Arabian Nights & Fringe Fest

I performed in the school play, "Arabian Nights", from Thursday Nov. 15th - Saturday Nov. 17th. The rehearsal process was extremely exhausting and overwhelming, but once we got to the performance days, everything came together. Getting makeup on was certainly an experience and by the end of the night, we all felt as though our faces were melting. Overall every night had a few slip-ups, but I think our best performance was on Friday night. Although we actually had a bigger audience on Saturday night, I think we were all a bit tired by then so we weren't at our absolute best. I certainly think my best performances as Amina and the Second Sister were much better on Friday. Lydia and I had so much fun being evil sisters, but on Friday Lydia fell down the stairs (and she's afraid of heights - yikes!) and my cape got caught on the steps. Overall I felt like I had a great experience doing the school play this year. I made wonderful friends and really bonded with people I've never talked to before. The relationships I formed are something I hope to have happen again next year. I'm also taking part in the Fringe Fest again this year. Luke Reid, Lydia Spilsbury and I are putting on a short 5 min play called "The Real Housewives of Shakespeare". We think it's going to be a lot of fun and we're all really excited. I'm adapting the play from a video I found on youtube, so technically I'm "writing" the script. There are 5 Shakespearian female characters that we're exploring. Lady Macbeth, Goneril, Titania, Juliet, and Gertrude will all make appearances. Auditions are Thursday and Friday! I'm excited to find our actresses. Yay!

Arabian Nights Rehearsal

Yesterday (and almost every day this week) I had Arabian Nights rehearsal. Yesterday (Tuesday Oct 9) we learned traditional Arabic dances and we picked out our costumes. I adore costumes, and I love fashion design as well, so it was a lot of fun for me. I picked out a costume for Amina (the evil sorceress I play in one scene), but I couldn't find a suitable base costume. A base costume is what I would wear coming onto the stage for the first time. From then on, as I switch characters throughout the play, I get certain things added on to my costume. After everyone picked out costumes and sizes were taken down, we moved on the dancing. We worked on seductive dances, ones that would be used during weddings or sexualized scenes. We didn't actually get to the play because rehearsals are very short and only go until 4:50 right now. However, after Oct. break, we'll be going until 6, and sometimes even 8. Yay... No, it's actually been a lot of fun.

This past weekend (Oct 5-Oct 7) I went with the photography club on the photography trip of the year. We left at around 8:30 in the morning. There were 7 students in total and two adults - Ms. Kerr and Ms. Bock (the club leader). We traveled to Naivasha and stayed at a private cabin that Ms. Bock had rented especially for us. Before heading to the cabin, we went for a walk on Crescent Island. It was a lot of fun. We saw a bunch of beautiful birds and lots of zebras and wildebeest, as well as several giraffes. There were quite a few baby wildebeests and they were beautiful little things. After a two hour walk in Crescent Island, we got back on the bus and went to an owl sanctuary run by Sarah Higgins. She had a wonderful collection of eagles and owls. I got quite a few beautiful shots there. After we finished up at the owl sanctuary we headed to Camp Carnelleys to reserve the boats for the next day and have lunch. After lunch, we drove to the cabin. Once we got there, we unpacked and got settled. That night we watched a movie - Easy A. The next morning we had to get up at the crack of dawn, get on the bus and drive to Carnelleys. We got right on the boats and headed out on the lake. I got some great shots of the fish eagles. After we got off the boats, we had breakfast at Carnelleys. When we got back to the cabin, I started feeling sick. I was in bed for the rest of the day with a flu. Around dinner time I got up and was feeling a bit better. I helped make dinner and clean up. After dinner we watched a movie (Death at a Funeral). The next morning we got up a bit later and got back on the bus and headed back to Nairobi. We got home at around 12:00 pm. It was a good trip.