Spring Break Assignment

Look around--no school to distract you--what do you see?

Anything?

Most teenagers, strike that, most people, rarely see anything new in their day-to-day lives. After a while everything blurs together into an amorphous blob called "My Life." Nothing distinctive, nothing surprising, nothing new to see...or experience. Such people think of their own lives as "boring." And why wouldn't they? It's all a greige (grey + beige) blur. Bland. Dull.

So...

You've got a week away from your "normal" life. Why not try something, anything, new.

Open your eyes...what do you see?

Are you ready for this?

Who's taking a Drama class next year?

I want to know: who's taking Drama next year?

State your name, next year grade, and which class you've signed up for. Also...tell me what you're looking forward to next year. This is your chance to help create the class you'll be taking with me next year. Let me know what you think!

CITIZEN KANE...next week!

Orson Welles' 1941 "metaphysical detective story" CITIZEN KANE has been consistently voted the very best film ever made in the Sight and Sound poll of film critics in each of the last five polls starting with the 1962 poll (the survey is carried out once every ten years). Influential critic Roger Ebert says that "The Sight and Sound poll is generally considered the most authoritative of all 'best film' lists". He also considers KANE the best film ever.

The film--Welles' directorial debut--is also listed as the greatest American film ever by the American Film Institute.

The central story of the film is told principally through flashbacks, following a reporter as he seeks to find what Kane meant by his dying word: "Rosebud." The journalist's mission of retrieving the meaning of Kane's final word leads him in the end to conclude that a man's life cannot be summed up in one word, and (as he picks up pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) that Rosebud is a "missing piece" in his life...in effect, the movie is made up of fragments of Kane's life, shown in non-chronological order, for the viewer to put together.

So get ready...you're about to see CITIZEN KANE for the first time. You'll never forget it!

Friday Night at The Playhouse

See JIM DAVID at Furman Friday night!

Jim is a 1975 graduate of the Furman University Drama department. Since leaving Furman he has been a stand-up comic, appearing all over the world, in comedy clubs, on television, on stage and on Broadway.

Jim has appeared in a Broadway musical and done lots of TV spots like Colin Quinn's TOUGH CROWD as well as his own, frequently replayed, half hour special, both on Comedy Central. He has also appeared on ABC's THE VIEW, Comedy Central's COMIC CABANA, NEW JOKE CITY with Robert Klein, NBC COMEDY SHOWCASE with Louie Anderson, A&E's CAROLINE'S and EVENING AT THE IMPROV, MTV 1/2 HOUR COMEDY HOUR, VH1's FOOLS FOR LOVE, SHOWTIME COMEDY CLUB NETWORK, DATELINE NBC, STAR SEARCH, LAST CALL, SPOTLIGHT CAFE, USA LIVE, and others.

He performed on Comedy Central's FRIARS CLUB ROAST OF ROB REINER and hosted the backstage interviews of Comedy Central's FRIARS CLUB ROAST OF HUGH HEFNER. A headliner across the world, he can be heard on his CDs, EAT HERE AND GET GAS (2000) and LIVE FROM JIMVILLE (2003).

SOUTH PATHETIC is Jim's one man comedy show being performed in New York and around the country. Jim had always wanted to try a one-man theatrical piece ala Eric Bogosian, Lily Tomlin, John Leguizamo, as well as to attempt a style of serious comedy that only can be done in a theater. Now that piece is at last a reality.

It tells the story of how Jim, in a career crisis, accepts a job directing a play at the worst community theater in the South. There he meets many characters at various crisis points in their own lives who are trying their hand at small town show biz. It is a piece about starting over, surviving, the and the need for arts in even the smallest community.

There will be only three performances: this Friday at 8, Saturday at 8 and 10:30.

Senior Separation

It's happening.

Our seniors are starting to move on...drift past high school and into their post-graduate lives.

It's a natural progression...one only a high school senior can understand.

For those of us left behind (teachers and underclassmen), it's kind of sad. As you guys move on, we're already thinking of what it will be like when you're gone...we already miss you.

So. Seniors. I want to hear from you. What does it feel like to be staring down your last three months as a public school student? Are you sad? Happy? Excited? Scared?

(And more importantly...do you promise to come visit us when you're gone...stay in touch?)