Authority Figure?

I think I may have some sneaky readers out there. Pretty much no one but my Momma comments on this thing but then I keep hearing from people that they read this... sneaky followers! Well that's good to know, I haven't necessarily bored everyone I know to death just yet.

The last few days have been fairly crazy with the start of STI (Summer Training Institute) here at Shakes and Co. And for those of you who don't know STI is pretty much the same as the intensive I took in January except it is geared toward people in or just out of college. I actually could have participated in this one instead of the Winter Intensive if I had felt like waiting- but luckily I didn't. And instead I am the STI Workshop Manager. Which pretty much means I take care of running about, setting rooms up, doing paper work, taking attendance etc... And despite the fact that the first few days have been super busy and exhausting I am actually really enjoying it. It's so interesting to see the intensive from a different perspective and even though I am not participating in the workshop (although I do have to do Actor-Audience today... eep) I have daily reminders of the amazing time I had during my intensive and I'm remembering why I wanted to be here this summer in the first place. I think after a few months of working in the office I sort of lost sight of that, but now I am more excited than ever to do the Conservatory in the Fall and I'm eager to pick a new sonnet and monologue for it.

The other awesome thing about working on STI is that I'm considered a member of the Faculty which means that I get to eat in the cafe for FREE for the next month- three meals a day of really yummy food that I don't have to pay for. That pretty much makes the fact that I am really working 3 jobs at once worth it. But sadly it also means I won't be doing much cooking or baking or anything until after STI is over so I won't have much to share as far as that.

It is strange being in this Manager position though- I am pretty much exactly the same age as most of the STI participants and don't feel super qualified to be managing them. I was/am a little afraid that they won't listen to me very well because of that but its been fine so far.

And I'd like to share a little story of my superior STI Manager skilz- I thought it was funny- this may only have been sleep deprivation... you be the judge. The other night one of the STIs came running to my room at 11:30pm distraught because her dresser seemed to have spontaneously collapsed. I went to investigate and it did indeed seem to have collapsed. She pulled out one of the drawers and the entire 4 foot tall dresser sort of fell apart into a pile on the floor. She was on the verge of tears and I think she thought I was going to yell at her for breaking something- but I was actually rather amused and burst out laughing when I saw it. I managed to restore order and put it back together (it wasn’t actually held together with anything… like nails, or glue, its sort of just together… some of the time). I encouraged her to move her clothes to another dresser and to think of the other one as more of a table in the future. I was mostly amused because she (and the other 5 girls who gathered around) could have easily fixed it, but apparently it was believed I was the only one capable of completing this very important and complicated repair… the girls were very impressed with my handyman skills. Perhaps this story is only funny to me because it was after working a 14 hour day but... What better way to survive these 5 weeks than to find humor in the absurd. Just thought I’d share.

And tonight is the first Friday Night Cabaret! Which I am singing in. Hopefully I can get some pictures up from it for my next post.

Happy Friday sneaky readers