How I dazzled her senses was truly no less than a crime
Two Things:
1) I am reading Self-Made Man; one woman's story about playing a man for a little over a year. She joins a men's bowling league, dates men and women, goes to strip clubs, and lives at a monastery for three weeks. She writes with totally honesty, never assuming she actually knows how a man would feel in these situations and consistently referencing her female reactions, but discusses the contradictions within herself that begin to develop, recognizing how her reactions change to certain things, depending on which personality she allows to dominate. I think it is a great book for any couple to read (I am hoping Jesse will read it, too.) and I'd love to get a male's response to this book, to know how much truth is behind her personal observation of both male and female social behavior, both when isolated from one another and when trying to interact.
2) I am working on the Imaginary Invalid at ACT, my final week of work here. It is the type of production that I wish I could work with more often, but that I feel is slowly vanishing from the theatre scene, or returning to lesser known blackboxes and eclectic groups. I also feel that, perhaps, audiences enjoy it less because it is so exagerated, flamboyant, and hard to immerse yourself in; hell, perhaps as purely an audience member I would appreciate it less as well. I don't like that this production really doesnt challenge me in the least, and I would love to find/create productions like this that could also challenge. Oh jeez, I should get to what I am talking about, I suppose. This show relishes in the fact that it is theatre, that there is a "fourth wall" that the actors could break if they wanted to (and do). Every character - its a comedy in the crudest way - is merely a reflection of some old trope (the young lovers, the cratchety but endearing old man, the nagging nanny/maid, the evil stepmother and her lover, etc.) and so the actors can go as far as their own energies allow, travelling from an actor playing a character, to a character, to a hyper exagerated character that is so acted as to reveal the actor - but this only works if the actor is so immersed in their character that the line between them is indistinguishable, otherwise it just comes off as insincere acting. But this cast just looks like they are having a blast playing these characters; lines are adlibed depending on the audience, and they can still catch cues and respond to one another. I just wish it had a bit more political/social weight, rather than just being a crude comedy. (Everything is exagerated, by the way, which is necessary for such a production - if the actors are alone in their dedication to game, the effect is lost. Every party must be incorporated.) Anyway, after only a day I cant tell how the actors feel, but I know the management staff finds it merely frustrating and immature - or thats all they talk about. I find it remarkably fun! Though I did just join today.
1) I am reading Self-Made Man; one woman's story about playing a man for a little over a year. She joins a men's bowling league, dates men and women, goes to strip clubs, and lives at a monastery for three weeks. She writes with totally honesty, never assuming she actually knows how a man would feel in these situations and consistently referencing her female reactions, but discusses the contradictions within herself that begin to develop, recognizing how her reactions change to certain things, depending on which personality she allows to dominate. I think it is a great book for any couple to read (I am hoping Jesse will read it, too.) and I'd love to get a male's response to this book, to know how much truth is behind her personal observation of both male and female social behavior, both when isolated from one another and when trying to interact.
2) I am working on the Imaginary Invalid at ACT, my final week of work here. It is the type of production that I wish I could work with more often, but that I feel is slowly vanishing from the theatre scene, or returning to lesser known blackboxes and eclectic groups. I also feel that, perhaps, audiences enjoy it less because it is so exagerated, flamboyant, and hard to immerse yourself in; hell, perhaps as purely an audience member I would appreciate it less as well. I don't like that this production really doesnt challenge me in the least, and I would love to find/create productions like this that could also challenge. Oh jeez, I should get to what I am talking about, I suppose. This show relishes in the fact that it is theatre, that there is a "fourth wall" that the actors could break if they wanted to (and do). Every character - its a comedy in the crudest way - is merely a reflection of some old trope (the young lovers, the cratchety but endearing old man, the nagging nanny/maid, the evil stepmother and her lover, etc.) and so the actors can go as far as their own energies allow, travelling from an actor playing a character, to a character, to a hyper exagerated character that is so acted as to reveal the actor - but this only works if the actor is so immersed in their character that the line between them is indistinguishable, otherwise it just comes off as insincere acting. But this cast just looks like they are having a blast playing these characters; lines are adlibed depending on the audience, and they can still catch cues and respond to one another. I just wish it had a bit more political/social weight, rather than just being a crude comedy. (Everything is exagerated, by the way, which is necessary for such a production - if the actors are alone in their dedication to game, the effect is lost. Every party must be incorporated.) Anyway, after only a day I cant tell how the actors feel, but I know the management staff finds it merely frustrating and immature - or thats all they talk about. I find it remarkably fun! Though I did just join today.