He is a substitute teacher at an uptight elementary private school. But he’s no regular substitute; no, he’s a rocker kicked out of his own band. If you’re in his class, you are now learning to be a rock band and blow everyone away with your skill.
This is the plot of an instant-classic 2003 Jack Black film: “School of Rock”. Now is the chance to see it live on stage, put on by local theater group The Augusta Players.
Scott Seidl, director of the upcoming “School of Rock” performance, shares that there are “certain expectations from your audience when a show is based on a movie”. While this does come with some stress, Seidl says the Players “try to meet and exceed those expectations”, and that the crowd won’t be disappointed. This is the first time that the Players have done “School of Rock”, and the audience is sure “to be blown away by the incredible talent on the stage” and have “the best time” due to the show’s humor.
The show was picked, and the license applied for in December 2022. This is when scenery, lighting, and choreography began being discussed. All of this occurred before rehearsals even began.
Auditions began in October 2023. Four individuals will need to play their instruments live, so they auditioned early. From there, those young actors were put into “music lessons to play the instruments and learn the show”. A similar thing was done for Jamie McAteer, the actor playing Dewey Finn, the lead played by Jack Black in the 2003 film.
The rest of the cast auditioned in February, with rehearsals beginning mid-March. First, they learned the music. Then, they learned the choreography. Then, they worked on the acting portion. After that, it was all combined.
While rehearsal schedules vary show-to-show for the Players, the beginning standard is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 7PM to 10PM, with occasional weekend days as well. Dance-heavy productions include much more rehearsal than ones that aren’t as dance-heavy. There is a lot of rock music in the show, so they have had to make sure they aren’t hurting anyone’s vocal chords as they rehearse for this particular show.
Tech week is its own beast with its own schedule. Saturday is all-day load-in into the theater. From there, they spend much of their time that week spacing, rehearsing, and working with all the technical elements in the theater to perfect the show.
Seidl described the show weekend process, “Actors arrive and try to let go of the outside world for a bit and get their head and heart into the show. That’s followed by vocal warm-ups and notes from the previous rehearsal or performance. Then it’s into costume and make-up. If there are lifts in the show or any kind of fights, there will be a lift call to run all of that safely before the performance, same thing with any stage combat. Then it’s a final word of encouragement and run the show!”
Seidl says the process for “School of Rock” “has been a blast”. The show is silly and fun, and the actors that make up the cast fit that description as well. “School of Rock” has a very similar feel to “Mamma Mia”, “Sister Act”, and “Elf”, all beloved past performances by the Augusta Players. These are all shows based on movies that “have a good bit of silly humor”. He says everyone will enjoy this show for any occasion-date night, family night, a night out in Augusta, or anything else one could think of. It’s “going to be a great time for all ages and backgrounds”.
Seidl shares that he’s been with the Augusta Players since September of 2017 and loves the people he works with there. He says the Players as an organization is all about making a difference and creating a safe space where “anyone and everyone can participate”. He says the entire theater district-Le Chat, the Imperial Theatre, the Miller, the Maxwell at AU, Jessye Norman School of the Arts, the Mini Theatre, and more-is looking forward and growing together, which he enjoys. For directing specifically, he says he loves the entire process-from collaborating with other departments to research before rehearsals to planning and then being surprised at what the actors bring in to moving and entertaining the audience to even watching young actors grow as people through the years.
Getting these shows on the stage is a long process and most people don’t even realize the work that goes into it. Come see the product of a process that started in December 2022 and see “School of Rock” live at the Imperial Theatre May 3 at 8PM, May 4 at 2PM and 8PM, or May 5 at 3PM. Information and tickets can be found at www.augustaplayers.org or by calling the Augusta Players office at 706-826-4707, M – F, 10AM to 4PM.
Pre-professional schools are getting harder to get into, and the higher education system seems to be slowly adapting to their quick-raising standards. Dr. Timothy Maze, head of the medical biology program and professor in the biology department, noticed this gap at a 2015 conference about meeting students where they were. In 2018, they launched a new biology program with less courses that led to the most graduates in years in the biology department. However, the subset of biology students headed to medical schools suffered because they weren’t challenged enough for the competitive nature of these schools. Noticing this as the pre-med advisor, Dr. Maze got to work, and the medical biology program was born in 2022. Dr. Maze sums the program as designed to help with “the preparation of talented students for challenging careers.”
When compared to a regular biology degree, medical biology is more focused on human biology, whereas a biology degree is full spectrum. At the end of the day, medical biology is still a biology degree, so if a student graduates with this degree and decides not to go to medical school, they can still get the same jobs as biology majors. When compared to health sciences, medical biology is practically all science, whereas health science also includes the psychology, sociology, and business aspects of the health field.
To make sure the program is full of “responsible students that are going on that pathway” to pre-professional schools, there are some GPA requirements along the way to stay in the program. Dr. Maze explains that this way, if a student is struggling and not going to get into medical school, the medical biology team of professors can help them transition into biology and find a new path to be on.
If you wanted to switch your major from biology or exercise science, the program is designed in a way that-especially for sophomores and freshman-you can easily switch between the two. Dr. Maze’s advice for students considering switching would be if you have “any inclination, go medical biology”, and if you are “unsure but like science, go biology, and you can always switch in later”.
This academic year was the program’s first full academic year running. The biology department was afraid it would hurt the number of students in biology, however, it has not. The program has 2 cohorts: sophomores and freshmen. They have been trying to find organic ways to get the cohorts to work together, so that they can build a culture that is competitive but supportive. This group is taking difficult classes, but Dr. Maze hopes a good, united culture can make it not only bearable, but enjoyable. The first year has been an overall success.
Looking forward, Dr. Maze is working on building connections and making the program stronger. Higher education moves slowly sometimes, and he is trying to spur along the movement to better prepare his students for medical school. Fall of 2025, the program will be offering an EMT certification course to create career ready students. They are trying to set up clinical experiences, seminars with clinicians to highlight all the jobs in the medical field and working with summer experience groups to provide students with more opportunities. They are taking student feedback on courses to figure out how these classes work best. The program has a promising future, and Dr. Maze, Dr. Hayes and Dr. Donaubauer are all working to ensure the program’s success for future classes.
For more information on the program, Dr. Maze would love to discuss it with you. You can contact him via e-mail at tmaze@lander.edu.
Copyright 2024 Alyssa Campbell
Posted to Campbell Curiosities
04-15-2024
Published in the Lander Forum
April 2024
People find their sense of self in the oddest of places. One’s sense of self ought to come from the things that matter: their personality, their actions, and their character. However, society has begun to impose the idea that sense of self comes from so many other places. You have the newest iPhone? You matter and are an awesome person. You have shoes that are off-brand and falling apart? You are a loser who no one cares about. You have a million followers on the social media platform everyone is using this week? You are a mover and shaker; those who don’t like you are wrong. You don’t have social media because you don’t have the time to pour into it? You are a loser; your only hope is one of the valuable people save you.
What we own doesn’t hurt or help who we are. What we own merely shows who we are. If a child is unwilling to share his toy cars on the playground although he has 35 of them, we don’t say the toys made him selfish. We say he is selfish and that his parents need to teach him to share. If someone avoids owning any fur, the lack of fur in their closet doesn’t make them a person who cares about animals being killed for fashionable purposes. They care, so they don’t buy the fur. Parents may get a small child a puppy to teach him responsibility. The lack of responsibility or the forming of it isn’t because of the puppy; it’s because of the child choosing to take care of something. What we own reflects who we are, not vice versa.
When one owns expensive things, society puts a greater value on the person because they own a piece of whatever brand it is. Society as a whole thinks the brand makes the person better because the brand is valuable. However, all that brand name indicates is that the person is either wealthy or secretly drowning in debt to uphold their expensive, fake lifestyle. When one has a lot of followers or friends on social media, they call them “my” followers, as if they own them. The idea of owning these followers makes one feel as though they are the most important because they have all these people following them and watching their lives. Someone with expensive things, a million followers, and a seemingly perfect life could be mean, hateful, and faking it, but they are going to feel like they are the best person to walk the face of the Earth. Meanwhile, someone else with a pure heart who genuinely cares about people could feel terrible about themselves because they have Walmart shoes, two friends, and a life no one envies. We let the idea of owning a brand or owning a following define who we are when it really means nothing.
Ownership also goes beyond the tangible and visible. A common phrase when someone does exceptional at something the common phrase is that they “owned it”. This idea of ownership affects how one thinks about themselves. For me, I’m a runner. Running gives me a sense of accomplishment and adrenaline few other things do. When I have a bad day and am feeling worthless like I’ll never go anywhere with my life, a good run changes my sense of who I am faster than anything else. A specific example would be time trials for the 1600 in track my junior year. Time trials are a very fundamental part of season that decide whether you get to compete in the first meet or not. These are no joke. I was having a bad day and felt like an utter failure. Then, I ran a much faster than anticipated time and it totally changed who I felt like I was. I went from feeling out of place and worthless to unstoppable and invincible. That one run changed my entire sense of self. Accomplishing things and “owning” them changes our sense of self.
Ownership is a word that is so closely tied to our sense of self although it shouldn’t be. What we own defines who we are in our minds and the minds of others; that is just an unfair societal truth. Ownership of the tangible and metaphorical ownership of the intangible give us our sense of self as we see the reflection of who we are, the title of owning a brand, and the owning of a loved ideal.
Copyright © 2024 Alyssa Campbell
Written: Spring 2021
Posted to Campbell Curiosities
03-14-24/03-24-24
Combined to one piece (as originally written)
04-06-24
Writing is a special thing.
Telling someone you love them, telling someone they’ve hurt you, telling someone how something made you feel...that’s important. Spoken word is important.
Letting someone wake up to a text that you thought about them, posting your truth, random texts through the day...that has become important to our society. Typed medium is important.
But writing, writing is special. Writing, you subconsciously think through every motion as you bear out your soul. Each letter has its own personality, unique to your hand. To write is to bear your soul, to spend your time.
Your handwriting, like your soul, is unique to you.
Paper is special.
A computer is great, but it can’t hold your thoughts. A paper is a web; a paper catches what you mean.
Nobody discusses the “new computer smell.” It’s the “new book smell,” the smell of paper.
Paper is special.
Hand-written notes bear out the heart.
Hand-written notes take time.
Hand-written notes wear the soul in each letter. Hand-written notes can be read again and again.
My generation has lost the skill of writing. We’d rather type, as it’s faster. We’d rather text, as it’s convenient. We’d rather just say it, as it takes even less time.
Writing is special.
Writing is unique.
Writing is an art.
Writing can’t be lost.
Copyright © 2024 Alyssa Campbell
Written: February 2024
Posted to Campbell Curiosities
03-08-24
Alice in Chains. Elton John. Guns ‘N’ Roses. Neil Young. Iron Maiden. Colin Hay. Ghost. Bob Dylan. Turnpike Troubadours. Nirvana. Andrew W.K.. What do all these artists have in common? All have inspired one Brandon Mullis, an acoustic singer/songwriter from North Augusta, SC.
Mullis’ life has always revolved around music. He says if he had no talent to create it, his career would still involve music-whether it be as a show promoter, band manager, or even radio DJ.
He pulls inspiration largely from Neil Young, but really from “Bob Dylan to Iron Maiden and everything in between.” He called Jason Isbell’s album “Southwest” an “otherworldly” album and said Elton John would be his dream collaboration out of any artist dead or alive. He would “kill to write with Jason Isbell,” stating he would be “unworthy to write for him, but together {they} could probably come up with something great.” Some songs he wishes he had thought of the lyrics or lines to are Verlon Thompson’s “I Will Come Back Again,” Bruce Cockburn’s “Pacing the Cage,” and Bob Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In.” In Bob Dylan’s song, he cited especially the line “and the sands will roll out a carpet of gold for your weary toes to be a-touchin'.” To him, the mark of a good song is simply the ability to strip it down to just the singer and the instruments.
At 14, Mullis was dating a girl named Robin. Robin went on a weekend trip, and Mullis wrote his first song: a “corny, sappy teenage I Miss You” song. Before that, he wrote parodies, but that was his first experience with something completely original.
He went into journalism and TV news for a bit, winning the Edward R. Murrow Award.
Now, he writes music about more than just his high school girlfriend leaving for the weekend. Now, he writes serious songs and travels all up and down the East Coast performing said songs. His creative process isn’t just sitting down with a piece of paper seeing what he will write today; rather, it is a process of coming up with an idea from the “wild blue yonder,” recording it in his voice notes, and coming back later. It’s all about capturing nuggets of ideas.
“Dust on the Old Days” is a touching, heartfelt song on Mullis’s 2022 album “Highways and Stars.” He wrote it about a friend who had passed. Mullis pulled large inspiration from Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” when it came to the song’s dynamics, poetry, and discussion of memories and moments.
His favorite songs of his to perform are “Mama Can’t See Us Now” and “I Dream of Highways,” both from his “Highways and Stars”’ album.
His favorite song he has written is also the one he feels best represents him as an artist, writer, vibe, and message. From his 2022 album, “The South Shall Rise Again” is his pride and joy. He feels the name, however, may attract the people that do not want to hear it and push away the people that do. The song is not one of the South revolting or rising in power, but one of love, acceptance, and the Christian example the South claims to set. It is a self-critical song on the racism and hatred in the “loving, Christian” South. The South shall rise again when love is abundant, “the kindness of strangers becomes customary,” and the South is a “bright shining beacon in a turbulent sea for all time.” Mullis says he feels he will never write a better song than that.
Currently, he is in-between albums, in a time he describes as one where an artist can “turn off the mind and experience” their world and performing. He has some songs for a future album, but not a full album yet.
Coming up, he is “beating the trail and getting {his} music out there.” There is a lot of “playing at this bar or this restaurant or this festival” on his calendar coming up. Friday, March 8 he will be playing at the Carolina Ale House on Robert C Daniel Jr Parkway in Augusta, Ga. The following day, he will be at the Shamrock Festival in Lexington, S.C. He plans to play in Charleston, S.C. this summer and shows all the way from Florida to Massachusetts.
To Mullis, long-term legacy and success will not be measured by numbers. This is a means of connection and impact for him. To be able to impact and connect with strangers is more important than pulling in big numbers. Connection over math.
Years down the road, he hopes people will still not only find his music, but also be able to connect with and relate to it. He hopes streaming services live up to the idea and promise of preserving artists from the “Taylor Swifts and Metallicas down to the Brandon Mullises and Carroll Browns and everything in between.”
Brandon Mullis is a genuine artist who is easy to talk to and with. He cares about and loves what he does, which is evident within moments of speaking to him. North Augusta should be proud to say it produced him and his genuine passion for his craft.
Get to Know Brandon
Blues (think BB King, Muddy Waters type blues), he just feels he couldn't properly capture the genre's essence
Copyright 2024 Alyssa Campbell
Posted to Campbell Curiosities
03-07-2024
The Aiken Camellia Society hosted their 70th Annual Camellia Show at St.
Thaddeous Episcopal Church in Aiken on January 20,2024. These shows give a wonderful opportunity for camellia enthusiasts to show off and compete their blooms. From 1-5PM, the doors were open to the public, and they could come in to see the vast arrangement of beautiful flowers presented. There were 452 blooms this year, an impressive number given the recent frosts.
The blooms submitted the most were Sea Foam, Mathotiana, Pink Perfection, and Purple Swirl. Mack and Ann McKinnon won best in show with their Elegans Supreme. The winner of the novice category, a category for those who have never won an award in a show, was Charlotte Wiederman with her Professor Sargent. A complete list of winners and their blooms can be found on the American Camellia Society website because the Aiken Camellia Show is sanctioned by the American Camellia Society.
Because they are sanctioned, they must record all results and send them to the American Camellia Society. President Paul Cloessner explained that after all shows for the year are finished, whoever’s blooms win the most awards across the country will get a prize. There was also a camellia sale going on for the first time, and plenty of blooms were sold to
bloom enthusiasts both new and old.
If you missed this year’s Aiken Camellia Show, the Augusta Camellia Society is also putting on a show on February 3rd at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Augusta from 1-5PM. The Augusta show is very historic in the area. For more information, email augustacamelliasociety@gmail.com. If you can’t make the Augusta show, the Aiken Camellia Society has two more major events this season: an auction February 8th and an exhibition on March 2nd. Both events are free to attend. More information can be found on the Aiken Camellia Society website or through contacting President Paul Cloessner at paul.cloessner@att.net.
Copyright 2024 Alyssa Campbell
Posted to Campbell Curiosities
03-06-2024
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