Show Poster!

Hello all, just a quick note, the show poster is my profile picture. So there are the dates you had asked for everything. Tickets are on sale now, so get them fast because they sold out rather quickly last year! Hope to see you all there!
-Jenn

JENN!!!!!!!!....What’s that??!!! Please don’t hurt me & Guys, you can hurt each other after the show!..I said AFTER the show!

Well, today, the all important words were said.." I need your cast bio" only to be followed by "what's that?" from the inexperienced cast members...mostly David. Now before I get into that, you're probably wondering "what the heck is up with the rather long title of this post." Ok, well the JENN!!!!!!! Part came from dear Mitchell, that's how he greets me EVERY time I see him, literally. I could have seen him five minutes before and I'm still greeted with JENN!! Although when I see him the first time, I get a rather warm hug (I like those). Today I was getting a lot of warm greetings because last week I wasn't really there at all (hence the lack of posts), but now I'm armed with material! Ok, back to the cast bios, it's that time of year again folks! The time when I get a lot of shrugging of shoulders and have to ask questions to steer them in the right direction. These questions usually consist of "what do you like about coming here every day? Or what do you play in the show? Or "are you excited for the show"? You get the idea. Unfortunately when it comes to the "what do you play in show question, I'm met a lot of the time with, "I don't know" because they literally don't know. This I have used to my advantage with the guys when they won't listen to me. I basically threaten to make them a flower if they won't listen. Crafty, yet evil, yet it works haha. But some of the more experienced cast members, like Robbie (bless his soul) know exactly what to tell me, and make sure that I get it down right. Robbie will literally watch me write and speak at the speed to which I'm writing, to make sure that I get everything down just so. It totally makes my day!

Ok, now to explain the rest of the title, well dear Jeremy, likes to end his sentences with "please don't hurt me" especially when he's being particularly cheeky, which he was today. I unfortunately can't remember what he said exactly. Speaking of hurting people, teenage boys are odd..and rather violent towards each other. Anyway back to my point, Lee decided to put Mitchell in a head lock and slam him into a few lockers to "toughen him up for football" well, me being the wonderful production manager, who is willing to look for a compromise in a situation said,"Guys! You can hurt each other after the show!" Lee of course replied, "this is the show" and slammed Mitchell into the lockers again (again..teenage boys are weird) and then I replied, "Guys, I said AFTER the show".

So that's all for today, I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope that this blog helps to let those who are putting together a similar project or simply work/live with someone who has a developmental disability, that you are not alone. We all get frustrated, but those who make us frustrated appreciate us more than we can ever begin to fathum. Also remember that we need them just as much as they need us. Until another day,
Jenn

On a different Note: To my Amazing Counter-Parts and 10th show baby!

Hello folks,

Seeing as this week wasn't particularly eventful, but it has been rather productive in the construction department. Things are coming along just nicely. We hope to start rehearsal about mid-November. So at the moment I'm accumulating cast-bios and creating a formal cast list. So nothing really exciting, just nit-picky theatre stuff.

But on a slightly different note, I was lying in bed one night, thinking about just exactly how many shows I had done (it came up in a conversation with my counter-parts last week) and holy moly, this will be my tenth show! What a way to celebrate my 10^th show, with amazing people, and working on an amazing project! I would like to say to my amazing counter-parts, Regan, Delaney, and Darren, Kyle, and Allie you guys are amazing! I commend you all for taking this on, and sticking with it! And Allie, I look forward to working with you and your amazing organization skills, without which I would be a disorganized mess, due to the fact that you pick up on stuff that wouldn't think of. We make an amazing team! We all do!

Keep on truckin' guys!

Homeslices, birds, and Improv

Ok seeing as I know that my mother has told I'm sure everyone we know and more about this blog..here's an update. Oh and if you could leave a comment by clicking on the "comment" link at the end of this post that would be awesome! It saves you from emailing my mom haha.Ok on to business:

I have come to realize something, those kids have a HUGE piece of my heart. Yes this post is going to be a bit mushier than the last one, but that's how I roll. Now I'm telling you that there is nothing better than dear sweet Jordyn (Jordie) looking at you, smiling ear to ear and laughing because she's happy. Or Jeremy looking at you and saying "you're nice" which he tends to do. It totally makes my day just that much better, when I've got a million things on the go and a blackberry to keep track of it all.

Ok now on to the events of the day, well today I painted glue onto the bird bodies with Aaron and Chris (2 awesome guys). Now we did this to make the cheese cloth that they're made with nice and stiff so they'll be easier to paint them ect. Our first somewhat finished bird is totally awesome by the way! Primarily thanks to John's handy work. Once we were finished, which was fairly soon, I went to clean up the brushes with Aaron's help, and I wish I had a camera. In the corner of the stage craft room (now if you have ever visited the Mount Baker Stage Craft room...it's a rather "creative" place needless to say) Jessica, Lee, Greg, and Jeremy were working away on a project and Jessica was looking through the plastic that was stored back there and carefully putting away what she didn't need. It was truly a kodak moment.

Then for the last 20 minutes of class we decided to mix it up a bit by doing some improv in the drama room. This is because last year Rod had always made a point of mixing it up occasionally, so we've decided to ,of course, carry on with this tradition. Now the way improve works is a few people start by coming up with a skit purely off the top of their heads and then someone from the audience yells "freeze" and the actors freeze in whatever position they are in. Then that audience member tags someone and assumes their position, and changes the skit entirely. Delaney and one of the guys from Dave's drama class started, and then Regan jumped in. Then before we knew it Rob (one of the special needs kids) jumped in and did beautifully! The drama kids helped him along when he got stuck (which is something that I have fallen victim to on more than one occassion. I'm basically a behind the scenes person for a reason). Then someone yelled "freeze" and tagged Rob out. But he was soon back in the game once he had thought of an idea. This happened a few times and you could tell he was having fun, especially when the film the "Dark Knight" came into the picture.

So that's all for today, I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope that this blog helps to let those who are putting together a similar project or simply work/live with someone who has a developmental disability, that you are not alone. We all get frustrated, but those who make us frustrated appreciate us more than we can ever begin to fathum. Also remember that we need them just as much as they need us. Until another day,
Jenn

A Man, A Hot Knife, and Exploding Balloons

Ok, so I'm revamping this blog a little bit..in the sense that I'm going to actually have a direction, and keep it up.
The direction being about my day-to-day experiences as production manager of a theatre project, based out of the local high school for young adults with developmental disabilities in my community. The name of our project is Bright Lites, because we are modeled after the Famous People Players. We are now building our second show, Cinderella, and already having a blast. This is my second year as production manager and I've already learned so much from those guys, my homeslices needless to say.
Now before I go into further detail, I would like to warn you in advance that meltdowns are common place and happen A LOT! But, you roll with the punches. Which is something that I knew going in because my older brother is Autistic. But I'm not sure how well my other assistants know this, but I think that I'll let them discover that on their own. Mainly because I could warn them to the high heavens that this one particular girl has been known to have several(4) huge, now when I say huge I mean "it's the end of the world, the sky is falling, the show can't go on if I don't have my white gloves" huge meltdowns in a 20 minute time period. But thanks to the wonderful EAs (Educational Assistants) and John from the Community Living Centre, we are able to roll with it.

Now to explain the title of this particular post, John is rather passionate about this project and the work he does contructing the various props is truly amazing! The way he just dives into formulating an idea on how to go about contructing a bird for example, and his enthusiasum and excitement is inspiring. It reminds me everyday why I continue to do this and want to pursue theatre. Anyway, back to the bird, he had made the most amazing bird head out of styrafoam(sp?) rings that he glued together and rounded off. It looked like he had simply made it all from one piece of styrafoam, rather than several! It was awesome! Anyway, we were brainstorming how we would solve our body and tail problem. This is because the balloons that we were going to use as a paper mache, or in our case ,cheesecloth mache mold would pop as soon as we put the cheese cloth on. The tail was still in the works. I somehow got on the topic of the hot knife that was in the stage craft room and how it could cut through the styrafoam like it was butter. Needless to say, John became rather intriged by this and began to ask more questions about this knife. For example, how it worked ect. I told him all about it, and he immediately began thinking that it would be awesome for shaping these bird heads. The next thing I know he's asking me where it was. Now to he's a very soft spoken gentle man, so these questions naturally came one at a time, and I could see the wheels turning in his head as he thought of the potential. So I pulled it out and he began to work with it. He was also working with it today (the smell is very distinctive because it's melting through the styrafoam).

So that's all for today, I hope you enjoy it. I also hope that this blog helps to let those who are putting together a similar project or simply work/live with someone who has a developmental disability, that you are not alone. We all get frustrated, but those who make us frustrated appreciate us more than we can ever begin to fathum. Also remember that we need them just as much as they need us.
Until tommorrow
Jenn

Joy found in a wonderful place!

Over the past week (wow, has it been a week?) I have been stage manager for the Bright Lites Theatre company and their production of Alice in Wonderland. It's been full of laughter, smiling, new formed friendships just because you bring a smile their face, and some frustration. But frustration comes with a lot of things. The show is made up of entirely kids and adults from the high school and community with mental disabilities. My brother is autistic and an actor in the show, so long before I was appointed stage manager (or rather just asked, who wants to be stage manager for Bright Lites?) my brother, Sean, would come home everyday from an afternoon of building the props for the show and say "Rod says hi!" Rod is the director who I have worked with for the past two years, when Bright Lites was just an idea swimming around in his head. Sean would also tell me things like "we need a drum." and I would ask him for what exactly, he knew that I had co-written the script with Rod and a few others, so he didn't go into immense detail, but that's also the way he is. Then I vounteered to be stage manager for the production. Just imagine it, the Ternoway siblings, going to play rehersal together, yes..I have turned my brother into a theatre geek! But I think I did that when we went to see Phantom of the Opera in Spokane haha.
I now have a bond with my brother, that well, only we really know the full magnitude of, and it's wonderful! I have also formed friendships with a few of the kids, that I couldn't imagine not having. And they just formed because they said "hey friend, I like you!" One can learn alot from these guys because they don't care what you look like, whether you're rich, poor, fat or skinny, they just like you because you're kind to them, and you give them a chance. How wonderful would our world be if we all thought that way? It would be pretty amazing!