Renee ( center) choreogrpahed a whole peanuts dance this year. She's been choreographing and casting Armelle ( in the blue) and myself for the past three years. When she graduates though it is not just her dances that are going to be missed!

Another one of my friend's Hitomi looking radiant in another one of my friend Liz's dance. Rose petals fell like rain at the end of the piece

Yet another one of my buddies Simone grapples with inner demons in a dance she both choreographed and danced in!

Waiting backstage to go on to perform a fusion of dance and American Sign Language as choreographed by my friend Shelbie

Yoav Kaddar our dance Professor/ Fresh Dance organizer extrodinare busts a move with his wife in a spectacular dance. How the college failed to give him tenure I'll never quite understand. This year will be Yoav's las year with the college.

Thanks for reading!

Gianna

http://rimlightdesign.com/CAS/dining.html

I had class in the morning, so I hung out in the library for a little bit before coming back to my apartment. The library has these grand floor to ceiling windows with study cubbies/ chairs by them. Its one of my favorite things to do on snow days to go and sit in one of those study cubbies/ chairs and read. I pick a book on a whim and sit there and read the whole book and enjoy the snow. I’ve been into reading art books for some reason recently. I read a book on Marc Chagall. His work is just so whimsical  and tender  really inspiring. It takes me twelve minutes when the weather is fair to walk from the library to my apartment in the heart of the village. I enjoyed the walk in the snow. Some students made an igloo!  Other students were snow boarding by the peace the park next to village hall. In the snow it took me a little longer to get back, but when I did my apartment was nice and cozy and my roomies and I bummed around because Fresh Dance tech was canceled. We watched movies, and cooked. Day one we watched The Spanish Apartment, Sunset Boulevard, and Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut. My roomie Kristin made cookies, and I made Potato soup. It was so nice to just be a bum, because normally my life is on fast forward.

It was still snowing when I went to bed and then it happened, what I thought was my alarm telling me to get up for class was actually the New Paltz weather alert system that both calls and texts you to alert you if classes have been canceled!!!!!!!! I hit not the snooze button but turn-off alarm button.  SNOW DAY PART TWO!!!!!

We bummed around for most of the morning, my friend Jackie who also dates one of my roomies, and I made French Toast together. French Toast is a very good snow day food. We watched the movie Roman Holiday. And then I began to get restless. The Loop bus which provides students with transportation around campus and town for free if you have a SUNY id was actually still running! Kristin and I decided to go grocery shopping ( down side to living off campus- no more free toilet paper) and we picked up some supplies to make Key Lime Pie. It was so pretty out I decided to take a walk around town for a while. I’ll post pictures some time this week.

Came back attempted to make key lime pie it came out okay- meringue is really hard to make. Must try it again some time! Brought the pie along with board games over to another friend’s apartment, where a bunch of my friends had gathered. We played board games for hours. And laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed till it stopped snowing.

Thanks for reading,

Gianna

The play meanders fantastically through hard questions faced by any one who goes to the city after college to try and make it. When do you give up? How do you deal with that if you do? Why are we drawn as people to this place where we can’t even afford to have our own sink but instead put the dishes in the tub? And even deeper questions of love and belonging.  There are plenty of  plays written about the post grad school twenty somethings in their floating years, but none of them have the sort of poignancy and honesty that this play has take that Neil Labute,. there is something some what more universal and appealing about Keith Bunin’s play- or maybe I’m just biased cause I worked on it?

My friend Renee and I co-sound designed the show! It was an awesome, awesome, awesome experience. She is so sound savy and brilliant- I learned sooo much from her!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sound designing is sort of like making a mix tape but on crack-  it was a truly enjoyable experience that I wouldn’t be against doing again at all! And what’s more I was also the sound board operator for the show. Normally I am very wary of anything outside the realm of onstage and wardrobe, but Renee really pushed and encouraged me to do it. And I’m so happy I did! Technology is not as scary as you think it is. Plus I got to wear a really cool headset that made me feel really official and professional.

Congrats to the cast and crew of Credeaux!!!!!!

With that I leave you with one of the songs from the sound design

For Emma Forever Ago

Thanks for reading,

Gi

Hey,

It’s no problem at all. My first question to you is are you a design/tech concentration or performance concentration?  People have gone on to do a great many number of things with a BA degree from New Paltz. Before I go into that though, its sort of important you understand is that this program is NOT a conservatory so if you are looking for something really intense and concentrated then honestly this isn’t the place for you. What I can say for New Paltz theatre program is you will get a great background in a little bit of everything and your output will match your input, there are plenty of opportunities to tailor the program to your needs a performer and make it more intensive. The Design Tech program here is amazing. Every student who applies to grad school in the design tech area from new paltz has gotten in and on scholarship. They have gone on to work backstage on Broadway to all the way out west, as well working in regional theaters across the country. Acting wise my favorite success story though is a group of students who formed their own theatre company and took it to off broadway on theatre row check them out at http://www.theclockworktheatre.org/

What I can tell you about internships is many of the Professors specifically in the design tech area are incredibly connected. One of my apartmentmates got a summer internship working for glimmerglass opera house, another one of my friends worked at the Adirondack theatre festival, another at Dorset Theatre in Vermont. One of the costume Professors Andrea Varga just designed costumes for a dance showing in NYC over winter break and took my apartmentmate and one of my friends as wardrobe crew with her.  There are plenty of opportunities for internships.

Its pretty easy to get into the city actually, there is a trailways bus station that is an easy walk from campus. I’m from Westchester and get myself home using something called the link bus which connects campus to the Poughkeepsie train station, which hosts the Hudson line which can take you into grand central. The bus is about an hour and 45 minutes to two hours depending on traffic.

In terms of the area itself small town rural is how I would  describe it. IT IS SMALL!!! So if you are looking for a city this is not the place for you. Honestly though, when I was applying for colleges I thought I only wanted to be in the city rural was the last thing I wanted, but I visited it and fell in love with the town and the people in the theatre department. It was like a family. New Paltz sits right under the   Shawangunk ridge, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawangunk_Ridge, and there are places I’ve been on it that are like some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. There are lots of apple farms too and in October they do an applefest. New Paltz is also home to the oldest street in America with the original houses still standing on it called Huguenot street which is pretty cool too! http://www.huguenotstreet.org/ Actually one of my friends works there as a reenacter/ tour guide. The town itself is a sort of a blast from the past circa 1968.

I’m a vegetarian and I have no problems eating here, in the dorms it was okay to pretty good, but town is very much Vegan friendly. Pretty much all the restaurants have Vegan options. And one of my favorite places to go eat is an organic  Vegan/ vegetarian Deli called Karma Road http://www.karmaroad.net/

It would be impossible for me to tell you what the people are like in New Paltz everyone is different, but what I can tell you about the Theatre Department is that it is like a big crazy family that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

If you ever want to come visit New Paltz and specifically the theatre department feel free to e-mail me gcioffi78@newpaltz.edu or set up an appointment with some one in the department.

I hope this helps!!!!!! Happy college searching

- Gianna

Thumbs up for Yanni’s

Pat and I road tripped up and back to New Hampshire and took a pit stop in Lowell Massachusetts where author Jack Kerouac was born!

A great time was had by all and here are some videos I took while we were there.

highest turnpike elevation

Kerouac road trip

ACTF Vlog

So I’m back in New Paltz after a refreshing break at home and now I’m back for some theatre stuff.  However, I don’t really want to blog about home or about New Paltz today. New Paltz is a wonderful little bubble of safety and warmth but its just that little. There is a whole great big world out there aside from New Paltz, the whole world is not as blessed to have running water,  a roof over our heads ( bedbugs, roaches, and whatever other vermin is out there are such a tiny problem when you think about it), and although our health care system is not perfect we are on the road to making sure all people have this basic human right. I have never gone to bed hungry in my entire life. Sometimes I just don’t understand things…  Its the 1 year anniversary of Obama in office. I cried because of the news last year too, but it was for such a different reason…

Haiti

How and why? Natural disasters are bad enough, but then to slam that on top of a country so poor why? What is the sense? Where is justice?  Why must some people suffer more than others?

How does the holocaust happen? How does poverty and hunger happen? How does Darfur happen? How did the crusades happen? Why does the middle east continue to blow itself to bits? Why are we apathetic?

Why am I so lucky? How do you find your way in the world? How do you balance the joy of life with the suffering of those around you? How do you give back? When are you doing enough and when is it okay to say I can’t? How can the world be both so beautiful and terrible at the same time?

College is supposed to prepare you to face the world-  but the truth is the world doesn’t  wait for you to finish college for you to face it. You can’t  pretend like its not going on, I guess you just have to do the best you can.

https://secure.oxfamamerica.org/site/Donation2?3560.donation=form1&df_id=3560

Trudging from the library to my apartment this fantastic art instillation was right out front. Mega kudos to whoever created it. It truly brightened my day. Photo credit to my friend Jennifer.

Here is a poem that it reminded me of:

http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/flowers_in_winter.html

Surviving on peanut butter, lipton spring vegetable soup,  hard rolls and of course tums.  What would any finals week be with out your favorite antacids? huh? Huh?

I’ll write a real post when I’m a human being again.

Good Luck to everyone on their finals!