| | This long-overdue post will be organized in the following way:
I. Update
A. Improv
1. At Wheaton
2. At i.O.
B. College
II. Am I old enough for anything?
A. Maybe?
B. Not yet.
C. Are you sure?
III. Emotional dependence on Patty Griffin.
Skim or read as the spirit leads.
---
Faux Posse had its first show of the semester on Friday, and it was lovely to be in. It was the most fluid, organic Harold this troupe has performed, and I am proud of the players I get to direct. So much fun.
My teacher at iO right now is T.J. Jagadowski. Even outside Chicago, you'd recognize him. He's the passenger in the Sonic commercials. Yeah. I'm learning improv forms from a Sonic guy. (In Chicago, you'd know him because he is T.J. of T.J. and Dave, which is sort of like a live Sonic commercial, except 45 minutes long and impossibly beautiful.)
As far as real life goes, I spend Monday, Wednesday and Friday reading and analyzing (in Medieval Literature and Psalms) and Tuesday and Thursday "getting out of my head" (in Modern Dance, Acting I and, to some extent, Creative Nonfiction Writing). It's not a bad balance, really. I am bad at balancing, though, at least in Modern Dance. So sore sometimes.
I guess I should buckle down and actually apply for the internship I want this summer, huh?
---
I have been rereading Annie Dillard essays for my creative nonfiction
class. They are beautiful but also a little upsetting, because do you
know how old she was
when she won a Pulitzer for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek? 29. Not old.
I also read a post in
which Amy Poehler is quoted saying that no one begin
studying improv until age 30, and a lot of people at the at iO seem to
agree with her. Their logic is, if you're 20, what do you know? You
haven't switched jobs
yet, because you probably haven't even started a career yet. You've
never
been married, maybe even never been in a serious relationship. You've
never lost a child, hopefully never even had a child.You just
don't have the breadth or depth of experience yet to do good comedy.
Dr. Gramm says something similar to his writing students, and Mark Lewis says something similar to his acting students.
There is probably something to that, but, Amy, Dr. Gramm, Mark, listen a minute. None of us late
teens/early twenties in my odd little group of friends (mostly performers and writers) have had major career changes,
but we've at least spent time away from home and at most never had a
home for more than a little while. Combined, we have spent
substantial time in England, Switzerland, Paris, Nairobi, Jerusalem, Indonesia, Laos, besides coming
from all over the States. (I'm in the minority here, having only lived in Greenville and Wheaton. I'll give you that.)
None of us have been married. Heck, a lot of us have never even been in
a serious relationdateshipthing, but that can't be the only part of
human experience worth expressing through art. That having a significant other is the only way to be fulfilled in life is a myth older and deeper than Hollywood, but it is still a myth. It has to be.
We've never lost
children, but we've lost parents, grandparents and friends. Cancer, car wreck, suicide. They could happen to anyone, it seems, and quite frequently do. My 2007 journals are heavy and bulging with funeral programs.
And that doesn't even touch the world of joy and angst that is this one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
It's not like we haven't experienced anything. We have. Most of it just in the last year. Now we're just hoping to make it through 2008 without major tragedy.
So does that qualify any of us to write? To paint? To act? Or do we need to wait and amass another ten years of this craziness before we're worth listening to?
Can we at least make you laugh with us?
---
I'll just find a comfy spot and wait it out ...
|
| | Posted 1/28/2008 1:49 AM - 176 Views - 10 eProps - 6 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
