Jr. High School Drama Reunion at “The Music Man”

I thought the Cascade Jr. High School Drama Reunion at “The Music Man” was very fun! Bonnie Bensen found about a dozen of us on Facebook. She also found the director of Cascade Junior High’s drama club from our years there—Mrs. Semen. When she learned that Mrs. Semen’s next school show was coming up she put together a group to go see it. Both Mandy and I went.
We all met at Round Table Pizza. There was a whole table in the party area full when Mandy and I arrived. We were a tad…well more than a tad late to the dinner due to my last online class I had to teach.
There were five or so children running about, but other than that, it seemed like everyone was just the same. It didn’t take long until we were once again making each other laugh. Amy and Scott were there with their three children, a girl and two boys. Anna brought her two daughters who were both uniquely named. Monika brought her fiancé to meet us. Rachel, Kat, Bonnie, John and Heidi were also there but they were alone. So that’s a pretty nice crowd huh?
When we got to the high school, the parking lot was packed full. We were pretty impressed until we marched into the school and found out we were at the basket ball game. Alas. The theater was on the other side of the school and the parking lot was a little bit more what you’d expect for closing night of a musical in high school.
It didn’t take long until we were all greeted by Mrs. Semen. She was very happy to see us. Teachers don’t usually supply much of an audience…directors even less. We weren’t able to do much more than say hello and give her a hug because the show was about to begin. We sat in the back of the very small theater on Audience Left. They weren’t bad seats.
The highlight of the performance for us all seemed to be the Wells Fargo Wagon. It was quite a nice prop and it marched in right in front of us.
The weakest part of the performance was the band. They were extremely weak…especially the brass section which is the most important part of The Musicman’s key song “76 Trombones”. I don’t blame Mrs. Semen. There are two possible reasons why this happened I would guess. In my senior year, we fired the band of “Guys and Dolls” for zero commitment to the show and, in general, playing awfully. You see the director of the musical that year was a community volunteer and she didn’t have work ramifications of such an action. Our band director consistently put the high school musical on the lowest priority bracket beneath his own performances, competitions and football game pep band performances. If that was the case here…who could blame Mrs. Semen? The other possibility is the WASL. My sister says that if a kid doesn’t do well in the WASL then they aren’t allowed to take any electives and must take remedial courses. This has severely depleted several bands in high schools…because how well do you think a kid with musical or kinesthetic intelligence is going to do in a test like that?
If that was the case then the kids were trying their best but weren’t capable of pulling it off. I do have one suggestion for Mrs. Semen though in either case. As a member of an ensemble…there is nothing that makes us play our best more than when we are recorded. Since you can’t see the band anyway—pre-record them. Trust me…they’ll play it over and over again to make sure they don’t miss a note.
After the show, we were reluctant to part from one another. But we had to bid adieu to the parents with children in the crowd. The remaining eight of us went out for deserts and drinks at a local restaurant. As a completely unplanned bonus, Mrs. Semen showed up there with a small crowd of her own and told us once again how pleased she was to see us all. Before we parted ways for the night, we pledged to get together once again. I hope we do. The reasons were all still there why we all became friends in the first place, even after all these years and a great deal of maturity was added to us all. We are still birds of a feather.

Weekend Alone Report

With Frank off to visit his cousin Mande and spend a few days in Portland (and see Wicked), I was faced with a weekend alone with the cats.

Saturday:

I had a class to teach virtually…so my voice and my computer made an appearance in Greater Prudhoe Bay. But though we offered 4 classes total for the weekend, only the first one on Sunday filled. So I was free after that. I got an invitation to a birthday party be a new acquaintance in the puppet guild. As I would like to turn that acquaintance into a friend, I determined myself to go.

You know what that means, right? Yep, I showed up at yet another party where the only people I knew walking in the door were the host and hostess. theBut I struck up a few conversations and wouldn’t you know it? There were actually 2 people there I had met before…at an SCA event with Dad where I demonstrated the Takadai for them! Amy and Alex knew my father from other events as well…of course…in the SCA we all dress so differently that you can hardly blame both Amy and me for not recognizing each other out of that setting. Guess what? I’m almost convinced that Amy is a polymath! She is a knitter, for one. She has a few lucets too also one could argue that knitting and luceting are the same subject. But as the conversation went along, I wasn’t thinking she was much into costuming, since they stick to the basic tunic in the SCA, until she told me she was also planning on going to the Steampunk Convention in Seattle and was currently working on her costume too. How about that? Two subjects at least!

Oh as for the party, you’ll be proud of me, Mom…I brought a whole plate of homemade deviled eggs. I dressed up a tad…the host had originally asked in the invitation for people to wear something different, so I wore the Chinese top Mandy gave me…I’m glad I didn’t go too crazy though. No one else wore anything “Different” but the host and me. He wore a very tall top hat, in fact.

Sunday: Put on my Sunday clothes, there’s lots of world out there! We saw the show at 5th Avenue and we closed the town in a whirl! Yes! Mandy and I saw Hello Dolly at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle. We began our evening by putting on nifty clothes…I wore my little black dress with my silk michiyuki over it…Mandy wore hers with a black and red Chinese top and a red shawl. We looked good. Check us out! We had dinner at Red Lobster because Mandy was dying for their cheese bread rolls. I enjoyed the clam chowder like I always do. I got stuffed mushrooms too but they weren’t anything special. Our waitress was very envious that we were off to see Hello Dolly and said “I wish you were just coming back from it so you could tell me how it is!” Well, I think both Mandy and I could now tell her that we enjoyed it very much! We had cheap seats way up on the balcony. But it was a good day to go because right before the show began we could move way down. The balcony was only 2/3 full…maybe less. We rented binoculars, which I would do again now having done it once. It was so nice to see close-ups! During the show we giggled, laughed, and mouthed along with the songs we love. Oh! Musicals are wonderful and Hello Dolly is nothing short. The costumes were great and I was taking notes for my Victorian costume. Mandy and I both agreed that it would be a great thing to show up at the Harmonia Gardens and have a Hello Dolly welcome. Hello Elly and Hello Mandy would both work in the song, you know. So we had to take top-of-the-stairs pictures in the lobby. Note to Mom: you would have loved it too! They are doing South Pacific next year. I’m just sayin’…

How Interesting!

At Scrabble on Monday night, my father told me that my Aunt Sandy got invited to a Steampunk party. She had turned to him for help with costuming as Dad is pretty active in the costume scene, but it was not a costume style covered by the SCA--where Dad sells his lucets. He'd never heard of Steampunk in fact...Aunt Sandy said he thought she was saying "Steam Trunk". Well, Dad passed the information off to me and asked if I would give Aunt Sandy a call. So I did. It seems she has some time...the party isn't until June. So I gave her the numbers off of the patterns I've gotten so far.
You see, the Steampunk style costume is my next big costume project. There's a Steampunk Con being given in Seattle in October. I am planning on build both Frank and I outfits for this event. So I am doing what I usually do--collecting patterns! You see, Steampunk is loosely based on Victorian costumes and there are lots of patterns for that era out there. I am going company by company as they go on sale for less than $2 a pattern at Joann's. As you can see, I've got the Butterick ones! Unfortunately...I may have to spend the big bucks when I pickup the Folkwear patterns. But there is no such thing as too many patterns! So Aunt Sandy lucked out.
However, I do plan to delegate two tasks. Namely, I don't plan to build my own Victorian corset. Nor do I plan to make hats if I can avoid it! Buying the Elizabethan Hat from Tall Toads was just too cool not to do again if I can. Plus the costuming stores online are usually Made-in-America small business production companies who more often than not create one-of-a-kind items...can't hand-make two identical hats!
Plus...there are some pretty awesome hat makers out there!

Frank-Con 2009

My husband and I went out to Thai last night and while we were talking some how the subject of Frank running a Frank-Con at our place (we expect some gaming guests the weekend after next). Then it occurred to me that we’ve already run a Frank-Con!
When everyone visited us to go to the Shrine for Hatsumode, one could argue that was a Frank Con!

Evidence:

1. There was a Role-playing room…our dinning room
2. There was a CCG room…Justin and Robin in the living room
3. There was a costuming workshop: I dressed the girls up in kimono
4. There was also a Japanese cooking workshop
5. Nicky and I had a costuming panel
6. There was a planned excursion that could inspire fantasy books and art
7. We carpooled to vendors—both gaming and Japanese items.
8. Some of us attended a party with famous pillars of the gaming community—at the Grubb’s. (Covers the celebrity requirement)
9. It ran for several days and over a weekend
10. Many new board games were introduced

:) What do you think? Am I right or am I right?
(For my family, who are not gamers, a con is short for convention. It’s the practice for most gaming conventions to come up with a snappy name that includes “Con” like “Rad Con” in the Tri-cities or “Spo-Con” in Spokane.)

The Masquerade Report or “All LARPed up and no place to go”

The Masquerade in Pullman was said to be a murder mystery masquerade. I had many ideas of what that meant, especially since we were all required to come up with Clue-like names, but my ideas were all wrong—it turned out to be a puzzle and a riddle-solving exercise. It was not my cup-of-tea, but—as it was rightly pointed out—it was not created with me in mind. Frank, you see, dislikes Live Action Role Playing or LARP games. A good example of that form of gaming would be a How-To-Host-a-Mystery game, where people take on and act out a character in the game. Those styles of games are limited to 8 people, sometimes only 6. They are tightly control with 3 rounds. Each round a person gets to open a sealed envelope for their character. No judge is required. On the larger scale there are game-setting-inspired LARPs, the most successful of which is based off a table-top role-playing game by White Wolf where all the LARPers get to play angst ridden vampires. Neither Frank nor I would touch that one, but I have found a few game settings I did like. The first one was also a White Wolf setting but it was about fairy courts—which inspires cooler costumes and a whole lot less angsty black gothiness. The second one even attracted Frank, who dislikes LARPs in general as I mentioned. It was based off of the 7th Sea Role Playing game and was created to star movie-inspired swashbuckling characters (but mostly pirates) and was loads of fun.

The personality of a polymathic Leaverton is well suited to playing in this type of game and I love them. I subscribe to the philosophy that if doing something in game is fun for me, it will be even more fun with another person involved, and if that’s even more fun, then it stands to reason that it will be even more fun to get a whole group of people in on it. That way everyone has a great time. I usually find some person like me…dressed up and friendly, to make friends with and then we begin recruiting all the timid folks who just showed up that day and wanted to play but have no costumes. These are the folks most other LARPers ostracize but their characters are completely equal and with a little push these people can shine. If you can overcome their timid barriers, that is. I can. Mostly by being so outrageously in-character that people feel that they can’t be nearly as silly looking if they stand next to me. Also, I’ve noticed a phenomenon that I have no name for other than proxy costuming. People who are around me and watch how I act in my costume begin to move as if they were dressed like me. For example, I once played a French noblewoman. One of my draftees was also playing a French noblewoman but she was in jeans and a t-shirt. It didn’t take long until she was bending at the hips not the waste, moving as if she had skirts in the way and fanning her bosom as if it were exposed. I never knew jeans and a t-shirt could be that sexy and flirtatious! Sort of bothered her son, who had talked her into doing the LARP…I guess Moms shouldn’t move like that.

The structure of this type of LARP is a little different from How-To-Host-a-Mystery. The LARPers are given a character, a primary goal for the evening and a few tertiary goals. A pirate might be given the goal of getting hired on to a ship with one of the captains present plus side goals: to cheat so-and-so at cards and pass on a secret to so-and-so. A noble woman might have a goal to steal something important plus the side goals: hand out a particular item of gossip and get so-and so to like her. Some people are set up as targets…they know so-and-so is out to get them so they must avoid being alone with that person while trying to accomplish their other goals. Most of the characters will be able to achieve at least one goal, so you can end the night with everyone feeling accomplished.
The downside of this style of LARP is that you need judges (AKA referees, storytellers, or Non-player Characters). So if a victim ends up in a room alone with the guy who was out to get him, they can “fight” and the judge says who wins. Sometimes the fighting is just rock-paper-scissors, other times a dice or coin might decide the outcome. The more people you have in the game, the more judges you need. Often these judges play bit parts like a servant or a wall flower, and so blend in until they are needed. Often they take on majorly powerful setting based characters that you couldn’t let just anyone play and very often must do something to move the story along…like the king of the fairy court who is scheduled to die at precisely 11:15pm!
That’s the thing with the Pullman Masquerade…Frank had 21 people to deal with and no judges but himself. He was tasked with the job of involving everyone too, so How-To-Host-a-Mystery was out because there would’ve been only eight principles and all the rest would’ve been detectives. It would’ve turned into dinner theater.
If everyone had a character and a goal to do all at once, how could he alone judge all that? (Plus he dislikes LARPs) So he made it puzzles and riddle clues, which everyone worked on together and no one solved…not so much that they weren’t getting the riddles but that they were letting other people talk them out of the right answer. I was both frustrated with it, and anxious for Frank being successful in this. I shouldn’t have bothered…these were his allies. These kids were his friends and his gaming groupies, long used to picking up whatever gauntlet Frank choose to throw down. Plus, they are enough like him that the things he enjoys are the things they enjoy. So they saw puzzles and riddles and said “Yay!” and got to work on them. I have never felt so out of place in my life. At least there was Nicky…my fellow polymath…to be my refuge. She was the fabulous hostess of the party. She and I gave the game a chance—more than an hour actually—but when the gamers began to debate, we retreated to the other room and played with the cat, talked arts & crafts, discussed costuming, touched on mask & backdrop design, talked about cooking a little, and took pictures. Every now and then we’d look into the other room and watch all the gamers in their element…grinning ear-to-ear…just to make sure they were having a good time (which I was no longer in any doubt that they were), and then go back to our pothmathic topic-hopping discussion. I have to say that I was glad for two things…that I stayed in the game longer than Frank thought I would (he told me this after) and also that I was the only one all LARPed up with no place to go.

Hello Dolly

Mandy and I are going to put on our Sunday cloths on Sunday the 15th and go see Hello Dolly at the 5th Avenue Theater. I’m really looking forward to it. I do enjoy musicals very much. Frank will also be seeing a show that day. He’s going to Wicked in Portland with friends. I’ve already seen Wicked and enjoyed it very much, but I have never seen Hello Dolly done live. I’ve seen the movie, of course, but going to the theater is a whole different thing.
Mandy and I also plan to go see “The Music Man” in Auburn the following Saturday. A group of old school mates of mine proposed going to see the show together. We found each other on Facebook, you see, and naturally that lead to a desire to meet once again face-to-face. Mandy and I both moved in the drama club circle in school, so we both know people who are going to be there. It should be interesting. Mandy has kept in touch with a lot of her school chums, I haven’t so there’s a lot of catching up to do. The drama circle was more my thing than Mandy’s, so she won’t have seen this crowd in a long time either. Oh yeah…and “Music Man” is one of our faves too. Let’s not forget that!
To round out our theater month and to get in one more blast from the past. We also plan to see “The Merchant of Venice” that weekend as well. The Seattle Shakespeare Company is presenting it at the Roundhouse Theater. In high school, Mandy and I were both in it. We played Solanio and Salerio, the two *male* gossips who serve as an effective substitute for a Greek chorus in the show. I still have old picture of the two of us with glued-on goatees.

So how about that for a theater-going month!