passion projects
that sappy love letter I promised in my last post
June is over and that means it’s time for me to get all emotional and reflective about everything I did last month. My calendar is considerably less full than it was a couple of weeks ago and I’m very grateful to be catching up on all the missed hours of sleep. That being said, it’s a little sad to be looking for things to fill my days rather than scrambling to squeeze everything in. I’ve always been someone who thrives in chaos and I’ve had so much fun getting to wear all of the hats these past few weeks.
June 9th was Batesville Pride and it’s one of the things I’m proudest of. My main contribution the past couple of years has been running the BAID Book Swap. This is my version of a Little Free Library where the only goal is to get more diverse books in the hands of readers in our small town. I spend a lot of time and a lot of my own money at used bookstores searching for materials for the book swap. Handing someone a book that makes them feel represented in some way is one of my favorite things. I am a huge advocate for local libraries, and I love ours, but there are some gaps in their catalogue. While they are growing and improving, the BAID community likes to do our part in filling those gaps for the time being.
The Pride event this year was our best yet. We had beautiful weather, passionate volunteers, and plenty of vendors and resources to keep everyone busy all afternoon. Our event looks tiny compared to Cincy or Indy Pride, but it’s a pretty big deal for a town like ours. There are plenty of people here that think we shouldn’t be allowed to have Pride, but that’s all the more reason for us to keep showing up. Seeing the smiles when queer people realize they aren’t alone in this community makes everything 100% worth it. The team at Batesville Area Inclusion & Diversity are some of the best people I know and I’m so grateful for the work they put into this event year after year.
June 21st-23rd were our performances for School of Rock. This show has been so special to me and I have so many feelings about it being over. I posted a big thank you on Facebook so I could call out all of my production staff, but there’s so much more to say.
This cast was one of the most impressive I’ve ever worked with. Of course they did a wonderful job learning lines, choreo, and all of that fun stuff. Aside from all that, they showed up for each other every day. There are several moments in the show where one character gets “their moment” and the rest of the cast was always cheering them on and waiting in the wings with high fives and fist bumps. Watching so many of them become real friends throughout the course of this production was so much fun. The single coolest thing they did was on opening night when an actor exited the stage early, skipping a couple pages of dialogue. While I was standing in the wings with my jaw on the floor, the kids onstage played it off so perfectly that the audience never noticed anything was missing. I knew we had something really special at the first table read and they made me so proud the whole time we were working together. Many of them are performing in another local show in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait to see them onstage again.
I could write 10,000 words on how much I love my production team. I’ll spare you all that and keep it much shorter for the moment. Our producer carried this whole thing on her shoulders. Our music director turned some shy kiddos into rock stars in a matter of weeks. Our orchestra director put a full rock band on the stage of my high school auditorium, and it was epic. Our choreographer had the patience of a saint and very graciously missed so many Jeopardy episodes in favor of attending rehearsals. Our director wrote a different pre-show speech for each performance and wrote a personalized note to each and every member of the cast. Aside from the fact that he directed a truly beautiful show, he really and earnestly loves this craft. If you have spoken to me for more than 5 minutes, you’ve probably figured out that I am overly enthusiastic and passionate about everything and finding a team that could match that energy was such a dream.
Between high school, college, and now community shows, I’ve done a lot of theatre. I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun as I did with School of Rock. I’ve also never worked harder, slept less, or learned more. This show held a lot of “firsts” for me. I started out as a producer, which was completely new. Over time that role morphed into stage manager, which was also new. I interviewed (and hired) staff for the first time. I learned several new arts and crafts skills for the most random projects. Last show it was foam carving a giant dragon head, this time it was building a tear-away costume for the most epic leather pant reveal of all time. Getting to experiment to find the best/quickest/cheapest solution to something like that is my favorite part of doing theatre at this scale. I spent two years telling people “Just wait, I have a vision.” when they expressed hesitations about this show. It was always so crystal clear in my mind, and this thing that we did was so much better than I even imagined it.
This past month was exhausting. It felt like I was running at a full sprint the whole time. My director dubbed me “most likely to be stressed” at our paper plate awards, which is a fair assessment. Even with all of that, I am so grateful. This was the most fun I’ve ever had and the proudest I’ve ever been in the work that I did. I am so lucky to have found passion projects that make me want to keep running at full speed into the next one. My goal for July is to chill out, just a little bit. I have no major project goals other than getting really good at Hades now that I have time for video games again. I won’t say goodbye to these projects because I’ll carry them with me forever, but I will say thank you for the magic and the memories.