Well, this semester is beginning to wrap up, and I've signed up for classes for next semester. Before I get into that, I have to say that this has easily been the most enjoyable semester I've had in college (not just at CSUSM either.) I've tried new things, been sociable, made friends, and learned quite a bit. Laura described it perfectly - "Not that you had much of a shell to begin with, but whatever shell you may have been in, it's completely gone now." I've also had some great opportunities and have found myself excelling at many things I never really thought I had a talent for. Case in point: my final performing arts workshop is an acting for camera workshop with the very talented actress Esther Chae. Out of many student screenplays submitted, mine was chosen by Esther and the CSUSM arts department to be acted and filmed for the workshop (with my serving as editor and director), which will then result in a public screening this Friday. Screenwriting is not something I've ever tried before this year, and I guess someone thinks I have talent.
A couple weeks ago I auditioned for the spring play. I did it mainly out of impulse, based on some encouraging words from one of my instructors. My thinking was that there would probably be quite a bit of people trying out, most of them drama students who knew the ropes of this sort of thing, and that I probably didn't have much of a chance, so my approach to this was very casual. As proof, I used William H. Macy's egg salad speech from Mystery Men for my monologue -
Well, I had them laughing at the audition, and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad at the time, but lo and behold, I made the cut! Must've done something right.
The play is called "Big Love", and from the little I've read of it, it seems pretty awesome. It's a drama/comedy set in Italy, with a lot of dark humor and such. It has nothing to do with the TV series on Showtime, which I'd never heard of until people started asking me about it when I told them about the play. I haven't read the whole play yet, but here's what Wiki says about it:Big Love is a play by American playwright Charles L. Mee. Based on Aeschylus's The Supplicants, it is about fifty brides who flee to a manor in Italy to avoid marrying their fifty cousins. The play takes the plot of the original Greek play into modern times, including such details as having the grooms ambush the brides by helicopter. While the brides and grooms wait for their wedding day, the characters raise issues of gender politics, love, and domestic violence. The first production of the play was directed by Les Waters at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville in 2000.
In a 2003 interview with Open Stages newsletter, Mee said, "[I wanted to go back to what some people thought was one of the earliest plays of the Western World, which is The Suppliant Women, and see how that would look today. See if it still spoke to the moment, and of course it does. It’s all about refugees and gender wars and men and women trying to find what will get them through the rubble of dysfunctional relationships, and anger and rage and heartache. ...You know, unlike so much drama on television, where there’s a small misunderstanding at the top of the hour that you know is going to be resolved before the final commercial break. The Greeks start with matricide, fratricide..."
So that's all pretty exciting. I think being in a show is something I've always secretly wanted to do, but never pursued because I just thought it'd be something I'd never have a chance at. So this will be fun, and I'll be able to get it out of my system. Right now, though, I have to be honest and say that I've kind of been freaking out about it.
As for the rest of school, here's my tentative schedule for next semester:
Yeah, this is where the "I've lost my mind" part comes in. At the moment I'm signed up for Advanced Video Production, Advanced Computer Art, History of the Moving Image, Global Modern Dance, Vocal Ensemble, and Production Workshop (play rehearsals.) That's 19 units; the most I've ever attempted at one time is 15, and I ended up dropping one of those courses. Noticeably missing from the lineup is Spanish - I should be finishing the language requirement this semester, but budget cuts at all CSU level schools have led to the school cutting half of the Spanish courses, leaving the remaining courses to fill up within 2 days (2 days in which I was unable to register because I had a hold on my record for not knowing Microsoft Excel... a whole other aggravating story.) So that's something that'll have to wait until at least the summer, unfortunately.How I'm going to balance this all with my job remains to be seen. To be honest, I probably won't; I'm anticipating dropping at least one of these courses (probably Vocal Ensemble, as much as I'd love to take it,) but I'm going to at least show up to everything for the first few weeks and see how that goes. There's just so many things I want to try, and I'm realizing that this is the time in my life where I need to start doing things.
Well, I had more to write, about life, friends, etc., but I'm actually tired now.
To Be Continued...
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