Calling parents, Michael John LaChiusa, what's next

So far, this week has been sort of trying. We started calling parents at the Phonathon, and even though we only really called them for an hour and a half, those were some of the most trying minutes of my life. Most parents don't even trust that you're calling from NYU, because, due to confidentiality, we're not allowed to have the names of students' parents.

Other than that, I used some of the paid time off I earned at the Phonathon to take tonight off. I really just don't think I could handle the pressure of calling parents for a full three hours tonight. Instead, I went to Lincoln Center (which seems to be a new favorite spot of mine) to see Michael John LaChiusa speak at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. It was really interesting to hear him talk, particularly after having seen Bernarda Alba last Wednesday even if I'm not the biggest fan of that show. He talked pretty broadly for the most part about his creative process, which was neat.

Tomorrow (Thursday), I'm seeing The Threepenny Opera at Studio 54 with Alan Cumming, Cyndi Lauper, Ana Gasteyer, Jim Dale, and Nellie McKay. I'm pretty damn excited! Brecht seems pretty cool, though I'm not to familiar with his work. He believes in the alienation effect, where the audience is to always be aware that they are watching actors perform the work.

Friday, I'm going to dinner.

Anyway, that's all for now.

"Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," Jam Today

So, today was a fun day.

At 3, I went to go see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which was really great. It managed to be both classy and crass at the same time and was also really funny. The cast, particularly Norbert Leo Butz, Jonathan Pryce, Rachel York, and Mylinda Hull, was really great (Jonathan, Rachel, and Norbert are shown at left in that order).

I was familiar with the score beforehand, but I didn't really like it that much. There were a few standout songs, but some of the lyrics weren't as well-crafted as I'd like. Luckily, the score and the performances came together well on stage.

The design of the show was also really good, with stylized palm trees demonstrating the French Riveria setting and evocative lighting that really set the mood well. Overall a great show that continues to prove how unfair it was that "Spamalot" took home the Best Musical Tony last year.

After the show, I found out that Jam Today, the book of poetry that Shayne Terry from my Great Poems class put together of poems written by members of the class, was finally delivered to her dorm. I got the first copy, and I give it my seal of approval. The poems of mine that are included may not be the ones that I would choose, but the editors did a good job. I'll post info about how to get copies of Jam Today once I know more.

I wrote a new poem today that I'm quite fond of as well that's based on some recent observations, so I'll include that below:

Navigating homeward
Carrying your tuba
Newspaper
Like you could blow
Pushing your stroller
Suitcase
As if you could know
The man sitting across
Diagonal
Eyes down
Hands in lap

On the street a man blowing balloons
And twisting balloons to shape the world
And blowing smoke
A twisted grin and something
Unintended to his audience

Below a man
Beady eyes
A girl across
Fiery and young
Eight
He leers
Peekaboo
Speaks to her
“You got a boyfriend?”
Spits on the floor
Again
Again
She turns and hugs her mother
Smile on her face
Warm
Not thinking as I do

--

Next up on my Broadway schedule is The Threepenny Opera on Thursday, which I'm quite excited for!

Volunteering, life in general.

So things have been going pretty well. It's been a pretty nice week. On Thursday night after work, Ally and I went uptown to visit Christina at Barnard, because Carli and Leah were there (and Richard). It was a pretty fun time, and we played Cranium and Pictionary as well.

Yesterday, I worked, but beforehand, I went uptown to buy a ticket for The Threepenny Opera at Studio 54, which looks really great.

Today I did some volunteering for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. I worked for two performances of Doubt and one performance each of Avenue Q, Jersey Boys, and Wicked. Everything went pretty well, and the other volunteers were pretty nice. I'll probably do it again before summer break hits.

Tomorrow, I'm going to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'll be sure to post my thoughts tomorrow when I get back.

Long day, buying tickets, "Bernarda Alba" at Lincoln Center

So, today my classes were over by 11. Afterwards, I did some homework and read two plays for European Drama. I had really meant to either take a nap or relax, but that just didn't work out.

Anyway, tonight I went to see Bernarda Alba at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center. I'm a big fan of the composer, Michael John LaChiusa, so I went into the show with high hopes. The design of the show was great -- a sparse stage with wooden planks on the floor, a terra cotta back to the stage with a big wooden door. Above the back of the stage were the musicians (similar to his See What I Wanna See at the Public in the fall). Ten chairs (and some fabrics) were just about the only props, and most of the costumes were a sullen black.

Despite the great design elements however, the story just didn't trigger too much in me. See What I Wanna See really resonated to me, because I could identify with a lot of its themes, but this is an adaptation of a Lorca play about a woman who shuts her daughters inside and limits their sex lives and marriage opportunities. There were some glimpses of beautiful musical moments, and I liked the Spanish feel, but sometimes the singers' trills were a bit over-the top.

The ambience of the show was set by the actors' stomping of their feet (which is what woke up several of my fellow audience members who fell asleep), which was a nice device. The show had some amusing moments, particularly while the mating of bulls is simulated from across a stage by two women, as the ensemble sings "Open the door/And let me in."

At the end of the show (I'll go ahead and spoil it for you, as I'm pretty sure no one reading this will go see it anyway), Bernarda Alba (played by Phylicia Rashad, the mom on The Cosby Show, who was in relatively fine voice) attempts to shoot the man who wants to marry her one daughter and with whom another of her daughters has just slept. The adulteress daughter locks herself in the room, and melodramatic pounding begins, as all of the women wail and writhe at the door. The stage glows stark white as the women turn around as if the room has been revealed to them. They begin wailing and wailing...and wailing, and then Bernarda Alba, totalitarian head of the house, defying the truth of the situation, sings (over and over and over and over a few more times), "My daughter died a virgin," which I heard some people singing on the street as they laughed to one another.

Anyway, it wasn't horrible, and a lot of the moments in the show were great, but I was just glad it was short (at 90 minutes long). I haven't lost faith in Mr. LaChiusa. I'd rather have have a hundred Bernarda Albas than one jukebox musical, and the show at least made its audience think. One of the best lines, spoken by Bernarda to Poncia -- "It's not what I believe; it's the truth."

Anyway, before the show, I went to buy some tickets for April, which is becoming my Broadway sweeps month. I got a balcony (way up high) seat for Lestat and a rear mezzanine seat for The Drowsy Chaperone. The box office for The Threepenny Opera was closed, but I'll be buying a ticket to that as well. I also hope to rush Tarzan, try to get standing room for Three Days of Rain, and maybe even take in an opera. While I was at Lincoln Center, I got to take in the beauty of the place, and the Met looks really great with its plush red fabrics shining in bright lights. I feel like giving opera a try.

Another interesting tidbit is that the guy who played Michael the transvestite in Camp, Robin DeJesus, was at Bernarda Alba tonight a few rows ahead of me. I love that movie!!!

Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of classes in the week, and I have work tomorrow and Friday. Hopefully all will go well.

Break, back, movies, blah.

So, spring break was last week. Home was generally fine, and it was a nice enough week. I did a lot of knitting, finished reading Without You by Anthony Rapp, visited my grandparents on my dad's side, had lunch with my grandparents on my mom's side, and more. I saw Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, which was a silly mockumentary-style movie that had its amusing moments but didn't really do much for me. I also saw Broken Flowers for the first time -- dull. A lot of my time at home was spent with my friends playing Pictionary, which was fun. Christina had her boyfriend, Richard, home for the week, and he's quite nice, so it was a generally fun time.

It's kind of hard to sum up breaks like that when I stop writing here on my blog, but that's my feeble attempt.

My dad also had a full-immersion baptism on Sunday right before I came home, which was certainly interesting. I wasn't really expected to go, but I guess I just kind of feel like supporting family members is important. If I want him to go to my super-gay wedding some day down the road, I'd better go to his important stuff.

I came back to NYC on Sunday night. It's really nice to be back here. Upper Darby certainly is fine, but NYC has an energy you can't really find anywhere else.

Today after my Brain and Behavior lab, I was feeling bored, so I went to Tower Records in Lincoln Center (which is such a great place to shop) and then saw Thank You For Smoking in the Lincoln Square area. It was a very funny movie, up there with a lot of the best movies I saw last year. It kind of reminds me of Arrested Development and The Daily Show as a movie.

Seeing movies alone makes it all the more obvious just how yucky it is not to have a boyfriend. Blah. Someone! Anyone! Calling all gays! Talk to me.

On the way home, I came up with a few lines for a poem yet to be written. I know that if I put them on here, I'll look back at them in a bit, so it seems like a good idea:

Carrying your tuba
Newspaper
Like you could blow
Louis blew
Like it was breath

Shayne Terry from my Great Poems class last semester helped compile a lot of poems from that class for a magazine volume for distribution, so that should be coming out soon. I'm really excited about that. There should be a party when the distribution of that magazine occurs (soon!).

I'm going to see Michael John LaChiusa's Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, which I'm excited about, and I'm going to buy tickets to The Threepenny Opera and The Drowsy Chaperone soon, which I'm very excited about.

Anyway...that's just about everything that's going on with my life.

Illness: catching up.

Anyway, I've been very busy and sick for the past few days, so this post will serve as a sort of catch-up for anyone who pays attention to this blog. I'll attempt to be as brief as possible, but it probably won't be all that brief.

Last Thursday, I had two midterms, one in World Cultures and one in Natural Science, so I pulled an all-nighter. Bad idea. That's probably what threw off my entire immune system. Anyway, I think the tests went fine, and I actually wasn't feeling all that tired. In fact, I even stayed up late Thursday without feeling the consequences.

On Friday, I woke up late for a trip to the Guggenheim with some people from the LGBT Office, including Todd Smith (the guy who runs the office), who is a very nice guy (he and his partner Hector are getting committed soon on some special romantic island). I rushed to the office hoping they hadn't left yet and was able to catch up with them before they got to the subway (I actually beat them to the subway). Anyway, the exhibit was of sculptures by David Smith. I had no idea who he was before, but his sculptures were actually quite interesting -- not my favorite art ever, but definitely worth going. Anyway, the subway fare, museum, and post-museum lunch at a nice pizza place were all paid for by the office, which was so nice.

While at the museum, I found out one of the other people there, Gina, went to Merion Mercy Academy with Alyce Wojciechowski (from the 12th Floor) and also did Summer Stage -- and she was also in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which I saw. She was quite nice.
Friday night, I hung out with Ally at U-Hall and had pizza. We then started walking by the East River, which has some very pretty views. We thought about walking up to Christina's at 116th Street, but we walked part of the way and then took the subway there. We played Cranium there and hung out with Christina, Richard (her boyfriend, and Olga and Brianna (however you spell that), her two roommates.

We left around 3 or 4 AM, and I slept late on Saturday. When I woke up, I was feeling sick, but I woke up to call about Hedda Gabler tickets, because Christina, Ally, and I were going to try to do student rush for that play at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Anyway, they were sold out, and I was not in a state to go anyway, so I slept all through the rest of Saturday.

I woke up on Sunday to get ready for the Oscars! I was feeling slightly better, so I decided to go see Capote, which was a very good movie. I'm not sure I liked Phillip Seymour Hoffmann as much as the hype would suggest that I would, but he was certainly good. The character just has a sort of repellent quality.

The Oscars were quite amusing. I liked Jon Stewart as host. I was disappointed that "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" beat "Travelin' Thru" by Dolly Parton from Transamerica for Best Song, and I was very surprised that Crash won for Best Picture. Now I have to check that movie out just to see what all the fuss is about. I was predicted Brokeback Mountain as most people were.

On Monday, I went to lab and then attempted to get some bedrest. I also watched an interesting program on public television about knitting and spoke with someone on the phone about volunteering for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Today, I had class and then went to Ally's to get our lab report done. Then I got yet more rest.

I didn't work today or yesterday, because I really wasn't in any condition to be talking on the phone; no one wants to give money to someone coughing left and right. My boss was very nice about only requiring me to make up one of the days I missed. I'm pretty well certain I'll be back at work tomorrow.

I also finished the first hat that I really enjoy today. It's slightly larger than it should be, so I took up the brimmy area with some stitches to make it a bit more fashion-forward. Overall, I'm quite impressed by it.

In other news, Ally is most likely transfering to Swarthmore from NYU. I hope whatever she chooses makes her happy, but I'll definitely miss her being so close if she leaves NYU. She's just not really as happy here as she deserves to be, so if being here isn't the best environment for her, I suppose it only makes sense that she should be nearer to home.

I also shaved today!

Anyway, good night!