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Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Eight:  Puppets,

My first theatre class at Guelph was with Jerrard, and he came out with a clown nose, and I took my notes with green and blue markers in the front row.  Four years later, after working on numerous shows with him and experiencing the many visages of Jerrard he and I are both leaving.  Today I helped organise and participated in his final lecture here at Guelph, and I learned how to make and create characters with puppets.  This was fascinating to me, and I spent a lot of time today reflecting on what I had learned in that first class and what I have no learned through my undergraduate degree in Theatre Studies.

I remember Jerrard explaining the structure of theatre in Canada, as well as a variety of other theatres around the world.  How performances work and how to write a review.  I remember my final exam for that course and writing an analysis and my top five plays experienced through that course.  I remember our first performance was at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton and I was separated from my friends and I had to ask another patron to help me find my seat, and I was seated beside Jerrard, and I was so nervous, and he asked me at intermission how I liked the show, and was so nice to me.  He’s always been so nice and supportive to me, and I am grateful.  He met me in a strange time in my life.

I feel like most people in this program met me in a strange time in my life, but I think we get along.  I am so proud to say that I got my undergrad here at Guelph, we have a fabulous program, and we have fabulous professors who care about learning and not just grades, and we have a fabulous theatre, and despite neglect from the university I am proud to say I go to Guelph.

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