Thursday, November 15, 2007

Sigma Tau Delta

Well, it's been crazy. Half of my inter-library loan books are already late (I'm going to have a hefty fine to pay, and I'm sure Tamie Willis will be mad at me for not getting the ILLs back in on time), and I certainly haven't done near enough research to turn them back in. It sucks.

So, my college search is narrowing, and I think I have the six schools to which I will apply:

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Rice University (Houston)
Washington University, St. Louis
OU
OSU
Abilene Christian University

I'm still debating on OSU, because their program isn't very theory-heavy, except in "Screen Studies," and I'm not sure I want to get a degree in film, however interesting it may be.
I might add University of Minnesota to the list, or I might run across something else.

In any case, some of the deadlines (UW, for instance) are early December, so I really need to get on the ball with this. I'm a little nervous about my writing sample being good enough for UW or Rice, but I'm not nervous about not going to grad school, because I'm certain that, no matter what, Abilene will probably take me in :), which is certainly not a bad thing.

Anyway, auditions are underway for our 10-minute plays, and I've been given my own play to direct. It's exciting watching people audition and compete for MY play in an audition - it's fascinating to watch your text come to life in front of you. I love directing!!

Finally, I mailed out my submissions for Sigma Tau Delta's Louisville conference yesterday. I submitted both poetry, and an analytical paper, and I'd love it if both of them made it again this year, like last year. I hope we get a good crowd going to conference, too!!!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Grad School search continues...

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to tour two graduate colleges - those at OU and OSU. Unfortunately, I didn't truly understand how to handle a college visit until after the first one, so my experience was better prepared for at OSU than OU, and I had more questions answered. But now I'm in what I would like to refer to as a "cesspool": a nice, large, foul-smelling dilemma.

Upon visiting OSU's campus, and getting to know several of their students (which I was not lucky enough to do at OU, aside from the fabulous Kristina... whom I of course already knew), I had the opportunity to pay a visit to the theatre department. This was not something I was lucky enough to do at OU, since I was distracted by the IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS in the ART MUSEUM ON CAMPUS (words capitalized for emphasis and ecstasy). When I walked into the theatre office, completely impromptu, they told me they were re-printing promotional materials for the grad program, and didn't have any new ones - but lo and behold, a grad advisor walks in at that very moment!

Only a few minutes later, and I find out that, coincidentally, this grad advisor is also the head theoretician of the department (my main interest in theatre studies) and that (insert drum roll here), she and I went to the same high school... in Richmond, Virginia. That was probably the craziest moment of this semester, if not the year. Talk about a coincidence.

Needless to say, after talking to her and about bridging the gap between the theatre and English programs, I'm much more interested in making sure the school I apply to offers an M.A. in Theatre, with classes I'll be able to take to supplement my graduate studies in Literature (the school also needs to have a strong program in critical theory). This ruled out more schools, and now I'm having to format a completely new list.

Some potential schools I may add to my list:

University of Wisconsin in Madison
University of Minnesota in Twin Cities
University of Missouri in Columbia
OSU (why not?)

Schools that (I think) remain on my list:

Rice University in Houston (though it's a terminal PhD program)
OU
Washington University in St. Louis, MO
Abilene Christian

Of course, if I didn't care where I went, I'd be applying to Cornell, and to Berkeley, or Duke, or Notre-Dame... but I'd like to stay within the midwest (and I certainly don't know if I'd be accepted into those prestigious schools with any sort of Assistantship or Fellowship).

Bah.