The Nervous Poops

Auditions can be very stressful, especially if you are really excited about the play or musical you are trying out for. For some of us, auditions come naturally. However, for many of us in the drama world, this is not the case. Before an audition my friends and I often find ourselves with the nervous poops or constantly having to go pee. Other people bite their nails or don’t sleep, but no matter what, there are ways around this nervousness. You just have to be prepared.

If you are tying out for a play, you in some ways you have it easier than those trying out for a musical. With plays, you only have to focus on acting. The most important thing about an acting audition is being animated. If you just go in and read the words on the page, there is no way you are going to get a part. You have to become the character, of the lines you are reciting. So don’t just read the lines in one monotone voice, add some inflection. Be interesting and engage your voice. You can speak loud or soft, whatever fits the character’s lines. Another key point is making sure your voice matches your face. If you have an energized excited voice, but a bored to death facial expression, your audience will be confused and the director, casting the show, will not like the combination.

The next thing to remember when auditioning for a play is engaging your body. If you go in and speak with animated tones and really get your voice into the part, but don’t move a muscle, the director is going to think you don’t know how to move your body. You have to be energized and move around! Whether you’re excited, sad, angry, or neutral there has to be some movements involved in your audition, otherwise your audience will most definitely lose interest.

(318 Words)

August: Osage County Review

Letts, Tracy. August: Osage County. Dramatists Play Service Inc. 2007.

I chose to read the play August: Osage County because I was interested in trying out a new genre of literature. My friend, Bailey requested I read this play and now I completely understand why. August: Osage County was so interesting I only wish I could see it performed on a stage. The play was also very challenging to read for many reasons; just because it was short doesn’t mean it wasn’t a difficult read. The hardest part about this play would have to be trying to keep all the characters straight. I also found it hard to tell when characters were being sarcastic or if they were really saying what they felt.

The hardest part about reading this play was trying to remember who was who. I was having a terrible time keeping track of whose husband/wife a character was and whose sister had a kid named Charles and so on. One thing I found that helped me was the casting page in the front of the play. It had a list of all the characters and told me exactly who this person was married to and how old they were with however many kids. However even with this page, it was still extremely difficult and confusing keeping the characters straight. When it would switch scenes, new people would enter the story line and I would have to, over and over, turn back to the front of the play to figure out who each character was. I feel as if reading books is easier because you’re only in one person’s point of view at a time and much of a book is thought and feelings rather than dialogue.

Another thing that was difficult with reading this play was the inflection. There was a lot of tension between the characters and sometimes I couldn’t tell if the characters were being nice, sarcastic, angry, or any other emotion we as people portray through the inflection in our voices and expressions on our faces. Because the play was written in the mind set of it being seen and not to be read as a book, I found it difficult knowing what mood the characters were in. This made reading difficult, because I didn’t know which characters I could trust to be telling the truth and which ones were always sarcastic and the jokesters. Also just the fact that I’m not used to reading dialogue made the experience far more challenging and new.

The last challenging aspect of this play was the medical jargon. In the play, one of the lead characters had cancer of the mouth. Throughout the play they would bring up her condition and sometimes they would use words I had never heard before. Also, sometimes because she had cancer in her mouth she wouldn’t always be speaking clearly. When these instances came up, the words would be misspelled and slurred so to show that she could not talk to the full capacity of other people, without cancer of the mouth. This sometimes made reading difficult because there were a few instances where I couldn’t tell what she was supposed to be saying.

All challenges aside this was a very interesting play. I really liked having the opportunity to try a different genre of literature and I am very interested to try reading some other plays in the future. I would definitely recommend this play to anyone who enjoys a good soap opera, for I imagine on stage, this play would be very dramatic and theatrical. It was a great choice to read and because it, like so many other plays, was so short, I recommend everyone try reading a play at least once in their life.

(627 words)

Classification of High School Core Classes

The core classes offered at Kennedy High School are split into four main groups, math, history, language arts, and science. Although they are all a very important part to our high school career they are very different from each other.

            Math is an entire group in itself. There are so many different types of math to learn, such as calculus, geometry, trigonometry, algebra, exc. Math is different from the other five groups because the main aspect of math is numbers. Without numbers you don’t have math, just a bunch of equations. Math supports many different jobs like being an accountant, a financial planner, or a banker.

            History is in a different group because in history you learn about the past. The list of histories you could research is endless. World history, U.S. history, and human geography are just a few areas that have been researched and can all be broken down into far smaller sectors of history. History can also help you in the future and takes place in our everyday lives. Some good history jobs would be archivist, documentary editor, or a museum curator.

            A language art is a very big section in high school. Even when you’re not in a language arts class you still have to know how to write papers, or even to write sentences. Language arts involves all aspects of writing weather it’s writing a blog, a research paper, or just writing someone a letter. Some common jobs for people in the language arts field are magazine editors, authors, or a reporter.

            Science is the last core group of the high school classes we have offered at Kennedy. The main parts of this group are chemistry, biology, and physics. Without science we would be lacking some very important jobs in our communities. Science majors could be doctors, chemists, and engineers. Without any of these professions I don’t know where our world would be today and because of this science is very important to learn in high school.

(332 words)

ARACHNOPHOBIA

To me arachnophobia means being completely and utterly lost of any rational thought other than, run and hide. Arachnophobia means feeling hot and sweaty, having clammy hands, and having all the hair on my body standing on end. The dictionary definition of arachnophobia is an abnormal fear of spiders. To me however this fear is completely normal!

Arachnophobia is like the feeling of catching the flu. You’re hot and cold at the same time all over for an extremely extended length of time. When I see a spider I instantly feel hot while at the same time become covered in goose bumps. This is what arachnophobia means to me.

Arachnophobia is like swimming. I sweat so much that I feel as if I have just stepped out of a swimming pool. That feeling of clammy hands and knowing that perspiration is lining your brow. As if you have just exerted yourself beyond comparison of any other physical activity. This is what arachnophobia means to me.

Arachnophobia is like feeling as if something or someone is watching you. Your paranoid self where at any unexpected noise you cant help but jump in your skin. Feeling as if you’re in great danger. When someone talks about spiders or I see a spider, all the hairs on the back of my neck stick straight up. As if I’m expecting a spider to be crawling up the back of my shirt. This is what arachnophobia means to me.

Arachnophobia is thinking that at any second a small poisonous eight-legged creature could be about to stick his fangs into my flesh. Waking up in the morning only to find an itchy red spot on my skin that was not there the night before. Knowing that a tiny creature was crawling around on me while I was sleeping. This is what arachnophobia means to me.

Arachnophobia is knowing that you swallow 5 to 7 spiders a year in your sleep, and hoping to god that that fact is not true. Praying that the fact that wherever you are in the world there is always a spider within five feet of you does not apply to where you are currently standing. This is what arachnophobia means to me.

Knowing that there’s billions of little creatures sucking peoples blood and living in our houses. Hoping that at any moment all the spiders in the world will just automatically die. Feeling that hot sweaty tingly feeling anytime spiders are brought up in a conversation. This is what arachnophobia means to me.
(422 words)

HOW TO... Give your Cat a Bath Part 3

1.)    Now its time for the drying off process to begin. First you must get your cat out of the shower. Its your lucky day open the shower curtain and your cat will jump right out! You wont have to do a thing! Now’s the tricky part. Take the towel and try to rub/squeegee as much water off of your cat as possible. Weather you have to wrap him/her up in the towel like a baby or if you are just going for the pounce and rub effect! Either will work but only one will be fit to the personality of your cat. Any other improved versions of these will work too as long as you are successfully getting as much water off as possible! 

2.)    This is the important step. You don’t want your little kitty to catch a cold (or ruin any furniture) so you must blow-dry them! I often find its easier if the hair dryer is plugged in by the bathroom door because that is where the cat will be spending the majority of its time meowing and pawing at the door trying to get out! All you have to do is just try to move the hair dryer around so you don’t over heat one part of your kitties skin and brush the hair around with your hand so it will dry even faster! Do this until the fur is either all the way dry or mostly dry just make sure he/she is not wet enough to catch a cold!    

3.)    The ninth step is brushing your cat. You can do this now or give your cat time to run and roll around on the floor first. But make sure you brush everywhere so he/she’s fur looks nice and clean!

    10.)  So now your cat is clean but are you? Either towel all the excess kitty hair off you              or take your own shower! What ever will help you feel as clean as your newly cleaned cat! But remember you just put your kitty though 30 minutes of hell. So for your benefit, give your kitty a treat and know you are the best parent in the world!

(363 words)

HOW TO... Give your Cat a Bath Part 2

1.)    Now its time to get down and dirty. Possibly the hardest step, if your cat is smart, will be getting your kitty into the bathroom now containing running water, shampoo, a towel, and a hair dryer. So in order to chase your cat down you may need to put on some running shoes…just a suggestion. When you have successfully captured your kitty and managed to drag he or she (or in those unfortunate ball chopping situations an it) to the bathroom. Once inside close the door swiftly. There’s no turning back now.

2.)    Now its time to get your cat into the bath! Pick them up and carry them inside the shower closing the curtain or door firmly behind you. You are now free to set down your fur ball friend knowing he/she will not be getting away.

3.)    Once the initial freak out has subsided you can start wetting your cat down. I myself always put him under the spicket and then just scoop water with my hands on the other not wet places. Do not wet the face if you don’t have to! You do not want to have any risk of soap in the eye or water up the nose! Alas be very sure to avoid the ears unless you want to be applying swimmers ear eardrops for the next month!

4.)    Now you have to lather your kitty up! Squirt a quarter size amount of shampoo onto your cats back and gently rub it around (while also attempting to hold your cat in place). If you do not reach all spots with a quarters worth then add some more where its needed. Make sure to rub it around and make this as enjoyable for the cat as possible weather you only pet the can in one direction or if you give them a kind of massage, whatever your cat will like best! You’re the parent YOU decide. After rubbing in all the soap its time to rinse it all out and again I suggest placing your cat under the spicket and using handfulls of water to rinse those none reachable places.

(356 words)

HOW TO... Give your Cat a Bath Part 1

If any of you are cat lovers like me then you know from experience just how hard it is to give your cat a bath. Every time my kitty Otis manages to escape into the wild of my back yard I just know he is going to come back with flecks of mulch and shovels of sand in his fur. This is when the very precise skill of giving a cat a bath comes in handy.

1.)    The very first step towards getting back that new cat shine is making sure you have everything your going to need. Anything that you could possibly need because once you close that door it will be the survival of the fittest. Who will win…you or the cat? The most necessary items will of course be animal shampoo (sold at your local pet store) a towel, and a kitty brush. Another essential is a hair dryer. You may think why couldn’t I just towel my kitty off and let him air-dry his fur? This is a big NO NO if you don’t blow dry their fur at least mostly dry there is a ginormous (as in bigger than the completely ginormous toilets in elf) risk of your cat getting a cold. Not to mention the dampness you may feel when sitting down on your couch.

     2.)  The second step is getting everything ready! I always choose to wash my cat in my shower with me                     (bathtub included) because its easier to control him and when the curtain is pulled there is no way for your kitty to get out! So in order to prepare my surroundings I make sure the shampoo is in the shower, the bathtub is being filled with a comfortable temperature of water. Then I put the towel on the counter outside the shower and plug the hair dryer next to the brush so I’m all ready to go afterwards. The last thing you must do when getting ready is change. You may be saying, why would I do that? I can just bend over and only get my legs wet! Well darlin there’s going to be a lot more getting wet than just your legs. So for your comfort please put on a swimming suit and shorts if you must. 


(380 words)