Day in the Life, Just a Little Behind...

Continuing on, I was full of confidence about the next assignment, a day in the life of a person or persons of our choosing. My "A" on the profile affirmed that I was headed in the right direction for writing, but even so, this one was a bit of a doozy.

I picked the cast and crew of UNC's production of "Chess" to interview. If you've ever tried to talk to people running a musical when they are in rehearsal mode, you know it's like feeding time at the zoo and you're the entree. Don't get me wrong, I was used to this. Working for The Mirror, I've dealt with most of these people in prior shows, so I knew how to handle everything amicably. But talking to the cast about director Vance Fulkerson, head of UNC's musical theater program, wasn't a fun experience. The technical problems of "Chess," primarily the sound and lighting, had everyone on edge and I didn't get a lot of complimentary commentary written down in my little reporter's notebook.

But I handled it the best I could, which worked out pretty well. I knew most of the quotes I had gotten were not really helpful to the story, rather just the vented frustration of people who needed to let off steam. Typing up the piece, all I could think was that it was a good thing I wasn't doing a genuine article. Or worse yet, if these people had talked this way to a writer who completely misconstrued the story and made the rehearsal process sound like a civil war. This would have been the case, but I know how things can get behind the scenes and portraying actors, directors and stage technicians alike as venomous monsters isn't the whole story. I had to keep objective.

This story was a little more difficult to keep a focus on with one major idea in mind. Thankfully, I pulled it off while still giving everyone a modicum of their say. A word of advice to journalists covering such endeavors: get as many opinions as you can while still gauging the atmosphere to ensure you don't take things out of context.