[September] Obsessions

This month's obsession is not a person, place, or thing.  It's a mindset. 

 I'm actively working on being the strongest, healthiest, most accomplished, most confident version of me I can be.  This little cartoon kind of puts it into a lighthearted perspective.

via weheartit.com

Concerts, Sunrises, and Treasures

This weekend I saw an awesome concert and met my all-time favourite band!!!

(didn't get to meet Stephen, :-[ so his portion of the poster isn't shown)

Then, I went on a pre-sunrise adventure with two of my closest friends to one of the most special events I've ever been apart of.  It was truly so good it makes my heart hurt a bit.  Never pass up a chance to bless those who have blessed you.

This was the most amazing and memorable weekend I've had in a long time.  Life's treasures can come upon you at any moment if you are open to receive them. :-)

Who, Me? Excited? Nah.

via rechertheatre.com

It's been over two years since I have seen them and I am so excited!  Here's hoping to a good show!  Of course, they will put on a good show, but I know from experience too many things that can happen to make shows annoying experiences.  But YAY!

(In case you're new and don't understand what all the jumping up and down is about, go visit this post.)

High Notes and Dark Holes

I miss talking to you guys!  I'm consumed by theatre, Phi Theta Kappa, schoolwork, and random weak moments in which I fall down dark YouTube holes.

I regularly forget that I have tickets for an ANBERLIN concert this Saturday, but deep down, I am psyched!

@The_Moment is wrapped and you can read an outside perspective of it here.  (<--I'm pretty jazzed by what lies at that link!)  I have all sorts of fun tidbits to share from the show...but they'll have to wait.

I'm auditioning for the fall academic show this Wednesday, as well as co-chairing the Alpha Rho Psi orientation.  I'm presenting my second project of the semester for speech class tomorrow, and learning some pretty kick-a$$ songs in my voice lessons.  I'm studying "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera!!!  <3  Also something in Italian that I'm probably mercilessly butchering but sounds nice if you know nothing of the language. :-p

My biggest challenge (read: stressor) is whether I am doing too much or too little.  I want excellent grades, I need to become a better performer, I need to be a strong leader...but not at the expense of my sanity, health, or general happiness. Anyone have any advice?

Where We Play With Glue For Minimum Wage

An obvious privilege of working in theatre is getting to make weird and creative things that make people go "waaahhh?"

Take this picture of some of this week's labors for an example:

Starch blows, dude

@The_Moment: Tech Week!

Tech week for the play festival is upon me.  We've been rehearsing at a museum who is sponsoring the festival, and have yet to see our actual performance space (at The 14Karat Cabaret) or even know the exact dimensions we'll be working within!  Hopefully we'll learn all that on Monday.  We are going to rehearse once in our performance space the night before the show.  I know what I'm wearing for both the plays I'm in, and everything is from my own wardrobe. 

The rehearsal format is much different than what I'm used to.  Up till now it was an hour a week for each piece, and in that hour we would usually get through each piece twice.  That leaves a lot up to the actor as far as independent study.  Fortunately our directors are good communicators and collaborators, so it was easy to learn and take their acting notes on first explanation.  I'm still struggling with a section of dialogue in "Con-text", which is both really embarrassing and worrying.  I learned the Twitter piece with much less trouble than I anticipated with the use of a flash cards system.

We're rehearsing every night this week and opening on Friday!  Hope you'll be there! :-) (I promise I'll know my lines :-p). 

Dramaturg Project

For an assignment in speech class this week I am writing a "Career Speech" (the theme was assigned) and I choose to focus on dramaturgs.


During my search through scholarly articles I found this quote that I now feel compelled to ponder: "sometimes being an artist is incompatible with being a citizen".


The article I read this in was written by the head of Dramaturgy at DePaul University.  If you're interested in dramaturgy and one aspect of its struggle in American theatre, you might find the article very interesting: The Dramaturg's Progress


*Oops!  The link only worked while I was logged into my ProQuest account through my school's library.  If you'd really like to read it, I can certainly copy/paste it to you!*