spotlightWinter Issue 2009

spotlightWinter Issue 2009

Winter 2009Spotlight Contents

Staff Page

CoStume RePoRt: Beauty and the BeaSt

aRe you Ready to RumBle? theateR iS a tRagedy? a gift to the City

toP ten thingS foRgotten in PlayS

the JouRney of a diReCtoR

PatRiCk. that’S hiS name, don’t WeaR it out

What PaRt of a Play aRe you? Behind the SCeneS

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Letter From the Editors

Welcome to the first issue of Spotlight , a magazine the shows the world what theatre is all about. We three girls have come together to show people that anyone can be involve in theatre. In this issue you will find stories about different aspects of theatre from how it feels to be the lead in a play to the crew behind the scenes to the story of a crazy director. If you have never been exposed to this much theatre before and are overwhelmed by all the possiblities, take the quiz of what role you should be in a play. From the beginning, all of us had a very limited expierence in making a magazine. This whole expierence has been a wonderful, expiremental, and learn-ing one. We have all grown by making this magazine. Finishing this magazine was a wonderful feeling, none like any of us has expierenced in our many years of life. Our writing skills have gotten better from where they were at the beginning and we now know how to create a magazine. Much effort was put in the magazine, and we all enjoyed working together. There were some bumps in the road that may have seemed like a little thing to any other person but it made a big difference to us, but we pulled through it and now have a beatiful result. We hope you enjoy our magazine.

Sincerely,

The Editors of Spotlight Magazine,Makala, Sam, and Bailey

Bailey

Makala

Sam

Bailey likes to smile and laugh. It is hard to catch her without a smile. You can find her down at the softball fields or up on stage or in a cozy corner lis-tening to music and writing or reading. Even though she can be OCDish at times she is fun to hang with and likes to have a good time. Her favorite books are: The House of Night series, Harry Potter, and Gone With The Wind. She wants to be a writer someday and may be interested in psychia-try.

Makala is a girl who everyone loves because of hey fabulous everything. Her favorite saying is “what the cheese”. People don’t understand that she likes to insert “cheese” instead of saying something bad. She likes to participate in the lame and not-so-lame school activities. This is because most of her usual time is spent at either school or in front of the computer on Facebook. She currently lives in Austin with her non-existent kids and dog.

Sam is short for Samantha because she is a girl. Even though she isn’t the tallest person, that doesn’t stop her from fitting in to the big kid groups at LASA. She is very proud of getting her braces of three and a half years off. She is involved in volleyball and softball but, of course, she also loves theater. The power tools are her favorite part of working on the stage crew for Hamlet. She also loves camping and trash can jumping.

Finally some golden bling on a dress.

A+

Costume Report Beauty and the Beast

CandleS aS the neW gloveS. love it!

that BlaCk Belt totally makeS that

outfit!

B+ B

A+

that gold dReSS iS Stylin’

By: Makala

Blue and White? aRe We at a high-SChool PeP-Rally?

I Would neveR let my motheR out of the houSe WeaRing

that.

fRillS WeRe So laSt yeaR!

B- C F

On September 23, 2009 I saw my third production of The Out-

siders. Ever since I read the book in seventh grade I fell in love with the story. When my school did the play in my eight grade year I knew I had to be a part of it. I sat in the audience and watched as the curtain opened as the play I new by heart began. Instantly,I was captivated by each character and what the actor brought to their part. Ev-erything about it made me forget I was watching someone act. I felt like the characters were living this. The actors believed in everything. I believed in it too. The Outsiders was a book written by S. E. Hinton in 1967. On March 23, 1983 her book became a movie. From there many people have done different things with her work. There was a TV show on the charac-ters from The Outsiders continued off the movie. Darryl Chute even turned her book into a musical. But what I want to concentrate on the stage production of The Outsiders my high school, LBJ, performed in September, and the classic movie of

The Outsiders directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Out of these three shows I think LBJ’s performance of The Outsiders was the best. The movie came in sec-ond best. Mellisa Alexander direct-ed an amazing play, it really blew me

away. Coppola directed a stunning movie too, but I feel like Ms. Alexan-der’s was better Long time fans would try to argue against me saying that the movie was the best production of The Outsid-ers ever made because of their cast. Many of the actors from the movie went on to do other movies that did very well too. Tom Cruise is known by so many in America and The Outsiders was his third production, but his first production to be widely known. Critics could even argue that Ms. Alexander didn’t direct a very good play. You could say Hutch

Mcleland yelled a little too much and a little too loud. You could say that the rumble scene didn’t look very professional. But in the long run the few small mistakes didn’t hurt their overall performance. It was excel-lent.

I feel like LBJ’s play was so amazing be-cause the cast got the closest overall to how I thought S. E. Hinton wanted her characters to be. The movie was close, but I felt like C. Thomas Howell’s role, as Ponyboy, wasn’t all there with his dedica-tion. Maybe that is how his interpretation was,

but it made me feel like he didn’t care about his part. When C. Thom-as Howell was telling Johnny not to touch his hair in the movie before it was cut off I didn’t feel like he really was trying to protect his hair (which was a status symbol to greasers). That situation made me feel like it detracted from his believability as Ponyboy. Even though the movie and the play have different scripts I know almost every line by heart. I know where you are supposed to show emotion and which emotion it is. I think the character in Ms. Alexander’s play

Are You Ready To Rumble?

“I felt like the characters were liv-ing this. The actors believed in ev-

erything. I believed in it too.”

BY: BAILEY

hit the level of intensity, anger, and passion right on the nail every single time. They knew their lines very well and could cover insanely well if they

messed up. Though, the emotion is up for interpretation the cast of Me-lissa’s play meshed together and felt real. It felt right. I know Coppola

made C. Thomas Howell, Pat-rick Swayze, and Rob Lowe live together for a period of time, from what www.theoutsiders-bookandmovie.com says under their interesting facts, to have them know what the Curtis boys went through but I didn’t re-ally feel like they were brothers in the movie, their believability still wasn’t there. In a play, you have a limited set. In high school, you have a limited crew and resources. But I don’t think either one of these things drew back from LBJ’s performance. They used their set wisely and made the many lo-cations work in a confined area. The Outsiders was a hard play to block for my school and I’m sure it was too for LBJ. I think The movie did have access to many sets and set changes but I don’t think it helped or distracted from the movie. It’s more ex-pected than anything. I think LBJ’s Alley Cat Players did the most with what they had. “As I stepped out of the movie house and into the bright sun-light I only had two things on

my mind, Paul Neuman, and a ride home.” was the last line from Pat-rick Delgado as Ponyboy. The light dimmed and the entire audience sprang up in applause. The cast came out and you could easily see how much each audience member loved the show. The cast was beaming, obvi-ously they knew they had done a good job too. This production done by the LBJ Alley Cats was far better than any other production of the story, The Outsiders, than I have seen. And believe you me, I saw The Outsiders done every day for four months in my own production practices and I have seen the movie so many times I lost count. I didn’t grow bored, I didn’t get tired, I wasn’t stuck in the rut, I wasn’t picking the play apart in to piece of “should haves” and “would haves. I was entertained from Pat-rick’s first opening line to his same closing line. I want to see it over and over and over again.

8

Whenever I act on stage I wor-ry about memorizing cues, blocking, lines, and facial

expressions. Many of my friends felt the same way when we put on school produc-tions. This is a natural feeling for any ac-tor or actress. But should actors and ac-tresses worry more about whether or not the whole art of stage acting is dying out? In the week of January 19-25, 2009 the total sales came to $12.7 million for the 22 shows being shown on Broadway. The same week a year earlier had total sale of $14.5 million for 30 shows. In April 27-May 3, 2009, Broadway’s total sales fell $1.1 million for 35 shows dropping to $18.1 million. This makes one ques-tion whether or not Stage Theater is dying out in today’s society. In a recent article on helium.com, Ben Panzarino discusses this issue and expresses his opinion that he doesn’t believe it is. I agree with him

on this matter. On my way to the grocery store I pass by my local movie theater and there is usu-ally a large crowd near the ticket booth waiting to see that new movie everyone has been talking about. But whenever I have seen a stage theater, which rarely happens, the line is almost nonexistent. A box office data website called thenum-bers.com released the list of movies in 2009-2008 and the money received for each one in the box office. There was a to-tal gross of $7.3 billion for the 483 mov-ies released. That is an average of about $15.3 million per movie compared the average of about $5.2 per play in April 27-May 3, 2009. There is a good expla-nation for this though. Movies are shown everyday around the clock, some are even shown two to four times at the same time in different rooms of the theater. There are more theaters in the nation that do

the same thing. Movies are international with multiple movie theaters in one city. Plays are very local and are usually shown one to three times a day and do not stay in the theater as long a movies do. Many cit-ies only have one or two theaters that only put on shows once or twice a year, unlike Broadway where there are many plays ev-ery week. Much more work goes into the showing of a play than in the showing of a movie. Both require a lot of work to pro-duce, but when a movie is done filming, it can be played over and over without any trouble and it will be the same every time. A play is different, even if it is the slight-est detail, every time. Movies are also very easily accessed. If I miss a movie in the theaters or just want to see a movie again, I can go to multiple places to remedy this. Netflix, Blockbuster, Redbox, and Holly-wood Video are just a few off the top of my head. But if I don’t get the chance to go

Theater is a Tragedy?Is stage theater dying in todays society?

TheaterBY: SAM

see a production of a play that I really wanted to go see, I can’t rent it or look it up online to watch. I just have to put up with the fact that I will not be able to see that play. If stage theater dies then I think movies die along with it. There is always new talent emerging in movies and television, but a lot of that talent is found from stage produc-tions. Some movie actors and actresses either started out in play productions, or vice-versa. Denzel Washington started out in Broadway and although he is making movies now, he still performs on stage. In 2005, Washing-ton played the role of Marcus Brutus in the play Julius Caesar. Matthew Broderick also started out on Broadway in the play Brigh-ton Beach Memoirs as the part of Eugene Jerome. Daniel Radcliffe started out in the

Harry Potter movies as Harry Potter. In 2008 and 2009 he performed in the Broadway play Equus as Alan Strang. Much of the television and movie making business revolve around stage acting. Many actors on screen have had to start somewhere, and most of them start on stage. Without play productions the tele-vision and movie businesses would also suf-fer because there are constantly new actors and actresses. They have to be coming from somewhere. When I turn on the T.V. to watch my favor-ite show, the majority of the commercials are for cars, restaurants, cleaning supplies, and of course, trailers for new movies and televi-sion shows. I will hardly ever see a commercial for a play. I have only seen one advertisement for a play production in my life. It was on a public access channel and it was very short. Plays are not as advertised as other forms of entertainment. If they were advertised more, I think they would get more attendance. I will not lie, a ticket to a play is much pricier than a movie ticket, but there is an explanation

for this. Many more people go to see movies than plays and therefore movie theaters can charge less money for a ticket. Since not as many people go to plays, the tickets must be pricier in order to cover the funding for the production. Some people may believe that theater is dy-ing in today’s society. It is clear why they think this because there isn’t as much attendance to play productions as there once was. But we must consider the fact that “once was” was when movies weren’t around and that plays were the modern form of entertainment. It was the popular thing to go to the new play. Nowadays it is the popular thing to go to the new movie. This does not mean that theater is not important. Theater is too important to other forms of entertainment to die out and

many people don’t realize this. Even though movies are more popular and successful than plays, many people still enjoy stage theater. I know that I do a lot. One thing a play can give you that a movie can’t is atmosphere. I think that as long as people cherish that value, because it should be cher-ished, play productions will live on.

“But we must consider the fact that “once was” was when movies weren’t around and that plays were the modern form of entertainment.”

10

PICA 22440 Austin History Center, Austin Public LibrarySeventeen, Zilker Hillside’s First Show

The sun is setting as the crowd carefully spreads out their blankets on the short, baked grass. Coolers are scattered throughout the audience providing

refreshing drinks on the sizzling summer night. Friends are found mingling among the gathering attendees. Chil-dren are in constant motion near the concessions stand where the sticky aromas of popcorn and cotton candy are the strongest. The repeated recording of the park rules fades out in the background. People politely say goodbye to whomever they were conversing with and hastily find their spot among the sea of blankets that emerged seemingly out of nowhere. The director parades onto the stage, and every-one goes silent. The play is introduced and is followed by applause. Then the show begins. Deep in the heart of the Lone Star State lies the Zilker Hillside Theatre in Austin, Texas. It is found right across from the legendary Barton Springs Pool in Zilker Park. It has been resting at the foot of a large hill for fifty-two years and is still standing strong. “It’s fantastic and it’s free!” Laura Powell, the Presi-dent of the Board of Directors at Zilker Theatre Produc-tions says. The Zilker Hillside Theatre puts on a summer musical every year. The performances usually start near the end of June, or the beginning of July, and run for about six weeks.

The shows are presented Thursdays through Sundays and begin at approximately eight-thirty in the evening, or when-ever the sun decides to set. Plus it’s free! The only money the Zilker Hillside Theatre asks for is donations. Donations can be given online or during the intermission of a show when the cast members disperse throughout the crowd with their donation buckets. Many companies and organizations also sponsor Zilker Hillside Theatre. City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, Texas Commission of the Arts, Ap-plied Materials, The Home Depot Foundation, HEB, Dell, and Target are a few of the sponsors. These donations help cover the production costs, including paying the lead actors and the main workers on the technical crew. “But that’s not why people do the summer musicals. It’s not for the money, it’s for the fun. It’s for standing downstage

center, you know, with an amber gel [a tinted light which she looks best in], and it’s a crowd so big that when you’re look-ing straight ahead, your peripheral vision can’t make out where the people stop. There’s no other stage in Austin where you can get that. So if you like performing, then [Zilker Hill-side Theatre] is where to do it.” Laura explains. “And there’s this wonderful, you should look this up, it’s on our website [zilker.org], it’s called the Paper Bag Letter. I cry every time I read it.” The Paper Bag Letter, which Laura is describing, is a real letter written by a mother who lives with her children in their car after her husband was injured and couldn’t go to work. “When I was young, my folks took us to see many plays and concerts. My own children are missing this. My two youngest have never even seen a movie,” she writes. She then goes

BY: SAM

12

“It’s fantastic and it’s free!”

Disney’s Beauty and the BeastCourtesy of Zilker Theatre Productions

on to explain how lucky she felt that Austin has a place like Zilker Hillside Theatre, a place where someone can see qual-ity theater for free. “In a nutshell, that’s who we’re trying to get,” Laura Pow-ell explains. “One of our missions is providing free, good quality theater to people who can’t afford to buy a ticket to go see theater. Such a large amount of stage productions are out of people’s price range.” According to the Zilker Hillside Theatre, their mission is very close to what Laura describes. It is published on their website that they aspire to “-produce outstanding, affordable theatre that educates, engages, and enriches our communi-ty.” Zilker Hillside Theatre’s additional goals include giving the community opportunities to learn about and participate in performing arts. “That’s one of the really cool things about it, that it is all local. A lot of it is volunteer work. It’s a real community theater.” Laura Powell informed me that everyone in each produc-tion is from the Austin area. Zilker Hillside Theatre doesn’t get any exterior help. From building sets to the lead role on stage it is all Austinites, and many people show up for the roles. “They had a ton of people come out for auditions for Beau-ty and the Beast, I mean hundreds and hundreds of people. If it’s a show that has kids in it, you get lots. When they did An-nie, not Annie Get Your Gun, but Annie, they had kids from

everywhere, you know. If it’s a beloved role that a lot of people can see themselves playing, then you get a lot of people. Like Maria in The Sound of Music, everybody wants to be Maria.” Auditions start sometime in April and rehearsals kickoff soon after in May, and Laura reveals that the auditioning pro-cess is not a very pleasant one. “Blah!” exclaims Laura, “The first round is kind of broad strokes.” First, an entrant must pick a song and sing sixteen bars from it to show their vocal range. There is also a dance tryout. Then they “weed you out,” as Laura describes. If someone receives a callback, they must then sing a song from the show, read scenes from the script, and have another dance audition. From all of those tryouts the show is usually cast, but if not then there is more auditioning. Those usually consist of actors and actresses reading more scenes together so that chemistry can be observed. Then she show is cast. Ac-

tors and actresses are typically busy from April through the

last show in August. Crew involved in piecing together the sets and costumes have an even longer commitment than that. The closing line is delivered and the stage is emptied. The crowd rises from the ground and gives a standing ovation to the actors during the curtain call. The hillside is soon cleared of blankets as people start to head home. They eagerly await the new show for next year, whatever it may be. “It’s a gift to the city. Nobody is asking us to do it, nobody is saying you have to do it, it’s just, this is what we do and it’s for anybody who wants to come see theater. And it’s good the-ater, that’s the other thing. It’s good theater. It’s always just something fantastic.”

Annie Get Your Gun (Laura Powell as Annie Oakley)Courtesy of Zilker Theatre Productions

“It’s for standing downstage center, you know, with an amber gel, and it’s a crowd so big that when you’re looking straight ahead, your peripheral vision can’t make out where the people stop. There’s no other stage in Austin where you can get that. So if you like per-

forming, then that’s where to do it.”

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Much Ado About NothingCourtesy of Zilker Theatre Productions

The Music ManCourtesy of Zilker Theatre Productions

Coming Soon to Zilker Hillside Thearter...

Courtesy of Zilker Theatre Productions

10Top Ten Things Forgotten in

Plays

1 Props are often left behind on stage or forgotten till the last moment. Don’t rush props. Use them naturally like your character, and if all else fails and it is extremely important don’t be afraid to improv. Remember to just live your character onstage and you will be fine.

Props

2 Light Cues and Sound Cues are often forgotten. Sometimes this is due to cues depend-ing on certain lines and those lines being droped. It is important for the crew on sound and lights to actually listen to the conversation because as the play becomes more natural, lines are changed or dropped. Watch for these pitfalls.

Sound and Lights

3 Curtains sometimes get neglected. It can be a boring job opening and closing curtains the entire play with only this to do, but this is just as important as any other task for the play. Make sure to pay attention and don’t get distracted.

Curtains

4 When you’ve been in a play for a long time prac-tices get dull because you know what happens next. This is escpecially true if you have a small part. You can tend to forget when your supposed to enter and exit from bor-dem. DON’T GET BORED. Find something new to look at in each scene so your continuously thinking about the play. Don’t let it leave your mind. Your entrances will be better timed and so will Exits.

Entrances

5 When your doing a set change make sure your on crew doesn’t drag pieces on stage. Not only will your directors be extremely mad, but it distracts the audience and reflects badly upon the play as a whole. Lift them and don’t be afraid to take your time. Don’t feel like you have to rush but do remember to do it quickly. Beware of this contradiction and just be alert. Smooth set changes generally mean a smoother production.

Set Pieces

By: Bailey

6 Dropped lines aren’t a problem for most people. This goes for forgotten lines to. After many practices the conversation feels real and flows. You should know how to respond by now and if a line is dropped or forgotten improv with it until your cast mates remember. Just keep the scene going until something happens and it can move forward again. Don’t stress over the lines either. Most likely the only people who will notice will be your fellow cast mates. The audience won’t notice unless it is obvious.

Lines

9 Alot of theaters have large door ways to allow room to move bulky props. These doors tend to be heavy. When they close they make loud bangs and such. Try not to exit and enter alot and open and close them carefully when it is unavoidable.

Doors

7 Costumes on the crew are just as important as on the cast. Crew members need to wear solid black. Black slacks, black long sleved shirts and black shoes and even their socks need to be black. This makes it harder to no-tice you for set changes and less distracting when moving around behind stage. Also then all the crew member s look uniformal and presentable which shows the audience that you care and matter to the production.

Cast Clothes

8 When your off stage and you really want to watch what is going on and lean out, people can see you. You can’t do that. You’ve seen it a million times in practice. This won’t kill you if you miss it. When people see you, it ruins the magic of the play. Do not stand on the sidelines.

Sidelines

10 Something may happen back stage and it could seem super important at the time. Unless your the stage manager, don’t worry about. Tell the stage manager if you are the only one to notice and then you are done. Be quiet and don’t speak. People in the audience can hear even if you think they can’t.

Noise

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Brightly colored beanbags are piled up against the sides of the room. The wall

is covered with words describing theater, yet one bright orange wall is dedicated to the Longhorn football team. In the office, pic-tures are crowded and piled one on top of the other. Occasionally you can see the corner of an older photo trying to break free to see the sun one last time until its cov-ered up by another photo from the latest Lydon Baine Johnston production. The desk is cluttered with assignments from the classes being taught and also with the many scripts being sifted through for new material for a production. The calendar is filled with dates of theater students’ birthdays, Long-horn games and theater dates of rehearsals and performances of Hamlet. These dates show how busy Melissa Alexander is on a regular basis. She is so busy in fact that she responds as soon as someone says “Ms. A-” so that’s what stuck. She is a fun and an easy going person in everyday life, but the kids that have been here with her through her four years at LBJ have discov-ered that during plays her serious, easily aggravated, crazy director side comes out. “They call it my dragon.” Ms. A laughed. Ms. A had chronic lung disease up until high school. This means she had major asthma attacks. The disease discouraged her thoughts of the long run. She can’t remem-ber a single memory before the age of 14 because she was always drugged up in the hospital. As soon as she was healthy enough, the doctors sent her home so she could catch up on her overflowing amounts of homework. Eventu-ally, Ms. A was mostly healed from the chronic lung disease. She was finally healthy enough to go to highschool and do activities for the first time.

The Journey of a DirectorThe story about how Ms. A came to be the director at LBJ/LASA.BY: MAKALA

“I came to LASA and I love them -knock on wood- I can’t get rid of

them.””

really peaked her interest more than theater. “I thought my parents were going to kill me. I thought they would, like, go freak out, absolutely no. I told them I wanted to major in theater in my se-nior year and my mom was about to have a freak out when my dad was like, ‘that’s great’.” Ms. A then graduated fromWarren Travis White High School and headed on down to the University of Texas to get her degree in production management and stage management not in actual theater education. “I knew I wanted to teach eventually but I figured I was going to go do my career first which I did.” Ms. A got a job in professional theater in San Diego, California as the assistant stage manager. She got tired

of the peo-ple so she quit that and then went back to Texas and worked at the Ballet Austin. Af-

ter two years of working there, she de-cided that the professional life wasn’t for her anymore. “I got to the point where I didn’t really like the people who were in professional theater. A lot of people just weren’t about the art anymore.” The opportunity of touring showed up in Ms. A’s life and this was a big de-cision to make. When going on touring jobs, people would travel but not get to see the city, just work. On the other hand, touring would allow for a lot of money saving. She decided that the best thing to do was to take some time off. She

Way back when, Ms. A was in a school that chose electives for the students and she happened to get theater. She enjoyed it. “I had a really cool theater director,” Ms. A explains. She and her director were good friends. Ms. A was a typical nervous freshman that thought she had bombed a project. Her director was offering extra credit for doing the competitive acting in the U.I.L. play. “It was really weird for a freshman to try out for U.I.L. but she was offering extra credit so I went because I needed it.” Ms. A was offered a tech role because of this rare case and accepted it willingly. From there, Ms. A discovered that her calling was being behind the scenes. She continued with high school theater

being the stage managers in many pro-ductions. “[Stage managing] was really assis-tant directing and it was a lot of fun be-cause I started doing it for every show. It got to the point where she would just go and do her teaching stuff when I would direct the plays.” Ms. A was a natural at directing. For the rest of high school she could be found having fun and hanging around with her many friends she met through theatre. Four years later she was soon a senior and didn’t know what she was going to do for a living. Nothing

called it her “sabbatical from the real world.” Ms. A did different jobs like, designing in her friends flower shop, security for the Bass concert hall, and was the after school teacher to help vi-sually impaired kids have fun and learn how to get by in the real world at Texas school for the blind. After about a year and a half of that, Ms. A finally looked at her options. “I kept going back to well, I could go into teaching just because I thought I would go into teaching later in life and it kind of seems like I’m lost right now.” The decision was made and Ms. A was going back to school to get her teaching certificate. She piled up on only her ed-ucation classes and stacked all of them together at St. Edwards University. She loved all of her classes and doing home-work all over again wasn’t half as bad and that is when she knew she made the right decision. During her courses, Ms. A was as-signed to go out in the field and get a job. She was scared that she wouldn’t get one, but a week before school she was hired to be the theater director at Crockett. She didn’t have to be an as-sistant director because she already got her bachelor’s degree. “I was thrown into the fire. I could have probably cried and thrown up ev-ery day when I went home from the stress and how scared I was but I loved every second of it.” Ms. A explains. She was at Crockett for two very successful years, absolutely loving her job. At Crockett, as well as at LBJ, Ms. A has brought many boys into the theater programs. “I’m a competitive person and I love sports and guys come towards that be-

cause they like it.” She religiously goes to the football and basketball games to watch the action. The players notice that she is there and when they are doing nothing during the off season of their sport, they get into theater to keeps grades up easily and to return the sup-port to Ms. A when she does her shows. In her career of teaching theater, Ms. A never failed to have a decent amount of boys. “I came to LASA and I love them -knock on wood- I can’t get rid of them.” In her fourth year of teaching at LBJ/LASA she has had a rarely large number of the male population join her theater program making other direc-tors with poor amounts of boys a little jealous. “I have colleagues that want to literally shank me because of the num-ber of boys I have.” Her fellow directors may have been shy of guys but they did have their own theater. When Ms. A first started as a teach-er at LASA, she was put in a portable without an actual theater. She had to secure a stage for Dark of the Moon even though she had a very little sum of money. Finally, through all of her theater connections, Ms. A arranged to get the Zilker Hillside Theater for a ridiculously low cost. They practiced in the orchestra room. “I had to beg, bor-row, and steal for room and Dr. Daven-port was awesome. “ He let them store U.I.L. pieces in his room so they could have something to work with. Ms. A could figure out where to stand people on stage. The day of dress rehearsal, students and a few parents and some of Ms. A’s theater friends volunteered and built and painted the entire set for the play in one day. “People just went out

and bought stuff for us and brought it in. I mean we used everything! We were scrounging over stuff “ Ms. A rented a sound board from a friend for a very low cost to use for the show. Parents donat-ed a lot of the set. The day of show finally came and it was extra special because of the outdoor theater. Dark of the Moon wasn’t the only play that was “really cool”. Ms. A has done many more successful plays in the new Haynes theater at LBJ that was be-ing built when Ms. A first came to work at LBJ. Footloose was her favorite musi-cal that she has ever put on. “Footloose for me was artistic self-indulgence be-cause that was the first musical I did by myself.” It was her favorite movie, and she has always wanted to do it, so she did. She admits that there were some major screw-ups and some not-so-good scenes. “I don’t think it was my best work, but it was probably the best expe-rience I’ve ever had by far.” As for one of her great works, her favorite non-musical that she has put on was Rebel Without a Cause. “Artistically, I think Rebel is probably my best [work].” As for future good works, Ms. A is doing Farenheit 451 in 2011. People say that Ms. A is really creative and spontaneous and they can tell that she loves her job. When she leaves work, she looks back on all the pictures of her past performances, smiles, and turns off the light. “I know it sounds dorky but when it comes down to it, it took me a long time just to admit that I love my art. It never is about making money; it’s about doing good art.”

20

Patrick. That’s his name, don’t wear it out.

Patrick. That’s his name, don’t wear it out. To late.

ost people who are acquainted with Patrick Delgado call him PK. Those who are strangers to the land of PK usually recognize him from his role as Ponyboy in LBJ’s Fall 2009 performance of The Outsiders. And those who don’t know him probably see his “PK tape” all over the school. It’s rarely possible now to walk around school without hearing his name. It would not be ex-aggeration if you said he was a local celebrity. Many freshman girls, few sophomores, and some juniors secretly,or openly swoon over him. “I do hear things of that nature being brought up. I think the fact that I played a tough guy on stage, made a lot of girls think that my character was really attractive, and not necessarily me. I find it quite amusing. I like the attention, but I never expected that to happen.” They don’t really know him though. They wouldn’t know his favorite color is green, or that he wants to go to Colorado College to be near his older brother, Anthony, who’s there for the United States Air Force Academy. They would most definitely not know why he has such a passion for theater or how he got his start in a theatrical life. “I kind of got into theater by accident and it kind of stuck with me.” Patrick said. In his freshman year Pat-rick took Theater as a course to compensate his fine arts credit required to graduate. “He was Pinocchio for his theater class which origi-nally got him hooked.” said his younger brother, Christopher Delgado. Patrick gives a little more insight to the matter, “I would have to say that [Melissa Alexander, LBJ theater director,] is the biggest reason I joined theater. With-out her, I would have never been pressured into act-ing in the first place. Even after I got on stage and did a main-stage role, she still pushed me to do more and explore the range of my acting talent. Plus, I think that

M

she is one of the rea-sons Theater is so much fun.” Patrick adapts to sit-uations quickly and he finds it easy for himself to portray emotions. “It kind of comes natural, acting like a different character, [to me].” PK said. His first Alley Cat Production role was a smaller role with only about a page in lines as Ben Gunn from Treasure Island. He enjoyed being with all his friends and made new friends quickly. “All of my friends from Kealing, except for a few, a lot of my close guy friends went to McCallum. I was originally pissed at go-ing to LASA because of it.” Theater helped him form new friend-ships. Sometimes the friendships were even surprising to PK him-self. “I used to think theater kids were all dorks, but I’ve learned to appreciate all their quirks.” Other times theater for PK didn’t seem as hard to him.” Theater wasn’t just filled with getting to know new people because he did know some already. From his role as Ben Gunn in Trea-sure Island he went on to play other roles in class or in the Alley Cat Players Productions. PK also participate in set design throughout the summer where he went and saw other shows for inspi-ration and talked with Ms. A about all of his ideas for The Outsiders. Eventu-ally Patrick was cast for the lead role in The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis (see “Are You Ready To Rumble?” for more information on The Outsiders on page 7). Memorizing his lines as

Ponboy proved difficult to PK. Patrick likes to picture what happens from the character’s view and be that character when given a role. “I write [the lines] down. Ponyboy’s took me forever to write down. I didn’t really learn Pony’s lines until a week before,” he said. Rehearsals for The Outsiders were rigorous, but they had more time than soccer or other clubs would to prepare for their showcase of talent. Patrick is also captain of the Lyndon Bayne Johnson soccer team and being the “lead” in two different groups might clash a little for most people. “Soccer most definitely interferes with theater. Ms. A understands that and lets things change with that.” But you probably couldn’t make him choose between the two. “They’re

both important to me, but for differ-ent reasons. I think theater lets me ex-press some inexpressible traits with an accepting audience. Soccer gives me an opportunity to let go of my energy. I like to have fun.” You’d think if he likes to have fun, and he does through theater and soccer, that he might want to pursue a career in this field. “I never thought about [a major in theater] until this year when I realized I did a good job on The Outsiders. I thought maybe I should get into some smaller things out in the world. If giv-en the opportunity I think I’d take it, but I’m still all over the board in terms of interest.” Patrick felt like all of his hard work and all the yelling he received from Ms. A (see page 17 for more on her) was worth it in the end. The Outsiders

“. . .because it’s my little sanctuary, and a get away from the normal world where I can be who I want, and act as what ever I may feel,

and nobody judges me for that.”

and the soccer team kept him busy and his home life was rather small because of it. “I haven’t had to completely sacri-fice another activity, but it is definitely time consuming and puts a lot of stress on my life. I have soccer, and grades to worry about, and right as school things start to pile up, Theater demands the most time. I loved it, it’s like running away from the police (as far as I know) because you know that you’re going to be screwed in some way, but its so much fun (I have never ran from the police by the way).” At home PK eats and sleeps because he is always so tired. Soccer takes a lot out of him. The result is falling be-hind on some grades until he stays up some night past midnight to fix them. Patrick also used to play football in the seventh grade for Kealing Middle School, but he had to give this up be-cause soccer and the Alley Cat Players rule his life. His life can seem pretty crazy at times with so much going on. He keeps himself sane by having fun. PK is a joker. He doesn’t even have the same friends day to day. “I don’t agree with staying in a clique, or the people that you feel com-fortable around. In order to mature and learn about the world, you have to put yourself outside your comfort zone. No two days are the same.” Patrick is popular. He is comfort-able around new people. This makes it easy for him to make new friends all the time. The already huge number of people he hangs with grows daily. Of course he has those friends thought that always have his back. They show their support and come to his shows or games and he shows the same level of respect back. “Had you asked me [whether I like to perform in front of friends or strang-ers] in my freshman year I would have said my friends. Now, its easier for me to perform in front of people I don’t know.” PK likes to keep his theatrical life separate from his social life. Al-though sometimes they intertwine.

“I usually don’t want my friends to do theater, because it’s my little sanc-tuary, and a get away from the normal world where I can be who I want, and act as what ever I may feel, and nobody judges me for that. However, I do al-ways try to convince other people to do it, I feel that it’s great to have new faces, and new talent to work with each time.” PK used to think of the kids who geeked out about theater were strange, but after spending time with a lot of them, they became his good friends. “We all become a big family after shows, and the regulars, mean-ing the ones who are always there, even for lunch, have always been somewhat of a family, and I really like hanging around them.” You won’t find Patrick Delgado under the cast list for Hamlet though. You could possibly find him chatting with Ms. A. or the other cast members he has previously worked with. But for him to actually be in this play and soccer was quite simply too much work. “Sometimes during the 5th and 6th hours of the long rehearsals, or after a bad day, I think to myself about why I am still there, but each time I remem-ber my goals, to have fun learn some-thing new and improve my acting, and the reward is worth all the time and ef-fort.” But this still isn’t it. This still isn’t the reason he does theater. This isn’t the reason he puts in long hours of practices, stays up hours later to fin-ish neglected homework, this isn’t the reason he lacks in sleep, this isn’t the reason for his passion. “The anticipation. There is always a silent moment, where the lights go out and I can feel that the curtain is about to open, and right then, that moment is the reason I do theater, be-cause it is my least favorite part about performing, but I love the adrenaline that rushes through me as I hear the hushed whispers of the audience wait-ing for you to step on stage.”

26

How bad is your stage fright?

A. As long I’m not on it during a production, it’s not frightening

B. Not that bad

C. I love the stage, I practically live there

D. I am terrified of the stage!

#1

When you walk out on stage, What goes through your mind/body?

A. I am behind the stage during a performance

B. I get nervous, but I only have a couple of lines so it’ll be okay

C. Once I step on stage, I don’t feel anything, I am the character

D. I will never step onto that stage, ever!

#2

How often do you order people around?

A. It’s my job to, so a lot

B. Not very often

C. No, I am the one being bossed

D. Very little, but politely

#3

Are you patient with oth-ers?

A. I can be, but things need to get done quickly

B. Yes, I have to wait a lot

C. Most of the time, but people usally have to be very patient with me.

D. If I’m not then I’ll probably mess something up

#4Do you like to give your friends makeovers?

A. No way! There is better stuff to do

B. Sometimes if we’re bored

C. I am the one forced into the makeover

D. Yes, all the time!

#5

what part of the play are you?by Sam

If you answered mostly,

A’s Head of Stage Crew: You are in charge of the Stage Crew, who construct the sets for the play.

B’s Supporting Role: You have a smaller acting role but you are comfortable with it.

C’s Lead Role: You have the largest acting role and although you are a bit nervous about it, you’re willing to take the challenge.

D’s Hair and Make Up: You design and apply the make up and hair styles to the actors to fit their roles.

Do you like power tools?

A. I love them, they make me feel powerful

B. They are a lot of fun to use

C. I guess I like them

D. I have no clue how to use them and I don’t want to learn

#6How creative are you?

A. I am always thinking up new ideas on how to make something

B. I’m not that creative, but I have my moments

C. I am pretty creative, I like to put my ideas into action

D. I am very creative, I try a lot of different ways to do things

#7What kind of tips would you give someone?

A. Measure twice, cut once

B. You might want to project a bit more so they can hear you

C. People are always giving me the tips

D. More eyliner and lip gloss, then her expressions will be more visible

#8

Your Role Is...

28

Behind the ScenesEveryone likes to be appreciated so we need to understand who needs appreciation behind the curtain.

BY: MAKALA

one else can go home. No one clapped for them. The audience doesn’t un-derstand all of the aspects of creating a production. The actors are not the only ones working hard. There is the behind the scenes work of the stage designers and the lighting booth crew and all of the people that are skillfully hidden and don’t get enough appreciation. The only recognition that the light booth people get is at the very end when the

actors are supposed to point to the back where the light and sound people work. The stage managers, the costume de-signers and everyone else don’t even get recognized. The audience only applauds politely when really all of the crew doing so much of the work, should be getting whoops and cheers and recognized for their hard labor in the theatre. Back breaking hard work needs to be recognized. People work hours upon

The audience applauds the most as the actors come out. They smile and wave. Then the entire cast

points to the light booth and there is applause but it is not as loud. Then the curtains close. The person who closed the curtain is a back stage worker. The people clearing the set are the crew. The people who made the costumes aren’t out on stage. The stage manager is mak-ing sure everything gets done so every-

Tattoo’s done by a makeup artist.

hours on many things. The set isn’t made in one day. The costumes take a lot of thought. These people have to do this day after day for many different plays. When they finish working on the whole project and they see how every-thing is put together they are full of pride. The crew works hard when they realize hundreds upon hundreds and maybe even thousands of people would come to see their handy work. The set is a big deal because the people that control it can be the ultimate deciders in the mood and the setting. They also choose the color theme and have to make everything match. The costume designers can make a statement with all of their colors. They can make each cos-tume look the same or make all of the costumes look very different but they all still go together. Write Express, ap-preciation experts, says “People re-spond positively when treated kindly. Employees work harder when they feel appreciated.” Everything can be bet-ter when the audience applauds for the people back stage. The crew knows how to make the au-dience feel. Everyone works together to get this play out there. The crew acts through their work. You don’t see them on center stage, but you do see their costumes, their set, and their lighting cues, and hear their sound effects. If there was no crew, then there wouldn’t be a show. They say “the show must go on” but it can’t if there is no crew. Without the crew, everything would go wrong. There would be no costumes or make-up or set or anything. At my middle school, the crew didn’t like the play choices that our theatre director chose, so they quit and when they did the actors had to take on the other parts of the crew’s jobs. There was no passion for the play and when the crew quit and the show was going to get cancelled but the show was pulled through. These professionals at work make ev-erything that they do look easy. The cos-tume designers look at a piece of fabric and then look at another piece of fabric and can decide if they go together. They

have to get the right measurements of each different person. They have to make at least one costume per per-son; there might even be multiple costumes for one person that needs to be made. Their fingers work like magic and the sowing machine nee-dle flies up and down. There is a blur of all the colors that go into one cos-tume. In the Broadway play “Wick-ed”, each costume is so extravagant and would take any one person weeks, maybe even months to do, but Susan Hilferty, the costumer designer for a Broadway production of Wicked, can pop one of those babies out in a few days. If you watched her, you would

think it was easy, but it is actually really hard if you tried to do it your-self. Also, in Broadway show of The Lion King, There are many make-up aspects that go in there. They are supposed to be Lions in Africa so there are many African patterns that are drawn on the actors. The costume designer for the Lion King was amazing because they made heads that looked like the heads of lions and some of them moved. Also, they made animal costumes which looked pretty realistic. Some costumes were wooden and some costumes had multiple layers. Some people would argue that the crew actually does get appreciat-ed enough because they get awards and things for their hard work. The truth is they do get awards but the awards are not widely known unless you are in the theatre business. It is the audience that I want to under-stand all of the work that goes into the production. Everyone who goes to a play should realize that acting is just the surface of the production. To make more people understand I would include fun facts about be-hind the scenes in the program. If there is an intermission, the audi-ence would read the program there and understand the work load that went into the play. The actors in the end, after pointing to the light booth, can point to the sides of the stage as well and the audience, who read the fun facts, can really appre-ciate the work effort that was put in to make this play a wonderful suc-cess. With all of this knowledge the audience would finally understand and then clap wildly. Crewmembers appreciate ac-knowledgment. After many months of work to make a production hap-pen well, the wild applause just for them would be the cherry on top. Now, the crewmembers don’t get enough credit but hopefully in the future people will understand the important roll the crewmembers