Thursday, March 07, 2013

2013 Critical Path Project

Yesterday was the due date for the 2013 Basic PTM Class Critical Path/Rube Goldberg project.  It has become a real tradition and rite of passage for the program and this year did not disappoint.

I'd juggled their schedules such that the first class of the day was cancelled so they could do last minute work.  When I got to work the place was mostly empty.


Except of course for the handful of students crashed out on the floor.  They did appear to be pretty well on schedule, but I guess some folks still wound up with a long night.

The rest of the class trickled in and all of a sudden it was 11am and time to go.  We had to hold for a few minutes for the head of the school to arrive.  Along with him we had a crowd of on the order of 50 people including a film crew in the process of documenting the School of Drama Centennial.  Eventually everyone had arrived and we got started with explanations...



And then the moment of truth - the first trial:


There was some griping from upperclassmen students who felt that since there was a hitch right off the bat that the run should not count as a first trial success, but acting as commissioner on the spot I decided that if the problem is with the very first step - requiring no reset - that you get an automatic Mulligan.  So that makes this a first trial success.  I think that's the third time.

This class took a lot more care with the visuals.  So much so that I might have to give some guidance on the editorial content in the future.  One of the groups used "first day of school" and another did the current presentation season of the School of Drama including a falling Angels wall and black Spring Awakening trees.  Another group did "coming of age" but it looked like their theme was actually "penis."

So next year maybe a "no genitals" instruction.

I made a couple of appearances in the artwork.  Here's an example:


Along with Susan, Peter, and Dick.

All in all another successful project.

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