the highlight of this week, by far, was the return of lucy schaufer to our stagecraft class. i have the biggest girl crush on her, but then i defy any self-respecting straight girl to not develop one upon meeting her. (‘you can’t be gay for one person! unless you’re a lady, and you meet ellen.’ ah, 30 rock, you give me a quote for every occasion.)
in any case, her classes are the kind that make you feel like you know absolutely fuck all about your craft, but also elated that there’s someone who can HELP you at the same time. which is a bit confusing, since she’s only with us for 3 weeks, and the class sizes are huge this term.
yeah, speaking of which – isn’t it a liiiiiitle bit fishy that the year my institution is having a funding shortage, the vocal department takes on a whole load of full fee-paying US postgrad students? funny, that. seriously, class sizes have TRIPLED since last year, and it’s making it really hard to get any performance time in classes because there’s a waiting list as long as your arm. in addition, they seem to have this high-school-clique-y superior attitude in classes, and i often feel like they’re watching and judging me when i perform. it wasn’t like that last year – we had a definite atmosphere of support, and the class sizes were markedly smaller so it was much more of a family atmosphere. i miss it :(
mighty mouse remarked the other day that i was the queen of whinging, and i totally agreed with him. as i told dirty harry yesterday evening, i haven’t had a good start to the term; it’s been a rollercoaster of departmental politics and financial strain. things seem to be evening out now, though, and i’m hoping my mood will pick up. i told myself that this year i would try to get some instrumentalists in on some chamber work. am going to get onto that. :)
