Guilt Update

I feel badly that I haven't been posting - in all honesty, it hasn't been all that exciting, though. Here's what I've got:

- Someone told a friend of mine that UK Masters' degrees were cake. Someone (meaning: my friend's source) was smoking crack.  These last two weeks have been NUTS. Stress, crazy, exhausted, hard!  The fact that one of my two research groups is nine girls and one (gay) guy is probably not helping.

- I don't think I'm ready for a PhD. I think I'll be looking into another MA degree (as I'm also not ready to move back to the States anytime soon) to help me get headed in the right direction, then maybe work for a couple of years to prep and pay down student loans, and THEN get a PhD.

- I bought the air mattress, and a friend came and stayed for two nights.  She's vouching for its comfort level.  Now taking visitors!

- While she was here, we saw an excellently-acted show (that was structurally a little vague and with language I could have done without - seriously, why are playwrights so uncreative when it comes to language?  Grrr), and an amazing show that will be opening soon in New York - if you are in NY in the next year or so and have the chance to see War Horse, DO IT.

- I lost an earring.  This is only notable because it was an earring that I have lost at least twice before that has always turned up.  I even took the earrings out during an exercise in the afternoon and was surprised they were both still there - then when I got home late that night one was gone.  It has apparently made a successful break for freedom and still hasn't shown up.  If it reappears a few weeks/months from now I will frame the set or make them into refrigerator magnets or something, and write an entire post of philosophical/metaphysical commentary.  Third time's the charm!

- I also bought a pair of earrings that turned out to be too heavy - I broke them down, rebuilt them, and they are now perfect.  I miss jewelry design.

- I was planning to travel more this term - it doesn't look like that's going to happen. (See first item on list.) Third term! I will be back in the States for the holiday break in April - Conference (International resident, baby!), changeover at Hale, sister-in-law's new baby... good times. (Also, Cheetos. It is CRAZY how much I miss Cheetos!)

- Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!  I stayed up late Wednesday night, as this was supposed to mean my parents would live longer (you're welcome!), and I managed to buy a new outfit that included a bright red shirt. (New clothes, and/or red.)

- The ward has a group of students attending who are studying in London until April - naturally, at least one of the girls is an excellent pianist. I have been practicing, but I thought this meant I was off the hook until April... not so much.  They've been leaving before Relief Society (attending the singles' ward is my guess) and I got drafted to play today.  It wasn't pretty.

- Other than that, the meetings and classes continue to be excellent, and the people continue to be quirkily adorable!

- I have a faux-mink (cheap, but it feels niiiiice) throw on my bed, and it makes the Sunday afternoon nap a real treat.

- Now I'm just babbling, because I'm tired.  Time to go - another wacky week ahead, starting with a Monday morning Movement class that will be mostly yoga, which likely means that the next message for the chiropractor I'm trying to get an appointment with will be a little more... urgent.  Snooty. Possibly begging.

Ah, Monday.

What I've Been Up To

Happy Christmas! I can't believe it's only been three months (give or take) since I moved to London - in some ways it feels like two weeks, in others like I've been here for years. I STILL have not managed to get a handle on consistent Internet service, which I cling to as my excuse for not blogging as I'd promised. It is definitely the reason I haven't posted pictures. THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE. I'm moving in a week and a half, to a place that is bigger, safer, and closer to school than the room I've got now. AND THERE WILL BE INTERNET ACCESS THAT IS RELIABLE AND SECURE. The end.

So what have I actually been doing? Well. That's a good question. I'm not doing what I thought I'd be doing, that's for sure - I'm doing what I never imagined I would, in large part because I'd never even heard of it before. Lemme esplain.

How many of you have heard the term "devised theatre"? If any of you raised your hands, you're further ahead than I was when I arrived (especially since I started a week late, after getting here two weeks early, but that's been covered). I found out fairly quickly that Central is known for its "experimental" theatre program, but it took me a while to figure out what that meant. My program (Advanced Theatre Practice) at this particular school is concerned with "devising" theatre, or basically coming up with a show from scratch. No script, no story, nothing - the theatre "makers" in my group are learning how to generate ideas and materials and collect fragments that could be developed into a piece of theatre of some kind. It's really just as vague as it sounds. My group of 30+ split into three "clusters" at the beginning of the term: Performance Practices (movement studies, basically), Scenography (staging, tech, and design) and Composition (directing and dramaturgy). We met with these smaller groups two mornings a week, and then with everyone the remaining mornings and afternoons. I've been working in my Composition Cluster (10 of us) for the last two+ months doing writing exercises to generate text, creating physicalizations of ideas and feelings, and building short performances that are then combined with others' to develop new, longer pieces.

The afternoons have been taken up with Practitioner Studies - artists from theatre companies (all experimental, generally devised - yes, people evidently pay to watch this kind of thing) have been coming in to work with us in two-week blocks to introduce us to their methods of creating and overseeing us as we generate performances. These sessions have been successful to widely varying degrees. We've worked on "immersive" theatre, where the audience becomes an involved part of the show; "site-specific" theatre, in which the performances are based on and generated from the locations; "telematic" theatre, or "theatre from a distance" which involves technology and major elements of the performance happening somewhere other than where the audience is (and which, as a session, was a major disaster - thanks to the presenter - and probably should not be counted as a real theatrical genre, even though we managed to create some very interesting work). It's been a huge mixed bag. On the whole, though, my group is pretty great and we've usually managed to find something new and learn something valuable in every unit.

The best has been my Composition Cluster. No one is teaching me anything about dramaturgy in the way I'd hoped to learn about it (what's been done, how does a dramaturg function in Europe and elsewhere, etc..) but I am learning how to create a show, how to discover new material and generate ideas and explore things in very different kinds of ways, how to structure and assemble the bits that come up. I'll have to teach myself how to be a "traditional" dramaturg, but this program is showing me how to work with other creative people. One of the best things we did in my cluster was a two-day series in which our cluster-leader (sounds a little sci-fi - she was the teacher, or lecturer, but those really aren't accurate descriptions) had to be gone and left us project instructions to follow on our own. We each got an envelope with very specific directions, and had to make decisions about what and how to follow them. The cool part was that no one seriously considered at any point leaving or totally overthrowing the instructions, and in the end we had a completely brilliant, fascinating "play" session where we improvised a group piece using everyone's sounds, text, gestures, sequences and the new ideas that came out of all the things we had made that day. SO great.

My favorite piece of work with the large group was actually the last - we had all created final presentations to be "assessed" (graded, essentially) for our cluster work, and for the last week of the term our group leader (head of our program) assigned us to split into smaller groups, come up with common themes or "enthusiasms" from our various work over the term, and devise a piece based on those ideas. Our group talked over our presentations and put together a list of common ideas and things we liked, and then developed a lovely piece in which we each had a ball of red yarn ("wool", if you're British, but it really was just regular yarn) which represented our separate journeys. We took the yarn and rolled it and tossed it and strung it all around the room - and not coincidentally, around all the other members of our course. We liked the physicalization of the idea that all the individual work we had done this term was connected to all the other people in the course, that theatre and our journeys were linking us all together in a great web. We used Perpetuum Mobile by the Penguin Café Orchestra as the soundtrack for our movement - as the music wound down we all came back to the center of our web and began tying ourselves into it, weaving and twisting the string all around the six in the group. Then we finished with lines from a poem about string theory, delighting the geeks in the room (myself included, as I'm the one who came up with string theory - via Einstein - as a source for our piece). The whole thing was joyful and playful - it could have been oppressive and scary, really, but we knew we wanted it to be happy and fun and inclusive, and it was. This is the piece that I would be most interested in continuing and expanding, and maybe we will at some point.

Over the break I'll be packing and working on various projects - we have a paper due based on what we learned this term, and I need to get set up for next term and our work in a Research Group. We have three in my group - we’re going to be researching how to develop a performance through the interaction of specific roles: Director, Dramaturg, and Performer, so I'll be spending the next few weeks reading like crazy and determining what my work as a Dramaturg actually IS. I'm planning to interview working dramaturgs over the next term (and maybe see if I can talk someone into a residency or internship), and it kind of feels like I'll be doing a self-generated BA in Dramaturgy along with the MA in Advanced Theatre Practice. Also, it will be nice to have a little time for sight-seeing - I've seen 14 shows since I've been here, and only been to the Albert and Victoria Museum for a few hours. The most sight-seeing I've done was on a "research walk" - a marvelous field trip our cluster took that consisted of walking around London's South Bank for three hours, stopping to write occasionally about what we were seeing. It was AWESOME, and we didn't even go in anywhere! (I do have pictures of that.)

I really should have more "Welcome to London" posts up soon - I'm planning a Globe tour and a sunset London Eye excursion ASAP. Now if the snow would just melt so that the trains will run so that I can actually get to all these places…

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In other news, flapjack (not pancakes, but a chewy oat-y bar cookie - like a really buttery granola bar) is delicious. Cadbury Fingers cookies are my new favorite treat. The English are not nearly as interested in ice cream as Americans - I've never seen more than four flavors of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen Daas in any one place, and never any other than those four flavors anywhere else. People don't actually drink tea nearly as much as you'd think (coffee, fizzy drinks, etc…, instead). Street markets are everywhere. I still haven't tried fish 'n chips. Brits love to hear Americans trying to sound British, generally so they can laugh at their accents. I've been "love"d and "darling"ed more times than I can count, by men and women alike. Everyone drinks, all the time - alcohol aisles take up a fifth of any grocery store, and they are fascinated by the fact that I don't. Almost none of the Brits I've talked to (and I'm at a drama school) can do a credible American accent (neiner, neiner). My favorite quote from the term comes from one of my course-mates: "Now that I'm talking, I'd like to say something." My next-favorite quote comes from one of our favorite lecturers, in Cultural Landscapes: "You are all vile, horrible people." (You had to be there.) I am 98% certain that I do, indeed, need a PhD, so another project for the break will be coming up with a research proposal and finding the right school. I'm thinking about going to Italy for my birthday, and yes - I am smirking at all of you because I can actually do it.

More to come!

Older, But Not Dead Yet

So, there's this song from Spamalot...

Moving on.

Hi. It's been, like, three weeks since I blogged. Sorry. I could blame the bronchitis, Christmas, excessive movie watching, changeover, drugs (prescription), Christmas gift panic, RS lesson, freaky weather, New Year's, and whatever I've got that's been beating me around the ears for the last few days for the lag, but I won't. It's probably just pure laziness.

* I will be posting a Major Movie (Post-)Holiday Review blog soon.

* It's my birthday for another 65 minutes. Then can we not talk about it for at least a year? Thanks. (This will be deferred for those of you who are buying me meals in the next few days. Love ya.)

* I have decided that from now on holidays will belong to friends and family, and my birthday will belong to someplace warm. Preferably tropical, but otherwise exotic/scenic will do.

* My friends are very cool people.

* Angel Food Cake is what you get when you pour happiness in a pan and bake it.

* You'd think my family members could sing better than they can. It's OK, it was totally adorable anyway.

* I have at least one more update for my "100 Goals" list on its way.

* I have finally decided that there will be no more blind dates. I'm not at all opposed to meeting new guys, but I'm not going to expect them to pay for anything when they don't know what I do or my stance on generic ice cream.

* I'll be starting a new blog shortly: This is my year for non-fiction (rules to follow) and I'm going to document the experience separately.

*Birthday headaches suck. Birthday balloons, cakes, cards, Facebook greetings, texts, voicemails, and presents (cash and/or gift cards) do not. At all.

More to come!

Watch out for falling turtles,

Cyd

Because I Have Nothing Else To Do (Ha): UPDATE

* I wish there were more of a need out here for people who create props for shows. I suppose that's something to look into...

* I love Glee. I'm finding it funny, and touching, and sooooo high school - more than anything, I just love the music. (And the singing/dancing. AWESOME.)

* I helped coach a former student on a monologue last night, and today I watched a Shakespeare Showcase that had me absolutely ITCHING to sit down with those kids, tear their pieces apart, and help them build them back up. I miss my high schoolers. I miss talented, dedicated, sweet, funny, stupid, wonderful teenagers. It's kind of a weird feeling. (I was attacked by several in the parking lot when I arrived, and then a whole bunch more when I got in the building, which was FANTASTIC.)

* I'm heading down to the Shakespeare Competition in Cedar tomorrow, for no real reason other than I needed a break, wanted to hang out with my friend, and decided to tag along.

* Phaidra and I REALLY need to write that book(s)/direct a show together/start that theater school ASAP. We'll get the book done before I go to grad school, she can have her second kid while I'm gone, and then we'll get cracking on that school when I get back. The show(s) will happen (again) eventually. She's the best, and we do make a good team.

* I should be packing. Gotta go check the laundry.

* I'm thinking about maybe creating a sandwich-board sign to wear during the weekend in Cedar, offering my services as director/coach/substitute drama teacher. Too desperate? No such thing these days? That's what I thought.

* Had a terrific conversation with a friend this week where I ended up being her sounding board and pitching all kinds of ideas for reality TV shows. Honestly, I think some of them could really work.

* I'm wondering: how does one go about becoming a stand-up comedian? Are there classes for that sort of thing? Do you just watch a bunch of other stand-up comics and then try to pick a different angle? Is it OK to make things up and then sell them as your own "experiences"?

* My back/hip has been out the last couple of days, and I've been spending time on a heating pad. It's been sooooo nice, and has been much easier than scrambling to get to the chiropractor. That heating pad is heading south with me for the weekend.

* I've reluctantly decided that ice cream is my Achilles' Heel, and the focus of the worst/most destructive co-dependent relationship I will ever have. And once I go get another bowl of the Schwann's Chocolate Chip that's sitting upstairs in the freezer (you don't even KNOW), I will swear off of the devil's ambrosia for good. (Or until I've earned a treat. Although it will NOT live in my freezer ever again - Cold Stone, you might need to take out the restraining order against me NOW. Please.)

* I really do (heart) irony.


ETA: I'm kind of thinking I want to do a give-away - it's what all the cool bloggers are up to these days! I don't have sponsors or anything, so I'd have to offer jewelry (or random theatre props, or maybe bizarre poetry, or video of myself lip-synching to a Glee song...) that I'd make... Fortuately, it's October, and I have some really fun Halloween-y sterling silver beads and charms. Is that something any of you would be interested in?

Official Geekhood

I saw Star Trek for the fourth time tonight (yes, it's still in a few theaters).

Liked it very nearly as much as I did the first time.

Wowsers.

"She's seen it HOW many times? Sheesh, I could never sit still THAT long!"

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We've been working on full-size carousel horses at the theatre (we did half-size horses a week or two ago) - paint today, glitter and bling tomorrow. PRETTY. Will post progress pictures, and sympathy shots of the two horses in "rehab".

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After talking to a friend today, I've decided to try pre-natal vitamins to make my hair grow, rather than cutting it short. I'll get a good "trim" just before I leave for school.

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"School", you say? Details coming soon.

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"Redouble" is an odd word, and I don't think it's used correctly. Say, for example, the phrase "Redouble your efforts" - that would imply that you'd already been told to "double your efforts" and that's just not something you hear often. Plus, if you're going to redouble something, you're doubling it again - or double-doubling, if you will... which could be acurately described as "double-squaring" or "quadrupling". Telling someone to quadruple their efforts has the benefit of specificity (though telling someone to double-squared their efforts is just silly), especially if those efforts have already been doubled... but I suppose it smacks of overkill. "Redouble" is merely redundant. (Speaking of, why don't you ever hear the word "dundant"?)

Updates

Current Events

Work: I'm still working on Scarlet Pimpernel at the Hale (sorry, Shanna, I keep remembering and then forgetting - argh! - that I need to call you back!) and recently have been handling "notes". There are a series of messages that get passed from Marguerite to Chauvelin, and from Chauvelin to Marguerite, and from Percy to his crew. The ones from M to C and vice-versa are now filled with a variety of insults, some in bad French, one involving "your mother", and one that just says "You suck." I really hope the actors take the time to read them all, because one of them is going to make someone bust up laughing, I just know it. I also created a bunch of SP "calling cards" - I am now fairly awesome at drawing a scarlet pimpernel flower. That's my work you'll see pinned to the guillotine! Today I also worked on (surprise!) some new body bags. (Seriously. Who knew that specialty would come up so often?) Tomorrow I hope to help start painting the large carousel horses for the opening number - we've already glittered and bejeweled the living heck out of four medium-sized ones.

Grad School: I interviewed with one school (FYI: six AM here is one PM over there) and had a great conversation with a very nice lady. Eventually, we figured out that I had applied to the wrong program, and I should probably talk to their admissions officer about switching over to the right one... but if I decided to try the program I accidentally applied to, she was offering me a spot anyway. Heh. The admissions guy finally emailed me back and said all the places were taken in the program I really wanted, but he'd hold my application for next year (*sigh*), so now I am torn. I'm still waiting to hear back from the other school I applied to, though, and trying to figure out whom I can call and pester (politely) there.

Other: The hair situation is not getting any better - I'm hating the cut/cuts more with each passing day, and am thinking the solution may be to go for a dramatic short/spiky look and come as close to starting over as I realistically can, without actually shaving (though I'm still VERY tempted). I plan to see Harry Potter 6 again on Saturday. I will be jogging and cutting sugar again shortly - this time I'm waiting for the pain in my neck to ease up (no, that's not a euphemism) that was caused by the wrenching it received for the first time ever on Jet Star 2 at Lagoon. I'm so old. I'm hoping to start work shortly on putting together a book with a friend of mine, and I'd like to get into Spanish and dance classes before I leave for school in the fall (fingers crossed, making it very hard to type). I'm slightly panicked by the fact that I saw "Back to School" supplies on sale at Walmart today, though I should probably be relieved they weren't setting up those displays back in May. I got the new Daughtry album today - I may talk myself into getting up and running in the morning as a reason to listen to it. My headache's finally going away, and it's time for me to go to bed. Later!

Oh, and...

THIS.

SERIOUSLY, WOW. ELIZABETH AND MR. DARCY HAVE A NEW SHELF-MATE. (SORRY FOR THE SHOUTING, IT'S JUST THAT GOOD.)

(Between work, looking for work, Sunday School lessons, holidays, rehearsals, birthdays, visits, funerals, and various other forms of madness, I haven't taken the time to post anything substantive. I wish I could promise I'd do better soon. Sorry. But I'll try! This bonus post is because North and South really is that good, and because I didn't want to leave my post count for the month at 13. It just looks... off.)

Just Stopping in to Say "Hi"

In which we shall see: 5-dollar vocabulary words, cliche phrases, yellow lights, my own Lohan cycle, ice cream, tattoos, hangin' tough, Weight Watchers for arachnids, and more ice cream.

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Fair warning - I don't actually have anything IMPORTANT to say (versus, of course, all of those other earth-shattering expostulations), mostly I just wanted to use the word "expostulations". Kidding. I'm really just trying to keep myself in the habit of writing and finding fun (or at least interesting - hopefully) things to talk about, so that I'm all ready to spring into action when diatribe-worthy topics present themselves.

In the meantime, can I just say that it's odd how, as a theatrically-involved person, most of the "drama" in my life comes from places other than theatre. (And why, exactly, do people say "can I just say"? They're not actually asking permission, and they pretty much DO say whatever it is they're prefacing, so obviously they CAN. Next week: a syntax-by-participle breakdown of Grammar for Dummies.) Our office, for example, has happily maintained its status as the "drama-free" zone for several years now - and then suddenly, we are awash with all kinds of chatter and grumbling and discontent. (I don't want to get too specific - I do still work there, after all... but holler if you need details!) I also work at a performing arts school, and far more gossip and conniving and story-carrying comes from the administration (which then trickles down to us teachers for venting purposes) than from any of the "drama" students. Seriously, what is this tendency that people seem to have to revert to insecure 12-year-olds at the drop of a hat? (There’s another funny phrase for you – what kind of hat? Why is it being dropped? Just how fast does it fall? Etc…)

Last week, I got some oddly mixed signals from a friend of mine - just to make sure I wasn't jumping to unwarranted conclusions I shared the communications with two other (both married, and obviously smarter than me) girls, and they concurred with my interpretation. I still managed to restrain myself and not get all loopy, which turned out to be a good thing as this particular friend quite distinctly did not follow through on any of those signals. (It sounded to me like he was indirectly asking me for a date, it sounded to my counselors as if he was asking me on a date - and then the night of the "date" he showed up with another girl in tow. I don't do harems, and I'm not going to bother third-wheeling after an attention-deficit diva - i.e., the other girl - so I just went home instead. Guys, what is THAT all about? Honestly.)

Lots of weddings and bridal showers and such are cropping up in the family... and I haven't managed to be cast in any show I've auditioned for lately. Together, these two circumstances are causing my rejection complex to flare up... do you think hemorroid cream will work on that? On the other "destructive relationships" hand, chocolate and ice cream and I are engaged once more in a torrid threesome... some tough love will no doubt be in order soon (or an intervention), as my relationship with Exercise may be making tentative progress but is still no more than a wary acquaintance.

Cold Stone is discontinuing their Oatmeal Cookie Batter ice cream. Woes.

When asked, most of my theatre students would choose to see one of their parents (usually their father) obviously tattooed as revenge for being adamantly opposed to tattooing, or would tag some guy they know across the forehead with a variation on a phrase of some kind (most often including the word "manwhore") as a warning to any other girls they might meet. (I have a total of five boys in two classes - they've learned pretty quickly when to shut up and duck.)

I'm still waiting for further information regarding the New Kids on the Block (or, NKotB) reunion - I almost said I was on pins and needles, but that would be painful as well as incorrect.

I still laugh everytime I remember a co-worker describing a large spider that she managed to kill in the office recently as "full-figured". Awesome.


Also, hi.


Watch out for falling turtles,

Cyd


Books I've read in the past 7 days: approximately 6
Family bookclub books I own and should start reading, but haven't: 2
Times the co-worker behind me nods off at his desk in any given hour: around 5 (avg.)
Flavors of ice cream currently inhabiting my freezer: 4 (it's like a plague!)

P.S.A. The next time you go to Cold Stone, try the Oreo Overload but substitute the chocolate chips for either strawberries or raspberries. You will not be sorry.