Middle of the night wordage.

I haaaaate staying up late, because then I will inevitably snack. And wouldn't you know, I'm typing this with peanut butter fingers. At least I didn't finish the whole jar. Wish I could say the same for that pack of fig newtons last night. Today was such a frantic day though: running all around the city (in the rain) for props for Aquila and then straight to rehearsal for our Showcase Fundraiser cabaret. That's gonna be sweeeeet. I'm excited to see everyone perform (including our teachers!!!) and I'M singing a song, so that's fun.

...I think detailing my day was me trying to justify eating peanut butter straight out of the jar. But it was raining, and I didn't have an umbrella! It has protein in it! It was organic! I had a banana too! argh.

Something pretty exciting is my sister's bachelorette party which is this Saturday. And I randomly have this Friday off work, so I get to go home early. Happiness! Somehow I got into looking up quotes today, trying to find something that reminded me of Jamie. I reeeeally love quotes. I keep I quote book, which I've had for a few years, but nothing in there popped as something to give to her in my maid of honor toast. Whenever I approach writing something, I usually find some sort of quote that relates to it (I don't know if I can name all the school assignments I began with quoting somebody..haha). So, the internet hasn't yielded anything, but I have some time (the wedding is Sept. 18. Oh that's right, weekend before showcase. hmmmmm..). I'll just have to keep going to Yoga to the People. At the end of each class, as we lay in final shavasana, the teacher always reads a quote, and it's ALWAYS a phenominal one. This is one they did the other day, written by Oriah The Mountain Dreamer:

The Invitation

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."




It's hard to think about peanut butter after reading that, huh? I think it's time for bed. And, you know? I wouldn't mind if it rained tomorrow.

Goodnight!

As I drink my third cup of tea today..

Sooooo much has happened since I last blogged. I suppose I'll start by discussing the two extremely important viewing experiences this weekend that I experienced.

The FIRST: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two.

The SECOND: a new musical entitled Jennifer the Unspecial.

Now, I'm one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I know, having literally "grown up" with Harry (I read the first book when I was 11 and the last book when 17) so, of course, I was quite thrilled for the final film installment. And how disappointed I was when it did happen for me. I've accepted long ago that the movies will never remotely live up to the spirit of the books, but I've appreciated what they are and the work put into them. BUT, this finale sunk far below any justification for a positive reaction. In my opinion.

There are many, many reasons for this, among which being the totally unnecessary revamp of the final duel between Harry and Voldemort (Harry deserved his Voldie-lecture, with the entire wizarding population watching. Not a drawn out scene of Harry and Voldie flying around the castle alone shooting sparks at each other. Just sayin'). Uhnuhthuh thing that was bothersome would be that it seems that most of the character moments were perfunctory, rather than fleshed out (Fred. FRED. Molly Weasley? Neville deserved better too..). That's all I'll say for now, as this is not a Harry Potter blog. I just had to get that off my chest..

However, very happily for me, I saw my wonderful roommate Jacob Samuels, perform in a new musical at NYU's Grad Musical Theater writing program. I had a couple other friends in it as well, so of COURSE I was going to check it out. It was written for childrens theater, so it took place in a middle school and dealt with themes of acceptance, friendship, being yourself, but it was seriously hilARious, the music was kickass, and the cast was wonderful. The story was really cute (time travel took up most of show, so we met history guys, like Shakespeare, Lincoln, Beethoven, dinosaurs..) and funny. The cast had amazing voices as well. I love sitting in the front row in a little black box and being belted at. It's just completely nice to be reminded that theater is pretty awesome and I'm pretty lucky to have the support and training to spend my life doing it.

I gotta go catch up on my thank ya's cards. Next update coming vehry shoooooon.

Sunday Night Musings

The busiest people get the most done.

Saying that to myself makes me feel better when I open my calender and see a week like this week ahead of me. Though, it's actually not a scary, stressful week, just a pleasantly full week. I live for these weeks. And happily, there is no mock call this week for Group B (holla) and we have a material class on Tuesday (or the Kitchen Sink Class as I like to call it) rather than it's more refined and slightly more terrifying Panel counterpart. It's pretty chill as far as Practicum goes.

But it's this week that I get to perform HUG. We have two rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday night, and then we're performing Friday and Saturday. I couldn't be more excited! Where else but theater land will you get to help develop a piece that deconstructs the act of the hug, creating an empathetic and moving movement art piece that will involve the lives of complete strangers passing by you. It's gonna be awesome.

And in other news, tomorrow I start my new internship!! It's with the Aquila Theatre Company which is my faaaaaavorite theater company in all the land. They are seriously amazing. They present classics, from Ancient Greek Theater, to Shakespeare, to Oscar Wilde. They also do open readings of Greek plays with discussions and talk-backs relating ancient Greeks to modern life today. AND, they have this amazing educational program where they do Shakespeare with intercity kids. It's beautiful. I found out about them because I took a Greek Mythology class at NYU and my professor, Peter Meineck was the artistic director (he started the company in London. Did I mention they're all British?). So I saw their production of As You Like It and fell in love. I'm beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to intern for them this summer. Right now the whole company is in Greece workshopping Macbeth, so me and another intern are helping prepare for when they return to the States in September to perform it. The artistic director, Peter, is seriously incredible though. He's written many, many translations of Greek texts, academic papers, teaches at NYU, runs this theater company, and directs. It's actually funny how I got this internship because the class of his that I took was so large, he could never have known who I was (he had a bunch of TAs). But I would always see him at the library (where I worked at the time) and finally I worked up the courage to introduce myself and tell him I was obsessed with his theater company and wanted to be involved. So he gave me his personal email and told me to send him my resume. Dreams!

Now, alright Week. Here I gooooooooooooooooooooo.

HUG. BE A PART OF IT.

"With a simple hug: the one gesture that is understood without words, without political or cultural or religious bias. The hug is the first contact that we have after emerging from the womb. It is the first physical relationship that we form at our mother's breast, without which, we would die."- Johnny DeArden

I spent the weekend rehearsing a project called HUG, a performance art piece in which eight of us will be hugging each other next weekend (and anyone happening by who would like to join us), in Stuyvesant Cove Park next to the East River. This is my first time participating in "installation art"  and I'm thrilled it's with such a beautiful piece. It was developed by Julie Troost, a NYC based artist, and the idea had come to her after 9/11, when she was overcome with the desire to give back to the community and aid in the healing process.

Here's a little blurb from the website:
"H U G promotes community and individual healing and creates an opportunity to replace painful memories with new memories of hope. It supports small acts of kindness as the cornerstone of global social change. H U G creates opportunities for the people of a community to practice compassion for others, to collectively mourn its lost members and to memorialize tragic events."

Anyone who wants to contribute a personal story or memory of loss or conflict, can email hugperformance[at]gmail[dot]com. Your name will be kept anonymous and the submissions will be given to the audience as a little HUG book. 

June 24 and 25 at 6pm
Rain Date June 26 at 2pm
22st and East River (Stuyvesant Cove Park)

http://www.myspace.com/hugperformance
http://solar1.org/events/dance/

You can watch a 20min video of HUG at vimeo.com/julietroost.

 

HEADSHOT TIME

This is what I've been waiting for since last Saturday..

THE PROOFS.


AHHHHHHH IT'S MY FACE.

Now, as an actor one of your most important tools is your headshot. I went to Robert Mannis to finally do the deed (I'd been looking at different photographers for over a year. Yeah, I'm that kind of shopper) and I just got my proofs back. Oh boy is it strange to look at your face trying to emote at you. I mean, it's your face. Looking at you. It's weird. Getting them taken was definitely a learning process. For instance, I. Am. A. Mouth. Actor. Well, I always knew that, but it was my shoot that drove it home. Shall I define Mouth Actor?

Mouth Actor- adj/noun hybrid- a Mouth Actor is someone who, when acting, injects life, or expression, into his or her mouth. In other words, makes funny and/or weird mouth shapes and, by extension, faces. (i.e. Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy, Natalie Dormer in The Tudors).

Well I have to say, I LIKE being a mouth actor. I do. And I know I'm not alone (hi, Natalie Dormer). Mouth acting (with the occasional rogue eyebrow) can be a cornerstone in anyone's practice. Good or bad, I'm going to EARN those facial wrinkles when I'm 40 (30?).

Anyway, Robert did an amazing job. He was a great presence during the shoot. What's really amazing is that he goes with you to Reproductions when they do the retouching (retouching. yessssss), so you actually look like your photo when it's all done. Imagine that, huh?

"O brave new world, that has such people in it."

Exactly one month ago, I was thousands of miles across one of the greatest body of water in the world, being a foreigner. In fact, it was the past four months that I played the part of foreigner, and gladly. I was in London, studying Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. And while I was over there, I bus/planed/trained it anywhere I could in whatever time I could make. If I could describe my whole experience in one sentence it would be that never have I felt so little and so big at the same time. I became a sponge, soaking up all these new things, expanding with every person I met, sight I saw, building I touched, food I smelled and tasted. At the same time, I felt incredibly humbled. I found myself in amazing places, standing in great, green fields with nothing but sky and giant clouds rolling past me, lying against the sun on a slow moving punty boat, bike riding through the countryside in the rain, standing on a volcano, standing next to gargoyles high up in the air, standing, walking, taking my body and mind to places so much bigger than myself. I felt blessed, undeserving, excited about life, connected, sometimes unconnected, exhilarated, and always in awe.

I got back home just a couple weeks ago, spent a week with my family in Baltimore, MD, and now I'm back in New York City, starting life as a new graduate from NYU and working through CAP21's summer Industry practicum. It feels wonderful to be home, but I do miss the giant clouds. At least its the same sky.

A teacher I met in London told me "experience is food for your work." It relates to something I've been thinking on lately: sometimes you go into something knowing what you want to learn, but come out realizing all that you still need to learn. In other words, I'm still grocery shopping.

My name is Christina, I live in New York City, and I'm an actor, singer, and dancer. Welcome to my blog!