The House of Ash

I have been lame about updating this summer but nevertheless it's been a wonderful few months. Basically I've been reading and writing a lot, taking lots of pictures (I joined a photography club). As soon as I can, I look forward to uploading a photo blog. I'm also working on my EmergeNYC project (which has taken on many forms) but right now looks like it's going to be some sort of art installation. I've also had the chance to catch up with people I haven't seen in awhile and some of my favorite friends and mentors. And yes... on Saturday afternoons, I put on a giant Rubix Cube costume and dance around Times Square to promote "The Awesome 80's Prom" (see photo above) It's an amazing experience! For real. I'm super grateful to be doing it. I have do a lot of theatre promotions in the past and always have a blast meeting and getting to talk with the most fascinating people in Times Square but stepping into a large box makes interactions with people even more interesting. You wouldn't believe the things people will say to a woman in a box. This brings me to a larger idea... somebody needs to write an ethnography on street teams and the people in Times Square who sell "tickets to stand up comedy" (among many other things). The majority of us are all actors/dancers/singers/some sort of performers trying to make it in NYC... so aside from the fascinating people you meet along the way, it becomes a networking opportunity and chance to run into old friends.

Robby, Casey and I recently started doing "The Artist's Way" (http://www.theartistsway.com/). I did it years ago during my angsty high school years. I only got to week 3 (and never did the "morning pages"). Thankfully, things are working much better now...

I decided that I'm going to read all of the books that have been stacking up this past year before I go to new material. I think everybody does this at one point or another. This strategy has been working... a little. It was fine until I became obsessed with "Regarding the Pain of Others" and Sontag's work and took a detour only to read Sontag. Oh well. I got through six books before I got onto the Sontag kick. I'm reading one of her biographies now. It's outdated, as it leaves off about two years before her death. My Sontag kick couldn't have come at a better time, as I'm completely obsessed with photography.

Still have many more books to get through including...

Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postmen
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding, Rayna Idilby/Suzanne Oliver/Priscella Warner
Take this Bread, Sarah Miles
Radiant Mind, Jean Smith
Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Legacies, Hurling and Rosenthal
Performance Studies: An Introduction, Richard Schechner
Legislative Theatre, Augusto Boal
Who Sings the Nation State? Judith Butler and Gayatri Spivak

I hope by the time I return to this post, I will at least have gotten through half this list.

The audition front has been very slow but it doesn't matter to me because I have a ton of directing projects and COTE related events keeping me busy until November. We have auditions coming up on August 9th and 10th for our fall projects and outside of COTE, I am working with the Manhattan Theatre Source's "Estrogenius Festival" and directing a one-act play at the American Theatre of Actors called "Inseminary" by Dicky Murphy. This runs August 20th-24th. I am also working with the East Village Community Coalition, organizing a bike parade (for October). I'm thrilled to be doing community organizing and to have the opportunity to work within my own community - Alphabet City and the Lower East Side.

Sometime between now and the end of August I'm going to be sending in an audition tape to Globe Trekker. I have one... it just needs major editing. I will probably need a MAC for that project...

Labels: random musings