You Don't Vacuum Gravy!!

Test.. 1 2 3

2010-02-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

Is this thing on? Hello?

OK, just checking. I mean, somebody might look at this page, and since nothing has been posted since September of 2009, I thought it might look a little bleak.

So, yeah. Hi there.

Happy 75th Birthday, MVHS Drama Club!

2009-09-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 17, 2009, is the birthday of the Mount Vernon High School Thespian Society, which was founded in 1934. Pretty exciting, huh? We're having a party, so hopefully someone will show up.

All In the Weekend

2009-05-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

This font they call Courier resembles the old typewriter fonts from days of yore, which is appropriate for this blog entry on this weekend's performances of All In The Timing, a six-play celebration of the works of David Ives. Times and dates are as follows:

Thursday at 2:30 PM

Friday & Saturday at 7:30 PM

Sunday at 2:00 PM

The typewriter part you'll have to figure out for yourself when you come to the show!

What's That?

2009-05-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

You're wondering whatever became of this blog?

Here it is:

I am currently directing a portion of the upcoming Skagit Valley College Drama Production, "All In The Timing," featuring six short plays written by Sir David Ives.

The production features such illustrious actors as Mason Eger, Nathan Hamer, Travis Confer and Stephanie Brisky.

Performances will be on May 27, 29 & 30 at 7:30 PM; on May 28 @ 2:30 PM; and on May 31 @ 2:00 PM. There will be posters about, so check them out.

They won't look like that picture up there.

All is Well

2009-03-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

The opening weekend of Snoopy!!! went quite well, particularly Friday evening, when we were joined by many alumni, all of whom laughed and cheered appropriately. It's a good show. I hope all three of you, my readers, make it out to see it. That is all.

Leatherheads, Furschlugginer, Lincoln's Birthday

2009-02-15T22:31:00.000-08:00

Watched a fine film this evening on my brand new Samsung LCD television set. The movie was titled Leatherheads and featured Mr. George Clooney, Ms. Renee Zellweger, and Sir Jonathyn Price, not to mention young Lord John Krasinski. It's a cinematic ode to the bygone era of the 1920's, as well as a comedic football story. I liked it. The new TV is nice, too, even if it's only 22" measured diagonally. Big enough for me, thank you very much. I hear those 33 inch screens give you head cancer. Cancer of the head!!

The cats are awake and making all kinds of noise. But that's OK because tomorrow is Mr. Lincoln's birthday, so there's no school. Did you know that old Honest Abe was born on the exact same day as Mister Charles Darwin? Which one do you think would have been more fun to eat chips and salsa and watch football with? Which one would you have do your taxes? These are hypothetical questions of course.

Furshlugginer was a swear word in the old Mad Magazine, back when you couldn't actually use swear words in public. I remember I used to use the word "furshlugginer" when I was really mad but didn't want to say a bad word. The most notable occasion I recall using it was when the pigs I was raising for 4-H knocked my prized AM/FM/Shortwave radio off the fencepost and into the mud, ruining it forever. I've never had another radio I liked nearly as well as that one. Radio used to be something you listened to back then. Now it's mostly a topic of conversation, i.e. "Remember when radio used to be worth listening to?" "No." "Oh, sorry."

Enjoy your day off and keep those cards and letters coming, kids!

83 Views

2009-01-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

It appears this blog has no impact whatsoever on the internets. In spite of my attempt to create a viral video in my last post, the woefully underappreciated "1984 - What Really Happened" has only 83 total views. I'm not completely sure about this, but I would be willing to wager that there are videos of 7 year old children taking off their socks that have ten times that many views. You've failed me, blogosphere, and for that, you shall be sorry.

Not really, I just wanted to sound kinda dramatic. But I will say that if that "blogosphere" video gets more views than "1984," I will cry.

A Highlight from Last Year

2008-12-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is pure genius.

And one hundred percent true.

Tell everyone you know to watch it now.

2008-12-12T21:58:00.000-08:00

SNOOPY!!! CAST LIST

Stage Managers: Cameron Addison, Alex Burkhart

Snoopy: Miranda Zickler

Woodstock: Emily Shapiro

Peppermint Patty: Allisha Nichols

Lucy: Lindsey Pollino

Sally: Celeste Ingersoll

Linus: Xitlalic Hernandez

Charlie Brown: Steven Marrinier

Understudies/Chorus: Julie Howe, Lindsee Nichols, Breyden Jager, Kyle Mitchell

Fun.

Sorry Little Blog

2008-11-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been faithfully updating you much lately. But fear not, the Holiday Season is nearly here, and I'm sure there'll be lots of extra blogging time between the egg nog and the, um whatever else is associated with the Holiday Season. Oh yeah! I remember now...

Marriage

2008-11-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

What can be said about this photograph? I wish I could tell you for certain the names of the actors in the picture, but laziness forbids it. Instead, I will tell you a tale of the great and terrible fall trimester of the year 2000.

Back in the early part of this millennium, it was widely known that Mount Vernon High School's drama program was among the finest in the nation. This fact was proven by the many invitations extended to said MVHS d.p. to attend various international festivals of renown, including, but not limited to, the Edinburgh Scotland Festival Fringe, the world's largest theatrical event. Indeed, your beloved narrator did attend this festival, not once, but twice, and the second time brought with him a merry band of students who performed a semi-interesting play there, also consuming some powerful Indian food, climbing very short mountains, meandering the streets of London, and sneaking out to go to foreign nightclubs and make out with foreign boys. Well, your narrator did not partake of that last bit, but he has it on very good authority (i.e. his own eyes) that there were those among his students who did.

But I digress.

After the triumph of this festive performance in the very faraway land of Scotland, your narrator returned home, hoping, nay expecting, to capitalize on the glories of this international recognition and catapult the MVHS drama program to infinity and beyond.

Then they put in the trimester block schedule.

For those too young to remember, this was a schedule whereby students who had previously enjoyed unfettered access to many lovely electives instead found themselves taking nothing but required classes and (inevitably) choir or band. Drama class enrollments crashed and burned, and the remnant of the prior summer's escapade found themselves surrounded not by a whole new crop of excited underclassmen, but by pretty much the sound of crickets chirping. There was no great growth ahead for the MVHS drama program, instead there was a precipitous drop, which reached its nadir when that school year featured only one (1) installment of Friday Free Theatre. Shocking.

HOWEVER! The few hearty souls still hanging around bravely soldiered on, and the show they soldiered into was Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo. It was and is an edgy, nutty, silly, poignant, offensive, heart-warming little play, and your narrator is honored to be once again directing it, ironically enough during a year when enrollment is down and we can barely muster enough people to try out for all the parts.

I can't blame the schedule this time, though. Maybe it's me.

The Marriage of Bette and Boo will be performed on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM in the MVHS Auditorium, which is still where it has always been, on the 2nd floor of Old Main. Tickets will cost $7 for Adults and $6 for Students, and they shall be available at the door.

See you there.

This Friday

2008-10-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

October 24th marks the end of the current cycle of the planet Pond, also known as Aldo Pondo 3, which orbits the green dwarf star Junipus 7. Residents of earth can celebrate by attending Skagit Valley College's annual arts event, known as "Artsphere" because it is spherical in shape.

This event will feature music, barking, visual art, pumpkin dances, theatre, barking, and music. It is sponsored by Skagit Valley College, home of the SVC Fighting Gnomes bowling team. They are one tough team to beat, let me tell you.

In other news, I'm going to my 6th (or is it 7th?) Bob Dylan concert on that same Friday evening. The concert will take place in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and I'll be traveling there by boat. Or perhaps I'll ride a whale.

Please note: Many of the true facts in today's blog are, in fact, made up. This is in honor of the release of John Hodgman's new book, More Information Than You Require.

New Posts

2008-10-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've posted a blog in Lucida Grande font yet.

So there you go.

I'd like to blog about something theatre and/or school-related, but not much has sparked my interest there lately. Lots of people don't show up for rehearsal, or when they do show up, they leave early. There seems to be a general feeling of inevitability about this, as if nothing can be done.

But something can be done.

Next time I direct a show, I just won't let anyone in the cast if they're simultaneously involved in sports, work, debate and/or some kind of family crisis. Sorry kids, you'll just have to choose between doing theatre and doing all that other stuff.

I realize this means I'll only be doing 4 person shows cast entirely with freshmen from now on, but so be it!

I have spoken!

Correction

2008-10-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

What I meant to say, obviously, was

Joe Biden is going to cry.

That is all.

A Prediction

2008-10-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

I realize this is not a political blog; however, there are certain events in the public sphere that transcend the political and become more circus-like. Tonight's vice-presidential debate is one of them. Therefore, I have a prediction to make. Ready?

Sarah Palin is going to cry.

You heard it here first folks. It worked for Hillary in New Hampshire, and it will work for Palin. I'm not sure what the specifics will be, but at some point, someone will make a comment or ask a question that's just a bit too touchy for the Governor, and she, being oh-so-sensitive, will shed a few tears during her answer.

As a result, everyone in America will suddenly feel horrible for making fun of her, and McCain's poll numbers will skyrocket.

However! Two weeks from now, Ms. Palin will make a statement so blatantly horrible and offensive that it will offset the gains she makes from the crying episode and bring McCain's poll numbers back down again.

Write it down, folks. This is what will happen.

Or not.

Coming Home

2008-09-30T13:08:00.001-07:00

It's Tuesday, but it somehow feels like Friday. Or at least it feels as if it should be Friday. I blame homecoming.

Homecoming was intended to be an event honoring those who had left a school (graduated, retired, moved away), giving them a chance to come home, usually to attend a football game. Thomas Hardy famously wrote, "You can't go home again," by which I think he meant that once you leave a place, going back there is never like "going home" because it's not really home anymore. But I digress.

Somehow, by the time I was in high school (4,000 years ago, for those of you in high school now), homecoming had pretty much become what it still is: an excuse for students to dress funny, yell a lot, and attend a football game. Also there is a dance. Usually some small mention is given to the "real" meaning of homecoming, but hardly anyone cares, sort of like how the "real" meaning of Thanksgiving has something to do with pilgrims and native Americans. We all know it's REALLY about the football. Oh, and the yelling.

So enjoy your homecoming, even if you're already at home. Especially if you're already at home. Dress funny, yell loud, go to a football game or two, and hey, save me the drumstick.*

*Be sure it's a tofu drumstick though. I'm a vegetarian.

2008-09-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

(a meme from Boo's blog, Freedom Spice in the New Mash-Up World:

*Grab the nearest book.

*Open the book to page 56.

*Find the fifth sentence.

*Post the text of the next sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

*Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

PETRUCHIO: Where be these knaves?

(source is, obviously, Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew)

I suppose it could signify how I feel everyday at rehearsal when people don't show up...

To the World

2008-09-26T11:55:00.001-07:00

Apparently there are human beings outside the immediate boundaries of our fine high school facility who have access to this "inter net" as well. To them I say Hello! Welcome to this most futile of blogs! Please feel free to comment on these blog entries, unless of course you feel intimidated, in which case, continue to drift in anonymity.

That is all.

No One Will Ever Read This Blog

2008-09-24T20:47:00.001-07:00

But I tried.

How Blogs Work

2008-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

For those of you just tuning in...

Here's a little explanation of the whole concept of "blogging."

"Blog" stands for "web log," which actually means "World Wide Web Dialog." See, the "dialog" part implies more than one person participating in the process. So in other words, someone makes a blog, then other people come along and add to it with their comments. A comment is something someone other than the creator of the blog writes by clicking on the little link that says comments. You'll find that link at the end of this post!

So now that you know how they work, why not try it out? Feel free to leave your comment; that's how blogs work!

How Do You Do This?

2008-09-22T07:09:00.001-07:00

Someday I hope someone will read this blog.

In the meantime, I should probably talk to someone about this message I got from Madison Elementary School. Here it is:

"Hi! My name is Kelley Kirkpatrick-Berg, and I am the president of the Madison PTO. One of the unique activities we've been able to offer our young students the past few years is a 'Club Day' on Wednesday afternoons from 3-4 pm. This year's Fall Club Days begin on 10/15 and run through 11/19. We were wondering if you may have any students who were interested in running an Acting Club? They can pick the grade levels they'd like to work with, what they would like to teach, how many they would like in their class, etc..."

If anyone ever reads this and thinks they'd be interested in that, they should either e-mail me, leave a comment, or talk to me in person and let me know what made them decide to read this blog.

Thanks!

Welcome to the Future

2008-09-18T07:00:00.001-07:00

As we near the end of the ninth year of the new millennium (or is it the 8th), the time is nigh to move our beloved Drama Club newsletter into cyberspace, where it probably should have been all along.

Yes, Drama Club members, this is the first ever MVHS Drama Blog, and I'm your host, Stu Meetpie. Welcome one and all!

In this week's top news story, Drama Club has a dilemma. Please see the next article and add your comments to suggest a solution. Also, stay tuned to this website, where we'll be posting video & photos from past productions, as well as information on where to spot that elusive MVHS Drama Club ghost, whose infamous appearances have haunted so many over the years. Oh, and the cast list for our fall show is somewhere around here, too...

What To Do, What To Do?

2008-09-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

We have a slight problem, Drama Clubbers.

No, the problem is not that Mr. Zickler is on crutches. That unfortunate situation has been remedied, and he is back on his feet again (at least until the next time he trips on the stairs).

Actually, our problem is that we have no convenient time to MEET for Drama Club! You see, rehearsal for our fall play takes place after school pretty much every day, which makes meeting for Drama Club difficult to do.

This is where YOU come in. Please leave your SUGGESTIONS for where/when/how/why/whistle/when/where to meet. Do we meet in the morning? At night? Online? In the prop room? Under the boardwalk?

YOU make the call. Post your ideas below!

Fall Play Cast List

2008-09-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

The Marriage of Bette and Boo
by Christopher Durang

Bette Brennan.................ASHLEY WASHBURN
Boo Hudlocke....................SAM MITCHELL
Margaret Brennan................HELENA MCCARTHY
Paul Brennan...............ZEPHYR BERGER
Joan....................AMANDA TAYLOR JAMES
Emily................LAURA CARTWRIGHT
Karl Hudlocke...................DYLAN CISNEROS
Soot.......................NICOLE JENNINGS
Father Donnally..........GRIFFIN BERGER
Nurse...............SARA PETERSON
Matt...........................CAMERON ADDISON

Stage Manager..........JASMINE SWEET
Assistant Stage Manager....ALEX BURKHART
Lights.............BRIAN ANDERSON
Stage Crew....CHELSEA DUGIN, INEZ WILLEY,
LINDSEY WAHLMAN, RICKY PEREZ