Regina's December 2003 Journal
Regina's January 2004 Journal

4-16-2004  Semester In Full Swing

Hello again!
 
Well hello again - happy Spring!! I hope the weather wherever you may be is nicer than how it's been up here lately. The rain was starting to get on my nerves, but it's been beautiful the past few days - I'm hoping it'll stay that way.

A lot has happened since my last entry. I believe I wrote during rehearsals of "The House of Blue Leaves." That show has come and gone and it was a great success - some even said it was the best show Little Theatre has done in a while.

The two pictures I have submitted with this entry are from our warmups before the show (disclaimer: we are theatre people, so we're a bit odd). The first is called "Chewing an Apple" and it works our jaw muscles. We stretch as high as we can to "pick an apple" and then take a giant bite of our "apple," excercising and loosening our jaw to make speaking easier. The second picture was taken during our "Arrows of Oh," which is a favorite of many LT members. This exercise works our projection, which is important in theatre. We all line up, draw and load an "arrow" onto our "bow," then "shoot the arrow" (our voices) to one target (usually the back wall). Doing this warms up the voice and helps an actor find the proper level of projection.

We have many other vocal and physical exercises that are both energetic and
crazy at the same time. Warmups is one of the most fun times members have.

Anyway, "...Blue Leaves" was a wonderful experience for me. It was probably one of the hardest characters I've ever acted and it was a daunting challenge, which I hope I succeeded at.

I have also started rehearsals for "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," our secondstage musical. Being in two shows at once, as I've mentioned before, is an exhausting task. "...Blue Leaves" did have precedence because it opened earlier, but there were some nights that I finished one rehearsal and walked down the hall right into another. I had several 6-12 p.m. nights, which isn't that big of a deal, but it was made more difficult by the fact that the two shows are completely different. "...Blue Leaves" is a tragedy in which I get killed onstage (oops, I ruined it!), and "LPC" is very much a comedy where I play more than six characters, each more lively than the next. My emotions were out of wack, to say the least.

But, once again, I wouldn't trade it for the world! Theatre is my passion and I couldn't imagine my life without it. I make many difficult sacrifices for theatre but I don't mind in the least. I'm also happy that I can be so involved and get so much great experience while in school. My time management skills are getting better and better! But in all seriousness, I now can juggle three or four engagements/responsibilities at one time and not implode immediately, which is an excellent quality to have.

Alrighty, I guess that's all I'll throw at you this month. As always, please feel free to email the Canisius website with any questions. Thanks!!

Regina Linge
Publicity Director
Canisius College Little Theatre