Promise Delayed but Kept
I had a dream last night that I was Dr. House. For some reason, I had to walk across America and I was convinced that it would only take me a day to do it. However, before my cross-country sojourn, I was trying to give my patient some sort of illegal substance because it would create a chemical reaction in his or her (I can't remember which) body which would lead me to a correct diagnosis. I, my staff, and Wilson were all grilled on whether or not we were doing anything illegal and we all denied it. However, Wilson came forward and admitted to his wrong doing. I was shocked and upset and he said, "Well, House, you need to know what it feels like to have somebody be a jerk to you." I was upset and, on some level, I understood, but, before I was able to solve the case, I woke up to the sound of someone sending me a drunk text message. That's right: drinking on a school night until 3 AM. Yeesh.
So, last Thursday, I had my audition for Bristol Old Vic. I did Othello's suicide speech, and a piece of Mozart's monologue where he talks about wanting to make a quartet into a quintet into a sextet and so on... a million voices together creating unending music: that's what the world must sound like to God. While I wasn't expecting them to ask why I had chosen Othello, considering I'm white and I picked one of the few non-white characters, they did ask and I explained that not only did I identify with the character but I also loved the line "Of one whose subdued eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood, drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees their med'cinable gum." It's a beautiful line, no?
Also, for some twist of fate, who should be my audition partner but young Sonja Kari-O'hara? I was as surprised as anyone, believe me. We talked a bit, she told me about how Stefanie is, how she was getting married, etc. It was a nice little checking up thing.
And, as it turns out, both she and I have made the shortlist for Bristol. We'll hear back to see if we've been accepted on July 1st.
On the same note of acting, I did this scene for Styles last week. We're doing Greek tragedy, and I was performing the first Jason/Medea scene from Medea where Jason is upset that Medea is causing all of this trouble for him and he has a "why can't she just keep her mouth shut" kind of thing going on. Or at least that's how I read the scene (and Jackie Bartone concurs). So I did it with this sort of thing in mind and, on top of that, that he's chosing his words carefully because she's a witch and might make spiders crawl out of his stomach or something. I did the scene and Mr. Peters chastised me, saying I was just "too reasonable" and "too rational", and that perhaps I was playing him as a politican but that he had to have something else going on as well.
Fine. So the next time we performed it, I changed it. This time, I decided that he was still in love with Medea but was doing all of this for his children (he claims that he is repeatedly during the scene and I played it that he's actually convinced himself of this) which is, I think, a valid alternative reading of the text. When it was done, he asked me what my preperation was and I explained it.
"Who was your Medea in your life?" he asked.
"I haven't got anyone like Medea in my life, Mr. Peters," I said.
"Then that isn't a good prep," he said.
He then went on to explain that my acting was too intelligent and that I was too smart to be an actor. He asked me what I was learning from doing the Greek scene. I said that that was a difficult question to answer, thinking that the purpose of the Greek scenes was to make the actors become used to dealing with Classical texts, something with which I'm already comfortable. He disagreed adamantly and fumed that he couldn't even see why I wanted to be an actor.
Now, comrades, you will all be quite proud of me. While Todd was thus upbraiding me in the middle of class, I said nothing in response but "Well.... okay" or other non-commital agreements. Of course, my body language said that I disagreed with him, but I refused to go on the offensive or argue with him. I've grown up, brothers and sisters. I let him say his piece and stayed silent. Of course, my silence really will do me no good. He's going to give me a bad grade regardless and I'll have to fight that battle later... but what could I possibly have lost had I responded? In retrospect, I don't know. Hmmm....
Well, it's now quarter to 11 and I might as well go to sleep as there's not much more to stay awake for. I made a mistake and drank one of the new Envigas only thirty minutes ago so now I'm a little wired. I might do some more work on Tears I might play my baseball game some more or I might just go to bed. Who knows?
Regardless, I'm going to pack my lunch for tomorrow tonight. Aren't I so cute?
So, last Thursday, I had my audition for Bristol Old Vic. I did Othello's suicide speech, and a piece of Mozart's monologue where he talks about wanting to make a quartet into a quintet into a sextet and so on... a million voices together creating unending music: that's what the world must sound like to God. While I wasn't expecting them to ask why I had chosen Othello, considering I'm white and I picked one of the few non-white characters, they did ask and I explained that not only did I identify with the character but I also loved the line "Of one whose subdued eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood, drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees their med'cinable gum." It's a beautiful line, no?
Also, for some twist of fate, who should be my audition partner but young Sonja Kari-O'hara? I was as surprised as anyone, believe me. We talked a bit, she told me about how Stefanie is, how she was getting married, etc. It was a nice little checking up thing.
And, as it turns out, both she and I have made the shortlist for Bristol. We'll hear back to see if we've been accepted on July 1st.
On the same note of acting, I did this scene for Styles last week. We're doing Greek tragedy, and I was performing the first Jason/Medea scene from Medea where Jason is upset that Medea is causing all of this trouble for him and he has a "why can't she just keep her mouth shut" kind of thing going on. Or at least that's how I read the scene (and Jackie Bartone concurs). So I did it with this sort of thing in mind and, on top of that, that he's chosing his words carefully because she's a witch and might make spiders crawl out of his stomach or something. I did the scene and Mr. Peters chastised me, saying I was just "too reasonable" and "too rational", and that perhaps I was playing him as a politican but that he had to have something else going on as well.
Fine. So the next time we performed it, I changed it. This time, I decided that he was still in love with Medea but was doing all of this for his children (he claims that he is repeatedly during the scene and I played it that he's actually convinced himself of this) which is, I think, a valid alternative reading of the text. When it was done, he asked me what my preperation was and I explained it.
"Who was your Medea in your life?" he asked.
"I haven't got anyone like Medea in my life, Mr. Peters," I said.
"Then that isn't a good prep," he said.
He then went on to explain that my acting was too intelligent and that I was too smart to be an actor. He asked me what I was learning from doing the Greek scene. I said that that was a difficult question to answer, thinking that the purpose of the Greek scenes was to make the actors become used to dealing with Classical texts, something with which I'm already comfortable. He disagreed adamantly and fumed that he couldn't even see why I wanted to be an actor.
Now, comrades, you will all be quite proud of me. While Todd was thus upbraiding me in the middle of class, I said nothing in response but "Well.... okay" or other non-commital agreements. Of course, my body language said that I disagreed with him, but I refused to go on the offensive or argue with him. I've grown up, brothers and sisters. I let him say his piece and stayed silent. Of course, my silence really will do me no good. He's going to give me a bad grade regardless and I'll have to fight that battle later... but what could I possibly have lost had I responded? In retrospect, I don't know. Hmmm....
Well, it's now quarter to 11 and I might as well go to sleep as there's not much more to stay awake for. I made a mistake and drank one of the new Envigas only thirty minutes ago so now I'm a little wired. I might do some more work on Tears I might play my baseball game some more or I might just go to bed. Who knows?
Regardless, I'm going to pack my lunch for tomorrow tonight. Aren't I so cute?