When I grow up, I want to be Uta Hagen
I've been working on this project for Senior Seminar in which we research and present to the class the life and philiophies of a Visionary (deceased) and Practitioner (living) of the theatre. Today, I've got my presentation on my Visionary, Uta Hagen. I think I've found my personal hero, to be honest. This woman has done exactly the sorts of things I want to do with my life. She never really had to deal much with film and TV because she got put on the Hollywood blacklist in the 50s and stayed there til the 70s, so all she really did was theatre. She originated or completely recreated some of the definitive female roles, esp. in American theatre (Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Blanche DuBois in Streetcar, Joan in St. Joan, Georgie in Country Girl, and the list just keeps going.) And through it all, she's taught like crazy at HB Studios. She even managed to stay married to Herbert Berghof, the founder of HBS, for over 40 years. This woman has done it all and then some. And what I think is so extraordinary is that her goal was never to reinvent the wheel when it comes to theatre and acting: she just wanted to make beautiful wheels. Plus she, like I do, thinks David Mamet is a sexist pig who thinks he's an actor when he's really a performer. She had some hysterical things to say about him in a NYT article that made me laugh out loud. She's strong, uncompromising, passionate, and totally in love with her art. Seriously, my hero. Thanks, Senior Seminar, for giving me Uta.
This week is all about normal life, which is weird but necessary. It's about laundry and The Sopranos with Jamie, cereal with Casey, Spanish with David, girls night with Cynthia, the Riverside gala with Arielle, getting my hair cut, reading plays, going to Summer Rep auditions, yelling at the people at graduation analysis, and if there's time, starting to think about writing this thesis paper. But I can do all of that. Plus I turned in one of my internship applications yesterday and didn't freak out, which is always a good sign.
Had a fantastic talk with Jamie last night about us and the future and even theatre, which doesn't usually go so well. But I think we're on a bit of a roll right now. We're enjoying each other, theatre isn't pissing him off, he's set to start T by April, the sex is FANTASTIC, and we've found the balance in seeing each other enough instead of too much or too little. It's good. It makes me feel healthy and in control, something I've been looking for with us for a long time. I wish we just had needs that were compatible in a long term way, but this is working really well for now. Knock on wood so it stays that way.
By the by, I am over winter. Done and done. Ice, snow, cold winds, the works. San Francisco looks better and better these days.
This week is all about normal life, which is weird but necessary. It's about laundry and The Sopranos with Jamie, cereal with Casey, Spanish with David, girls night with Cynthia, the Riverside gala with Arielle, getting my hair cut, reading plays, going to Summer Rep auditions, yelling at the people at graduation analysis, and if there's time, starting to think about writing this thesis paper. But I can do all of that. Plus I turned in one of my internship applications yesterday and didn't freak out, which is always a good sign.
Had a fantastic talk with Jamie last night about us and the future and even theatre, which doesn't usually go so well. But I think we're on a bit of a roll right now. We're enjoying each other, theatre isn't pissing him off, he's set to start T by April, the sex is FANTASTIC, and we've found the balance in seeing each other enough instead of too much or too little. It's good. It makes me feel healthy and in control, something I've been looking for with us for a long time. I wish we just had needs that were compatible in a long term way, but this is working really well for now. Knock on wood so it stays that way.
By the by, I am over winter. Done and done. Ice, snow, cold winds, the works. San Francisco looks better and better these days.