Blog

Excited about auditions for the spring play! Looks like it’s going to be Our Town, which is…okay. Don’t hate it, don’t love it. It’s growing on me, though. For my audition monologue, I did this piece about a girl who got picked to talk to these people by her teacher, and she tells them how she doesn’t know why she got picked, because she’s not pretty or talented or anything like that. Perfect part for me, right?

I really want to see Aida but know it’s unlikely because I don’t think I can afford it. Some rich philanthropist needs to start a program that takes poor uncultured children like me to see musicals. That’s what I want to be when I grow up: a rich musical-loving philanthropist. With a farm full of happy puppies.

I think this journal is becoming entirely too free and open. In more theatre-related news, I’ve realized I enjoy Anouillh’s Antigone a lot more than I thought I would-it has some really great monologues in there, like the one Creon gives about the ship of state and such. I actually really enjoy Creon in both Sophocles’ and Anouilh’s Antigone-he’s just a cool character no matter which way you slice it.

We performed the script from A Month in the Country in class today, down in the TV studio. It didn’t go too badly. I felt bad because Jessie hadn’t memorized her lines, but who could blame her, she really had all the lines in that scene. I felt guilty about that, but she picked the script and the parts we were going to play, so I suppose I can’t blame myself. The hardest part about this exercise for me was figuring out the third step in the process from the book-I really don’t have a relationship with anyone like Vera does with Natalia Petrovna. I enjoyed the script, though, and now I’m sort of insanely curious as to how it all turns out. Maybe I’ll go get it from the library or something and let you in on the secret too. Oh great, I’m talking to my journal like it’s a person now.

OH MY GOSH. I’m sooo glad that’s finally over!

Well, I didn’t ruin the show, all reviews have been positive, and I am quite happy with myself. I hear good things about the crew and stuff, but all I really needed was to feel like I did a good job.

Oh my gosh, so cheesy. Pretend I never said that, that’s so very Dora the Explorer. Anyway, so the only bad part is I didn’t get to watch the show as close as I would have liked to be able to, most especially Ritz. As I mentioned, that’s my favorite. The only bad part is I have that perma-stuck in my head now, and I can never ever have it on my iPod because G made it, and that. is. Depressing. I love the Taco version, but after that blast of magnificence how can I live knowing it’s gone forever?

Okay, I’m done being emo now. Suffice it to say, the show went well, and everybody did really good, and I’m still happy.

Of course, it could have ended better than the fiasco Sat. night, but oh well, everything’s okay now, right? Right. Yes. I love my daddy, but the only person I know scares people more than him is G.

Rehearsal for Nights of Broadway went all right. I’m still a bit off on Let’s Hear it for the Boy, and I’m really concerned about Puttin’ On the Ritz-it’s my favorite song and I just really don’t want to screw it up. I’m insanely nervous about One Vision as well-okay, I’m pretty insanely nervous as a whole, to be honest with you. I’m busying myself with running lights every chance I get and following 8-counts, which helps a lot. The show’s tonight-wish me luck!

Fortunately, I hit You Can’t Stop the Beat pretty dang well every time now that I took out all those extra pages that don’t belong in there and I don’t get completely confused with them. Looking at the lights now for Breaking Free, I just kinda want to go in and change them around. Just a little. You know how it is. I feel like, looking at it now, the all white really belongs at the end of the song and not second to last…If I could only switch those last two, I’d be as happy as a camper…Except for the crushing weight of that fat white book and that happy little go button. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing it, I just get so disgustingly nervous about things like this.

Went to the tiny town of Lincoln, Kansas to see the premiere (finally!) of the movie that me and Dad are in. Bloody Dawn: The Lawrence Massacre-Exciting title, I know! I have pretty good scenes in it, it turns out. The movie as a movie is not the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty good for low budget and dang better than the last one. After that, we went to a particularly laughable display in the courthouse-It was Lincoln Days, you see, so they had a bunch of guys dressed up as Abraham Lincoln there, including the guy who starred as Quantrill in the movie-ironic, no? First they had a "fashion show", which was…odd…and then Tom, our Lincolny pal, gave the Gettysburg Address, which was all right as Gettysburg Addresses go. Then there was the Abe Lincoln Look-Alike Contest, which Tom did not win. Then we left….

We were just tourists that day, I miss reenacting already. The sweltering heat, the twenty three layers of clothing, the hunger, the irritation, the people, the ropes, the shootouts with the balloons, everything. I guess I didn’t realize so much how much this meant to me until now. Maybe I should write a play about how humanity sucks. Oh, wait, that’s been done before.

Just got A Streetcar Named Desire out of the library and read it to compare to when I saw it freshman year…It seemed shorter reading it, but that seems rational. I have to say I liked seeing it better, but I guess that’s why it’s a play instead of a book. I love the symbolism of bathing, I felt really smart as a little PIB 1 freshman spotting that. However, it may hinder me in my enjoyment of reading the play that I saw it performed two years ago, because while reading it I noticed that everything I read played out in my head with the actors I saw in it, and the scenery in the production, and everything. I’m sure that has just ruined me for life, I know.

It's srt of the reverse process, really, of what we went through for Chess, since for Chess, we read it and still got the excitement, the buildup to seeing it perfomed. I feel guilty that just reading it feels like a step down, but I suppose that shows 1. The quality of the production (I enjoy reading plays more sometimes than watching them i the production isn't all that good) and 2. The reason for theatre. Theatre is dependent upon more than just the reading of the script to make it what it is fully meant to be-that's why playus are produced instead of just read and nodded over.

I’M GOING TO BE LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR FOR NOB!!! That’s exciting. Could you tell?

Needless to say, I’m hopelessly nervous over this. I’ve never worked a light board in my life. I suck at reading music. But I do enjoy applying myself, so perhaps that will benefit me. I reeeeally don’t want to screw this up.

I have the big white light book. Oh. My. Gosh. It is so scary. It’s…big…and…white, and…full of music. Gads!

To think I wrote happily here in my little journal, innocent and free, a long time ago, "I think I’d like to learn a bit more about lighting." I guess I’m going to.

Besides that, in class we’re going to be designing lights for it I guess, so hopefully I’ll at least get our songs right. Well, hopefully I’ll get all of them right, but you know what I mean. I don’t envy Maddy her costuming job…seems scary. Don’t envy Riley his light designing job, either…also seems scary. Courtney’s job, of course, scares the crap out of me…Dancing…yikes.

I’m not sure about my feelings towards Stanislavski. I think I’ll plan on trying out his methods and then seeing how I feel about him, and them. I’m not sure I’ll ever want to have his baby, as the author of the book clearly does, but maybe I’ll gain appreciation for him-because that’s what the SL year is for, right, increasing our dramaturgical maturity? Of course it is.

The whole thing about emotion, how you use personal experience not to call forth the emotion in the scene directly, but instead call forth the memory and use the emotion, not the situation…I think I get it, but I’m not fully sure I do. I suppose it’s like those optical illusions that you have to look at out of the corner of your eye, but when ou look straight at it, it’s all weird…yeah.

But hey, it’s definitely better than scriptwriting. Don’t get me wrong, I love to write, but scriptwriting…for class…it sort of sucks up all my creativity. But hey, if we didn’t have to do that, I wouldn’t have gotten my happy little two person script which I love so much and haven’t titled because it didn’t seem pressing.

Okay, so Aces and Sixguns is pretty much kaput, so go ahead and cross that off your wishlist. The whole stupid Toy Show fiasco pretty much screwed everything up. Cash has decreed herself leader of the freaking free world and has…Well, okay, here’s how it went down, play-by-play:

*instead, decree that dad (who was never going to be there anytway, and who told THEM to handle the toy show by themselves) should write kevin apologetic email

*forwards message and kevin’s reply to group

*cash has a fit because she is insulted by the letter’s contents (in other words, dad told him the truth instead of making excuses), says he’s making the rest of the gorup look bad

*dad and cash, best of buds, have big fight

*dad resigns as pres., no one else argues, this insults leanna a lot.

Sooooo….that’s where it’s at. Jeff and Dana don’t seem to know what’s going on. We went to drop off the aces stuff and cash was so cold…That sucks. She didn’t even talk to me, my so-called "second mommy." I wanted to tell her off, but I was too busy trying not to cry. How sissified, I know. I gotta stop being so honest with this stupid journal.

Today in class everyone read one of their scripts for our final, and I was sort of surprised at how much fun it was. I felt that my script was dang good-I picked my two person one, the odd one about the two people (obviously) on a bus. I don’t really know whether to call that a comedy or a drama. Matt’s was so depressing-I thought we were going to hear a happy little story about the Grand Canyon, and then boom, dead kid in a wheelchair. I liked it though…It was really clear in my head, the whole scenario.

It also amused me that Emily wrote a Christmas script as well. I suppose it’s on the top of all of our brains right now…ahhh, Christmas. Also amusing was the main character’s name. Zach, typical Zach that he is, wrote about teenage pregnency…and he says I have Degrassi-like tendencies. And I was so surprised I was actually interested in Wendell’s, but it’s true, I really wanted to hear what happened next with our robot friend. Courtney’s reminded me a bit of mine, so of course I liked it. I enjoy when things jump around in time somewhat, with obvious exceptions (*cough* woman warrior *cough*). And of course, Maddy’s charmed me completely. I didn’t know anything about it beforehand, and looking at the whole scenario, it could have been really stupid, but she actually pulled it off and so I give her seventy-three stars. Altogether, I thought the experience was pretty dang educatiional, and I am reeeeeally not looking forward to doing it again.

Must figure out something to do for Nights of Broadway auditions! I’m soooo rusty in the vocal department;I haven’t taken choir or anything of the sort since 8^th grade and I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to sing. As for dancing…well, it’s not my first love. Or my second. But it’s not like I’ll be stoned if I’m not any good. I’m thinking I want to do "Please Mr. Jailer" from Crybaby…I don’t know if that’s a Broadway musical, but if it’s not it should be. One of my favorite movies of all time. I don’t know what I’ll do for the fast song, though.

My first great East High experience was actually the NOB the year before I started high school. When I came to the IB interviews, they gave me two tickets to it, and I came with my (possibly scary, but really nice once you get to know him and he’s not grumpy!) dad. It pretty much knocked my socks off-it was nothing like I’d ever seen before, with the lights and the songs and just awesomeness everywhere. The only two songs I have a clear memory of are the one from Phantom of the Opera, because I was obsessed with the movie that year, and "Defying Gravity," from Wicked, because…well, it was just pretty mind-blowing.

I love my Commedia part! At first I didn’t think I would, but it has so few guidelines that it’s super open for interpretation, which I of course love. Tartaglia stutters, and the handout said that the stuttering can be out of rage, fear…pretty much any emotion, so it’s a very intriguing decision of which way I’m going to play it. I really wish I was better at improv during these moments. I’m much funnier when I’m not trying…and when I’m making fun of people, I have to admit that’s my forte. Maybe I should be an insult comic or something.

So…theatre. Yes. Dramaturgical. Extrapolate. Pentameter. There! I’ve met my quota of scary big IB words for this entry. On a more serious note, I’m really hoping to get more involved in theatre from now on, now that I have transport. I’ve always wanted to be super involved, but it’s sad that I’ve only gotten the chance this year. But this journal is not for whining, it’s for extrapolating serious dramaturgical issues, such as pentameter. (I’m aware of the fact that that sentence made no sense.)

One-Acts rehearsal is…intriguing. Wendell seems loath to show up…but I feel bad for him, he’s in two one-acts at once and that has to be completely crazy for him. I have to come on most of the rehearsal days, but I really don’t mind, all I have to do is homework anyways. Homework…gross.

In other news, while going off on a tangent during a ToK project, I stumbled upon the definition for "campy," or "camp" (style), which intrigued me, as I have always liked the word "campy" but never really knew what it meant. Apparently, it involves effeminate men and irony, two things I happen to enjoy, and is defined by answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/camp-style) as "an aesthetic in which something has appeal because of its bad taste or ironic value." It also mentioned Gilligan’s Island as an example…I love Gilligan’s Island…Okay then, so through all this I have once again established myself as an individual with an odd variety of tastes.

Am incredibly excited about the upcoming movie premiere…I just don’t know what to do with myself. Not exactly theatre, but it does involve theatrical-like elements.

My Commedia script is a tad bit too long, as I just couldn’t fit all that goodness into just ten scenes. (Besides, I sort of thought it was 7-12, not 7-10. Oh well). I like I, though, full of crazy exciting drama. Ooh lala. Also excited about the One Acts-my first East High role! I just wish I could have gotten into this whole thing sooner…If I could have only learned to drive like two years ago it would have been fine. Oh well, it’s not like I’m eighty wishing I could be prom queen or anything, I still have oodles of time. I enjoy the word oodles. Anyway, I’ve gotten my script and read it…as the grammar nazi I am, the typing of course drives me up the wall, but I will live, and that’s not the point I was going to make anyway. What I’m going to talk about is the actual content of the script. It seems a bit cheesy, to tell you the truth, but I have an extremely sensitive cheese radar and a high cheese tolerance, so I should be able to deal. Can’t help the feeling I’ve been typecast because of my long blonde hair, but I know G would never do that, so maybe I just have low self esteem issues. Augh, I hate my hair. But I don’t, really. Anyway, this journal is not for my self-loathing issues, it’s about thatre. So…then…

In other news…well, in other news there’s really no Aces news. Not much going on right now, it’s sort of the off season. Still debating over whether we’re doing the toy show or not.

I’m freaking a little over these scripts. I have the longest one done, really close to 4000 words in itself, but the other two are iffy. My long one is great, though. I love it…a depressing Christmas story. Who doesn’t need one of those, right? It’s also western, sorry. I can’t help my passions. Zach thinks its like a western Degrassi, but I’m not sure about that. Great, I’m making myself doubt its greatness now.

Anyway, so we’re studying Commedia del Arte now. I think I like it, but I’m unsure as of yet. Everyone else seems to hate it a little. I think Pulcinella might be my favorite, which shows what a sick and twisted individual I must be. He just seems like such an intriguing character when matched up with all those other happy, nice, only slightly smarmy characters. I think I love foils.

Had a very theatre weekend: I went to Northwest on Thursday to see Little Shop of Horrors, then on Friday went to our own East High production of Chess. With absolutely, let me assure you, no bias, East’s was sooo much better. However, it was very curious: I loved seeing Little Shop. I just love the show. You would think that, since that was my first time seeing it, I would hate it due to its poor performance, but all I did was regret it wasn’t better. Here’s my (brutally honest)criticisms:

*Bad lighting. Very bad. Spotlights were just dreadful.

*Almost everyone was a terrible singer. Not that I’m that great, but this has nothing to do with me.

*Very little dancing. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think if there’s so much music in a musical, there should be a decent amount of dancing, Just my opinion.

the show was still watchable, and even enjoyable. I have no idea why. I suppose it has something to do with the following:

*Good acting. That’s always helpful. Everyone in the cast was surprisingly decent.

*The lead characters had a certain amount of chemistry, which made them look considerably less like seventh graders at the middle school formal who don’t want to touch each other AT ALL. Arms length, everybody.

*The female lead, whose actual name I misremember.

The girl who played Audrey was actually quite good. She was just about the only one in that cast who could sing, and she also had a great Audrey voice. I have the soundtrack to the musical, and I enjoyed the Northwest girl’s voice considerably more than the person’s on the soundtrack. Just my personal opinion.

All in all, even though it had its downright painful moments, I enjoyed it.

Chess, on the other hand, had no painful moments, and made me feel considerably less happy. Chess is so depressing, I just…augh. It makes me feel existential. It made my best friend cry, which is no huge feat but not entirely simple either. Its message is like the antithesis of every happy romantic comedy ever made. My favorite part, song, pretty much favorite everything is at the end of the first act, with Anthem…Maybe I just have this predisposition for younger voices, but I also enjoy Matt’s voice more than the soundtrack. And the whole scrim, checkerboard, flag effect knocked me out ever flipping time.Everyone was amazing in it…Naturally it is much more difficult for me to talk about the actors individually in this one as I know so many of them. Suffice it to say, the lights were amazing, the singing was only slightly painful (and that only because I sat right next to a huge speaker and the goodness almost slew me dead), and even though I knew it was coming, I still got my freaking heart ripped out at the end…I need to stop believing that things are going to change magically in books, movies, plays, etc. Dang false hope.