People Watching and Postsecret

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: News, Projects.

People watching is endlessly fascinating. After talking about articles in the Sunday editions of the NY Times and Washington Post this morning the people watching article stuck out.

For the past three years I have read Postsecret, I have never read it religiously but I find the project itself to be an intriguing idea. To connect people in such an anonymous way that can still have such a large impact on so many people and in such personal ways is amazing.

Part of the people watching idea is about our desire to see people as they are when they are just able to be. It’s like the reality of watching another human being in their daily life is fascinating for us.  I think Postsecret has a similar quality to people watching.  People can read the postcards about really personal things from other people. I think that this might make some people think about how small the world is or how much people really are just people.  I feel like Postsecret might even be a variation of people watching.  When there is a secret that multiple people share or when you see someone do something that you’ve probably done a billion times it could make someone feel really connected to other people.

I think that our desire to observe ourselves is really interesting too. Animals watch each other to learn, we too learn by example and while watching people do things like theatre, TV, film, performance, and entertainment is one aspect of watching ourselves, it is interesting that we still want to see people in such an unassuming way, a way that is as real as just  observing the simple machinations that we do each day.   

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Senior Project Time

Posted on April 9th, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects.

It is getting to the time to propose a senior project for next year. The two areas in theatre where I have the most interest right now are acting (as always) and directing. Right now, because of my research for ideas in performance and after working in the studio as a director I really have an interest in working more at directing.

Fittingly, my first thoughts for possible projects are about directing. I would love to have an opportunity to direct on the mainstage and at this point don’t know if it is a possibility but with three full length studio productions under my belt I would love to sink my teeth into something that offers different challenges and an even greater investment. I would love to have the opportunity to have more conversations, equal conversations with faculty designers who not only have the resources but have talents and more experiences than our student designers.

After going to New York it really made me question what I wanted to do after graduation in regards to theatre. My primary research in this class is based on directing as a career choice and I think that the more experience that I can get directing pre-graduation would help me to figure out if directing really is something I could pursue. I think something like directing on the mainstage and raising those stakes would give me better idea of what I could expect after graduation as well.

If directing is something I really look into doing I think that as a culmination of my four years in college directing would be a perfect senior experience for me. Putting together what I have learned in a big way and no doubt learning a lot more through the process before I leave Mary Wash.

Something else I would be interested in would be something like 365 again. I had a great time working on that project and enjoyed being part of a group of such dedicated people for something that I think really promoted our department and the talents that we have as well as exposed more of the UMW community to what we do. It was just really fun for me and I was sad to have it end.

Acting would probably be my next project idea. I feel so at home when I am working as an actor, I hope to act next year regardless of weather it is my senior project or not.

Wow, I can’t believe that it is already time to be thinking as a senior. “Surreal” is the only word that comes to mind to describe how I feel as I am writing about preparing for me senior year. wow.

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Soul Points

Posted on March 13th, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects.

March 3

After our meeting with a group of people who have created The Rapscallion Theatre Collective that I thought about was said by the director of their show The Inferno Project, Laura Reinhard “We don’t work for rent money, we work for soul points.”

The idea of soul points is a great one. Soul points. That is what I want to find, something that gives me soul points. I’ve thought a lot lately about being passionate about something that I do.

Finding something that you do just becasue you have this need and desire to do it is intriguing. Right now, I am in school, hopefully getting the education I want, working hard, having a good time, everyday discovering what I do or don’t like and that is fine….but there is nothing that I can, at this second, say that I am explicitly passionate for.

Eventually, I want to find that.

Although, I do have to say that at this time in my life, while I can’t say that I have found that one thing that makes me wake up everyday thinking, “Yes, I could do this forever, this is what gives me soul points”, I am ok without knowing what I am truly passionate about because that means that I get to do everything, and experience everything to find it.

For now I will get to be passionate about the search for my passion…..and maybe for that I can get some brownie soul points or something :)

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The Art of Direction

Posted on February 18th, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects, Thoughts.

I am currently adding more people to my list of possible interviewees. After working the summer before last under Steven Cosson the artistic director of The Civilians theatre it would be great to be able to meet him again in an interview rather than as an assistant of sorts. I am interested in asking questions like”what path did you take to become a director?” “How is this business as a career?” “How can a young person learn how to be a director?” however, I am also very interested in creating my project on the development of a personal aesthetic. I want to find out things like “how do you go about choosing and analyzing a play, what draws you to a particular performance, how have you generated your own vision for the art that you do?”

I believe that half of directing is practice. It takes practice to develop a process by which you can communicate your ideas to others for what is hopefully a valid and important artistic endeavor for you and everyone involved including your audience. 

Other people would love to meet/interview include Julie Taymor, not only an incredible director with an extremely well defined artistic style but she is a woman. In directing, there are definitely fewer women than men. I would love to meet with Jack O’Brian who won a Tony for best direction of The Coast of Utopia. Another Tony winning director is Michael Mayer for his work on Spring Awakening.

It would also be nice to meet with Professors of directing, for example Elinor Renfield is the chair of the directing department for The New School for Drama she along with the other faculty members who specialize in direction could be great resources for me.

I think that meeting with playwrights as well could be of use when trying to answer the question of developing a personal aesthetic or how to read the text as a director and what in certain pieces is appealing from the perspective of a director.

I am still refining and developing more of these questions. I am really excited about this project as daunting as it is seeming right now because of Far Away taking up so much of my time lately. It will be over soon and I will be able to work more with making these contacts.

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After a while…

Posted on February 13th, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects.

It has been a long time since I have written. Funny how “life” takes over and all of the little things get squeezed out…e.g. bloggin’.Recently decided on what play I would like to do for my Advanced Directing class and it is Christopher Durang’s “Baby with the Bathwater” it should be good. Comedic, always a good choice.As I have said in past posts I consider myself to be an actor, always and forever. I love it. Now, I am looking more towards directing because since being at Mary Washington I have found that I enjoy a lot of what a director does in the process of putting together such a collaborative entity like a play.Now, I am officially learning to be a director. It is great to have our Studio 115 black box for student works making directing a play possible. That experience gives a taste of the types of decision making and responsibilities associated with directing a full length production yet on a smaller scale compared to the main stage theatre.Recently I was the assistant to the director for “A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum” this was a great experience as well because of the size of all of the elements…big set, big cast, lots of music, big costumes, etc… It was also nice to work closely with Gregg Stull, I feel that I learned a lot simply by just watching and listening.I wondered while working on that production how our university based educational theatre differed from a professional theatre as far as directing goes.Through my studies it seems like there hasn’t been a lot of information about the world of directing or producing. I do think that a lot of it is being super familiar with the processes of theatre in as many areas as you can and then practicing at it. Getting experience doing it. It takes time I think to develop an eye/feel/vision for what you want to create through this medium. What isn’t learned by practicing is how to start directing in the professional world so I will continue to blog more about this topic in future blogs because I am choosing it as my focus for our upcoming trip to New York for research.That is all for now  

1 comment.

“Where Am I?”

Posted on February 6th, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects.

Ok, so, after hours and hours of trials and tribulations and after conversion after conversion of codecs, here is my 2 minute digital story. :)  

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In Between and Other Things

Posted on February 2nd, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Focus, Projects, Thoughts.

The title of this post is due to the fact that I am literally in between two rehearsals of Far Away as well as in between or torn between a few ideas on what my focus for this Ideas in Performance class should be. I know I want to do something with Directing because I don’t know as much about how directing works as an actual career or how to build your resume as a young, new person, who is a woman. Which is something that has never ever crossed my mind. I didn’t ever think that being female would have an effect on directing as a career option. I had never really given it any thought.

So, I definitely have an interest in answering the “directing question” as undefined as that is. Although, I do really love acting, so very much. It is even hard to put into words how much I love it, I actually don’t and never really have talked ever about how….important this craft is to me, or what it means to me, or how much I desire to be able to pursue it in a large capacity. I am always the last to check cast lists/I never talk about whether I am actually going to audition for something. I always sort of say something like, “I am thinking about it” or “I don’t know, maybe? possibly?” or “no” even though I don’t know that I would ever willingly give up an opportunity to audition. For no other reason but I like auditioning. Obviously the goal is to be cast, but auditioning to me is another chance to perform, even if its only for 30 seconds, you get to live that part for 30 seconds.

Wow, it even makes me nervous talking about this on a blog. How I feel about acting is really private for me.

So, I can’t write about that anymore but I will say that the other things that I am passionate about, like that I would consider a career in right now are 1. Travelling in (almost) any capacity and 2. Photography (but not weddings, familys, or babies)

I think that whatever career path I choose I can still travel/photograph stuff/act in some capacity/ and skills that directors use come in handy in all sorts of areas. I don’t think I have to choose only one thing to have an interest in ( I also really like about a million other things and am finding new stuff to like all the time) ( did I mention I am seriously taking up juggling? ;) ) The point of choosing something for a career though is picking what you want to spend the majority of your time doing.  I obviously have time to think about this, which is good.

For the sake of Ideas in Performance I think it would be wisest to deal with directing and I can possibly incorporate some of the other things into questions that I ask or how I put together my project or how I conduct my research.  So, this blog has helped me (albeit in a round about way) figure out that I will focus on something to do with directing for the focus of my project.

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Today’s Project

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects, Thoughts.

Today is a fabulous Wednesday. I am working on Far Away, mostly just really thinking about the language/text. Last night we blocked everything which was quick to say the least. After leaving the rehearsal I was thinking that I would really like to be able to be intoxicated by this work and really let it sink in but am feeling like even by reading and working with it every day because of all the other stuff going on in my life I may not reach that point. Something I am doing today is sort of charting my scenes by frequency, just as an exercise to sort of think of it visually. This might help find a rhythm in the text. I found an interesting article about a production of the show in NY, the article was in the Village Voice which I have read before. It talked about the importance of the work which I agree with.  

I am at my usual spot today….2nd room, far window seat by the wall: Hyperion. I really love working here. It reminds me of this place in Berkeley I would go a lot to study. That was a great place; super convenient too. Also, I have discovered (probably later than everyone else I know) Pandora.com. Well, actually my computer had a built in link thing for it and over break one of my friends had mentioned it so yesterday I tried it. Wow, so so cool. I don’t know how discriminating it will by for me though, simply becuase I really like all the songs they play and I don’t think it can really pick out music for you when you give a thumbs up to everything it comes up with.  :)  

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In the beginning, there was Technology…

Posted on January 19th, 2008 by ksideasnper.
Categories: Projects.

Wow, what a day. Today was the “introduction” i.e. “Wa-bam, here it all is” to the technology this class utilizes. I am so excited to become better at using the glorified typewriter I call my computer. It’s really incredible how much is available just to further the communication of ideas and art. I’ve known about a lot of the stuff we learned today before but haven’t ever really tried to figure it all out; So, here’s my opportunity, right?  It is a bit daunting as far as the need to use this stuff all the time to become “well versed” :) I am going to make a  huge committment to try to truly use everything we learned regularly because I really want to do well and get a lot from this course, which, I believe will be an endlessly useful and beneficial experience, not to mention a blast.

Don’t know where to go from here but I will think of something soon.

Here’s to the wheels turning! ;)   

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