In the Form of a Question

And that question is: "Sorry, um, WHAT exactly are you talking about with the flour?" (If you haven't been here for a while, you'll see the pictures in the next post.)

And the answer is: Remember when I talked about devised theatre? Well, that's what the flour thing is. My group decided to work on a piece (i.e., someday performance) based on "memory" - retelling of stories, recall, absence (loss of memory), things that are kept, things that are left behind, traces and patterns, etc... Somebody in the group had the bright idea that we should bring in flour and spread it on the floor and walk around in it to see what kinds of patterns we could make (I seem to remember contributing to that conversation) and what we found was that it was much more fun to roll around in it and bury people in it and just generally get it all over the place. That's where the pictures came from. Well, a week before our first performance of the piece we had developed (so far) our group's "set designer" decided that we WOULD be bringing back the flour, and it WOULD be (relatively) deep, and it WOULD cover the entire stage/performance space. The rest of the people on the course loved the flour, naturally, it being so artistic and meaningful and connective as a performance material (yes. I know) and so we did it AGAIN for the second performance that happened today.

We're getting really good at cleaning up several dozen pounds of flour from the floor.

Final performance (Flour 3 - again, see next [previous - either way, down the page] post for reference) - we went from this:

To this:

(Those are empty flour bags on the left... the hole in the middle was filled in with flour we saved from the last performance, stored in four black garbage bags. This ends up at least an inch deep.)

And finally, to this:

We actually had the masks in case someone had a gluten allergy and couldn't breathe with the flour in the air (see it?) and at this point in the cleanup I decided we probably ought to save whatever percentage of our lungs we had left. Plus, they look funny.

Next question: "And they really give you a DEGREE for this?!?"



(P.S. I did make SOME contribution to the project... outside, in the "lobby", was the lobby display I designed based on our process documentation - i.e., memories.)

The strings are connections, "traces", between ideas and images, while the laptops are playing videos (sped-up into time-lapse sequences, or in one case, slowed waaaay down) of our rehearsals. I know, a little heavy-handed... but hey - I'm just a student!

I'm Working Heah

A few visuals on what I've been working on (for the past two months):

Flour Part 1 -

Flour Part 2 - 

Just kidding. 

(But not too far off. I will get actual pictures of Flour Part 3.) 

((I don't know anybody named Jenny Ross. Sorry.))

Cleanup of Flour Part 2 - 

The Initial Wall of Stuff. This is part of my lobby display.

This picture just cracks me up.

"Only two weeks left! How COULD she die on us now?!?"

"I know, right? And she's totally clashing with the carpet."

"Whatevs, dudes. Can we still use the body in our piece?"

* * * * *

Ah, theatre.

Drama, Drama, Drama

There was a tentative, half-formed resolution in the back of my mind that this year, I would write at least one more blog post per month than the month before (which, come to think of it, would be really scary if I end up doing the 30-In-30 again, unless I finesse the dates just right, hmmmm, TANGENT, sorry) and that did not work. In February I actually wrote one LESS than January, and Month 1 was not exactly overflowing to start with. I blame the Romans. Obviously, if I'd had the other 2-3 days that February should have had, my blogging schedule would be on track! OBVIOUSLY.

For reals, though (and I would only EVER say that here and then only rarely because hello, grad school, be a grown-up, for pete's sake [though I don't honestly think Pete cares]) this life is a lot like being in college, only harder. And a lot of people talk funny. We are all exhausted and stressed-out to the point of being numb - for the first several weeks of this term, for example, when we would run into anyone outside of the approximately 10 people we'd been working with on our course we would squeal, hug, do a sympathetic catch-up and go on about how much we missed each other. Today, I walked past one of my non-group course mates (practically passed each other in a doorway) and she didn't see me or even hear me when I greeted her. And, sadly, I didn't have the energy to turn around and try again, louder. NUMB.

Also today, we had two people leave the room in tears, at separate times. We're getting really good at that - to some extent, we know rehearsal isn't "working" unless somebody has a breakdown. Let me tell you, the one guy in our group is having a WONDERFUL time. And yet - crazy as they all make me and hard as it is to actually feel like we're accomplishing anything, we ARE managing to get things done, and I do still like every last one of them. You know, as people. Individuals. Who I would totally hang out with sometime, socially, when we were not talking about theatre. AT ALL.

* * * * *

Note to self (and high-school musical directors): Sometimes, in order for a show to work, one (meaning all) must FULLY EMBRACE THE CHEESE. A production of "Mamma Mia", for example, in which some of the cast at least some of the time is determined to "be real" and "take things seriously" is one in which I become determined to stab myself in the eye and stomp really, really hard on the director's foot (at least). Any production that leaves you wistfully thinking about how Pierce Brosnan could maybe consider doing more musicals has FAILED. EPICALLY.

* * * * *

Dear West-End "Mamma Mia" -

I was fully prepared to have fun while watching you, and it did not happen. Shame on you for not being realistic about your purpose and making it work, and shame on you for firing your choreographer halfway through the rehearsal process (that's the only explanation I can find). I'm going back to Legally Blonde, Wicked, and the Royal Shakespeare Company - because at least they know how to have a good time!

In your defense, I have downloaded one new Abba song that wasn't in the movie version - thanks for that.

Go see Jersey Boys. They'll show you how it's done.

No love,
Me

* * * * *

More school tales coming soon - including one about how I walked out in the middle of a lecture. Seriously. And only felt a little bit bad about it.

Resolution Reborn

It's been seven full days with no chocolate (and a severely reduced other-sugar intake) and no one has died.


At least, not because of me.

Every Year

That's right, it's here again - Ernest Shackleton's birthday!  (I don't know who that is, but Google thinks it's important, so... Oh, and it's ES's big day HERE, but it might not be back in the States yet. Just FYI.)

In honor of the big day, I decided to combine work and relaxation - I watched Valentine's Day (no reason) and charted the storylines in order to analyze them and break down the structure.  You sure catch a lot more of the details on a second viewing! Gary Marshall must have had all kinds of spreadsheets (possibly Gant Charts) in order to keep track of all those characters. I can only imagine what got left on the cutting room floor! (Well, if anything.  There is a LOT going on in this movie.)

Also, just for fun, I'm including here a piece I wrote in a workshop this morning. Any resemblance of person (or date) is purely coincidental. (The title was random, came from someone else. It's really not anywhere near finished. Like I said, it's just here for fun. Coincidentally.)

Doorbell Doesn’t Work, Enter Around the Back

 Doris had always hated Valentine’s Day. Ever since she could remember, pink-and-red had given her a migraine, and pictures of chubby cupids made her instinctively reach for her taser. Last year’s work party, with the 4 Aortas Barbershop Quartet, didn’t go so well – and February was a lousy time to be looking for a job. Doris would know.

She had seasonal allergies – they always flared up around floral shops the weeks before and after February 14. Chocolate gave her hives – but only once a year. Coming within 20 yards of a Hallmark store brought on a rash, and commercialization being what it was she had to avoid them for nearly two-thirds of the year.

Doris was not anti-love or anti-sex or anti-romance or anti-anything, really – she’d tried every known cure. Dating sites, a singles’ cruise, immersion therapy… that last had driven the dog crazy (poor thing could handle only so much Michael Buble, Barry White, and Andrea Boccelli – it was more of a Nirvana kind of terrier). She even went to work as a holiday temp at Niagara Falls one year.  It was no use, though – the doctor’s bills and restraining orders just kept piling up.  And, Doris admitted to herself, she really SHOULD have taken her husband along on that cruise. That had been a bad Valentine’s Day for everybody.

Doris had had enough.

This year, she had a plan – she would sneak up on her own neurosis and clobber it into submission (with two dozen roses – long-stemmed, naturally).

TBC (someday, maybe...)

* * * * *

Enjoy Ernest Shackleton's birthday!  (Research time! Woo!)

Too Good Not to Share

A good friend of mine was holding her 6-month-old son on her lap, and he was wiggling so much he was sliding towards the floor. She asked him where he was going, and from across the room her 6-year-old daughter yelled, "Don't tell Mom! She will curse your plans!"






I have been laughing (to the point of tears) ALL. DAY. LONG.



(I think my friend's blog is invitation-only, but if you want more of the same from some hilarious kids, let me know and I'll pass your info on to her.)

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.