenticeship and it was not at all what I was expecting.
I was told we would be taking classes, doing workshops, attending rehearsals, etc. What I didn't know was that we Acting Apprentices would be teaching those classes and leading those workshops. It has been crazy learning how to do all that in a short amount of time. But I am now at a comfortable spot where I can accomplish this. Unless I'm left all alone in a classroom full of 3rd graders.

Anyway a little bit about what I'm doing. There are 8 Acting Apprentices and we are split in half into two children's show. The first is The Frog Prince, a story about; Amaryllis, a spoiled but beautiful princess is forced to deal with her shortcomings when she encounters a down to earth Frog with an amazing secret. This show started out in one of our FST theaters and acted like  Nashville Children's Theatre show. Schools all over the area would come see the show. It was really great. Now they are on their touring part and are visiting schools all over the area.

Our second show (the one I'm apart of) is The Playmakers Tour which specifies in Touring schools in the whole state of Florida, from Miami all the way to the panhandle. Our show takes plays written by kids and performs them for schools. Then after those plays are done we lead a workshop on how to write plays of your own. We do some improv acting and teach all the elements of a play. Our show consists of 3-4 plays, 1. Popcorn (we play popcorn kernels in a microwave popcorn bag) 2. I Miss PawPaw (a story about a young boy and his emotions about his grandfather who has passed away) 3. Out of the Box (a play about how classrooms are forced to obtain information and memorized facts, instead of using our imagination to create wonderful work) 4. Forgetful Squirrels (A story about two squirrels who can never remember where they bury their acorns).

I planned on not displaying my musical talents and focusing more on acting but sure enough they asked if anyone could play a song for some of our classes and shows and of course I volunteered.

I played songs I wrote and songs I perform well which led to me writing all of the music/songs for our Playmakers Tour. It was really great writing songs for a show because I got to use the skills that I learned in all of Cathy and David River's classes, songwriting and digital audio production. A lot of the songs are similar to "Thanks Columbia State". 

I find out every day that I'm using everything anyone at Columbia State has taught me and I am so grateful. 

We will be touring all over Florida until about the end of February and unfortunately I will not be able to leave anytime. This means holidays. I wont be home for Thanksgiving, I wont be home for Christmas, or ever Easter. It's going to be tough but I plan on coming home once my contract is up in the summer. I plan on working in Nashville for a good bit before I can go back to NY.

I hope I hear from all of you soon. I may not answer a lot of the times but I want you to leave a message with all that you are doing. I want to know everything.

Love you all!

Seth.