Happy Thanksgiving from FYP

Snow has fallen. The inevitability of a miserable winter hits you in the form of a 30 mph gust, forcing you to walk backwards up a hill. We haven't hit December, but you're sliding across slushy sidewalks caked with salt and mud. This is Syracuse, NY, and winter hates you.

Cheer up. Syracuse students get a temporary reprieve from the horrors of Mother Nature as they're heading out of town (or down the street) for Thanksgiving break. Carved chunks of turkey, mounds of mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie await. Sit back, take some time off from academia, and watch a few games of football with your racist uncle.

As students prepare to leave campus for a week, First Year Players hasn't taken any time off. We're continuing our first semester push with great events, workshops and meetings. Potential cast members had a chance to polish their acting, singing, and dancing skills with FYP staff at our final workshops in the past few weeks. Students took advantage as January auditions for Rent quickly approach. We also held interest meetings for Rent's stage crew, one of the most integral parts of the production process.

Our Find Your Place cabaret on Nov. 7 was a success. Student acts rocked the stage and helped raise money for Friends of Dorothy, an organization that provides in-home care for AIDS patients. A Friends of Dorothy representative visited an FYP staff meeting to discuss the organization and the importance of its work. FYP is proud to be aiding the organization in conjunction with our production of Rent.

After break, the semester will continue to wind down, which means auditions are coming ever closer. We couldn't be more excited.

For now, go forget about school and eat until your stomachs burst. Take advantage of home cooking. I know a few Americans in Britain who would love nothing more than an enormous heap of home cooked mashed potatoes.

Fall Semester Fun

Every year, an FYP staff member "mentors" a student in the spring musical's cast. Mentors provide guidance, advice and all kinds of free swag, contributing to the cast member's transition into the organization.

Unveiling mentors has become an annual spectacle- a series of anonymous gifts leads into staff members exposing their identities with flamboyant outfits, outlandish music, or even choreography. While mentor reveal typically takes place in the spring, FYP added a new ceremony for mentors Sunday.

A number of students join FYP's staff each fall without prior staff experience. This fall's new staff members received mentors to guide them through their first year in the organization, much like the cast each spring. Mentors revealed themselves Sunday with the typical fanfare and wild clothing that accompanies any FYP event.

Mentors will help the new staff members through the frenzied landscape of FYP weirdos while they work toward producing Rent. FYP has held and planned a bevy of events in the past few weeks, including acting, choreography, and music workshops and general interest meetings for potential cast members.

Attending students learned more about the structure of the organization and its friendly faces while relishing in some musical theater time. If you missed any of these events, don't worry- another general interest meeting will take place Thursday night at 8 p.m. Another acting, choreography, and music workshop will take place in the coming weeks, so please check out our site for more details.

Last but certainly not least, our annual Find Your Place Cabaret will take place Thursday night at 8 p.m. in Stolkin Auditorium. The event showcases a number of talented acts from within our staff and across campus. The $3 entry fee benefits Friends of Dorothy, which provides home care to people suffering from AIDS. We hope you'll come out to see some live entertainment for a great cause!