Student Blog: Starting My Second Semester as an Arts Student

This January marked the start of my second semester as a theatre student at Florida State University. In previous blogs, I’ve discussed how much I’ve been enjoying the School of Theatre, and today’s is no different. The only difference is that I feel like I’ve gained my footing a bit more. 

This semester, I’m continuing my pursuit of stage management. After taking the first level of the course last semester, I enrolled in the second level, Advanced Stage Management II. And while I already established my enjoyment of stage management with last semester’s class, this one really cements it for me. Four weeks into the semester (minus one week for an odd week off for snow in Florida), and we’re working on calling shows. After I write this blog, in fact, I need to go practice my first live call of the semester!  

Throughout this class, we’ll be assigned technical sequences from shows and walk-through a paper tech with our professor and T.A. Then as a small assessment grade, we’ll have to live call the sequence the following week. This week, our class did the paper tech for “Confrontation” from Jekyll & Hyde. Needless to say, I’m excited to call those cues.  

On top of this, I’m also taking my first design course and the second level of a technical class I took last semester. Both of these classes are required courses for theatre students at Florida State, but so far, I love them both! 

As a part of my grade for Theatre Technical Practices II, I’m working as a spot operator for FSU’s spring musical, Young Frankenstein. While we haven’t yet introduced the technical elements to the show’s rehearsal process, I’m looking forward to officially be working on my first collegiate production! I start attending rehearsals a week into February, so rest assured I’ll be detailing my experience. 

On top of these three theatre courses, I started pursuing my second minor, Classics. Since I’m pursuing two separate degrees in my undergraduate journey, I’m also pursuing two minors. The first is English under my Media Communication Studies degree, and last semester I made the decision to pursue a Classics minor as well. 

I’m in three courses for that minor this semester – Classical Mythology, Art and Architecture in Ancient Italy, and Gender and Society in Ancient Greece. I’ve been a fan of studying classics for as long as I can remember. While you’d be correct in assuming I loved the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series when I was a kid (I still do), my love for learning about the classics actually started before that with a children’s version of The Odyssey. It was an interesting bedtime story choice, for sure. I then took Art History courses which only furthered my being drawn to the study. 

What’s interesting, however, is that I get to apply my knowledge from my theatre courses into my classics courses. While taking Gender and Society in Ancient Greece, for example, I can use the things I learned last semester in World Theatre History I, citing theatrical pieces like Lysistrata or Hecuba. I love being able to overlap between my different fields of study, and it’s something that I think will continue to develop not only this semester, but over my upcoming final year as a student.