Author: Aislinn

The statement: “I’m a theatre major.”  The common responses: “Oh fun!” “So, you’re like gonna be on Broadway or something?”  “That must be like not even being in school!”  What I want to say back: “It is, but it’s also hard work.” “Absolutely not.  Even performance majors have to work very hard to get to that point.”  “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

An issue that has come up in many of my classes and conversations with friends lately has been this idea of the easy major, the non-serious major, the idea that having fun and making a life are completely separate things.  Honestly, I’m offended, as are many of the others engaged in this constant struggle for legitimacy.  Our gut response tends to be, “Why shouldn’t it be fun?” but I’d like to dig a little deeper than that.

Chances are, if someone asked why go to the theatre, you’d say to be entertained or something along those lines.  Good, great, wonderful.  I hope that the shows you see succeed.  However, there are millions of ways to be entertained.  The means by which The Phantom of the Opera, Endgame, and The Odd Couple entertain you are entirely different.  So let’s change up our word choice a little.  Let’s say that you go to the theatre to be fulfilled. Oo, things just got a little more serious.  There is a contract between you as an audience member and the production that you will get something out of the show.

As a theatrical company, then, we have an obligation to make sure that you leave with something new.  What that thing is differs from production to production—laughing harder than you have in years, realizing that your relationship with your parents was way more complicated than you thought, a new perspective on race in the 1960s—whatever it is, we are providing a service.  That is what you pay for.  Now how many people are involved in achieving this goal?  That varies from theatre to theatre, but let’s say we have actors, a director, designers, a stage manager, a backstage crew, a writer, a producer, a marketing team, a literary office, a development office, an artistic director, and a managing director.  Wow.  That’s a lot of people.

Now these people have “fun” jobs.  They enjoy what they do.  Good for them.  If you don’t enjoy your job, you might want to reevaluate your choices.  Why is me having fun at my work any different than you having fun at yours?  All of these people have to work together to achieve this goal of giving you, the audience, something new to carry with you as you exit the theatre.  This begins in planning a season, and goes all the way to selling tickets and striking the set after the final curtain.  There are so many steps in that process, and they are not always fun.  They are challenging and stimulating, and sometimes they involve fights and hard-fought compromises.

Right now, I am finishing my second play.  It is driving me to the brink of insanity.  I sit staring at the blinking cursor wondering how the hell I am going to wrap this thing up.  What am I trying to say?  Who am I trying to reach?  What is propelling the plot forward?  At the same time, I am working on Beaux’ Stratagem, watching actors struggle through comedic timing while still dissecting their characters’ intentions.  My theatre back home is producing my first play, and the director is taking on the task of getting the play on its feet and staying true to my vision with practical space concerns.  Each member of each team is busting their ass making sure that the product that you finally see is outstanding.  We might not work nine to five, but there is no way you can say we are not working.

So yes.  We get to do what we love, and for that we are grateful.  There are incredibly rewarding moments sometimes, the eruption of laughter when you hit a joke just right or hearing our words come to life or seeing our renderings materialized on stage.  But along the way, as with any job, there are challenges.  There are tear-filled nights and hours of thought.

So sure.  My job is fun, but that is only the beginning.

I get strangely excited every time the course guide for the next semester is available online.  I wish I could say that this is what marks me as a nerd, but if I’m being honest, I get excited about far nerdier things than the course guide (marching bands, office supplies, the smell of books).  I like the feeling of possibility in the new course guide.  I get the feeling, a little flutter somewhere between my heart and stomach, when I first print out my schedule of new classes—that feeling before you are steeped in research and deadlines, that great openness, a new beginning.

It may seem absurd to wax poetic on the course guide, but for me the guide is indicative of that starting over point that we are lucky enough to get every first class meeting.  Syllabus week is famously boring, but there’s also something thrilling about the textbook list and schedule that stretches into the future, providing a definite plan.  This is something unique to college.  Once we’re out in the “real world,” we won’t have chances to start over, to learn things we never would have dreamed of, to fulfill that childhood hopefulness for the college experience once every fourteen weeks or so.

So when I logged onto Wolverine Access last week to find that the course guide was available, I was first greeted with my familiar feelings of optimism and the adventure of finding unexpected exciting classes (I warned you, I’m a nerd).  But as I began sorting through meeting times and how many classes I wanted to take and figuring out credits, I was struck with a sort of despair.  This will be my last semester at the University of Michigan.  Suddenly, my enthusiasm had disappeared.  Two things occurred to me: one, I will never be able to take all of the classes I would like to, and two, it’s really happening.  I’m really going to graduate.

I transferred to Michigan my sophomore year.  It took me one semester to not feel like a freshman and another semester to really get the hang of it and feel like I belonged here.  Now, three years later, I never want to leave.  I am so excited to go out and start my career and put what I’ve learned to use, but there’s a part of me that knows that I’ll miss seeing my best friends every day in the lobby of the Walgreen and being able to geek out about Tennessee Williams with professors and classmates.  Now, I finally feel like a major part of a major program.  I have friends telling me every day not to graduate, and sometimes, I really wish I didn’t have to.

I’ve always loved school.  I was the kid who woke up at 4 a.m. on the first day of second grade, trying to shake my parents awake because I was afraid I’d be late.  Soon, it will be my last first day.  And while I know it means I’m taking a step toward a (hopefully) awesome career doing what I’ve always known I wanted to do, it also means I’ve really got to make it count.  So if you see me glued to my computer screen the next couple of weeks, don’t mind me.  I’m just taking one final walk through the pages and pages of possibility that is the course guide.

Hello blogosphere!

I feel like I should introduce myself, since you’ll be hearing from me once a week for the rest of the year.  I’m Aislinn Frantz (kind of like the lion, if you say it really fast), I’m a senior, and I’m a BTA (Bachlor in Theatre Arts).  I’m concentrating in dramaturgy (I’m sure I’ll devote a blog post to trying to define that field), playwriting, and new play development.  I think that’s all you need to know for now.

Being a theatre student is different than many other fields, because there is always something new beginning.  As we finish up fall break, which more or less marks the middle of the semester, my semester is getting a breath of fresh air.  This is the time that many students begin to get bored or frustrated, but tomorrow will be one of the more exciting days of my semester: a first rehearsal.

I will be 2nd assistant stage managing the University Productions mainstage show The Beaux’ Stratagem.  The show goes up in mid-December, and tomorrow will be the first day that we all get together and read the script.  First rehearsals are always exciting for me.  It’s a little bit like the first day of school.  You’re not sure exactly what to expect.  It usually consists of some paperwork for the actors, a design presentation, and a read-through of the script, but there are no givens when it comes to first rehearsals.

Each first rehearsal is different.  Why?  Because each cast is different.  Each crew is different.  Each director is different. Each show is different. And that is why those of us who choose to spend our lives in theatre love it so much.  Each show is a new experience.  There are a few things I know about this process going in, but the rest of it I will learn as I go along.  The give and take of theatre is the best part.  The way that everyone involved works together influences how rehearsals will run.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the word collaboration since I’ve been at this university.  There’s a good reason for that.
I, like many of my colleagues, am a very independent person.  I hate group projects, I was never very good at team sports, and I am a writer, which means much of my work is done in solitary, in front of a computer screen.  However, I am also an incredibly social person, and there is a dependency at work there.  I depend on my friends, and I like being able to depend on other members of a production team.  I thrive on the input of other people.  Theatre is so interactive.  It isn’t like a group project where everyone has ideas to further their own means.  Everyone is working together for the same goal, and when the overall vision is executed well by everyone, the results are stunning.  Each job is done alone, but the real fun comes when everything is put together.  Theatre is a creative art.  We are creating something.  For Beaux’ Stratagem, tomorrow will be the beginning of this creation.  And I can’t wait.