Humility lesson

Well, neither Jared nor I got into Comedy of Errors. I'm kind of annoyed, but we're more bemused than bothered, because we seriously doubt that a small community theater got many better Shakespearean actors than the two of us. It's probably because we had a lot of conflicts written down on our forms. If that's the case, I have to roll my eyes, because we probably had fewer than HTP has to work with on average, and it never interferes with learning the show. Ah, well. I guess that's what you get when you get too sure of yourself. It's been a while since either of us didn't get into a show we tried out for, so we'll just have to take this as a humility lesson and move on. The major issue here is that was supposed to be a large part of our plan for the next several months, and that leaves a pretty big gap. I did really want to be acting again. I guess some rethinking is in order.

Projects for this summer

As is typical of me, since I had some empty time ahead of me, by seeking some endeavors and amusements I have already set to overfill it. So now is the time when I choose my projects and stick to them, rather than collecting a million and feeling overwhelmed.

So. Tuesday I had my Gazebo Players Comedy of Errors audition. You will recall that this is the company I did Love's Labor's Lost with the previous summer. This time Jared and I went out together, and though we have not yet heard back, there is a reasonably high likelihood of both of us getting in. In my fantasy I will get Dromio of Syracuse (the Dromio I haven't already played) and he will get Antipholus of Ephesus, as those two interact the most, so we will get to use our knack for portraying a master-servant relationship that is interesting, close, and relatable. At any rate, if we indeed get in, we will be rehearsing for a show from the near future until the first weekend of August. A SHOW would then be committment number one, mostly of the time variety.

Also, as I have mentioned, I am rededicating myself to the work of playwrighting this summer. This will be supported and indeed mandated when I begin grad school for it the last week of June. I have already begun work on a piece meant to be after the style of Shakespeare called Justinian and Theodora, telling the meeting and early life together of the two Byzantine rulers. So committment number two will be PLAYWRIGHTING, as a larger part of completing my requirements for grad school.

Thirdly, I am becoming more and more interested in learning how to sew. The more I read about it, the more I dream of doing it myself. My mom has said she will even send up her sewing machine so I will have the proper tools to practice with. Though I know I will have to start with easy stuff like any beginner, already I am fantastizing about making all the interesting costume pieces I currently lack. So committment number thre will be learning SEWING, as I think it's about time.

Those will be my primary projects over the next few months. Though of course there will be time for socializing and entertaining and fun things like that, I will have to decline to take on any other significant endeavors. For example, that means I will not work seriously on any new larps for the time being. Anything else will have to be of the extremely casual variety, that will not take away focus from these three things.

Home for Easter, and pondering my doings

Today I flew home to spend Easter with my mom and dad. I'd been looking forward to it, as I haven't seen them in a long time and after the busy month I've had so far it will be nice to just go with the flow of family time and not have to run around or plan things. So, with a few days ahead of me of nothing more to do than hang out with my mom and dad and let them feed me until I explode, I would like to get something of my own projects done. *Sigh*As much as I crave free time with nothing particular to do, I am compelled to do things. And now I am finding myself planning out the things I would like to do. Not necessarily just over this little Easter break, but other things in the near future.

First and foremost, I want to get started with writing on some plays. I would like to get a head start on things for graduate school, which begins for me at the end of June, by getting to work on one of the major theatrical pieces I have envisioned. The first, I think, will be the Justinian and Theodora project I have been mulling over. I want to start by working out the plot as completely as possible before actually doing the real writing work, but I have a speech in my head that I would like to get out on paper in the near future. Plesser has agreed to act the piece out for me once it is finished, as i find him an excellent choice for this character, so I can hear it performed and improve it based on that.

Another thing that has recently come on my radar is an invitation to audition again for the Gazebo Players of Medfield, the theater group I did Love's Labor's Lost with last summer. I have been wanting to get back to acting, and they're doing Comedy of Errors, a show I enoy. I would like it if I could find some other friends to come out with me this time-- any actors going to be around this summer interested in doing a Shakespeare with me? On a related note, whenever anybody hears about Shakespeare auditions from here onward, please let me know. I really do want to keep at it and continue doing Shakespearean theater. I actually think that the Actor's Shakespeare Project is supposed to be having auditions soon, even one for non-Equity actors, and I'm wondering if it might not be interesting to at least give it a shot. I'm sure I wouldn't get in, given all the professionals I'd be up against, but wouldn't it be a lark if I did. ;-) I think I will look more into that, gather a little more information at least.

To England, Hamlet

Frances departs for England today. I will be taking her to the airport this evening, and we'll have dinner together before she departs. I made her a small token for her to take with her, a little gift I've had in mind for some time now. This will totally ruin the surprise is she sees this before I see her today, but whatever. It's a photo collage of her in my shows and me in hers around a shot of us together out of costume. It has her as Hamlet and Andromeda-- I love how different she looks between the two --and me as Cordelia and the Fool-- I love how different I look between the two --as well as us arm in arm in a picture taken right after Lear.

I learned so much about acting and directing from observing and working with her. Her method of acting was always so fascinating to me, and I think I learned my most valuable directing skill, that of deconstructing and quanitfying what an actor is doing onstage, in the process of trying to figure out what made her performances work and how she built them. When I directed her as Hamlet I fell in love with her physicality and wanted to use it to convey how strange, restless, and dangerous the character had become. She was so much more imposing and effective because of the way the character was invested in her body and in her every movement.

Since then I have worked to integrate her style into my own performances. She is such an expressive, wide-ranging physical actor extended by the fact that she is so strong and flexible, and by watching her I've learned a lot about how to bring my body into my acting. We were cast as twin brothers in A Comedy of Errors, so I did my best to sort of "match" her, be compatible with her portrayal if not necessarily imitate her. Since those were highly comedic characters, we just kind of went for the same sort of exaggerated, slightly spastic silliness, and I think it worked. In King Lear she cast me as the Fool, which is very clearly the Frances-type role in the show, and that time I pretty directly channeled her style. The Fool's strange body positions were directly inspired by her, and the ceaseless moving energy was extrapolated from there. This prepared me for playing Puck, easily my most physically demanding role to date, where I would have to move as inhumanly as possible and would achieve the best effect the stranger and more contorted I looked. Studying and working with her has taught me so much about physical acting, and I know I am way better at it now because I had the chance to learn from her.