First Day of School and WGN

This would be the week where my life decided to explode. After nearly a month of chronicling daily nothings, I finally had things to do this week. And boy, did I have a lot of things to do.

Actually, I didn't really have much to do on Monday. Mandy came over and I made us a breakfast pizza for dinner (this is what happens when you end up postponing brunch for weeks and then even end up postponing brunch until dinner time). For those of you who don't know, a breakfast pizza is like a regular pizza except instead of sauce, you used scrambled eggs, so it's breakfast for dinner but also pizza for dinner.

Obligatory "First day
of school" pic

Tuesday is when things really started up! It was my first day working for ATC's Mosaic Program. I think I've sort of spelled it out here before but basically I am working with three classes who, at the end of six weeks, will come together to put on a show! The school is walking distance from my apartment which is like the best set up ever. This first week of the program, I was in there every day, for the rest of the program, it will just be three days a week (although, this was only a four day school week, so there isn't really a HUGE difference). It was a pretty solid first day, if you ask me and I'm really excited for this opportunity.

Wednesday was the final dress rehearsal of CTW's new/old show Flanagan's Wake. They did Flanagan's last year before I worked there but they brought it back for St. Patrick's Day. I had to be there for the final dress to a) see the show and b) check in the few random patrons, because it was a dress rehearsal with an audience. I was also the bartender, which is always an interesting experiment for me. The show is pretty funny with the added bonus of not including dinner (except for the Wednesday matinee performances) so that means less clean up for me!

Thursday, I was back at KP High School (well, I was there on Wednesday too, but nothing note-worthy really happened). Today was the day of a truly Thomson Thomson-story. For those of you who do not know, a Thomson-story is a story of such insanity that it could only happen to me. Yup, my name is an adjective to describe outlandish improbable disasters. Part of my job for the Mosaic Program included making all sorts of supplementary materials. The cooperating classroom teacher, Mr. Montoya, decided that he would like his whiteboard back and cleared off a bulletin board for this. He gave me a stapler and the free period to get to work. Well, wouldn't you know, I failed spectacularly! You would think that it wouldn't be hard to staple posters to a wall, but then again, neither did I. I managed to break the stapler IN HALF. Yup, the top and bottom were completely separated by the time I was finished with them (and by that, I mean after my first attempt at stapling).

Fancy stuff.

Luckily, the evening at CTW went much better than the classroom supplies fiasco. We were doing something that we'd never done at CTW before -- a live radio broadcast. We have been working with a local radio station, WGN 720AM to promote Tony N Tina's, and as part of a trade, they decided they wanted to a radio broadcast with a live audience in our space. It was a first for them as well. It was this guy's talk show -- he had three different guests (including a guy whose new show is up on Amazon) and the band, The Smoking Popes, who apparently really legit but I don't know them. I was there to do some crowd control and clean up!

In a strange turn of events, I found out about a different non-dinner theatre event we'll be hosting in a month in a most unusual way. I am a monthly donor for The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and so they send me emails. Well, on Thursday, I got an email for an event called Her HRC Chicago. I looked at the date and thought "I'm free, I should buy a ticket" and then I scrolled down and saw the location: Chicago Theater Works, and suddenly my thoughts changed to "Well, I guess I'm going for free now." I checked with my boss and yup, I'm working. (He asked if I wanted to go as a guest instead and I was like, we both know that there is no way I could come to something here and just not work at this point).

No school supplies were harmed in
the making of this educational tool.

Friday was the last day of Week One of the Mosaic Program at KP. I bought my cooperating teacher a new stapler and got to work. The kids finished reading the play and we did some character analysis which was great because it means that we got our five days worth of work done in four days! (Other schools involved in the program started a few weeks ago and had a full five-day school week when they started, but we, as you know, had Monday off).

Friday was also the official opening night of Flanagan's Wake! It went really well and as I've said, it has the added bonus of less post-show clean up for me!

Yesterday was a two-show day at good old Chicago Theater Works (yup, I'll have been there five days this week!). One performance of TnT and then we flipped the house for Flanagan's. I'd like to say that things could not have gone smoother, but we avoided disaster at the very least!

So Saturday might have been a big day at CTW but today is even bigger with a private performance of TnT at 6:30 tonight and a confirmed 208 people coming. And then tomorrow, it's back to that teacher grind at KP and we do it all again! (Ok, we won't do it all again, we'll be doing new stuff this time).

Peace out, girl scouts! (Actually, if someone could direct me to the nearest girl scouts, I am looking for some cookies...)