"Feed Me, Seymour"

WALKING TO WRITE These Sunday walks are actually much more helpful to my writing than almost anything else. This is where the ideas come together for what will eventually be books, especially if I’m writing a New York book. I wander these streets — my mind attuned to the idea, “Must feed ... must feed ... must feed” — but the wandering is really an excuse to look at the city and to reacquaint myself, consider how things are changing. What do people look like? It’s fun to see spring turn into summer, and people getting to shed their clothes. This is where I pick up new vocabulary — I remember a few years ago when I heard somebody say “OMG!” I was so excited. Back then, I didn’t have an iPhone. I had to write it on my hand.

-Gary Shteyngart "A Day Spent Foraging Food and Ideas" 

The creative process is an active and dynamic process. I've also been reading loads of acting theory and that keen powers of observation is a necessity.

The title of this post? The company is about to embark on Little Shop of Horrors rehearsals, so I thought that was fitting.

In other news, I've gleaned three monologues (a piece) from the following plays:

Leonce and Lena
Julius Caesar


There are plenty more, but I don't want half of my portfolio to be Buchner monologues.

There's Nothing To See Here

Today, I felt quite adult.

I went to the optometrist (appointment scheduled all by myself), got a checkup, and got new glasses and contact lenses. I hate dealing with paper work and insurance. The guy selling lenses was upselling up the wazoo. I'm lucky I didn't take the bait (well, most of the bait), but it still cost a pretty penny.

Ah well, I'm all set with eye care for a good year.

But then my bank thought I was undergoing some suspicious activity. I think it's because my cards are still aligned with the Sioux Falls zip code, and a major purchase at a Rochester, MN Target may seem a bit shifty. Fraud protection called home instantly and my credit card account is frozen. I think I've gone through the necessary steps to "un-freeze" it. I haven't been using the credit card a whole lot (just for online purchases for books on my Monster Reading List and the new Fleet Foxes album!)

I'm going to the dentist on Monday, and I'm not looking forward to that. I'm flossing a lot more recently, as if they won't be able to notice the irregular flossing schedule! HA!

IN OTHER NEWS
I'm trucking along with grad school duties. I sent my head of program a 5 page document entitled: TIM _____________: A Life, Abstracted. I fear this is going way beyond what he's looking for, but we'll see.

I'm working on Stanislavski reading. I'm reading the new Jean Benedetti translation of An Actor's Work (which is a fusion of An Actor Prepares and Building a Character). The end of the first half was tough. The same jargon was repeated ad nauseum. This next section is (thankfully) different and stresses the importance of physical training (voice and movement) to stir the inner creative life. It's not as dry. After this, I still have Creating a Role and My Life in Art to complete, but I think I will take a break from Stan "the Man" islavski to dive into more plays and some voice work (Skinner and Hobbs).

Next week, I have a 5-day vacation. I'm going home, dropping off a TON of stuff, going through my belongings at home. On top of that, I'll be reading, reading, reading. I will take a break from reading to do more monologue poaching.

Today, I refined my spreadsheet for the reading list.

I have to figure out a better way to work through my monologue project (which I will perhaps describe some other day). Right now, I'm just copying/pasting the monologues in one large word document. It's not fancy. I'm not obsessing over the font and formatting (which, for me, is saying something). But it's becoming cumbersome to categorize them and keep track of the order and such. I think I'll need to create a spreadsheet, print it off, and fill in the blanks with a pen. That way, I don't have to worry about the order and categorizing on the computer screen (scrolling through 100+ pages ultimately). That can happen once I'm finished (who knows when that will be).

Another solution is to have multiple documents:

Ten Contemporary Rock the House Monologues_1 Minute
Ten Contemporary Rock the House Monologues_2 Minutes
etc. etc.

This could be a bit easier, but I'd still be dealing with a lot of documents.

This blog post is probably the driest thing you've ever read today. It's more for me than anything.

My goal for this "vacation" is to have a system in place for maximum monologue organization (and have a nice chunk of reading finished).

TIM: You also need to back up your files on your laptop.

Egad, I better make a checklist now.

Ibsen Day 6

Traveling to Fergus Falls

This is probably one of our busiest days on tour.

We drove to Fergus Falls.

The Jams: NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me – A lot of fun. It reminded me how much I’d like to listen to more podcasts and stuff. Dave Barry (the humor columnist) was on, and it was quite funny. I’m just not trained to sit and listen to podcasts. I can’t have them on when I’m working. I suppose they’re good to play when I’m cleaning or cooking. But I live in a big communal house, so that’s not always the most convenient for interruptions and people going in and out of the house frequently.

We load in to the venue. There are no legs or much of a backstage/wing area. But the stage is quite deep. Anyway, this will be the most different-feeling show from a space/physical sense.

The food: Don Pablo’s – EXCELLENT, authentic Mexican food. The salsa was exquisite. The chips were warm. I had a steak fajita quesadilla. It came with rice, guacamole, and beans. Nom Nom Nom.

Between the food and the show, I chilled out in the hotel, working on work and taking a quick nap.

It was hard because there were kids CONSTANTLY swimming. Our room has a balcony that goes out to the pool/indoor courtyard area. Those kids were noisy. Fun tidbit: the swimming pool was shaped like the state of Minnesota. Regrettably, I never took a picture. You’ll just have to believe me.

Show was weird. I wasn’t energized for whatever reason.

If you recall the trauma of finding my way on stage…it returned. I’ve probably jinxed myself into some kind of complex now. In getting from the “STOCKMANN! Shouting with bricks prologue” I had some difficulty with my citizen costume. When I took that off, my jacket for Hovstad also came on. So I was a bit late getting onstage.

I COULDN’T SEE ANYTHING AGAIN.

I managed not to run into anything, but I couldn’t find the chair to sit down in. time The lights came on. I was supposed to be frozen, but I was in mid-sit. This is when you just mentally “facepalm” and go on with the scene. But it was just grumble-worthy.

I remember scoping out the path from the entrance, to the coat rack, and to the table—it just didn’t work out for me.

Normally, this kind of thing wouldn’t be a huge deal to me, but when it’s the very top of the show…it kind of throws a kink into things.

After the show, we had a talkback (our first one for this show). Those who stayed were ENTHRALLED with the performance (which is reassuring because the house was very mild and small). I had a classmate from college in the audience (which I didn’t realize until the end). AND a theatre teacher from high school was there! I never had her as a director or teacher, but I had many friends who did, and she remembered me (especially after I said I had grown up in Sioux Falls). That was a fun treat. Both the teacher and my classmate LOVED the show.

The Reading: I finished Eugene O’Neill’s trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra. At least one person dies at the end of each play, recalling the Orestia trilogy by Aeschylus (but it’s set in New England during the Civil War).

My favorite part was the second play: The Hunted. For some reason, I was hooked. The first play has a TON of exposition, but it’s essential for the rest of the arc (of course).

The Reading Dilemma

I’m a reader. I wouldn’t stick “voracious” or “rabid” to that title, but I enjoy reading and do a fair amount of it. I peruse quite a few book blogs and follow some great lit folks on Twitter. Their recommendations send me to authors and titles I would never known otherwise. This is all great, great, great, great!

I have aspirations of attending a Books and Bars gathering sometime. Heck, I’d like to host my own Books & Bars type club one of these days (that’s a hobby/pipedream of mine). I dream of being really down with the kids on current literature by hip authors who write excellent stuff and then discussing it with folks in Rochester or somewhere. I don’t know (oooh, Sioux Falls would be due for one)

But now that I’m working on the grad school thing (which is happening, in case you missed the announcement), I have a dilemma that’s facing me in an immediate way:

WHAT DO I BRING TO READ FOR THE IBSEN TOUR?

I’m about to embark on a two-week tour through Minnesota (performing Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People), and a large concern of mine is what books I’m going to bring (and read, that’s the idea).

I have a “Monster Reading List” for grad school (you must know that is what the document is actually titled; I’m not giving it some pithy blogging name). I’ve started work on it. I’ve been racing through some Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and Ibsen (haha) plays this past weekend. Okay, I’ve read one of each so far, but there’s a lot more.

Here's a small, tiny, tiny taste of the stuff that I'm working on for THE MONSTER READING LIST

So I’ve got homework. I’m accountable for 67 titles before orientation begins on August 15. This gives me less than five months to dive in. I think I’m on track with 3 books a week? I've read some of the titles before and feel comfortable talking about them, if there's time I'll re-read those. 

I’m not sure if this is entirely possible. Well, yes, it’s possible. But I haven’t done this kind of thing in a long time.

Let it be known I’m NOT complaining here. I’m just trying to get a greater sense of the reality of the situation.

And the reality of this “what do I bring to read” although it sounds petty, is one that grad school actually starts NOW. In turn, this may mean that I may have to eschew all semblance of a life NOW. This means reading for fun is done (among other things).

Must I come to terms with this now? Wasn’t there some kind of period of “LET’S LIVE IT UP!” that happens before I move to Texas?

Can I risk reading a hyped mystery like In the Woods whilst on tour (while simultaneously risking “you could be reading that O’Neill play, it’s another check off your reading list…”).

Mind you, I’ve been enjoying the grad school reading so far (and I’ve a good handful of them already and enjoyed them too), and I think I’ll continue to enjoy the reading. I’ve been obsessing over grad school for a couple years. Whelp…here it is.

Must I say "goodbye until 2013" to these guys?

I think I’ll end up bringing mostly grad school reading with one or two other titles. It all depends on how much I room I have in my suitcase and backpack (and time--keep in mind, I also have actual work for the theatre to do…so I may be overestimating the amount of time I truly have).