Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

See these two kids? Their names are Jordyn and Jason and they made my mentorship worth going to every day. They are my favorite kids in the world and I hate how I only get to see them during the summer. But they made my stay there much more enjoyable and I LOVE THEM WITH ALL MY HEART UGH KIDS ARE GREAT (most of the time).

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered..
My mentor is Lisa Pettygrove and I will be volunteering in her musical theater program in La Verne for the whole year starting late August or early September. During the summer I helped her in her classes at El Roble (S.L.I.C.E. program). Her cell phone number is (909) 802-6504.
2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     
She has taught choir for years and is in charge of her own musical theater program. I met her through a summer program in El Roble called the S.L.I.C.E. program and she has had classes such as musical theater, ukulele, learning math through music, drumming and so forth. Though her forte is more in working with the younger kids, she is incredibly skilled with how a performance should look, how it should go and has been doing this for years.
3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.   
How do you really make sure who's fit for a certain role?
How do you choose a show with the people you have? (clarified: with the people you have, how do you know which show to pick?)
Is it difficult to match up the choreography with the singing and amount of people you have?
4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
I believe patience is extremely important. The closer the day of the show is, the more stressed everyone gets. The director becomes more strict, people become more irritable, and it causes tension sometimes. Working with the musical theater group this summer again made me realize that it's extremely important for the actors, directors, tech people, and everyone included that you be patient, understanding and respectful to one another. Nothing's worse than a group who's falling apart just as we're supposed to become closer.
5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.
My senior project topic is going to be musical theater. At first, I was extremely iffy if I wanted to do musical theater or just vocal performance. In fact, I was set on just doing vocal performance because of what I wanted to do with my independent components. It wasn't until my mentorship said that their show is going to be Aladdin that I was convinced to do musical theater. Either way, I love both and strive to do my best but I am set on doing musical theater as my senior topic.

Blog 1 – Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

1.  What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?
The classes I had selected were a bit similar to one another, but of course not all. Some common things I found that I think were helpful were tone, amount of information, and structure. First off, I think tone is the most important because there were presentations with good topics and had the potential of being entertaining but their voice and tone was dull or not intriguing that I started dozing off, which of course is not a good thing. Another was the amount of information. I enjoyed watching some passion inputted in their presentation but in few presentations there was either too much information, making it seem a bit too heavy for me or not enough information. Finally, the structure did make a difference because some students decided to have more than 1 activity and had it placed within their lectures which was good because it seems like forever just listening to them talk for over 30 minutes non stop.

2. List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?
One thing they told me is to keep your mentor one check. It's okay to nag a bit only when they're not replying back to you. Also, try having more than just one mentor depending on your choice of topic because they might stop mentoring you out of nowhere.

3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?
I was considering musical theatre production because I enjoy singing but I've recently gotten into acting so I decided to combine both. I want to direct a musical theatre because I enjoy seeing a creation come to life and especially when it deals with singing. But I enjoy musical theatre because it also includes dancing, costumes, hair, makeup, and becoming a different character! If I don't end up doing musical theatre then I will want to do either vocal performance or makeup artistry since I have an intense passion for singing and makeup.

4. What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).
For musical theatre, I was thinking of asking "what is the best way for a director to have a successful show?" For vocal performance, I was thinking of "what is the best method for a singer to enhance/improve their performance vocal wise and visual wise?" I am very unsure about the makeup artistry one but it'll go along the lines of "what procedures are important for a makeup artist to have a satisfied client?"
5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?
I am very connected to the Claremont Colleges and know one theatre program that works only during the summer and another one as well. One is pure Shakespeare shows and the other is children's musical theatre. Then, a person I know is the director of a musical theatre program and I've worked with her before and was incredibly satisfied with my work. Hopefully, she will be willing to help me.