First Day of Orientation

So I'm really, really tired right now and I'm going to go to bed in a minute or two, but I wanted to give the update on the first day of orientation over at FSU.

We got our keys and we met all of the other graduate students. There are twenty of us altogether: 3 MA Theatre Studies, 3 MFA Directing, 4 MFA Theatre Management, 3 MFA Lighting Design, 3 MFA Scenic Design, 3 MFA Costume Design and 1 MFA Technical Production. We all seem to get along really well so far (I'm sure it will be like "Project Runway" in a couple more days, but for now it's very nice.) There are, like seven guys total (maybe six, I can't quite remember exactly), which I think kind of sucks, but that's how it goes in Theatre, I guess.

For lunch today, roommate and I actually ran home and ate lunch there. She's big on saving money, and I'm trying to be big on it too. In terms of lunches, I totally agree with her. There's no reason for me to be buying lunch at some dive on campus when I could run home and eat some of the good food that I've purchased specifically for myself and will actually enjoy.

Orientation is a lot of meetings and discussions of safety so far (mostly kinda boring), but the other MA Students and me met for an hour with our advisor and I loved our meeting and I loved her. I'm totally excited about the program and what it has to offer me.

Most of the lectures that the Dean gave us were things like "We're going to give you tasks that are a little bit too hard for you" and "We want you to have to work really hard" and "This should feel a little painful and uncomfortable" and "If it's easy for you, we aren't doing our jobs correctly." Very encouraging. The whole point of going to grad school is to work hard and stretch, I think.

I'll be taking 3 classes: Dramaturgy I, Research & Bibliography, and something called DocuDrama (which I assume is about work like the Tectonic Theatre Project's work and stuff like The Exonerated and Anna Deavere Smith.) Plus I'll be a TA for the Introduction to Theatre for Non-majors class, too, which should be fun.

The Director of the Theatre Department also told us the first rule of being a Grad Student today: "Don't have sex with the undergrads."