ENMU Theatre Department, Part 4: Senior Year

So this would be my final year to accomplish anything of note before going off into the real world. I had the same high expectations that I had when I was a senior in high school and I wound up with the same results: Utter disappointment and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it.

One thing that was different for the department this year was that they implemented the Rehearsal and Performance class, which would allow students to get credit for being in the productions. In order for students to know if they were going to get credit, they would have to be cast first. This meant that the two mainstage shows would have to be cast at the beginning of the semester. The two shows we were doing were "Wait Until Dark," directed by Dr. W and "The Beaux' Stratagem," directed by Dr. R. As it turned out, the initial casts of the two shows did not share actors.

I was the only actual senior present at the cattle call. (Chud was still at his summer internship.) Dr. R put me in charge of having those who were auditioning sign in. This was a good opportunity to meet the new people. Some were freshmen and some were juniors who had come from community college. Everyone was required to perform a monologue for the directors. No one else was permitted to sit in the auditorium. I was able to peek in from time to time because I was the guy in charge and I had to see when the actor was finished before sending in the next one. None of the new people did really terrible during their auditions. That worried me.

Both directors posted their callbacks. I did not make the callback for "Dark," but I was on the list for "Stratagem." The weird thing is that I don't remember what happened during the callback. I did get cast as Hounslow, but my role only had two lines. They were actually one and a half lines, because I had to speak a line in unison with the peer character Bagshot. Bagshot was played by a freshman. Again, my character did not appear until Act Two.

However, one challenging thing about the role is that it involved me and Bagshot to get into a swordfight with the two main characters. When we started practicing the combat techniques for the scene, Dr. R told me that if he had been aware that my character was going to do swordfighting, he wouldn't have cast me. That stunned me. I felt so unworthy as an actor at that point. As it turned out, I was able to perform the swordfighting very well and Dr. R never complained.

Early in the rehearsals, I noticed that there was a non-speaking role that had not been cast. The character was supposed to move some luggage around during the first act. I started trying to fill in that slot when the scene was being rehearsed. I had hoped that Dr. R was going to have me do that role. But he never asked me and I just figured he wasn't going to utilize that character. But when we started rehearsing the entire show, I noticed that the actor playing Bagshot was playing that part. I now felt completely worthless and that I had just wasted my college education. And the thing that really got me is that, this time, I had made efforts to get that part by putting myself in there during rehearsals, like I should have done during "Mother Courage" the year before.

I just sat there and contemplated all the work that I had put into the department during the last three years. I realized that no one respected my abilities as an artist. I was almost never asked to be a part of directing projects or senior recitals. But everyone wanted me to do the tech on their stuff. I truly felt like a loser, and I couldn't do anything to change it.

I was so frustrated that when I was filling out my bio for the show, I wrote, "MY INVOLVEMENT IN THIS DEPARTMENT FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS HAS BEEN COMPLETELY WASTED!" I was actually expecting someone to come up and talk to me about that, but no one ever did. They really didn't care how I felt.

For the Evening of One Acts that year, we presented "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" and "The Actor's Nightmare." They were directed by the dance instructor and I was cast as Henry in the second play. I did a bit as Horatio in "Hamlet" during the play. However, the last line I still had to memorize was this short speech. I had the line cut out on a piece of paper and pulled it out during rehearsal. The director thought it looked so funny that she had me do that in the performance. I really didn't want to do that because it made me look like I was unable to learn my lines, but I had to go along with it.

For the spring semester, we did the musical "Anything Goes," directed by Dr. R and an adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," directed by Ms. F. Again, we auditioned for both directors. I got called back for "Anything Goes." We did readings from the script. I already knew I was not getting any of the lead roles. However, Dr. R had me read for the role of Moonface Martin. As it turned out, he didn't ask anyone else to read for that part. Other actors had to request to read that scene. I actually felt pretty good about that. Unfortunately, I did not get cast in that part. I was assigned to be the Steward. I was somewhat let down, but when I got the script, I noticed I had 35 lines! This was my largest role since "Deathtrap!"

And then I was also cast in "Alice." (I guess Ms. F didn't hold anything against me from "Earnest" the year before.) Ms. F only actually cast one role, the part of Alice. The other members would be playing other various roles and she would determine who would play what throughout the rehearsal process. This was discussed during our first get together. It wasn't an actual rehearsal or readthrough. She just wanted to meet with the cast before the actual rehearsals started after "Anything Goes" was finished.

This all took place during the first couple of weeks of the semester. During that time, the Program Director at the radio station I was working at quit and I was asked to work the overnight shift full time. I immediately pulled out of a bunch of classes I was taking and kept only the ones needed for my degree plan. I went to Ms. F and told her I needed to withdraw from the "Alice" cast. Since I still had my recital to perform, I knew I couldn't spend very much time on the production. She understood. I felt bad about it, but I did stay with "Anything Goes."

And quitting "Alice" turned out to be a good thing. When I watched a dress rehearsal, it came out like a disorganized mess. If it was just Alice and one other character on the stage, it was really enjoyable. But when the entire ensemble was present, everybody acted all at once like they were trying to steal the show. I'd also heard about some actual physical abuse that took place during rehearsals, and they were planned to look like accidents. I was glad I ended my college mainstage experience with "Anything Goes."

So the last actual thing to do was my recital. I've mentioned earlier that Chud and I combined our recitals and would alternate pieces with us doing a couple of segments together. But there was a strange occurence that happened. Chud and I needed to discuss the recital with Dr. R one day. We went up to him in his office. He GROWLED at us that we needed to make an appointment and that he didn't have any time that day. It's scary when Dr. R growls. We scheduled a slot for the next day. Later that night, Chud came to my dorm room and told me that Dr. R had a heart attack and he had to drive him to the hospital. Chud went on to say that when we had seen him earlier that day, he was experiencing the heart attack right then and there and was trying to ignore it.

Dr. R did not do any more teaching for the rest of the semester. The next time we saw him was at our recital. We were both glad to see him there. He said there was no way he was going to miss it. I got to meet with both Dr. R and Dr. W separately for a post mortem of the recital. The funny thing was that they each liked different parts of the recital. Chud and I had done this skit that was a put-down of some of the students in the Theatre Department. Dr. W thought it was clever. Dr. R disliked it because he thought it was mean. As for the final scene Chud and I did from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Dr. R said it was the closest to real acting he had ever seen me do. (I'm not certain if that was a real compliment.) Dr. W wasn't very impressed with it.

Any time I look back at my college theatre experience and start feeling bitter, I have to remember that there was someone who actually got it worse than me. You may remember me mentioning the black girl I had approached to be my scene partner during the first audition my freshman year. Her artistry was actually well-respected by the other students. But for whatever reason, she was rarely ever cast in Dr. R's and Dr. W's productions. Her sophomore year, she was cast in "Blithe Spirit," but that was directed by Mr. H. She was cast the next year as a fairy in "Midsummer Night's Dream" and a dancer in "The King and I." The only mainstage production she did her senior year was the Dance Department's production of "A Soldier's Tale." I remember when she was talking about people griping about being in "Mother Courage." She said, "I wasn't even cast in that! Do you know how much I wanted to be in that show and you're complaining about it?"

She was cast in the Evening of One Acts that year, doing the role of the Oscar-nominated actress from "California Suite." Later, Dr. W remarked on how good her performance was. He said, "I really wish we had done more with her." But I have a feeling he never said that about me.

I felt very empty at the end of college and had no idea how real life was going to be any kind of improvement. I did manage to find a few of my niches and capitalize on them. Looking back, I see that I had no real direction in college. When I wrote my article about "Things I Wish I'd Known before Starting College," I could have added, "If you lack any actual direction in college, that flaw will likely follow you throughout your life." That's true, but I've found that not having a solid sense of where I need to be all the time allowed me to improvise when it was needed.

But I guess I should be thankful for how it prepared me for disappointment later on in life. I can take some solace knowing that all those people who were given more favor in the Theatre Department were probably shocked at how much rejection they would face when they went out into the real world. I know it's true in one case and I will write about her later.

ENMU Theatre Department, Part 3: Junior Year

After my sophomore year turned out better than expected in the Theatre Department at Eastern New Mexico University, I hoped that would mean more involvement in getting cast in the productions. I especially thought this was possible because a lot of the students who came in my freshman year were no longer around to stand in my way.

The first production was "Charley's Aunt." Dr. W directed it. For the first time ever, I got called back for a show he was directing. I thought my chances of being cast were really good. But I didn't make the cut. I didn't think much of it at the time as there were still three other shows I could get cast in. I got to design the lights for the show.

Next up was "Mother Courage and Her Children," directed by Dr. R. This was an epic show with a huge cast. I was going to play one of the soldiers. My character was supposedly in a position of command, but I only had ten lines and appeared in only two scenes, but it was still good to be in the cast. At the read-through, we came upon my first scene. Dr. R announced that he had cut the scene. I thought, "No! That's half my lines!" AND THERE WERE NO OTHER SCENES THAT WERE CUT! As a result, my character only appeared at the beginning of the second act and I was killed offstage after saying my lines. I really felt like I was being punished for some reason. (I did get to appear in the rest of the show as a soldier for those scenes in which we needed more military bodies on the stage, but I didn't have any additional lines.)

I could have gotten a larger role if I'd known to step up. The actor playing Mother Courage's oldest son got sick and missed rehearsals. One of the freshmen actors who played a non-speaking soldier filled in while we were waiting for him to get better. When it became apparent that the original actor was not coming back, they just let the new guy keep the part for the performances. If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have started reading those lines because he was not in that scene I was in. That freshman actor would have just gotten my role.

Then we had the Evening of One Acts. I was cast in a play directed by the same guy who had directed "Asylum" the year before. There were also a lot of cast members from that play in this one. It was a play written by one of the students that was based on the game "Clue." I said in my previous post that "Asylum" was the most perfect performance I had ever been a part of. This presentation was the exact opposite. Actors were dropping lines and forgetting the blocking. Props were constantly out of place. At one point, an actor forgot to change into this jacket that was central to the plot and someone had to throw it at him from offstage. He put it on while saying his lines. And just when we thought it was over, where an actor said, "I want to be Miss Scarlett," the stage lights did not go down. We were just stuck up there. The actor with the last line said, "Let's play!" and we all started putting pieces on the game board and mumbled amongst ourselves while waiting for the lights to go down, which they eventually did. However, we all felt like we were going to be stuck ad-libbing on that stage forever. This was truly an actor's nightmare.

The spring semester brought our musical for the season, "HMS Pinafore," directed by Dr. R. I knew that the material called for people who could really sing. We wound up getting most of the cast from the music department. I did get to be in the choir, which had actual lines to say in unison. However, everybody kept forgetting to come in on cue, so I was often the only person reciting the lines. In addressing the cast, Dr. R was getting fed up with the blown cues and said, "I feel like just giving all the lines to Fayd and having him say, 'What they're supposed to say is...'"

This was not planned, but the operetta had been the first production staged by ENMU 50 years earlier. We actually had some surviving members of that cast come to one of the performances. They still lived in the area. I don't know of anyone from our cast who will easily be able to get there when they mount the next production in 2035.

The final production was "The Importance of Being Earnest." Ms. C was originally supposed to direct this, and I was looking forward to it because I thought she would cast all of us who were in her classes. I saw it as REVENGE against the students who had Dr. R. However, her husband accepted a job at another university and they moved away. On top of that, it was just me and Chud left from our original freshman class. That wouldn't have been much of a revenge.

The other graduate student, Ms. F, was called upon to direct. I did not get cast. However, I did get to be the assistant director. The only problem I had with Ms. F as director is that her style consisted of having the cast learn their lines by paraphrasing the words in the script. This wouldn't have been a problem, but getting deeper into rehearsals, the cast only performed the lines that they paraphrased and not the lines that were cleverly written by Oscar Wilde. Once during rehearsal notes, I asked Ms. F if I could say a few words, and I went into this rant about how everybody needed to say their lines correctly. I was really fed up with it. I said that the words in the script were perfect and no one in the cast was able to come anywhere near speaking that well. It didn't go over very well, not even with the director.

I stayed for the summer session. We did two productions that summer: "Carnival" and "Chapter Two." Auditions were held for both plays at the same time. Dr. W was directing "Carnival" and would have first crack at the cast. Our new dance instructor directed "Chapter Two." After we read a few scenes, Dr. W started talking about this one character named Dr. Glass, who could best be described as a nerdy wimp. While he was going on about him, I realized this was the role I was going to be cast in. He called me up first to read for the part. This meant I was not being considered for any of the lead roles. Come to find out, everyone else at the audition had the same thoughts about me playing Dr. Glass.

My experience playing that part will be the subject of a blog post that will be coming up way, way in the future. I will only tell you now that it involved handling live animals on stage. It deserves an article all to itself.

As it was, junior year was a severe letdown for me, but it still did not prepare me for what I would go through my senior year.

ENMU Theatre Department, Part 2: Sophomore Year

With a truly terrible year past me, I was looking for some improvement in the fall of 1983. I actually got it, and it was a lot better than I expected.

I auditioned for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and was cast as Tom Snout. At the time, I thought that it was a great way to start the season by producing a play with a huge cast. It got more new students involved and excited about being in the department, even if they were only cast as extras. The opening play my freshman year only had six characters in it. Compound that with the fact that no freshmen were in the initial cast of the second production made me wonder if anybody really paid any attention to the freshmen. Well, yes they did, but that spotlight never shined on me.

I thought I was on a pretty good roll with "Dream." But that came to a stop with "The Elephant Man." Both of the plays in the fall semester were directed by Dr. R. For the audition, we gathered around in a circle on the stage. He started with us doing movement improvisations. He gave us these pieces of paper, each with one word on them and we were supposed to embody the word each of us were given. He started with two actors. They slowly worked their way toward each other and performed this dazzling fluid piece in which their bodies swayed back and forth between each other. It turned out that their words were "salt" and "water," of which they were not aware of the other actor's word.

Because that took up so much time, Dr. R started putting us in groups of six. My word was "comforter." I don't know what I was supposed to do with that, so I just lied on the floor and moved from side to side. One of the actors crawled over me. That was the extent of my audition. (I should note that if I had been in Dr. R's Beginning Acting class the previous year, I would have known what to do to interact with everyone else.)

After that, he had us do cold readings from the script. He called each actor to come up, EXCEPT FOR ME! (Probably because I didn't do anything during the physical improv.) But I did blow a chance to read. At one point, one of the actors forgot who was supposed to play John Merrick and pulled me up off the floor. In an awkward moment, I pointed at the actor who was supposed to read. Now, if I'd known Dr. R wasn't going to call me up, I would had just gone ahead and started auditioning, even though I knew full well there was no way I was going to get to play John Merrick. In fact, I hadn't even prepared a voice to read for the part, so it was better for me that I didn't commandeer the audition. I would have looked like an even worse actor in front of Dr. R.

I honestly didn't know what I was supposed to do to be considered for the cast. Should I have gone up to him afterward and told him I didn't get to read? Should I have asked to be part of the call back so I would get a chance? Should I risk the chance of him telling me I just was not a good enough actor to even be considered? I just did nothing. Even if I had done something, I still doubt I would have been cast. Those two actors who did the "salt" and "water" piece didn't get cast, either, so it wasn't like I was the only one who came up short. I had hoped he would have realized what happened and invited me to the callbacks, but that didn't happen, either.

However, I did get to do the lighting design for the production. It was very challenging and a lot of fun to put together. Chud got to design the set, so this marked one of many occasions in which we were able to collaborate on projects.

But the whole issue of that audition left a bad taste in my mouth. I started thinking that maybe the problem was that I wasn't really committing myself to the department. I took a look at my degree plan and saw that I would have enough room to declare Theatre as a second major AND I would be able to graduate in December of 1985 instead of May 1986. I went down to the Adminstration building and made the change. I would discover a couple of years later that it didn't really make that much of a difference, except that I could put on a resume that I had a degree in Theatre.

The Evening of One Acts was a go that year. I was cast in "Asylum." I played Chuckles the Wonder Dog. I have to admit that this was the most perfect performance I have ever been a part of. Even Dr. R said he was blown away by our presentation. The only problem was that no one did any publicity for the show, so we only had 35 people show up. That means the Theatre fraternity only collected $35. However, one of the other directors complained that he paid money out of his own pocket to build his sets (which no one asked him to) and demanded that he be compensated. I should note that the director was married and already had a child, so this actually created a hardship for him. The fraternity wound up giving him the $35.

Even though I was one of the better singers in the Theatre Department, I was not initially cast in "The King and I." As I mentioned before, I asked Dr. W if I could play one of the priests. He let me. There were only two of us playing priests. I was glad to be cast in another show. However, I would like to point out that a couple of our A-listers who were up for the lead role were cast as guards. Both of them got mad about the outcome and quit the production. A couple of wimpy-looking guys filled in as guards. And on top of that, they had to run around on stage without their shirts on. They were NOT menacing. We shouldn't have even bothered with guards.

The final mainstage show of the season was "Deathtrap." Mr. H directed it. Even though there are only five characters in it, I got cast as Porter Milgrim. I was finally getting my chance in the spotlight. But it was hard to enjoy because there was another actor in the running for the part. We were both in the callbacks. He claimed there was a battle between Mr. H to have him in "Deathtrap" and Ms. C to have him in her children's theatre production. According to him, he was supposed to be in "Deathtrap," but Ms. C won. While I didn't believe it, it still didn't feel good to hear.

The only other thing about this production is that it set off a bizarre series of castings over the next two years in which my character didn't show up until the second act. The nice thing about this was that I didn't have to do my make up and costume at the same as everyone else. While I would show up at the same time, all I had to do was wait for everyone to clear out so I could do my stuff.

I ended yesterday's post with my ruminitions on my Beginning Acting class with Ms. C. During the fall semester, I took Intermediate Acting. Finally, I had a performance-based class with Dr. R. I was looking forward to playing some much-needed catch-up with my peers. However, on the first day, Dr. R announced that the class would not be like Beginning Acting, in which the participants got all touchy-feely. He said we would learn to work more with our bodies in this class. My first thought was, "No! I'm now going to be three steps behind everyone else." I really felt like I would never be able to reach the level of artistry that I desired. To be honest, I never really did.

But all and all, this was an otherwise great year for my involvement in Theatre. I felt like it more than made up for the cruddy freshman year I experienced. But that feeling wouldn't last forever.

ENMU Theatre Department, Part 1: Freshman Year

I didn't really expect to get full swing into the Theatre Department during my freshman year at Eastern New Mexico University. It was, after all, my minor. I had actually signed up for more Communications classes than Theatre classes that first semester in 1982. I just thought it would be something I wouldn't really devote that much time to. However, the lure of participating in live theatre proved to be too much and I dove in head first before I knew what was going on.

After I was not cast in the first production "How the Other Half Loves," I volunteered to work backstage. Even though I was not in the cast, I did get to go out on stage in between scenes to remove and set props. One of the things I was proud of was putting a large teddy bear in a rocking chair, which was the first thing the audience saw when the curtain opened. I liked that my little touch got to stay in the final production.

I didn't get cast in "The Threepenny Opera," either. My audition consisted of singing a song and learning a dance routine. The dance instructor showed up to demonstrate the routine. She told the students she knew that it was easy. You've probably seen that episode of "Friends" in which Joey has lied on his acting resume that he has studied a lot of dance. During the call-back, the choreographer enlists his help in teaching the dancers the routine. He starts by saying, "Oh, it's an easy routine," and then goes into all these moves that would be simple for an average dancer, but extremely complicated for anyone who hasn't studied any dance. That was how the routine at the audition appeared to me.

Since I was doing really badly in a lot of my classes, I decided not to work on the crew of that production. But I still had to show up and help strike the set. I went backstage before the show was over so I could be there to take things apart. When some people saw me, they would ask, "What are you doing back here?" I found out later that there was some sort of rule that said that if you weren't part of the cast or crew of a production, you were not allowed to be backstage. This would include rehearsals and performances. However, I saw everybody violate the rule during rehearsals. Of course, no one told me this beforehand, but they acted like I was supposed to know.

One thing that worked in my favor during my freshman year was that the Theatre fraternity was planning its Evening of One Acts. I submitted a play that I wanted to direct. My selection was not chosen. However, they decided they needed a short play to be performed in front of the curtain while sets were being changed between two of the plays. I came up with the idea for "Allergies" from the incident with Pad and Scod. I was surprised when it was selected and that I would get to direct. I got to sit in with the other student directors during the cattle call auditions and choose my cast. After rehearsing and getting it down, the Evening got canceled. First, one of the productions had to pull out because of problems getting the cast to rehearse. Then, another one shut down because one of the actors decided to take a leave of absence from school. With two one acts and my little "skit," there wasn't enough to fill an entire evening. I would later use "Allergies" as my Advanced TV Production project my junior year, but I had problems doing even that.

I was not selected for the cast of "Fiddler on the Roof," which was the first production of the Spring semester. It was also directed by Dr. R. I could have been in it if I had signed up for one of the choirs, but I wasn't ready to get into the music aspect of college. If I'd realized I was going to go 0 for 4 in the productions my freshman year, I would have just joined that choir and been in the show instead of being the light board operator.

The fourth production was "Blithe Spirit." The campus bookstore had copies of the play, so I purchased one with the intent of studying it in order to improve my chances of getting cast. But by the time I had decided to dig in, it was a week before the auditions. I didn't get cast even though it was being directed by Mr. H and I was one of the few students on his good side. I was credited with doing the sound design for the production, but Mr. H kept wrangling the project out of my hands.

The only acting I got to do outside of class was at the Southwest Theatre Conference and an advanced directing scene. I think the student doing the directing took pity on me and put me in his project just for the heck of it. It was fun, but I don't think anybody noticed they hadn't seen me do anything before.

I knew I was going to be around for the summer session, so I auditioned for "Stop the World! I Want to Get Off!" directed by Dr. R. I still did not get cast. I wound up working the lights, both setting them up and running the light board.

Also during the summer, a few of us Theatre students performed a weekly improvised soap opera called "Suds" in the Coffee Shop. We actually had a large following by the end. However, it was not without its drama. Right before we were going to perform the third episode, the main guy in charge wanted to cancel it because he didn't like how the rehearsals had been going. None of us wanted to cancel it, so we actually performed it and it came out a whole lot better than we expected. In fact, it was probably better than our first two episodes. During the run, I played two different characters. They were twin brothers. One died early on and the other replaced him in the next episode. It was something fun to do during the summer when we didn't have a whole lot of other stuff going on.

But the one thing that had the largest impact on me was my Beginning Acting class that I took during the fall semester. As I wrote before, my choice of time for the class immensely affected my participation in the Theatre Department for all four years.

I needed to have Dr. R as my acting instructor. When I found out Ms. C was teaching my class, I didn't think it made much of a difference. This was until the next semester, when I got a chance to see how he ran his class. He had his students do some deeply intense acting exercises and improvisations. Everything Ms. C taught us was stuff I had already learned in high school. When I mentioned that I ran into Dr. R before that first class, I really wish he had said something along the lines of, "You're in the wrong class. You need to be in my class." I guess he didn't expect Ms. C to be such a sub-par acting teacher. Dr. R's class leaned more toward learning how to be a method actor. Ms. C's class was more focused on learning lines and trying to say them in an manner that sounded somewhat intelligent.

I already knew I was off to a bad start before entering college because I had already seen amazing acting from the schools in Albuquerque. I was hoping to be able to at least get to that level, but Ms. C just wasn't going to make that happen. Dr. R came and substituted for Ms. C for one class and watched us run through the scenes that we were preparing for our final. He gave some valuable critiques, much better than what Ms. C had to offer. After the class, I heard Chud's partner tell him that they needed to get with Dr. R to improve their scene. When they performed the scene for Ms. C, she had nothing but BAD THINGS to say about their presentation. I think she found out they got coaching from Dr. R and was angry about it.

Because I didn't have Dr. R as my Beginning Acting teacher, he didn't really get to help me grow as an artist. He only ever expected surface acting out of me and nothing more. This was why he never cast me in any major roles in the mainstage productions he directed. I only ever got minor roles, but at least I did get cast from time to time. I just know I was capable of more.

But despite these setbacks, I did feel like I made headway during my sophomore year. That will be tomorrow's post.

Watch where you leave your car

Sometimes, it appears that people just WANT their cars to be totalled so that they can collect the insurance money.



The scary thing about this is that someone might just pull up and park here, and immediately try to get out of their car without looking behind them. This is still a very narrow street, even when it's two lanes of traffic on both sides.

Mom was paranoid

I have a good relationship with my parents now, but that wasn't always the case.



A few years ago, I got into a discussion with my mother about the past. The conversation wound up with her crying almost uncontrollably. I really felt bad and figured that I could never really talk about the past ever again.

ENMU Theatre Department: A Prelude

On Monday, 11/24/14, I will start writing about my experience with the Theatre Department at Eastern New Mexico University. I will start like I did with the Radio/TV Department and work my way through each of the four years that I was there. However, since the professors played a large role in the department, I need to tell you about the three main ones since I will be making frequent reference to them. In Radio/TV, I just basically had classes with the professors and almost never saw them outside school hours. But in Theatre, I had to rehearse and work with these professors on a constant basis when I was involved in a production. I also frequently went to their homes.

The head of the department was Dr. R. (Actually, he didn't get his doctorate until the end of my freshman year, but I'm going to just call him Dr. R all four years to avoid confusion.) Dr. R was around 42 years old when I came to ENMU. He grew up in Texas and had an extensive background in Theatre before he started teaching at ENMU.

I first met him during my junior year in high school. He had come down to participate in our Career Day with other people from the Music Department. As I was in Student Council at the time, I had been selected to introduce him and the others in the seminar they were taking part in.

Dr. R was a very heavy-handed director who was known for his passion for perfection and his sharp witticisms. If he didn't feel like he was getting what he wanted out of an actor, he would go up on stage and slap him. Everybody on stage would freak out when this happened and they all upped their game in the next runthrough of the scene.

Dr. R appealed to the intellectual and artistic sides of the students. Everybody worked to gain his approval. He was very much the father figure of the department.

As such, Dr. W was the mother figure. His approach to directing was quite different from Dr. R. He was rather nurturing toward the students and worked to build a strong rapport among the cast, going so far as to make everyone chili for lunch after a Saturday rehearsal. While Dr. R thrived on chaos behind the scenes, Dr. W would act quickly to stop things from getting out of hand.

Dr. W was born and raised in Utah. He was 50 years old when I started college. I first met him during my sophomore year in high school when I attended a make up workshop during the ENMU Drama Festival. I approached him to be the volunteer for putting on a beard and got one. Dr. W did remember me from that.

Dr. W taught the Theatre History classes. He was very knowledgable on how Theatre was performed in past civilizations and made those classes enjoyable.

The funny thing is that as much as I liked Dr. W as a professor, I recently realized that he never actually cast me in any of the mainstage productions he directed during the school year. While I played a priest in "The King and I" my sophomore year, I was not part of the initial cast. He posted that he needed people to play priests and to come see him if we were interested. I wanted to do something in the show, so I volunteered. The only other times he cast me was in the 1985 summer session production of "Carnival" and in a "black box" production of "Entertaining Mr. Sloane."

The third constant on the Theatre staff was Mr. H. He was new to the department my freshman year as our technical director. Mr. H had some big shoes to fill as his predecessor was absolutely LOVED by the students. His predecessor spent lots of time working on the sets for the productions. However, Mr. H had a family, so he tended to rush through getting everything set up as soon as possible so he didn't have to spend any more time on the projects. They still came out good, but all the upperclassmen continually griped about him. Mr. H really only got along with two of us, Chud and myself.

Dr. R currently lives in Las Vegas, NM. Dr. W passed away two years ago at the age of 80 and Mr. H left ENMU after I completed my senior year. Chud still keeps in contact with him.

There were other people on the staff. For example, Mr. H's wife worked in the Costume Department. We had a couple of different Dance instructors, and Ms. C and Ms. F were graduate students who taught a few acting classes. While I will be making a few references to these, I will mostly write about the top three people in the department.

Like I said, the fun begins on 11/24/14. I am going to take a week off as I have some personal stuff going on and don't have as much time to devote to the blog. I hope to hammer out at least a week's worth of articles. I've noticed this has been a pattern lately, in which I post every day for two solid months and then take a little time off. I always need that time off to focus my thoughts, otherwise everythng comes out rather forced and what is supposed to be a light-hearted look at my life will suddenly turn into despair.

I don't want anyone to worry about me.

Mistop #4: Carz

(What's a Mistop? Click here!)

Carz was a student I knew during my first semester at Eastern New Mexico University. I would see her from time to time at the Theatre. She was the sister of a sophomore student in the department. She had a very pretty face, large eyes and long dark hair. She also had a very sultry voice. She was noticably overweight, which was why I didn't pay her much heed the first few times that I saw her.

We first got to know each other during auditions for "The Threepenny Opera." She had come over to the lobby, where I was hanging out. She sat down and we started talking. We discussed a number of topics, including religion and Christianity. I found out she was 21, which surprised me because she was also a freshman, which would have put her behind her younger sister. After about a half hour, she asked, "So when are they starting the auditions?" I told her, "Oh, the auditions are being held at the music building next door." She immediately scrambled out because she had signed up for a specific time to audition and missed that slot. Fortunately, they let her go ahead and audition. She did not get cast. Neither did I.

A few weeks later, I was hanging out at the Campus Union Building on a Saturday. I was sitting on a couch outside the AM radio station. Carz was inside and she saw me through the window. She waved at me to come into the station. I went inside. She was tearing wire copy off the AP printer. She was going to do a newscast at a local radio station that was part of our Broadcast Workshop. On Saturday nights after 10pm, they allowed students to produce their own programming and she had been asked to do the news that night and might do the news the next few weeks.

But she didn't have a way of getting to the station, which was way over on the other side of town, about five miles. Guess what? I had a car! She was glad she ran into me. The only problem was that she had to be at the station at 10pm, so we were going to have to wait five hours before we went out there. We basically hung out that whole time.

We went over to Safeway so she could get some stuff. We ran into her sister and her boyfriend there. They were buying groceries for a huge dinner they were planning to make. When they got to the check-out, their total came to more than $100. They were laughing and shaking their heads, but still bought the food. We parted at the store. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that after we left, the boyfriend might have asked the sister, "Hey, is there something going on between Fayd and your sister?"

Then we took the items that we purchased over to the Catholic Student Center. She had bought the food for a potluck and she was going to make lasagna. There was a guy there watching TV. I recognized him because he was always at the cafeteria first thing in the morning before breakfast, just like I was. It was nice to finally get to know his name.

It finally got close to 10pm. We started driving toward the station. I didn't know where the station was, but she said it was outside of town a little ways. I saw the radio towers and we were able to find it. We went in and the guy running the show seemed a little surprised that she was there. She told him she was supposed to do the news that night and it may become a regular feature of the program. She told me to come back around midnight to pick her up.

This whole time I was wondering if something unusual was going to happen between us. I thought about the possibility of the two of us kissing and maybe that might lead someplace unexpected. I had to admit that I didn't have a problem with her weight. I was just trying to figure out if she had some smarts.

I went home and listened to the radio. I heard her read the news only one time. I went back out before midnight to pick her up. She said the guy didn't really feel like the news was a good fit on the show, so he wasn't going to have her come back again. She didn't really seem disappointed, but it meant I wouldn't be driving her there every week. I actually thought that was going to happen.

After that, we went to her dorm so she could change clothes. I stood in the sink area while she got out of her dress and changed into a blouse and blue jeans. (This was the only time in college I got to go inside a girl's dorm room that wasn't at the co-ed hall.) We then went to see this guy friend of hers. He was also someone I had seen around campus, but never really got to know. He was very well-groomed and wore nice clothes. I wasn't entirely clear on whether or not he was her boyfriend. They didn't act lovey-dovey like a couple, but seemed to enjoy hanging out. They smoked some pot in my presence.

We drove back and I dropped her off at her dorm. She asked me to call and wake her up the next morning. I think it was so she could go make the lasagna at the Catholic Student Center. I went home and taped notes up all over my room reminding me to call her at a certain time. When that time came, I called her, but she was already awake. She thanked me, but didn't have anything else to say.

We never hung out any more after that. I never tried to call her again. A few days later, one of the other students who worked at the AM station in a supervisory position was complaining about several of the students in the workshop. He said he didn't like going in there when Carz had her shift because he didn't want to be seduced on the air. He also said that when she was on, "Mr. GQ" was always hanging around. This made me think even more that he was her boyfriend. And I guess I could have just asked, but I wanted to try to get solid confirmation without having to ask a direct question and get a direct rejection.

I later found out something disturbing about Carz that made me realize that I had dodged a bullet by not becoming romantically involved with her. As I've mentioned before, she and my friend Kird were at a party earlier in the semester. They both got drunk and high. They started having sex in front of everybody at the party. Kird eternally regrets the incident. However, I would have felt even worse if I had slept with her and then found that out. I probably never would have wanted to have sex with anyone else again for fear that Kird may have gotten to them first.

(Yes, I know I pledged celibacy at that age, but I have a feeling she would have been able to coax me out of it.)

Carz did not return to school the next semester. She never did come back, except for a couple of times the next year when she came to see her sister at the Theatre. We would exchange "Hi, how are you doing?" but that was it. I never saw her again my final two years in college.

I have been able to find her on Facebook. She lives in Grand Junction, CO, where she owns and operates a hair and skin salon. She got married and appears to have had one daughter. She looks about the same size as when I knew her.

However, I got a fascinating glimpse at what she used to look like just a few years before I met her. She was not always overweight. She was a very stunning young woman when she was in high school. Her eyes were absolutely piercing at an intensity that simply was not present when I first met her. I can only imagine the attention she got from guys in high school. That also would have driven me up the wall if I had started dating her and saw what she used to look like. I would have been wondering if there was some way we could get her back to that size.

And I guess there was. She also posted photos of her when she was 31 years old, and she had lost the weight. She looked really good at that time, too. I imagine she gained the weight back after she gave birth.

In the end, there are a number of reasons I'm glad this went no further than that one night. There are other women that I wish had ended after hanging out only one time, but I'll get to them much later.

ENMU Radio/TV Department, Part 6: The Bad

Yesterday, I confessed that I was partially to blame for my inability to get a good career in broadcasting after I graduated from college. Keep in mind that I was working full time in the industry at the end of my schooling, but there was just no way I was going to ever make very good money.

I honestly did not put as much effort as I should into becoming one of the best Radio/TV students at Eastern New Mexico University. This was because I focused so much energy into the Theatre Department. That happened because I more in common with those students. I didn't have the same connect with the students in the Radio/TV Department. This was because the primary focus was on producing news and not entertainment programming.

I did express a desire to do something more entertainment-related, but the Radio/TV faculty didn't help me much there. They could have suggested I go elsewhere, but retention is always an issue at ENMU, and they weren't ready to lose a student to a program that would be more geared for a career they were more suited for.

I should point out that I am not the only Radio/TV student who felt like he got the short end of the stick. There were several others who came up empty-handed after graduating. In the Class Notes of the Alumni newsletter, this one person actually wrote that he had an air shift at an all-volunteer radio station in the middle of nowhere and made it sound like a major accomplishment. But that person wrote a rather humble essay in the Alumni Directory five years ago. He didn't crow about his "professional" acheivements, but focused more on his family.

Probably the largest issue was the work-study program. If you were lucky enough to get in, then you had all the opportunities practically handed to you on a silver platter. If you were on work-study, you got to spend up to 40 hours a week learning all of the ins and outs of every section there at the Broadcast Center. And it seemed like the powers that be never really worked very hard to keep students from abusing the program. I know students who would clock in anytime they were at the Center, so they would get paid during classes that were held there. There were students who went too far, like some would clock in before a weekend assignment and clock out when it was over, expecting to get paid for the 36 hours they were away.

It should be noted that work-study only paid minimum wage, which was $3.35 an hour at the time. But if your schooling was already paid for, it just provided you with a lot of extra money for non-essentials, like pizza and beer.

I tried to get into work-study and filled out the paperwork for the financial aid. I was rejected because my parents made too much money. And it probably didn't help that I was able to pay all my college expenses upfront. From the school's perspective, I didn't need financial aid. However, I noticed that a lot of the students appeared to be better off than me were enjoying all the benefits of learning every detail about the department and getting a paycheck every two weeks.

So, how were they getting on work-study? I have one theory, but I could be completely wrong. I refer to this as the "Emancipation Scam." All the students' parents made too much money for them to qualify. However, if they stated that their parents no longer claimed them as dependents, their own financial situation would show that they were in dire need of funding for college. They would then qualify. When I put in my application, I had to include a copy of my parents' tax return. It was very easy for students to dummy up a fake 1040 showing that they weren't being claimed and submit it to the Financial Aid office, which had no way of verifying if the information was real.

Another issue with the work-study is that there were actual paid positions for students in the TV News department that wasn't necessarily connected to work-study. One was the Student News Director. However, they tended to award that position to the student with the most experience. That student got there by being on work-study.

I knew none of the upper classmen in the Radio/TV department before starting school. The other students who got on work-study likely learned of the cheat from students they knew who got there before them. They knew what to do. I didn't, and my mind was not devious enough to come up with something like this. I was (and still am) basically an honest person. Even in my financial aid application, we mentioned that my mother had taken a leave of absence from her job and the family had taken on the expense of an extra child (Johad) that year. None of this swayed the powers that be.

I don't know how the department operates now. I know that they do a little more with producing entertainment, but the larger issue is having the accessibility to all of the aspects of broadcasting the university has to offer. A few years ago, I had hoped to pay a visit to the school and see how the Radio/TV department handles the current student load. That didn't work out.

I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I were a student today.

ENMU Radio/TV Department, Part 5: The Good

From last week's posts, it would appear that a lot of the problems I encountered in the Radio/TV Department at Eastern New Mexico University had to do with the choices I made at that time. This is partially true. However, I would like to use today's post to point out that I had a lot of great opportunities to prepare me for the real work at ENMU.

As I mentioned last week, ENMU had an outstanding reputation for its Radio/TV department. They would make use of the latest technology to put on a quality newscast and local PBS and NPR programming.

They had two TV studios in the Broadcast Center, one that was strictly for use by the students. The equipment in there was older, but still very useful in learning the basics. Once you got a grip on the old equipment, it was easy to learn the new stuff.

The FM station, also located in the Center, was automated, with the exception of live NPR programming. Once you learned the ropes, it was fairly easy to run and you were able to get other projects around the station accomplished. I never worked on the board operator side of that. I only worked in the News department, but saw how everything worked. For the most part, the board operators just sat around and chatted. One person said all they did at night was talk about sex during the shift.

The TV News department had an exceptional faculty, who really knew the importance of journalism and how it related to presentation on TV. There were several classes dedicated to learning how to write the news and produce video segments for the newscast.

They also had the PBS membership drives. I volunteered for a few of those, mostly operating camera. At times, I would run the audio, which was actually more difficult than operating a studio camera. Dr B, the head of the Radio/TV Department, hosted one I worked at and made reference to me while we were on the air.

As you can see, I had a lot of chances to succeed in the Radio/TV department and land a better job when I graduated from college. I have to admit that I am mostly to blame for my shortcomings. During my senior year, I felt like I wasted three years in the Theatre Department when I should have spent that time building my credibility in broadcasting. (I'll be going into detail about the whole Theatre experience later.)

At the time, I felt like I was doing everything I could to be the best Radio/TV student around. I look back and I see that was not the case. But I will admit that there were a few obstacles that I was not certain I could overcome. These issues I will explore with tomorrow's post.

This is a really short post. I was hoping I had a lot more positive things to say.

Life has its quiet moments

Sometimes, you have to stop and look at things a little more closely to see something unique and unusual.



The funny thing is that there are other videos on YouTube that show the same thing. I guess we all had time to kill while filling our gas tanks.

ENMU Radio/TV Department, Part 4: Senior Year

After a spectacularly abysmal junior year, I was ready to just get my final year of formal education out of the way. Originally, I was supposed to be able to graduate in December of 1985. However, during my junior year, there were two classes required for both my majors that were offered on the same days at the same time. I knew then that I was in for the full four years. I wanted to finish in 3 1/2 years so I could feel like some sort of genius for once.

The year before, the Radio/TV Department was on the cusp of falling apart. The followed the departure of Dr. B the year before and the unexpected departure of the new department head in January. Two new faculty members were added. The department was starting to feel like it was getting back on its feet.

I decided that I was going to do one more Broadcast Workshop in TV News. No one tried to stop me. I had auditioned in previous years to be a reporter, but I never made the cut. This time, I was going to try to be a field cameraman. We had to do a lot of reading up on the equipment (which was different from the field equipment I used in Advanced TV Production). We had to pass the test before we could go out on assignments. Because it was taking so long for the tests to be administered, I actually was proactive and asked what I could do for my four hours a week. They said I could go out and shoot weather videos. These would be short video clips that got used in the background of the weather forecasts. I drove all over town finding nice visuals for the newscasts. No one ever complained about the content I brought back.

Finally, we got to take the test on the field equipment. We all failed, but I got the highest score. It was a very tough test. The News Director had us take another test. We all failed again, so we had to take a third test. This time, we all passed because it had questions from both previous tests. The News Director gave us a stern lecture about learning how to use the equipment.

Since we passed, we could finally go out on assignments. I got to do a number of different stories around town, but nothing really special. But then again, nothing really special ever happened in Portales, so I don't know what I was expecting.

I had one more semester left. I signed up for Broadcast Workshop and was going to do TV News again. But I finally got a full-time position at the radio station where I had been working part-time for the past 18 months. Since I was going to be working the overnight shift, I dropped a lot of classes that were not needed for my degree plans.

The final class I had to take was FCC Regulations. It was at 9am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. At the beginning of the semester, the new department head Dr. P, said that attendance was part of the grade. If we missed a certain number of classes or were tardy a certain number of times, our grades would be reduced 10%. If we continued to miss classes, it would drop another 10% and so on. Because of that overnight shift, I almost never made it to class on time and missed more than my allotment for a passing grade. I spoke to Dr. P about this predicament, but he assured me that he understood my unique situation and agreed that my absences would not count for more than 10% off my grade. I got a B for the semester. I was glad there was one person in the department I could count on when I really needed it.

At the very least, I had a full-time job when I graduated from college. I remember that right before commencement, we were in our gowns and getting ready to go into the arena for the ceremony. One of the people who scaled the heights of the Radio/TV Department was saying, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have a job!" But I knew he didn't have much to worry about because he was really good looking. That's why he was one of our newscast's main student anchors. I was right. He eventually progressed and became the Vice President and General Manager of a TV station in Terre Haute, IN. He still looks good.

Looking back, I know I could have done better in the Radio/TV Department if I had just concentrated on that area. Instead, I was torn by my passion for live theatre and spent too much time trying to climb the ladder in that department, without much avail. My experience there will serve as another series in the near future.

Next week, I'm going to examine the good and the bad in the Radio/TV Department and what I could have done about it to keep from being such a loser.

ENMU Radio/TV Department, Part 3: Junior Year

Prior to starting my junior year, I had landed a part-time job working at a radio station in Clovis. I thought this would help my status in the Radio/TV Department.

Dr. B, who had been the backbone of the Radio/TV Department for more than a decade, left for another school. Dr. B had been my faculty advisor, so this meant I was going to have to deal with someone new. He was replaced by Dr. E. I believe Dr. E was from India. I didn't really get to know him very well. I only met with him once during the Fall semester to figure out my classes for the Spring semester.

In the fall, I took the Audio Production class. It was taught by Dr. G, who had taught my Beginning TV Production class the year before. A few class sessions in, she took the class into the radio production studio. However, she told some of us more experienced students to go into the main FM studio and the staff would show us some more advanced stuff. Since I was working part-time at the radio station in Clovis, that qualified me as "more experienced." After the class, she told the four of us that we were too advanced for the class and she wanted to set us aside in an unofficial "Advanced Audio Production" class. We would have to do five audio projects, which were to be aired on the FM NPR station. We would only have to show up on class on Mondays, when she would be lecturing. We would spend the other two class sessions working on our projects.

For my projects, I did a series titled "Backstage," which focused on the productions put on by the Theatre department. In addition to the two mainstage productions that semester, I did shows on a senior's recital and the Evening of One Acts. I thought they turned out very well and I enjoyed actually doing a series. Everyone else did one-off projects that weren't connected to each other.

So, all and all, it was a decent, but not groundbreaking semester. Even though the radio station I worked at changed owners and format and became the talk of Portales and Clovis, I still was not well regarded in the department.

I had signed up for the Advanced TV Production class for the Spring semester. Dr. E was teaching it. In Beginning TV Production, we learned how to use the equipment in the studio. I knew that students in the advanced class learned how to use the field equipment. I was looking forward to this. However, on the first day of the class, Dr. E spelled out what was going to take place during the class. He said there was going to be a lot of lectures and discussion of theory in television production. For our final project, we would produce a five minute news magazine-type segment, which would include an in-studio interview and film footage. I was stunned. This was not the class I was expecting. We were not going to learn how to use the field equipment. I did not feel like I was going to get the experience I needed to work in the television industry. I was strongly considering dropping the class.

Two days later, Dr. E did not show up for class. Dr. G was there instead and announced that Dr. E had left his position the day before and wouldn't be returning to teach at ENMU. She then asked about his plans for the class and if we had any comments. I spoke up right away and told her that I thought the class would be about creating projects with the field equipment. Everyone else chimed in that this was what they also wanted. Dr. G agreed to this lesson plan. Since she had to pick up a lot of his classes, she agreed that we would meet in class once a week and spend the rest of the time working on our projects.

During my sophomore year, the faculty announced that students in the department would only be allowed to take four Broadcast Workshops in their degree plans. They were having a problem with too many students signing up for the workshops and not enought space to place them. This ticked me off at the time because I felt like I had wasted one of my workshops on TV Ops during my freshman year and that I hadn't really learned much of anything in the TV Newscast.

I took the request to heart and did not sign up for any Broadcast Workshops during the 1984 Spring semester or the 1984 Fall semester since I only had one left. I really felt like I was losing ground. However, I noticed that all the other students did not abide by the request. They still kept taking the workshops and there were no repercussions.

I decided to use up my "last" workshop in the FM News department during the Spring 1985 semester. I had to go through an audition. The News Director, Ms. K, who was a graudate student, went ahead and approved me. She told me that one of the things I needed to do was read the paper on a daily basis.

Everything was fine the first few weeks. I came in twice a week, two hours a day. I was learning the ropes, how to write news stories and conduct interviews to get soundbites. We were about to get to the point where I was going to do live news announcements. However, there was a change in command. A Radio/TV student, who had graduated in December 1984, came back to ENMU to work a full time position in the FM News department. After he graduated, he had gotten a job with the station KRSY in Roswell doing the news, but he was only there a couple of months before he quit. I think they were making him sell advertising while he was out covering stories. I don't think he was Ms. K's boss, but it was definitely a two-boss situation.

For some reason, he didn't approve of anything I did. And this carried over to Ms. K, who actually seemed to like me before. I think the main problem was that I was only in the program as part of the Broadcast Workshop. One of the things the advisors told us was that, under no circumstances, were we to work more than four hours a week in our workshops. I guess there were liability issues. So, a problem would arise when I hit my two-hour mark. There was always work that needed to be done and they only seemed to have those assignments available when I was about to leave. In addition, if I came to the station early to read the Albuquerque Journal before my shift started, they would express disbelief that I wasn't helping out right away. I think Mr. S and Ms. K were used to students who were on work-study gladly volunteering to stay extra and help out. I was not on work-study. (In a future post, I will go into detail about issues with the Radio/TV department's work-study program.) Pretty soon, all I was doing was filing stories away and they would send me home early. I didn't get to write any more stories and I didn't get to announce.

Once, I came in and they weren't around. I took initiative and called out and got an interview for a story. They came back and I told him I had done the interview. Without really looking at me, he replied, "That's great, can you file these stories?" A few days later, he asked about that story. I told him that I had previously informed him that I had conducted the interview and handed the tape to him. I also added that he basically ignored me. He said I should have tried harder to communicate with him.

I got a D for the Workshop. I got the grade during the summer and called up Ms. K. She told me I got that grade because it seemed like everything they told me went in one ear and out the other. I told her that they weren't letting me do anything. She also told me I didn't try hard enough to do more. At this point, I realized I had wasted another Broadcast Workshop.

So, yeah. My junior year in Radio/TV was pretty terrible. However, I was able to scavenge something out of it. Twenty years later, I was living in San Jose and looking to get back into radio. The local newsradio station had a part-time position available. I knew that my actual experience at ENMU wouldn't really qualify me for the position. However, I also knew that the person doing the hiring wouldn't be able to verify anything, so I lied on my resume. I put down that I wrote the stories, conducted the interviews and announced the news. Only the third part was an actual lie. (However, I did announce wire copy while at the college AM station.)

I actually got that job and it turned full-time within six months. In 2009, I was contacted by ENMU regarding its upcoming Alumni Directory. I was told that I could write an essay explaining what I had been up to. I used that opportunity to gripe about the way I was treated in FM News and bragged about how I was working in the 10th largest city in the United States. However, before it got published, I was laid off from my full-time position and shafted back to part-time doing overnights on the weekends. I suddenly remembered the essay and was able to change it before the deadline. It was not quite as harsh, but I still still able to make a few jabs.

I know that Ms. K went on to work for some women's academic foundation in its PR department in Albuquerque, but I'm not able to find anything solid that she has done lately. As for Mr. S, I was aware that five years ago, he was working in the academic world teaching college journalism. At first, I thought that he never really had a job in the real world, but I recently found out I was wrong. He did work for three news outlets in New Mexico, including at KOB-TV in Albuquerque. However, each position only lasted about a year. He has spent way more time working in academia. I should also add that he got a doctorate in education.

But I still don't feel like either one ever accomplished what I was able to. It's too bad I never got to rub it in their faces.

ENMU Radio/TV Department, Part 2: Sophomore Year

I became more entwined in the Radio/TV Department during my second year in college. I had gained some good and bad experiences my first year and was looking forward to increasing my chances of working in broadcasting after I graduated from college.

But I still had some rough classes to get through. The roughest was a class intended to improve our ability to speak, and for the life of me, I cannot remember the actual title of the class. I will preface it by saying that at Eastern New Mexico University, there were at least four levels of classes at ENMU. They were one, two, three and five-credit courses. Under normal circumstances, the number of credits indicated the level of difficulty in the class. Some of the beginning Math classes were five credits and required attendance five hours a week. Most classes were three credits, or three hours a week. Both the one and two-credit courses were about two hours a week, with the one-credit Physical Education classes (required) running two hours a week.

This particular class was a two-credit course. The schedule listed one hour-long class on Monday and two non-credit workshops which we were required to enroll on Wednesday and Friday at the same time. What was supposed to happen is the entire class was to meet on Mondays for the lecture. Then, we were to be split into two separate groups, one of which would attend the workshop on Wednesdays and the other on Fridays. This would account for the two hours to match the number of credits. However, the professor, who was the college TV station's General Manager, didn't see it that way. He made us attend all three days, had lectures, quizzes and homework assignments every day and there was little actual "workshop" time to improve our speaking abilities. It was practically at a difficulty level of a three-credit class.

His tests were also very challenging. Even though they were mostly true/false, we would have minor changes in the sentences which were hard to pick out. However, once I studied really hard for an upcoming test. I went through and marked the answers that I knew. When I went back to figure out the rest, I noticed I had marked all the answers I knew as "true." I thought for a moment. Is he devious enough to give us a test in which all of the statements are true? I decided he was and marked the rest "true" and handed it in. I was the first to finish. A few others completed their tests about the same time. When we were done, we were allowed to leave the classroom while everyone else finished their tests. We all came to the same conclusion that all the answers were "true." A little while later, the professor came out and told us we would know how we did on the test by the number of answers we marked "false," because they WERE all "true."

I had really been struggling in that class and I was looking forward to having my grade improve because of that test. However, the professor announced the next week that he had lost the tests and the would not count toward our final grade. AAAAUUUGH! I felt lucky to get a B in that class.

For my Broadcast Workshop that semester, I decided to work behind the scenes of our live TV news broadcasts. They had a number of positions for people to work. I was a camera operator in the studio. It was fun getting to run the camera. A little less than halfway into the semester, they had us switch positions, but I was assigned to a different studio camera. I felt like I wasn't really getting a variety of experience. About 2/3 of the way through the semester, I asked the student Floor Manager (with other students present) if we were going to switch positions again. All of the students in the studio chimed in and said they wanted to try out the other duties. He said he would look into it, but we never did switch again.

But that really wasn't that big a deal, because the next semester, I got to take Beginning TV Production and learned all those duties anyway. The only thing was that we weren't dealing with an actual broadcast in class, so a lot of the edginess was removed. But we did have a good time. That same semester, I was also taking the Beginning Directing class in the Theatre department. For one of my TV projects, I brought the two actors I had directed in a scene from "Teahouse of the August Moon" into the studio and shot it using the three-camera method. It actually came out pretty good.

That same semester, I also took an Announcing Techniques class. It was an evening class taught by the General Manager of a radio station in Clovis. It was a good class, and we mostly worked on learning how to do live announcements. One evening, our teacher was unable to come and Dr. B substituted for him. That was the night we were supposed to perform TV spots that we had written. Dr. B asked me to be the TV director. I suddenly felt like the top Radio/TV student.

One of the other students in that class, Daz, told me she hoped the teacher would offer her a job at his station. I was actually hoping the same thing for myself, but I didn't know how I would approach him. Daz wound up getting a job there the next year. I got a job at a different radio station in Clovis.

I felt like I had laid down the groundwork for a stellar junior year in the department. This also paralleled my feelings about the Theatre department as well. However, as we'll see in tomorrow's and a future post, I was wrong on both counts.

ENMU Radio/TV Department, Part 1: Freshman Year

I am finally getting to the meat of my college experience. I can write all I want about my friends, enemies, roommates and women I wanted to hook up with, but the real reason I went to college was to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. What I am going to do for the next few weeks is dissect what I went through in the two majors that I declared.

I decided to go to Eastern New Mexico University because their Radio/TV Department had an outstanding reputation for being THE college in New Mexico to learn about Radio and TV broadcasting. They had their own FM and AM radio stations and PBS TV studio. They had the latest in equipment and frequently updated to include the latest in technology.

My mother was shocked at my initial choice for a major. She thought I was only going to minor in Radio/TV and major in something like Computer Science. I liked computers and knew how to program in Basic, but that really didn't appeal to me as something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. As it turns out, Microsoft Windows started making headway in 1985 and everything I would have learned before that would have become completely worthless. (At the insistence of my Mom, I took one computer language class during the summer of 1985. We had no way of knowing that would be a waste of time.)

When I pre-registered for college, I signed up for the Broadcast Workshop class. In this, you could work in any of the different areas of broacasting that they offered. There was AM Radio, FM Radio, Radio News, TV Operations, TV News and Special Programs. If you were smart, you would try to do something different every semester.

For my first semester, I thought I'd start by seeing what it was like to be a Radio DJ, so I signed up for AM Radio. I learned how to play records, talk on the air and announce the news and sports. I used that opportunity to be completely goofy on my show. I pretty much winged it without really knowing what I was doing. However, once I was reading the news and there was this one story that took place in Masschusetts. Every time, I kept garbling the word "Massachusetts." Dr. B, the head of the Radio/TV department was listening. He called me up while I was on the air to tell me I had mispronounced it. The next time I had to read the same story, I stumbled again. He called again and asked which state had Boston as its capital. I said, "Massachuetts" without goofing it up. He said, "That's the way you're supposed to pronounce it."

One problem with the station is that before I got there, it was a REAL college radio station. The students had complete control over the programming and played the latest bands and the newest music. But the semester I was there, those in charge changed the format to Adult Contemporary and we were forced to play only the songs that fit into that genre. It really took a lot of the excitement out. The only exception was the "Blue Plate Special" program during the lunch hour. That meant we could only be a typical college radio station for one hour each day. A couple of years later, the students were able to get the format changed.

In the Spring semester, I signed up for TV Operations. I learned how the programming got on the air at the PBS station. For some reason, I was late in signing up for a slot and got stuck doing Ops for four hours every Saturday nights. I didn't realize what kind of impact that was going to have on my social life. I also didn't realize that working Ops at night meant that I wasn't going to learn how to switch to put the videotaped shows on the air. The general manager didn't want the students screwing things up during "Nova," but didn't have a problem with it during "Sesame Street." All I did was clean the VTR machines and cue up the tapes. That turned out to be a waste of a Broadcast Workshop for me.

I'm going to extend my freshman year into the summer 1983 school session, even though I was technically a sophomore at that time. Basically, all I did was take the Introduction to Communications class. This class was required in order to take the TV production class. Most TV/Radio students take this during freshman year. I was persuaded by Dr. B to take an Introduction to Broadcasting class that was not on my degree plan.

Under normal circumstances, Introduction to Communications would focus more on broadcasting. However, the professor teaching it during the summer was in the print journalism department and he placed a lot more emphasis on that. One thing I should point out is that our print journalism department sucked. If you're going to go to college to learn how to work at a newspaper, you need to go to one that puts a student newspaper out every day. Ours only came out once a week. I can only imagine that would only help journalism students at ENMU get work at neighborhood weeklies. I probably would have done better in the class if there was more emphasis on broadcasting.

But sophomore year was when the fun really began. That will be next.