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Elementary School Theater Program

Samuel Morgan Elementary School in Kaysville Utah has some great before-school programs that are offered to their scholars. Karate, Robotics, and Orchestra are all included in that list. I decided to offer a new program that introduced the performing arts. The principle agreed in my volunteered idea and so, my project began.  We had roughly 12 weeks to plan and produce this show. The school bought the rights to "Frozen Jr" through MTI and I held auditions one day after school in early January. The students were expected to sing 30 seconds of a song of their choice. I took pictures and videos so I could go back to review heights and skill level after the audition process was over. It took me about a week to cast. We got roughly 95 students and they were split between two casts.  The students would come each morning before school. We had an hour long rehearsal where we would practice 2 of 3 things. The blocking, the singing or the dancing. We followed our rehearsal schedule pre...
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Shine Camp

  Shine Camp is an on-going project that is my biggest to date. This camp project was started in 2015 for homeschooled youth in the state of Utah who participate in the performing arts. Many performing arts groups of this sort are already available to homeschooling youth and I wanted to create an end-of-year experience to help youth come together and showcase their creations. Directors can sign their casts up for this 2-3 day camp held annually in May. 2 "camp counselors" are chosen from each cast to help plan and execute the camp with leadership positions. Each cast is given a time slot during the camp to perform their show for the rest of the camp. They bring their set, costumes, props and actors up to camp to put on an outdoor performance.  When actors are not performing or cheering on another cast, there are workshops, group devotionals, acting lessons, service projects, meals, hikes, crafts, and more to keep them occupied. Each cast is split up into different "teams...

Nativity Show

 This last December, I took on the project of a "Nativity Show" for a local assisted living center. I wanted to share some Christmas spirit/joy with those who might be feeling lonely. I also wanted to use this as a way to gather community members in a simple way. So many have nativity sets that mean a lot to them and they have a beautiful story behind them.  I spent a lot of time gathering nativity sets from around the community, gathering and inviting residents from the assisted living center and researching each of the sets and where they came from. I enjoyed hearing the stories of these nativities, especially the ones that we homemade. Seeing the nativity sets come together in one place brought a very special feeling to the facility.  We were able to gather 92 nativity sets, many from around the world. It was amazing to see the joy in their faces as they saw the beautiful creations of the nativity scene. Community members stayed at the event and visited with the reside...

Re-Organized: The Story of Correspondence Files

 The summer of 2021 was exciting for me. My dad worked at TraskBritt, a law firm in Salt Lake City. His boss was going to hire me to re-do their whole file organization system. They had rooms and rooms full of files. Each file was for a different case, full of the attorney's correspondence and blueprint and notes. It was a daunting task, but I was up for the challenge. It took me the whole summer, working full time, but I did it! We started with clearing out some of the rooms and cleaning. Then we'd put the files we wanted back in, on the correct shelves. Every file had to be scanned into the system too and recorded where it was going. I went room by room, and assistants came and went. Moving the files was hard physical work and scanning and organizing was hard mental work. But by the end of the summer, the files were perfectly in place. I wish I had more media examples of the work I put into the project, however its all classified and no pictures were taken.

The Clock Strikes Midnight

 I'm happy to report that all is done with Fairytale Formals! The clock struck midnight and its time for this girl in a ballgown to go home. Camille and I parted ways on this project on Wednesday and she said she couldn't be happier with our outcomes. Helping to create an online presence for Camille and her business was so rewarding and a lot of fun. I wanted to take some time today to share a quick overview of the project and everything we accomplished. Photo Shoot The first major thing we accomplished was a photo shoot with the dresses. We just wanted to get some shots of the dresses in use. We had a lot of fun renting a photo studio and getting some girls to come over and play dress up with us. These girls ended up having a huge part in sharing the photos afterwards as they told all their friends about this exciting new business. The photos turned out really good as well but we just didn't have enough time for what we needed to shoot. So after the photo shoot we booked a...

Ready, Set, Sale!

 I finished up the website, it was a lot of work but I'm happy with how it turned out. This project has felt like a whirlwind of fun! I'm excited to watch the fruit of our labors, especially next year during prom season! Meanwhile, I also finished naming all the dresses! Some of my favorites are: "Sunshine and Sparkles" "Flaming Fuchsia" and Pretty in Pink" Most of my time this week was spent on the website, which isn't the most exciting to talk about. I had problems making each dress their own calendar. I'd done similar projects before, but usually its for booking appointments for one person, not renting multiple dresses! I was so relieved when everything started falling into place.  Instagram views keep growing, and we have lots of interest. Camille is thinking about starting a facebook page/group too! I can't believe we are almost done with this project, its been so fun!

Instagram and Website Progress

 We took a couple steps back this week. The website is coming along slower then we originally thought. However, we are having lots of fun posting on Instagram. The girls who came to model for us are also enjoying sharing our posts with their friends and highly recommending the dresses! Right now, our plan with Instagram is regular posting every week, and then posting more on weeks when school dances are coming up in the area. Camille is guessing that's when people will be looking for dance dresses anyways, so posting will increase sales. The website is complicated because each dress needs its own page and schedule and price. Making these takes a lot of time and patience so I've been doing my best to sit down and get all of those done so the website can go live! For now, Camille is taking care of rentals the old fashioned way, which is working fine until the website is finished.  Camille is excited to schedule her next photo shoot since we didn't even get close to finishing ...