and away we go

hey everyone -

thanks for checking in. my name is (an)drew fisher thompson. up with people (UWP) is finally here. never would i expect to see myself traveling in a cast of 70 students from 17 countries performing in an UWP show, until our very first day - july 10th - when i received my official name badge. the iconic UWP star logo and blue background neatly displayed "Drew Thompson" and below it "USA."



holy cow.








so i'm writing this blog a bit late. i'm currently in school finishing up my MBA at the university of denver, daniels college of business. my five straight years of education at du has almost come to an end. this summer school class is much more time consuming than i previously imagined. last week i finished a 20 page paper worth 50% of my grade. hope i did ok. with that said, i haven't much time to get around to doing any journaling or blogging. i will try to keep you updated as much as possible and as fast as possible, but no promises. you know how it is. this blog is also a means of preserving memories for myself as well.

well, here are some reflections on my first week with UWP:

first exposure - registration:
am i really doing this? really? i mean i feel like i was pretty much born into this. like its my destiny or something. after i filled out all my paperwork and got my ducks in row, they gave me my name badge. i have to wear this? i looked around the room and saw about 20-25 people i hadnt met before. after maxing out the convos with the people i knew personally - mainly staff members - matt erley, phil woods, cheryssa jensen - i had to go socialize with all the other people in the room whom i would be with for the next 5 months. awkward. so awkward. get me out of here. i made small talk with a few people and 45 minutes had passed before i knew it. i pulled the homework card and told everyone that i would see them at the opening session.

shoot. now i really have to finish my school paper. no excuses.

opening session for host fams and students:
oh man. im sitting in the same seats in the sherman center now as a student as i did when i was just a host brother a year prior. weird. that means i have to pay attention and listen. oh wait. i have to sing and dance, too? shit. i suck at that. who the heck are all these people? i found michael worcester and breton shepherd. these guys were legacy kids too - their parents traveled in UWP a long way back and knew my parents. i then met some real faces to the few students i had talked to on facebook in the weeks prior. i felt much more comfortable. and soon began to get over the shock of the program until...

first week of UWP:
here i am on a monday morning (very early by my standards) with a bunch of kids waiting for the day to begin. it started with a lot of ice breaker games, name games, similarities and differences, etc. it was a long day but fun. i get real energized meeting new people. and these people had lots of energy. but i could tell that many students were sharing the same hesitations that i had.


here comes modules. modules are a nice way of saying informal group auditions. shit, again. this is where i had to sing and dance and speak and try on a costume. the latter was by far the easiest. the former, not so much. my singing experience consists of me belting the lyrics of a song i knew and my dancing experience - well - im pretty much alergic to dancing. i break out in hives, my throat closes up, gets hard to breathe. you get the picture.

i was grouped with a bunch of really cool guys - micheal and breton were in it too. we sang, danced, read a poem, and tried on our show clothes. not so bad, really. i mean, its not to say that i wasn't really nervous, but it wasn't as painful as i expected. maybe i was just content with my performance in all areas. considering it was the first time i had done any of that. but i was nowhere near the talent of The Reed aka the moonrider himself.

throughout the week, our cast had the opportunity to meet each other formally in activities and informally between breaks. our days were broken into sections of education, singing practice, cast fitness and movement, and lunch (my personal favorite). altogether it wasn't as painful as i expected.

my castmates are amazing. there are close to 70 of us in total from 17 different countries. i'm still learning all their names and getting to know them. this will take time, but with all the memories and experiences we will share, it makes it much easier to do this.

by the end of the week, the staff put on a show presentation. this was awesome. by seeing what we would be performing it gave me a much clearer idea of what to expect and where i might fit into the overall picture. i have seen many shows in past years and enjoyed them, but this one - its going to be good. real good.

its july 19. we perform august 12. shit, again.