Canevin Theater

Canevin Theater Essay Canevin Catholic High School offers many extra curricular activities. Those students geared toward the physical challenges may choose from various athletic programs such as, basketball, soccer, and football. On the other hand, there are additional activities for those more interested in a mental challenge. These students may join such organizations anywhere from FBLA to Forensics. However, of all the extra curricular activities offered by Canevin, none excites me more than Dramatics. This paper takes a look at my last three years involvement in the annual musical productions here at Canevin. Traditionally, Canevins dramatics has been a full-scale musical production performed in the spring. Students may audition for chorus, acting or dancing parts or they may join one of the many stage crews. During freshman year, I tried out for the musical Working. Working depicted different careers through dialogue, song and dance. To my surprise, I made callbacks. When the cast list was posted, the role of Anthony Polazzo, the Mason, was awarded to me. After weeks of hard work and rehearsals, it was finally opening night. From that time on, I realized Dramatics was for me. The following year, the start-up meeting could not arrive fast enough for me. The play selected for my sophomore year was Damn Yankees. The musicals main character was Joe Hardy. Joe wanted so drastically to play baseball for the Washington Senators, that he was willing to sell his soul to the devil. When the cast list was posted this time, I was assigned to play the role of Mr. Welch. As owner of the Washington Se nators, I was expected to portray a prestigious and confident businessman who enjoyed his cigars. In one short year, I went from a mason in overalls, to a baseball team owner decked out in a suit and tie. Thats show business!Into the Woods was selected as the musical for the following year. The story line included various adaptations of traditional fairy tales. Well, if mason to owner wasnt extreme enough, what would you say about Cinderellas father? Junior year found me playing the character of an older man who marries for the second time, to a woman with two nagging daughters. In a house of four women, no wonder he resorted to drinking. Directed to use a silver flask as a prop and a fair amount of improvisation of libations, I portrayed the character of Cinderellas father as a drunk. When the final curtain came down closing night on Into the Woods, there was, however, one more performance still to come. This year Canevin had been nominated for 6 Gene Kelly Awards, including Best Musical in Budget Level 2. The Gene Kelly Awards sponsored by Pittsburghs Civic Light Opera recognizes students for excellence in High School musical theater. On the night of the awards, those schools nominated for Best Show perform on the Benedum stage a selection from their production. Extra rehearsals were scheduled, and a final practice with the Benedum orchestra was needed. I am proud to announce that Canevin was awarded the Gene Kelly for Best Costume Design and Best Musical in our division. Additionally, each year two students are asked to represent their school in a final production number. This prestigious honor is always given to two seniors. Unfortunately, this year, two of the practices fell during graduation activities. Since 5 rehearsals are mandatory, our director, Treva Rueso made her selections from the junior cast members. A fellow junior and I were ecstatic to be chosen to join members from all the participating schools in the final production number, Keep Your Eyes on the Goal. The plethora of ecstatic people applauding at the close of the Gene Kellys was phenomenal. It was indeed an honor to represent Canevin in this collaboration of students exercising their many talents. READ: Shakespeare is a well known author who wrote in th EssayI have experienced many gratifying moments in my years at Canevin, but few have been as electrifying as sharing with fellow cast and crew members their ability, courage, and commitment in creating the annual school musical. The Dramatic program continues to surprise its supporters with innovative musical theater. Through my experience in putting on a musical, I have learned what it means to work as a team. The camaraderie was intense and rewarding. I

Developing and maintaining positive union management relations Essay

Developing and maintaining positive union management relations - Essay Example The negative history of industrial relations has to be overcome for all the stakeholders to achieve greater heights of competitive advantage and productivity. Poor union relations have many impacts. Key among them is lack of cooperation between the stakeholders. It has also caused a decline on workers productivity, tarnished the credibility and reputation of organizations involved, and impacted negatively on the working conditions and pay of the workers. To rectify the situation, all the stakeholders need to develop strategic partnerships, undertake joint training, improve the working conditions of the workers, actively engage in collaboration processes, and also streamline their communication processes. Developing a positive relationship with union leaders is of paramount importance if any gains have to be made. The leaders must have exemplary knowledge in union relations to be able to effectively steer the process. Negotiation and collective bargaining skills are of outmost importance here. Managers must realize that they have incredible influence on the employees' satisfaction and productivity at the workplace. Thus they must always strive to maintain strong, positive associations with their employees at the workplace if productivity has to be enhanced and positive union relations maintained. Effective communication is one of the most basic necessities towards establishing positive union management relations. Decisions must be communicated in an effective manner, not withstanding their unpopularity. All stake holders must be positively encouraged to contribute towards the well being of the organization. Effective communication will generally lead to the establishment of mutually beneficial solutions, where by all the stake holders will feel accommodated. In the process, partnerships are formed by the stake holders, either for good or bad intentions. All in all, positive union relations must be developed and maintained at all costs. Introduction The past few decades have witnessed an emergence of strong workers and labour unions, which have been mandated by the workers to guard their own interests. Among other functions, the unions are largely involved in negotiating for better working conditions and better pay packages for workers. They are run by representatives who are elected by the workers to advance their interests on their behalf. The representatives are very crucial in determining whether the unions will be effective in maintaining positive union management relations (Union relationships, 2007). In some of the countries around the world, workers' unions have mutated to major political parties, thus having a direct impact on the population of the respective countries. Maintaining positive union management relations is paramount if unions are to succeed in their core duties of guarding and promoting the rights of employees. Having sophisticated industrial structures, like is the case in the United States, may not be important as long as the relationships between the staff and their Union representatives are not in any way based on trust (Union relationsh

Islam in the modren world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islam in the modren world - Essay Example They are representative of a radical and extremist wing of fundamentalism, which is made up of Muslims who believe that an Islamic state needs to be imposed on the Muslims in their country. They believe that this Islamic state should be imposed on its people by violence if the situation demands it and should be imposed from above. Islam’s current passage into modernity has gone through three distinct stages. These are revivalism, reform that included nationalism, and finally fundamentalism (Lawrence 20). Each of these stages has emerged out of the failures of the previous ones. These failures include the inability to attain a self-sustaining scientific and economic infrastructure, an inability to attain true independence, and a realistic alternative to a worldwide system, which leads to the marginalization of Islam and their ignorance around the world. The fundamentalist movement is aided and fuelled by a combination of factors including economic, social, and religious stresso rs of countries practicing Islam. These involve high unemployment of the youth, poor human rights records by their governments, unelected and autocratic leadership, extreme poverty for the majority of Muslims compared to extreme wealth for the well-connected members, millions of displaced Palestinian refugees, and a lack of a democratic system of government (Lawrence 40). Probably the most significant stress factor of all has to do with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has dragged on for the majority of the last six decades since the founding of the Israeli state in the 40s. This conflict has helped to fuel a lot of anger, hostility, distrust, unrest, instability, and wide spread feelings of victimization in the Middle East. The elusiveness of a peace process settlement, the status of the city of Jerusalem’s Muslim section, the status of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount’s Dome of the Rock- the third of the sacred sites of Islam, and the continued unchecked expans ion of settlement by the Jewish State act as major flash points (Lawrence 41). Another stress factor fuelling these movements is the American military in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is viewed by a majority of the radical wing of Islam fundamentalism as blatant desecration of holy ground. The formation and the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism for the Palestinians in the Diaspora, as well as within Palestine, and the emergence of various fundamentalist political groups within the occupied territory began in the later part of the 70s (Lawrence 49). Defeat by the Israelis had forced the Palestinian, and their Arab backers to acknowledge their weak points. Most fundamentalists will attribute their inherent weakness to the spread of secularism and the region’s failure to embrace the teachings of Islam and to apply its teachings. Two movements emerged, in this context, especially from the Palestinian side: the Islamic Jihad and Hamas. These movements are focused on the per petration of violent acts to show their resistance to occupation of their lands by the Israelis. However, in the aftermath of what were bloody suicide bomb attacks perpetrated by members of these two movements inside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was forced to subject the two movements to punitive measures. These included a blanket ban on the military wings of the movements, closure of various institutions used for their recruitment,