Learning, Teaching, Moving, Dreaming

This post is from magnificent Marie Madesclaire. She is pictured here working with children in a Union County classroom.

It's cold and bleary here in Seattle, with the ever present rain I can't help but miss North Carolina a little. Since Open Dream ended I've moved cross-country and started an exhausting job search. And yet I can't shake Open Dream. Just the other day I was reading a book to a 4 year old boy, as part of my nanny interview, and I found myself using the tools we'd learned during Teaching Artist Training. I asked him to find his nose, or ears, when the book talked about noses and ears. Automatically I would ask to see his happy, sad, or grouchy face when the main character was happy, sad, or grouchy. I think he had a blast, he started to do things without my asking him to, or pointing out things before I could. It was sweet and reminded me of those days spent in classes with Marissa asking the children to do the silliest things. Make your body a VOLCANOOO!!!!!! Boosh. 23 little volcano's in a room, building up pressure and erupting into the sky to the soundtrack of Carmen. All this to say, I learned a lot while a member of Open Dream. Some of it from Rebecca, and Mister William and the other Dreamers, but mostly from those adorable little pipsqueaks in the classrooms and auditoriums. Thanks kiddoes :)

Halloween!!!

Is today, and we are spending our time figuring out our costumes. Not for tonight, but the upcoming discovery concert with the Winston Salem symphony. The array is pretty awesome, Cameron is in the corner headless, William has pulled his pants up to his waist as Grandpa and Michaela is dancing around as a duck. I for one am basking in my character, the Cat. I've had cats all my life and can finally say it was for character study!!! See mom it was all worth it. Other than that, our finish line is quickly approaching and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Today we had yet another performance for yet another school and yet again the kids blew me away. They reacted as if they'd never seen a play, which they probably hadn't, and ooh and aah and were quite vocal. They even yelled at Gordy to get out of the house before the Robber came and one kid decided jumping out the window was Gordy's best option. As rowdy as they were it was a pretty special thing for me to do, and I hope they take something away from this that'll further their aspirations. Or maybe just make them think about art as a fun and exciting thing. This post is from Miss Marine Madesclaire. As Season Eight of Open Dream Ensemble draws to a close (in 15 days!) it is amazing to reflect that, among other things, Marine has taken on the role of a teaching artist, learned to play the mandolin, and proven her prowess as a cat!

Packing in lots!

This post is from lovely Marine Madesclaire pictured center in the photo! (I hope her Maman reads it....)

Phew! It's been an amazing, albeit exhausting, week or so. We've moved on from three-five day residencies to two-show-a-day touring. An entirely different beast to master, and just after I'd gotten used to residencies. Early morning call times, cold weather and heavy scenery aside it's been a blast getting into the true swing of things. Un-loading and loading the show twice a day has gone from tentative and lengthy to the well oiled machine it is now. I know exactly what I need to do, and the best way to do them. I've even mostly memorized the packing order for the Ryder van. Trees, house, table, floor, leg stands, soundbox,pink then blue trunks, boxes without stuff, JBL, monitors, big mamma, poles and stands, shoe box, bench, costumes, bass case, sandbags. Everything else. Thankfully I didn't have to figure that particular puzzle out, that was Mister William and Mister Cameron's job. Technical stuff aside I've settled into the play much more comfortably. Weepish has slowly but surely started moving from a place entirely made from her name, to a character who's highly and extremely emotional. Able to change moods on the drop of a pin, and yet (hopefully) never false in her emotions. I'm still working on that last part, as an actress my heart dropped when I read the part; the one thing I cannot seem to do is cry onstage, but I no longer feel as if the character is silly. My school-girl and her twin Seth are working on a possible video blog, have an amazing secret handshake, matching glasses and alter egos. And of course I'm having a blast as Wanda, the mandolin playing daughter of the Cobbler. She's a little on the simpler side than her sisters Darlene and Sharlene. No word from Pa as to why Ma didn't call her Warlene. Finally I've been able to spend a little quality alone time with William's mandolin (it's been put into my care for the duration of this season) and after being taught a folk song I've ventured out and started learning some new songs. Which means, Maman, I'll be wanting a mandolin under the Christmas tree in December....

Gushing, Tweaking, and Mandolin-ing

This post is from our mandolin-strumming Marine Madesclaire. She wrote this on Friday at the conclusion of a three-day residency at Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts.

It's now the final day of our first residency here at Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts, and I'm gonna miss these kids. Our third graders have the most amazing teacher who participates in every exercise and even jumped up to google images on his smart board while we were talking about caves, canyons and island. Amazing! Even better the 4th and 5th graders are so far ahead of us that they taught me the curriculum! I have to stop gushing... It's embarrassing. :)

Getting the show on the road and claiming it as our own has been an interesting experience. I actually got very sick our first day there, powering through the first day of classes thanks to the children's enthusiasm. My teaching partner Miss Marissa and I got into a wonderful rhythm by the second day tweaking our class curriculum to fit the classes. We even figured out a jig to play the kiddos with the mandolin and the penny whistle.

With these three days done and over I'm excited to see what come up on our next residency.

Oh wow. My Fingers Hurt!

This post from the marvelous mandolin-playing Marine Madesclaire!

Somehow in the midst of learning to pass instruments to William, our resident multi-musician, I ended up having to learn to play the mandolin. Well, having is the wrong word. Or not enough words. I ended up having the opportunity to learn to play the mandolin. And boy is it fun!

It's been an interesting process learning to work with different mediums and different artists. The language we all use is English, but we all have our own vocabulary that comes with our craft. It's easy to forget that not everyone has spent the last four years in the Drama department, and it's been fun to watch people learn things I take for granted. And vice versa, of course.