My Favorite Character in a Play

Myself as Helena, and the talented, (and excellent friend) Samantha Murray as Hermia.Last week, Lyn Gardner at the Guardian UK wrote about her favorite heroine, Antigone. She finds her flaws as endearing as her strengths. Ms. Gardner continues to explore, realizing that her tastes, and her relatability to characters have definitely changed as she has grown and aged. A great read, with great comments!

So, who is mine? My immediate impulse is Helena. I have never enjoyed playing a role more. Physical, funny, lovestruck, idealistic Helena.

But it’s more than that. She’s so pathetic, and manipulative, but completely steadfast in her love. She is the only one that sees beyond Demetrius’ braggadocio to know that a man capable of tenderness lies beneath. She withstands abuse, treks the wilderness, and never, never wavers.

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Let's Review- Week of 10/15

Creativity

Dan Gunderman at Duck Call has a post about time- creativity takes a lot of it! I feel so blessed that I now have a job that pays me for that creative development time, as well as the execution. I feel its rare, in the arts, to get that respect for the process. But incredibly necessary. This post also links to a great video of John Cleese addressing creativity. Worth the 30 minutes. Promise. 

Theatre

Lyn Gardner at The Guardian reflects on her favorite character from a play. She explores our connections to characters, and our connections to them as our own lives change. I'll be looking at this more for myself next week!

Ballet

From Canada, host to 2 fairly new ballets this season, comes a story of ballet's love of fairy tale. 

We enjoy the illusion because we know it’s not a trick of computers, but a labour of real bone and sinew. Ballet puts the nervous system back into the performance of fantasy.

Leaders

David Ian Moss and Barry Hessenius post about Barry's Dinner-vention: If you could have dinner with arts leaders, who would they be? Moss offers brain storming ideas, and Barry will host the dinner!

Reading

We know I'm currently doing a good bit of research on reading. Here's another story, from Wired Science, this time on how reading affects the growth of the brain!

Words of Wisdom

From Seth Godin: "An organization that's run on emergencies and reaction to incoming doesn't know what to do when there are no problems."

A Woman's Place in the Theatre

Last week saw many posts on the topic of sex and gender, ranging from a lack of female playwrights, to harassment (Mariah McCarthy’s honest questions about it, and the post that inspired hers, and another that covers both topics) in the workplace. All of these are worth reading. Especially if you are female. And especially if you are a working female. And then last night happened, and Mitt Romney put us in binders….

I'll be honest, this isn't a topic I ever thought much about. When I did, I'd like to think that as artists, we're beyond such disgusting behavior, but apparently, we're not.

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Let's Review- Week of 10/8

Arts Marketing

Mission Paradox is one of the best arts marketing blogs going. Adam regularly inspires and/or challenges me. This past week feature a 2-part series on marketing and money. Part 2 included this sentence: You spend money on marketing to leverage an organizational or artistic strength.

Last week, I linked to an Amelia Northrup post about Millennials. Thomas Cott included that post with this one by Colleen Dilenschneider in a You’ve Cott Mail Millennial edition. Dilenschneider gives 5 Facts all arts organizations should know about Millennials.

Gender and Theatre

Last week also saw a lot of posts re: gender and theatre. I recommend this one by Laura Shamas on an initiative that worked in LA. And this great, honest, questioning post by Mariah MacCarthy, that also links to 2 other posts worth reading and considering.


Continuing Education

I love reading. And in working on a theatre education panel regarding reading and acting, I’m always on the lookout for anecdotes and research regarding reading. Here’s one from Chloe Angyal at the Atlantic (hat tip to Andrew Sullivan) on adults reading to each other.

I tweeted about, and posted on Facebook, my excitement over Coursera. Thanks to Britt at Have Fun-Do Good for bringing it to my attention. Free online courses, in a variety of subjects, from some great universities! I’ve signed up for 2 already.

Finally

And, a funny look at dating-as-improv by Michael at Theatre Face. 

I'll Do Anything

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Image by imgfave.comOver a year ago, July 2011, I wrote a blog post about one of my favorite things about acting- doing more in one lifetime than is actually physically possible. Holding different jobs, living in different time periods, being a different ethnicity, etc.

It’s true. I’ve been a Russian maid and a mermaid. Audrey Hepburn and Cher. A professor and a prostitute. A fairy tale princess and one of Shakespeare’s most famous maidens. It’s been great. And, hopefully, I’m not done yet. I’ve learned about myself, about history, literature, and had a few weeks of “doing a different job”. I’ve realized I really don’t want to be a maid, professor, prostitute or movie star. I mean, great for a few weeks. But not really “me”. I’m an artist, perpetually looking for the next thing, the next viewpoint, the next idea.

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