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A Busy Start to the Semester!!

Hi everyone!!

I just wanted to give a quick update on what has happened so far this semester!! I moved back in to Holy Cross a week early from winter break for rehearsals for “Little Women: The Musical,” and it was so fun to just be able to focus on rehearsals, and spend time with others in the cast throughout the week!!

A photo of the cast of “Little Women”!!

Our performances for “Little Women” were these past two weekends, and I cannot believe the show is over!! It was very exciting to be able to perform this show for the Holy Cross community, which we auditioned for in September!! My family also got to come see the show, which was exciting!! They got to come to the Pit Party after the show, where the department has food and desserts for the cast and their family and friends!!

A photo of me and my friend Emily at the Pit Party!!

While I am not in a Theatre Department production this semester, I have started doing research on campus!! I am working in Professor Findlay’s lab, which studies genes involved in fertility in male fruit flies. While I have really only started setting up experiments the past few weeks, I am excited about doing more research!! This has been an extremely busy semester so far, but I look forward to pursuing more opportunities on campus!!

Thanks for reading!!

Rebecca McSweeney

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Fall Break, First Rehearsals, Family Weekend, and a Fiftieth Birthday Party!

Hi everyone!!

I cannot believe that October is almost over!! I went home for all of Fall Break, which was really relaxing, and I also spent some time getting ahead on work!! Here are some highlights of my life since my last post:

Going home for all of fall break was so relaxing, and since I had all of my midterm exams the week before, I was able to spend more time getting ahead of the reading. My friend Kristen also got to come home for the first weekend, so we were able to hang out and get food!! It was great to get the chance to hangout with her for the first time since we left for the year!!

A photo I took of Kristen while waiting for our food!!

The week I got back to campus, I was called for my first rehearsals for the Theatre Department production of “Little Women: the Musical”! I am excited to be in the Ensemble for this show, which goes up around the beginning of February, and is the first Theatre Department musical at Holy Cross!!

The weekend after Fall Break, I actually went home again for my aunt’s fiftieth birthday party!! We had it at a local restaurant, so we had a lot of delicious food, and I got to see a lot of my extended family, which was really nice!!

The cake from my aunt’s 50th Birthday Party!!

This weekend was Family Weekend at Holy Cross, and my roommate’s mother came up and took us both out to dinner!! We went to Via Italian Table here in Worcester, and I ordered the chicken parmesan and chocolate torta, which were both delicious!! October was pretty successful overall!!

My roommate Anna and I before dinner on Saturday!!

Thanks for reading!!

Rebecca McSweeney
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Classes and Theatre for Semester Two

Hi everyone!

I cannot believe I have been back on campus for three weeks! It has been really exciting to start back at Holy Cross for my second semester!! Here are some of the things I have been working on now that I am back on the Hill!!

The Holy Cross campus looks beautiful after snow!!

This semester, I am taking the second semester of my Montserrat (War and Coming of Age), Organic Chemistry, Biology 162, and Philosophical Inquiries. In my Montserrat, we are reading Don Quixote, and in my biology class we are learning about genetics, which is really interesting to me! I have never taken a philosophy class before, so my class is challenging me to think in a way I have not had to before!

The program for “Legally Blonde: The Musical”!!

This past weekend, ACT, the student theatre group on campus, had their production of Legally Blonde: The Musical!! I helped with costumes backstage for some of the performances, and I got to watch the show on Sunday!! Everyone involved in the production did an amazing job performing a really fun and upbeat show!! I had never helped backstage for a show before, so it was a great experience for me to help with a show in a different way than I had before!

The set for the opening number of “Legally Blonde”!!

I was also just cast in the Theatre Department’s production of The Skin of Our Teeth! We had the first few rehearsals this week, and I am so excited to work with so many of my friends on this production!!

Thanks for reading!!

Rebecca McSweeney
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Finals and My Last Few Weeks on Campus

Hi everyone!

I cannot believe my first semester of college is over!! I finished my final exams yesterday, so I am officially on break for the semester!! Even though finals were stressful, I still enjoyed the past few weeks on campus!!

A photo I took when it snowed last week!

Last week was finals week at Holy Cross, which was stressful since students had a lot of work to do before they could go home and enjoy their break. I had exams for Chemistry, Biology and Psychology, so I tried to balance my study time for each. My Chemistry and Biology professors also had review sessions, where students could come and ask questions, so I also took advantage of those.

Other than studying for finals (which I think went well), I spent time attending events like the Christmas Tree Lighting and the Festival of Lessons and Carols. At both of these events, I got to hear Christmas songs and hymns performed by the different music ensembles at Holy Cross. Everyone did an amazing job; I now look forward to attending these events next year!

The Nativity scene on campus!

The performances for the Directing class’ one-act plays were during my last weekend on campus, and both of the pieces I was in went really well! Four of the one-acts were performed each day, and I thought all of them were amazing. I also got to support some of my friends, who were acting in or directing other pieces.

The program for the One-Act Festival!

My first semester at Holy Cross was amazing! While I am excited to relax over winter break, I am looking forward to the rest of my Holy Cross career!

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca McSweeney
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Thanksgiving Break and School Since Then

Hi everyone!
I’m sorry I have not blogged recently; the past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I cannot believe my first semester is almost over! Here is just a quick update on 3 parts of my life in the past few weeks as I begin preparing for final exams/papers/projects:

  • Going home for Thanksgiving: Having a few days off for Thanksgiving was really nice; I was happy to spend time with my family and eat some delicious food! I also got together with some of my friends for a “Friendsgiving”, where we all made a dish and had dinner together!! It was a lot of fun to hang out with them, as I haven’t been able to see them often since moving to Holy Cross!!
A photo from “Friendsgiving”!!
  • Major assignments: I have spent a lot of time studying/ working on schoolwork, as I have had a paper or exam for pretty much every class. I have papers due in Psychology and my Biology lab next week, and I handed in a paper for my Montserrat class today. I’m definitely going to be working hard until the end of the semester!
The painting “Musicalité des Nymphéas, Les Deux Saules” by Gabrielle Thierry, which I am writing my final Psychology paper on!
  • One-act play rehearsals: As I mentioned in my last post, I am in two one act plays directed by Holy Cross students! “Pullman Car Hiawatha” by Thornton Wilder is directed by my friend Emily, and “The People” by Susan Glaspell is directed by my friend Ros. Both of the directors- and many of my fellow cast members- were involved in the production of Fuenteovejuna, and it has been so fun to continue working with them!

Thanks for reading!
Rebecca McSweeney
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Highlights of the Past Few Weeks

Hi everyone!
I am so sorry that I have not blogged recently; I’ve been really busy the past few weeks! The Theatre Department’s production of Fuenteovejuna opens tonight, and I am so excited to perform this show for everyone! Here are three ways I have been spending my time over the past few weeks:

  1. Rehearsals for Fuenteovejuna: Since the show opens tonight, I have been spending a lot of time at rehearsal. Our first dress rehearsal was this past Monday, and it was so exciting to begin rehearsing in our costumes! Dress rehearsals have been going really well, so hopefully the performances will be even better!

    Me in my costume for “Fuenteovejuna”!
  2. Doing schoolwork: I know I have not really mentioned what academics are like on my blog yet, but I definitely spend quite a bit of time on schoolwork!! We are just beginning the process of writing a paper on Fuenteovejuna in my Montserrat, and I also have been studying for an exam I have in Biology tomorrow!
  3. Spending time with my family: Last weekend was Family Weekend here at Holy Cross, and while scheduling conflicts prevented my whole family from coming up on Saturday, I was really excited that my mom was able to come up so we could go out to lunch! We went to British Beer Company, which was delicious, and it was really nice just to spend time with her!

    The burger I got when out to lunch with my mom!!

I am so excited to spend more time with my family in the next few weeks; my parents are coming on Saturday to see Fuenteovejuna, and then Thanksgiving break is coming up so quickly!

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca McSweeney
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Fall Break Part 2: “Fuenteovejuna” Rehearsals!!

Hi everyone!

I hope this week has been going well for you all! My last post was about the weekend I spent at home over Fall Break, so today I’m going to talk about the rest of the week: rehearsals for Fuenteovejuna! 

Rehearsals started on Tuesday that week; it was refreshing to just focus on the show, without worrying about the other responsibilities I usually have during the week!

The poster for our production!

We spent time working on dances and singing through all of the songs in the show. Faculty from the Spanish department also came and helped people with pronunciation. When I was not in the scene they rehearsed, I typically just worked on homework.

Here’s what our set looked like as of October 13!

Our rehearsals typically went from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and then on Tuesday and Wednesday we watched movies around 7:00 p.m. We watched ¡Ay, Carmela! and Pan’s Labyrinth, since they take place around the same time as the Spanish Civil War- when our show is set.

By the end of the week, we finished blocking the show!! We worked really hard, and I’m glad I got to spend time with other members of the cast. We ate a lot of meals together in Kimball during our breaks for lunch and dinner!

Me and my friend Liza hanging out last Friday!!

On Saturday, a bunch of us went to a coffee shop in Worcester called Birchtree Bread Company; it was nice to get off campus for a bit and to bond more as a cast!

The almond croissant and hot chocolate I got at Birchtree!

I cannot believe we will be performing this show for an audience in two weeks!! I am so excited for people to see it!!

Thanks for reading!!

Rebecca McSweeney