Summary of the week: We finished up for the semester! We cleaned up after the festival, cleaned up our project room, and gave our final presentation!

Breaking Down Festival

We restore the board game room to its original state, moving the shelves from the window alcove and back against the walls. We then took down the vertical slice by the elevator. We then cleaned the fab room and our project room over the course of the week, putting all of our materials together in boxes. There was a lot of hardware to return and some good materials left over, so we consolidated the materials and organized the tools. 

Final Presentation

We worked on the final presentation and ran rehearsal with the faculty. Based on the feedback we got from Shirley and John, we changed some parts of the presentation and ran more rehearsals in the RPIS, now with the umbrella entrance. Our restructure focused our presentation more on how our design plans changed with playtesting and how our final iteration improved over time. Lauren had an idea to play some storm sounds while we walked towards the front. The sound file sadly didn’t load on the presentation day, but the umbrella entrance was cute. We did our final presentation and it went well. The faculty asked some great questions during the Q&A that allowed us to reflect on our progress and accomplishments. Afterwards, the faculty said our presentation went well, so we were happy with the results. Charlie and Angie then wrote our post mortem for future drama and ETC collaborations, as well as joining the team for getting all the archive work submitted in time. 

Final Thoughts

This project has gone through many changes since week one and when we started this blog, incredibly twists, turns, and many, many bad catchphrases (“Just a bite,” “a hecka,” “why didn’t I think of this sooner!” “the stooooooorm,” the list goes on.) We worked very hard to get to the point we are at now, with a successful run under our collective Curtain Call belt, and I am very proud of our team for doing so. We overcame many challenges, including but not limited to: having to work around the Line and Form string installations, having to move all our items over the week of Thanksgiving, having to build everything at the ETC and then move it to the space, not being able to run the entire installation until the week of the show, having less time than other teams to complete our project, the list goes on. Despite the hurdles in our path, our team struggled and strived, completing our task and exceeding expectations. Our audience was thrilled, our point of contact was grateful, and her advisor was appreciative. While there were things that could have been better, and lots that we learned along the way, our team managed to make the most of the situation and really come together at the end. We made someone cry, I feel that’s enough achievement on its own. Sure, this person was primed with the show they just watched, but I’ve never made someone cry before. It was kind of amazing. I hope the team is just as proud of their work as I am of them, and that this semester stays with them for a long time to come (… in a positive manner, preferably.) 

I’d also like to thank Lauren in this section, who wrote a majority of our blog content. While the rest of the team stepped in for their parts, Lauren really brought all the articles together in a cohesive and clean manner. We couldn’t have a blog this nice without her! 

-Angie