Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in isabelkate's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
9:48 am	it's official: i'm moving to blogspot.  it's way cooler. isabelkate.blogspot.com change your favorites pages, suckas! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
4:37 pm	mmm... musings... was there ever a time that i didn't like yogurt?  that i enjoyed the taste but found the texture mildly nauseating?  my brain tells me it's true, but my mouth doesn't believe it.  mmm, yogurt. similarly, i believe there was a time when i dismissed hummous and falafel alike without a fair trial.  the fact that about half of my diet on any given week in the past three months has consisted of one or the other of these substances.  and i'm still not sick of them.  mmm, hummous.  mmm, falafel. ... all this talk about food is probably irritating to some of you - not because you disagree, but because you're thinking, "you don't write for over a month, and then all you have to say is that you like YOGURT? lame!"  and you are justifiably riled, for i am lame.  there is so much to write, and seeing as all i really have on the agenda these days is working in front of a computer for 40hrs a week, i really should have been able to whip out the necessary epic entry by now.  but i haven't.  and now it's quarter to five on a tuesday, so it looks like it may have to wait til tomorrow. til then, forgive me.... xx (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
3:51 pm	what the hell is going on? i just checked my myspace account, and there was a new bulletin under my friend justin's profile.  it was written by a girl named josie, explaining that she was justin's girlfriend and that he'd passed away last week, and his profile would be deleted in due course. what the hell is going on?  my first reaction was to think it was a joke.  it has to be a joke, right?  but who jokes about something like that? i am feeling shocked, and confused, and upset, and bereft.  i can't remember the last time we spoke.  i don't know how he died.  to be honest, i didn't even know him all that WELL - we met on friendster, of all places, about two and a half years ago, went on a couple of dates, and got along well enough that we kept in touch, however sporadically.  he had a great sense of humour, a hunger for adventure, a tongue piercing, and great wit.  the last i heard was that after his 'round the world trip of two years ago, he moved to montreal and was learning french.  he was twenty eight. what the hell is going on? i also have this gut reaction/aversion to his profile being deleted on myspace, or friendster for that matter.  it's ridiculous, i know, but i feel like it erases him, in a way.  it makes it easier to forget him. i don't know.  i don't understand.  i don't understand the world at all. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
1:14 pm	travels to come last night, i made the very sincere promise to my dear friend ana mirtha that, before i finish lispa, i will go home with her to madrid.  i've never been to spain.  i can't wait. also, the other day at karim, carrie, maria, agnese, and martha's house, maria was showing me her home town on google earth - a small town called saint sebastian on the northern coast of spain in basque country just west of the french border.  there's a beach, and a bay with turquoise waters, and mountains.  i reeeeeally wanna go there too... and in a perfect world (or something like it), me and several others from lispa will come across a bunch of grant money after we graduate and go out to india to do a show with our friend abhishek, also in the programme.  how great would that be?! yes, it's true, i'm a dreamer.  but who knows?  some (or all!) of these just might come true.... i love you all (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 22nd, 2007
11:21 am	london adventures last saturday night after working the comedy club, karim asked me if i wanted to go with him to meet up with seriol (crazy lovey awesome welsh guy from the morning group), matty (his boyfriend), and ryan (minneapolis represent! also from the morning group) by the london eye.  though i was a bit tired, that was just about the funnest group i could imagine spending my evening with, so i agreed, and we grabbed some beer and headed to the embankment.  for those of you who don't know, the london eye is located on the south bank of the thames, just east of big ben and the houses of parliament - at any time of day or night, i think it's my favorite spot in london.  so you can imagine my dismay upon my arrival when i realised that this was the first time i had been there in months.  easily.  i'd gotten so caught up in my little corner of this city, so polarised in my existence and day-to-day grind, i'd forgotten about the spots that i know and love and take my breath away.  my dismay was short-lived though... after all, i was there, in the middle of the lights and the breeze and my friends, and so i breathed it all in and enjoyed it. we had probably been sitting in front of the eye for about an hour or so when we decided to explore.  wandering into the newly renovated festival hall, we stumbled upon a well lit polished wood dance floor with a bunch of smartly dressed professionals standing about looking awkward, with a dj playing sixties tunes on the stage.  it all felt very middle-school-sock-hop, only with 30 and 40 year olds.  so what did we do?  you KNOW what we did!  four theatre students and a lovely boyfriend?  we danced circles around those awkward looking professionals!  we went CRAY-ZAY!  and we effectively got the party started, and kept it going until the music ended, the crowd dispersed, and it was one o'clock in the morning. another hour and some people watching on the embankment later, it was time to make the long slog home.  but what a fantastic evening.  seriol, ryan, matty, karim, and i have decided that henceforth, saturday will be adventureseeking night.  it will start between 1030 and 11, and will go until the cows come home.  i'm very excited to see what this saturday will bring. *** last night was the summer solstice, and to commemorate the event, karim (that crazy kid again) decided to have a bonfire in his backyard from 11pm to 4am.  so we went, and there was much piling on of wood and removing of shirts and jumping over the fire for the men,  and whooping and cheering and taking of pictures for the women.  highlights included an impromptu interpretative performance of the invasion of the "new world" by ryan, karim, and seriol (there were other people at this party, by the way, it's just that these guys always manage to end up being the centre of attention), singing james taylor with carrie, and joining hands with the group around the fire for an impromptu solstice ritual that we just kinda made up on the spot.  it was awesome.  by the time i got home, the sky was light.  waking up this morning sucked, but it was Totally, Totally worth it. *** class is going well.  this week we've been revisiting themes from the very first term and seeing what else we can find.  it's a really fantastic idea, actually, because you can really see how we've grown as a class and as individuals by how we react to the situations and provocations now as opposed to eight months ago (oh my god! eight months ago!  i can't believe i've been in this school this long!).  the other day we revisited the Epic Journey (from the sea to the forest up the mountain down the mountain across the river through the plains into the desert to watch the sunset) from our work with the Neutral Mask, only now without the mask, on our own, in front of the class.  michael led the session, and it was a GREAT class.  everyone got the chance to perform, and ... well, michael's just an absolutely fantastic teacher who makes the most astute observations in the most compassionate but unyielding kind of way.  he completely called me on my tendency to just feel feel feel to a point where it becomes self-indulgent, and serves myself more than the audience.  it feels So Good to have someone call my attention to my own strengths and weaknesses, to point out a possible direction, to challenge me to challenge myself.  it's good work these days.  it's always good work, and it's always a different appreciation, and i'm particularly appreciating the appreciation this week. *** we saw one of the end of the year presentations for the second year the other night.  i am So Excited to do clown.  SO EXCITED.  sincerely.  can't wait.  also, i'm thinking about taking some acrobalance classes this summer... *** that's all for now, folks.  as you may be able to tell, i'm exhausted, but for all the right reasons.  i love you all very much.  if i had more time i'd write more letters... (oh, and an update - the guy i know who was in a coma has opened his eyes!  raised his eyebrow!  squeezed his fist!  we don't know how much of *him* is still in there - the doctors say there's almost certainly been extensive brain damage - but to go from no brain activity to raising eyebrows is pretty miraculous.  miraculous is the word, indeed.) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
1:55 pm	today is a beautiful day. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
1:19 pm	i'm all over the map these days.  last week i had my meeting with thomas, which was really positive and confirmed that i'm not the only one who wants me to do the second year.  then i found out that a guy that i know only very casually in minneapolis was biking home thursday night, was hit by either a car or another bike, fractured his skull and was in a coma.  he's a very close friend of a good friend of mine here, and so we've been spending a lot of time together - especially since saturday, when we found out that the outlook is very grim indeed, and that he may not last the week.  his parents have made the unbelievably difficult decision to sign the DNR (do not recussitate) forms. this is all very strange.  the news hit me pretty hard at first, regardless of the fact that i really didn't know him well at all.  it's terrifying to realize that things like this happen, that young, intelligent, kind, fun people die sometimes.  i kind of wanted to call all my friends in the states and just tell them that i love them and to be careful.  i didn't, though.  i'm not sure why. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
1:55 pm	I HATE FACEBOOK! it is even worse than myspace and is eating my life!!!! gahhhhhh! more on this later. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
1:53 pm	learning to be brave the past couple of weeks, i've started volunteering to go up more in class, and it feels Really Good. there was one day in particular, kind of at the beginning of my foray into consciously volunteering more, where i was doing a solo theme (i may have even been the first person to go up), and the teacher kept stopping me and sending me back to start over with new critiques, and as i was getting really frustrated and upset (but still determined) i had this little revelation: as frustrated and upset as i was feeling, i would much rather be the one risking and failing and onstage then watching. (don't get me wrong - you learn by watching, too, if you're committed to it, but you learn so much better when you do it yourself.) this is stating the obvious, i know. and i've known this all along, but especially during term two when the work was really hard and i wasn't having the easiest time of it in life or school it was easier to let my fear stand in my way. and since it's not like the teachers call on us to go up, it's easier to avoid risking if you don't want to. anyway, since that day i've been a lot better about going up onstage. i feel like i'm really engaging with my education for the first time since first term. it feels good. really good. i'm pissed at myself that it took this long, but i also understand that i needed time to lay low for awhile, and i'm determined not to beat myself up for it. besides, it's further incentive to make up for lost time. this might be a good time to mention that i'm really happy these days. i feel much more settled socially and physically, and life seems to have hit a very pleasant groove. so those of you who get to see me in minneapolis next week (woo hoo!) will get to see happy isabel. good news all around. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
1:34 pm	This morning on the way to work I stopped off at Cass Art and bought some acrylic paints. Whether the purchase of acrylic paints fits neatly into my budget is debatable, but even so I like that my life at the moment includes the necessity of buying paint. (I’m halfway through painting my giraffe mask to present on Tuesday, I need to whip up a house of wrath for that day as well, and though my expressive mask is technically done, who’s to say I won’t do yet another paint job? Now that I have all these shiny new acrylic paints, I mean.) I’ve always loved the idea of being visually artistic, but it’s so rare that I kick my own ass into actually doing something about it… another reason to love LISPA. It makes me attack (or at least attempt) those areas that I was always a bit to scared and pansy-ass to venture into before. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 13th, 2007
10:35 am	i went swing dancing last night for the first time since moving to london, and it felt So Good.  i'm hoping to start going twice a week now - thursdays and sundays.  and did i mention that my friend ana mirtha and i are talking about signing up for an additional acrobatics course on sunday afternoons?  finally, Finally, it feels like my life is kicking into gear. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
1:36 pm	i went to simon's for easter this past weekend, and it was Lovely.  three days surrounded by sunlit english countryside, sitting in the gazebo in the garden or tromping through fields of cows and bluebells, eating homemade scones with homemade jam and fresh eggs and butter, reading in the sun, walking the dog, hunting for chocolate eggs in the vegetable patch, listening to lps of elgar and jeff buckley and fairport convention.  simon's family are wonderful, generous, and kind, and of course spending three days with simon was good for both heart and soul.  i adore him.  and now i've returned to london, rested and centred, and calmer than i've felt in some time. in fairness, even before going to bures for the weekend i was feeling better and more balanced about living in london.  this is most likely largely due to the fact that i had time to go out into the city a bit more - thursday night i saw brother ali's show (minneapolis represent!) at the notting hill arts club, and friday i took some friends to the paradise bar, which i'd never been to before but had heard was good, and i was not disappointed!  if the kitty cat klub were a small british pub, it would probably be akin to the paradise.  and friday morning i didn't have to work because of the bank holiday, so ended up walking along portobello road with karim and buying fresh strawberries, brie, and croissants for breakfast.  and have i mentioned that it's consistently been upwards of 60 degrees and sunny of late? today will be a long day, and so will tomorrow, but life is good nonetheless.  there's a potential outing to the paradise scheduled for friday night, i'm planning on getting up to my elbows in plaster and working on my masks for school during the day on saturday, and sunday stands gloriously open.  also, we're starting to work on front handsprings in acrobatics... what more could a girl want? hope you're all well, keep on keepin on in touch! x x x (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
10:48 am	i've been pretty consistently exhausted for the past month.  i love the school, but i wish i had more energy to feel as though i was really, truly investing myself.  not that i feel that i'm only going through the motions; it's just that i know that the more i put into this experience, the more i'll get out of it, and at the moment there's only so much i can give.  it takes so much just to keep up with the pace of my own life - up at 730, out the door by just past 8, work until two, rush home for a hastily-made sandwich and then off to class at 3, and then class until 10, whereupon i stumble home, eat something, fall into bed and watch tv for an hour before falling asleep. you see the problem. to be honest, much of this feeling is probably coloured by the fact that yesterday was tuesday, which is always my longest day.  were i to write this on thursday, the day that Rocks!, i would have a much cheerier outlook.  you see, on thursdays, i work from 10-2 and then have a break until Six!  Six o'clock! and i'm always done by ten, if not earlier. but considering the general pace of life, which tends more towards the tuesday, easter weekend could not come at a more opportune time.  i don't have to work on friday OR monday, i have no class on monday, and i'm going to simon's house in the country to spend the holiday with his family.  i'm very excited indeed; some rest and good food will do me good.  i heart easter. on another note, it occurred to me when i was looking over the oh-so-few blog entries i've written since moving to london that, for all my talking about the school in general terms, i've written very little about the Actual Work that we do - the exercises, the journeys, the creation themes, all that good stuff.  hopefully at some point (maybe even tomorrow!) i'll try and write a little on what we did in terms one and two, but for now, let me give you a little more on term three, and what we've been doing this week. i know that i mentioned that the principal work so far this term has been animals, and i listed the animals that we now officially have in our repetoire.  the first week of animal work we worked on the animals as animals: purely animal physicality, behaviour, and state.  each teacher took us through a different set of animals: thomas did birds; amy, cats, dogs, and rodents; michael, hooved animals; and steph, lizards.  our creation theme for that week (remember that creation is the class where we're assigned random groups, given a week and a set amount of creation (read: rehearsal) time, and we have to create a piece of theatre around the theme to perform and have critiqued the following week) was "A Family of Animals," and we were told to choose an animal as a group, observe that animal's behaviour (either live or from video footage), and construct a piece around it.  My group did a pack of wolves, which was really great and fun to work on.  nothing really "happened" in our piece, per se - we primarily concentrated on the state of the animal and it's behaviour as a pack in a low-key situation - but it seems that's what the teachers were looking for that particular week, and the feedback was very positive.  and i had fun, which is the most important thing. week two of animal work, we started to transpose our animals into human situations while still playing them 100% as animals.  (this is where the "wolves as good-for-nothing adolescents" and "penguins as tourists in the national gallery" exercises that i mentioned last entry came in.)  we also tried mixed combinations of animals in particular situations - what happens when a dog meets a chicken?  a meerkat meets a fly?  a tortoise meets a penguin?  in these exercises, the character elements of the animals started to come through more strongly.  our creation theme for that week?  "Animals at the Olympics."  my group did the balance beam competition: we had a deer and her horse coach vs a tribe of meerkats, with a lizard, a dog, and a camel as judges and me, the seal, as announcer and score presenter.  it was awesome.  it's so much fun to watch the personalities play off each other, and the contrast of the different animal states. this week, we're making the animals even more human by giving them language and toning down the animal physicality.   drama really begins to emerge, now... when we have improvs in class, they begin to look more and more like scenes.  our theme for this week is to create just such a scene.  my group has only had one rehearsal so far, but the idea we came up with last night is the classic "meeting the parents" scene, with a deer-influenced girl bringing home her Wolfish boyfriend to her bear papa and over-excitable chicken mom.  who knows if we'll stick with this scenario, but it was fun to play with last night.  the trick, now that we've reintroduced language as an option, is not to get stuck just talking.  we've worked so hard to discover this world of physicality; it's important that we don't let it slip away. i've really been enjoying this animal work.  it's so playful and adventurous, it's hard not to fall in love with it.  i have to admit that when they told us we'd be working with animals this term i inwardly groaned and wasn't looking forward to being an elephant (or whatever) for five weeks.  but it's been quite a revelation,  this work.  i feel like the gaps in knowledge that i've always felt as an actor, the unsurety about where or how to begin, are slowly being filled.  i'm not as scared anymore.  i mean, i still need to give myself a mental kick in the ass to volunteer myself in class, and it's still difficult and frustrating a lot of the time, but i feel that in a very small, quiet way, i'm gaining a confidence that i didn't have before.  it's a good feeling.  i don't always have it, but it is a good feeling. hope you're all well and dandy.  happy half-birthday, mark! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 29th, 2007
1:33 pm	ps if you want another perspective on the lispa experience (one that's been more consistently upated and is a fascinating read [at least for me]), go to http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/acting/education/lispa/ - phil is a lovely guy, a lovely writer, and a member of the morning group in the initiation course.  check it out! (Comment on this)
1:31 pm	at long last wow, i’ve really been bad about blogging, huh. shame on me! fifty lashes with a wet noodle! (can you tell I read ann landers growing up?) anyway, i now have internet access at work (mwahahahaha!), and so i really have no excuse not to write more often. so i really will try. at least a little at least once a week, i promise.   it’s also a shame i haven’t written because there’s been a lot of rumination going on on my part. this term hasn’t been easy, but in a very different way than last term wasn’t easy (what a poorly constructed sentence that is!). last term it was the work more than anything that was messing with my head – it made us dig deep into darker, more convoluted spaces while still remaining open… not to mention “becoming the music,” which i still maintain is the most difficult thing anyone’s ever asked me to do. anyway, thomas told us at the start of the term that we’d be dealing with considerably lighter fare this time around, which came as a relief. as it turns out, though, this term has been pretty hard for me as well, but less in terms of the work as in terms of myself.   i’m coming to realize that i had no idea what i was getting into when i signed up for this programme. truth be told, i think i was pretty naïve, and more than a little short-sighted. basically, i’d always had fun whenever i’d been involved in any sort of physical theatre training or workshop, and i knew that as an actor i was too cerebral for my own good, so i signed up for LISPA thinking of it pretty much exclusively as a way to get out of my head as an actor – just a straight-forward physical acting training course. what i’ve come to realize, though, is that the focus of this school is much more essential, much broader, much more …. existential, almost. it provokes questions about what it means to be an artist in the world, why you are an artist at all, what it is that you want to say as an artist. even more importantly (and even more terrifying), you are challenged to realise the answers through practice, and to embrace your own sense of power and agency in the world. you know that speech by nelson mandela about how our greatest fear is not that we are weak, but that we are beautiful and powerful beyond measure? it’s like that. like someone is telling us everyday that we can be beautiful and powerful beyond measure, but only we can make ourselves so. that the mantle is there, but it’s up to us to reach out and take it.   i never knew that trying to really recognise and *own* the beauty and power in me could be so difficult.   i’m learning so much about myself here, and it’s not always easy because the flaws are so much more apparent than the strengths, at least from my end. i realise that i have the capacity to be my own worst critic, so maybe that’s something i need to work on as well. a wise woman and co-artist once told me “you are enough,” and i didn’t believe her at the time. i’m learning to believe that statement now, or at least i’m trying to.   luckily, i think i’m in a really good place to be doing this kind of investigation, because i’m in a place where i’m surrounded by other people who are doing the same thing, and we can support each other. i’m also getting better at spending time with people outside of class, which i realise more and more is essential for my personal happiness and sense of home.   so! this term we worked for a little while on larval masks, which are a larger than life and largely unformed – there’s usually a nose and maybe the suggestion of eyes – and pure white… and blind. no eye-holes. Which means that you, as the teachers say, have to learn to have eyes all over your body. the improvs that were done with the larval masks were wonderful – often very funny, almost cartoonish, but also veerrrry slow. we begin to see the beginnings of characters, and learn the virtues of specificity, of patience, of listening intently to the other presences onstage. unfortunately, we only had a week to do so – as soon as we’d begun working with the larval masks, we moved on…   …to animals! whee! animals are great fun, though often physically very hard because you’re trying to move your body in a way that we, humans, are not physically not constructed to move. (we worked on lizards on monday and i cannot *tell* you the agony of having to hold yourself up just inches off the floor and crawl around like that for an hour and a half. luckily, we’re also learning how to transpose the movement onto two legs so it’s slightly more comfortable.) so far we’ve investigated: geese (taking off and landing), chickens, dogs, kittens, big cats, penguins, geckoes, crocodiles, horses, pigs, deer, giraffes, rabbits, mice, tortoises, cows, wolves, and flies. It’s been nearly two weeks of animal work now, and we’re starting to transpose them into human situations: a flock of penguins becomes a group of tourists in the national gallery, a pack of wolves becomes a bunch of good-for-nothing adolescent gang members on a street corner. i can’t wait to see what the teachers come up with next…   there seems to be ever more to write, but i think i’ll stop it here for today. after all, now that i have internet access on a regular basis, you should be hearing from me again soon.   i love you all! hope all is well at your respective ends, all over the world… (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
1:24 pm	just a note spring has come to london, and it's lovely.  i'm still busy, and sometimes stressed, but the sunshine is doing me good and in the past month i feel i've really made some wonderful friends and feel much more at home here.  i literally have two minutes left on this computer, so i must run, but please know that i think of you all often.  i love you so much! oh, and mark your calendars, because i'll be in minneapolis from the 30th of april until the 12th of may!  it's official! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
10:34 am	it's funny how much you learn about yourself when things don't come easily. i've decided that i need to get over myself, but i also need to get over other people. essentially, i need to stop thinking that i'm good or that i'm bad and just get on with trying to create something, and that i Really need to stop worrying about what other people think about or see or don't see in me. now you all are sitting there thinking, "where did THAT come from?" and i'm not exactly sure how to answer that. suffice it to say that it's been a weird week - not entirely bad, but with more tinges of insecurity and self-consciousness than in the past several weeks. having come from moving paintings, we're now trying to move music, which is REALLY HARD. it's not enough to be affected by the music, and it's certainly not enough to dance to it - we're supposed to BE it. WHAT?! i have no idea how to do this, and i am SO lost. i was talking to mom about it and saying that i love painting and art, but i'm not in love with it like i am with music, so it's easier to separate and figure out how the light moves in the painting, how the colours move, and to perform that. but you play a symphony for me, or slow sweet melancholy jazz and it eats me up. i have no distance from that, i don't know how to even begin to show what it is because it is so entirely itself. how could i possibly show all the beauty in a piece of music? how can i move something that moves me so entirely? you see the problem. it has not been an easy week, and often i finish class feeling frustrated and thwarted. but i did not choose to do this because i thought it would be easy. the other thing that's come into clearer focus this week is how little i really know my classmates. i was talking to niamh about it today over breakfast and we concluded that we're all learning each other backwards - we know strange, inexplicable, intimate, essential things about each other from watching them perform and evolve and grow, but we don't know anyone's history, the way they react to situations, their first love or favorite colour, what kind of music they listen to. it's very strange, because you almost get a false sense of intimacy with people - you forget that you know very little about them, perhaps that you don't know them at all. the point of all this is i've been feeling a little lonely this week, or not so much lonely as missing the people who really know me. know my history and what i'm like and who i have an unspoken understanding with, who i trust and who trust me and who know and love all of me. it's hard to start from scratch all over again, especially with the added pitfall of feeling that you're close to people and then realizing that you're actually not. the upside of this is that, since i've realized that there's so little that i know about the people around me, i've been able to take steps to combat it. breakfast with niamh this morning made an excellent beginning, and then i ended going to primark (britain's answer to kmart) with ana mirtha after rehearsal. all it takes is a little more effort sometimes, and i'm slowly making my way. oh, but i miss you guys. i'm not homesick, but i miss the comfort of home and the comfort of the relationships. sending so much love your way, all the time... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
12:48 pm	living art hello again! just another short note to reiterate what i said before (i love my school! class is awesome! i'm great!) and to say that today is a beautiful sunday, and i'm about to go to the tate britain to look at art. the past couple of weeks in class we've been transposing paintings into movement, which has been Amazing. and there are so many ways to do this! you can show how the light moves, where it attaches and fades; or you can show the movement and use of colour; or you can find ways to show the texture or the painting technique; or you can physically describe a more personal, emotional reaction to the painting as well... it's all very exciting and fascinating. our creation theme for the next three weeks is to perform a painting that we've seen in london, so today i'm going to do research. my group has narrowed our selection down to a turner, a dali, an old victorian painting by someone i don't know, and possibly a pollock. i'll let you know what we decide... yes, classes this term have been Excellent, mostly because they're becoming slightly more focused on the dramatic, on the effective, on the way to apply these tools to art. it's still a personal journey, but there's more of a sense of purpose to it now. i'm becoming more confident as an actor and as a person ("what?" i hear you say from across the seas, "MORE confident? oh dear...."), and life is going swingingly my way while still not being too easy. i'm also working for the school as a "space caretaker" now, which means i have more time to write letters. this past week i've written, like, five. so send your address so you can get a letter, too! i love you all SOOOO much. now the tate britain calls.... happy sunday! xxxxxxxxoooooxoxoxo! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
1:55 pm	back in the saddle again just have a few minutes to write, but wanted to update and let you all know that i'm back at school now (yesterday being the first day), and i'm so happy about it. we had thomas, and he gave us a little chat about how the try-out period is over so now they're REALLY going to start pushing us (what? they were going easy on us before?) and "provoking" us more than before. so i'm excited, and also a little nervous. a good combination, i think. and all i'll say about class is that only thomas could describe the dissolving of a sugar cube into a cup of tea as a dramatic event in a way where you're really like, "oh my god. yes, you're right! it IS a dramatic event! and so tragic..." and want to cry. good thing i usually use loose sugar in my tea instead of cubes so i won't be weeping over breakfast every morning! also, i just have to say that i realize how ridiculous all of this sounds. i'm amused and also saddened by the fact that there's really no way to explain the exercises and work we do in a way that doesn't sound Completely Nuts (the drama of a sugar cube?! what?!). just trust me, and know that i'm learning some really incredible things, about theatre, and about myself, and about life. i love you all. happy new year! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 31st, 2006
1:50 pm	long time no write this is the third time i've tried to start this blog entry and have come up short. how do you start writing when there's so much to write? just dive in, i suppose... first things first: i'm good. i'm in london, and so is janna, which has made for much delight, hilarity, and all-around mayhem. before that, i was in prague for christmas with my family, which was lovely. what would've been lovelier, of course, would have been if tucker's and my flight to prague on the 22nd hadn't been cancelled due to fog (FOG?!!?!) and we hadn't had to wait until christmas DAY to get on another flight out. so christmas was briefer than we may have hoped, but we still got four days and change with mom and dad and so that made up for it. there's nothing like being with family over the holidays. oh, and prague was beautiful, too. lots of gorgeous buildings and art noveau and beer and hearty food and outdoor christmas markets. and the mucha museum, which was stunning. did you know that he got his big break by designing a theatre poster for sarah bernhardt in paris? i love that. it's so amazing to me that there was a time that being connected with the theatre could make you famous. the fact that a stage actress like sarah bernhardt had world recognition and the power to pull an artist out of obscurity and into international fame kind of blows my mind. these days, the only internationally recognized actors are film stars, by and large. how the world changes... obviously the other thing that i really should/need to write about is the school. as no doubt most of you have gathered, my assessment went well and i'm on board for the rest of the year, and most likely next year as well. that's right, i'm here for the long haul. in fact, the only times i'm planning on being back in minneapolis over the course of the next twenty months are for two weeks in early may and then next christmas. luckily, lots of people have either already visited me or have committed to - mom and dad will each be here over the course of the next few weeks, janna's here now, morgan was here last month, and avye and lindsay and ben are all slotted to show up sometime this spring. i should have a revolving door installed in the guest room. but i digress! i think the best way to tell you a little about what i've been experiencing at the school is to tell you about the teachers and the classes i have them for. so here we go! thomas. thomas is the founder of the school, and an incredible man. he has immense benevolence, but i'm kind of terrified by him - though perhaps "awed" would be a better word. it's difficult to describe him - he's kind of like this incredible theatre guru. "enlightened" isn't exactly the right word, but it's the one i keep coming up with. and i know that sounds ridiculous, but really, you have to meet him. he's kind of indescribable. he has immense calmness and kindness about him. thomas teaches movement analysis and improv. movement analysis classes with him this past term have covered everything from the evolution of movement (which i think i wrote about - writhing around on the floor and undulations and things) to the anatomy of climbing a wall (almost mime-y stuff) to partnering up and crawling all over each other. improv classes started out very simply with the class i wrote about a few entries back, and then changed with the introduction of the neutral mask, or mask of calmness, which we've been working with for the past month. i'll write a separate section on the mask and the improvs we've done with all the teachers on that. but to move on for the moment... amy. amy is the co-head of the school, and so fabulous it hurts. she's tall and blond and gorgeous and really intelligent and playful and flirty, and makes you feel immediately at ease. she also teaches movement analysis and impro. her movement analysis classes have dealt with things like exploring levels of tension in the body and what dramatic forms different levels lend themselves to, the anatomy of pushing and pulling (again, almost mime), and some more elemental stuff to do with the neutral mask (we explored "water" with her). her impro classes before we got into the neutral mask were really fun and much more situational than thomas's - for example, there would be five people in an improv, and the premise would be as follows: "you have been invited to a very fancy reception and a very fancy house. you've shown up and the butler's ushered you into this very grand room. you've never met your hostess before, you have no idea what she looks like, and you're not even exactly sure why you've been invited. you don't know anyone else there. any of them could be your hostess. and by the way, she's never going to show up, but you don't know that. go." and then we get to play! fun stuff like that. michael. michael is in his early fifties but looks thirty. he has tons of very happy energy, but is also very focused and grounded. he's very precise and articulate and fun. he teaches impro and devising. devising class is essentially trying to figure out how you create a theatre piece with other people, and works towards giving us tools to more effectively devise and create theatre together. it's very practical and VERY useful, and involves fun games like trying to be as enthusiastic as you possibly can about the worst possible ideas - e.g. trying to think up slogans for ridiculous products and being really enthused about every idea, no matter how bad (one of the suggestions was "a gun that makes you pregnant" that ended up with a jingle that went "pull the trigger sexy boy." yeah, devising is fun.) his impro classes have been slightly more like thomas's, and he's done a lot of mask work with us, too. steph. steph is a relatively recent graduate of the school, i think, and now teaches there. she's australian and adorable and has a lot of energy but is also very focused and driven. i like her more and more as she finds her footing as a teacher more and more. she teaches movement analysis and improv. in movement analysis, we've worked on, among other things, creating the illusion of movement - how to ice skate, how to swim when you're actually standing still, and, with the mask, the element of fire. her improv's early on were more about creating the space - she would construct a huge imaginary swimming pool and then people would have to find their way around it in an improv, while keeping the dimensions the same. later, we got to have cops-and-robbers chases around the swimming pool - also fun. then, of course, mask work, which i'll get to later. ilan. ilan is, as a fellow student said, "a magical man." small and wiry and israeli with white white hair that lies flat against his head like a cap, he is just amazing. very centred and warm and calm. he teaches movement foundation (NOT movement analysis), which is a lot of alexander technique and principally focuses on how to physically relax and open up and connect with yourself and your surroundings and other people. we have had classes with ilan where he has us pair up and just spoon each other for an hour. we have had classes where we run around in a park and yell "i am free! i am happy." we give and receive a lot of massages. IT IS THE BEST CLASS EVER. ken. acrobatics teacher. amazing. fun. a hardass with a dry sense of humor. can do crazy physical things in sloooooow moooootion. i love him, and i love acro. I CAN NOW DO HEADSTANDS! this is huge. jacquie. voice teacher, very british, very kind of shakespearean. kind of the odd one out in such a physical school, but she's teaching us how to be vulnerable and connected in a very different and important way - through voice and breath adn that kind of connection. and that's all of them! and i feel like my head may shortly explode - this is the longest entry i've written in awhile. my next entry, which i think will probably happen on tuesday, i'll write about the neutral mask, or the mask of calmness. i love you all! happy new year! i'll write again soon. promise. (2 Comments |Comment on this)