Student Blogger: Allie Beckerman

ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME ends with the Little Girl in the show being told to 'tell me a story'. I think one of the most incredible gifts I've gotten from ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME is my story. A story of a summer that I never expected. A story of a summer that I will remember forever. 

I’m a horrible theater kid. One year into college and I haven’t even taken a theater class yet.

It’ll be nice to take a class merely because I’m interested in the topic, something which can often be overlooked while choosing college courses.

It was really cool to see all these ancient theaters, and all the history of Ancient Rome. We toured the Colosseum, which is technically a theater as well! It’s an elliptical amphitheater in the center of Rome, and it’s the largest standing amphitheater in the world.

One of my favorite memories over the pandemic was spending Saturday nights in my backyard with my friends. We set up a projector and made our way through the Starkid musicals, and a few years later, I'm still recommending them to other friends. 

It starts small. It always does. You’ve been hit by the theater bug.

So, I sat down in my usual seat, the teacher took attendance, and then asked everyone who knew what Chat GPT was to raise their hand. Every hand flew up.

Broadway shows are expensive, and here are a few ways I try and keep the cost down.

The next thing I know, it's an hour later and all I've accomplished is TikTok asking me if I want to snooze because I've been online for 30 minutes.

I don’t know much about the process of creating a new musical, but I imagine the fundamentals are similar to writing a book (only with music). The creator/author writes a draft, edits the draft, edits more, and then goes in search of someone who can help bring their words/music to life.

One viral TikTok video (and hours and hours of work) later, my cosplay was ready! Was it an exact copy of Katherine Howard’s costume? Most definitely not, but it was in a style that I was more comfortable wearing.

In my Notes app, I plan out my weekly schedule, marking down which assignments are due when, any meals that I’m getting with friends, and any other important upcoming events. Each day, I sit down and create a list for that specific day, outlining both immediate goals and projects that might not be due for a while.

I took a trip down to the costume shop today to begin working on my costume for “Get Down”. I love the director’s vision for the number, which is to create costumes inspired by each character, but in the style of the performer. We don’t have to create our own, but as an amateur costume designer and cosplayer, I jumped at the chance.

In musicals, when something is going wrong, you sing a song. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a crowded lawn full of students, and in real life, people don’t really burst into random song and dance. Fortunately, I was in the middle of a crowded lawn full of students, and one of them was able to direct me to my university writing seminar.