Director Life

Hello everybody!

Well, there's a fire in my wood stove, a capella Christmas music in my speakers, and only one more November day left on my calendar. And as much as I enjoy Thanksgiving season, I am thrilled to be starting Advent, anticipating Christ's redemption, gingerbread houses, family reunions, hope in a dark world, and the birth of my long-anticipated niece. :)
So merry almost Christmas, everybody.

In last month's update, I shared some details of my life as a teacher. Today's category is...

Director Life!

Someone told me a few weeks ago that it must be nice to not be working a full-time schedule because I only teach two classes. I laughed at them. Because they don't know. Yes, I'm a teacher, but I'm just as much a director.
This semester, it was my task, joy, burden, privilege, honor, and grand experiment to direct and produce the BFA high school show. It was awesome. And exhausting. So today I'm going to tell you a little bit about it.
The show:
I chose a murder mystery this year--Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced. When over 30 students showed up to audition for the 12 roles available, I knew I was in for a gut-wrenching and nail-biting weekend of casting and decision-making. But it meant that once the hard calls were made, I was gifted with a cast of 12 really fantastic students, and they ROCKED it. Getting to know, work with, and watch these kids as they brought the play to life was a joy.

Author Annie Dillard said once, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
So I guess the best way to describe to you what this piece of my life is like is to describe my average day.

A Day in the Life of a Director:

7:15am:

The day starts out just like you might expect. I get up, make coffee, gather my books and computer, pack a lunch, drink aforementioned coffee, and hop on my moped for the ride across town to the school.

8:30am:

I finish preparing and printing whatever I need for my classes that day. Because the first hat I put on is my teacher hat. But once I finish teaching my morning classes, I switch hats, and that's where my director life really begins.

11:30am:

I spend some time reading through the script, reviewing what scenes we'll be going over that day. If I'm really on the ball, I might even take some notes with specific blocking and line delivery ideas.
I review my list of props and set pieces yet to be collected. I send some emails to people who might have furniture or dishware to lend, and set up times that I can go collect those items.

12:35pm:

I have a lunchtime meeting with the wonderful teacher who has taken charge of painting the walls of the set, to clarify and confirm what we need to create a Victorian living room.

1pm:

I email the students who have volunteered to be a part of one of the various crews: makeup, hair, lights, backstage. I want to make sure they know what days and times I need them at rehearsal and the shows.

2pm:

As I'm proctoring a study hall, I peruse Amazon.de and purchase whatever make-up and hair supplies we need. (This is definitely the first time in my life that I've dropped 60 euros on foundation and eyeliner. And based on how much we went through for the show, I don't think it'll be the last time!) This is also about the time I get an email from some wonderful parent offering to bring dinner on one of the show nights, or from some beautiful teacher offering to help collect set pieces or print and cut tickets. I've learned a lot of things during this production, but the most important lesson has been, "I cannot do this alone."

3pm:

I head down into the auditorium to count chairs and create a seating chart, or maybe to measure the stage so that even during rehearsals, we could have a decent idea of where the set walls would actually stand. (If any of my actors are reading this, they'll laugh. Because I was still wrong, and we had to do some last minute adjustments once the set was actually up!)

4pm:

Rehearsal time! This was generally the highlight of my day. If you've never been in a theater rehearsal, it's hard to describe, but just imagine loosely managed chaos, lots of laughter, and conversations like, "Wait, didn't we change that line? Yes. And that set piece is on the other side of the stage. We have to change all the blocking for this scene," and the words, "Okay guys, let's run that one more time."

6:30pm:

I hop back on my moped and come home. God bless my roommate, who is gracious enough to do way more than her fair share of cooking and grocery shopping.
Evening activities are sometimes work-related and sometimes just fun times, but I'm usually heading to bed by 10pm. A major bonus of adult-life is setting my own bedtime. And spoiler alert, kids: it's earlier than you think.

That's not every day, but it should at least give you an idea of what I do with my days. :) It is a full, but blessed life I lead.
The play went up two weeks ago, and I am so proud of how well the students performed. The auditorium was pretty much packed each night, and it was delightful to see how the scenes came to life and the actors really shined with a live audience. Yes, I wanted the show to be awesome, I wanted the audience to enjoy themselves, and I wanted there to be no accidents, but my biggest prayer was that the kids would band together, encourage each other, and have fun. And God answered ALL those prayers. The play was a success, God provided all the help I needed, and most of all, I'm so proud of my kids.

Now we get to start it all over again, as we start rehearsals for the Middle School musical! We're doing Beauty and the Beast, Jr. And I am SO excited.

Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and your support! I'm including some pictures of the high school show, and other random pieces of life.

Love and prayers,
Amanda