Monday, April 29, 2013

Future Frogs rave about "No, No, Nanette"


Jessica Cook '12 brought her 6th-grade class at Infinity Prep, an Uplift Education charter school in Irving, to the final dress rehearsal of TCU Theatre's production of "No, No, Nanette" at Scott Theatre this month. 

Cook is an alumna of the theatre department. 

"My kids are low-income and many are dealing with so many problems at home, so the fact that they show up is a small victory," Cook shared. "They have been talking about your show nonstop.  For a lot of them, this is the first opportunity they’ve had to see a 'real' show. It was beautifully done and they were so impressed.  I have never seen some of them laugh so hard. Thank you for changing my children’s lives."

Afterward, each student composed a thank-you note and sent it to Harry Parker '80, chair of the department. 

Here's a sampling of what the students wrote:


"Dear TCU, Thank you so much for donating the tickets to us. We really loved your performance.  You are the BEST.  I want to go to TCU for college!"

***

"Dear TCU, Thank you for the show, all of us enjoyed it. I’m really thinking when I’m in college I want to be in theatre because there are going to be many fun projects. I’m really sure it took a lot of practice and a lot of effort to learn how to talk and all the actors were all in characters and they had a lot of fun and humor.  All of us thought that that was really awesome. Thank you again for letting us go to the show NO, NO, NANETTE and for giving us the tickets."

***

"Dear TCU, Thank you for the tickets and for the trip.  It was amazing – my first play ever.  The whole day I was talking about it to my family.  Thank you."

***

"Dear TCU Theatre, Thank you so much for giving us those tickets. We were very happy and excited that we got to see real professional art. I thought it was beautiful and well thought-out art. My favorite character was the maid. She was very funny and you would expect a maid to act like that. Even though she was my favorite, I loved all of them. My favorite part out of the whole thing was the tap dancing. I thought that was a nice touch to the whole thing. But once again I would like to say that it was well put together and really cool. Thank you so much for those tickets. To tell you the truth, I did not think I was going to enjoy a long play. I thought I would fall asleep or something. But I didn’t – I stayed up and enjoyed it all.  Don’t change one thing."

***

"Dear TCU, I want to say thank you for the performance. It was the best performance I’ve seen in my entire life.  It was funny, entertaining, and interesting. It was an honor to have y’all actually perform that, especially for the girls since they had high heels. Thank you for your hard effort. Thank you so much to the director and others that helped make this play possible."

***

"Dear TCU, You guys are cool. I really love your play, it was cool. I really love the maid, she was hilarious. I wish I could go back again because it was good, it was the bestest play ever.  I was bursting out laughing because you guys were hilarious.  My teacher Ms. Cook would be a great maid because she is hilarious, she would be a good maid too. I really loved that it was about love. The girl named Nanette, she was a good dancer. Nanette’s uncle was hilarious, he made it so obvious that he was doing something wrong, it was hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing. I hope you can do this again and I hope I can go."

***

"Dear university theatre of TCU, Your production was so great. I thought it was funny. Thank you for the free tickets and everything you did. I really did appreciate the production. I hope we get to go to it next year because I would really recommend it to the kids who didn’t get to go this year. I would recommend for them to come and see you. I hope I can go next year.

***

"Dear TCU Theatre, Thank you for letting us see the play we saw on Tuesday. The show was very funny but the maid very funny. I really liked how the place looked and it was cool.  Thank you for giving us the tickets to see the show. Before we went there we saw the campus and it was very long and big. Once again thank you for letting us see the show and have a very good day."

***

"Thank you for donating the tickets. It was an awesome show! Thank you for inviting us to the show. It is the best show I have seen and you are the best. GO FROGS!"

***

"Dear TCU, Thank you very much for a wonderful show at the theatre. All the actors and helpers did an amazing job putting the show together. I want to see another successful play like NO, NO, NANETTE!"

***

"Thank you TCU for the wonderful performance on Tuesday night. That was my first performance and to say that was so wonderful! I love that the characters did seem like if they came from the past. You guys were really awesome out there and thank you for the free tickets. I know that they cost a lot so thank you so much for the free tickets. You guys were really funny and for a love story that was a pretty good one because mostly the love stories that I have seen don’t have that much funniness, so thanks so much for that lovely performance. I wish I can go back and see more performances."

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Vote for this Horned Frog Iron Man

Michael Conway '91 of Houston has submitted a video for The Kona Inspired program to win one of seven spots to compete in the 2013 IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii Oct 12. Michael's aspirational story includes how he survived malignant brain cancer, opened a camp for youth battling Tourette's syndrome (an affliction from which he also has), and started Tri for Tourette Kids Triathlon Foundation to fund the camp.

Please click on this video link and then vote for Conway's video. Kona for the Kids!

Previously, Conway shared with us about he and his Lambda Chi fraternity brother Mark Parry '90 of Branson, Mo., who celebrated with a TCU flag after finishing the Ironman 70.3 Branson in September.

Read more TCU People stories at The TCU Magazine. 

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Cloudy with a chance of Horned Frogs


Even before the 2011 Rose Bowl Game victory in Pasadena, TCU has seemed to have a growing presence in Southern California. 

Yesterday afternoon, Bill Groeneveld '77 of Santa Barbara, Calif., noticed this horned lizard-shaped cloud floating over the Golden State. Does it not resemble one of the feisty creatures that used to make their home all over the Southwest? Pretty remarkable, we think.

Bill is a regular correspondent with the magazine, previously sharing about his TCU gear and his trip to see the Frogs beat Boise State on their blue turf. 

Read more TCU People stories at The TCU Magazine

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Friday, April 5, 2013

Horned Frogs shine at the Oscars



At the 85th Academy Awards in February, TCU was well represented! With 24-plus years of combined service at the Oscars, (left to right, above photo) Colin Deford ’94, Justin Paulk ’98, Chris Strong ’98 and Marc Istook ’98 (third from left below photo) once again came together to work on this prestigious event.  

Paulk is a fiber optic business segment manager with Bexel Corp., which supplies broadcast engineers, equipment and solutions for events like the Oscars. Overseeing his team, Paulk manages the fiber optic infrastructure at the Hollywood and Highland complex, including feeds for the main ABC production, live shots for domestic or international clients and rapid transfers of data for still photographers from the red carpet to editors at the Loews Hotel. 

Deford is a freelance technology manager and worked for Oscar.com at the awards. He oversaw the technical facilities and crew behind the Oscar.com production live from the event. Working with production managers, line producers, ABC preshow, ABC main show and Oscar.com, he helps facilitate production to keep the show running smoothly. He's also helped kick off the ball drop in Times Square in New York every New Year's Eve, managed technology for Showtime's boxing productions and a multitude of other events.
 
Strong, also a freelance tech manager for Bexel, worked with Deford at the Oscars on Oscar.com’s live webcast.  Strong has also managed the technology for the four tennis majors for ESPN, some NBA games, and then when fall hits, it’s back to a little "Monday Night Football."

Istook (third from the left with fashion designer Nick Verreos, hairstylist Tabatha Coffey and producer Tom McMahon) was on camera for TV Guide Network for his 5th consecutive year of hosting the "Oscar Awards Live Countdown."  He was perched above the Red Carpet on the bridge that spans Hollywood Boulevard providing entertainment to millions of viewers.  He has worked his way from local newscaster to the host of many national shows on networks ranging from TV Guide, to ABC.com, to Yahoo,to the Food Network, to Speed. 

"As you sit throughout the year watching events on television, tablets, phones or computers, rest assured TCU will once again be represented with utmost professionalism and talent by these guys!" Strong wrote to us.  

Read more TCU People stories at The TCU Magazine

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