Goodbye, Castleton - Hello Roadtrip!

Saying goodbye is always an interesting experience. Some people make you cry, some you'll miss, some you need to miss. And it has been a full bag of it the last couple days here. Some folks I cried when they left (or when I said goodbye when I was leaving), some it was just nice to work with them, some were somewhat peripheral and I didn't know that well, but a couple couldn't actually bring themselves to say anything to me - no "goodbye", no "it was nice knowing you", nothing. Both of whom surprised me with this - one was a coworker that I thought we were at least sort've becoming friends, and the other was one of the big bosses. Oh well, onward and upward. I still haven't heard from Bryn Mawr, so I'm figuring that's not happening and starting out on the roadtrip of a lifetime. Allonsy!

wrapping things up

Wow - it seems like I just got here, and already I'm looking at packing up to leave this week. What a whirlwind - of activity, learning, and emotions. I had an incredible experience this weekend, doing the lighting for the CATS (Castleton Area Training Seminar) vocal recitals, the Jennifer Koh violin recital, and the CATS scenes from various operas. It was full of challenges - the light board gave me the "blue screen of death", but between myself and my colleague, Tristan, we got it up and running again. Several lighting units died and had to have bulbs replaced (thanks again to Tristan and his height, it was done quickly), and I designed the scenes in about an hour, tweaked a bit just before they opened the house, and again on the fly as they performed. It was exciting and exhausting - I am SO glad to have today off! :) I also had an amazing experience at the company party last night, that I have to share with you. I think Maestro was present at all the events this weekend. Both Friday and Saturday several of the CATS commented how much they enjoyed the lighting for the concerts (just stuff on sliders with a couple different areas and color added in for effect). It was really nice to hear, and fun to "design on the fly" again. Then the scenes - I thought I'd be doing the sliders with a couple specials thrown in, but it turned out to be considerably more complicated than that, so I threw together cues based on descriptions, got to see part of the rehearsal to tweak some stuff, had a quick look-through, then tweaked it while they were performing. It was a true "slash-and-burn", not my best work, but I was fairly pleased considering what I was working under - people were visible, it didn't all look the same, and in some cases added some atmosphere. Anyhow - the amazing part of the day. I went to the company party last night, and at one point, Maestro showed up and gave a little speech. A few minutes later, Nancy, the General Manager, grabbed me and brought me to Maestro to introduce me as the lighting person for the shows this weekend. Maestro was effulsive in his praise - words like "intelligent and sensitive" were used. I was gobsmaked and so humbled that he noticed. I thanked Nancy later for that, and she replied, "I had to do it! He was in the hallway raving about it, so I had to have him meet you!" What an amazing way to end the shows and the summer. David (our Technical Director) made me take today off to rest and pack, then I start working on the Theater House tomorrow (had to refocus stuff, remove a couple units for seating, and generally repair and tidy stuff). Still don't know exactly what my next step will be. Still waiting to hear if I am going to PA for an in-person interview, or just heading out on the road to see friends, mom, and this amazing country. Whatever the next step - it will be wonderful.

Getting back to normal

Wow, what a few days this has been! Major-league heat wave, combined with the loss of power. However, approximately 8:45pm this evening, power was restored to the farm. Yeah, it was about an hour after we ran cables from the ginormous generator to the rehearsal hall, but I think we are glad we have it all in place. If we didn't, I'd bet we'd need it! We here at Castleton Festival are proud of the fact that we only missed one show due to power issues (Wolftrap, over in DC and the country's largest opera festival, as far as I know, is still without power - not to "ha ha" them, just being very grateful that we have Maestro Maazel and that he is willing to put his resources behind this project). In fact, they were saying this morning that it could be up to 10 days before DC gets power back... Aside from the obvious, there has also been a fair amount of drama backstage. Not going into details, but suffice to say, everyone here had a good reminder that perception is everything, and people talk. Sadly, one of our crew was sent home after having been warned several times for questionable behavior. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that nothing happened, but as we all tried to tell her, "appearances are everything." Its a shame, too, because she had an amazing opportunity in her hands, and I'm sorry to see her leave. Also, a reminder to folks - if you have tried to text me to make sure I'm okay, please remember that I have NO CELL SERVICE here, and will not be answering you! If you want a response, email or facebook me. Also, I am here for approx 3 more weeks. If you were planning to send a letter or something for my birthday (shameless plug for mail! *grin*), you still have time to send it. :) My mailing address is: Kat Lovell c/o Castleton Festival 7 Castleton Meadows Lane Castleton, VA 22716 I love getting mail - it always totally makes my day (and I haven't had any in ages! hint, hint *grin*) Hope everyone reading this is safe and sound. Oh - and my foot, thankfully, is fine after my little adventure. I have to say, I was not sad to see the Barber set dismantled today...

State of Emergency

For all my life I have heard and seen pictures of natural disasters, and places that the President has declared in a "state of emergency" - I never thought I'd be living in one. To be honest, this is a surreal experience. I am fortunate that my house where I am staying has a really good backup generator, and we are pretty much business as usual, including internet. I can shower, do laundry, and get to sleep with a/c and my ceiling fan. Others are not so fortunate - the "Meadows" house is a small 3rd world country at the moment. Their generator is kaput, so the 30 or so people living there are trying to make the best of a very hot situation (its been in the high 90's the past 3 days with high humidity). Since the power still isn't back on, other houses are starting to take them in, including mine. Which means that we are up to about 10 women and one bathroom. The decision was made to rent a generator from NJ for the festival theater - this thing is HUGE! It took until about 4:30am to get it hooked up, but it is working. We discovered this morning that there are issues with some of the dimmers, that they don't dim - they are either all on or all off. Through tracing this issue, we discovered that the boxes that the local power company set up were not set up the way we thought, and that we had been running power off them slightly incorrectly. We got that issue sorted out - then discovered that we still had the dimmer issue. After more time and testing, we realized it is the computer "brain" of the dimmer boxes, and that both of them need to be replaced by next weekend. I also want to take a moment to talk about my boss, Tlaloc Lopez-Watermann. "T" is the Lighting Director for the festival, and by far the hardest working person I have ever met. He does his best to take care of anything anyone asks of him, whether it is the power grid for the festival, fixing the refrigerator truck at the fire house where we eat meals, or cutting trees and moving them off the roads to make them passable after the storm. He is amazing, and an incredible example to those around him of a positive, can-do attitude. I am truly blessed to be working with T and many other incredible, talented, people. So I'm okay, I have food, a/c, and internet. Hopefully soon the phones will be back up so I can call my mother.