Matthew Tackles Social Media Strategy and Campaigns

I simply do not want to be typing this blog post. I'm doing it because I am almost at a 90% in this class and I don't want to lose an easy ten points by simply neglecting an assignment. Instead of ignoring my blogging responsibility for the week, I decided to use this time to write about not wanting to do it in the first place, as this is all I can think about right now. How meta of me to write this blog post about not wanting to write one at all! I am currently on a break during my last rehearsal for "Blocked!" The show opens tomorrow, and both casts are rehearsing tonight and running the show one last time. The show is double cast because there are only four characters in the show and the department wanted more than four people to get an opportunity to perform.  Tech week is the week where all the technical aspects are introduced to a show. Usually these aspects include lights, sound, the orchestra, costumes, hair, makeup, etc. However, for our online show, the acto...

  Next weekend Ohio Northern University's first online musical premieres. The show is called "Blocked!" and was written specifically for Zoom by Ben Wexler. It isn't as cringeworthy as other streamed shows because the characters embrace the online platform instead of ignoring it and pretending they're all in the same room together. I will be making my assistant directing debut with this show. I have helped shape the show from the beginning and coach the two casts with their songs and scenes to get them in the best shape possible. I have always wanted to get into directing and this experience has been so wonderful! Just the other night when I sent my notes via email to the casts I told them how wonderful it has been to see them take the notes I have been giving them and embodying them. A couple of them wrote back and told me how great it has been having me be a part of the production. "All of your notes are so smart and I'm really grateful for them, so I j...

It's only our tenth week of classes? I don't know about anyone else, but it feels like our semester should be over by now. My body and mind feel the same level of exhaustion and depletion they do when a semester ends, but we have five more weeks left. It is not FAIR! We are 10 weeks in now, so it's the point of the semester when everything gets chaotic and busy. We have a ton of assignments/projects do. I have to memorize a scene for my Shakespeare class. I need to memorize my songs for voice lessons. I need to practice my dances for dance evaluations and getting them to the level I want them to be at before I record them for a dance reel. I am assistant directing the musical Ohio Northern University is putting on this semester which takes a lot of my evening time. I am also dancing in a pop-up performance put on by the dance department, called "Windowed Pain," which we've been rehearsing the last couple of weeks and premieres this weekend. It feels like I wor...

As many of you reading this will probably know, Jaiden and I are working with Jon C. Stocker DDS General Dentistry this semester to create a better Facebook feed for their business page. When creating out content plan for them, we wanted to show off their hardworking staff and let their patients know a little about them. We collected short biographies from them and asked them what their favorite part of working in a dental office was. Along with sharing this information about them, we wanted to share updated pictures of them. They had headshots done years ago that can be found on their website, but the lighting and staging was not very good. It also appeared that no editing of the pictures were done.  This prompted me to volunteer to take new pictures of them for Facebook and their website, and Brenda happily agreed. She asked me to come on Oct. 6, my birthday, at 7:30 a.m. and Oct. 7 at 8:30 a.m. to get these new shots. Waking up at 6:30 a.m. on my birthday wasn't exactly what I w...

This week I had to start working on a website for my business of theatre class. It is supposed to serve as a portfolio of my work as a singer, actor and dancer. I started building my website on Squarespace and ended up having a lot of fun.  Building this website reminded me of what we are doing for our clients in class. I am able to take some of the principles we are learning to sell myself as a performer and what I have to offer in a professional and creative way.  I had to recognize that my key audience is casting directors and provide them a portfolio of my work which is chic, clean and not overwhelming to navigate. Furthermore, I determined my social media voice should be mostly professional on the website, but I would allow myself to show a little more of my individuality in my about section. It took me a lot of time to put together because I had to sift through so many production photos to find high quality ones to show me off in a good light. I also have blanks on my we...

My mom has been wanting me to come home for a couple of weeks now. One reason is because she misses me, and another is because the registration for my car is going to need to be renewed soon and I need to get an E-check before it can happen. There are no places to get an E-check near Ada. The nearest place to get one done is literally five minutes from my house in Amherst. My mom told me to see if any of my friends wanted to come along with me. I got a small group who said they were interested in checking out some of my favorite places in Cleveland, but only two of them didn't flake the day before because they were too busy. Saturday morning I woke up at 9 a.m. and picked up my boyfriend, Ryan, and freshman year roommate/current friend, Zack, and left for home by 10 a.m.  I got home at noon and we chatted with parents for a little bit. My dad was closing down the pool for the year and my mom took my car to get the E-check before the station closed at 1 p.m. and I took her car to Cl...