I had forgotten how nice federal holidays are for the rest of America. Four years at UVa, where they hardly acknowledge the existence of a holiday, kinda made me forget that most of the country stops for a day as seemingly silly as Columbus Day. Regardless, I'm experiencing the full beauty of it this year--remarkably I've had a four-day weekend, which so far I have spent essentially doing nothing. A lot of reading, including revisiting the good ol' Catcher in the Rye. When I first read Catcher at 16, I was blown away at how accurately Holden encapsulated the way I view the world. Upon my last reading, I remember thinking what a whiny little bitch he was. Now, I'm struck once again by the similarities between myself and our misanthropic protagonist...a little disturbing, I must say.

This past week we had our first three performances of Hansel and Gretel's Grimm Tale at area schools, and it has received a good response from the kids. We don't have any more shows scheduled for the near future, though, so it's looking like the show is on an indefinite hiatus. Honestly, that suits me fine; I'm a little burnt out on it at the moment anyway, so perhaps some time away from the show will be nice, and I can discover new things once I've sat with the show for a while. We also just finished our first week of after-school programs, which has really been an eye-opening experience. I haven't had any protracted interaction with elementary school-age kids since I was in elementary school, and even then I was a little ahead of the curve, so to go back and work with a bunch of 9-year-olds in an attempt to put on a short play has been quite the education for me.

The diversity of kids is so interesting. Some fit the stereotype of the rambunctious wild-child who constantly has to be told to shut up and sit down, but some others are so well-behaved, such good readers, and so brave and honest. We played a game in our first class where we went around in a circle and said our names and three things about ourselves we didn't think everyone else knew, and one girl came right out and said that she didn't live with her parents but in a foster family. Another girl said she was born with an angel's kiss, and of course all the kids immediately asked what that was, and she gave a very tactful response. It was amazing to me to see these kids being so open and vulnerable--that's what you need to be a good actor, and sadly that's what gets beaten out of us as we grow up.

It's 1:30 as I write this and I'm still in my PJs. I need to go be a person right now. Out.

Autumn Approacheth...

Today marks the one-week anniversary of my move to the Berkshires. More money has been spent in the past week than I would have preferred, but such is the burden of moving. All in all, it has been a great week, and I'm looking forward to what's in store for the next nine months. I've gotten to reconnect with people I had the pleasure of working with last summer and meet a lot of new people (well, new to me) that I'll be working and hanging out with for many months. I'm four days into rehearsals for the touring children's show I'll be performing for the duration of my residency, a fusion of the Hansel and Gretel story with another of Grimm's fairy tales, "The Three Golden Hairs." Rehearsals have been going really well so far, though they run 9-5 and can get exhausting.

Of course, the logical resolution would be to go to bed early and get lots of rest. But for those of you who don't already know, that ain't how theatre people do. Whether it's been family-style dinners, oohing and aahing over new episodes of The Office, or going to acclaimed restaurants a half-hour away and starting a "beer card" (you don't wanna know), I've been burning the proverbial midnight oil on a regular basis. But the important thing is that I'm having fun--more so, in fact, than I was having living in New York. One of the best things about my current setup is that I'm living in community with like-minded people with whom I get along, and there's always something to do. And with the onset of fall, my favorite season, the leaves of the Berkshires are just starting to change colors, and they're already beautiful. It may not have everything, but it has enough of what I need for it to be a little slice of heaven.

The coming of autumn always gives me this great feeling that I can't quite identify. I love breaking out the sweatshirts and jeans, smelling that crispness in the air...and certain music just makes more sense at this time of year. Pretty much everything by The Early November, for sure; I'm also discovering that I like a lot of Iron & Wine beyond the "Such Great Heights" cover from the Garden State soundtrack, and that it provides nice accompaniment for the autumnal mindset. I've started compiling an "Autumn" playlist in my iTunes, but I'm bad at making playlists, so I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't go very far. I just had a discussion with one of my roommates about choral music, and I had fun re-remembering my love of Bruckner's "Os justi," Pärt's "The Beatitudes," and pretty much everything Eric Whitacre has ever written. Sadly, I don't think they would fit well on my autumn mix.

The next crazy venture beneath the skies

As you can see, I have given my long-neglected blog a spiffy new makeover. (Fancy new things always makes up for being a deadbeat, right?) It comes on the eve of yet another large-scale transition in my life, as tomorrow I am making the trek up to Stockbridge, MA to begin my year at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. I've spent the past two days packing my pertinent belongings, and every time I do it I marvel at the colossal amount of junk I've accumulated, as well as the bizarre pack-rat mentality I've adopted toward it all.

I haven't been as diligent about packing as perhaps I should, largely in part to my introduction to a fantastic new TV show called Party Down. It's a Starz original that centers around a bunch of actors/writers/other artistically-persuaded people working as caterers and the hijinks they get into at various events they service. It's only been on for a season (viewable on Netflix and Starz's website), but the higher-ups have been wise enough to bring it back for a second. It's one of those shows that's funny no matter who you are, but is particularly funny if you're an actor and understand the mode of life being represented (a la Slings and Arrows).

As much as I dislike television and the stranglehold that mind-numbing reality programming has on it, I'm realizing there is actually quite a lot of smart, compelling, really enjoyable stuff on TV, particularly on premium cable networks. I also suppose it doesn't hurt to be aware of what the industry is trending toward, seeing as how my career aspirations are kind of tied up in it.

Not a whole lot else has happened lately, other than I finally got around to seeing In the Heights last night with my dear friend Meghan. I'm sure there will plenty of delightful nuggets of news in the coming days, though, so I will make sure to update. Farewell for now! (Please comment!)

Where have I been for the last 2 and a half months?

If there is anyone out there who has been checking this thing with any kind of frequency in the last few months, hoping against hope for a new update on the events of my life, 1) I'm honored and incredibly embarrassed for not having fulfilled your wish sooner, and 2) You really need to get a life. I'm not that interesting!

Since we last left our intrepid college grad in the wilds of New York, a great many events have transpired. My iPhone is now my new favorite toy, and life is in many ways easier because of it (though it has become a bit of an electronic ball-and-chain). I just recently concluded the run of As You Like It at the Secret Theater in Long Island City, Queens--a good experience on the whole and a good first show in New York. Of course, as a result of my extremely self-judgmental nature, there were many aspects of the show for me which I would like to have improved upon...but, to quote Dean Moriarty from Kerouac's On the Road (my current read), "we know time." I also have gotten to see a lot of good theatre this summer--the previously mentioned production of Nocturne, Twelfth Night at Shakespeare in the Park, the current revival of Our Town at the Barrow Street Theater, and a fantastic new play which is sure to blow up and become an off-Broadway hit this season: The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side.

Now that my show has closed, I have made a brief venture back to the Old Dominion. I came back down with my mom (she came to see my show closing weekend, how sweet) and was in Richmond for a few days, and now I am once again in the DC area at my friend Jessica's before returning to New York. However, I will not be in the Big Apple for much longer. If you have not yet heard, I was offered a position as an artist-in-residence at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, where I spent last summer as an acting apprentice, and next week I will begin a 9-month long stint of touring children's shows and teaching school kids theatre.

In some ways I feel bummed about leaving New York for so long and essentially putting active pursuit of my acting career on hold for almost a year, but on the whole I really feel this is a great opportunity to get closer with the BTF family, do something new and challenging (and important!), and ride out the recession before jumping head-first into the insanity of the real world. Plus, I can think of fewer places more beautiful than the Berkshires of western Massachusetts to spend a year of watching the seasons pass--from the colors of fall (sure to be gorgeous from all the rain the Northeast has gotten this summer) through the postcard-worthy winter and into the blooming of spring.

The day came and went for me like most days this year, but I only just now rewatched footage of the 9/11 attacks, and I am thoroughly convinced that it is impossible for anyone who recalls that day to watch the footage without tearing up. That day touched us all in unexplainable ways, but I had a very intense involvement with the events of that day. I knew my uncle had been working in the World Financial Center, not far at all from the World Trade Center, and because I knew he was right in the thick of the chaos I was terribly concerned for him. It was not until later that day, once we received word of his safety, that my family and I learned that his office had since moved into the World Trade Center, and that he was walking into the first tower as the plane hit it, and he saw a fireball explode from the elevator as well as people running around on fire. His company was fortunate enough to have only lost one person in the attacks, but the horror of what he went through that day is more than I can even imagine...more than I care to.

Thinking about things like this--the past, the future--really make you wonder how we go through it all and come out standing on the other side. I think it's best summed up by that great chronicler of the absurdity of our world, Samuel Beckett: "I can't go on, I'll go on."

A boring text blog

I opted not to go the video route this time around. Sorry if you're disappointed. If you're relieved, well, you're welcome.

I write to you now from my uncle's swanky house in Freeport, another town on Long Island, where I am house- and cat-sitting for him and his girlfriend while they are vacationing in Africa. That's right, Africa. Like "Out of Africa" Africa. They are going to Kenya for a week and a half, and while they are gone I get to live in their house, play with their four adorable cats, and make use of my uncle's unlimited train pass. Bingo!

I got an iPhone in Manhattan yesterday, and so far I really dig it. It was tough trying to get used to it while walking around Manhattan, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I still have my old phone number, so fear not if you need to call me for some reason. The sad thing is that it's already distracted me from other old fashioned, non-techy things I occasionally do, like, I dunno, read. I hope I don't become a total slave to technology, and more specifically, a slave to Apple. But you know, they make really awesome products, so more power to them. You don't see them merging with other computer companies or relying on selling printers to keep their business afloat.

Last night I was a volunteer usher for Nocturne at the Soho Playhouse. The people at the theater were very cool, and it was a nice little space. Before the show, I actually got to meet Adam Rapp, which was pretty mindblowing. He's such a cool dude, very chill and at ease. I had the fortune of being able to drop a name of a friend of mine who was in a show he wrote/directed called Bingo with the Indians, so thank you Missel Leddington for being my conversation starter. (Incidentally, I read Bingo, and it is a fucked-up script. It's good, but it is some seriously wacked-out stuff.)

Nocturne was great, needless to say. Dallas Roberts, who originated the role, performed it again for this one-time show, and he was wonderful. He did the whole show sitting in a chair, occasionally sipping from an unusually tall can of beer, and (get this) reading from the actual script of the play. When I first saw this I thought, "Did he not bother to memorize the lines or something? They didn't just throw this together, did they?" But that couldn't have been the case, because he's done the show literally hundreds of times. It wasn't until the subway ride back to Penn after the show that I got to read Rapp's note in the program about the first time Roberts ever did the play, reading it for an audience of five in a dorm room in West Virginia, and what a charged experience it was, and he wanted to recall the sensation of that first reading for this performance.

I spent most of the first half of the show watching Roberts work from a technical standpoint, trying to understand how he uses his hands when he acts, how he works with the incredibly descriptive text of the play, and how he related to the audience through the character, especially in the moments of humor. (Oddly, the little moments where I would smile to myself when reading the script and think "oh, that's funny" turned out to get fairly big laughs from the audience. Guess it goes to show what that live interaction between actor and audience can do.) And the best part is I got to see it for free. I gotta do this more often.

Big News! (and other goings-on)

Lots of crazy things happening lately! Watch!

In Technicolor!

So, either because I'm lazy or because I want to take advantage of the new technology available to me (or both), I decided to bust open iMovie and make a video. Therefore, gentle readers, consider yourself vlogged.

Love,
Me

P.S. - I feel like a narcissist for making a video of myself. And I look gross on camera.