Ned Donovan - Ithaca ‘12

Hey everyone,

So I’ve been here at school freaking out about life and the things I have to do, because everything is so hectic right now.  It was only today, that I had a sort of epiphany, where I realized just how confined to my own program I am right now.  Looking at the trials and tribulations of my friends and family I realize just how much less stressful my life is than I thought.  Specifically my brother and my father have been having truly stressful and trying months.  We’ll start with my father. My dad (Michael Donovan, and no, not the director who is all over my resumé; they are different people) is a city councilman in Allentown Pennsylvania. Earlier this year he was assaulted by some teenagers he asked to stop go-karting in a park they were not allowed to be riding motorized vehicles in.  One kid punched him in the face and broke his cheek bone.  My father, did not push the full wrath of god upon this kid to make an example of him, instead he talked with the boy, the judge, and the boy’s father, and came up with a suitable juvenile sentence.  I can tell you if I had been hit, I would have gone after him in a heartbeat.  Later on this year my father went next door late at night to ask his neighbors to quiet down and to bring their barking dog inside.  When he knocked on the door, he was answered by an angry woman who was screaming at him, and she slammed her glass door in his face.  The door shattered, covering him in glass, and he (wisely) left the scene after calling the police.  Soon after he was served with two cases, one for criminal harassment, and one for destruction of property (she maintains that he broke her door).  The harassment case was thrown out by the judge at the end of the summer, and the DOP case was voluntarily removed by the complainant after receiving a letter detailing the penalties for the consequences of wrongful use of civil proceedings and abuse of process.  You can read the details here on Bernie O’Hare’s blog.  The time between the charges being dealt, and the dismissing of the cases was a few months, however, and over that time many biting personalities in Allentown were able to take potshots at my father over the case (Bill Villa being the #1 instigator).  These people have been coming after my father a lot recently, and this is the other trial my father is constantly facing.  On his public blog he hopes to allow a forum for people to get ideas through to the city council.  As with all political public blogs, these bring out the best and worst of people.  Recently he’s been getting a lot of the worst from Bill Villa and his supporters.  In that blog post I just linked, Mr.

Hey everyone,

So it’s been a while since my last update, mostly because the last couple weeks have been extremely stressful.  But here we are, it’s September 7th, and I think I can finally start settling into a normal schedule.  Upon arriving here the theatre department was dealing with the Dillingham Renovations (which are awesome by the way), auditions for the fall mainstage season, and just the acclimation of the new freshman class, as well as the returning students back into the swing of things.  Auditions went very well, and I’m pleased to say I’ve been cast as Shem in Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden.  Last year around this time it was really hard to come in and become adjusted to the new atmosphere and classes, but with that year of familiarity having gone by, the year has just started without a hitch.  I’m really happy with all my teachers and classes, and I’m excited to get down to work.  Review is coming up in only about a month, or a month and a half…so it’s time to buckle down and get stuff done.

Hey everyone,

So on April 22, we put on the freshman cabaret here at Ithaca College. Despite a few complications and scheduling issues we got it off the ground and running. We did songs from shows such as: Spring Awakening, All Shook up, The Drowsy Chaperone, as well as standards such as “I’m a Woman” by Lieber and Stoller. All in all I think it went pretty well, there were some minor problems but such things happen in a cabaret.

Thanks to everyone who got involved, and all the people who stuck it out despite scheduling conflicts, and to all of you who couldn’t be a part in this but wanted to, I’m sorry that we couldn’t make it. Thanks to Mitchell Murdock for filming the affair and editing it together. Thanks to Jen Shaw and Lucy Gram for Stage Managing and helping me get everything together. Thanks to the School of Music for the use of Presser Hall. Thanks to Laura Intravia and Omar Najimi for playing for us and being flexible about what songs were in it (many of them got added the day before). Thanks to my lovely girlfriend Nicole who put up with me through random rehearsal times and barely got to see me.

Hey everyone,

The title of the post says it all.  I’m thoroughly at a loss while at home, so I’m hitting the job search hard so as maybe to distract myself from having nothing to do.  On Tuesday I go into rehearsals for “A Year With Frog and Toad” at the Maine State Music Theater, so that will be a good start to filling my time.  The roles are uncast as of yet, because it’s going to be cast internally from the cast members they have, so I will post later on roles and whatnot.  I have a lot of possible things I’m doing, but it all hinges on how well I can schedule them.  I’ve tried my hand at dishwashing at the Dogfish Cafe in downtown Portland, and hopefully that goes well and I can continue there.  I’ve applied at a few other restaurants and hotels in Portland, so now the waiting game begins.  I also will probably be doing some odds and ends jobs at Waynflete School (my old high school) for the maintenance crew, which will be fun.  All in all my summer looks a little packed jobwise.

Other things I might be doing.

The school year is over.  It’s weird to look back and think that I have completed one quarter of my time in college.  Weirder still to think that I only have three more years of schooling to go (that is unless my life plan changes drastically and I head off to grad school).  It’s amazing to me that this year has actually happened, that my life has actually been altered in the way it has.  Over the next week or so I’ll be posting on my experiences in the last 3 weeks, from review to getting ready to leave.  I won’t do it in one long post, that just seems silly.  All I will say about review, however, is that I got what I expected, and I am continuing as a Musical Theatre major for now, as always I will have to work as hard as I possibly can in order to remain in the program, but that is true for everyone, not just me.  In this post I want to talk a bit about an experience I had right at the end of the year, on the last night that Dillingham was open to students.