Let's face it- as fun and exciting as college can be, campuses are a bit of a cesspool for germs! With winter rearing its head and temperatures dropping, it's important to think about maintaining your health! If you happen to be a performer, your body is your instrument, and keeping germs and sickness away is something that should always be on your brain.

This past week I got to experience my second film festival at SCAD. Being a dramatic writing major, screenwriting and playwriting, it is hugely important to me to get to not only see these incredible films that I may not get a chance to ever see in a theater or even on DVD but to get to hear from the honored guests about their creative journeys and their advice to upcoming actors, writers, directors, and more.

I am not a morning person. When I told my best friend that I would be taking an 8am acting course this quarter, I remember him laughing in my face. The thought of me getting up early to go to class is pretty comical. I thought I'd despise 8ams way more than I actually do. There's something kind of great about an 8am course that I couldn't quite put my finger on until now: I'm just too tired to care.

Tech week has begun at the University of California, Riverside! If you've worked on a production, you may be familiar with the term 'tech week'. Tech week is when rehearsals are usually extended a couple of extra hours per night and it's extremely grueling, but it's also when you get to see all production elements come together off paper for the first time.

Within our theatre department at Ithaca College, we have five majors: BFA Musical Theatre, BFA Acting, BFA Theatre Production & Design, BS Theatre Arts Management, and BA Theatre Studies, or the 'BATS.' To some people, Theatre Studies is the catch-all major, where those who do 'everything else' go. While it's not entirely untrue that playwrights, stage managers, directors, and dramaturgs end up as BATS, I like to think of it as the major for multi-hyphenates.

This tech week is a rough one. Now, I know that no tech is a walk in the park, but trying to manage a particularly rough spot with my own mental health and to be fully present and active as a member of a creative team doesn't make things any easier.

If you're a college freshman, or a transfer student like me, who has finally made the big (and seemingly scary!) decision to move away from home to study theatre in college, CONGRATULATIONS! It is an exciting journey with lots of navigating to be discovered and in the long run, definitely helps you to find your own individuality.

College has taught me the importance of being gentle with yourself, and I am still learning just how crucial this is. Northwestern University, as well as numerous other Universities/Colleges in the world demand much out of not only its students, but its faculty, and pushes us to places we've never been before. College contributes to our lives our highest highs and our lowest lows, and can create heartaches and headaches as we strive to be the best version of ourselves.

UC Irvine's drama department has this fun little policy that if you're absent twice, your grade drops a?" of a letter grade and two tardies count as one absence. You're officially tardy the second the clock strikes the hour. For me, the graduate student teaching my acting course takes roll at 7:59am. I'm usually ridiculously early to everything, but even I scoffed at this policy. You're late if you are in the classroom at 8:00am? According to the person who determines my final grade: absolutely.

Last Friday, I got to attend my first ever production of The Rocky Horror Show and I'm so appreciative that shows like this exist. It wasn't a shadow cast production, which means a cast performs in front of a screen showing the movie and the audience can have props that interact with the cast. It was a live production with set pieces and hilarious callbacks from the audience whenever the cast members would say certain lines.

So, you've decided to double major? Or from the fact you opened up this article, you're considering it at the very least...(unless you're my parents, but that's an exclusive exception. They're morally obligated to read it). However, regardless of how you stumbled upon this article, I hope it is of some benefit. As a double major, I've noticed there's a lot of wide-eyed stigma around it. I'm here to break down the fears, misconceptions, and expectations associated with it.

We all love the big hits of our favorite musicals. There's nothing like belting out 'Defying Gravity' or 'So Much Better' when you're driving alone, but there's so many songs that get overshadowed by the popular ones. I made a list of 10 amazing songs that need to be appreciated more!

A few weeks ago I saw The Lightning Thief. Usually when a show opens, I don't read the reviews. But in this case I decided to read the first one I saw. And by the end I had very clearly reminded myself why I never read reviews. This show's reviews are just one part of a wider problem: the field of theater criticism as a whole. We need to completely revamp the way that theater is reviewed and the way that theater reviews can bring down a show.

I've done lots of shows and been a part of many casts throughout my life, and one of my favorite parts of any production process is bonding with my castmates. There's nothing like the camaraderie of working with your peers to create a piece of art that you're all proud of. However, especially in college, many shows don't have a super long production process, and this can make it hard to get close to your cast and make friends. It's not impossible, though!

It wouldn't be as accurate to say that I found dramaturgy as it would to say that I jumped in headfirst and never quite came up for air. After a colorful Introduction to Theatre professor ended what may have been our second or third class by asking plainly for a production dramaturg, I raised my hand, and I feel sometimes as though it's still in the air four years later.

Last week the book 'Me' was released by the legend Elton John and it got me thinking about Elton's contribution to musical theatre. His music and his generous personality have touched millions. His musical fantasy movie Rocketman, that came out earlier this year, based on his life is one of the greatest, in my opinion, films ever made. He has such a passion and love for everything he does and what he has given the magical world of musical theatre is just as extraordinary.

The next time I register for classes will be the last time I register for classes below senior-standing. That is a very scary thing to think about. Since I started college, I've heard time and time again how my major isn't practical, how I should be focusing on something in Math or Science (two areas of academia I struggle in profusely, by the way), and how I'm never going to make money doing theatre and writing. Naturally, this makes approaching graduation a scary feat.

For the past few years I've been infatuated with the concept of 24 and 48-hour play festivals and last month I finally had the opportunity to participate in one as a playwright! My school, Marymount Manhattan College, hosted the event over 2 complete says with student writers, actors, and directors. Playwrights had a total of 24-hours to write a complete short play and directors/actors had the following day to then take that play, get it on its feet, and perform it to an audience.

My To Kill a Mockingbird process is moving along, and this week I wanted to talk about how hang and circuit went! To recap, hang is when we look at the plot and hang units in their positions according to what the plot says. Circuit is when we plug the units into the breakouts (recap: a breakout contains multiple different circuits and either hang over the stage or lay in the catwalks) based on what breakouts are near the units, and according to the breakout groupings.

There are many challenges when adapting a source material for the stage, even more so when your source material is an animated TV show about anthropomorphic animals. This was the challenge facing my college's Theatre Department this fall after we were commissioned to do the first live stage adaptation of the acclaimed Netflix original series BoJack Horseman.

My name is Tayler and I'm a fourth year Theatre, Film and Digital Production major with a minor in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside. I transferred to UCR last fall as a Media and Cultural Studies major. I had theatre experience in various positions from high school, but always thought it would be a fun hobby. I never considered studying theatre or making a career out of it.

Whether you came into college with someone you know or let your university work their roommate matchmaker magic, odds are you are living amongst people with a lifestyle and interests similar to your own. Going into my third year of college, I opted for a random roommate in an on-campus apartment. When I got my roommate assignment, I stared in total disbelief at my computer screen: my 'random roomie' was my good friend Kate.

It's midterms week at my first quarter of my senior year and I find myself reminiscing on my past three years. SCAD is very much a take it or leave it school. What I mean by that is SCAD has lots of events and extra opportunities to get more experience in your chosen field and hear from industry professionals. You can either take these opportunities and get the most out of your time at school or you can choose to not do any extra activities (and to be frank, miss out on some awesome things).

College can be extremely stressful sometimes, especially after midterms, which I just experienced last week. However, there are many ways to destress and unwind due to the pressure and trials of school and watching musical films are a perfect way to do just that and what better time of the year to do that than around Halloween time? There are so many amazing Halloween and horror films and surprisingly there are also a lot of horror musicals that are simply fantastic.

Living in one of the most expensive cities in the United States as a stereotypically broke college student sounds like a financial disaster on paper. Especially when you're like me and have zero economic impulse control. As the internet youths would say, '[My money] is here for a good time. Not a long time.' And living just steps from some of the most iconic Broadway theatres and productions doesn't help my case much either.