Contact Improvisation

Here are a few pictures from the final session of my Movement and Improvisation class this semester:

We went down to Oak Ledge park in Burlington down by the waterfront to do some dancing and site improving. It was raining so hard and the lake was so flooded that the beach no longer existed and the water was sweeping up onto the walkway, dragging full trees out to open water and eroding away the trail. It was a lot of fun though and a great example of how beautiful the performing arts are in any medium when they persevere. That was basically how the end of the semester happened for me: perseverance. By the end of April, I was feeling like there was legitimately no more brain/will power that I could give. Somehow it all happened though including my Theatre History final which was a beast. Greece through the Renaissance. Bam. Overall, it wasn't that bad and the transition into this new job is going smoothly. Today was our last day of training and I'm definitely ready to begin the actual job and the actual summer. If only this rain/thunder/massive amounts of lightning would quick for a moment. But let's take a minute to see what my summer has been like so far.

Summer 2011 So Far: 
1. I work in an office now. Which is a much better improvement from McDonald's, however it's a little weird for me. I'm just not totally emerged into it yet. Soon though. The cool thing is I get to work in all these different UVM buildings where I find things like this:

A composting toilet! It's basically a hole in the floor and when you push a button foam eats your poop.

2. Rain.

3. GAGA. Her new album is probably going to be my soundtrack during the whole summer. So much fun, I love it. It's so artful and full of character and life. It's the best to rock out to.

4. My new room in UHeights! One of the amazing perks of this job is that I get a free room in the swanky UHeights dorm on campus. I feel like I have my own apartment. It's fantastic, but I feel like I'm getting way too spoiled before next school year...

5. Beginning to have summer fun with Megan. The other night we went to the waterfront and started walking along the Burlington bike path as the sun set. It was beautiful, even though the water is still incredibly flooded and high and was eroding away the earth under the trees along the shore. It was part of the magic though.

6. Thinking about myself, and how I feel, and what I want to do with myself in the present and in the future. Ever since Voice and Speech I've thought about how I take care of myself as an artist and I've started really doing warm ups in the mornings and taking care of my voice and the rest of myself. I think I'm going to start doing Sun Salutations (yeah, yoga!?) and stretches out on the lawn this summer. Those are the things that make me feel good and happy, so why not do them? I've also been thinking about a performance piece I've been thinking about writing, and next semester, and grad school, and Hairspray, and why the hell am I not doing any performing the summer, etc.

This was part of a text I just sent to Megan:

"i hope i can really kick ass thru the rest of college and make something of myself in grad school u know? i still feel like im missing myself. im missing myself in parts that i only find when im truly in the moment performing (when im not being judged by teachers or peers) or when we're together doing something crazy :)"


Peace out!

Love Is...

Hello! How's it going? It's been about two weeks since I've last posted because of end of the semester stuff going on and the beginnings of summer plans. Things have been going quite smoothly. Exams went by pretty fast, mostly because I only really had two, and my final grades came in and I'm extremely happy with how it all turned out. I just got back to Burlington on Saturday with Megan and now I'm chilling in my Converse tower practically all alone (it's very creepy, being in here with the ghost all by myself) watching TV shows all day. I'm preparing for the beginning of my summer job which starts training tomorrow. Looking out the window, it almost looks like all of UVM campus, all of Burlington for that matter, has been swallowed up by a giant cloud. The fog is so incredibly dense that it seems as though I could jump out the window and roll around in it. The mist combines with the rain to drop heavy moisture all over the sidewalks and cars in the parking lot.

I'm in one of those transitional moments completely symbolized by my limbo in Converse at the moment. Once this job starts and the summer days become beautiful once again, things will be a little more stable. There is something that has become quite stable though within the past month. I haven't brought it up on here yet because I just wanted some time, but also I was just a little nervous. I want to do a post wrapping some things up from the semester, but first I have to tell you, blogosphere (jeez, it's like I'm talking to the TARDIS) something really important:

Love is something that does not necessarily need to be searched for because it is usually right in front of you. Love is something that you may not think you need, but then when you totally have it you wonder how you ever lived without it. Love is someone who has always and will always be there for you in whatever state of trouble, happiness, or sadness you may have. Love is someone who makes you laugh constantly and who laughs at all of your ridiculous antics. Love is someone who is just as kooky as you are and who understands your inner (and constant) awkwardness. Love is someone who wants the same things out of life you do and who understands that you will do anything to make your (and their) dreams come true because dreams are completely possible. Love is someone who knows you completely and yet is still fascinated by something new about you everyday, while you are just as delved into their personality. Love kind of looks like this:

About a month and a half ago, Megan and I started dating. For reals. And it's been amazing ever since.

It's a whole new adventure and I'm so glad and excited that it happened. Now that I think back on it, I think its been a long time coming.

Peace out!

Pizza and Cookies

This past week has been full of business, auditions, and happy moments. It began on Monday with Stop Kiss auditions at UVM. Those didn't quite work out according to plan, which was okay because I had a back up plan (kind of like Jennifer Lopez, except I don't want to be pregnant):

On Thursday night Alice, Matt, and I (we met some more RTT peeps there) traversed to Lyric Theatre's Hairspray auditions for next fall's production. Gina drove us in her car as our stage mom. She gave us encouragement and a little tough love. We were ready. Except it was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life. Just handing in the initial paperwork was terrifying. Don't even get me started on trying to pin my number on and then going over to take a picture. My legs were a little wobbily... But as I was getting my picture taken, guess who's standing off to the side saying my name? Annalise! From Shout It Out! She was there auditioning with Ty and Zach, a couple more folks from our cast. It had been such a long time since we'd seen each other, and it was great catching up. It still did not alleviate the shaking or my stomach turning around in circles. I took a page from Voice and Speech though and kept breathing. We did an improv workshop, then the crazy wild dance, and then we went in for the traditional audition. The whole introduce yourself, sing, and act. I think it helped that quoted Gaga as we went into the gym and put my paws up. Loosened me up.

Anyway, Friday passed and I hadn't heard anything about a call back while many of my friends had received one for that night. Tensions were high in my mind. Then came Saturday morning around 11:30 a.m. Click here and look at the "Council Members" list, second from the bottom. I'll give you a minute.

Seen it? Are you good?

I GOT A PART!!!!!!!!! I'M GOING TO BE IQ!!!!! I GET TO SING AND DANCE MY ASS OFF ON THE FLYNN STAGE THIS FALL!!!!!!!!

This is how excited I am.

I could not be more excited! This is such an amazing experience that I actually get to share with a lot of my friends from RTT who are also in the show. I got the call from an Unavailable number, and I knew immediately that this was it. I was shaking and crying while the stage manager was trying to give me the details about our first read through, and once the call was over I called my parents and my grandparents and jumped up an down and ran around The Q while Megan laughed and jumped around with me while families and students were trying to move out and gave me weird looks but I didn't care because I was so damn excited!!!

Anyway, as you can see I was excited. Just a little bit. When I say jumping around, I mean a lot of it. And rolling around. Really just a lot of moving and me screaming. Anywho, that same night was the End-of-the-Year Cabaret for UPlayers, and it went super well. We had a huge audience and our acts were totally awesome.

On Sunday I just want to mention that Megan and I went for a two hour hike in Centennial Woods because we can. We were pretty proud of ourselves, especially because we totally got lost (like, we ended up near the interstate going to Winooski, not quite sure how) but we found our way back. It was a perfect day.

It was a really perfect weekend actually, and now as we move into the last couple days of classes and exams, I will look back on this weekend with joy. Speaking of joy, check this out:

Did you know they made this? Pizza...and...cookies in the same box...  This had become a staple in The Q kitchen mostly because it's pure college food but also because it's so damn delicious... I mean, PIZZA AND COOKIES! You can't go wrong.

Peace out!

Do I Look Drunk? and Other Silly Stories

Hello hello! It's been quite awhile since I last posted, but there's been so much going on and so much left to do before the end of the semester. This whole week has been a blur on constant activity, running around, and not getting things done. Unfortunately, I'm sick on top of all that and with Stop Kiss auditions at UVM and Hairspray auditions with Lyric Theatre at the Flynn coming up in the next week (yes, I'm auditioning for two plays at once!), things are a little tense. I just wanted to give you an update on everything that's been going on this past week. Ready...set...go!

For all of you Vermonters out there, last Tuesday was Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's. This of course being the best holiday of the Spring, I was prepared for this. Ben and Jerry's is truly the only ice cream I really love, unfortunately it's terribly expensive so if I can get it for free, you bet I'm going to exploit that frozen sugary gold mine. Earlier in the day, the RTT gang headed to the Davis Center Ben and Jerry's for free cones after lunch (which we ate in line), then when Megan got out of work she came up to UVM and we got more cones.

The line was huge.

Our costume shop supervisor at RTT Alan (He's awesome. Just sayin'.) suggested we just take the truck.

Daffodils! Spring! Yay!

Then we headed downtown to raid the main Ben and Jerry's store! The line went all the way down the block to the Rite Aid. It was pretty intense.

Yay! More cones! Three total for the day, not a bad turn out for Free Cone Day.

Later that week was the opening of RTT's Spring Festival of Plays, or the senior's final projects, to put it frankly. I ran the light board (Yeah, that's right. I got technical. It was pretty crazy and I was insanely nervous. It was a great experience and it's awesome to have that on my resume, but it only confirmed that tech is not my thing. I didn't do so well on the taking orders and procedure bit. The show was awesome though.) for two performances, ushering for another, and working in the box office for the rest. It was a busy weekend, to say the least.

On Saturday I ran the light board for the matinee performance and ushered that night, so I went to grab dinner with Alice (Have I introduced Alice to the blog yet? One of my BFFs at RTT. SO MANY ACRONYMS!!!) who was also ushering. While we were waiting for the bus to go back to the theatre, this random drunk guy runs up to us.

"Okay, you three (there were three of us at the bus stop) as a collective whole, do I look or sound drunk!?"

Right from the get go this is not going to turn out well because the guy is quite obviously drunk.

"'Cuz I just got kicked out of Springfest (concert thing at UVM) because they thought I was pushin' people. I'm just a tall guy and when you stand like this (he proceeded to make some sort of weird pose with his hands behind his head and his crotch thrusted out) they think you're pushin' people when all you're tryin' to do is brace yourself!"

He then told us his ingenious plan to sneak back into Springfest even though the police specifically told him they were going to arrest him if he tried to come back. He was going to disguise himself. Of course I couldn't understand him a lot of the time because he was slurring his words. Fun times at UVM...

Needless to say, the one acts were fantastic and the Vermont Pub and Brewery party which Megan came to was a lot of fun. Even though I slowly got sick during that weekend, I managed to survive as did everyone involved. This cold that seeped into my throat, chest, voice, and sinuses was slowly wreaking havoc on my strength for the Catamount Singers concert which was approaching on Monday. That whole day I spent on vocal rest except for doing a skit in Theatre History and rehearsal for that night. It was brutal, but it did wonders to keep up my vocal agility for the concert. However, within the last hour before the concert was a stressful load of stress. I ran downtown to run some errands (including buying a dozen eggs for my lighting project on "Born This Way" which was amazing by the way), ate dinner, had a group meeting, realized that the black shirt I needed for the concert was left at The Q, ran to my dorm to grab all my other clothes, ran to The Q to get ready, and then Megan drove me to the concert. I was a hot mess that evening, but the concert went off without a hitch! It was a beautiful culmination to all the work we had been putting in all semester. Congrats Cat Singers!

Flashforward to Wednesday when the UPlayers threw their awesome 4/20 Bake Sale. It was projected to be successful because all those stoners need their munchies right? Some of our awesome slogans were: 

"YOU GOT THE MUNCHIES WE GOT THE CURE!"

"BAKED GOODS FOR THE BAKED! (or not baked...whatever you prefer...)"

and my personal favorite:

"GET YOUR BAKE ON!"

It was a wildly successful bake sale. We even raffled off a giant cupcake filled with pudding and a strawberry cake even though they both went to our costuming professor...

Sam trying to stuff our crappy Student Government providing tent into its bag. Thanks for the crappy tent SGA!

As you can see, it's been a pretty busy week here in Burly World. Hopefully this cold will pass me by soon as I go home for Easter weekend. Everyone have a lovely Easter!

Peace out!

Lope Is My Friend: A Spanish Comedia

Yesterday I (and all of the Theatre History students at RTT) turned in their gigantic final research papers for the semester. It was quite a feat finishing that beast, let me tell you. Mine came out to about 16 pages with 60 endnotes, 4086 words, and a four page bibliography. I could not be more proud of it, though. It's beautiful. It's my personal little (or not-so-little) work of art. And in the whole process of researching and writing this monstrosity, I think I made a friend.

That friend is Lope de Vega, a 16th Century Spanish Renaissance playwright and poet, and the subject of my paper. Lope was a child prodigy of the written word, and once claimed that he had written fifteen hundred plays in the span of his life. He had a dark past filled with women (LOTS of women, Lope was a player. He finally married an insane woman. Literally, insane.), exile, travels throughout Spain, death, a stint as an ordained priest, and an eventual decline in popularity, health, and well being. This totally did not stop him from being completely awesome, though. He had huge impacts in the world of literary drama and theatre. Lope was writing during the Spanish Golden Age of theatre when the private and public spheres were colliding, when the world of theatre was becoming professional with acting troupes (which even included women on the stage), when elaborate costumes were paid for and contributed by the community, and the building of permanent theatres. In 1609, Lope went before the Madrid Academy (the big cheese of the Spanish literary world) and introduced his Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo in which he introduced a new form of the comedia (play). Lope's form would become the national drama of Spain because it combined the classical styles with modern Spanish concepts to create more accessibility with its audiences. Not only that, but Lope's dramas emphasized the theme of honor in the lowest classes on people, even peasants. He also created strong female roles which embodied honor and a woman's virtue. Lope was amazing, despite his personal failings.

My paper also explored the reasons why we as a Western culture do not know anything or study anything about Lope or all of Spanish culture/literature. What I found was a historical phenomenon known as the Black Legend, a prejudice that traces its roots all the way back to the Protestant/Catholic tensions between Spain and the rest of Europe, especially its worst enemy England. It's this prejudice that has lasted us for so long, and it's this same type of prejudice that prevents us from truly seeing modern cultures such as some Middle Eastern and Asian cultures because of stereotypes and prejudices we have placed on a whole group of people. It makes you see the world differently when you have it all laid out in front of you.

Lope stood for the little people. He wrote about the passion and honor of the peasant, even if he was a player... He made contributions to the intellect, form, and evolution to the Spanish drama. That's why Lope is my new friend. I got pretty emotional as I finished the final sentences Sunday night at 12:30 in the morning, and it wasn't just because I was exhausted. I felt like I was letting go of and losing a really great friend. But Lope will always be in my mind and in history. And by the way, bringing all of those books back to the library was an unbelievable feeling.

Yeah, that's right. A whole Price Chopper shopping bag.

One of my books on the Black Legend was called Tree of Hate, and there was a hilarious picture of the professor who wrote it. He looked terrifying and like he was constantly judging you. I forgot to take a picture of it, but here is me trying to replicate it for you:

This doesn't really do it justice, especially with my Reese's bowl behind me, but you get the idea. TREE OF HATE!!!

Thanks Lope for all the fun times!

Peace out!

Interesting Weekend

This past weekend was interesting. It was very fun, just very different and full of activities. It all started on Saturday when Megan and I went to the HO Wheeler school in the North End of Burlington to help paint their gymnasium. It was a Champlain College campus-wide event that Megan as an RA made into a dorm event for The Q. It was a lot of fun and it felt amazing to help out. The principal there was extremely grateful we were all there to help make their school a better place. Megan and I helped out for about three hours cleaning up and washing paint brushes. Afterwards we drove around exploring Burlington (the North End is like a maze...) and went back to UVM to go to the Eat My Art Out dance showcase.

After a hilarious visit to Burger King (you can find some of the most interesting people at Burger King), Megan brought me to the Flynn Theatre to watch the Lucinda Childs show Dance for my dance Movement and Improvisation class.

The performance was once again...interesting...It was supposed to be an experiment in repetition, and trust me, that message was made loud and clear. The music was like a mix of Ke$ha and the New York Philharmonic, techno-orchestra I'd like to call it, and it was on repeat for each of the three dances. The choreography meanwhile was the same moves over and over and over again. It kind of put me in a hypnotic trance, but then the music would change key or the moves would change, and I would be immediately snapped out of the trance. It was weird. And they played a video of the same dance as it was filmed back in 1979 on the scrim in front of the live dancers so they moved in tandem. Extra weird...But I enjoy any occasion to go to the Flynn.

On Sunday Megan and I traversed to Royall Tyler Theatre to finish writing cues for my light lab project for my lighting class. I'm doing a light show to Lady Gaga's Born This Way. Yeah, I know. Awesome. When we got to the theatre, however, I was unnerved by the number of non-theatre people that had invaded the building. Apparently there was an international debate team competition going down in the theatre. Why? I don't know. Mess? Oh yeah.

The theatre kind of looked like a disaster zone. UPlayers had to find another meeting space because there was no space, and then I had to stick around to have a rehearsal for a class project. Meanwhile, all the senior directors for the Spring Play Festival were scrambling to find rehearsal space. Needless to say, the theatre kids of UVM were pissed. And it's not cool to get a theatre kid pissed. We kind of ban together, and that we did. We got free pizza and muffins. I'm not telling how...

Like I said, an interesting weekend.

Peace out!

Red Eye

This was a very busy yet exciting past weekend. First off, Rosie came for a visit! Rosie is a very good friend of Megan and I so it was amazing to have her here in Burlington with us. We gave her epic tours of our campuses and the city of Burlington, and hopefully we transmitted our love of Burlington to her.

Chillin' in Space!

Then Saturday night was the kick off meeting for the UPlayers Red Eye Festival! We had about twenty participants this year which made five groups, one group doing a monologue. It was so much fun, and it was really weird being on the officer side of things this year compared to last year when I was just a member of the group. I wrote one of the plays. Mine was called The Adventures of Sassy Gay Friend. It was based off of the hilarious Sassy Gay Friend videos on Youtube only I based all the shows Sassy Gay Friend visits on the shows we did at UVM this past season, and Rebecca Black, and Frankenstein just for funsies. The whole show was awesome. Congratulations UPlayers! You can watch all of the plays at the UPlayers Tumblr page.

Here was our awesome group! Alice, Gina, Zak, and me!

Peace out!