I'm sending in my resume to return to the Ojai Playwright's Conference. I'm hoping that all of my magical adventures that I've had in England will play into Robert Egan saying "oh yes, I do think we'll take him back. Oh yes indeed. Etc."
I considered posting an excerpt from my resume, but I don't know if that's somehow bad form? Here's the stuff I included that's happened to me since Ojai...
Experience
Conference on Shakespearean Music
June 2008 The University of Hildesheim. Currently researching the relationship between music and theatre with Dr. David Roesner at Exeter; will apply this research to a song from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and then present it at a scholarly conference at Hildesheim.
Education Intern
Dec. 2008 Bath Theatre Royal. Helped the Theatre’s Education Department as they put on a production of His Dark Materials with teenagers. Also worked with the producer, Katherine Lazare, as a personal assistant.
Production Intern
Aug. 2007 Ojai Playwright’s Conference. Specifically assisted the production of Lloyd Suh’s American Hwangap, helping the Stage Manager and wherever needed around the conference.
Crossing fingers...
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Cherry-Blossom
So Ken and I went and saw Be Kind, Rewind last night, and while walking back we passed through the "sketchy alleyway" (mildly referenced in "The Wheat from the Chavs," just before the quotation of Robert Frost), and we were talking, and randomly these cherry blossom petals started falling. We looked up, and we were standing right beneath a cherry tree. Ken decided that it was our official anime moment, and that now we could be in any anime or Final Fantasy video game.
Also, I had a date (or was it just lunch?) that I don't quite know what to make of. The cherry-blossom moment helped clense me of my anxieties about it.
Also, I had a date (or was it just lunch?) that I don't quite know what to make of. The cherry-blossom moment helped clense me of my anxieties about it.
Friday, 22 February 2008
Sublime
I was walking back to LaFrowda with Stephanie Reiches, and a thin layer of cloud had moved in front of the moon - you could still see it - and the moon was really bright. And so the light, when it went through the cloud, created a sort of nimbus-rainbow around the moonlight. It was pretty.
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Tiebreaker/Heartbreaker
Hey kids-
Just filling you in on the new KLXG updates:
In looking for a trusty sidekick, Professor Rhodes came down to two major candidates: Adelle Davidson, his long time friend and collegue, and Wendy Macleod, a wry and calculating, not to mention intensely feminist, mind. Given the choice, he decided to favor an objective business approach, and nominated Wendy for the job, although his heart was torn in two (one might even say there was a TIE of some kind). So Wendy has the job of plucky sidekick, Rhodes has asked Adelle to go back to researching Shakespeare, and to write to him, and Adelle is sadly packing her bags. Rhodes insists on seeing her off though ...
So, introducing Wendy Macleod, the Plucky Sidekick! Her super powers include:
Scene Analysis: By glancing at a room, she can easily deduce what everyone wants and how bad they want it.
Raise the Stakes/Increase Obstacle: By focusing her chi powers on the latent dramatic power struggle people are going through, she can instantly make things mean more (raise the stakes), or become harder, or both! A killer when a room full of hitmen are suddenly unable to fire with just a glare!
Women's Strike: Wendy deals +50% damage to any person with male genitalia and who identifies as a man.
But, as with Rhodes, she has many close to her who can be used against her. Her weakness is:
Sophie's Choice: Wendy's family is a competing priority to her position in the KLXG, and Professor Rhodes is in for a taste of that Women's Strike if he makes her put her job before the needs of Read, Foss, and Avery. In addition, Read, Foss and Avery could become targets, and must be extra-protected...
Be sure to vote on who will be the team's Lovable Tank, the hero who takes the most, but deals out the most damage! Who will it be......????
Just filling you in on the new KLXG updates:
In looking for a trusty sidekick, Professor Rhodes came down to two major candidates: Adelle Davidson, his long time friend and collegue, and Wendy Macleod, a wry and calculating, not to mention intensely feminist, mind. Given the choice, he decided to favor an objective business approach, and nominated Wendy for the job, although his heart was torn in two (one might even say there was a TIE of some kind). So Wendy has the job of plucky sidekick, Rhodes has asked Adelle to go back to researching Shakespeare, and to write to him, and Adelle is sadly packing her bags. Rhodes insists on seeing her off though ...
So, introducing Wendy Macleod, the Plucky Sidekick! Her super powers include:
Scene Analysis: By glancing at a room, she can easily deduce what everyone wants and how bad they want it.
Raise the Stakes/Increase Obstacle: By focusing her chi powers on the latent dramatic power struggle people are going through, she can instantly make things mean more (raise the stakes), or become harder, or both! A killer when a room full of hitmen are suddenly unable to fire with just a glare!
Women's Strike: Wendy deals +50% damage to any person with male genitalia and who identifies as a man.
But, as with Rhodes, she has many close to her who can be used against her. Her weakness is:
Sophie's Choice: Wendy's family is a competing priority to her position in the KLXG, and Professor Rhodes is in for a taste of that Women's Strike if he makes her put her job before the needs of Read, Foss, and Avery. In addition, Read, Foss and Avery could become targets, and must be extra-protected...
Be sure to vote on who will be the team's Lovable Tank, the hero who takes the most, but deals out the most damage! Who will it be......????
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Chekhov "Uncle Vanya" from the Drama Reading List
The above pun was manufactured by Clay von Carlowitz.
Last weekend I took a quick trip to Bath to see Uncle Vanya at the Bath Theatre Royal - I can't quite say it was the most amazing Uncle Vanya ever, as I'm not an Uncle Vanya conessieur (spelling?), but it was good. It was funny, it was quick, and the only part I missed was some chunk in the middle because an old lady fainted two rows in front of us (again, this was a moment where I was apalled by the amount of 'stiff upper lip' shown, though I myself was showing a good deal by simply sitting and watching while the ushers quietly rushed up and carried her away. See the entry 'Stiff Upper Lip.').
It was the first time I've seen Chekov acted by professionals, as well. It played with the old naturalist stereotypes, like a complete set, and random noises that accompany the action to give you "a slice of life." The set, for instance, had a square of floor that was the playing space (for the most part), and then a variety of furniture outisde that space between it and the cyclorama. Doors were designated with two chairs on the edge of this space. And you wonder "Mr. Set Designer, what's all this clutter over here?" Then, Act 4 comes around, and all that clutter is moved onto the playing area, becoming Vanya's room. The set from before is pushed to the back, and so the entire estate is always onstage, if not always being used. There was also an autumn birch, which didn't move, but which set the mood.
What astounded me was how funny Uncle Vanya was. I guess a lot of people say that. But they really got it down. And that they were talking about conservation and deforestation a hundred years ago - it had a particularly green resonance for me. Astrov keeps asking "how will people remember us, one hundred years from now?" His response is to plant forests to preserve the wild. I find myself asking the same question about how people will think of us 100 years from now, especially if the world tanks and global warming kicks in (I, unlike certain readers, am concerned about this...). But even then, I got a flashback to Our Town. Autumnal is how it left me.
British acting, also, amazes me. I mean, I have my qualms with the Exeter Drama department, yes, but every show that we've seen here has always been so exceptionally acted. Maybe it's just my American upbringing that gets me tricked by the British accent into thinking that everything is under control and professionally handled. That is what I wanted to get a snapshot of, and sadly (since I was denied my acting class) I don't think I will.
Moan moan moan, blogs aren't for moaning, right? (Millions of teenagers would care to disagree) I did find myself in a particular autumnal funk, though, and it stayed with me through that day in Bath, and I'm sure Ken and Clay can vouche for that. We caught some food and went to see There Will Be Blood at a tiny theater in Bath, which put me in even more of an autumnal, satirizing mood, and by the end of the day I was getting royally pissed off because people kept asking me to repeat things or kept saying that I was slurring syllables together.
I like to think it was just a funk, and that further forays into Chekhov won't induce this state in me again, but all in all it was a good day. I miss home, but I guess I can't keep saying that. I'm studying Wagner and Brecht in my Music and Theatre class, just finished reading The Weir for Contemporary British Drama, and I've got to write a paper on Safety Last, a silent film, which has ignited in me a giddy dream of running a game of Changeling: The Dreaming, set in the Roaring Twenties. Mainly, Roaring Twenties New York City. 'Twould be fun indeed...
Peace.
Last weekend I took a quick trip to Bath to see Uncle Vanya at the Bath Theatre Royal - I can't quite say it was the most amazing Uncle Vanya ever, as I'm not an Uncle Vanya conessieur (spelling?), but it was good. It was funny, it was quick, and the only part I missed was some chunk in the middle because an old lady fainted two rows in front of us (again, this was a moment where I was apalled by the amount of 'stiff upper lip' shown, though I myself was showing a good deal by simply sitting and watching while the ushers quietly rushed up and carried her away. See the entry 'Stiff Upper Lip.').
It was the first time I've seen Chekov acted by professionals, as well. It played with the old naturalist stereotypes, like a complete set, and random noises that accompany the action to give you "a slice of life." The set, for instance, had a square of floor that was the playing space (for the most part), and then a variety of furniture outisde that space between it and the cyclorama. Doors were designated with two chairs on the edge of this space. And you wonder "Mr. Set Designer, what's all this clutter over here?" Then, Act 4 comes around, and all that clutter is moved onto the playing area, becoming Vanya's room. The set from before is pushed to the back, and so the entire estate is always onstage, if not always being used. There was also an autumn birch, which didn't move, but which set the mood.
What astounded me was how funny Uncle Vanya was. I guess a lot of people say that. But they really got it down. And that they were talking about conservation and deforestation a hundred years ago - it had a particularly green resonance for me. Astrov keeps asking "how will people remember us, one hundred years from now?" His response is to plant forests to preserve the wild. I find myself asking the same question about how people will think of us 100 years from now, especially if the world tanks and global warming kicks in (I, unlike certain readers, am concerned about this...). But even then, I got a flashback to Our Town. Autumnal is how it left me.
British acting, also, amazes me. I mean, I have my qualms with the Exeter Drama department, yes, but every show that we've seen here has always been so exceptionally acted. Maybe it's just my American upbringing that gets me tricked by the British accent into thinking that everything is under control and professionally handled. That is what I wanted to get a snapshot of, and sadly (since I was denied my acting class) I don't think I will.
Moan moan moan, blogs aren't for moaning, right? (Millions of teenagers would care to disagree) I did find myself in a particular autumnal funk, though, and it stayed with me through that day in Bath, and I'm sure Ken and Clay can vouche for that. We caught some food and went to see There Will Be Blood at a tiny theater in Bath, which put me in even more of an autumnal, satirizing mood, and by the end of the day I was getting royally pissed off because people kept asking me to repeat things or kept saying that I was slurring syllables together.
I like to think it was just a funk, and that further forays into Chekhov won't induce this state in me again, but all in all it was a good day. I miss home, but I guess I can't keep saying that. I'm studying Wagner and Brecht in my Music and Theatre class, just finished reading The Weir for Contemporary British Drama, and I've got to write a paper on Safety Last, a silent film, which has ignited in me a giddy dream of running a game of Changeling: The Dreaming, set in the Roaring Twenties. Mainly, Roaring Twenties New York City. 'Twould be fun indeed...
Peace.
Thursday, 14 February 2008
Royal Rhodes FTW
It looks as though, due to the poll on the right, Royal Rhodes will now be leading the Kenyon League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. His super powers include:
Mystic Sight: Using his infamous large glasses, Professor Rhodes can pierce through any veil or disguise, but only for noble purposes (never to look at Adelle in her underwear...or less!)
Aura of Tolerance: It takes a strong will to become angry in Professor Rhodes' presence. Super-villains often find themselves incredibly at ease around him, and usually end up spilling their secret plan as long as Professor Rhodes keeps his cool, which he always does.
Quotability: "Royal," as they call him on good days, can reach into the deeper substance of the Universe and quote one poetic/religious text, calling forth an effect equal to the quote. Many a time he has abjured the five fairies in the circle outside of Storer, who wanted to lure him off to a frightful, if arousing, demise, by saying "These woods are lovely, dark and deep. / But I have promises to keep..."
But alas, he has a great hero's weakness:
Unrequited Love: Professor Rhodes has a secret love, and he dare not tell anyone about it, for his enemies could use it against him. She doesn't even know, either, because he can't risk telling even her...
And now, who will be Rhodes' teammates? Vote and find out!
P.S. This has nothing to do with England, again. I'm at a loss of things to say about England, because it's currently Valentines day, and my singleness has made me desire to concentrate on other things besides my immediate surroundings, and the lack of a special someone in those immediate surroundings.
Mystic Sight: Using his infamous large glasses, Professor Rhodes can pierce through any veil or disguise, but only for noble purposes (never to look at Adelle in her underwear...or less!)
Aura of Tolerance: It takes a strong will to become angry in Professor Rhodes' presence. Super-villains often find themselves incredibly at ease around him, and usually end up spilling their secret plan as long as Professor Rhodes keeps his cool, which he always does.
Quotability: "Royal," as they call him on good days, can reach into the deeper substance of the Universe and quote one poetic/religious text, calling forth an effect equal to the quote. Many a time he has abjured the five fairies in the circle outside of Storer, who wanted to lure him off to a frightful, if arousing, demise, by saying "These woods are lovely, dark and deep. / But I have promises to keep..."
But alas, he has a great hero's weakness:
Unrequited Love: Professor Rhodes has a secret love, and he dare not tell anyone about it, for his enemies could use it against him. She doesn't even know, either, because he can't risk telling even her...
And now, who will be Rhodes' teammates? Vote and find out!
P.S. This has nothing to do with England, again. I'm at a loss of things to say about England, because it's currently Valentines day, and my singleness has made me desire to concentrate on other things besides my immediate surroundings, and the lack of a special someone in those immediate surroundings.
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Nothing to do with England
... but today Stephanie Reiches pointed out that I had one eyelash, on my left eye, that was THREE TIMES as long as the others. At least. She could flick it without even touching any of the other eyelashes. Then my friend Thomas examined/played with it. Then they showed it to the French girls.
Then I took a fingernail clipper and tried to cut it off while looking in the mirror, because the thought of its existence just made my whole face crawl, but I ended up taking a chunk out of the rest of my eyelashes, so now my eyelashes are incredibly uneven. Finally, though, it fell out of its own accord. I was on my way back to the kitchen with it resting on my thumb, looking like I just pulled it from my arm, and I was hoping Thomas, Stephanie and I could blow it away and make the biggest wish ever, but when I opened the door, it blew away by itself.
So much for dreams and world records.
Then I took a fingernail clipper and tried to cut it off while looking in the mirror, because the thought of its existence just made my whole face crawl, but I ended up taking a chunk out of the rest of my eyelashes, so now my eyelashes are incredibly uneven. Finally, though, it fell out of its own accord. I was on my way back to the kitchen with it resting on my thumb, looking like I just pulled it from my arm, and I was hoping Thomas, Stephanie and I could blow it away and make the biggest wish ever, but when I opened the door, it blew away by itself.
So much for dreams and world records.
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