Unspecified Direction

so, like, epic.

2009-01-29T20:41:00.003-05:00

So at my new data entry job my office bestie John (whose whole life is lit-worthy, btw, but that's another story)and I listen to One life to Live every day on his walkman. (OLTL is my soap =D It's my guilty pleasure and I loves it.) Today we were listening to the beginning of Llanview/Llantano/Pennsylvania/whatever versus Todd Manning, including Nora and Téa's opening statements for the prosecution and the defense, respectively, and it reminded me so much of Mock Trial. And since I was a defense attorney and John did say I would be Téa if I were an OLTL character, I wanted to dig up my old closings because I was an awesome closer and I wanted to read them again.

I found my closing for Ina Fectious v. Tagen Burgers, LLC, the People v. Nurse Ratched for Ms. Telmany's class and Metropolitan v. Avery Fisher. The last one, from 2008, was most def. my favorite, especially because it included the following paragraph, which, if I may say, is one of the most amazing paragraphs I have written ever:

Last and definitely least: the hasty, judgmental Detective Alex Santiago. Instead of employing a forensic lab, she relied on Dr. Everhart who isn’t trained for forensic work—being a cardiologist, going to a few get-togethers about blood doping isn’t enough to make a forensic authority. It’s common sense. But this detective has an uncommon sense—she determines things are fact with little to no proof—sometimes with just words or hunches. She thought the grieving Mr. Fisher was quote “taking his daughter’s death [well]”—clearly not true. Even after 7 or so years working for K.I.D.S., she doesn’t realize that people respond differently to grief. She then jumped on Mr. Richman’s words—Chris’s alleged drug use. After finding receipts from an online pharmacy and assuming that they sold illegal substances, she obtained a warrant. She would’ve executed it herself, but she was too exhausted from jumping…jumping to conclusions. She let other officers investigate then took their over-the-phone report as absolute fact. No concrete evidence was found, yet the detective was satisfied.

Clearly, the red portion is my favorite.

Also, I have written two chapters/episodes for a new story I am working on. This is the first time I have been able to set writing goals for myself and meet them. The story's working title is "Epic" (I know, I know, ambitious, right?) and it's basically about a girl who discovers she has super powers who accidentally gets sent back in time while training to control her powers. More details later. =)

My college situation is still not taken care of but I am more determined than ever to succeed as a writer. Hopefully, my next few projects will include more short plays (or maybe even a longer one!), more chapters for "Epic," and maybe even a couple profiles for people because I love doing those and I seem to be good at them. =) Ideally, I want to do another more official and well-done one for Joelle Zigman so she can use that promos, perhaps one on John because he's so interesting and I also want to do maybe someone from MAHS like Smith, Mallm or Felton (which I think would HAVE to be ridiculously good lol).

So I guess that would mean I would have to start working....now. =P

Una parte en español para puedo practicar--otras noticias: siento como estoy creciendo y llegando a ser un mujer en muchas maneras. Pienso más sobre la belleza, me porto mejor con más madurez, y estoy nerviosa menos veces como nunca antes. (I have no idea if that's right.) Sí, estoy felíz y contenta con mi decisión a defer-ar la universidad =)

Hortillosa Look-alike Meter

2009-01-19T23:00:00.001-05:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family finder

hard.

2008-10-25T21:15:00.002-05:00

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.

published articles! yay!

2008-09-30T01:26:00.001-05:00

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

Adventures!

2008-08-22T03:19:00.008-05:00

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

updates as needed

2008-08-06T03:33:00.004-05:00

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.

MS#4 performance

2008-05-31T21:30:00.004-05:00

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.

performance tomorrow!

2008-05-28T19:00:00.002-05:00

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. =(

cutting it close, making it secure, and strawberries.

2008-05-24T23:13:00.004-05:00

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.

we're evolving! from porifera to platyhelmenthis (sp?)

2008-05-21T19:51:00.004-05:00

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

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

so much to do in so little time

2008-05-11T17:06:00.003-05:00

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!

Planning for the future. Oh noes.

2008-04-30T23:01:00.003-05:00

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

First Draft!

2008-04-27T00:44:00.003-05:00

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.

making the cut (script)

2008-04-24T00:56:00.004-05:00

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.

shakespeare festival

2008-04-22T12:56:00.007-05:00

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.)

good week. =D

2008-04-07T00:17:00.002-05:00

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.

reevaluation

2008-03-29T23:16:00.002-05:00

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. =)

A Song in My Heart

2008-03-19T02:16:00.002-05:00

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!

What you feel in your stomach before you spontaneously combust has yet to be documented, but this comes close.

2008-02-25T22:50:00.004-05:00

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.

mission accomplished

2008-02-10T21:31:00.000-05:00

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!

we'll have to fit it all in somehow

2008-01-23T21:53:00.000-05:00

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!

For what offence have I this fortnight been a banish'd woman from my Harry's bed?

2008-01-21T07:41:00.000-05:00

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!

What to do, what to do!

2007-12-23T00:27:00.000-05:00

I have figured out a way to adapt Murder at Vinnie's for the stage! I'm finalizing the stage version, and I'm very excited about it. I don't think we'll put it on ever, but I am planning to do things with it.

The ESU Contest is coming up and I've been trying to pick what monologue I'd like to do for it. I'm thinking of using Lady Percy's "Why aren't you in my pants?" speech or Lady Anne's "Why are you asking to be in my pants when you just killed all the important men in my life?" speech.

The Rudesby Dinner was this thursday, but like, no one went. Oh well. But we did manage to watch several episodes of The Monkees thanks to Massiel's undying love for them and somewhat discussed what project we should do next. Assuming we would stick to doing Shakespeare, here are some of the plays that were suggested at some point and what I think about producing them (by the way, Krystal and Aaron may join our cast, so we're keeping that in mind.)

Much Ado About Nothing

Pros: I think this is a really good choice because it's a likable play and it wouldn't be too hard to produce. Also, I'm very acquainted with it because I read it sophomore year for Decathlon. Without doubling up, we'd need about 23 people to pull this one off, and that's a pretty good number. There are about seven or eight characters that can probably be played by people not in those scenes, so I think we can manage this one. It's funny and it's not very long.
Cons: It's one of those plays where the sideplot is more interesting than the main plot (there are a lot of those, by the way) and that may or may not work for us. That could mean too much dependence on the Benedick-Beatrice relationship, meaning too much emphasis on Mark and myself, considering we're the only people who could pull off both ends of the BB chemistry. Also, we may not be able to full utilize all the talent we have and besides Marmer for Benetrice, which we're kind of forced into, there aren't many shoe-in parts.

As You Like It

Pros: From what I've heard, this would be a fun play, too. There are many 21-27 characters needed, so it isn't too bad. And it's not very long. Only a bit over 2610 lines.
Cons: I don't know anything about this play except one monologue by Phebe (thanks, Joelle.) =/ And pretty much every scene is "in the forest." I havent' read this, but just by looking at all the settings, it could possibly make movement monotonous considering our poor resources. It could make creating the set easy because it'll always be in the same place, but forests are potentially very annoying to make. It seems like a pastoral play, and I'm not sure if I dig that.

Hamlet (as a comedy, most likely.)

Pros: Well, it's a great play. And tragedies are easy to make fun of.
Cons: 4072 lines. The bulk of it considered to be some of Shakespeare's greatest work. It's too dominated by a singular character, and finding the right person for that role could be difficult. 34 characters. We're gonig to study this for AP English, and Miss Smith loves this play so she'll quite possibly go "mad in depth, yo," and we'll all be sick of it (we'll love it, but later, a few months later.) Also, thanks to Reduced Shakespeare, I'll be too tempted to do the whole thing backwards.

The Winter's Tale

Pros: It's got that great stage direction, "Exit, pursued by a bear." It has 19 characters (not counting the ones without a role written by them from the Open Source; otherwise, its 34.) It's 3470 which is a moderate length, and is doable with significant cuts.
Cons: I don't know anything about it. Making a bear could be complicated, even if its just a bunch of people dressed in brown. Look at what we had to do with the sea monster (a bunch of people in black with tape attached to their arms.) I mean, I originally planned to put a large sheet over them. Also, because I haven't read it, the cut from 3470 to something much shorter and the cut from 34 to 19 might not go as smoothly as we think.

Cymbeline

We shot this down after finding out it had 40 characters to start with.

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Pros: I had proposed this before. It has only 17 characters, I believe, which is a good number considering our cast. It's also one of his shortest plays if not the shortest (I don't remember.) It could prove quite easy to produce. Also, it's always nice to do a play you don't hear about a lot.
Cons: I don't know much about it. Also, we might not have enough characters with substance after cuts and such, and I don't want to do that to our lovely cast. Also, it names TWO gentlemen in its title, and of course, that means at least one girl character will probably be involved, but I just want to avoid any plays with major emphasis on any one to three characters. Twelfth Night had Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, but the subplot was pretty hefty and comfortably accomodated our cast.

I think that's it for Shakespeare stuff. I also suggested doing a bunch of short plays and just showing them right after another, which could make rehearsal easier and makes it more likely that everyone can feel like they're playing someone important. However, if we end up needing people to do multiple roles, that could seriously complicate things. Also, we might not be able to find enough content, although I do have Murder at Vinnie's the stage version now as well as Strawberry Fructose. And I am currently working on Moran, but that will most likely have to be seriously expanded.

I think the hardest thing will be accomodating our talent.

Selective Productivity

2007-11-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

I have completed a story called, for now, "Take This Man." A woman and her fiance hire a wedding planner who is so gorgeous, pleasant, and perfect that the fiance might fall in love with her. The woman tries to keep the two from meeting, but they do and fall in love. In anger, the woman curses them and the effect of the curse is rather amusing....

It's a lighthearted little thing and I wanted it to be serial especially because it's a film serial in my head (not exactly a TV show.) However, production would be impossible because of a shortage of male thespians available to me, as well as actual production materials like cameras and editing software and such.

I wrote it first as a story then I was able to convert it to a screenplay (unfortunately, I had to resort to using a narrator. Fortunately, he's a good one.) If I ever produce it, it may need further modification, but I like the way it is now.

Murder at Vinnie's, as my murder mystery dinner show is now called, is going to be performed at my school by our Mock Trial team! This is my second work to actually be formally produced, so I'm excited! =D We're selling tickets, serving pizzas, and everything! Joelle Zigman will even be performing with Semira Woldmichael!

You will be attending the opening night of Vinnie's Pizzeria as well as attending his murder in cold cheese. With so many suspects--the son he neglected, the sisters he enslaved, the wife he cheated on, the mistress he wouldn't make his wife, the chef he cheated out of thousands of dollars and more--no one is sure who did it. But you can help solve the crime and eat pizza, too!

It's a common concept, but I enjoy it. I play one of the Kazakhstani sisters who were illegally imported. =) We're the waitresses, lol And it's a comedy, so this will be fun!

I've been working on college apps and homework etc. etc., but I've also been working on things to try to enter into competitions! =D

Plays: I have a play that is currently called, "Morán" after the fictional kingdom it takes place in (shoutout to Alfred! lol.) However I'll probably change the title to something that focuses more on the actual plot. There are wild political struggles in Morán that begin when a wild man, Rex Ramiro, deposes the current ruler by killing him and his wife. His soldiers are about to rape the former princess, Adela Ramiro, when another soldier, Vicente Decena, steps in and becomes her guardian. She lets Decena help her but hates him for rebelling against her father and resents him for being her guardian although he is a stranger only a few years older. However, she fails to realize that he is actually her childhood friend who has been in love with her since they were playmates.

It's a lot of action in 20 minutes and I have to read it over and over to make sure it works. Script competitions are so hard because many scripts wouldn't work without really good actors and so much is unspoken but you have to write them as if they would be produced and too much written direction is annoying and rude. Everything is Spanish and the kingdom was given a made-up name because I wanted to be temporally and geographically ambiguous--and what's more ambiguous than a Spanish-influenced country with political turmoil?

Also, I've been working on a 10-minute screenplay. It's so hard! It's the movie version of Grocery Shopping with My Girl, which works so much better as a movie because you'd see how Samuel (as I named him) reacts to everything the girl does. I'm afraid it's too much like My Sassy Girl. However, I changed the ending and it fits better now and makes the entire piece more significant. Now it actually asks the viewer a question! But I'm not quite satisfied with it yet.

Speaking of dissatisfaction, I have a lot to do and I'm so dissatisfied with myself despite what just sounded like productivity. It's selective, somewhat misplaced productivty.

Oh. And I have to write a newspaper article about the holidays. l. o. l.

I have found out more about how I write.

I get (the best) ideas while...
- Doing mundane things like walking place to place or, like everyone else, doing things in the bathroom.
- Feeling intense emotion. It's just not always easy to follow through on something as vague as emotion.
- Reading or viewing other works and being inspired.
- Being awake at night, either while lying on my bed or while sitting at my computer.

I work best...
- Writing an entire work in one sitting, or else I won't finish it. Which sometimes means working long stretches for long things like movie scripts or plays.
- On computers.
- Late at night.
- In absolute quiet. I can't even listen to music like I usually do.
- Writing the work as I go along rather than planned out--that is, if it's a first-time, original work.
- Using already-written stories or other materials, especially when writing scripts. It's just easier to adapt. This even applies to my stories.

Strengths...
- I can interrupt my train of thought to go do research on a name or something without breaking my flow.
- I have great friends who help me fill in gaps with random details.
- My affinity for food extends to my writing. Recently the distinctiveness and sight eccentricity in loving waffles with cheese has made it a convinient device, especially in love stories.
- Apparently I can capture moods and I can stumble on good lines.

Weaknesses...
- I can easily lose a storyline I love by working it out too far in advance in my mind.
- I really really suck at endings.
- I think my attempts at irony are too obvious.
- My characters' identities get lost in their roles sometimes...if that makes sense. - I wish I was better at titles. Seriously.

There are more things I found out, but I can't remember them now.

And meanwhile....

2007-11-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

so i've been planning things for the past few months.

rudesby definitely wants to do another project before we're all gone, and we're going to apply for funding. so we're juggling ideas for our next project. we may do an already-written play, maaaaybe shakespeare, but i think that will be a good last resort. i am (or should be) working on a stage version of red bull proposal, and we already have a concept for the adaptation--we changed parts of the main plot to make it more character-driven, and added a side plot.

but i also really really want to do a movie because that's where my script-writing really loves itself. stage is too...literal, or literal trying to be figurative. i don't know. i like stage because it's such a challenge and makes you find ways to innovate, but it's way too hard sometimes; my mind thinks in movies, so i can't always transfer my ideas to the stage.

i wish we were doing red bull as a movie. and i would also love to do some work with my latest project.

i realized i work best when i'm adapting a work--even my own. i write really good scripts when i'm working off a story i already wrote, probably because i already pretty much know where i'm going to go and it's almost just a change in format (it's more complicated than that, but you know.)

it's hard explaining my new story because it's a lot better to read or view. =) i wrote the story two days ago, the screenplay yesterday, and maybe the stage play tongiht if i can possibly bend it that way. i have a literal storyline that can drive the action on stage, but it'll be harder to establish background so i'll have to change a few things. i have the first part of the first scene figured out, but whatever.

if i do my job right, i'll have a hard time later deciding which version of the story i like best.

speaking of plays and such, i only have one homework assignment left: the last couple acts of Henry IV Part I. so, i'm off.

finale!!!

2007-09-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

yay! the play is over!! woo! =D

our finale was so fantastic and i loved it! all our improvisations played out well, and we didn't forget our lines or make any serious mistakes! =D

erica garcia videotaped it for us, so we will be selling dvds.

we also will ask our principal if we can have a performance at the school for people who couldn't go to the regular ones we had.

and our next project just might be a musical =)

i'll put up cast pictures soon.

thanks to everyone who supported us!!!

Today!

2007-09-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

Today's performance was awesome! Everyone did a very good job! =D I'll elaborate more later. Right now, I'll shower and sleep. =)

premiere!

2007-09-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

so like, i'm mega stressed.

we had our premiere and only a few people came, probably because most people came on short notice (a lot of people are saying that they're coming on saturday, though.) we already got feedback.

it's so frustrating. since we could hardly get everyone together at once, we only did the final scene a couple times before the performance and in the second half of the play, many people were missing their cues. however, the first part of the play was very strong.

most everyone was excellent, but a few of us have to work on our lines and cues more, and everyone has to work on volume and connecting to the audience.

i tried my best, and i still am. =) we have more performances on friday and saturday, and we have to practice tomorrow ahhh. everyone better come or i'll cry.

everyone seems to be coming on saturday, as i said. richard, who is recording the performance; my co-workers; JROTC heads; etc.

i'm taking applied journalism so i'll be doing articles and stuff too, yay! and amanda and i are going to do an article on rudesby because what we're doing is uhm, kind of important.

dr. solberg came last saturday! ahhh! and i was going crazy lol. i almost broke down, and john kept messing up and/or adlibbing too much and throwing me off from our scene. ugh. well, i'm hoping we get better. everyone better know their lines!

sorry, no pictures! =( although should really have some. oh, we saw what we thought was a UFO while we were on the balcony (it was a blimp) and uhm, it was generally fun, just very exhausting and stressful.

the clock is ticking! =O

2007-08-31T17:53:00.001-05:00

we have the postcards, art house stage manager jack helped us, and we're getting a lot done.

we just have to get everyone to memorize their lines, and our costumes and props together. =O and our prop man is in canada, lol

here's the performance information:

ART HOUSE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

The Rudesby Algorithm in

SHAKESPEARE'S TWELFTH NIGHT

Sneak Preview -- September 7

----Exclusive Mini-concert featuring Joelle Zigman!: 7:00 PM

----Performance: 8:00 PM

Opening Night -- September 8

----Performance: 7:00 PM

September 14
----Performance: 7:00 PM

Closing Night -- September 15
----Performance: 7:00 PM

Prices: Regular: $10

Students or seniors (with ID): $6

(Portion of proceeds with go to charity.)

For reservations, call: 201-915-9911

Art House Productions

Hamilton Square

1 McWilliams Place, Roof

Jersey City, NJ 07302

(SE Corner of Hamilton Park, near Erie/8th St.)

http://www.arthouseproductions.org/

Made possible by Exeter Properties and Hamilton Square

scheduling =O

2007-08-13T21:16:00.000-05:00

It's hard to schedule rehearsals.

There's one tomorrow at 1 PM but I don't know if I can go because I have to get my mom's medical records, look at an apartment, and go to work.

Being busy during the summer sometimes sucks.

Today was my first day of work and my training started.

Oh, and here are some pictures taken by the lovely Amanda Pickering of our rehearsal in the library.

That, my friends, is Mark looking his best.

Hot like me

2007-08-09T00:58:00.000-05:00

Because my name is Summer. Get it? Yeah.

I've been doing a horrible job acting as Feste because I haven't had time to study the lines. I have my final exam for my music class tomorrow, so I'm really more concerned about that. I have to find time to focus on being Feste, though.

I'm going to say it again because my best friend said it today--I'm sick of comedy. I want drama. I'm also sick of this play. I am going to admit it. I love Twelfth Night, but I'm tired of this.

Today it was so hot, we had to ask the library if we could rehearse there, and they were nice enough to give us their upper level. =D We also rehearsed in the space and succeeded in choreographing the shipwreck scene.

I was hoping we'd be able to sell our play as a real work of art not just something cute because teenagers did it, but I'm not feeling very confident.

We'll see.

cut! that's a wrap!

2007-07-29T14:51:00.000-05:00

no, we're not done, lol but i made lots of cuts to the script, and we might have to make more, especially accomodating joelle, michelle, etc. some of our actors haven't been able to make it to a rehearsal yet!

and we decided what the fight scene should be.

i'm going to find out what i want feste to be today, i'm already starting to get ideas, and i am printing out the new script and i'm going to envision more scenes.

adjusting to circumstances.

2007-07-28T00:08:00.000-05:00

we had rehearsal again today and it was fun because JOHN CAME. YAY. finally we got to the malvolio scenes and made very important decision. i am hoping to direct the living rudesby out of this thing.

also, john is going to pick samantha up the way he did tracy at extravaganza. =) i want to get a picture of it. haha. that's the best way to meet someone. "hello." "hey." "i'm going to pick you up now."

also we made many cuts, but massiel and i could not do everything together so i did what i'm supposed to do as director anyway and i went through the thing and made some cuts. i'll probably make some more tomorrow. i cut off a lot =O i added some direction and stuff, but as it is now, the script is only 20 pages long! (in 6.5 font and in two columns.) i'd put it in three columns like jennie did, but i'm kind of scared lol i might try it tomorrow and see how it looks, though.

soon we will be able to have michelle and mark with us. =) yay sebastian and andrew.

i'm still not sure how to be feste so tomorrow i'm going to run through the script over and over until i decide how i want feste to be. feste is concrete in my mind, but in my mind, i don't picture myself as feste. i have to find a way to unite my image with feste. i sort of wish i was less actor, more director. much more director, especially because it's difficult for me to assist massiel with producing so this will be my part. if i'm going to have to do shakespeare, i'm going to do it with all my might, darn it!

the rehearsals and performances are so going to complicate my schedule. i won't do a big project like this again for a while. i think we'll have a much smaller company at the end of this. not sure if samantha will want to be in it a lot especially because she goes to a different school and that might be difficult.

perhaps we can do a collection of short skits for something.

at least we have amanda as treasurer and jennie as stage manager. we need to solicit people to get an initial budget! ahhh! we spent too much time on the giftbaskets and made the mistake of spending our own money for it. massiel is going to have to pay herself back with part of the money we get from our first one.

i think we should've tried to find 100% profit fundraisers before starting the niceby algorithm.

btw, it's getting really hard to explain this whole business while writing things for colleges or scholarships especially when they have word limits which i abhor.

alas, orsino!

2007-07-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

today was our most productive rehearsal yet, especially because my eighth grade friend samantha joined our cast as orsino! =D she's still mucking about the script trying to figure out what to do, but she'll be fine. also, john has returned so he can do rehearsals now.

we have to cut a lot. =/ we've already cut a ton of orsino lines, especially because samantha doesn't have lots of time to memorize this.

i met the lady from art house, the place helping us put on the show and giving us a venue, christine. i also looked at the venue and figured out the mechanics and choreography of several scenes, especially relating to the space. we even figured out how we want the opening scene to work. =) too bad there are no pictures of us figuring out how to make a sea monster.

Empezamos!

2007-07-16T19:45:00.001-05:00

We've started to have rehearsals, and we've done three scenes already with me, Massiel, Mark, Amanda, Jennie, with Mackenzie watching. Yay. We've already started putting finishing touches on the scenes, adding more specific direction, etc.

It's good progress. Also, we have a new advertising/fund raising idea, a side business called The Niceby Algorithm, and I'll post more details on it later. =D I'll give you a hint: it's quite a gift.

Status: Developing Like An Eleven-year-old Girl Unfortunate Enough to Not Be Like Me

2007-07-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

I am going to try entering the play contest again next year, especially since they encouraged me to keep writing. I'm going to at least try. And how wonderful it would be to win twice! But anyway, I'm trying to come up with ideas.

A "sequel" to Strawberry based on one of the actual story sequels like Asmodeus Sunday or Kingdom Macabre might be a good idea, but it would take a lot of tweaks and such, and it would have to also be an outrageous comedy, and I want to at least try doing drama because I'm getting sick of comedy for everything, even if I'm good at it.

My AP English reading assignments are 1984 and Lord of the Flies, so my mind is flooded with dystopian stuff and I might want to try that, but I'm not exactly sure what statement I want to make. I think many things are wrong with society, but I'm not sure which thing I want to zero in on.

I'm also thinking of just doing some simple drama. I'm not sure. I'm just starting to get into this play stuff.

Speaking of play stuff, Massiel is back from England and we met today and straightened some stuff up for Shakespeare. However, we're going to have scheduling difficulties because I'm looking for a job and I'm not sure when I will and won't be working yet, Sarah's in Utah, John's in China, everyone's uber busy, Joelle and a few others have work, etc. So this complicates things severely.

I have a Survey of Music class tomorrow with Mark. For four hours. How exciting. Speaking of music, I picked up Commodore Matthew Perry Poppins (whose name eluded me for a second) yesterday and played a few songs and I'm not as rusty as I thought, but I'm still pretty bad. =D lol

That's it for now. I wish I was being more productive. (Ignore the fact that I just got monstrous amounts of summer hw done in a few hours.)

terminé!

2007-07-06T22:55:00.000-05:00

I forgot to say this, but I finished the script yesterday! In time for John to go to China! lol It has minimal stage direction because most of the goodness will come from out actual acting, but I added things where I definitely wanted something to happen. This way, I don't have to talk so much and direct so much.

Yay Twelfth Night. It was a nice way of reading it over again.

However, with my schedule, rehearsals are going to be impossible.

Massiel returns on the 7th.

an update on my life. minimal arts news.

2007-06-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

Massiel and I have been making very very slow progress on the script. Mostly life and my motivation keep getting in the way, I think. I'm always tired.

I just finished reading 1984 and I'm inspired to write all sorts of things, and I want to do some projects someday with my best friend, but I have so much to do. I have to find a job and then I want to volunteer, hopefully for Make-A-Wish Foundation and Liberty Science Center.

My aunt is dying. Everyone's got cancer, including people close to me. Recently I've been wondering if God is calling me to do cancer research or something.

This isn't really about arts, but it's about my life, and I'm updating this blog because the rest of my life affects my art.

Oh, the lit mag was printed! It's nice. =D I learned a lot from it as far as editing, especially content-wise. It's also motivated me to learn Photoshop so I can help Massiel. And, uhm, I like the pieces I included in it. If you know me, hit me up if you want to read them.

The first, Grocery Shopping With My Girl, is about a guy who goes uhm, grocery shopping with his girl who is totally rude and a horrible person, but he doesn't really care because he loves her anyway.

The second is equally tender but with less offensive characters (I think they're charming, actually.) Two people on a train bonding while one sleeps, etc. etc., it's just overall sweet. =)

What else? Oh, I've taken to using PSP to design greeting cards =D

This is the one for my aunt.

I changed the words around, but this is the general layout. I'm very proud of the flowers. And actually, I've liked what it's said through all its revisions.

I'm taking a summer course at NJCU for Survey of Music so I can learn more about it, yay! =D I'm taking it with my best friend, Mark.

the one where summer had conflicts and too much to do.

2007-06-19T17:04:00.000-05:00

this was a weird day. it's finals week or whatever, but i'm still doing a million things like the NHS program, getting stuff together concerning my play for miss telmany, and finishing up literary mag (although massiel's been doing most of it lately because i don't know photoshop =[ ) and i had a job interview for goldman sachs which i hope i'm getting.

but yeah, bad news.

we have no camera to film my movie so that had to be put off, and most of us haven't been able to practice for Strawberry for legitmate reasons (most of us anyway) and i found out that thursday is boscobel, friday is miss gibney's thing, saturday and sunday aren't possible, monday is exit day, and tuesday is graduation. there is no time left to do it. =( we can't even do it during blocks 1 and 2 on thursday because choir is having a concert. ahh! grr! and why is the spring concert so late anyway? whatever. it's like, on-the-verge-of-being-summer concert. it's literally a day away from being a summer concert.

on a better note, i performed "paper bag" by fiona apple at open mic with my best friend joelle. =) and christine and i finished the mock trial mystery dinner show plans and hopefully we'll be able to pull that off. we get to be waitresses. =) yay. and we serve pizza. yay. and uhm...yeah that's pretty much it.

i must study for spanish finals. and rsvp to the njcu thing, and start my summer assignments, and finish compiling play-related things, and finish the exit day programs....

Pow! Bam! Wa-cha!

2007-05-26T20:02:00.000-05:00

So today I met up with Massiel and Mark and we actually choreographed the fight scene for my Asian movie parody. =) Yay! I can't believe we actually got it done. We were able to stick to the plot, put in some funny elements, and throw each other around quite a bit. I end up on the floor a lot, lol But I do hold up quite well as Aya. =)

I wish Rab, Mark, and Hong Ju were there so we could actually practice the scene in its entirety. And we realized we need large and/or strong people to help us pull off some of the stunts because we don't have cables. =) And although we've secured Massiel's old school as our location, we might be able to use our own if I ask nicely.

Massiel was dressed in a Qing-Jao-like dress (although she did have her ROFLMAO shirt on...) and she said the pants I was wearing looked like Aya pants. How great it is to be in character!

We've also started the Twelfth Night script. I'll need to start looking over the Strawberry script again.

making things up!

2007-05-09T19:34:00.000-05:00

pictures from the kean performance of strawberry! thanks, massiel! (and for some parts, marguz for taking the pics and marton for not making weird faces, thank goodness)

today i was mentioned in the star ledger because of the play. aw, i feel warm and fuzzy inside. praise the Lord for my win! also, tidbits of my reflections on the whole thing might be in the playwrights theatre new jersey's e-newsletter. =)

massiel and i have done a lot today for the literary magazine. we harassed tons of people for their art, short stories, essays, etc. and we already have a few submissions! =D a lot of people promised to have things tomorrow, and if they all come through we'll have a ton of stuff! i'm so excited. i even made us an email address, mahsliterarymag@yahoo.com i already have something to submit ("Slumber"), but i'm also trying to write something new specifically for the magazine. i have a lot of writing to do!

i'm also going to write a plot for our mock trial fundraiser. i suggested having a murder mystery dinner show, and if we're successful, to possibly follow it up with a literal mock trial. we're all going to act in it and such, and we'll have to get food or some sort of refreshments. i hope i can get everyone's input. the members i told so far all liked the idea, so this will be exciting. also, my best friend martón said he would help and we always thought he would be a charming addition to our team. yay! it's not him joining, but yay it'll be fun. =)

and this isn't directly arts related, but i'm going through a personal change right now and i know it'll impact my work. so let this be the official documentation for the cause of any change. =P

and i have APs for the next two weeks, including my English Lanaguage (Writing) test. =O

First Post! And more importantly, documentation of the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival

2007-05-01T17:12:00.000-05:00

As Miss Smith recommended, I will make a blog to document my creative arts activities.

I am director of our amateur acting company, The Rudesby Algorithm (hence radirector--R.A. director.) I also act in plays, and movies with extremely low budgets. I admit, I've written most of the things I've acted in, and maybe I'll post bits of screenplays and such. So yeah, a lot of the posts here will have to do with our company's endeavors.

My sister blog is run by our producer Massiel at http://www.raproducer.blogspot.com

Today me and all my best friends went to the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival to see my play The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose! I was one of five high school division winners of the Young Playwrights Contest. The other plays were really good too, especially Constantine Lignos's Apotheosis. My play was well-received, and the actors were so amazing, especially Ben Clawson as Johnny and the Dog, Diane Limon as Maeve, Paul Reisman (!!!) as the Lion and Mr. Fructose, and Erikka Walsh as the Wicked Witch of the Unspecified Direction. And I realized how skilled my director, Michael-David Gordon was when I saw the finished product. I was absolutely delighted!

Me and my classmates plan to put on our own production of Strawberry by converting one of our teacher's classrooms into "Zen Theatre." Here's the cast:

Narrator - Mark L.
Mr. Fructose - Angie
Mrs. Fructose - Jennie
Wicked Witch of the Unspecified Direction - Michelle
Strawberry Fructose - Moi
Dog - John C.
Johnny - Joelle
Bird - Mark D.
Maeve - Amanda P.
Lion - Tony/Massiel

It's a good cast and I think we have potential to make our production even better. It will take work, but we can definitely do it. It will be difficult with Gordon's version setting the bar very high, and I will do my best. My version will obviously be much closer to my vision of the story, but frankly, Gordon's version made me realize how colorful the story could be (it's actually much tamer in my mind) and I may liven it up a bit.

I'm considering submitting "The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose", as in the original story, to the Literary Magazine since there's so much interest in it. The editors are all right with the idea (then again the editors are me and Miss Producer), but I'm going to check with Mr. O'Shaughnessy who is our advisor.

I'm also supposed to be shooting my Asian parody movie soon, but our leading man is not as inspired to do it, and we're all having schedule difficulties. I really want to do it, but I'll have to bend space and time to get everything done. Leading man says he'll do the movie for me anyway, and suggests that we just "make movies!" and he wants to make music videos. It's a novel idea and I'd love to do it, but I'd like to actually finish this project first.

Anyway, it's been a fabulous day overall! It's so rewarding and beautiful to see your work come to life. I really really loved it and I slightly felt guilty for being a fan of the performance, haha. The actors and all other people involved were so great, they made me fall back in love with something I came up with three years ago and got bored with.