Goodbye Chrysler, Hello Sears

I'm home for winter break. I got in Friday night after a bus, a walk, a train, a shuttle, an unexplained hour-long delay at Islip, a plane, a half-hour wait for my luggage, and a car ride to the house. But, as always, I survived the impressive list of transportation to get from my dorm to my house. My suitcase weighed exactly 50 pounds. I was very impressed with myself, and very tired from dragging it around after the morning of heavy lifting.

This is typical of myself. I got up when Joel did (to catch an 8:30 bus home from the West Village) and walked back to my room and packed earrrly in the morning. Around 11 I headed down to Playwrights to say a final goodbye to Colleen before I went home. I hung around Playwrights too long (as always), and my friend EV, who was set designing the show Colleen was tech directing, asked me to help her. I said yes (because I always say yes), thinking I'd move in a few small set pieces, or paint something, or hold a door open. We proceeded to haul four heavy wooden platforms out of one theatre, into a freight elevator, out of the freight elevator through the hallways with many turns, into the other theatre. By the end of it, I was ready to crawl into bed, but instead had to bid a last adieu to the office staff (who were, I think, all worried that I was never going to leave) and Colleen, and then I left. I haven't been at Playwrights for three days now. Weird.

Home was a little stressful the first couple days, but things have calmed down now and it's nice to be home. Yesterday we decorated the Christmas tree and listened to jazzy Christmas music. It was nice. We have a dusting of snow, nothing useful. It's cold. But I don't have to go outside, mostly. My grandparents may or may not be arriving tomorrow from South Dakota for a week, so they'll be here for Christmas, which is nice. Then, the day or so that they leave, Joel is coming for lots of days! He comes in next Monday morning and leaves Friday night. I'm really excited to show him Chicago.

Not sure what I'm doing with the rest of my break other than reading lots of plays and trying to maintain artistic intelligence and creativity and accomplish my acting and directing homework in a timely manner. Hopefully I'll hang out with some friends from church. I'm seeing some old friends at my friend Sarah's wedding on the 2nd. Slash, I have two friends getting married in 2010. That's really really weird.

The other thing I'm really excited about over break is starting my second semester directing project, which I have decided is a scene from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I've been thinking about it since the last day of directing class, and I can't get over how excited I am. I need a couple of badass actors and a band. A rock band. I don't know shit about directing a band, but I'll figure it out. I also have to learn a German (Berlin, specifically) accent, so I can teach it to my actors. And I'm having trouble with it. Then there's the actual assignment my directing teacher assigned us, which involved writing a paper about the historical/cultural context of the play and how it contributes to the conversation. I'm doing the scene with "The Origin of Love" so I'm going to reread Plato's Symposium to think about the Greek context of the story of the play, about people putting themselves back together again through sex. It's a beautiful story. I'll probably blog about it after I've done some thinking and some research.

For now I'm trying to keep myself busy since I don't have studio and classes and shows to do that for me. I need to distract myself from missing studio and classes and shows and New York and Colleen and Joel. Especially the last two. (They're kinda special.)

"There Was This Moment That Passed. Taking Me With It."

Tongues closed tonight, and thus ends perhaps the most beautiful theatre experience I've ever been a part of. Never have I seen a group of people work together so well, including our freshman crew of five girls that happened to get assigned to our show. This has been the least-stressful tech week in, I think, the history of Playwrights and quite possibly NYU. Colleen and I could not have asked for a more enthusiastic crew or a more talented group of designers. (This is a testament to Colleen's ability to create a great production team - it made things easier for everyone.)

I have a ton of work I should be doing right now but I am completely distracted by my love for this show and the utter shock I am in over how amazing it was. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who saw it had nothing but the best things to say about it. There was laughter. There were tears. There were dance parties. (Mostly to Lady Gaga, Single Ladies, and 80's metal.)

I cannot get over how lucky I am to have been a part of this experience, to get to work with Colleen, who is one of the smartest and most talented people I know of any age. If I can accomplish half of what she has done, I will be thrilled. She is so kind, sensitive, attentive, articulate... I could compliment her for ages. I would not want to SM for anyone else. (And I have every intention of SMing for her next semester.)

Our cast, Molly and Will, who love each other very much, have been so generous with their ideas, their time, their commitment. The dedication they have to each other and this piece has been unbelievable. I have never seen two actors work so closely and so much to support each other and the piece. It's truly inspiring. I don't think I've told them that enough.

The crew, three Playwrights and two Adler ladies, were also some of the hardest working most enthusiastic people I have encountered in my weeks of tech here. They never complained, they did so many things without my asking, they tried to be busy and helpful as much as possible, they were eager to learn, they tried things they didn't want to do, and they were the most efficient group of people I've ever seen working an NYU show. Our show ends at 7:30 every night, and yesterday we struck in time for me to see a friend in a show at 8 at Playwrights. They were such a gift to an already blessed week.

Thanks to the timing of our show loading in right after Thanksgiving, our designers all wanted to get things taken care of before the break, and so we knew exactly what was happening with all of our design elements a week before the show loaded in. It was glorious. Our only moment of worry was when the fabric that was the primary element of our set did not arrive on time, but our genius set designer figured out how we could prepare for it when it did arrive, the day after load in. We lost no time due to a UPS/NYU housing issue but worked around it seamlessly.

We've set incredibly high standards for future productions in the Studio Theatre. And I couldn't possibly under any circumstances be happier with the way this week has gone. Not only was it one of the least stressful tech weeks ever, this was in fact one of the least stressful weeks of my semester. Due to the lucky fortune of our show having the space to itself (when it was supposed to be sharing with two others), we got out of tech incredibly early every night. I got sleep. I got homework done. I had a good time with my life. This week has been a party. And that party resulted in a really beautiful piece of theatre. And I got to watch the whole thing come to life, and see every performance. I couldn't be more grateful and full of love for these people I worked with. I'm absolutely devastated that it's over. But I wouldn't trade it in for anything in the world.

"When you die, you die forever!" Viva la Nat Fan club.