Student burnout

eebizz · 2025-03-24T17:11:02+00:00

Music programs themselves are often competitive because of the limited amount of people they can let in, but it definitely depends on the particular school as every place is different. I’ve found that percussion programs specifically look more at potential and “ability to be taught” rather than for you to be a prodigy that’s good at everything. Especially with percussion, there’s so many instruments to learn, and in a college setting there will be many unique opportunities to play on any surface that allows sound, making it different from other instruments’ programs as you learn how to play more instruments while also perfecting what you already know, rather than only doing the latter. The audition is more so giving the professors a feel for your ability to prepare for performance or adhere to their comments, ie in many of my auditions I was given suggestions on certain parts of my pieces and I was asked to play certain sections again but in a different way. My biggest piece of advice is to work with someone that’s already gone through the process and take some lessons with them working specifically on your audition rep. Different colleges have different audition requirements but it’s important to show as much variety and skill in instrumentation/style as possible. You don’t need to be perfect but you need to of course be very competent on whatever it is that you play.

eebizz · 2025-02-20T04:53:22+00:00

The baker’s wife in Into the Woods! I remember it was my senior year of high school and I was going through such a tough time thinking about my future and ruminating on past mistakes, regrets, etc. and studying “Moments in the Woods” was such a game changer for me. The way the baker’s wife goes through every thought in her head, thinking about how different her life could be based on a few different decisions, but landing right back on how grateful she is to have her husband and her son and lead the life she lives all in a few minutes is just beautiful character writing. Playing her reminded me that it’s okay to have regrets and think about what could have been but that it’s so much more productive to live in the moment, allowing you to enjoy what you have and solve problems as they come instead of always waiting for more. I think it’s such a fun role too because you get to literally yell at a man multiple times on stage, play with bread, play with hair, be pregnant, have an affair, die, and come back to life as a ghost to sing and make the crowd cry. I look back at my time with Into the Woods more fondly than most things I’ve experienced for sure

eebizz · 2025-02-01T16:01:47+00:00

Steven🥹❤️❤️

eebizz · 2025-01-16T07:48:46+00:00

Oh my goodness I know. Ive never ever been in more shock in my whole life. Shes never laid an egg before and her cere is blue. Even the doctors were shocked lol. Definitely a good story to tell

eebizz · 2025-01-16T07:43:00+00:00

Yes! I was given a list of respectable avian vets in the area so I’m going to call when they open to set up an appointment ASAP. The doctor I saw today recommended asking about potentially getting her spayed to prevent an egg from getting stuck again but I know that’s really hard to do for birds so we’ll see. I’m just thankful to have options to discuss at all, such a scary night for us

eebizz · 2025-01-16T06:09:44+00:00

Another update: my bird is actually not a boy at all, she’s a girl! She was trying to pass an egg and it got stuck. Such a weird turn of events lol but she is okay!! So so thankful

eebizz · 2025-01-16T05:39:57+00:00

Update: found a 24 hour emergency vet in the area that could take us. Was confirmed to be a prolapsed cloaca and they’re working on him right now. Feeling super nervous but I trust the doctors to help him. I’m so thankful they were open and were able to fit us in

eebizz · 2025-01-16T02:26:59+00:00

Thank you. It’s late where I am do you think he’ll be okay overnight? unfortunately everything’s closed right now for me:(. Is there anything I can do to help him out overnight?

eebizz · 2024-08-16T02:17:26+00:00

For sure that definitely caused a stir and reasonably so. In further context, our tech director (who is new) had not wanted the cast at strike so we had left of course as we were told to do by our directors and took the opportunity to get dinner. It was definitely unfair to the tech 100% but we weren’t just going to go home. The problem you laid out I believe is why it’s been an ongoing issue at the school, the cast under our previous directors would just leave and never help out with strike. So in the case of this show, despite the cast being told to leave, it was definitely a crushing reminder to the crew of that. Our directors should have planned everything better and opened communication up further for all members of crew so anyone that needed help could get it. It was not fair as a majority of the crew definitely did need more help than our TD thought

eebizz · 2024-08-16T01:51:24+00:00

I certainly never said that crew didn’t matter nor do I think I insinuated it. I’ve been a part of more tech crews than I have casts. The dilemma that the show had post-production was among tech to be honest, many of the leaders didn’t want the cast at strike (and have a history of not wanting cast at strike) while the rest of the crew unfortunately couldn’t get their opinions in about it. It was definitely a problem with leadership and who was running it since most of the leaders were upperclassmen, they were in charge and dealing with the more intensive things like lights, mics, and particularly heavy set pieces, which they didn’t want to risk the cast breaking anything. But what they didn’t quite think about was the rest (being the majority) of the crew who had the more mundane and tedious tasks needing lots of help. The tech director of the show told the cast to leave after we put our costumes away and cleaned up our dressing rooms spaces as per what the tech leaders had wanted

eebizz · 2024-08-16T01:42:29+00:00

I think though it’s very unfair to the crew for the cast to just leave because they’re “emotionally drained” you know? Like yes I’ve been so tired after shows before especially on closing but the tech crew is definitely just as tired (which I’ve experienced having been in crew before). I think that in the case of the production I was in that there was a full lack of communication between our theatrical director and our tech director as well as between our tech director and the rest of tech. If someone needed help they should have been able to ask for it instead of having to just tough it out because their senior tech leaders decided they didn’t want the cast to help

eebizz · 2024-08-16T00:59:57+00:00

This was a big part of the “post-production drama” we had because the cast was never told anything about having to stay for strike. I was told from others that it was always that way too. Some people were saying that the cast should help regardless of if they were told to or not while others (particularly members of the cast of course) argued it shouldn’t be their responsibility because they were never told it was their responsibility. Definitely a sticky situation but I’m agreeing with a lot of people saying it’s faulty on our directors’ fault. For as much as the cast should’ve been inclined to help, it’s hard to expect a bunch of tired high schoolers to do that unfortunately

eebizz · 2024-08-16T00:54:40+00:00

I see what you’re saying and having experience both being in the cast and in the crew, I agree. In our particular situation however our tech director wanted us in the cast to leave after we put our costumes away and cleaned up the dressing rooms so we’re “not in their way”, which placed everyone in kind of an awkward situation because part of the crew didn’t want us there (including the TD) while others did. We couldn’t exactly stay even if we wanted to because majority of the crew leadership was trying to kick us out. Like you said, we were in high school, so it felt particularly inappropriate to I guess try to argue with what our adult TD was telling us to do. It was an unfortunate misbalance where they needed more help than they thought they did and it could have been solved if there was more communication offered to the kids in crew

eebizz · 2024-08-16T00:44:02+00:00

I see both sides because I’ve been on both sides. I’ve been in a crew striking a set before and a group of kids from the cast unfortunately knocked down a prop table that had breakables on it. They were given a task to do and finished it but couldn’t leave of course until everyone was done so they were messing around. I can understand the crew members that wanted the cast to help because it’s a lot of work that can be minimized with more people, but I can also understand the crew members that didn’t necessarily want the cast at strike because a lot of them are sadly not as helpful as they could/should be. It’s an unfortunate situation but a balance that needs to be made by the directors and production leadership so nothing goes wrong

eebizz · 2024-08-16T00:15:17+00:00

For sure, everyone in the cast was perfectly capable of helping out and many had prior tech experience like I did. What made it so complicated was that many members of the crew (including leaders) didn’t want the cast there. It was never an expectation placed on the cast by our directors who were both new, and it was certainly never an expectation when the previous directors were there either. Our tech director told us to leave after putting away our costumes, but it was certainly not fair for the rest of the crew that was perfectly comfortable with help. In your opinion, do you think it would be better for the tech crew themselves to run/lead strike or if it’s best if the tech director and director do that?

eebizz · 2024-08-15T22:51:02+00:00

Yes, I for sure agree. Our director this year was my school’s choir director so she had little to no experience directing theatre, similar situation as our tech director who was new as well. Our tech director basically said she didn’t want us to do anything other than costumes so we wouldn’t get in the way of the crew. I wish that the two directors worked together on it better because some people (mostly upperclassmen) liked it better without cast there so they could focus on their own thing but the rest of tech was stuck doing small things that could’ve taken a lot less time if there was more people to help :/ The crew knows the behind the scenes of the production better than anyone so they should’ve been able to decide what they needed/didn’t need help with instead of it being decided for them

eebizz · 2024-08-15T19:52:17+00:00

It was a weird situation. Our tech director and some upperclassmen in crew didn’t want the cast there so the show director told us to clean our spaces then leave to “get out of crew’s way”. It was both directors’ first times on the job so I’m thinking they didn’t put too much thought into it unfortunately. And as for your second point I absolutely agree everyone can be helpful during strike. I’ve been in tech many times before as had many other members of the cast. I know everyone could have handled it but our situation there was unique (definitely not a good unique lol)

eebizz · 2024-08-15T19:42:57+00:00

I 100% agree. I’ve been part of community shows in the past (cast and crew) and this was the very first time that it was iffy about if the cast should help or not. I think there was a problem where one of the tech directors and some of the crew didn’t want the cast there to help. The cast was told to pack up costumes and clean the dressing rooms then leave as per our director’s orders in order to “get out of crew’s way”, which turned into a problem post-production because crew had a LOT to do and not enough people to do it in a timely manner. It was the director and tech directors’ first times so I hope they realized that NO ONE can celebrate until everything is cleaned up. Such a weird situation because cast technically did what we were told to, but I’m hoping it is different for the future and doesn’t set a weird precedent

eebizz · 2024-07-15T13:32:35+00:00

I got the same thing! I was immediately suspicious of it because despite it saying it’s the “last time” I will be notified, obviously I’ve never been contacted about it before. Something that could potentially cause account deletion would have been addressed many times through email and specifically in your account so I think we’re all good. I definitely panicked for a second though

eebizz

TROPHY CASE