Theatre As Theatre Should Be

Unfortunately I am completely lacking in the vocabulary necessary to fully describe the theatre experience I just had, and for that I am sorry. (Not that that is going to stop me from trying, of course.)

All I know is that I've just had one of the best theatre experiences yet so far in my life and I want more. It was as theatre should be. It was devastating in the way that it made me laugh, made me think, took my breathe away, brought tears to my eyes and gave me hope.

Before I continue, go right now and see if you can buy tickets to see The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in DC. Your very vision of the world will change after you see it. You know that little closet in your heart and in your head where you tuck the unpleasant things away, shut the door, lock it and get on with your life without too much thought to those things again? Yeah, I have that too...and I just burned that door. It's not possible to put this away when all I want to do is go over and over it again in my mind.

The beauty of theatre was exemplified in a preview night performance. A Pay-What-You-Can performance, in which I stood in line for 15 minutes and paid only, I'm ashamed now to admit, $4 to go see. Slip ups happened in the show and it just made me love it all the more. Mike Daisey was amazing in the way that he could seamlessly slip from the performance to just being Mike talking about how the lights were messed up and all you could do was fall in love and thing "I will never see this performance again, because it is only happening right now. It will be different for every single audience and I get the chance to see this very performance, this beautiful display of art." It was truly amazing.

See? No vocabulary. "Amazing" does not do it justice. Mike Daisey, you have blown me away. All I can think is "everything is hand made" and all I can do is feel my fingertips burning as I type on this very computer with my hands dancing on places that have been touched before...by foreign hands in far off China. Dear reader, this won't have much sense for you to find unless you go and watch this show. Go. Right now. Seriously. I don't often...or ever really encourage in this way, so trust me on this one.

I just keep thinking that this is what theatre should be doing. I've been to plenty of shows before that want to expose some injustice, or I've watched loads of Today Show clips about the inhumanities of the world, and I cry and hang my head and think "dear God there's so many horrible things, I feel terrible, there's nothing I can do that can make it all better"...and then I take that and put it in the closet I have on the inside. I lock the door, wipe my hands clean and forget about it. Sure, I may think on it occasionally and my mind flits over the atrocities that fill up the dark corners of the world. But then it flits away like a butterfly and gently veers away from touching on it again.

Not this show. Mike Daisey pulled me in, made me comfortable even with all his words about computers, because he's a nerd too and aren't we all nerds? Wow he's so funny, I should totally bring my Dad and my brothers to this, they would totally get all the computer talk...wait, I may not understand the terminology but I get what he's saying. This is what I'm thinking during the first half. Then he turns the pages of his notes before him (it's a one man show, this is a preview night, the man needs some notes) and all I can do is remind myself not to sit on the edge of my seat and I breathe a sigh of relief that it's not over yet, there are still more pages thank God. I refused to look at my watch, as I usually do at a lot of theatre performances, because I did not want it to end.

When it did end, he did an beautiful thing. He exposed some horrible things and then he went and left me with hope. The hope that comes with believing in change. And now I can't forget, and I don't want to forget. Because I'm hopeful. And this was the best fucking performance yet so far and I want more.

That is how theatre should be.

Hours from London

Normally, being only hours from London (I depart DC Sunday night and arrive in London on Monday morning), I would be in a state of over excitement that would require me to be on no drugs. It would normally appear that I was cracked out on caffeine without actually consuming any caffeinated beverages. Unfortunately, I haven't actually gotten a full nights rest in the past week and have been working like a mad woman because I'm suddenly afraid that everything at work will FALL APART in my absence.

Now, clarification. I work in the front-of-house of a prominent DC theatre. If you know theatre hierarchy you will know that I am a low rung on the ladder of the company. However, if something goes wrong, even if it's a super tiny problem, in the front-of-house at the theatre...EVERYONE will comment on it. It's made me extremely anal about things like toilet paper (pun intended) and whether or not we're providing liquid creamer as opposed to powdered creamer at the coffee bar. So the fact that I will be absent and hard to reach for 10 whole days away from my beloved theatre has me in a panic.

I'm trying to mentally prepare myself to not think about work while I'm in London. Of course, my uber awesome and amazing father has provided me with his international blackberry so I can still be connected through email. I've made sure to tell a very small amount of people this information so I'm not constantly working while in London.

Oh God...I'm going to London.

In other news (revolving around London, of course...it's the only reason for this blog people), I am going to be pretty poor while there and I'm excited about it. Saturday I'm going to research cheap eats and things to do around the city. I'm already familiar enough with London to have a partial list in my head of places to re-visit and my fav cheap eats. But I can't wait to blog about it later for your benefit (don't roll your eyes, you. will. love. it. If you don't....dude...go away). I will also be bringing along my Flip camera and will hopefully record some good stuff to re-post later.

SOEXCITED.

That is all.

xx

Is there Life After London?

The answer is no. Absolutely not. I have big plans for my post-London trip and they mainly center around Dr. Who marathon's in my jammies, gorging on all the Cadbury chocolate I'm bringing back with me, and warding off the crying jag's with red wine. Ya know...per usual for my post-London trips.

Also, my roommate and I are getting rid of our cable. I still have my internet/netflix so after I'm back and done obsessing over monologues and grad applications, I have a long list of movies and miniseries to retreat into including: Battlestar Galactica, Downton Abbey, Little Dorrit, Bleak House, Wives & Daughters and the new Sherlock Holmes show.

Isn't life just grand when you're not really living it?

After I come out of my post-London coma...I'll slowly ease back into polite society, hopefully not in my jammies, and start looking for some theatre classes to take and some community theatre auditions to go on to keep myself sane.

Bit sad that I'm still two weeks away from actually going to London and I'm already dealing with the emotional trauma of coming back to the states after the trip.....yes. I should get professional help. But it's okay Dr. Konstantin Frank makes an excellent red that will do just nicely.

xo

Happy Moments

Hey. Hey. Hey. Guess what?

TWO WEEKS till I'm off to London. Iamsoexcitedyouhavenoidea!

I'll have little-to-no money while there, but begging on London street corners just has a classy, 'woman of the world' feel to it, don't ya think? So much nicer than begging in DC. Which usually will result in getting yourself mixed up in a debate where neither party can fully back up what they're saying but both are holding on to the conversation like two starving dogs fighting for scrap meat.

I really have no idea where that just came from.

I'm in a ridiculously good mood tonight. Thursday night I got to see a play. It was Pay-What-You-Can-Preview night over at The Source Theater on 14th Street NW, where Constellation theatre was putting on On the Razzle. It was a great show that made me laugh and boy is that something I need in this economy. And I am so grateful for PWYC preview nights. It's really the only way I'll be able to see shows in the next few months, unless they're free or I'm working for them.

This upcoming Tuesday I might be seeing another PWYC preview for another show. Yeah!

I'm also in a good mood cause I've spent the night in with a glass of red wine (hi there Lindemans Pinot Noir....delish and cheap! I love the friend that suggested this too me...she knows me well) and I've been working on two monologue pieces that I would love to do for some grad school auditions...if I can can wrangle some up while I'm in London. (Tomorrow morning I'll be up early to crack away at the applications...oh joy.)

I have such a weird love of monologue work. Actually just working on a script when you're first introduced to it and trying to make it's acquaintance, is really quite a delight. You play parts over in your head getting a feel for it. It tumbles out your mouth, awkward at first as you learn it's taste and try out it's sound. Over and over. Words start making meaning upon meaning pile up. Pictures play behind your eyes, an achy need to move starts to bubble up, the lips are having all the fun and the body wants to follow through. You move it, shift it, try it one way, add some energy here, here and here. What do I want you to see? What do I understand about this part? Do you see what I'm saying? I'm not me, I'm me. Hello, welcome.

Aaaaaand theatre geek moment done. I'm starving. I think it's Cheerios time. Mmmm, cheerios. A cereal that goes with any wine really. Trust me on this, I'm an expert on wine/cereal pairings.

Hugs and Kisses.

Grad School

Someday, someday, someday....it's the song I sing myself to sleep with when I go to bed thinking on Grad school. Someday I shall get there. Who knows when?

Until I do get there, I really need help figuring out where "there" is. I need some guidance and there doesn't seem to be any Americans that can help me. I need a UK drama school pro...maybe somebody who knows specific things like how drama school and getting a visa afterwards for an American can go hand-in-hand.

I've found some great programs that I'm really interested in. Some that are on the CDS and NCDT lists and some that aren't. What I'm concerned with is will I be able to get funding for a program that is not certified? Or will it prove to be more difficult? Also, if I get accepted to a non-certified program does that make it doubly hard to get a work visa after graduation? It's already hard enough to do that, I'm not sure I want to make it even harder on myself.

I really like this one program that is specially geared towards international students and even helps Americans/Canadians/Australians improve their accent/dialect and RP. I want to work in the UK and want to get hired despite having an American accent, so I want to be able to work in other accents/dialects. But this program is not certified. So am I just wasting my time?

Questions abound....

PMS looks good on me...

Ahhhh PMS, isn't it just lovely? I used to hate PMS but now I have fully come to appreciate it's benefits.

For example. I'm not sure if you knew, but my apartment is nicknamed "The Igloo" for a reason. It's a basement apartment and stays chill like an icebox year round. Good for summer, real bad for winter. It costs a fortune to heat ($200 last month cause I thought maybe I'd try...boy did The Igloo sure teach me...), so we just don't bother. I'm currently wearing a delightfully, sexy ensemble that consists of sweat pants, LL Bean knit socks with kickass leather bottoms, long sleeve tee with a sweatshirt and a nice fluffy scarf that I have wrapped around my head. Which of course I can't wear to bed, cause that'd just look silly, so I shall replace it with a ski cap before I go to sleep. Elegant and refined, I know.

Exhibit A: Too Hot to Handle Right Now, or Screw You Pepco, I Can Generate My Own Heat

But this is where the benefits of PMS come in handy.

I eat like food is going out of style when PMS hits and at the rate I'm going this week, I will have amassed enough body fat to help me survive a winter, naked, in Russia. Currently, I think my food consumption today alone could feed a third world country....wait, that is not where I wanted to veer this thought process....happythoughts, happythoughts, cute puppies and babies.....mmm, beer.

So yes, today...I won't list my entire food diary here, cause who cares, but my dinner should impress--Coke, double patty burger from 5ive Guys (ketchup only of course, I try to watch my figure...expand....), easy mac on the side, and 2 peanut butter rice krispie bars for dessert(I made a batch yesterday and ate half of it in one sitting, proving.....I AM THE VICTOR). I was slightly satisfied. Then I worked for about 3 hours at the Theatre and was raging hungry afterwards. Late seating the jerks who show up to a play late always works up an appetite, don'tcha know. My hunger was to the point that I had thoughts of robbing a Domino's or begging on the corner for some Chinese food and a bottle of red wine. Although, I'm not really supposed to be eating out at all in order to save money...but the 5ive Guys burger does not count cause I needed meat and that's just not something that is safe for me to cook without adult supervision.

Now that I'm home, I've given myself full approval to chow down, bulk up, go for the gold. Bikini season is way off...and I never liked those anyways, so who cares? Eat! Eat your heart out and love it!

Except I got nothing here. Haven't gone shopping. Can't until I can hopefully beg $30 from the gentle souls who bore me and call me their own. So instead of consuming wholesome, delicious food, like Ben & Jerry's or roasted chicken and mashed potatoes, like I wanted, I had instead 2 bowls of Rice Krispies with vanilla almond milk (no need to add sugar, yum!), and have now moved on to popcorn, my brother's homemade beer and, apparently, run-on sentences. (Glad to see my English degree is being put to good use. Use me as a model kids, plagiarize away, I dare ya.)

And guess who's going to England during the next PMS storm front? Oh that'd be me. Hello fish 'n chips, Yorkshire puddings, Strongbows by the multiple pint, Cadbury chocolate made in the mother land, bangers 'n mash, blood pudding, Chicken Kiev's made at Sainsbury's (don't ask, I just loooooove them), cream custard, high tea, PG tips with...wait for it....WHOLE MILK. Heaven save me. Please allow Virgin Atlantic to board me home again once I've gained 500lbs.

The end.

Now I must go and see how strawberry Popsicles taste dipped in peanut butter and rolled in oats......

....kidding......

kinda. Can't say the thought didn't cross my mind to actually try it.

xx.

Poor Me...Fun Me

Dear Friends in the DC/VA/MD area:

Hi. I like you. I think you're cool and fun and really enjoy hanging out with you on multiple occasions. I would like to continue to hang out with you on multiple occasions. Here's the sitch however....I am poor. I mean like super poor. I haven't blogged about it yet, but if you're friends with me on Facebook you already know, at the end of February I'm going to London for 9 days (I'MSOEXCITEDYOUHAVENOIDEA). I don't know if this will come as a surprise to those who know me but....I can't actually afford to go to London. But per usual, I toss all thoughts of what I can and can't do when poor out the window. I'm already in debt, but damnit, my soul needs some England, so c'est la vie.

What does this mean for you dear friends? Other than you having to put up with me gushing constantly about my trip, that is. Well, I can afford to do absolutely nothing with you. This is unacceptable in my book. So I propose a Poor Me plan. Starting Tuesday (after one of my good friends birthday dinner at Circa in Dupont on Monday night) I will not be spending any money on eating out. I will not even spend a dime on coffee at my favorite coffee shop or purchase a small, cheap snack at my favorite little French cafe on the Hill. My money will be saved for the immense amount of delicious, amazing, calorie saturated, British food I'll be consuming every hour I'm in London (definitely not joking here my friends).

So in order to not slip into my unavoidable destiny of spinsterhood before it's time, I propose dinner parties. On the nights when I'm not working a show...which starts this Tuesday night. I fully expect several of you to accept my dinner invites for the cheap, but I'm sure delicious, concoctions I shall cook up in my kitchen. Come, join me for a meal. And if you care to reciprocate, I make an excellent dinner guest.

For nights that I just can't avoid going to the bar man-hunting with my favorite dynamic duo, Callie & Mills (and why on earth would I want to avoid that? Not because I'm tired and want to go to bed early....oh no...never again, I swear ladies. Girl Scouts honor), I shall be purchasing only one of the poor man's favorite brew, PBR. Mmmm, delicious. I hear if you add a lime, it tastes just like Corona.

Other Poor Me ideas for frivolity and fun, long walks with one of my favorite bloggers and her pup, beer pong tournaments at my house (you provide the beer, I've got the table and a winning attitude), movie nights (10th Kingdom anyone? It'd be an adventure that spans over several nights!), tourist walks around DC, visits to many of our free museums, and I have half a bottle of Tequila sitting in front of me...so let's plan something around that shall we? ;) (Mom, I'm kidding....kind of...)

Any other free ideas you want to throw at, feel free. I'm good, cheap fun....errr....I mean I'm up for good, cheap fun.

Best regards,

Lindsay