Back to School…

Posted by Oona on September 10, 2008

Sigh…well, it was a lovely summer. Pretty much hands down, one of the best yet. But now, the light is changing (no more sun blaring into my room at 6:30 am), the air is crisp, and almost overnight it’s sweater weather!

Okay, I admit I am a giant nerd and I have always loved going back to school. There’s something about the days getting shorter and colder that energizes me in a way that long, hot days do not. You can’t loll around when you’re cold. Instead you have to scurry and burrow and chatter, activities I confess I enjoy. And so much is happening with BOM! A bunch of new staff, and fall residencies are going to start very soon.

I am always excited when newer Monkeys get to teach for the first time. In my experience, it’s teaching a residency that most effectively brings home the importance and power of BOM’s mission. Seeing kids take pride in their writing AND listen with enjoyment to their classmates’ stories adds a new depth to the fun of adapting and performing. For me, the teaching piece of the creative cycle makes the other components even more fulfilling and satisfying.

Also, the fall always brings a bunch of fun fall/Back-to-School themed stuff, like shoe sales, pumpkin patches, and the TIME OUT STUDENT EDITION ‘08, in which we are one of only seven itinerant companies listed! Thanks, TO! And thanks for publishing such an awesome photo of one of the company’s biggest divas. Check it out after the jump, as Heidi says.

Donnell “You’re lucky I have my good wig on” Williams and companions Dix and Govier.

And for those of you who might not be swinging by campus to pick up your own copy of the Guide, let me just quote a bit for you. Ahem.

“The collective of excellent adult comedians performs That’s Weird, Grandma, an ever-changing program of short works written by Chicago Public School students. Even if most theaters in town weren’t dark on Mondays, the quirky, feel-great night out would still be a sparkling theater alternative.”

...Did you get that? They said we were SPARKLING. Okay, earlier in the blurb they also said we were “scrappy,” but so what? Sparkling! And that reminds me…Fancy Schmancy is just around the corner! So much fall fun. Or, as Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote, it’s “a whirl of gaiety.”

Is it still too early for me to find a pile of leaves to jump in?