Beginnings, Beginnings

I have been involved in theatre for a long time. My "career" started in 6th grade when we were all required to participate in our class's production of The Taming of the Shrew. I really wanted to be Katherine, and I was sure I had the role. Then. My friend Ashely asked me to read for the part of the widow because she didn't want to audition alone. I did, and to my horror I read better for the widow than I had for Katherine. The cast list went up after recess. I. was. the widow. And I was SO mad! I scribbled a note to my teacher that sounded something like this:

"I hate your stupid show and I refuse to participate! ... Unless you let me be Katherine! I really deserve the role of Katherine! I hate acting! I hate Shakespeare! Unless I'm Katherine, I hate Shakespeare! I won't do it! You can't make me! Signed, Anonymous."

Except it was a whole page long and written in sixth-grader, so there were a lot of spelling errors and there were definitely more exclamation points.

Even though I signed the note anonymously, my teacher knew I had written it. Maybe she recognized my handwriting. Maybe the note just sounded like me. Maybe it was the way I wouldn't stop glaring at her or throwing things at Brandi (Kate). However she figured it out, my teacher approached me and tried to calm me down. She finally told me that Brandi would have to kiss Colton, but I would not be deterred. I knew I was perfect for the part. Mrs. Stevens disagreed and I hated her for the rest of the school year.

I took my script home that night and had the whole thing memorized by the time I walked to school the next day. It was about 20 pages long, but I wanted to prove that I could do it better than Brandi. And if she happened to die at lunch in a freak accident involving a swing or the zip line, I would already have all of her lines memorized so her role would default to me. It was fool proof!

I was not a vengeful 11-year-old; I never even thought to try to kill her to move things along. The next few weeks didn't play out quite the way I imagined them. Brandi didn't get sick or break her ankle or get kicked in the head by a horse. She didn't even actually have to kiss Colton, so she couldn't die of the cooties. To my exasperation, the day of the performance came and I had to play the part of the widow. My mom did my hair in a french braid. I wore a black dress and one of my mom's huge, beshoulderpadded coats. We did the show once for the school, then once more for parents and older siblings. I remembered my one line (I still remember it: "He that is giddy thinks the world turns round."), I did the bit with the servants, and I moved a wall and a couple of chairs.

That was it. That was my first experience with theatre. It wasn't a particularly good one, from my point of view. I don't know how that one thing led me to take a drama class in 8th grade, how I managed to overcome my crippling stage fright to audition for Joseph... in 9th grade, and how I ended up as a theatre major at UVU. I don't know how it happened, but it did and I've spent the last six years of my life deeply immersed in this world. I have had so many wonderful experiences. I've had a few bad experiences. I've had a couple of really difficult experiences. But everything that I have experienced is of equal value- I gladly take the good, the bad, and the nast-acular because it all works together to make me a better actress, and more importantly, a stronger person.

I'm a little sad to be leaving it behind.

That's not entirely accurate. I -- oh, by the way. I guess this is the official announcement. I'm changing my major. I will now be studying creative writing -- am very excited to begin again, to start over, to take who I have become and to introduce her to a brand new and well loved aspect of life. I have resolved to take my studies seriously so that I can get in to a good graduate program, and I'm taking this opportunity to do the college thing right. Maybe that will mean taking an intermission, if you will, a short break from theatre friends and from the theatre lifestyle. Maybe I'll figure out a way to make time for some shows (don't worry, I'm not dropping out of The Princess and the Goblin. A girl has got to earn her living. Also, it sounds like fun).

I guess we'll just have to see.

P.S.

I will be minoring in theatre, so if I do take a break it will be quite temporary. I don't want these 5 years of work to just disappear- I want a degree, dangit! But look on the bright side, this way it won't matter that I keep forgetting about Company Call! ;)

Notes from the Lieberry

I'm making a pinata! I took some pictures of it, but I don't have a card reader with me (the internet is broken at my house AGAIN and I've taken refuge in the Orem City Library), so you'll have to wait to see the finished product. I know! The suspense is almost more than you can bear!

But what this really means is that I've taken up papier mache. Watch out, my bedroom. You're about the be utterly swamped by useless paper things that I make over the next couple weeks. And watch out, you few but loyal readers, for the bazillions of pictures of things that I am soon to create.

One more thing: I'm in love with most things Kate Nash.

One more one more thing: If you haven't seen Seussical yet, you should get yerself some tickets soon! We're reportedly already 83% sold out, which means that this is not a show to miss, but your chances of missing it are increasing at an alarming rate.

Have a wonderful rainy afternoon, everyone.

:)

Wed Nes Day

So I spent the last hour that I was gonna spend on homework talking to my sister on the phone. Sometimes these things just can't be helped.

A few things:

I can see why and how hunger makes people crazy. For some reason, I have been unbelievably really hungry all the time these last couple weeks. I mean, I eat breakfast, and I usually eat lunch, but if I don't then I eat dinner at 4 or 5 and then I go to rehearsal and I eat a snack after rehearsal. So I shouldn't be ravenous; I should at least be okay. But for reasons I think I'll never know, I feel like I'm starving to death. And then I go crazy thinking about when I'm gonna eat, and what I could possibly eat to satiate this gargantuan monster that is my bottomless stomach. It's really weird.

I might could possibly maybe a little bit almost very nearly kind of maybe almost hope to have a prayer to pass my classes this semester. Wouldn't that be nice? I mean, I don't expect to get a 4.0 again (2 semesters ago- I only took 3 classes, and 2 of them were participation-based), but at least I might (might) not fail.

I wrote a poem yesterday. It was hard, but it was also fun. It is a strict formal poem that uses the same 6 words as the last word in each line of 6 stanzas (a sestina, for those of you who care), so it was kind of like solving a complicated word puzzle, which I love. I think I'll put it up here later. It isn't great, but I'm falling in love with it. :)

Today I worked on (and almost finished) an exercise that riffed off of the sestina (take all of the nouns, adjectives, and verbs and replace them with the entry from the dictionary 7 entries above. Try it!). Here are some of the silliest sentences that emerged:

• "...sharp became pontoon -- gone were the ribs of the loudspeaker Virginia reel and lie."
• "When the lifer of earmuf had gone from henchman Fabian, and sharp could no longer love the tete-a-tete of caldron..."
• "Henchman at last hypothesize see this hap near mayflower..."
• "...torn by the moustaches of grew and repaired by anemometers..."
• "She worst soon jocular the angels."
• "...and she cottontail no longer loudspeaker the texture of calico..."

And in the middle of a sentence, the word "giraffe".

I just found a hole in the thigh of my only pair of jeans. :/ This is distressing. I like these jeans, nay, I. LOVE. these jeans. I got them at Target in November. I'm sad that a $25 pair of jeans only lasted 5 months... actually... I did wear them almost every day for 5 months. That means my cost-per-wear (thank you, Clinton and Stacy!) was, like, .028 cents. But I still need to buy new jeans. Caaaaan't afford thaaaat.

I watched Pooh's Grand Adventure yesterday, and I am happy to report that it is as good as I remember. "Come out, moon; come out, wishing star; come out, come out, wherever you are!" Megan and I used to watch that movie and cry together. Good times.




I got to spend a couple of hours today playing with some really great people and my puppety counterpart. I think her name is Dot or Dottie. She doesn't have pupils yet, so she's still a bit creepy, but it's really nice to get to get used to the real deal puppet instead of Cuddlebum, my rehearsal puppet. I made him out of a teddy bear, two coat hangers, a mitten, and an apron. Anyway, the point is that Dot or Dottie is a lot cooler (and a lot heavier) than Cuddlebum.



So that's m'week so far. Tomorrow is temple and therapy Thursday. I am also attending the BYU Mask Club production of Parade. Shh! Don't tell anyone! And I will be finishing two creative writing assignments AT LEAST. And I'm gonna reserve me some comp tickets. Whoo! Productivity!

P.S.
I have fallen in love with "Paean to Place" by Lorine Niedecker. Ready?
"O my floating life
Do not save love
for things
Throw things
to the flood

ruined
by the flood
Leave the new unbought--
all one in the end--
water"

HOLY crap. It's 6 1/2 pages long. LOVE it.

("He could not
--like water bugs--
stride surface tension
He netted
loneliness")

WHUT.

I just risked life and limb (or rather my friend's computer) to discover that the book I read for Covenant Communications, Faith Behind the Fences, will be available on CD beginning February 1.

AAAHH!

People are going to be listening to me! TO ME! People that I don't even know will be listening to me read a book!

Miranda says a general authority might listen to it.

AAAHHHH!!

My dad thinks I'm gonna be famous, but I'm not gonna be famous. But there is a sort of fame to it, isn't there? People will be talking about me! They'll be talking about that girl who reads that book I like. I'm gonna be that girl who reads the book! I've never been talked about like that before! By PEOPLE I'VE NEVER MET.

AAH!

Oh, I can't get over it.

:D ...?

In The News

Actually, it isn't news. Not in the traditional sense. But I am pleased as punch to present to you my SECOND published review, as found on the Utah Theater Bloggers Association website:

Welcome Back Potter .

I was surprised to find it posted because I was waiting for Dave to email me with a list of revisions he wanted. I guess it was alright, though, cause there it is!

This whole business is very exciting.

:)

An Inexplicable Controversy Hopefully Resolved

For some reason, people don't understand my fascination (okay, obsession) with Hanson. This is what I wrote in Miss Fix It after the concert last night. Hopefully it will provide some illumination:

BEST.

NIGHT.

OF MY LIFE.

This suddenly sounds like a teenager's diary, but seriously, Hanson is INCREDIBLE live. It is actually ridiculous how much I am a screaming fan girl. When Zac walked out the first time, I fell off of my chair and cried a little. And then I hyperventilated for about ten minutes. Emilee spent most of the night laughing at me. But she also convinced me to buy a shirt, and though it cost more than the ticket to the concert, it was worth every penny. I am going to wear it to school tomorrow, and possible every day for the rest of my life. I just might be buried in it.

Somehow I love Hanson more now that I ever have before; that concert solidified their place at the top of my "favorite artists" list for eternity.

I'll make this quick since I'm falling asleep.

Let's talk about why I love Hanson so much that I cried a little when its members became real people to me-- music is this magical, transcendent phenomenon that has the power to create a soul-to-soul connection on an intangible plane. Hanson's music not only touches my soul, it fills it, stretches it past capacity, and even creates more music within me. Hanson inspires me to the core of my being, and there is nothing quite so beautiful.

I felt it slide back into place during one of the first songs. I still don't know what it is, but it's back where it belongs. Tonight, I firmly believe, was a much-needed gift from heaven-- beauty and excitement and inspiration. It was a new experience to go along with my new hair, new place, new attitude towards life. This concert meant so much more than a great night out. It was the final piece in my growing up puzzle. It was the first step on the road I've always wanted to take but could never find.

Now let the healing begin.

~~~

Recorded 9/30/10

First Review Ever!

I wrote a review, and David liked it, so it's on the internet!

The interwebs!

A review that I wrote! :D

http://www.utahtheaterbloggers.com/3327/mullets-and-mayhem-at-“trailer-park-musical”

T-Minus 21 Days and Counting!

September 30th.
The Depot.
8 PM.
My ticket is in my dresser drawer.




AAHH!!