S.M. Stevens's Blog, page 34

Mika Bash-Up

Back to Mika, for those who remember my post about this awesome, frantic, multi-talented star. It’s been too long since I posted a lyric video to go with the Bit Players series. This one is for the graduation scene in the musical based on “Wuthering Heights” in the book “Bit Players, Bullies and Righteous Rebels”, for which the characters wrote words to go with Mika’s “We Are Golden”. Got it?

Flying & The Stage

Attempt at wisdom for the day: Flying is a lot like performing on stage. You prep and prep, check and check, and when you finally take off on opening night, and start to soar, it’s exhilarating, As the show continues, you’re still in the air, maybe twisting and turning, dipping and climbing. As the final curtain nears, you settle back down close to earth, touching down with the last scene. If that’s the last performance, you find yourself elated and disappointed at the same time. This is why the stage, like flying, is addictive. Need to get that “high” again.

Blown Away by this Writer’s Digest Review

A while back, I entered Bit Players, Has-Been Actors and Other Posers in the 20th Annual Writer’s Digest Annual Self-Published Book Awards. Today, I received my judges evaluation and was blown away by the positive review. If only I had won….  Here’s the evaluation, verbatim:

Entry Title: Bit Players, Has-Been Actors and Other Posers

Author: S.M. Stevens

Judge Number: 75

Books were evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5. This scale is strictly to provide a point of reference, it is not a cumulative score and does not reflect ranking.

Structure and Organization: 5

Grammar: 5

Production Quality and Cover Design: 5

Plot (if applicable): 5

Character Development (if applicable): 5

What did you like best about this book?

I really enjoyed this novel by S. M. Stevens about a high school drama club.  I was a Theatre ( I like the “uppity” spelling too!) major and have been acting all my life.  I loved that the author captured the sights, sounds, and feel of the theatre.  It is obvious that she has a background here and loves it.

The characters are interesting and I became invested in them.  The best friends, one changing, is classic and most middle school kids will identify with this.  The resolution for this was handled very well.  It felt real. The teachers competing was a nice touch too.

But the song parodies…they were amazing.  I worked with a comedy troupe that did song parodies and these were spot on!  I loved that Ms. Stevens recommend that you pull up the original songs on your computer, especially if you are not familiar with the tune, then you can sing along.  They were “brilliant”.

How can the author improve this book?

No worries here…no suggestions.  This was a very well written novel.  I enjoyed it!

Learning from John Green

I recently finished reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (incredible book about love; if you haven’t read it, you should). In Chapter 17, there’s a line that made me stop and think about “life” – the big one – and my own life specifically. (The sign of great art if you ask me – it makes you think. Like I said, read the book.)

The line as repeated by Will Grayson is this: “…if you don’t say the honest thing, it never becomes true”. I thought about this for a while, and decided I believed a variation of this thought. ‘Cause I think sometimes the honest thing can be true even if you don’t say the honest thing out loud (as Jane suggests, in the book). If you get lucky. But it does help to take that jump and say the honest thing. Then it is more likely to become true.

And if you don’t say the honest thing, you put that honest thing at risk, because the other person doesn’t hear you say it. Or if the honest thing is only about you, maybe you don’t quite believe it. Either way, this creates a vacuum, called doubt.

So tomorrow I’m going to say the honest thing to someone. I’ve been resisting for the same reason anyone avoids saying the honest thing: because we’re afraid of screwing things up, or getting a response we don’t want. Maybe right away, maybe later. But I’m going to do it anyway. Wish me luck.

Goodreads Contest Winners Announced

Congratulations to Carolyn in North Carolina; Shannon in Texas; Valerie in South Dakota; Chelsea in Alberta, Canada; and Emma in the U.K. (West Midlands), for winning free copies of Bit Players, Bullies and Righteous Rebels through the goodreads contest! Your books will be on their way tomorrow. I hope you enjoy them! And thanks to the 500 people who entered the contest. I’m not even rounding up or down, it was actually 500 people exactly. Cool, huh?

Last Day for Free Book Giveaway

Only a few hours left to enter to win one of five free copies of Bit Players, Bullies and Righteous Rebels through goodreads. Click here to enter.

Praising the New Theatre Gods

Our new school is finally open, with a brand new theatre! Where to start in singing the praises of the new auditorium? No more broken seats, missing seats, missing stage lights. The old wooden seats were uncomfortable to begin with, whacking you in the legs every time you stood up. If you were so lucky to get one with broken veneer, then you got an extra special sharp dig in your back. If you were really lucky, you might even get a splinter as a memento of whatever show you were watching.

Yes, we’ll miss the graffiti carved into the auditorium seats, and the mounds of gum stuck on so long ago that they had become one petrified blob under the seats. How annoying it will be to have actual storage around the stage so we don’t have to cram all set pieces into the tiny wings with overflow into the hallways.

Enough sarcasm – the stage itself is epically monumentally gorgeous. It looks like a real, professional theatre, draped all in black except for a few plush, thick green curtains for accent. No more tiny, scuffed wooden stage. And we have a catwalk! Does it get any better?

Wait – it does. The auditorium has real sound and lighting systems. No more making the actors dodge the dark spots on the stage, or blowing half our budget renting audio equipment.

Now we just have to figure out how to use all the fun toys that came with the place. Can’t wait.

Endings

As 2012 nears to its close, it seems appropriate to post some lines from Bit Players 1 about the elation of working within a group to create something special, something I hope the country sees more of in 2013 than we did in 2012. These lines describe the last few seconds of the Crudup High Drama Club’s original production of Twilight: The Musical:

The finale concludes with a full minute of rapturous song and dance, the cast pouring every bit of energy and emotion possible into the words and notes of the chorus. Kristina, Jocelyn and I trade the lead on the swirling ad lib vocal as the chorus repeats over and over. As we sing the final few lines, I realize we’ve done it. It all came together in one glorious…thing, bigger than any of us. We took all our differences in personality, beliefs, looks and desires, and melded them into a new entity – a story told with passion, credibility and lots of great music.

We created.

“Yes!” pops out of my mouth as we freeze as one to the final chord.

Lady Gaga and Tolerance for the Holidays

In honor of the holidays and the desperate need for love, tolerance and forgiveness in this world today, here’s a look back at Lady Gaga’s video for “Born This Way”. Refresher: starts out with a somewhat abstract and confusing, somewhat inspiring, totally over-the-top story line and moves into classic Gaga music and lyrics. Listen to the words, they’re all about tolerance and accepting everyone even if they don’t think and act like you. Which, by the way, is a key theme of Bit Players, Bullies and Righteous Rebels. So enjoy the video and have a great holiday!

Definition of Tosser

Today’s words of wisdom from Sadie Perkins: ”Tosser equals wanker equals jerk.” If you’re a Brit or count one as a good friend, you know of what she speaks.