Elections Happened

And I got free ice cream out of it. The resident director, a Democrat, was so shocked by the election outcome, that she took all of us “First Floor Flippers” to get ice cream. Despite what many people assume about Santa Clara University, there is a larger amount of Republicans on campus than one may think. Wednesday morning, the campus was silent. Fear was everywhere, and the fear was real. But what was astonishing, was that there were no riots. There were no protests. There were no fights, but safety pins everywhere. Look up the safety pin movement, I’ve got mine on.

Gratitude Corner

This one goes to my grandma! I got a lovely package this week, and it was full with surprises and love! Thank you for the sweets and the headbands; I wear them daily, and my Hydroflask is back to hydrating me!

Anticlimactic Holidays

Theatre majors have to sacrifice a good amount of social life to be social with other theatre people during rehearsals and shows. Halloween falling on a Monday (thanks, calendar), it also happened to fall on the first night of tech week! So what was the cast and crew of Arcadia doing on Halloween? Having the first tech run through. Did I mention that having theatre class on Halloween was the best and most hilarious experience ever? Because there’s nothing better than coming to class in costume, specifically Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, and watching your professors be in character for 65 minutes. Our professors were dressed up as foreigners, and not even for a split second did they break character. It was hilarious, better than any party any of us could have gone to, and one of the best in-class memory at SCU yet.

What is Carnal Embrace … ?

The question is answered later in the scene by a tutor, Septimus Hodge, but isn’t it fun to have the first line that opens the show come with a laugh? Arcadia opened last week to a full house and today, we close with a sold-out show. Despite half of the show being set in the early 1800’s, the themes and ideas challenged and discussed are timeless and extremely relevant to today. From the suppression of women’s voices to the power and consequences of lust, I’m proud to have been a part of creating such a powerful show and quite funny for that matter. This was my first show where there was no drama and no one had to say, “quite backstage please.” The cast and crew were full of professionalism, commitment, and passion which was stunning to see. We were so professional in fact, that we were able to fix what could have been a disaster. Arcadia requires the use of fire and water onstage, and one night, the water spilled everywhere. Naturally, as an Assistant Stage Manager would, I got off of headset, ran to get towels, and during a scene changes, went on and cleaned up the whole mess. We managed to save actors from slipping on the wet stage floor and preserved every prop, there are 101 of them, except a personal laptop. Do not worry, the department is reimbursing the student, but lesson learned as to why professional actors get charged when they request to use a personal item as a costume piece or prop in a show! For our beloved director, we knew we had to give her a memorable gift. So we crazy theatre majors went out and tracked down the playwright of Arcadia, Tom Stoppard, and realized he was going to be in San Francisco the week before opening night. Because we love our director so much, we managed to get in contact with Stoppard’s assistant and made arrangements for Stoppard to sign a poster of ours. It happened, and there are signatures and pictures to prove it!