USITT in Houston

For those who it might mean something to or really if anyone wants to see some pictures from this years USITT conference in Houston you can see them finally now.

Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/innes.brent/USITT2008Houston#

welcome to year 2

Well here we go.... year 2 of the professor thing.

Last year went so well that we decided to try to repeat and even top the fun of last year.
Classes started last week and even though I have the same course load and even the same classes to teach as last fall it is still a little daunting. But I am looking forward to it I have a great bunch of new students and a great faculty to work with. So this year should be even easier than it was last year.
So far this year has gone well, we have a great group of students including a plethora of new freshmen and we have some really good shows in our season. Honestly it has taken me a little while to get excited about a few of them but I can say in full confidence now that we have some good shows this year.
First up we are doing "Dancing at Lughnasa" for those of you who experienced the painfully slow and near death experience of the USU version of this a few years ago will understand why I wasn't at all excited to do this one again. But Varlo (the director) has not only found playwright Brian Friel's humor but he gets it and therefore is able to let the rest of us in on Mr. Friel's jokes.
our fall musical is "Pirates of Penzance" which again I was less than trilled about. There just was't much to get excited about in my mind. Then we started talking about concepts and ideas surrounding the show and as the set designer for this one I needed to find something to be excited about.....I though since the entire first act takes place on the beach I am putting a 40' sandbox on stage. I am going to use granulated cork instead of sand but still it's going to be a giant "sand" box on my stage.
In the spring we have "the Crucible" followed by "110 in the Shade". I am lucky enough to design the set for both musicals this year. With "110" I am going to make it rain on stage. I'm not talking a little trickle I am talking a torrential downpour of rain for the end of the show. Stay tuned for that barrel o fun. I will be sure to post pictures from both my designs and of course the rain system for those who might be interested in the tech specs.

The kids (Corben and Morgan) have been in school now for 3 weeks and they are both still excited and happy to be where they are. Surprisingly Corben has announced several times that he really likes the brand new Desert Hills High School and has even started getting involved in various activities. He even went to the football game and tailgate party last weekend. He started an after school club with some friends...EMM or something like that, basically it's the video gamers and movie club. I'm still not sure what they are going to do but hey whatever he's getting involved and he likes it so that's just fine by us.
Morgan loves kindergarten and her teacher Mrs. Jones. We send her to afternoons where she seems to fare better than she would in the mornings. She happily spends her days counting and learning her letters then comes home and teaches Cooper everything she has learned that day.
Cooper is just an animal a wild animal. He just can't wait for Bauer to grow up so they can play.
Bauer is teething and puts everything he can get a hold of into he is little mouth. We started him on rice cereal recently but for as much as he enjoys it he sure thinks he is ready to eat what everyone else eats. He watchs everyone eat and you can just see his little wheels turning and of course he grabs for everything within reach

Of course all the kids including dad love having a pool. Morgan wants to swim everyday and of course so does Cooper. We finally got him convinced to try a swim diaper but we still can't get him out of his pj's.