so lately, making money has been hard. i'm revising plays so i can submit them and hopefully if they get published and performed, it'll be a way to establish myself and get royalties. =)
i got a data entry job so i can do that during the week and just work at the shoe store on sundays but i really want to find a way to do what i love and make money. not necessarily as a full-time job, but just you know, i want to write for money. (that last sentence was terrible, i know, but stream of consciousness.)
i'm also rewriting my story and that needs a lot of help. =O so yeah, in a lot of ways, life sucks. but i have hope and i know God is behind me and He will show me His will and i will follow it. =)
in other news, i love david bowie. and while i'm at it, zachary quinto.
10/25/08
9/30/08
published articles! yay!
i've been published six times online in the past month! =D here are links to my work. i'm very pleased with a couple of the articles, especially the one about books i recommend and also the superpowers one. that was inspired by nbc's heroes and my friend mark deguzman. basically, what powers would certain famous people have if they had them?
17 Famous People Suspected of Having Superpowers
The Springs
The Us Survey: Get Closer to Friends, Learn About Yourself
Life-improving Ways to Save Gas and Money
Was Michael Phelps's SNL Performance Golden?
10 Books a Young Writer Should Read in High School
17 Famous People Suspected of Having Superpowers
The Springs
The Us Survey: Get Closer to Friends, Learn About Yourself
Life-improving Ways to Save Gas and Money
Was Michael Phelps's SNL Performance Golden?
10 Books a Young Writer Should Read in High School
8/22/08
Adventures!
Mañana voy a hacer un picnic con mi heroe, mi Touchstone en el lugar de nuestras aventuras de nuevo! o...como el lugar original, anyway.
Luckily, I can come dressed as myself.
Anyway, since this is my art blog, I just wanted to say happy birthday in advance (his real b-day is november 13) to el actor más talentoso del siglo xix, quizás el mejor hamlet! Creo que sí! I would NEVER lie! =D
Luckily, I can come dressed as myself.
Anyway, since this is my art blog, I just wanted to say happy birthday in advance (his real b-day is november 13) to el actor más talentoso del siglo xix, quizás el mejor hamlet! Creo que sí! I would NEVER lie! =D
8/6/08
updates as needed
i haven't written in a long time. i'm just keeping this blog because it's nice to be able to look back and remember how i was at certain times in my life.
anyhow, i've graduated and i completed the year with quite a few interesting artistic experiences.
As You Like It
- the performance was awesome and we did very well. i managed to help krystle and aaron increase their chemistry and they even got a "woo!" from the audience when they had a moment.
- hira was amazing, as usual and got so many laughs. the best part as someone who really knew the play was seeing how she thought out her jokes and actions so they weren't just ways to make the audience laugh, but were well-thought out.
- everything pretty much worked out except they started the deer dance scene before the forest was transformed and karen and i had to do some improv to set up the forest correctly. =/ it was pretty obvious ("say, touchstone, let's set up a tree, shall we?") but we did what needed to be done.
- everyone did a great job. =)
Newspaper/Newsletter
- i'm quite glad that amanda and i were selected to do an edition of the newsletter which featured my dr.s recommendation on the front but it was even lovelier when oshaugh asked us to assist aaron with the last edition of the newspaper as well. unfortunately, i don't have a copy of it. =( it's one of the only copies of the cougar news i'm missing! i have almost all the issues that were distributed during my time at McNair so i'm upset that i don't have it. actually, i mgiht. i just can't find it.
Open Mic
- i felt like a jerk with three open mic performances, but i did it anyway. i performed "love ridden" with joelle zigman on piano , "the way i am" with marton to duet with me while joelle accompanied us, and "someone to watch over me" a cappella as the very last act (not counting jason guerette's encore performance)
- mr. delo loved my "someone to watch over me" and i'm glad i started my open mic career with an a cappella piece ("unconditional love" by cyndi lauper, shiina ringo's version) and ended it with one, both successful. he even encouraged mr. oshaugh to ask me to sing it for one of his classes. when i sang it for mr. o'shaughnessy, he liked it as well. =) so i am quite pleased.
Other News
- i had to sing "endless love" with mark at richard's b-day/graduation party, which i didn't have the most fun singing. it wasn't as bad as the "you'll be in my heart" incident, though, so it's okay. (sorry, mohindra, i love you, but it hurts to hear that song now.)
- i finally finished watching battle royale and kimi wa petto! i loved them both and i hope they can help inspire me someday (hopefully, sometime soon.)
i updated my deviantart with some of my photography so yay. =D
i've been having writer's block lately and it's so painful because i'm exploring all my options in life right now (my deferrment, urgent need for money, entire future, etc.) and i'm re-examining past relationships, current relationships, things i've done, etc., and i feel things...but can't write about them. i was trying to write a play based on my film noir (ish) art history short story, but that didn't work out.
oh well. but i'm working on a song and a t-shirt design. =D
speaking of art history, i got 5s on all my aps this year, so yay! art history, english lit, and...(surprise coming)...SPANISH all conquered! i was in total shock about the last one so when duke told me i had credit for spanish, i was ridiculously shocked.
anyway, i'm praying for inspiration and a job. well, i have a job. i guess i'm praying for a better job or at least more money.
anyhow, i've graduated and i completed the year with quite a few interesting artistic experiences.
As You Like It
- the performance was awesome and we did very well. i managed to help krystle and aaron increase their chemistry and they even got a "woo!" from the audience when they had a moment.
- hira was amazing, as usual and got so many laughs. the best part as someone who really knew the play was seeing how she thought out her jokes and actions so they weren't just ways to make the audience laugh, but were well-thought out.
- everything pretty much worked out except they started the deer dance scene before the forest was transformed and karen and i had to do some improv to set up the forest correctly. =/ it was pretty obvious ("say, touchstone, let's set up a tree, shall we?") but we did what needed to be done.
- everyone did a great job. =)
Newspaper/Newsletter
- i'm quite glad that amanda and i were selected to do an edition of the newsletter which featured my dr.s recommendation on the front but it was even lovelier when oshaugh asked us to assist aaron with the last edition of the newspaper as well. unfortunately, i don't have a copy of it. =( it's one of the only copies of the cougar news i'm missing! i have almost all the issues that were distributed during my time at McNair so i'm upset that i don't have it. actually, i mgiht. i just can't find it.
Open Mic
- i felt like a jerk with three open mic performances, but i did it anyway. i performed "love ridden" with joelle zigman on piano , "the way i am" with marton to duet with me while joelle accompanied us, and "someone to watch over me" a cappella as the very last act (not counting jason guerette's encore performance)
- mr. delo loved my "someone to watch over me" and i'm glad i started my open mic career with an a cappella piece ("unconditional love" by cyndi lauper, shiina ringo's version) and ended it with one, both successful. he even encouraged mr. oshaugh to ask me to sing it for one of his classes. when i sang it for mr. o'shaughnessy, he liked it as well. =) so i am quite pleased.
Other News
- i had to sing "endless love" with mark at richard's b-day/graduation party, which i didn't have the most fun singing. it wasn't as bad as the "you'll be in my heart" incident, though, so it's okay. (sorry, mohindra, i love you, but it hurts to hear that song now.)
- i finally finished watching battle royale and kimi wa petto! i loved them both and i hope they can help inspire me someday (hopefully, sometime soon.)
i updated my deviantart with some of my photography so yay. =D
i've been having writer's block lately and it's so painful because i'm exploring all my options in life right now (my deferrment, urgent need for money, entire future, etc.) and i'm re-examining past relationships, current relationships, things i've done, etc., and i feel things...but can't write about them. i was trying to write a play based on my film noir (ish) art history short story, but that didn't work out.
oh well. but i'm working on a song and a t-shirt design. =D
speaking of art history, i got 5s on all my aps this year, so yay! art history, english lit, and...(surprise coming)...SPANISH all conquered! i was in total shock about the last one so when duke told me i had credit for spanish, i was ridiculously shocked.
anyway, i'm praying for inspiration and a job. well, i have a job. i guess i'm praying for a better job or at least more money.
5/31/08
MS#4 performance
the performance was on thursday. =O we did really well, especially considering we didn't really get to know the space or run through the play properly. the music actually fit in neatly even though we didn't really rehearse those scenes and the curtains/lights/sounds worked out well. =)
i know that this was probably the first time most of the cast has done a whole play and everyone did really well. heefa and maria pulled through and even with a few emergencies and missing props, we figured things out and made up for what needed making up.
some people were outstanding--karen, mingo, alexis, david, gina, elysse, alberto, just to name a few. the singers were also really good and even though hira got nervous and forgot a few lines, she didn't let it stop her and made sure she said something to finish her scenes and she really is an excellent rosalind. everything hira does is hilarious.
krystle and aaron pretty much knew their stuff but the chemistry still isn't there. =/ dr. s suggested rushing the first act (we have to cut things anyway) but i do still want to try improving their scenes. i'm glad heefa was in their scenes because she helped liven things up when the chemistry was most obviously dry. it's not so much about their acting as their chemistry, although krystle could be more forward and aaron could be more responsive. oh well. they have improved so much and i have hope that they will be even better.
our final is on thursday. ahhh. we still have to figure out the staging for the third floor library. i think i'll do that now. =O
oh, and just because every grown-up i've heard try to quote it misquotes it:
"if this were played upon a stage now, i could condemn it as an improbable fiction." - fabian, twelfth night.
i know that this was probably the first time most of the cast has done a whole play and everyone did really well. heefa and maria pulled through and even with a few emergencies and missing props, we figured things out and made up for what needed making up.
some people were outstanding--karen, mingo, alexis, david, gina, elysse, alberto, just to name a few. the singers were also really good and even though hira got nervous and forgot a few lines, she didn't let it stop her and made sure she said something to finish her scenes and she really is an excellent rosalind. everything hira does is hilarious.
krystle and aaron pretty much knew their stuff but the chemistry still isn't there. =/ dr. s suggested rushing the first act (we have to cut things anyway) but i do still want to try improving their scenes. i'm glad heefa was in their scenes because she helped liven things up when the chemistry was most obviously dry. it's not so much about their acting as their chemistry, although krystle could be more forward and aaron could be more responsive. oh well. they have improved so much and i have hope that they will be even better.
our final is on thursday. ahhh. we still have to figure out the staging for the third floor library. i think i'll do that now. =O
oh, and just because every grown-up i've heard try to quote it misquotes it:
"if this were played upon a stage now, i could condemn it as an improbable fiction." - fabian, twelfth night.
5/28/08
performance tomorrow!
our performance at MS #4 is tomorrow at 4:30 PM =O
i'm kind of nervous, of course, but i know everyone will do their best and it'll be excellent. =)
there's still a lot to do and i still have to get a vaccine so i have no idea how this is going to work out. =(
i'm praying and i know God works all things together for good and He will not give us something we cannot handle. i have faith!
also, open mic is coming up. =) but i don't know what to do--i want to do a solo but i also might perform with joelle, massiel, and mark in separate acts but i don't want to go four times. ugh. =(
i'm kind of nervous, of course, but i know everyone will do their best and it'll be excellent. =)
there's still a lot to do and i still have to get a vaccine so i have no idea how this is going to work out. =(
i'm praying and i know God works all things together for good and He will not give us something we cannot handle. i have faith!
also, open mic is coming up. =) but i don't know what to do--i want to do a solo but i also might perform with joelle, massiel, and mark in separate acts but i don't want to go four times. ugh. =(
5/24/08
cutting it close, making it secure, and strawberries.
oh no. i just realized that most of our rehearsals are not being video recorded. =O we need to create a making-of video as well and we only got some footage on mingo's camera but that broke, so i don't even know if we have that. if anything, we can shoot at a dress rehearsal and then have a bunch of talking heads to make up the video.
our performance date is getting very close. we're performing on the 29th at ms4 and on the 5th at our school (although i think we should go on the 6th since we were originally supposed to go second at the school, but whatever.)
we got a lot done in the past week but there are still some scenes we need to do. then we have dress rehearsals and we have to work on staging, using props, blocking, etc. ahhh. there's so much we just have to work out and we won't have much time to do it, sadly. =/
also, things have been complicated because my poor mother had to go to the hospital for, I believe, non-fatal reasons. she hasn't come back yet and i'm not sure if she's still waiting in the waiting room or if they're still running tests on her in the ER. prayers for her, please. =)
i got an e-mail from kean university's john wooten. he gave me excellent advice and did as he suggested. i registered my play with the WGAE ($22 for nonmembers, $17 for students) and i am not going to take anything from the ticket sales from bergen county academies for using my play since they aren't making personal profit and it's a school production. i feel wonderfully about it. hopefully they mail me a program or something at least. =) if they do put it on, i'd love to see it, but that just might be impossible.
friday was a strawberry-filled day, actually. mr. oshaughnessy's sixth block performed (most of) The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose and they seemed to like it. i wish we could've finished =/ but we did get through quite a bit and we were actually on the last scene. i had forgotten how much i loved that play. i'm quite proud of it, even if the line "However, I can give you a lick. In fact, I can do a lot better!" still freaks me out every time i hear it.
for me, the impression of reisman's "60s, jerry garcia, drugs" lion performance will never leave that role.
the actor who played her father played a lion who wanted to eat her. her true love? a dog who wanted to eat her. symbolic or not? =O
oh, and also on friday, i directed mrs. gupta's 7th and 8th blocks through dna extraction labs using strawberries. =) but i missed even more of pan's labyrinth. =( now i really have to borrow it since we're going to have a quiz on it. unfortunately, my dvd player is not working. i need to go to someone's house. =O
p.s. adrien brody = hot.
our performance date is getting very close. we're performing on the 29th at ms4 and on the 5th at our school (although i think we should go on the 6th since we were originally supposed to go second at the school, but whatever.)
we got a lot done in the past week but there are still some scenes we need to do. then we have dress rehearsals and we have to work on staging, using props, blocking, etc. ahhh. there's so much we just have to work out and we won't have much time to do it, sadly. =/
also, things have been complicated because my poor mother had to go to the hospital for, I believe, non-fatal reasons. she hasn't come back yet and i'm not sure if she's still waiting in the waiting room or if they're still running tests on her in the ER. prayers for her, please. =)
i got an e-mail from kean university's john wooten. he gave me excellent advice and did as he suggested. i registered my play with the WGAE ($22 for nonmembers, $17 for students) and i am not going to take anything from the ticket sales from bergen county academies for using my play since they aren't making personal profit and it's a school production. i feel wonderfully about it. hopefully they mail me a program or something at least. =) if they do put it on, i'd love to see it, but that just might be impossible.
friday was a strawberry-filled day, actually. mr. oshaughnessy's sixth block performed (most of) The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose and they seemed to like it. i wish we could've finished =/ but we did get through quite a bit and we were actually on the last scene. i had forgotten how much i loved that play. i'm quite proud of it, even if the line "However, I can give you a lick. In fact, I can do a lot better!" still freaks me out every time i hear it.
for me, the impression of reisman's "60s, jerry garcia, drugs" lion performance will never leave that role.
the actor who played her father played a lion who wanted to eat her. her true love? a dog who wanted to eat her. symbolic or not? =O
oh, and also on friday, i directed mrs. gupta's 7th and 8th blocks through dna extraction labs using strawberries. =) but i missed even more of pan's labyrinth. =( now i really have to borrow it since we're going to have a quiz on it. unfortunately, my dvd player is not working. i need to go to someone's house. =O
p.s. adrien brody = hot.
5/21/08
we're evolving! from porifera to platyhelmenthis (sp?)
First of all, I wanted to document something that pleases me quite a bit--two girls, Brianna Delfs and Juliana Chapman e-mailed me recently. They are students at Bergen County Academies and saw The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose performed at the Playwrights Festival last year and loved my play and now they would like a copy of the script and rights to possibly perform it next year! It's such a great compliment and I'm so flattered! I will most def. let them have a copy but I have to kind of copyright my work first and figure out what I have to do. I e-mailed Jim DeVivo from Playwrights Theatre and asked him for advice and he was very nice about it and said he'll help me out. =)
There was a Ford Focus commercial that was kind of funny
Sometimes I feel like that as a director. =O Sometimes it's fun being bossy, sometimes I feel like a jerk. Oh, some definitions:
We've been having rehearsals every day after school until about 5:30 (although many people leave earlier) and we haven't even gotten through the whole play once yet. Ahh! Oh no! I made a schedule of due dates so we can get everything done at least once by Memorial Day and after that we're going to perfect everything and do more staging, blocking, transitions, technical stuff, etc.
We have been getting much much better, though. Here are my thoughts on some of the scenes so far:
Scene 1.1
This scene was just recently completed even though it was one of the first we started working on. Wait, that sentence sort of doesn't make sense. Basically, it took a ridiculously long time to even get our actors running it straight through. The first half has an Orlando monologue by Aaron and a fight between him and his brother Oliver, played by Nicholson. This half has gotten so much better since the beginning. At first, Aaron's diction wasn't good enough and his passion wasn't convincing but after diction lessons at Dr. Solberg's one Saturday and my uhm, passion exercise (basically making him run up and down the stairs two or three times) he was so so much better! Mr. O'Shaughnessy told me later after he saw the scene that Aaron was quite good and had obviously been working. This scene is gettingmuch better dialogue wise, but Aaron needs to find the intensity in his body, Nicholson needs to nail his lines and say them convincingly, Jan needs to look more solid both in body and knowledge of lines, and everyone needs to understand what they're really saying, not just the dictionary definition of each word, too.
Scene 2.1
This scene took forever too. It's about how Jacques feels killing deer in their own territory would be like usurping a throne--making Duke Senior feel rather hypocritical and awkward. This featured Alexis and Elysse dancing as Jacques and Deer. The words were good, the dance was good, but it took us forever to figure out how to merge them. But this scene is wonderful and we need to make sure it is absolutely perfect and solid, blah blah, but it is one of my favorites. Mostly because the dance is just so cute. Haha.
Scene 3.2
Because of scheduling, we still have not done this completely. This scene is when Orlando puts love notes in the trees, Corin and Touchstone have a match of wits (court vs. country), and Rosalind finds the rhymes and realizes Orlando is writing them. The Touchstone x Corin part is most def done. We've done it so many times and I think because Corin and Touchstone are being contrasted so much in this scene, it's really helped me figure out how to be Corin and acting like him is getting a lot easier. I'm aiming for the gentle sort of older man who can see the folly of the youths around him and comments, but simply rolls his eyes when they don't listen. I am so sick of this scene. Oh well.
Scene 3.5
I think this scene is going to be excellent. It is Phebe and Silvius's first scene together with the Phebe monologue and it's when they meet Rosalind. Gina and David are extremely hard workers and have practiced their scene over and over. After directing David's arms to actually move, I find they play their roles very well. David isn't exactly graceful and smooth when he goes nuts over her (like when he yells O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe in his scene with me) but I think sometimes the awkwardness of his movements adds to the sillyness of his lovesick swain act. Gina is so funny when she's pretending to flirt with Hira and the way Hira scorns Gina and Gina ignores Silvius is hilarious and sometimes delicious. This scene is actually pretty tight. We do have to work on the latter half with Hira more, though.
Scene 4.1
The mock wedding. I love this scene because it is probably the greatest opportunity to have a hot Orlando x Rosalind moment in the play besides, perhaps, the meeting scene (which will take even more passion on Aaron's part--I hope we don't have to use the stairs again). Mingo and Hira are friends so I know it's weird for them, but the way they speak and the closeness of the direction is enough, I think. Also, they've built up chemistry from their work in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed. Elysse is so adorable in this scene (well, okay, she's cute in every scene). I just love this scene =) We have to run through it once more with Alexis's part at the beginning included, though.
Scene 4.3
I love this scene too! So far, especially considering since it's the half we've rehearsed most (this has rarely happened to me, haha), I much prefer the last half of the play. Both Hira and Elysse have their own brand of spunk and Hira has the idealistic-ish, heroine spirit necessary for Rosalind and Elysse makes Celia so endearing. I'm impressed with Elysse in general. She's thrown herself into this whole production and leaped (literally) into the role of the deer and is doing very well as Celia. And of course, Hira is amazing too. (I only hope she gets the last half of her lines down pat. =O) Anyway, I love this scene because Alberto and Elysse's love at first sight part as Celia and Oliver is just so cute, funny, and charming. Also, there is a hilarious fighting scene starring Mingo and Alberto as Orlando and Oliver, respectively, versus the Lion, played by Nicholson. It is so good. I'm not even joking. We just need to straighten out the first part of the scene with Silvius and Rosalind too.
And those are some of the scenes and my comments. =) Actually, considering how much time has passed, we're doing really well. But considering how much time we have left--we're so far behind. Oh no. Hopefully a Memorial Day practice will fix this. If anything, the PS #4 performance for parents and friends will end up being our first real dress rehearsal and best motivation for improvement.
Pray for us.
P.S. You know, I really like George Michael. I didn't realize that until now. =P
There was a Ford Focus commercial that was kind of funny
Man: Phone! Call my wife!
Sometimes I feel like that as a director. =O Sometimes it's fun being bossy, sometimes I feel like a jerk. Oh, some definitions:
Director: Someone who tells you how to do a single thing 16 times, each time a different way, before thinking you might be able to understand what to do.
Actor: Someone who will probably have to try 17 times to get something perfect.
We've been having rehearsals every day after school until about 5:30 (although many people leave earlier) and we haven't even gotten through the whole play once yet. Ahh! Oh no! I made a schedule of due dates so we can get everything done at least once by Memorial Day and after that we're going to perfect everything and do more staging, blocking, transitions, technical stuff, etc.
We have been getting much much better, though. Here are my thoughts on some of the scenes so far:
Scene 1.1
This scene was just recently completed even though it was one of the first we started working on. Wait, that sentence sort of doesn't make sense. Basically, it took a ridiculously long time to even get our actors running it straight through. The first half has an Orlando monologue by Aaron and a fight between him and his brother Oliver, played by Nicholson. This half has gotten so much better since the beginning. At first, Aaron's diction wasn't good enough and his passion wasn't convincing but after diction lessons at Dr. Solberg's one Saturday and my uhm, passion exercise (basically making him run up and down the stairs two or three times) he was so so much better! Mr. O'Shaughnessy told me later after he saw the scene that Aaron was quite good and had obviously been working. This scene is gettingmuch better dialogue wise, but Aaron needs to find the intensity in his body, Nicholson needs to nail his lines and say them convincingly, Jan needs to look more solid both in body and knowledge of lines, and everyone needs to understand what they're really saying, not just the dictionary definition of each word, too.
Scene 2.1
This scene took forever too. It's about how Jacques feels killing deer in their own territory would be like usurping a throne--making Duke Senior feel rather hypocritical and awkward. This featured Alexis and Elysse dancing as Jacques and Deer. The words were good, the dance was good, but it took us forever to figure out how to merge them. But this scene is wonderful and we need to make sure it is absolutely perfect and solid, blah blah, but it is one of my favorites. Mostly because the dance is just so cute. Haha.
Scene 3.2
Because of scheduling, we still have not done this completely. This scene is when Orlando puts love notes in the trees, Corin and Touchstone have a match of wits (court vs. country), and Rosalind finds the rhymes and realizes Orlando is writing them. The Touchstone x Corin part is most def done. We've done it so many times and I think because Corin and Touchstone are being contrasted so much in this scene, it's really helped me figure out how to be Corin and acting like him is getting a lot easier. I'm aiming for the gentle sort of older man who can see the folly of the youths around him and comments, but simply rolls his eyes when they don't listen. I am so sick of this scene. Oh well.
Scene 3.5
I think this scene is going to be excellent. It is Phebe and Silvius's first scene together with the Phebe monologue and it's when they meet Rosalind. Gina and David are extremely hard workers and have practiced their scene over and over. After directing David's arms to actually move, I find they play their roles very well. David isn't exactly graceful and smooth when he goes nuts over her (like when he yells O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe in his scene with me) but I think sometimes the awkwardness of his movements adds to the sillyness of his lovesick swain act. Gina is so funny when she's pretending to flirt with Hira and the way Hira scorns Gina and Gina ignores Silvius is hilarious and sometimes delicious. This scene is actually pretty tight. We do have to work on the latter half with Hira more, though.
Scene 4.1
The mock wedding. I love this scene because it is probably the greatest opportunity to have a hot Orlando x Rosalind moment in the play besides, perhaps, the meeting scene (which will take even more passion on Aaron's part--I hope we don't have to use the stairs again). Mingo and Hira are friends so I know it's weird for them, but the way they speak and the closeness of the direction is enough, I think. Also, they've built up chemistry from their work in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed. Elysse is so adorable in this scene (well, okay, she's cute in every scene). I just love this scene =) We have to run through it once more with Alexis's part at the beginning included, though.
Scene 4.3
I love this scene too! So far, especially considering since it's the half we've rehearsed most (this has rarely happened to me, haha), I much prefer the last half of the play. Both Hira and Elysse have their own brand of spunk and Hira has the idealistic-ish, heroine spirit necessary for Rosalind and Elysse makes Celia so endearing. I'm impressed with Elysse in general. She's thrown herself into this whole production and leaped (literally) into the role of the deer and is doing very well as Celia. And of course, Hira is amazing too. (I only hope she gets the last half of her lines down pat. =O) Anyway, I love this scene because Alberto and Elysse's love at first sight part as Celia and Oliver is just so cute, funny, and charming. Also, there is a hilarious fighting scene starring Mingo and Alberto as Orlando and Oliver, respectively, versus the Lion, played by Nicholson. It is so good. I'm not even joking. We just need to straighten out the first part of the scene with Silvius and Rosalind too.
And those are some of the scenes and my comments. =) Actually, considering how much time has passed, we're doing really well. But considering how much time we have left--we're so far behind. Oh no. Hopefully a Memorial Day practice will fix this. If anything, the PS #4 performance for parents and friends will end up being our first real dress rehearsal and best motivation for improvement.
Pray for us.
P.S. You know, I really like George Michael. I didn't realize that until now. =P
5/11/08
so much to do in so little time
we had rehearsal yesterday but no one came except aaron, nicholson, alberto, and gina. and alberto and aaron weren't even in the room when we first scheduled it on friday. so a lot of people are getting zeroes unless they reported some conflicts to bansri on friday.
we really have to jump into high gear, especially with production. i finished the costume and prop lists and some of the set stuff we'll have to design ourselves. =/ but i have plans! lol
i've at least planned all the staging. we jsut have to get the set done so that it'll actually be possible and we need to uhm, rehearse all the scenes. yay. lol
performances are on the 29th and for now, the 3rd, although that may move to the 6th. so the schedule is very tight. =
someone registered an e-mail address summerdawn0603@yahoo.com and is pretending to be me. but is not me. they e-mailed me saying "bhansri [sic] is soooo hot." i guess it's someone just messing around but in case they start emailing other people, just know--that is not me. =)
i'm actually pretty excited about our production. we have three fight scenes--one serious, two comical, one of them involving a lionness. we have a hopefully very hot scene with mingo and hira (this time with no wall between them). we have perhaps a dance with alexis patterson and elysse sison as a jaques and a deer. if we don't do it comically, it will be inspired by hok and jaimie's jazz dance to "the chairman's waltz" as choreographed by wade robson on so you think you can dance. and we have several songs, probably including "adieu ces bons vins de lannoys," "now is the month of maying" (shoutout to alex arkhipov), and "alone again, naturally" by gilbert o'sullivan. some of the singers? emily petrick, justin jayanty, and nayantara sama.
yay yay yay. also, dr. solberg won the princeton distinguished teacher award! =D congrats!!!
her winning the award gave us a front page article and now the newsletter is complete. =) the only thing i'm really worried about now (besides the play itself) is my ap art history exam. ahhh!
we really have to jump into high gear, especially with production. i finished the costume and prop lists and some of the set stuff we'll have to design ourselves. =/ but i have plans! lol
i've at least planned all the staging. we jsut have to get the set done so that it'll actually be possible and we need to uhm, rehearse all the scenes. yay. lol
performances are on the 29th and for now, the 3rd, although that may move to the 6th. so the schedule is very tight. =
someone registered an e-mail address summerdawn0603@yahoo.com and is pretending to be me. but is not me. they e-mailed me saying "bhansri [sic] is soooo hot." i guess it's someone just messing around but in case they start emailing other people, just know--that is not me. =)
i'm actually pretty excited about our production. we have three fight scenes--one serious, two comical, one of them involving a lionness. we have a hopefully very hot scene with mingo and hira (this time with no wall between them). we have perhaps a dance with alexis patterson and elysse sison as a jaques and a deer. if we don't do it comically, it will be inspired by hok and jaimie's jazz dance to "the chairman's waltz" as choreographed by wade robson on so you think you can dance. and we have several songs, probably including "adieu ces bons vins de lannoys," "now is the month of maying" (shoutout to alex arkhipov), and "alone again, naturally" by gilbert o'sullivan. some of the singers? emily petrick, justin jayanty, and nayantara sama.
yay yay yay. also, dr. solberg won the princeton distinguished teacher award! =D congrats!!!
her winning the award gave us a front page article and now the newsletter is complete. =) the only thing i'm really worried about now (besides the play itself) is my ap art history exam. ahhh!
4/30/08
Planning for the future. Oh noes.
The new version with even more cuts has only 16,210 words compared to the old's 18,555.
A page with an overview of project files is here.
We started doing rehearsal schedules and I suck so Bansri helped me and now we have a calendar set up on 30boxes.com, which I love, to help us keep track. Right now it mostly has all the different conflicts we've heard about. Some of the times don't show up but if you told us what times you aren't available, it's on the website itself. I have to give access information in class, maybe. Notice there are no scheduled rehearsals yet. We're working on that.
Also, the deadline for costumes is the 18th and the props deadline will be way before that so we can start working with them. Also, we have no school on the 26th and we're going to have a full rehearsal that day.
I got critiques for my play from the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey today! I entered the New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest again this year but I didn't win. Some of the winning plays sound really interesting and I kind of want to see them produced at the PTNJ Festival on May 20 but I don't think I'll be able to go. =O If I went, though, I would hope deep down in my heart for Paul Ries or whatever his name was. He was absolutely wonderful, as was pretty much all the actors in the festival.
For posterity I shall post what they said. After all, the only people who would get it would be people who saw Mock Trial's production of this (Murder at Vinnie's). Also, the version I submitted was modified with new additions for the time originally filled with food serving:
MURDER AT VINNIE'S
First Critique by JML
Strengths: This is cleverly put together! Writing comedy is more difficult for most playwrights than writing serious drama. You had all the main ingredients: chracters who are purposefully stereotyped, exaggerated dialogue, frivolous situation, no meaningful message. The joy is in the intricate plot that was woven together with no loose ends flapping around. Within their types, the characters a very consistent [sic]. Their needs and wants are crystal clear and those [sic] preventing them from getting what they want are most effective. The "accidental" poisoning does seem to work as a resolution.
Areas for Improvement: There are a great many characters for a short play and their relationships are more complicated than may be necessary. Perhaps the play could end with everyone looking terrified rather than the "choking and dying." This would leave your audience guessing rather than repulsed.
Other Feedback: You have a wonderful feel for comedy! This has a real "Sit-com" flow. Keep up the good writing.
Second Critique by Anonymous
The script is very funny and has a lot of character. The location and situation are very specifically drawn. The humor is both silly and smart. Your use of audience participation is quite clever. The mystery plot build [sic] well until the final surprise ending.
As you rewrite, look not just for places to add humor, but for ways to make each of the characters consistent. For example, Vinnie's speech on page 2 starts out sounding scripted--as if he rehearsed it at home for a long time. Then, suddenly, he slips up, starting to mention that the pizza parlor is also a drug-selling operation. Would he really make this kind of mistake, after putting so much effort into opening the parlor? If he is that carelss, then let his carelessness be seen throughout the play. Junior, on the other hand, is a character who is very funny because he is so consistent. His comedy comes from a dramatic situation.
A bunch of funny lines throughout. Keep up the good work!
I didn't win, but I was very pleased with the comments. I think Murder at Vinnie's is actually one of my favorite works, more as a production than as a script because it was tailor-made for the mock trial members and worked out so perfectly. I'm glad they thought it was funny without seeing people who fit the roles so perfectly act the role and read the part. I was afraid that perhaps the lines would only work as inside jokes but I guess the characters are stereotypical enough. Joy!
Reminds me. I have to post Mr. Edmonds's pictures some time. Ugh, I'm so lazy....
Also, extravaganza may not happen. =( How sad. I was starting to look forward to "What is This Feeling?" and "Quando Quando Quando?" or as I perfer to type, qqq.
And while I'm still on the waiting list for other schools, right now I'm going to attend Duke University. =D
A page with an overview of project files is here.
We started doing rehearsal schedules and I suck so Bansri helped me and now we have a calendar set up on 30boxes.com, which I love, to help us keep track. Right now it mostly has all the different conflicts we've heard about. Some of the times don't show up but if you told us what times you aren't available, it's on the website itself. I have to give access information in class, maybe. Notice there are no scheduled rehearsals yet. We're working on that.
Also, the deadline for costumes is the 18th and the props deadline will be way before that so we can start working with them. Also, we have no school on the 26th and we're going to have a full rehearsal that day.
I got critiques for my play from the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey today! I entered the New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest again this year but I didn't win. Some of the winning plays sound really interesting and I kind of want to see them produced at the PTNJ Festival on May 20 but I don't think I'll be able to go. =O If I went, though, I would hope deep down in my heart for Paul Ries or whatever his name was. He was absolutely wonderful, as was pretty much all the actors in the festival.
For posterity I shall post what they said. After all, the only people who would get it would be people who saw Mock Trial's production of this (Murder at Vinnie's). Also, the version I submitted was modified with new additions for the time originally filled with food serving:
MURDER AT VINNIE'S
First Critique by JML
Strengths: This is cleverly put together! Writing comedy is more difficult for most playwrights than writing serious drama. You had all the main ingredients: chracters who are purposefully stereotyped, exaggerated dialogue, frivolous situation, no meaningful message. The joy is in the intricate plot that was woven together with no loose ends flapping around. Within their types, the characters a very consistent [sic]. Their needs and wants are crystal clear and those [sic] preventing them from getting what they want are most effective. The "accidental" poisoning does seem to work as a resolution.
Areas for Improvement: There are a great many characters for a short play and their relationships are more complicated than may be necessary. Perhaps the play could end with everyone looking terrified rather than the "choking and dying." This would leave your audience guessing rather than repulsed.
Other Feedback: You have a wonderful feel for comedy! This has a real "Sit-com" flow. Keep up the good writing.
Second Critique by Anonymous
The script is very funny and has a lot of character. The location and situation are very specifically drawn. The humor is both silly and smart. Your use of audience participation is quite clever. The mystery plot build [sic] well until the final surprise ending.
As you rewrite, look not just for places to add humor, but for ways to make each of the characters consistent. For example, Vinnie's speech on page 2 starts out sounding scripted--as if he rehearsed it at home for a long time. Then, suddenly, he slips up, starting to mention that the pizza parlor is also a drug-selling operation. Would he really make this kind of mistake, after putting so much effort into opening the parlor? If he is that carelss, then let his carelessness be seen throughout the play. Junior, on the other hand, is a character who is very funny because he is so consistent. His comedy comes from a dramatic situation.
A bunch of funny lines throughout. Keep up the good work!
I didn't win, but I was very pleased with the comments. I think Murder at Vinnie's is actually one of my favorite works, more as a production than as a script because it was tailor-made for the mock trial members and worked out so perfectly. I'm glad they thought it was funny without seeing people who fit the roles so perfectly act the role and read the part. I was afraid that perhaps the lines would only work as inside jokes but I guess the characters are stereotypical enough. Joy!
Reminds me. I have to post Mr. Edmonds's pictures some time. Ugh, I'm so lazy....
Also, extravaganza may not happen. =( How sad. I was starting to look forward to "What is This Feeling?" and "Quando Quando Quando?" or as I perfer to type, qqq.
And while I'm still on the waiting list for other schools, right now I'm going to attend Duke University. =D
4/27/08
First Draft!
Here is the first draft of the cut version of As You Like It since I told people I would put it here. =)
Dr. Solberg said we might have to switch some things around in our casting and we are also trying to cut the script down further. I did acts 1 and 2 today and asked Aaron to cut some more. I don't know how much he did yet, but when we're done, we'll put the second draft yet.
Dr. Solberg also said that she will be giving tests on the Tempest and As You Like It on Tuesday to make sure everyone has read both. Oh my. =O I have to review the Tempest tomorrow. Ugh.
I also have to write the dedication and something for lit mag. I tried to write both but I just didn't have inspiration. I'll try writing tomorrow morning but I uhm, might not have time. Ha-ha. =) It's someone's birthday! So yay! I have to greet them and I don't know how long that discussion will last.
Anyway, I'm trying to get ideas for stories but my imagination feels very dry. Oh well. And I have work tomorrow. Ahh. Anyhow, I shall sleep.
And in case you're wondering, yes I am in love with Zach Condon and Beirut. And while I'm at it, Miyavi, too. You know, if I had an mp3 rotation, it would be very lovely.
Dr. Solberg said we might have to switch some things around in our casting and we are also trying to cut the script down further. I did acts 1 and 2 today and asked Aaron to cut some more. I don't know how much he did yet, but when we're done, we'll put the second draft yet.
Dr. Solberg also said that she will be giving tests on the Tempest and As You Like It on Tuesday to make sure everyone has read both. Oh my. =O I have to review the Tempest tomorrow. Ugh.
I also have to write the dedication and something for lit mag. I tried to write both but I just didn't have inspiration. I'll try writing tomorrow morning but I uhm, might not have time. Ha-ha. =) It's someone's birthday! So yay! I have to greet them and I don't know how long that discussion will last.
Anyway, I'm trying to get ideas for stories but my imagination feels very dry. Oh well. And I have work tomorrow. Ahh. Anyhow, I shall sleep.
And in case you're wondering, yes I am in love with Zach Condon and Beirut. And while I'm at it, Miyavi, too. You know, if I had an mp3 rotation, it would be very lovely.
4/24/08
making the cut (script)
emily and krystle were working hard on the script but i wasn't sure if we'd have enough time to get everything done at the pace we're going so i went through the script and just started cutting like crazy. cutting twelfth night in a fit was good experience. =) i managed to get it down to eight pages front and back. yay conserving paper! =D
so the cut script is out! =D hopefully everyone gets it. ahhh. but that's okay, they can just ask me for a copy and they'll get one!
mark libatique and i may sing "quando, quando, quando" as done by michael buble and nelly furtado but i'm not sure if that's the best option. i guess i'm still looking for duet ideas. but i must admit, qqq is a very good one. "anything you can do" from annie, get your gun is also a good option but i don't know if i have the vocal chops to hold a note very long and alberto suggested ebony and ivory but as he said, perhaps i am not ready for its racial implications, haha. besides, mark and i are really more of a caramel and butterscotch. i said we make a weird-looking piano, but mark pointed out that we'd be quite delicious, and i guess that completely redeems us, doesn't it?
i have to clean my house tomorrow, perhaps get my annotated mona lisa book from mark, and go to central avenue. oh my. =O at least i started my english homework? (which is the only homework i have left, by the way! rejoice! and take that, thomas o'shaughnessy and paulette sheeran, i have easily conquered your homework!)
i need to sleep.
so the cut script is out! =D hopefully everyone gets it. ahhh. but that's okay, they can just ask me for a copy and they'll get one!
mark libatique and i may sing "quando, quando, quando" as done by michael buble and nelly furtado but i'm not sure if that's the best option. i guess i'm still looking for duet ideas. but i must admit, qqq is a very good one. "anything you can do" from annie, get your gun is also a good option but i don't know if i have the vocal chops to hold a note very long and alberto suggested ebony and ivory but as he said, perhaps i am not ready for its racial implications, haha. besides, mark and i are really more of a caramel and butterscotch. i said we make a weird-looking piano, but mark pointed out that we'd be quite delicious, and i guess that completely redeems us, doesn't it?
i have to clean my house tomorrow, perhaps get my annotated mona lisa book from mark, and go to central avenue. oh my. =O at least i started my english homework? (which is the only homework i have left, by the way! rejoice! and take that, thomas o'shaughnessy and paulette sheeran, i have easily conquered your homework!)
i need to sleep.
4/22/08
shakespeare festival
the shakespeare festival took place and was great fun!
everyone was so good, so good job everyone!
i performed come away death (again) but this time with mark libatique to help jillian, jose, mark, and rory out with their skit. i sang it a bit lower than joe trapanese's version and along with the way i sang it, it was a lot sadder or something because dr. solberg said it really set a mood and mr. mallm told me the next day that he was amazed because he had never heard me sing before and that i moved him. =) how nice. and i got a delo letter, which was really very nice. after the first rehearsal dr. s asked if i needed mark because i sounded fine on my own, but i insisted on having mark. =) i think it sounded nice and it was the first time we've ever performed a duet in public (we've done the national anthem for a few games but always with at least another person).
and of course, i also did my lady percy speech and i think it was okay. haha.
some of the really good parts? hmm. i did quite like the twelfth night scene, alexis's rendition of "patience" was amazing and really quite beautiful and moving, peter and timothy were excellent at "brush up your shakespeare," and nadia gave the best monologue she ever has--hamlet's flesh melting speech =) and a lot more. everyone was excellent in general. everyone understood their monologues and delivered them convincingly. in fact, in some cases, i had seen their monologues before or seen them act before this year and it was nice to see how everyone had improved, some in leaps and bounds. paula, gid, and yasmeen were also excellent accompanists and all the singers were awesome. emily petrick's voice was so beautiful that at rehearsal i told mark to see the beautiful moment with me and he stayed even though he had to go to the bathroom. haha.
as for our actual shakespeare class, we finally finished casting for as you like it! =O and krystle and emily really have to get that script done. = but anyway, i wanted to be celia at first, then i wanted to be audrey, but i didn't get either, so now i'm corin. =/ oh well. lol i'll find a way to make it work and make it funny. and it's nice that bansri and aaron actually have parts now. yay! but we might have to make new roles for everyone to have a part. we may present it as a tale being told by a grandfather and a nanny to a young girl.
btw, casting was so hard because matching talent to roles was almost impossible. =O in case anyone missed it, the parts are listed at the end of this entry.
i have faith that as you like it will turn out well. i don't really have an official role right now, but i'm guessing i'm the producer but i'm still doing a bit of director stuff which is fine with me.
lit mag stuff is due after break (not to mention newsletter...) so i'll put up a possible submission or two here even though no one reads this.
i guess it's just to get my thoughts out. =)
presenting the cast of as you like it:
Alexandra - Denis
Krystle - Rosalind 1 (1.1-3.3)
Maria - Forester (singing)/Props
Lisli - Lord 1
Bansri - Audrey
Alexandria - Jacques dB
Karla - Duke Sr.
Tyniesha - Lord
Jan - Charles
Amalia - Le Beau
Gina - Phebe
Michelle G. - Hymen
Aaron - Orlando 1 (1.1-3.3)
Summer - Corin/Page (singing)
Justin - Amiens (singing)
Mingo - Orlando 2 (3.4-end)
Michelle L. - Lord 2
Nicholson - Oliver 1 (1.1-3.3)
Alexis - Jaques
Karen - Touchstone
Emily - Celia 1 (1.1-3.3)
Hira - Rosalind 2 (3.4-end)
Emir - Duke Fred
Alberto - Oliver 2 (3.4-end)
David - Silvius
Heefa - Daughter/Costumes
Nayantara - Nanny
Paula - Grandfather
Jacqueline - Oliver M.
Elysse - Celia 2 (3.4-end)
Michelle - Adam (tent.)
Rosie - William (tent.)
everyone was so good, so good job everyone!
i performed come away death (again) but this time with mark libatique to help jillian, jose, mark, and rory out with their skit. i sang it a bit lower than joe trapanese's version and along with the way i sang it, it was a lot sadder or something because dr. solberg said it really set a mood and mr. mallm told me the next day that he was amazed because he had never heard me sing before and that i moved him. =) how nice. and i got a delo letter, which was really very nice. after the first rehearsal dr. s asked if i needed mark because i sounded fine on my own, but i insisted on having mark. =) i think it sounded nice and it was the first time we've ever performed a duet in public (we've done the national anthem for a few games but always with at least another person).
and of course, i also did my lady percy speech and i think it was okay. haha.
some of the really good parts? hmm. i did quite like the twelfth night scene, alexis's rendition of "patience" was amazing and really quite beautiful and moving, peter and timothy were excellent at "brush up your shakespeare," and nadia gave the best monologue she ever has--hamlet's flesh melting speech =) and a lot more. everyone was excellent in general. everyone understood their monologues and delivered them convincingly. in fact, in some cases, i had seen their monologues before or seen them act before this year and it was nice to see how everyone had improved, some in leaps and bounds. paula, gid, and yasmeen were also excellent accompanists and all the singers were awesome. emily petrick's voice was so beautiful that at rehearsal i told mark to see the beautiful moment with me and he stayed even though he had to go to the bathroom. haha.
as for our actual shakespeare class, we finally finished casting for as you like it! =O and krystle and emily really have to get that script done. = but anyway, i wanted to be celia at first, then i wanted to be audrey, but i didn't get either, so now i'm corin. =/ oh well. lol i'll find a way to make it work and make it funny. and it's nice that bansri and aaron actually have parts now. yay! but we might have to make new roles for everyone to have a part. we may present it as a tale being told by a grandfather and a nanny to a young girl.
btw, casting was so hard because matching talent to roles was almost impossible. =O in case anyone missed it, the parts are listed at the end of this entry.
i have faith that as you like it will turn out well. i don't really have an official role right now, but i'm guessing i'm the producer but i'm still doing a bit of director stuff which is fine with me.
lit mag stuff is due after break (not to mention newsletter...) so i'll put up a possible submission or two here even though no one reads this.
i guess it's just to get my thoughts out. =)
presenting the cast of as you like it:
Alexandra - Denis
Krystle - Rosalind 1 (1.1-3.3)
Maria - Forester (singing)/Props
Lisli - Lord 1
Bansri - Audrey
Alexandria - Jacques dB
Karla - Duke Sr.
Tyniesha - Lord
Jan - Charles
Amalia - Le Beau
Gina - Phebe
Michelle G. - Hymen
Aaron - Orlando 1 (1.1-3.3)
Summer - Corin/Page (singing)
Justin - Amiens (singing)
Mingo - Orlando 2 (3.4-end)
Michelle L. - Lord 2
Nicholson - Oliver 1 (1.1-3.3)
Alexis - Jaques
Karen - Touchstone
Emily - Celia 1 (1.1-3.3)
Hira - Rosalind 2 (3.4-end)
Emir - Duke Fred
Alberto - Oliver 2 (3.4-end)
David - Silvius
Heefa - Daughter/Costumes
Nayantara - Nanny
Paula - Grandfather
Jacqueline - Oliver M.
Elysse - Celia 2 (3.4-end)
Michelle - Adam (tent.)
Rosie - William (tent.)
4/7/08
good week. =D
dr. s had the two classes go up against each other and even though we hardly had practice time and we didn't have all our lines memorized (keep in mind that each person in my group had a pretty hefty number of lines to memorize while the other class, which gave pretty much everyone at least one line, only had a couple lines each to memorize on average) we still won. =O anyhow, i thought it was wrong to have us compete for a spot in the shakespeare festival anyway and also to have us compete a day before we expected to perform instead of after. but i hear she changed her mind and said both classes should go, and i wholeheartedly agree.
we ended up being the only school at the shakespeare scene festival at njcu and it was quite fun. we both performed and we had a few mess-ups, especially because of me =O i felt bad because i kept forgetting my own direction lol i don't remember if i wrote about this in my last entry, but i had to play the male lead in an emergency recasting. ahh! but it worked out well and hira and i were quite convincing. both classes also got to workshop a scene. Stratford High's scene was Richard III's wooing scene with Jose and Jillian which was so so excellent. R&G are Wed's scene was the wall scene with Karen cast last minute as the wall to take my place, Hira as Isabella wooing the man she thinks is her lover Ben, and Mingo who delivered an outstanding performance as Venti, Ben's grandfather who thinks he's collecting a debt.
i was most proud of the wall scene. when bessie told me my script was well-written, that was the scene i thoguht of first. =) i was quite inspired when i wrote it and it wasn't creepy at all, even though some of the class was worried that a young girl wooing her lover's grandfather by mistake would be too weird.
the judges then gave us silly awards. R&G are Wed won Oddest Matchmaking Scene (or Best, I don't remember) for the wall scene and our prize was a DVD of Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. Stratford High won Shakespeare in Love for Best Party Animals. Ashlei and I won awards for acting and directing in our work--she got Hamlet and I got Pacino's Merchant of Venice and I was so angry. =( But Pacino's Merchant is actually good, but I wanted Hamlet. And then Mingo, whose character was fat and required creative use of a pillow, won Reduced Shakespeare's Complete Works of Shakespeare on DVD as a prize for Best Impression of a Mattress.
Everyone was so good! Some of my favorites from the whole day's trip--Abram (esp. for his work in the insults exercise and his promotion of David's Cookies), Nicholson, Alberto, David, Hira, Michelle, Mingo, pretty much my whole cast, Peter, Jose, and I guess Mark. (I admit, I'm biased).
I apologize for the inconsistency in capitalization, btw.
Also, thank you to Aaron for his breathtaking introduction of our play.
first dr. s, then mrs. gupta, and now señor oshaugh. i had to write a letter for him because he won teacher of the year and the admin said he should try for county teacher of the year. it wasn't as good as i wanted it to be and i started making things up at the end that sounded like they went there. (i don't mean completely fabricated, i just mean that i was tossing generic words and phrases at the screen.) but i do like a lot of it. i was horrified to find grammatical mistakes after i already handed it in. i'll just correct them and give him another copy. =)
and on friday we went to the Met! yay! that's always great. there was a Gustave Courbet exhibit and i love loved it. and of course, i found a bunch of other people i liked and discovered others. =)
i liked this week, even thursday when i had 9382749832 tests.
we ended up being the only school at the shakespeare scene festival at njcu and it was quite fun. we both performed and we had a few mess-ups, especially because of me =O i felt bad because i kept forgetting my own direction lol i don't remember if i wrote about this in my last entry, but i had to play the male lead in an emergency recasting. ahh! but it worked out well and hira and i were quite convincing. both classes also got to workshop a scene. Stratford High's scene was Richard III's wooing scene with Jose and Jillian which was so so excellent. R&G are Wed's scene was the wall scene with Karen cast last minute as the wall to take my place, Hira as Isabella wooing the man she thinks is her lover Ben, and Mingo who delivered an outstanding performance as Venti, Ben's grandfather who thinks he's collecting a debt.
i was most proud of the wall scene. when bessie told me my script was well-written, that was the scene i thoguht of first. =) i was quite inspired when i wrote it and it wasn't creepy at all, even though some of the class was worried that a young girl wooing her lover's grandfather by mistake would be too weird.
the judges then gave us silly awards. R&G are Wed won Oddest Matchmaking Scene (or Best, I don't remember) for the wall scene and our prize was a DVD of Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. Stratford High won Shakespeare in Love for Best Party Animals. Ashlei and I won awards for acting and directing in our work--she got Hamlet and I got Pacino's Merchant of Venice and I was so angry. =( But Pacino's Merchant is actually good, but I wanted Hamlet. And then Mingo, whose character was fat and required creative use of a pillow, won Reduced Shakespeare's Complete Works of Shakespeare on DVD as a prize for Best Impression of a Mattress.
Everyone was so good! Some of my favorites from the whole day's trip--Abram (esp. for his work in the insults exercise and his promotion of David's Cookies), Nicholson, Alberto, David, Hira, Michelle, Mingo, pretty much my whole cast, Peter, Jose, and I guess Mark. (I admit, I'm biased).
I apologize for the inconsistency in capitalization, btw.
Also, thank you to Aaron for his breathtaking introduction of our play.
first dr. s, then mrs. gupta, and now señor oshaugh. i had to write a letter for him because he won teacher of the year and the admin said he should try for county teacher of the year. it wasn't as good as i wanted it to be and i started making things up at the end that sounded like they went there. (i don't mean completely fabricated, i just mean that i was tossing generic words and phrases at the screen.) but i do like a lot of it. i was horrified to find grammatical mistakes after i already handed it in. i'll just correct them and give him another copy. =)
and on friday we went to the Met! yay! that's always great. there was a Gustave Courbet exhibit and i love loved it. and of course, i found a bunch of other people i liked and discovered others. =)
i liked this week, even thursday when i had 9382749832 tests.
3/29/08
reevaluation
There are few things more...unsettling and disappointing than reading a negative review of the work of someone you dearly love and admire, especially if you admire them for the skill involved in producing the work.
Actually there are many things more unsettling and disappointing, but finding your mentors (and possibly, taste) insulted never feels good. And of course, more upsetting is when you can't agree or disagree because you haven't seen the work yourself and have trusted its quality. Plus, if you're only as good as your teacher...have you been misled into accidentally limiting your own potential all along?
I won't mention names or works, but this is the second time this has happened to me and it's distressing.
There are many people who probably hate my work and about a billion who would agree but it's nice to not know that. And if I succeed enough to be in a position where at least some of my critics are published, then I should theoretically be satisfied.
But it's still really sad.
Our NJCU skit is called "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed." =) I don't like that it gives away the ending, but it's cute. We had our first really serious rehearsal today and I was directing most of it and thank God, Bansri and Aaron were there for when I missed things and we all took turns filling in for people who couldn't come. I always get nervous directing because I feel like a jerk, mostly because I wonder if they believe I have the authority and if I even do have the authority after all.
This is my fourth production this year alone so you'd think I'd have some confidence. But then I think about how for Strawberry I only wrote, for Twelfth Night I had Massiel to be a solid producer and get most of the details done like props and such, for Murder at Vinnie's we had a much smaller cast. I know I can pull things off, I'm just don't think I'm doing the best job I could, honestly. Hopefully I pull this to the fullest. I have to remember, failure is so 60s mod--then again, failure was never cool in the first place.
I am glad, though, that I've done a whole Shakespeare play before and Murder at Vinnie's, which was a total rush job, especially direction-wise. So now I should be able to do a Shakespearean rush job, right? I hope. And this time, we have people who should be used to Shakespare text, the pressure from it being a class project, people with great theatre experience like Bansri, and people I've directed before (Aaron, Michelle)--it's only two people, but it's nice to know that at least two of the bunch know you're only being a jerk to get it done.
But I must say we managed the casting very well and Bansri's push for Alberto and Nicholson as the leads really really worked out well and they fit their roles. And of course, Rosie and Michelle V. are perfect perfect for their roles. In fact, pretty much everyone fits their part well for different reasons. I must say, however, that there is room for improvement in casting as well as all other departments for As You Like It, which I must cut down to size and we must perform live. =O (Internal rhyme!)
And Amanda and I are editing newsletter. Somehow. We haven't been able to really meet on this and start things yet. We'll need to do that. I'm glad that Mr. O'Shaugh. knows we are reliable and can get the job done and done well. We work wonderuflly together.
P.S. I feel like I'm writing more formally. That's probably because I just finished Pride and Prejudice, which is so so excellent. Also, the GazettE is SO good. I am loving them like I love...partially-dried Peeps. =)
Actually there are many things more unsettling and disappointing, but finding your mentors (and possibly, taste) insulted never feels good. And of course, more upsetting is when you can't agree or disagree because you haven't seen the work yourself and have trusted its quality. Plus, if you're only as good as your teacher...have you been misled into accidentally limiting your own potential all along?
I won't mention names or works, but this is the second time this has happened to me and it's distressing.
There are many people who probably hate my work and about a billion who would agree but it's nice to not know that. And if I succeed enough to be in a position where at least some of my critics are published, then I should theoretically be satisfied.
But it's still really sad.
Our NJCU skit is called "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed." =) I don't like that it gives away the ending, but it's cute. We had our first really serious rehearsal today and I was directing most of it and thank God, Bansri and Aaron were there for when I missed things and we all took turns filling in for people who couldn't come. I always get nervous directing because I feel like a jerk, mostly because I wonder if they believe I have the authority and if I even do have the authority after all.
This is my fourth production this year alone so you'd think I'd have some confidence. But then I think about how for Strawberry I only wrote, for Twelfth Night I had Massiel to be a solid producer and get most of the details done like props and such, for Murder at Vinnie's we had a much smaller cast. I know I can pull things off, I'm just don't think I'm doing the best job I could, honestly. Hopefully I pull this to the fullest. I have to remember, failure is so 60s mod--then again, failure was never cool in the first place.
I am glad, though, that I've done a whole Shakespeare play before and Murder at Vinnie's, which was a total rush job, especially direction-wise. So now I should be able to do a Shakespearean rush job, right? I hope. And this time, we have people who should be used to Shakespare text, the pressure from it being a class project, people with great theatre experience like Bansri, and people I've directed before (Aaron, Michelle)--it's only two people, but it's nice to know that at least two of the bunch know you're only being a jerk to get it done.
But I must say we managed the casting very well and Bansri's push for Alberto and Nicholson as the leads really really worked out well and they fit their roles. And of course, Rosie and Michelle V. are perfect perfect for their roles. In fact, pretty much everyone fits their part well for different reasons. I must say, however, that there is room for improvement in casting as well as all other departments for As You Like It, which I must cut down to size and we must perform live. =O (Internal rhyme!)
And Amanda and I are editing newsletter. Somehow. We haven't been able to really meet on this and start things yet. We'll need to do that. I'm glad that Mr. O'Shaugh. knows we are reliable and can get the job done and done well. We work wonderuflly together.
P.S. I feel like I'm writing more formally. That's probably because I just finished Pride and Prejudice, which is so so excellent. Also, the GazettE is SO good. I am loving them like I love...partially-dried Peeps. =)
3/19/08
A Song in My Heart
Bansri, Aaron and I had to write an original script for Shakespeare class with 75% lines by the Bard himself. We started individually and I came up with a plot first so we used mine and they just edited my junk and it's good so I'm happy. =) It's much funnier than I thought it would be and could definitely be great with the right actors.
My experience helped me piece the script together and make sure we had a decent number of speaking roles--about 16-17, which, considering we have a class of 30+ people, is a great number. But I am terribly embarrassed that I accidentally made a quasi-stage/screenplay. =O Format flubs lol Bansri fixed it, but I'm not sure if all character names are capitalized in stage directions even after they've already entered the first time. I'm sure she's right, but I guess I just wish it wasn't that way because it makes the script longer and I'm not sure if that'll mess up the time estimate.
It's supposed to be 15 minutes. Right now we're at 19 pages. Yikes. We do have a couple quick back-and-forth sections, but we also have monologues so I'm nervous. However, a lot of that length was added when Bansri corrected the format, so maybe we're still okay.
I've also been in charge of editing As You Like It =) Putting it on is going to be our final project and I was endorsing it when we were voting for good plays so I was excited. Aaron and Bansri are going to direct it, so we're in good hands.
Hm. I'm not sure if I like scriptwriting or directing better in general. I certainly don't want to direct 30+ high school students with varying amounts of devotion, this just made me think and reflect on my own relationship with theatre.
I'm not sure if I wrote about this, but I won the Real Woman Essay Contest with an essay I wrote about Mrs. Gupta. =D Marina Conlin and Errold Lanier won too and their essays were so good. The board made us go to Snyder to record us reading our essays for TV in the TV studio and the trip was fun. =) Miss Smith and I fell in love with Marina's essay and reacted the exact same way ("That was sooo good! So good!") and did about a million other things that proved we were the same person. Mr. O'Shaugh and Mr. Selby were there for Marina and Errold and it was nice having a small trip group. =D
And after that, we gave Mr. O'Shaughnessy the New York Times toaster and he liked it! =D After we put so much work into getting it...yeah, he should definitely love it.
Joelle and I were going to perform Rakujitsu at Open Mic tomorrow, but now we're doing...Marunouchi Sadistic. =D Which is awesome too. It's so sad, though, because Joelle came up with a harmony for the chorus and wanted to sing with me so she asked, "Can you write out the chorus phonetically?"
Unfortunately, Marunouchi Sadistic's choruses are like, 85640% weird Engrish. Not even normal Engrish, lol
It says:
MA-SHARU no nioi de tonjatte taihen sa
Maiban zecchou ni tasshiteiru dake
RATTO hitotsu wo shoubai dougu ni shiteru sa
Soshitara Benji ga hai ni usutte torippu
She/I sings/slurs:
MAR-SHAR no ni-o-i de tonjyatte taihen sa
Maiban jechou ni tai-shite-i-ru dake
Rattoitotso shoubai dougu ni shi-tei-ru sa
Soshtara Benzi ga hai ni usutte torip-pu.
Poor, poor Joelle.
Speaking of singing, Massiel and I really need background music for What is This Feeling? =O How to get it, oh noes!
My experience helped me piece the script together and make sure we had a decent number of speaking roles--about 16-17, which, considering we have a class of 30+ people, is a great number. But I am terribly embarrassed that I accidentally made a quasi-stage/screenplay. =O Format flubs lol Bansri fixed it, but I'm not sure if all character names are capitalized in stage directions even after they've already entered the first time. I'm sure she's right, but I guess I just wish it wasn't that way because it makes the script longer and I'm not sure if that'll mess up the time estimate.
It's supposed to be 15 minutes. Right now we're at 19 pages. Yikes. We do have a couple quick back-and-forth sections, but we also have monologues so I'm nervous. However, a lot of that length was added when Bansri corrected the format, so maybe we're still okay.
I've also been in charge of editing As You Like It =) Putting it on is going to be our final project and I was endorsing it when we were voting for good plays so I was excited. Aaron and Bansri are going to direct it, so we're in good hands.
Hm. I'm not sure if I like scriptwriting or directing better in general. I certainly don't want to direct 30+ high school students with varying amounts of devotion, this just made me think and reflect on my own relationship with theatre.
I'm not sure if I wrote about this, but I won the Real Woman Essay Contest with an essay I wrote about Mrs. Gupta. =D Marina Conlin and Errold Lanier won too and their essays were so good. The board made us go to Snyder to record us reading our essays for TV in the TV studio and the trip was fun. =) Miss Smith and I fell in love with Marina's essay and reacted the exact same way ("That was sooo good! So good!") and did about a million other things that proved we were the same person. Mr. O'Shaugh and Mr. Selby were there for Marina and Errold and it was nice having a small trip group. =D
And after that, we gave Mr. O'Shaughnessy the New York Times toaster and he liked it! =D After we put so much work into getting it...yeah, he should definitely love it.
Joelle and I were going to perform Rakujitsu at Open Mic tomorrow, but now we're doing...Marunouchi Sadistic. =D Which is awesome too. It's so sad, though, because Joelle came up with a harmony for the chorus and wanted to sing with me so she asked, "Can you write out the chorus phonetically?"
Unfortunately, Marunouchi Sadistic's choruses are like, 85640% weird Engrish. Not even normal Engrish, lol
It says:
MA-SHARU no nioi de tonjatte taihen sa
Maiban zecchou ni tasshiteiru dake
RATTO hitotsu wo shoubai dougu ni shiteru sa
Soshitara Benji ga hai ni usutte torippu
She/I sings/slurs:
MAR-SHAR no ni-o-i de tonjyatte taihen sa
Maiban jechou ni tai-shite-i-ru dake
Rattoitotso shoubai dougu ni shi-tei-ru sa
Soshtara Benzi ga hai ni usutte torip-pu.
Poor, poor Joelle.
Speaking of singing, Massiel and I really need background music for What is This Feeling? =O How to get it, oh noes!
2/25/08
What you feel in your stomach before you spontaneously combust has yet to be documented, but this comes close.
We had ESU competition on Sunday. Ahh! None of us won, but we did the best we could. Raouia and Ashlei were really good and I'm really bummed that we didn't get anything. Oh well.
We talked to the judges for feedback and I got some legitimate, helpful comments but I was upset when one judge told me I didn't really fit Lady Percy--which is a perfectly valid statement, but one of his reasons was that "Lady are usually this high--because their princes are this high." If my being under 5 feet tall was one of the reasons he said I didn't fit the part--that's offensive. I know that my height makes me more fitting for sprite or fairy characters or whatever, but why can't ladies be petite? What if the princes are short? Napoleon didn't tower over many people but he was still a mighty military force--it is quite possible for Hotspur or even Hal to be not-tall. And when he actioned with his hand, he made the lady much taller than me and the prince even taller--why can't ladies be taller than their princes? The same height? It's just an unfair comment but otherwise I got some valid, helpful feedback.
We have Decathlon dinner tomorrow. =O I'm excited, anxious, nervous, and all those things.
Anyway, I was talking to my favorite English teacher, Mr. O'Shaughnessy, about how I want to write something of significance before I get "all educated" at college--I want to have a really good piece that reflects my youth and my ideals before this age leaves me and I become someone else. If I become less idealistic (or more so), if I change writing styles, or if in some highly unlikely/improbable/impossible event I decide I don't really want to write (or if I unfortunately die before I can really write anything again) I want to have at least this will-exist piece. At least I'm hoping.
Right now I'm slightly scared to work on Copley because of the things in it that come true in my real life as I work on it. I might just be making too many connections or I'm just too afraid to continue actually writing it. At least I'm aware that I might be trying to brainwash myself. I was just watching A Raisin in the Sun (really good, by the way) and one of the lines that stood out to me was...I think Walter Lee or someone else was saying to Beneatha, "You're the first person in the history of the world to successfully brainwash herself." I'm not sure if I should brainwash myself or not, which probably means it hasn't been working so far.
Really I'd like to do a short story--longer than what I usually do, but still short. Sustaining a level of creativity is so hard for me sometimes. I'm burning to do it, but my mind goes wild with ideas. I'm hoping to meditate on my own experiences and perhaps draw from Brothers Grimm or some other great sources. (P.S. Shakespeare's influence is showing in my work--my op-ed for Applied Journalism was called "Ocular Proof", for goodness' sake.) Joelle bought me the Brothers' complete works and I hope to read all of them and maybe really study a few of them. We were reading Merchant of Venice in Shakespeare and I was able to bring up two Grimm tales I had read recently, "The Jew Among Thorns" and "The Good Bargain", which are both pretty anti-Semetic, more in their unjust conclusions than in the portrayal of their characters, which could allude to some sympathy for the Jews, who are outdone by jerks/idiots, so maybe they aren't as bad as they sound.
I'd still like to pursue screenwriting but I really do need to read screenplays, etc. and really learn how to do it well. I need to at least watch more movies. Which reminds me to watch Battle Royale as I intended.
I had a Japanese movie marathon a few weeks ago; the movies I watched were very good: Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru (although it was insanely slow at the beginning, it was very touching in the end), and Death Note and its sequel, Death Note: The Last Name. I'd really like to see Roshoumon (I think that's the name), L: Change the WorLd, Nana, O-re-sa-ma, and a whole bunch of other movies. But I think I'll probably watch Battle Royale first. Asian cinema is so great.
But yes, I'm bubbling inside.
We talked to the judges for feedback and I got some legitimate, helpful comments but I was upset when one judge told me I didn't really fit Lady Percy--which is a perfectly valid statement, but one of his reasons was that "Lady are usually this high--because their princes are this high." If my being under 5 feet tall was one of the reasons he said I didn't fit the part--that's offensive. I know that my height makes me more fitting for sprite or fairy characters or whatever, but why can't ladies be petite? What if the princes are short? Napoleon didn't tower over many people but he was still a mighty military force--it is quite possible for Hotspur or even Hal to be not-tall. And when he actioned with his hand, he made the lady much taller than me and the prince even taller--why can't ladies be taller than their princes? The same height? It's just an unfair comment but otherwise I got some valid, helpful feedback.
We have Decathlon dinner tomorrow. =O I'm excited, anxious, nervous, and all those things.
Anyway, I was talking to my favorite English teacher, Mr. O'Shaughnessy, about how I want to write something of significance before I get "all educated" at college--I want to have a really good piece that reflects my youth and my ideals before this age leaves me and I become someone else. If I become less idealistic (or more so), if I change writing styles, or if in some highly unlikely/improbable/impossible event I decide I don't really want to write (or if I unfortunately die before I can really write anything again) I want to have at least this will-exist piece. At least I'm hoping.
Right now I'm slightly scared to work on Copley because of the things in it that come true in my real life as I work on it. I might just be making too many connections or I'm just too afraid to continue actually writing it. At least I'm aware that I might be trying to brainwash myself. I was just watching A Raisin in the Sun (really good, by the way) and one of the lines that stood out to me was...I think Walter Lee or someone else was saying to Beneatha, "You're the first person in the history of the world to successfully brainwash herself." I'm not sure if I should brainwash myself or not, which probably means it hasn't been working so far.
Really I'd like to do a short story--longer than what I usually do, but still short. Sustaining a level of creativity is so hard for me sometimes. I'm burning to do it, but my mind goes wild with ideas. I'm hoping to meditate on my own experiences and perhaps draw from Brothers Grimm or some other great sources. (P.S. Shakespeare's influence is showing in my work--my op-ed for Applied Journalism was called "Ocular Proof", for goodness' sake.) Joelle bought me the Brothers' complete works and I hope to read all of them and maybe really study a few of them. We were reading Merchant of Venice in Shakespeare and I was able to bring up two Grimm tales I had read recently, "The Jew Among Thorns" and "The Good Bargain", which are both pretty anti-Semetic, more in their unjust conclusions than in the portrayal of their characters, which could allude to some sympathy for the Jews, who are outdone by jerks/idiots, so maybe they aren't as bad as they sound.
I'd still like to pursue screenwriting but I really do need to read screenplays, etc. and really learn how to do it well. I need to at least watch more movies. Which reminds me to watch Battle Royale as I intended.
I had a Japanese movie marathon a few weeks ago; the movies I watched were very good: Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru (although it was insanely slow at the beginning, it was very touching in the end), and Death Note and its sequel, Death Note: The Last Name. I'd really like to see Roshoumon (I think that's the name), L: Change the WorLd, Nana, O-re-sa-ma, and a whole bunch of other movies. But I think I'll probably watch Battle Royale first. Asian cinema is so great.
But yes, I'm bubbling inside.
2/10/08
mission accomplished
partially, anyway.
in mock trial we uhm...were cruel to hudson school, wrecked high tech, and killed union hill, but alas, did not own bayonne. we were very close, though. we made it all the way to finals and we gave it our A-game, but i guess it wasn't enough. =/ oh well.
aaron was sad because he was no longer undefeated. my personal record is 3-1, which is all right with me. and aaron gave me one of the best compliments i've ever received--"between you and my sister, i learned from the best." =) it makes me really happy because both miriam and aaron are really great.
another great compliment i was given was from mark who said, "i'm glad i know my best friend is a virgin." not only because he's sure of my chastity, but it's nice to be called someone's best friend. =D
everyone did such a great job for mock trial. christine and aaron were fierce and brought out their best against bayonne, semira grew so much and was absolutely amazing. i think i did well, too. haha. and all our witnesses were awesome. ashlei is a worthy second-generation fani. both are so passionate and so great, perhaps the best witnesses i've seen. shah and amro were awesome experts and i'm just amazed that amro learned his stuff so quickly and was so good. he was a fitting b. f. skinner. i love sarah and it's nice to know that mock trial has a great future; she's going to be a great attorney and i fully endorse her, and even if she decides to only be a witness next year, she'll still be great. and of course, mark proved to be a great witness as i knew he'd be. he was the best crier there. =)
and we had decathlon yesterday. kirsten made us all t-shirts! i'm glad we finally have decathlon shirts, lol i came up with the slogan because we couldn't think of anything else. the theme is civil war, so i suggested "for scores and medals, here we go." sometimes i worry that people won't get aural puns. like in my speech, which i was editing until 4:30 AM the day of the competition and had to memorize quickly, i say, "we grew quite close. we were like two Bs in a Bach." i think the judges got it.
i think we did well, but we won't know for sure until tuesday. i hope and pray we go to states. i owe all my success to God and i'm hoping that we're meant to go on to states again this year. please, Lord!
we learn who won speech and essay on monday, though. i'm defending champ for the essay category so i'm really hoping i get it again. but who knows? as long as i earned the team a good amount of points i'll be happy. i'm aiming for 7,000 points, i guess, just so i can better myself. (last year regionals was about 6,700, i think).
now i will have time to write! yay!
in mock trial we uhm...were cruel to hudson school, wrecked high tech, and killed union hill, but alas, did not own bayonne. we were very close, though. we made it all the way to finals and we gave it our A-game, but i guess it wasn't enough. =/ oh well.
aaron was sad because he was no longer undefeated. my personal record is 3-1, which is all right with me. and aaron gave me one of the best compliments i've ever received--"between you and my sister, i learned from the best." =) it makes me really happy because both miriam and aaron are really great.
another great compliment i was given was from mark who said, "i'm glad i know my best friend is a virgin." not only because he's sure of my chastity, but it's nice to be called someone's best friend. =D
everyone did such a great job for mock trial. christine and aaron were fierce and brought out their best against bayonne, semira grew so much and was absolutely amazing. i think i did well, too. haha. and all our witnesses were awesome. ashlei is a worthy second-generation fani. both are so passionate and so great, perhaps the best witnesses i've seen. shah and amro were awesome experts and i'm just amazed that amro learned his stuff so quickly and was so good. he was a fitting b. f. skinner. i love sarah and it's nice to know that mock trial has a great future; she's going to be a great attorney and i fully endorse her, and even if she decides to only be a witness next year, she'll still be great. and of course, mark proved to be a great witness as i knew he'd be. he was the best crier there. =)
and we had decathlon yesterday. kirsten made us all t-shirts! i'm glad we finally have decathlon shirts, lol i came up with the slogan because we couldn't think of anything else. the theme is civil war, so i suggested "for scores and medals, here we go." sometimes i worry that people won't get aural puns. like in my speech, which i was editing until 4:30 AM the day of the competition and had to memorize quickly, i say, "we grew quite close. we were like two Bs in a Bach." i think the judges got it.
i think we did well, but we won't know for sure until tuesday. i hope and pray we go to states. i owe all my success to God and i'm hoping that we're meant to go on to states again this year. please, Lord!
we learn who won speech and essay on monday, though. i'm defending champ for the essay category so i'm really hoping i get it again. but who knows? as long as i earned the team a good amount of points i'll be happy. i'm aiming for 7,000 points, i guess, just so i can better myself. (last year regionals was about 6,700, i think).
now i will have time to write! yay!
1/23/08
we'll have to fit it all in somehow
yay! so yesterday my scene went well (like many cute, stupid characters, andrew is so fun to play) and apparently, so did my monologue and sonnet--i'm one of the ones they picked! they couldn't make up their minds about sending me or ashlei so they're going to try asking if they can send us and raouia, having three representatives instead of two.
i also feel i did pretty well on my tests today. i need to start hardcore studying for midterms and decathlon. =O and mock trial is coming, too! ahh! =/ i need to memorize my closing AND my decathlon speech. great.
24 -- spanish oral, write journalism article
25 -- english and journalism midterms
26 -- mock trial practice
27 -- work
28 -- shakespeare and art history midterms -- ahh!
29 -- health and precalculus midterms
30 -- spanish and forensics midterms -- ahh!, as well as decathlon prep
31 -- decathlon
1 -- financial aid due, decathlon all-day run
2 -- mock trial practice
3 -- work
4 -- mock trial competition
5 -- mock trial competition
6 -- mock trial competition (possibly)
7 -- decathlon practice
8 -- decathlon practice
9 -- decathlon regionals
so...yeah. i better start studying (i have, but you know what i mean.) i don't even know what to study first. =(
i pray that i do well. God, please bless me!
i also feel i did pretty well on my tests today. i need to start hardcore studying for midterms and decathlon. =O and mock trial is coming, too! ahh! =/ i need to memorize my closing AND my decathlon speech. great.
24 -- spanish oral, write journalism article
25 -- english and journalism midterms
26 -- mock trial practice
27 -- work
28 -- shakespeare and art history midterms -- ahh!
29 -- health and precalculus midterms
30 -- spanish and forensics midterms -- ahh!, as well as decathlon prep
31 -- decathlon
1 -- financial aid due, decathlon all-day run
2 -- mock trial practice
3 -- work
4 -- mock trial competition
5 -- mock trial competition
6 -- mock trial competition (possibly)
7 -- decathlon practice
8 -- decathlon practice
9 -- decathlon regionals
so...yeah. i better start studying (i have, but you know what i mean.) i don't even know what to study first. =(
i pray that i do well. God, please bless me!
1/21/08
For what offence have I this fortnight been a banish'd woman from my Harry's bed?
I, uhm, have a lot to do.
So I entered the ESU Shakespeare Contest and I was called back. So now I'm against my best friend Mark and two other girls. Hopefully I do well. For ESU, you have to recite a monologue (Lady Percy's "why are you spending your nights thinking about war and not with me" speech from Henry 4 Pt 1) and a sonnet (128 -- How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st) So hopefully I do well.
Unfortunately, ESU callbacks are tomorrow--the same day as my Harvard interview, Twelfth Night 1.3 presentation for Shakespeare, and Decathlon. Woo busyness.
But I'm fine, I swear.
I also have a test on two articles for Journalism and Art History Middle Ages unit test on Wednesday, and midterms start on Friday.
=(
I don't remember if I already blogged about this, but Massiel and I are going to sing "What is this Feeling?" from Wicked for Senior Extravaganza. I'm Galinda and I have to figure out a way to be blonde.
Also, we decided that if we do another RA production, we will have to do Midsummer Night's Dream. Here are a few of our casting probabilities:
Bottom – John
Demetrius - Aaron
Helena - Amanda
Hermia - Summer
Hippolyta - Jennie
Lysander – Mark
Fairy - Mackenzie
Philostrate - Semira
Puck – Massiel
Flute - Abbie
Quince - Fani
Snout - Joelle
Snug - Rab
Starveling - Angie
Titania - Michelle
However, not all of these are rock solid. I don't really like Midsummer, but it's the only one really possible as far as duration, degree of acting talent required for it to be believable, and casting.
But I still really want to do a drama. And a movie. Oh, Red Bull Proposal, I wish you were in the works!
The last movie I made was my final project for health. It was a comedy somewhat based off Rent except instead of AIDS everyone had the common cold.
I was Mimi. Acchoo!
So I entered the ESU Shakespeare Contest and I was called back. So now I'm against my best friend Mark and two other girls. Hopefully I do well. For ESU, you have to recite a monologue (Lady Percy's "why are you spending your nights thinking about war and not with me" speech from Henry 4 Pt 1) and a sonnet (128 -- How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st) So hopefully I do well.
Unfortunately, ESU callbacks are tomorrow--the same day as my Harvard interview, Twelfth Night 1.3 presentation for Shakespeare, and Decathlon. Woo busyness.
But I'm fine, I swear.
I also have a test on two articles for Journalism and Art History Middle Ages unit test on Wednesday, and midterms start on Friday.
=(
I don't remember if I already blogged about this, but Massiel and I are going to sing "What is this Feeling?" from Wicked for Senior Extravaganza. I'm Galinda and I have to figure out a way to be blonde.
Also, we decided that if we do another RA production, we will have to do Midsummer Night's Dream. Here are a few of our casting probabilities:
Bottom – John
Demetrius - Aaron
Helena - Amanda
Hermia - Summer
Hippolyta - Jennie
Lysander – Mark
Fairy - Mackenzie
Philostrate - Semira
Puck – Massiel
Flute - Abbie
Quince - Fani
Snout - Joelle
Snug - Rab
Starveling - Angie
Titania - Michelle
However, not all of these are rock solid. I don't really like Midsummer, but it's the only one really possible as far as duration, degree of acting talent required for it to be believable, and casting.
But I still really want to do a drama. And a movie. Oh, Red Bull Proposal, I wish you were in the works!
The last movie I made was my final project for health. It was a comedy somewhat based off Rent except instead of AIDS everyone had the common cold.
I was Mimi. Acchoo!
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