"An SAFD Actor Combatant is a member in good standing who has demonstrated a high degree of skills proficiency in the art of staged combat. Actor Combatants have undergone intensive training in the compulsory techniques required for unarmed, rapier & dagger and broadsword, spending over thirty hours learning to safely perform choreography in each of these three “fight” disciplines, as well as additional classes in other weapon styles."
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is me. Tested and passed Skills Proficiency Tests in Broadsword, Quarterstaff, Rapier and Dagger, and (last year) Unarmed. This weekend I took classes in Fight Choreography for Film, Scrappy Unarmed Fighting, Bond vs. Bourne Unarmed, Acting Combat Verbs, saw a screening of "Solomon Kane" and had a Q and A with Richard Ryan, the fight director (also fight director of Troy and Sherlock Holmes) had classes in Knife Fighting and Combat Dance (the Cell Block Tango). I have bruises in places I didn't know existed, and am really, really glad it's done. I'm so proud of myself! These were not easy tests to pass, and I've worked very, very hard to achieve this status. Not that it will really do me any practical good, but still. It's a pretty cool accomplishment.
.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Friday
Testing today for Skills Proficiency Tests in Rapier and Dagger, Broadsword and Quarterstaff!
Calling on my inner Xena to get me through the day!
(and hoping that leaving for 1/2 an hour to go pick up the kids doesn't jinx my mojo)
Calling on my inner Xena to get me through the day!
(and hoping that leaving for 1/2 an hour to go pick up the kids doesn't jinx my mojo)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Another day
6:15 - 8:15 Get kids ready for school
8:15 - 9:00 Homework
9:00 - 9:30 Get me ready for school
9:45 - 10:30 Rehearse scene
10:30 - 12:00 Class
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch Break!
1:00 - 3:00 Class
3:00 - 4:30 Help kids with homework
4:30 - 5:00 Drive Scooby to meeting
5:00 - 5:30 Drive back to school
5:30 - 7:30 Rehearse fight scenes
7:30 - 10:30 Rehearse Bye Bye Birdie
This is not so much for your edification as it is for my own organization!
8:15 - 9:00 Homework
9:00 - 9:30 Get me ready for school
9:45 - 10:30 Rehearse scene
10:30 - 12:00 Class
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch Break!
1:00 - 3:00 Class
3:00 - 4:30 Help kids with homework
4:30 - 5:00 Drive Scooby to meeting
5:00 - 5:30 Drive back to school
5:30 - 7:30 Rehearse fight scenes
7:30 - 10:30 Rehearse Bye Bye Birdie
This is not so much for your edification as it is for my own organization!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I wonder why I'm so tired
Today's agenda: Class from 10:30 - 12:00
Work from 12:00 - 3:00
3:00 - 4:00 Pick up kids at various schools and drive to counseling appt. Do homework in the car.
4:00 - 5:00 Counseling appt.
5:00 - 5:30 Drive to baseball. Eat in the car. Change clothes in the car.
5:30 Meet Don and drop off Tarzan and Cinderella at baseball. Drive Scooby to Tae Kwon Do.
6:00 Drop off Scooby at Tae Kwon Do and drive to school
6:00 - 7:00 Rapier and Dagger practice for fight testing on Friday
7:00 - 7:30 Pick up Scooby and drive him home.
8:00 - 10:00 Drive back to school and rehearse Bye Bye Birdie
10:00 - 12:00 Homework
Don't you wish you were me?
Work from 12:00 - 3:00
3:00 - 4:00 Pick up kids at various schools and drive to counseling appt. Do homework in the car.
4:00 - 5:00 Counseling appt.
5:00 - 5:30 Drive to baseball. Eat in the car. Change clothes in the car.
5:30 Meet Don and drop off Tarzan and Cinderella at baseball. Drive Scooby to Tae Kwon Do.
6:00 Drop off Scooby at Tae Kwon Do and drive to school
6:00 - 7:00 Rapier and Dagger practice for fight testing on Friday
7:00 - 7:30 Pick up Scooby and drive him home.
8:00 - 10:00 Drive back to school and rehearse Bye Bye Birdie
10:00 - 12:00 Homework
Don't you wish you were me?
Friday, March 18, 2011
Friday Update
Made it back from the audition in one piece. Even got some lines memorized on the trip. Long way to drive to smile and hold up a Pennzoil container, though.
Auditioned for the May production of Romeo and Juliet today (same director and group of students that did MacBeth last summer) I'm hoping for the Nurse - it would be a fun challenge!
Here are a couple of recent pictures.
Auditioned for the May production of Romeo and Juliet today (same director and group of students that did MacBeth last summer) I'm hoping for the Nurse - it would be a fun challenge!
Here are a couple of recent pictures.
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| Science Fair |
 |
| Little man |
 |
| Explaining his experiment |
 |
| Three monkeys in a tree |
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| Pretty! |
 |
| More pretty! |
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tomorrow's agenda
Tomorrow I'm going to Wilmington, NC for a commercial audition for Penzoil. It's far away. I'm carpooling with two other people and splitting gas money. I hope I don't get carsick. I don't know what to wear. I don't know if this was a good idea. But, how often do I get to do this kind of thing??
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Spring!
Gorgeous 70 degrees and sunny today -
The trees are all in bloom and daffodils are everywhere. Happy sigh.
Yesterday Scooby and I spent the entire day at the Tidewater Science Fair, where around 300 students from 6th through 12th grade were displaying their projects at Old Dominion University. At the end of the day, over $3,000 in cash prizes as well as medallions and certificates were given away. Scooby didn't win anything, and was pretty disappointed. But, he got a T-shirt from the event, and he thought the college cafeteria was pretty cool. I hope he had a good time, considering the amount of work we put into it. He did get an A on the final project though, and his teacher asked if she could use his final report as an example for future classes.
Tarzan spent the afternoon at the District Pinewood Derby, where he came in 12th. He won three out of four heats, so I guess the final results were based on the actual times rather than winning statistics.
Cinderella need some special event of her own - working on that for her. She's been good about being dragged around to the boys' stuff.
Counseling is going pretty well, I guess. We continue to struggle with some control issues, but we haven't had the crazy intense meltdowns for awhile. Still not sure we're making any progress on finding the root of the issues, but she seems to think the change in behavior will lead to new habits, so let's hope that's true.
Trying to catch up on some homework today, but the weather is making it hard! We went for a family scavenger hunt/walk a little bit ago, so that helped, but Scooby and I are still finding it hard to concentrate!
Hope everyone out there is enjoying a taste of Spring!
The trees are all in bloom and daffodils are everywhere. Happy sigh.
Yesterday Scooby and I spent the entire day at the Tidewater Science Fair, where around 300 students from 6th through 12th grade were displaying their projects at Old Dominion University. At the end of the day, over $3,000 in cash prizes as well as medallions and certificates were given away. Scooby didn't win anything, and was pretty disappointed. But, he got a T-shirt from the event, and he thought the college cafeteria was pretty cool. I hope he had a good time, considering the amount of work we put into it. He did get an A on the final project though, and his teacher asked if she could use his final report as an example for future classes.
Tarzan spent the afternoon at the District Pinewood Derby, where he came in 12th. He won three out of four heats, so I guess the final results were based on the actual times rather than winning statistics.
Cinderella need some special event of her own - working on that for her. She's been good about being dragged around to the boys' stuff.
Counseling is going pretty well, I guess. We continue to struggle with some control issues, but we haven't had the crazy intense meltdowns for awhile. Still not sure we're making any progress on finding the root of the issues, but she seems to think the change in behavior will lead to new habits, so let's hope that's true.
Trying to catch up on some homework today, but the weather is making it hard! We went for a family scavenger hunt/walk a little bit ago, so that helped, but Scooby and I are still finding it hard to concentrate!
Hope everyone out there is enjoying a taste of Spring!
Friday, March 04, 2011
So things are toddling along over here - coming to the end of my "spring break" which has gone by remarkably fast and been a fairly decent mixture of rest and accomplishment. I read two books for pleasure (a mindless murder mystery and a collection of Stephen King novellas), read two plays, bought another book of plays that I hope to get to today, finished our taxes, caught up on six episodes of Parenthood, went back to bed three days this week, rehearsed scenes and fights for two different classes, and did all the usual kiddo homework/TaeKwonDo/cub scout related activity. Tonight I'm going to a birthday party for two friends from school. Although there were *many* more things on the list that I wanted to accomplish this week, I'm reasonable satisfied.
I'm getting used to the shows for next season too. I actually think it looks like a pretty fun season, my own personal feelings about Joseph and the Amazing blah blah blah aside. It will be a fun show, and lots of people will come to see it. And, I probably won't be in it. I think it's actually good that there isn't a thesis show that I'm DYING to do, because I'd be really disappointed if there were a role that I was in love with and didn't get it. This way, I'll be ready to jump in and tackle whatever I get, and bring a fresh eye to it that might not be there if I already knew and loved the show.
Scooby and I had our third counseling session this week. We actually had a really good week, with no meltdowns and only a couple of close calls. He said he feels like he has a better idea when he's about to get upset, and was able to stop himself before it happened. I think it was just a light homework week, and he was feeling less stressed. I can't imagine that with only two counseling sessions, one of which was spent on ADD testing for half the time, that we've already turned a corner. The testing came back fine, and he'll do another round of it next week. He's normal on attention issues so far, which is what I expected. The test also showed he responds better to visual than auditory clues, which is also not surprising.
One of the things I meant to do this week was run more consistently, but the going back to bed kind of put the kibosh on that. I only made it out once this week. But my intentions are good! Hoping that warmer weather will stir me to better committment.
Next week will take me into full-swing rehearsals for Bye Bye Birdie, and the rounding up of my second year. Time to start thinking about what comes next...gathering info about job hunting, putting together a CV, all that fun stuff. I like this school cocoon, and I'm not ready to leave it yet!
I'm getting used to the shows for next season too. I actually think it looks like a pretty fun season, my own personal feelings about Joseph and the Amazing blah blah blah aside. It will be a fun show, and lots of people will come to see it. And, I probably won't be in it. I think it's actually good that there isn't a thesis show that I'm DYING to do, because I'd be really disappointed if there were a role that I was in love with and didn't get it. This way, I'll be ready to jump in and tackle whatever I get, and bring a fresh eye to it that might not be there if I already knew and loved the show.
Scooby and I had our third counseling session this week. We actually had a really good week, with no meltdowns and only a couple of close calls. He said he feels like he has a better idea when he's about to get upset, and was able to stop himself before it happened. I think it was just a light homework week, and he was feeling less stressed. I can't imagine that with only two counseling sessions, one of which was spent on ADD testing for half the time, that we've already turned a corner. The testing came back fine, and he'll do another round of it next week. He's normal on attention issues so far, which is what I expected. The test also showed he responds better to visual than auditory clues, which is also not surprising.
One of the things I meant to do this week was run more consistently, but the going back to bed kind of put the kibosh on that. I only made it out once this week. But my intentions are good! Hoping that warmer weather will stir me to better committment.
Next week will take me into full-swing rehearsals for Bye Bye Birdie, and the rounding up of my second year. Time to start thinking about what comes next...gathering info about job hunting, putting together a CV, all that fun stuff. I like this school cocoon, and I'm not ready to leave it yet!
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