Well, my first summer of graduate school is over! I have now finished 1/3 of my graduate degree. There were some extremely frustrating times as well as some very enlightening times and classes and people as well. This summer I took a bunch of Technical theatre classes - Lighting, Design Methods, Creative Costuming, Makeup, Directing, and Dramatic Lit. I was really glad to have the opportunity to meet a ton of wonderful people and make some great friends! I was also very glad to have a lot of my current teaching practices confirmed as well as learned a lot of new techniques to take back to my kids.
I was also very pleased to learn some new techniques in the areas of lighting and makeup that have been particularly difficult for me. Since I am colorblind lighting and makeup have always been a much more difficult practice for me to master. I was pleasantly surprised to have an instructor that was able to cater to my disability - and show me how to attain the same results as everyone else AND have it make sense to me at the same time. Saturation charts and the color wheel are fastly turning in to my best friends.
I think that the best part of the whole experience, however, has been meeting some great new people that are in the same boat that I am. That they are one-man-bands or just starting drama programs and go through the exact same trials and issues that I do. It will be great to be able to contact some different resources that know what I am talking about and what I need. I am very excited for the next two summers! In fact, that has turned into the highlight of my year thus far!!
