The holidays have finally arrived! What better way to celebrate them then to enjoy the 29th Victorian Stroll in Downtown Troy?
On Sunday, December 4, from 11-5, Downtown Troy and the BID (Business Improvement District) will host the 29th annual Victorian Stroll. Walk from store-to-store and view exciting windows in some of Troy’s favorite shops. After that, enjoy the 100 different attractions that the stroll has to offer such as street performers, music, dancing, and storytellers. There will also be rides, refreshments, a craft show, and many other exciting activities that people of all ages can enjoy.
Be sure to stop by 279 River Street for The Sage Colleges: A Winter Wonderland decorated storefront. After a long week of completion, the storefront opened its doors on Black Friday to the busy streets of Troy on Troy Night Out. The exhibit features different trees decorated from departments such as: nursing, admissions, nutrition, education and psychology. There will be story time for the kids as well as a visit from Santa. Education majors will set aside time to read holiday stories and art students will help kids make crafts.
Photo credit: Albany.com and eventurestudio.com

2. When are you graduating?
May 2012

3 How did you become interested in roller derby?
I had been wanting to do roller derby since I heard there was a Troy team freshman year of college. I finally decided to join up when I spent the summer working in Troy (I’m from Rochester) and I had time to dedicate to training and try outs. It’s not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle! It requires a lot of time, dedication and determination.

4. How long have you been on the team for?
I joined the team’s fresh meat program in June and I graduated to the team in September. It’s funny because I couldn’t really skate before I joined, but they are such supportive teachers I caught on very quickly!

5. What is the best part of roller derby?
I don’t know if I could pick a best part of roller derby! I guess my favorite thing about it is that incorporates everything I love: athleticism, creativity, ambition, feminism and a great sense of community. Everyone is there because they love it and they WANT to be there. This fosters a loving and positive environment and really allows me to push myself. It’s amazing how much we psyche ourselves out, roller derby doesn’t let you do that. It turns off that voice of insecurity and empowers you to take on any challenge.

6. What is the worst part of roller derby? if anything .
There are definitely times that are hard in derby. I’d say being a student sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the costs of gear and dues, but that’s how we keep the league going. Also, I sustained a major ankle injury right before I was supposed to test to be on the team. I can not tell you how frustrating it is to be injured and watch your team mates skate around and have fun. It was definitely a learning experience though. I have much more awareness of my body now and I can take better care of myself.

7. I see that the players all have their own funky names, what is yours and how did you come up with it?
My name is very complex. It’s like an onion or Shrek; it has many layers. First I was blessed to get the sick meat name “Zander Fish”. Eloda really impressed me by picking a meat that also happened to be a character from Buffy, my favorite show of all time. Because my meat name was special to me, I didn’t want to stray far from it. My name just sort of hit me one day as I was brushing my hair. I wanted a name that embodied my relationship with derby. The past couple of years had been a struggle for me; my self esteem had taken quite a beating from school stress, failed relationships and ongoing mental health issues. Derby had resurrected a spirit in me that had gone missing in my life. In practice, I would fall so hard on my ass it would radiate in my spine but I’d still have this drive saying, “Get up. You can do it”. It was the first time since I was a kid that I felt I could in fact do anything I wanted to, I just had to get up when I fell and try again. “I can do it” I thought. “I can” evolved into “I. Candy” because it was catchy and a play on words. It’s sweet but hard and strong, just like the true me that took so long to find. And thus, Zandy I. Candy was born.
Photo credit: Zack Zoll

Black History Month 2011

The Sage Colleges will proudly host a series of culturally rich programs and educational events commemorating Black History Month throughout the month of February.

“Lift every Voice!” is the chosen theme for Sage’s 2011 celebration of black Americans who have shaped our country’s history and continue to do so. Established in 1926, Black History Month is a time for reflection and remembrance and Sage is honored to continue this tradition with a variety of initiatives and activities.

Black History Month Feature Program

Lift Every Voice Gospel Choir Celebrating Black History Month
(Free & Open to General Public)
Friday, February 11, 2011 | 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Historic Bush Memorial Auditorium, Russell Sage College campus; Troy, New York

General Public: Please register through the Office of Student Life (518-292-1753).

Please join us as we Celebrate Black History Month 2011 together!

The Black History Month Advisory Committee is also proud to officially partner with two student clubs at The Sage Colleges. This year additional support and guidence is being provided by the Black and Latina Student Association (BLSA) at Russell Sage College and the Sage African, Latino, Asian, and Native American (SALANA) Student Organization at Sage College of Albany. Both clubs have been instrumental in making Black History Month 2011 a month to remember!

Porter will read from his most recent book, And Grandma Said, a chronological account of the major events in history and ceremony, which have been orally passed down through the generations. From the story of creation to the beginning of the clan system, And Grandma Said includes sacred rituals, spiritual beliefs and teachings that have never been written down and officially recorded until now.

The Sage Community is invited to attend a keynote address and book signing with the author.

Tom Porter: Mohawk Chief, Author, Elder Spokesman
The Sage School of Education Spring Speaker Series
Tuesday, February 1
6 p.m.
Bush Memorial Hall, Troy campus

Please call (518) 244-2326 for more information.

 The Sage Colleges have two separate galleries, Opalka Gallery at Sage of Albany and Schacht Fine Arts Center at Russell Sage, in addition to the James L. Meader Little Theater at Russell Sage. Hopefully, this feature will highlight a student’s success and inform both faculty and students from both campuses of the hard work and creative ideas passing through Sage.

Coming next Wednesday, I will be featuring our first artist. So stay creative, stay original, and hopefully we will be seeing you here next week.

Troy, NY—- In today’s blog I will be writing about performance I have seen in the past two months. I went to see on Nov. 15 at 7pm at Proctors Theater. What performance you may ask. Red Baraat. The music is a infusion of Bollywood music and rock.

When you came into the G.E. Theater the whole stage was used for the band and a dance floor.  To the left hand side they had a bar for people over the age 21.The crowd did range from 21- 45 years of age and there were a lot of families.  It was fun uplifting music that had you dancing the night away. It was a laid back performance, which made the audience feel comfortable to dance with their friends and family and some just by their selves At the end of the show they introduced themselves.

The next show I will be writing about is White Christmas which was shown from Nov.22- 28^th at 7pm and 2pm shows on weekends. White Christmas is a show straight from Broadway directed by Irving Berlin.

The show is about two showbiz putting on a show in a Vermont inn.  On their adventure they find friends on the way. The dancing was fantastic. The actors were tap dancing in wonderful Christmas costumes. They had a fantastic Christmas Tree as the center piece of the set. The back drop of the set was cabins that people rent out, to give the illusion of the Vermont atmosphere. It is also a musical so the actors did sing and the sound wonderful.

The last show I will discuss is Christmas Carol at Proctors which was on Nov. 30^th at 7pm. Everyone knows the story about the Christmas Carol. You have scrooge and how he is mean to his family and co-workers. One night on Christmas Eve he gets visited by three ghost and they show him his past, present and future. The performance at proctors kept your interest by the costumes the set design and the light design. The set and the lights do a lot. Even though there is one generic set it sets up the scene and the lights change the mood, time of the scene and the characters. The actors also were believable, which many people can’t pull off. When actors are believable the audience believes in the value and moral of the story and that what makes a play fantastic.

This blog for today look out for the rest of the week for more blogs. Upcoming is a blog on “Nut Cracker”, “For Colored Girls”, “Sister’s Christmas Catechism.”

By: Shari Council

Troy——– In today’s blog I will be writing about three shows I have seen and actually took part in. The plays are as follows “ Nutcracker”, “For Colored Girls”, and Sister’s Christmas Catechism.” I will give a synopsis of the plays, discuss my involvement if necessary, and express my likes an/or dislikes of the plays.

The Nutcracker at Proctors Theater was performed on Dec. 4^th at 7pm and Dec. 5^th at 2pm. I attended the Sat. Dec. 4^th performance at 7pm. The performance was wonderful. The Nutcracker is a play expressed through dance. The Nutcracker is about a magician who makes an enchanted gift for a little girl at her families Christmas party. He outs a spell on the party so no one notices what he is doing. When the girl opens the gift the adventure begins with the toy solider and the battle of the mouse king. Her going to magical kingdom and becoming queen of the kingdom and having performers entertain her with dance.

The costumes were fantastic, they really embodied the characters personalities well. My favorite costume were the dancer who were suppose to be from china because I love the fashion of china and even their dance moves would represent the evert less movements dancer form china have.  I also liked how skilled the dancers are. You can tell they have been dancing professionally for a long period of time. I loved that you can see and feel a connection between the dancers. You instantly know their relationship with each other by how they are so comfortable with each other on stage and how they are committed to their characters.

In the play “For Color Girls” I was stage manager/ Light Tech. and it was a wonderful experience. My role was basically to make sure everything was going accordingly to plan. Also, my job was to make sure the light cues would be at the right time, that all the light were on everyday and none ever went out, and to make sure I tell the sound tech when her cue was. Another task I had to do was to take care of my actors. Make sure they had all they need, and make sure they were at the rehearsal on time.

Let me explain what the play is exactly, “For Colored Girls” is a play written in a series of poems about one woman’s experience on her outtake of life. It deals with pertinent issues that a lot of women have been or are going through such as: rape, abortion, cheating, and many more.They play splits this one womens story into six different chracters,lady in brown, yellow, green, blue, purple and orange which symbolizes different colors, differtent shades, different problems, but we all can come together for a common goal.

“For colored girls” will be running another production in feburaary for Black History Month so make sure to look out for that.

The sister of catechism is a play that is a comedy. It is about a sister that is trying to find out what happened to magi’s gold? She uses humor about the biblical times to set the setting of the play and also to lead up to her question. The scene is set up in a classroom with students. She interacts with the students and audience with her comedic wits. She goes through several people from the bible to find the answer. She even brings audience members on stage to prove her point. I like that it is a comedy and a mystery.

This is my blog today and for my next blogs I will be writing about upcoming shows at Proctors Theater and also writing about my overall experience as an Intern at Proctors Theater and this will be my last blog. Thank You for all reading my blogs.

Troy, NY——— In this last blog I write about upcoming shows and also my experience as a Proctors Intern in Marketing.

On Dec. 21 at 8pm Handel’s Messiah Rocks comes to Proctors Theater. “Handel’s Messiah Rocks explores the Mystery of Faith, the Power of Love, and the Hope for Peace. Led by the melding of Handel‘s original work for orchestra and voice with the contemporary vernacular of rock, each element of the production contributes to the exploration, raising questions of light, darkness, sadness, and beauty; illuminating the journey of the Messiah.”(www.proctors.org)  During my internship I got to take part in helping to Market this show a lot.  During this show there was an opportunity to have a church choir perform on stage with the professionals for the whole show. My job was to find list of churches, and to help contact them. It was a very hard task because a lot o f church’s have other concerts they put on during the holidays. It took months and months of marketing to churches and even marketing to the community about the show. It all came together three weeks ago when a church official called back and said they would love to perform. Our major hurdle that was worrying everyone was finally complete. The next task was to get people to buy tickets which were doing very well but we wanted a sold out show, we didn’t get there but very close to it. We hit local churches with email of postcards and flyers to get people out to see it and it worked and still working. If you want to see the show tickets are still on sale. Worship the lord and an amazing concert full of wow and pizzazz. See how the marketing works?

Now the next show I wanted to talk about is Fiddler on the Roof with starts Jan. 4^th -9^th. Fiddler on the Roof is a Broadway play that has been in production for years and now it’s coming to the Capital Region. This Tony Award winning musical is   “based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem, Fiddler on the Roof has been lauded by critics again and again, and won the hearts of people all around the world. Filled with a rousing, heartwarming score, which includes “Tradition,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “If I Were A Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset,” Fiddler on the Roof is a timeless classic.” (www. proctors.org) This is a great opportunity to see this musical for low prices because in NYC it will cost twice as much. I defiantly recommend seeing this show and there are still tickets available as of now. With this show it sold itself so I didn’t have to do too much marketing for this. All I did was post it on my facebook and send a few postcards and flyers to the Jewish community this show is selling well.

Being a Proctors Intern was really fun for me. It helped me grow in the marketing aspect in theater, I met wonderful people that I worked and leaned from. They made me learn that whatever you do in life you must love what you do and it will show in your attitude you present towards your co-workers and your work. I also learned that it’s a lot of hard work and determination to get people to see a show and you have to be optimistic and believe in your self that you will get the job done. A lot of times you have to relay on your co-workers for help and have a good relationship with everyone in the office helps. One thing I love about Proctors is that they really are a family. A lot of jobs try to portray that just to get you to work their but they really are concerned about one another at Proctors. They even hang out after work. All in all I love my internship and the people who have taught me a lot and will teach me more next semester. This is my last blog so I hope you enjoyed my work. See you guys next time. You can always read my blog on solatina.com/ a Latinas dream.