Her Campus: Emily Anne Gibson, a sophomore B.H.A. student of History, English, and Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon University, doesn’t sleep. At least, not at regular hours or in regular places during the School of Drama’s Playground, and not in the presence of her roommate, (yours truly). In fact, right before this interview, she burst into the room, said, “I’m back!” and “I’m not sleeping here tonight. I’m leaving around 1:00.” Yes, 1:00a.m.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Playground: The Week BHA Student Emily Anne Gibson Comes out to Play
Her Campus: Emily Anne Gibson, a sophomore B.H.A. student of History, English, and Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon University, doesn’t sleep. At least, not at regular hours or in regular places during the School of Drama’s Playground, and not in the presence of her roommate, (yours truly). In fact, right before this interview, she burst into the room, said, “I’m back!” and “I’m not sleeping here tonight. I’m leaving around 1:00.” Yes, 1:00a.m.
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11 comments:
What an accurately subdued assessment of Playground this is. It is true that the week of Playground Im pretty sure 90% of my friends slept like 4 hours a night (or not at all). Despite the insane lack of sleep, it was the most amazing week of my life. There's no way that anyone can fully prepare you for the tornado that is Playground. As a freshman, I truly had NO idea what that week would entail. Of course, I said yes to everything offered to me but I dont regret. I had the opportunity to assist some truly amazing people and designers and grew to be great friends with them over the short amount of time. I dont believe I could go to any other school and find over 50 pieces designed, produced, and performed in one week. Congratulations Purnell :) Playground 2012 <3
I agree with Sam; this article was a really nice assessment of Playground and would be a great piece to show non-drama students who are curious about just what we do during Playground week. I think it must be very interesting to the rest of the school to see what is going on in our building, but so often I get the feeling that when we are all gathered in the lobby cheering, those on the outside feel alienated or unwelcome. This article points out that while Playground tickets are free, they are hard to get since waiting in line during "school hours" is involved. Playground is a brilliant concept, and I think we should continue looking for ways to open it up to the larger CMU community and let them see what we have going on and even join in the fun.
Oh playground...what a love hate relationship we all have with this week. It really is amazing that people do as much as they do during playground. I only worked on three shows but I felt like I had no time, and the only way that I could see shows was because I got the majority of the pre-sale tickets that I requested. It is interesting that the author says that "normal" people would take the week off and not do anything, but I don't really believe that. Playground is fun, unique and exciting, even though we all love to bitch about the crazy schedules and amount of stuff going on there is still a reason we all do it. I'm sure if the computer science majors had a week off to create whatever projects they wanted too, or Tepper had a week to set up their own businesses they would be excited to do it because it would be on their own terms. I love Playground, it is one of the reasons that I choose CMU. My favorite thing about Playground is that there is no formal critiques, so much of what we do in the drama school is given feedback and critique, which is quite useful and given that we are in school it is also appropriate but it is nice to get to create things where you have no feedback, it is also more realistic.
I think that I have to agree with the three comments above. Playground works in many different ways, it really depends on who you are and what you were dragged into. For me, there was a quiet before the storm and after that the storm raged on until Saturday night. I think that everyone appreciates what playground does for drama, it is just getting that work done that can make us loose sight of the incredible finish to these shows and installations. I don't think that the article really portrayed the hectic effect that playground has on people. It is something that you either need to witness or experience. But to be honest, it is a tall order to be able to accurately write about playground.
The only one true unfortunate quality of playground is how the other schools within Carnegie Mellon are a bit cut off from this yearly bit of brilliance. I had to grab tickets for my non-drama major friends and get them into the building on time. It wasn't like they didn't want to see these shows, I guess they didn't know what to expect or how to go about choosing a show and following through. Playground should be made a little bit more accessible to the rest of CMU.
Playground was one of the most amazing events I have ever had the honor of participating in. As the article points out, it says something remarkable about our school that in one of the rare weeks we have no classes we choose to throw ourselves into even more time-consuming rehearsals and performances instead of taking a break. I managed to see about half of the performances, and was amazed by at least some aspect of each one. I do wish that I done more things outside of my area of expertise. In future years I will certainly try harder to sing, act, and in general step outside of the comfortable world of sound design.
this is a great perception of what madness everyone goes through in playground. by thursday i had received a call in the morning from a friend on my floor in donner asking if i was alive because no one had seen me in a week. Playground was very tiring and stressful and a truly incredible experience. I can't express how thankful and blown away I am for going to a school that cuts classes for a week just to put on independent works. I personally had a very sentimental emotional experience. Getting to design and help direct a piece with my best friend Lachlan Mckinney for the first time since we both graduated high school almost almost 3 years ago now. Everyone in playground did a fantastic job and there were some truly magnificent pieces of work.
This year was my first experience participating in Playground, and I couldn't have asked for a better week. This is a completely accurate depiction of Playground, but I don't think it can be put into words how encapsulating the craziness is in Purnell for that period of time. I like this article because it offers the perspective of a non-School of Drama student, but the feeling of being a Playground participant is just the same. No one is defined by their major, no one has a label. It's just one big cornucopia of art and creative talent, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
It is cool that Playground is as amazing to us as it is, and those on the outside looking in are just as captivated by it. I feel like this is a very well put together article that captivates not only the essence of playground and its magic but the hard work behind it. I never imagined Playground being hard to understand, as it would be for a non theatrical major - but this seems to really explain it simply and thoroughly. This article is also positive advertising for the department and festival, it is always good to see our name being spread around in a positive light.
I'm glad to see that Si (and her roommate) are getting the word out there about Playground! I have a small handful of friends that were able to come to some shows in the Chosky- and they raved about all of them. One thing we should try to do in general, as a school, is invite more people into our building. Playground is a special case because tickets are so limited for the Rauh and Wells shows. The rest of the year, though, we should really be inviting people in and advertising more! I know a great deal of other CMU students that will come to a show once a semester or so and will be so excited about it! I think we can really get people talking and form a better bond with the rest of the university community if people have the knowledge of and the opportunity to see more of our work.
I am glad that they are writing about playground. Last year I was not a part of the school of drama and the only reason I had even a vague idea that playground was even happening. This year even when I told my friends about playground it took a bit of convincing to convince them that it was not just for people in the school of drama. I feel that Playground should be better advertised and should bring in more people from outside the department.
I found this article to be a good look at what playground week is. I can identify with almost everything said and can confirm that it is a crazy week of little sleep! I was surprised that so many people can keep going for so long on such little sleep, but I guess the few all-nighters we pull during the year are good practice for a week of playground. Overall, I had a great experience this year, and I can't wait until Playground 2013.
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