Cont'd from above - Plus. Being online enables me to be able to look shit up before talking about it. A cheat of sorts, but more often than not, it's helped make a further point or not post something at all if I was wrong.

Yes, this. With an online classroom, I can take the time to formulate my responses. Too bad many of our classmates don't take advantage of this.

As usual, I have a teammate who isn't pulling her weight. I just left her a voice mail asking for her response, in any manner, by noon. And this assignment is bloody simple too. So frustrating.

I am sad to hear about the sad classroom discussions (and Cass' chapped nose).

My college seminars were utterly brill and the professors were totally adorkable in their passionate love and very deep knowledge of their chosen subjects. We only read source texts which was fairly novel for public school me, and to knock brains with other smart kids while a learned and experienced Prof guides the discussion is just a total freakin' braingasm. Especially if you have popcorn in your seminar.

Professsor Frame, the political science department head taught our Freshman seminar and he'd set his watch out in front of himself and we'd go after Locke and Hobbes (and we all called each other by our last names so that he was on an equal footing with us in the discussion. Which was oddly nice in that it raised us to his level rather than him descending in informality). Each 90 minute session would end with him glancing at the watch and saying, "Dammit!" with disappointment that we couldn't go on.

Professor Turner, my Shakespeare teacher, British and looking like he stepped out of the era with his dark cruly hair and full beard and plummy accent. He got the metaphors, got how Shakespere used language. He always had an original slant on each play. And he could do every voice of the rude mechanicals to perfect comic effect.

Professor Browning, my English history professor jumping up and snapping his chalk on the board he was so excited to show us something. Getting all moony about Wordsworth. Returning our blue book exams after mid-term and telling us that we'd all down so badly that he was throwing the grade out because it was his fault that he'd failed us.

Professor Edwards, my teacher of the English Sonnet, my mentor and my individual study professor on Yeats. The way she'd pet the OED with something between love and passion. Her devotion to close reading the text and critical analysis. Her sweet hearted devotion and subtle genius in guiding seminar discussion.

Professor Church, my creative writing poetry professor. Rough hewn, and cheery and ex-alcoholic and loving words more than anything ever. He taught me how to think about language, taught me how to write.

My Buddhism seminar, my Abnormal Psych, my theater history with Professor Turgeon, Greek classics (an awesome survey course: Homer, Sappho, Aupelius, the Satyricon, pastorals, Euripides, Aeschylus, Menander), Existentialism. All great classes.

I can remember what the classes looked like. I can even remember where I sat when the teacher called on me for certain questions. I can remember that eager give and take when you and another student got into it - not angrily, but arguing your position. The moments when the light bulbs went off over my head - sometimes when I was articulating things, sometimes responding to another student, having the last tumbler fall when the Professor pointed out a key detail.

I loved seminars. Lecture courses? Eh.

I have almost no memory of specific professors or classes. Most of my accounting classes were Larry Lipnor, a dorky accounting type. I liked him. And one nasty ass Greek professor who didn't think women belonged in the business program.

My clear memory was one of my law professors that was a local judge. We went to court with him a couple times. He was a riot. Last class was on how to beat a speeding ticket. He'd create all these outragious scenarios and ask if the judge could do that - the answer always being that the judge can do anything he wants. It can be tossed out later.

He told us the original tickets he would get from the traffic cops would have pictures drawn on them. Teary stick figures, circles for assholes, sometimes with flames. As funny as he was he amazed us in small claims court with his freaking wisdom. Good judge and teacher.

Other than those exceptions, 4 blank years. Met DH though and that was a good thing.

Posting and running. Taking son to drop at mall. Taking other son to Target where I will get more gym clothes and he will spend gift cards.

Fellow students can be very depressing, then again so can people we encounter in the grocery store, on the news, at PTA meetings. An unfortunate percentage of non-Buffistas suck.

What would our mascot be?

'Smile Time' Puppet Angel!

This one made me laugh in a way I wouldn't have if the gesture had been in the North American variation.

Happy to oblige. It's my best side.Now if I could only discover where my jawline went.

And in this pic note the cowering Trinian kitty as she spies her nemesis bee-lining for her.

Major theatre meara…Sorry it took me so long to respond – my Net booted me, and then I had to –work--!!

I think you made a good choice on the costuming. In fact, if you think of the play as "modern" day in other areas, you will have a good concept going on and one that, I think, your kids and the people who see it will understand, which is absolutely the most important thing. . . . I used to direct high school theatre, so absolutely e-me and I would be happy to help out or be a sounding board. I will also take a look around, because I have a few good books on directing high school theatre, and I will see if I can find the titles. Also, I have to say that directing high school theatre was one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever had, so have fun!

Sophia, I don’t even have GELS for lights, so it’ll be pretty basic – bright, dim, dark! If you have any other ideas than this, LET ME KNOW! I would love tips on where to go – what I would really love is a checklist or a to-do list for directors, actors, etc. I KNOW there are things I’m not even thinking of, because I don’t have the experience.

but if you want I can send you some exercises to get them all good and loud without shredding their vocal cords (which will probably bore them to tears, but it really does help).

JZ, yes, yes, yes!!! Awesome! The theatre is small, but we do have a bitty balcony (and only one floor mike and a lavalier available) for projection will be necessary.

I'm kinda tempted to throw our extra Slings & Arrows tapes in a box and ship it off to you, because Geoffrey Tennant, the character played by Paul Gross, is really a Mary Sue of Shakespeare directors; in the two seasons of the show, you get to see him dealing with complainers and divas, dealing with blocking, light and costume issues, and doing extremely effective one-on-one coaching through some big tough monologues (and in S2 he coaches the leads in R&J). You could do worse than take tips from him (except minus the nervous breakdowns and ghost-seeing and living in the prop room in the theater basement).

I have the Craxy part down all my myself, but if you feel like it, I would love to look at the R+J stuff! Or you could give me ep name and I could ahem it.

Two: For sets, see if you can wrangle an art and/or woodshop teacher for help. I know they can often do amazing things with next to no money. And, they could make it a class assignment/extra credit to work on the set.

ChiKat, I love the idea of extra credit for working on the set! I know the art teacher would go for that, and our VP is also an art therapist…and I have friends who are art teachers.

With directing kids, I find it helps to be really clear about the emotion of each piece of the scene, and then you vary your direction according to what they need to get there. To kids with acting talent, you can explain the feeling (He's waiting for her and is nervous that she won't show) and with kids who are more self conscious, you can give them actions which illustrate or evoke the feeling. (Pace from here to here and keep looking down the street)

Robin, I’m going to have to keep reminding myself that this is a play, not English class, and I can just TELL the kids what’s going on in a scene, and not drag everything out of them. I have book (of course!) with some pointers for students actors or things to think about regarding their characters, so I’m going to have one-on—twos with come main characters re: getting in character.

remember when my high school did R&J, the director really stressed that everyone go off-book ASAP,

Does “off-book” means memorizing ASAP, Kathy? I am kind of worried about that…

Ooooooh! Exciting! Erin, everyone here has said pretty much all I would, but if you need someone to bounce ideas off of and whatnot, I'm always available by email. Biggest thing: get a pro to do the stage combat. Seriously. Even "mature", experienced actors go all "whee! slash!" when it comes to fighty fighty, and I can only imagine the (continued...)

( continues...) damage actual teenage hormone bombs could do to each other in their puppyish excitement.

Profile addy good, Juliana? I am going to play with contacts and see if I can get someone to help out with the stage fights; I am auditioning girls and guys for the beginning scenes with the Montagues v. Capulets, and I am not making Benvolio or Mercutio gender-specific roles, since I am setting R+J in 2007 Lat-urban society…and my girls as well as guys are little scrappers. I have two junior girls who are BFF’s who REALLY want to be C v. M in the opening scene so they can insult and fight each other!

Do you have anyone who has any experience (adults or kids) with the technical side of staging a production? I'd be tempted to start off by sitting down with the kids and identifying specifically what all the backstage jobs involve and getting your stage crew sorted out, because it sounds like that's the bit you're daunted by - they may already have experience and/or transferable skills that they can bring to the table. (When I was in R & J our drama teacher/director made 3 of us into co-directors and we each took responsibilty for directing individual scenes, which she oversaw - it spread her workload a bit, while giving us experience in directing and making us reflect on our own performances too...) Plus if you have a bossy and anal and efficient responsible kid to be the Stage Manager, that's going to make life one hell of a lot easier.

Fay, I have two very responsible, take-charge junior girls (they are the one who also want to have bit roles in the opening scene) who are my AD’s. I am making all the kids who want to be on the crew write a paragraph about their skills, and come in for a brief interview where I can query them about their skills, contacts (dad’s a carpenter? AWESOME!) and schedule. I like the idea of giving them all a scene to direct.

If you want to have proper set changes, then maybe sit down with the script and try to group scenes into locations so you know how many different looks you're going to need to create, and then decide how you can make the scene changes simple - you'll need something to represent Juliet's bed/tomb, you'll need some way of presenting the split level for the balcony scene, you'll could probably use chairs several times, but you don't have to have them...if you want to go with a very simple set, with a black curtain and blocks or something, you could do that. Or not. Do you have a particular idea of the 'look' you want to aim for?

I plan to do this tomorrow. The stage I will be using already has a backdrop of a painted Mexican courtyard with a fountain, so I’m going to use that as the backdrop for the party scene (I am making the ball a quincenera) and as the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene. I need a “street” backdrop (I’m thinking a neighborhood scene – front porch of a house, front yard thing) for the opening scene, and also the Romeo is wandering lonelyasacloud scene, the MErc/Tyb/Rom fight-death scene, and the opening scene. Also need a churchy looking scene, which I hope to use for Rom/Laurence-wedding-suicide.

I have a VERY small stage to work with.

Erin, my step-mother has had her high school students do a Shakespeare performance pretty much every year for the last 20 years - I could hook you guys up via email if you want; I'm sure she'd love to help.

Raq, that would be awesome. Would you? And re: the guns…I would rather do that than fist/knife fights, but I think timing the sound effects would be tricky with our limited resources. I think I am going to stage fist fights, and use knife-fighting with Tybalt, Mercutio and Romeo. I might tweak some lines. (Gasp! Tweaking Shakespeare!)

And in this pic note the cowering Trinian kitty as she spies her nemesis bee-lining for her.

Raq got rocked. Moderate earthquake hits Greek island

Erin, ND probably isn't caught up in thread but could also help you out. Ping his profile adyd.