34.

Much has happened in the past week since my last post.

35.

For one, I received an offer to attend grad school.

36.

I also accepted that offer.

37.

This means I’ll be moving to Houston in August (or the end of July). There are dozens, if not hundreds of little decisions and details to sort out.

38.

BUT I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL, PEOPLE!

40.

We started the Ibsen tour on Thursday. It was a quick jaunt over to Luther College, but a nerve-wracking set of circumstances. The major was the space. We’ve been rehearsing in an intimate thrust stage (200-seat house). This, however, was a large collegiate hall, with around 1200 seats. We guess there were around 700 people in attendance. This was also our FIRST public performance of the show. Your voice echoes and bounces off the cement in strange ways.

41.

I am grateful for my uncanny extra-sensitivity to consonants and clarity. This is from choir in college, no doubt.

43.

My grad school reading list has nearly 70 titles, including classic acting texts, plays, and other theatre odds and ends. I’m proud to say I’ve heard of many of these writers and books. I haven’t read them (in fact, I haven’t read a lot of them).

44.

I’ve decided to start attacking the list right away. I’ve made a spreadsheet, organizing the lists by priority (according to the head of program), and creating columns of whether I’ve read the title, whether I can borrow it, or if I have to buy it.

47.

I was mildly entertained by The Adjustment Bureau. But the soundtrack was, perhaps, the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard (trite and cheesy). I am struck by how much of a deterrent that was in my enjoyment. I laughed quite a bit (mocking laugh). And when you've got other movies like The Matrix and Inception to compete with, The Adjustment Bureau pales in comparison.

49.

If you want to talk quality sci-fi, then we can talk Battlestar Galactica. I've been steadily watching episodes here and there. I love it. This is compelling television.

51.

I may be turning into a bit of a nerd. I mean, I know I am one when it comes to Star Wars and other things, but I'm realizing I'm more and more drawn to sci-fi in general. Hmm...I dunno what to think about this. Or if there's anything worth thinking about.

Ibsen in 2010

I've been rehearsing regularly for the upcoming Ibsen production. We start tech on Tuesday, and I hear that we're going to do the whole "10 of 12's," which means that we rehearse for 10 hours in the span of 12. We get two hours off for dinner. This means starting at noon and going until midnight.

I have a feeling we'll be using all the time during tech week.

I'm only in two acts (out of four) and they're split up, so I'm not too worried about exhaustion (though I could be putting my foot in my mouth about that). The lines are down, but now I have more work to add in all the innuendo. Because that has been severely lacking.

The director has told me repeatedly that I'm not playing this in 2010. It's as if I'm from some other period. She told me to heighten the juice in the relationship with Fanny and to think more "preppy." I kind of obsessed over this note (because this isn't the first time I've heard this, and it's just aggravating to hear the same note and must be even more bothersome to give the same not over and over). Today's run of the act felt like a marked improvement, but the director had to move on to other bits (so I'm not quite sure what she thinks of it). We've spent MANY, MANY hours on the first act. I decided to come to work and rehearsal with nice jeans, a polo, and glasses (I know, real preppy--but it helped). I also stopped thinking about what my body was doing and imposed a kind of mental swagger to everything. We'll see how that translates, but I'm definitely not as discouraged as I have been the past couple days.

It just dawned on me that I've never played something so close to my age and time that I'm living right now. You'd think that be a piece of cake...that's not been the case so far.

Audiences begin coming to previews next Friday!

Gosh, then I start rehearsals for Picasso at the Lapin Agile in a few weeks. This is a long bout of acting!

I aim to post some more pictures of Death and the Ploughman. I think there are some good gems after a photo shoot we did last week.

The only other thing I can say is this: thank goodness the weather's getting nicer. It was over 80 degrees yesterday! This is Minnesota, people. This is awesome.