Still fighting it
So, Richard III is over and done with. While I don't think I was at my best, I do feel like I made a relatively thankless and forgettable character at least somewhat memorable. I can console myself with the fact that I wasn't given that much to work with, and I did somewhere near the best I could.
But it was a good experience. Worked with some good people, made some friends, and, as always, found some new ideas about acting and direction.
More interesting at this point is this directing project. For any imaginary readers who don't know about this, I'm directing a small production of this play Raised in Captivity in the spring. I have run crew that quarter, which in layman's (by which of course I mean non-Northwestern-theatre majors) terms means that for two weeks I'll have to sell my soul to a mainstage production and work backstage. My options then were either to audition and maybe get a small part in some show (run crew seriously harms potential for getting cast), or I could direct and make my own schedule.
Thusly I direct. I've been working on getting this off the ground for weeks now, and the obstacles have been obnoxious and maddening, but surmountable.
I can't get space in the Norris student center because I'm not part of a recognized group, so they give me a number to call to reserve some class space.
I call the number, and they won't give me a room on the grounds that I'm not part of a recognized group.
I try to use the Great Room here in my dorm, which will be where the performance is, but there's a show that weekend.
I post signs reserving a lounge in the dorm next door to me, but they're torn down.
I email the RA about it, and he doesn't respond until today.
I put a sign-up folder in Norris, but people put it away.
I try to print out audition-promoting flyers in the ten minutes I have before call for Richard, but my printer leaks all over them; further attempts fail, and I'm late to call.
Actors are in short supply: the mainstage shows alone took 100, and the student theatre groups sapped up almost all the rest this weekend.
Older directors of other student shows attempt to put me in my place. Deaf ears, as far as I'm concerned.
I like these odds.
Ironic, really, because one of the big things I liked about this school when I was applying was the seeming potential for individual endeavor. I don't get work, I make my own work. But the cards seem stacked against that. The real fact is, the more roadblocks are put in my way, the more my attitude is "Fuck you, I'm doing this goddamn show if I have to play all five fucking parts myself." I've waded through the morass thus far, and my commitment has only strengthed. Essentially the more pissed off I get, the more I know I'll get this thing off the ground. If I have to show the actor how to do everything down to the arm movements, a la Krikstan my sophomore year (well-deserved, in that case), I'll do it. If I have to play Sebastian myself, I'll do it.
I've been a little hardened by this experience, and I like it. The way I see it now I have two alternatives: (1) I can bow down, know my place, and hem and haw like a lot of other freshmen, or (2) I can do what I want. I'd much prefer to do what I want. So, fuck bowing down. And unless I'm told what to do by some legitimate authority figure, I won't be told what to do. Therefore, I do what I want.
The odds are bad? I like it. I piss people off? Fuck 'em. What are they going to do, not cast me in the Sit 'n Spin production of Mother Courage and her Children? Hey, if all the work I get here is my own and that of my friends, and (I hope I hope) the occasional TI production, great.
This "fuck you" attitude, obviously within reasonable limits, is doing me some good. I feel like Drew, except less of a curmudgeon and put in a David Mamet play. I'm making this damn show work, and fuck anyone who disagrees. People can acknowledge it, or they can be petty and stupid about it, but one thing that I will not be is pigeonholed.
(P.S. Jason: Incidentally, I do realize you didn't mean to sound like an ass or anything; I just like laying out my complaints like that. Happy birthday, by the way.)
But it was a good experience. Worked with some good people, made some friends, and, as always, found some new ideas about acting and direction.
More interesting at this point is this directing project. For any imaginary readers who don't know about this, I'm directing a small production of this play Raised in Captivity in the spring. I have run crew that quarter, which in layman's (by which of course I mean non-Northwestern-theatre majors) terms means that for two weeks I'll have to sell my soul to a mainstage production and work backstage. My options then were either to audition and maybe get a small part in some show (run crew seriously harms potential for getting cast), or I could direct and make my own schedule.
Thusly I direct. I've been working on getting this off the ground for weeks now, and the obstacles have been obnoxious and maddening, but surmountable.
I can't get space in the Norris student center because I'm not part of a recognized group, so they give me a number to call to reserve some class space.
I call the number, and they won't give me a room on the grounds that I'm not part of a recognized group.
I try to use the Great Room here in my dorm, which will be where the performance is, but there's a show that weekend.
I post signs reserving a lounge in the dorm next door to me, but they're torn down.
I email the RA about it, and he doesn't respond until today.
I put a sign-up folder in Norris, but people put it away.
I try to print out audition-promoting flyers in the ten minutes I have before call for Richard, but my printer leaks all over them; further attempts fail, and I'm late to call.
Actors are in short supply: the mainstage shows alone took 100, and the student theatre groups sapped up almost all the rest this weekend.
Older directors of other student shows attempt to put me in my place. Deaf ears, as far as I'm concerned.
I like these odds.
Ironic, really, because one of the big things I liked about this school when I was applying was the seeming potential for individual endeavor. I don't get work, I make my own work. But the cards seem stacked against that. The real fact is, the more roadblocks are put in my way, the more my attitude is "Fuck you, I'm doing this goddamn show if I have to play all five fucking parts myself." I've waded through the morass thus far, and my commitment has only strengthed. Essentially the more pissed off I get, the more I know I'll get this thing off the ground. If I have to show the actor how to do everything down to the arm movements, a la Krikstan my sophomore year (well-deserved, in that case), I'll do it. If I have to play Sebastian myself, I'll do it.
I've been a little hardened by this experience, and I like it. The way I see it now I have two alternatives: (1) I can bow down, know my place, and hem and haw like a lot of other freshmen, or (2) I can do what I want. I'd much prefer to do what I want. So, fuck bowing down. And unless I'm told what to do by some legitimate authority figure, I won't be told what to do. Therefore, I do what I want.
The odds are bad? I like it. I piss people off? Fuck 'em. What are they going to do, not cast me in the Sit 'n Spin production of Mother Courage and her Children? Hey, if all the work I get here is my own and that of my friends, and (I hope I hope) the occasional TI production, great.
This "fuck you" attitude, obviously within reasonable limits, is doing me some good. I feel like Drew, except less of a curmudgeon and put in a David Mamet play. I'm making this damn show work, and fuck anyone who disagrees. People can acknowledge it, or they can be petty and stupid about it, but one thing that I will not be is pigeonholed.
(P.S. Jason: Incidentally, I do realize you didn't mean to sound like an ass or anything; I just like laying out my complaints like that. Happy birthday, by the way.)