Penultimate

Okay, dear readers, the end is upon us!  By that, of course, I mean the end of my first year of grad school!  Next week is finals and a week from today I will be frantically packing to go to London (I leave the following Monday)!  My mantra right now is: Just keep working. Just keep working. London! London! London!  Ben's is similar, but he has four weeks left in school.

With the end of the year comes exciting (and some not so exciting) annual events.  Last week (I knew I was forgetting something in last week's post...) the MFAs and BFA seniors had a portfolio review.  We first years weren't required to present a finished portfolio, just whatever portfolio we had coming into school and a stack of things we've done throughout the year.  We met individually with the tech/design professors during the day to present our work and talk about our progress.  At 5:30 there was a reception open to the public.

Left: You may recognize the booklets in the back from my URTA presentation last year.  This picture is kind of a tease because you can't actually see much of the renderrings... apologies!

Right: The dresses I made!

 Some close-ups of my 20-inch renderings.

Left: Edward Gorey inspired renderings

Right: Late 18th century costumes.

The MFAs!

This Friday was Drama Prom (not Drama Proma, much to Ben's chagrin).  It was... a lovely evening during which we got dressed up and had some good food.  To be honest, the event was mostly geared towards the BFAs and they were way more into it than any of the MFAs were.  Not to mention that Pepperdine University's Theatre Department had a KILLER banquet each year, so I'm a tough critic (it's also possible that I just need to get over myself...)  But it was fun to see so many people dressed up.

Prom pictures!!!  This is also the first appearance of Benolds in the blog... see what I mean?!  And when they both have beards... whatch out!

The best part of the evening was the dramatic romance novel reading done by our costume professor and mentor, Linda.  Let me explain... Linda 1. is awesome, 2. is really well read and spoken, 3. is an amazing designer, 4. reads romance novels almost non-stop providing us with some great out-loud readings, and 5. writes some of her own.  Each year the Theatre Department's Student Activity Board holds an auction to raise money and this year an item on the docket was a reading of a romance novel excerpt custom written by Linda for the winner.  It was also to be read at Drama Prom.  Yay for us!

Benolds audaciously asked if they could go bowling while the long awards ceremony commenced and we informed them that firstly, no way could they bowl while we had to sit through the long list of awards; and secondly, Linda was on the program to read so it would be worth their while.  The verdict:  completely worth staying!

Ben kept track of where we were in the program - note his marks of exclamation next to Linda's reading.

Finally, yesterday evening Katie and Jeff hosted an end of the year cook-out at Jeff's house.  We were unfortunately rained in so it became a ... cook-in?  Regardless, it was a great final gathering with wonderful company, delicious food, and less noise (BFAs are loud).