Alright, I guess I should apologize. It's been almost 2 weeks since I've finished and handed in my second short story for Fiction, and I haven't written anything since. Lord knows why not though, since my mind's been alight with ideas which, to me, are worth writing down. It's really distressing how my mind works so much faster than my pen or fingers can. It's a cause of a lot of my anxiety and frustration I think, the sheer mess my mind is always in.
So, here are some of the things I've been thinking about, lately.
Acting (unsurprisingly). The concepts that have really resonated with me lately is being in the Moment. It's this choice an actor makes to allow the present moment to happen, and to react accordingly with it. It relates back to Jim's "Squeaking Door Theory", how in the text a character sneaks onstage through a door while the other character onstage doesn't notice; but the door squeaks, and logically the character onstage must react to that, even though it wasn't written into the script. To fail to acknowledge moments like that make the whole thing lose its believability for both the actors and the audience. This is basic stuff, yes? Theatre 101 right here. And it's something I've fully understood since first hearing it. Yet only recently has it become more to me than something to acknowledge--to put up with--rather, it's become something to celebrate and hope for. It's these moments that make theatre so lively, and a show with a long run fresh every night. The irony of course, is that they can't really be planned per se. But if you prepare thoroughly, living in the moment won't be something to fear. As long as I can remember as an actor I've read my lines aloud to myself, in solitude. This can be useful in some ways, but in the end, it's acting in a vacuum, paying no respect to the truth of the moment in the scene when it's being performed. I want to get out of that habit.
Right now, it's reading break, and I'm trying to balance using this extended free time to both relax and to get some shit done. I'm trying to decide between writing about Antonin Artaud or The Blue Room, a modern adaptation of Schnitzler's La Ronde. The thing that interests me about Artaud is his fascination for Balinese theatre, which got me to looking on Youtube at some clips of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dytdVkUOR8s&feature=related
It's really mesmerizing. I can't stop watching these videos; they make me want to go to Bali and experience these performances first hand.
To be honest, I think Artaud is way more interesting, but I really don't know how to put it together in an essay. Oh well, I guess I should finish his book before I say anything.
I've started watching The Office over the break. It makes me pretty darn happy. Oh, and I drew in my notebook for the first time in months. It was such a great feeling. After having started reading Watchmen and talking to Graeme about anime it's made me want to draw again. I friggin' love it. It reaches a big part of me that acting simply cannot satisfy.
As you can see I'm following this blog: The Next Stage, and it's really inspiring and exciting to hear from people who are working in theatre and fighting to make independent theatre grow. At the same time it's frustrating because of the lack of attention that theatre is getting, and now the lack of funding, thank you very much, Mr. Harper. I'm glad it's making me angry though. It makes me want to get involved, it makes me care deeply about the state of theatre in Canada because it's not doing as well as it could be. Our art is always at risk of becoming obsolete, and that's what drives us, keeps us on our toes. And what I hear from this blog are voices of people who are working very hard and are proof that theatre IS relevant.
Note to self: make entries a little more cohesive. This can be remedied by posting more often.
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