Showing posts with label Empress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Empress. Show all posts

Monday, April 27, 2020

What's your hobby? An ode to prop making.

(Bloggers Note: I don't often take time to blog. My school has a staff newsletter and I'm hoping to be featured in the hobby section. Let's see what happens.)

Ever since I was a young child, I never thought that I had a talent. I watched the gorgeous singers, the dancers, the artists all show off. I tried a lot of different things, but nothing ever stuck. It wasn’t until high school that I found something that I was passionate about.

I always had a hard time speaking to strangers, or getting in front of a crowd. In junior high I signed up for public speaking, but that class got cancelled. In High School I decided to try drama. I did half a semester and decided it may not be the thing for me. I decided to try it again as a junior, and got hooked. My drama teacher was the first teacher that truly believed in my ability to succeed.

After high school I started doing shows at the Empress Theatre in Magna. It felt like nothing that I ever could have imagined. It felt like a home away from home where I could be accepted with my “uniqueness.” In 2016 I stage managed a show. While doing so I crafted the props for it. After the show, the artistic director asked if I wanted to stay on as the theatre’s prop master. I had a lot of fun, and enthusiastically took the position. I’ve been their prop master ever since.
Judy and Punch Puppets from The Fantasticks)
Candlestick Phone from Crazy for You



Doing props has become a real passion of mine. I love crafting and problem solving how to create items to be believable onstage. It is fun to look at an object, see the shapes, and find other items that could be put together to create that masterpiece. I am now known among the theatre community in the valley. I have other theatre’s contacting me, asking for help to create unique props for their shows.

Triton's Trident from The Little Mermaid
Ursula's Scroll from The Little Mermaid




I’ve learned with talents and hobbies that it doesn’t matter that you are good at something or not. It matters if you have fun doing it and it gives you the desire to keep doing it.

Bust made for The Music Man
Bomb made for Peter Pan
















Cuckoo Clock made for Crazy for You
Dummy originally made for Urinetown, but used in Disaster! and Catch Me If You Can


God's Hand for Spamalot. Super proud of this one. First time I had ever used chicken wire. I did the math and made the measurements off of my own hand. We are all made in God's own image, right?




Falling Chandelier made specially for being able to safely fall on top of an actress for Disaster!


Woven band map of the city made for Hunchback of Notre Dame.














Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Engagement Story

(Alright, I promised this a little while ago, so here it is!)

Many of you want to know the story of how Scooter and I got engaged.  I will first have to talk about how we met. 

How we met

Back in June the Jesters Royale participated in Battle of the Improvs.  It was a terrifying situation for sure!   Push MyButton, who was one of the teams that participated, was awesome, and we decided that we should be pals.  We would go to each other’s shows and support each other.  We decided to do a bowling hang out in August, where only me and two others on the Jesters team showed up, and almost all of PMB came.  I talked to everyone that night besides Mr. Scooter.  At the end of the night, everyone was hugging everyone, and then I saw Scooter and we decided to hug because everyone else was hugging.  It was the most awkward hug ever! After that I decided to add him on Facebook.

Peace Summit

On Facebook we would chat a little about what was going on with our improv teams.  One day I decided to “poke” him.  It started an ongoing battle where we would go back and forth poking each other.   I then popped up on Facebook chat and told him that I wasn't going to give up, and I knew that he wasn’t going to give up.  He then proposed a peace summit.  I asked him what the peace summit entailed, and he told me a movie.  I thought, we’d be hanging out at someone’s house.  So I asked him where, and he said that it would be at the closest theater to my house.  He then said that we should probably add a food establishment to it.  Not even thinking it was a date, I agreed to this.  Boy, I can be naive for sure!



(We like acting like Delinquents-@WJ Park)

Dating

We became officially boyfriend/girlfriend on September 17.  Dating was fun, and we got close for sure.  Wanting to spend more time with me he joined the Jesters, along with still being on his other team.  We talked about marriage.  We then decided to go look at rings.  I picked my favorite ring from each place, but in the end he got to decide which ring I ended up with.

Proposal

On November 16, I was just having an awful time.  I was planning to run the sound for the Jester’s show that night, but someone dropped out of the line-up so I stepped in.  On the way to the theater I was just complaining away to Scooter, not knowing anything was up.  (Apparently before the show he pulled the MC away and told him of his intentions.  They ended up changing the last game in the show to accommodate for this.)  During the first half I noticed a huge bulge in his back pocket and I commented on that at half time.  At that moment he excused himself to the bathroom. (Suspicious!.. Lol)  The very last game of the show we were playing Double Blind Freeze Tag.  For those of you that don’t know what this is, two people do a scene, while the other actors have their back to the scene, the MC then freezes the game, and then the next person in line taps out an actor, assumes the position that they were in, and then begins a new scene.  I was out doing a scene, and then an actor comes out and then he gets in a completely different position than what the previous actor was in. (Apparently, right before he went to get in the scene, Scooter told him to get in that position) He is down on his knees, with his hands making a bird beak by his face.  He did the whole scene this way. The MC finally froze the scene and Scooter tapped him out.  Scooter is then talking, and that is when my mind finally connected the dots.  I then started to tear up, fanning my face with my hands.  In my mind I was thinking, “This isn’t improv anymore.” He then pulled the ring out of his sleeve and proposed.  Of course I said yes!

Well, there is the story.  We will be getting married on May 17, 2013 in the Salt Lake Temple.

(Us in our Christmas Pajamas)