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September 30, 2005
MY DIPLOMA CAME TODAY!!!!!
I have my MFA!!!! It's official.
Dave carried the envelope across the living room and presented it to me while humming Pomp and Circumstance. I opened the envelope and read the entire document aloud because I couldn't quite believe it was true. Now I have to dig my other diplomas out of storage and get them all framed alike to hang on the walls of the office I hope to someday have.
Posted by sally at 11:15 PM | Comments (1)
September 28, 2005
Moby Dick Update
According to Dave, it opens a week from today and runs through Saturday the 8th. If you're coming into town next weekend, let us know.
Posted by sally at 06:47 PM
September 27, 2005
Potentially a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity
You've all had a chance to see me perform at some point or other, but now you have a shot at seeing Dave onstage.
That's right. Sometime next month, Moby Dick opens at the University of Idaho, and my sweetie is playing tin whistle. He also wrote the lyrics to most, if not all, of the songs and adapted other parts of the script here and there to better suit the story as this ensemble will be telling it.
So if you want to see Dave in action (and it's free!!!), let me know so I can pester him about when the dates are. He's really excited. So am I. From everything I hear about it, this production is going to be extraordinary.
Posted by sally at 07:03 PM | Comments (1)
September 19, 2005
Native Voices Day 1
I think I've found the thing I want to do for the rest of my life.
Posted by sally at 05:37 PM
September 18, 2005
Thank God I've Got a Day Off
It's not really. I have so much to do today. Laundry (so I have clothes next week); research for the study guide I'm putting together; a schedule to arrange and a gym to visit (though not very vigorously because I'm coughing up gunk and we really don't need to make this another bout of pneumonia).
Yesterday was exhausting. We had training workshops for Native Voices from 10-12:30 and from 1:30 to just after 5. By the end of it, I was so full of information I thought my head was going to explode. It was like the time Dave and I attended the daVinci exhibit in Victoria, B.C. and I discovered in room 4 that there really is only so much a person can stuff into their head in a day.
(For those of you who know me well, you will probably not be surprised to learn that I am one of the world's slowest museum visitors. I read everything. I spend a long time thinking about what I've read and observing the items to hand to consider how my new knowledge changes my understanding and responses to the item. I also look carefully at every little detail because I don't want to miss anything that I might need to know. Dave, understandably, hates visiting museums and galleries with me.)
I am, however, feeling really confident about this project. Tom Kellogg, the guy who runs it, been doing this very thing for ten+ years, and the whole time he has been observing and thinking and refining and exploring until he has created a really effective and specific process for getting kids to write plays. I know it's effective because I (and several other people in the training) feel like I know more about how to create character and what a crisis is, and how to create an effective one, than I ever felt before, even after the fantastic playwriting class I had last fall.
I am really excited about getting to work with the kids. I'm also thrilled that this turns out to be the first year of a two-year project. During the next two years, they hope to be able to find/develop the funding to continue it. I hope they can, because I expect it will really make a difference in these kids' lives. And if we change their view of themselves and the world, even a little, how many other lives will we touch through them?
It's the kind of work I've wanted to do for years. I can't believe I had to come to Idaho to get the chance.
Posted by sally at 09:54 AM
September 16, 2005
You Say It's Your Birthay (nuh nuh nuh nana)
WooHooo! It's my birthday!!!!! So far, I have received a first edition copy of Thud!, the new guards book by Terry Pratchett and a note telling me that a donation has been made to the American Humane Society's Disaster Relief fund (thank you Mom and Dad, it's a great gift). Also, two donuts with lit candles in them from my sweetie.
I had no idea Terry Pratchett had a new book coming out this soon, it seems like we just finished Going Postal. It came with a note saying, "Sally my love. What more can I say than 'woo hoo!'" Woo hoo! exactly. This is such a big deal that I have been given permission to stop the reading of another Terry Pratchett book to begin Thud! almost immediately.
It's odd. Birthdays no longer seem like extra special days outside of time. They haven't for several years now. Anymore, my birthday is just like any ordinary day, but with presents and extra good dinner.
As far as I'm concerned, a birthday should begin with a trumpet fanfare and a parade of presents, followed by exactly the right breakfast (donuts with candles works very well for this) and the birthday celebrant shouldn't do anything she doesn't want to. Plus, much bowing and scraping should occur every time the celebrant walks into a room, along with adoring murmurs and sighs and heartfelt congratulations.
So far today, I have emptied the birthday dishwasher and put in the birthday contacts. This afternoon, I will be attending a birthday workshop (though everyone else thinks it's training for the Native Voices project). And I might take out the birthday recycling a bit later.
Mind you, I find the lack of a birthday earache to be cause for celebration indeed. I saw the doctor yesterday about the fact that the cold seemed to have lodged in an ear and, like a 6 year-old, I have an ear infection. Well, actually, I have two ear infections and a sinus infection. But no sign of pneumonia. The lungs are miraculously and gloriously clear. Though I still have to go on antibiotics. Anymore, I should just head to the doctor at the first sign of a cold and get the antibiotics so I can take them the moment things begin to spiral out of control.
I now have to go grab the one-eyed birthday cat who is racing around the house like a small piratical whirlwind and give him a big, ole birthday smooch. (He likes that.)
Posted by sally at 09:22 AM
Perhaps I Spoke Too Soon
Posted by sally at 08:30 AM
September 14, 2005
How I Know Staying Was a Good Decision
Because Dave came home from rehearsal last night (he's dramaturg/prose massager for an adaptation of Moby Dick) and said, with a glow on his face that I haven't seen in ages, "I'm thinking about joining the percussion ensemble for the show."
I think he eventually decided against it because it would just take too much time, but he is that kind of excited about the work he's doing. This project was just sprung on him on Monday, when the director asked him to help with the rewrite because the script wasn't taut enough. So he's reading up on things and going to rehearsals and still doing the job and the graduate school thing, and he is alive.
Plus, he and the director are pretty much of an age, and they're getting to be good pals. I figured Dave and Paul would get on, they're both really intense and driven, and Dave just needed to get past the "Paul broke my wife" thing to see what a great guy and artist Paul is.
Meanwhile, I'm on the couch with a NASTY cold. I got to teach three classes yesterday feeling like my head was going to explode. Occasionally, my nose begins to run without ceasing and the only way to control it is to stuff a kleenex up the afflicted nostril. That makes for interesting teaching, let me tell you. However, 12-hour Sudafed has become my new best friend, so hopefully the tissue nose thing will stop now.
And I somehow have to get myself into shape for callbacks today at 3pm for the directing scenes. I was going to offer myself for one scene in each class, but I can't be animated for 3 hours today. The 1:30 class is just going to have to do without me.
Posted by sally at 12:36 PM
September 10, 2005
Catching Up
Lots of little things in my life right now. Just little events, mostly separate from one another, so this entry will be a bit disjointed.
I've been asked to create the study guide for 1000 Cranes. Very exciting, since it's also going to have CD-ROM and online components. I'll get paid and it's great experience for me.
Along that same line, I spoke with the instructor for the Not-for-Profit Arts Admin class I took last spring. He doesn't have anything for me right now, but may have admin and research type stuff for me later on (next semester) if some grants come through. And he paid me some lovely compliments re: my ability to work in arts administration. He said the quality my work was far above most of the other students in the class and at a level he would associate more with a colleague than with a student. He even told me that I would be fantastic in Arts Administration. So that was good, since that's part of running a theatre company, which I will hopefully be doing someday.
Also, I shredded the last of the student paperwork I'd been saving. I still have final grade and attendance sheets, in case people have questions, and I'll keep those around for a while, but I figure that at this point, no one wants their papers back. If they did, they'd have asked already. I ended up with 5 paper grocery bags full of confetti. It took 2 hours.
And I talked with one of my sisters-in-law on Friday, which was just really nice. Eli and I get on so well, I really like her, and we don't get much chance to chat since she lives in Denver and I live in BFIdaho.
I am so fortunate. Of the five women who are sisters by marriage, I know three of them fairly well, and they are all lovely. One is a new addition and I haven't had a chance to get to know her yet, but I get good reviews from my husband and others.
On Thursday, I watched Act I of Death of a Salesman twice (once in each class). I found myself wondering what it must have been like to see it when it opened. So much has changed in American life and culture and attitudes since 1949. It's still a powerful drama, but it must have had an unimaginable impact on its original audiences. They would have understood all of the references and language without having to try.
I must admit that I am not looking forward to seeing Act II twice on Tuesday when I sub for Nancy again. It's just not a happy play.
I am so glad, though, that I'm doing this work down at LC. After two days of Nancy's acting class, once participating and working with the students and once leading the class, I am further into my body than I have been since I blew out my knee. It's fantastic. I'm beginning to connect the parts of me on either side of my waist again, and I hadn't done that for months. I miss my thighs, they're essential in acting, and I've been acting from the waist up. So it's great to get my whole body back together again.
Plus, I love teaching.
I've also been doing some ink drawings on watercolor backgrounds for my latest series of Artist Trading Cards. They're turning out pretty nicely. Today I'm playing with fixatives to see what will allow me to work over it with other media.
I don't want the ink to run when I glue over it like the ink did on my last cards. This is an entirely different style of stuff, and the running ink will just kill it. The problem, of course, is that there is no true art supply store in the area, so I have to go to Michael's to see what they have, which is pretty limited, since that chain caters more to the craft crowd than to the art crowd. I should ask around the Women's Art Caucus and see where they get their supplies.
And now that I've shown my friend Maggie my collection and described the process to her, she's raring to make some herself. Which is nice. I'm about 15 years younger than the next youngest artist. I need someone my own age to play with sometimes.
That's my past few days. Lots of little things, no big themes, no major projects. Lots of little stuff. And now I realize I have an audition on Monday that I need to prepare for. The Directing Class has lots of students and each of them will be directing a scene with 2-3 people, which means they need LOTS of actors. I figured I'd toss myself in as a possibility. I won't be hurt (much) if I'm not cast, but it would be good work for me and helpful to the class to have enough actors.
Posted by sally at 01:38 PM
September 06, 2005
Sitting Pretty
I am sitting by a waterfall on a pretty little college campus today. I had no idea places this peaceful, idyllic even, could be found in Lewiston, Idaho.
I’m here because a friend of mine teaches here. She’s going to be gone for a couple of days, so I’ll be taking over her classes. Today was meet the students see how she does things day. (Which reminds me. We haven’t talked about money yet. I do get paid for this gig, and we haven’t yet discussed how much.) They seem like a good bunch, and I’m looking forward to the classes. (For two of them, Intro to Theatre classes, I’m basically playing Death of a Salesman – the good one with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovitch – and chatting with them about the basics of tragedy.) It feels strange, though, to be a “visiting artist.”
She also teaches an acting for non-majors class, and today was about private moments. This is a lovely exercise. You come up with a thing that you loved to do in childhood, something that was really your “thing,” in a place where you felt safe to just play. And then you re-create that on stage, using whatever props you need.
The best part of this exercise is that you can tell when people “click in,” when they get to that place. They stop acting. They are totally in the moment, and everything about them changes. Their breathing, the way they use their bodies, their rhythms in terms of walking, how they move their hands and feet, it all changes. And that’s when we as audience members also get drawn in. You can tell the moment it happens. You know. It’s when you stop evaluating and just start watching.
I love seeing it happen. It’s amazing to watch.
But before we did that, we did a warmup where we went to that place in our heads and we explored how it felt to lie on the floor, to sit up, to make noise, to walk as that child. And then we took risks as that child. It was so much fun. Of course, my child was walking around the stage with her belly sticking out and making all sorts of noises, occasionally poking people.
Nancy usually lets people settle into the sense of it before asking them to take risks. But I was walking around the stage admiring my feet and looked up and realized that I could run all the way across with my arms spread wide and yelling if I chose. I hesitated briefly, I didn’t want to disrupt things, and then I realized my 8 year-old self wouldn’t care about that. She’d just run across the stage yelling, so that’s what I did.
It was very liberating. For me and for everyone else.
Posted by sally at 02:35 PM
September 05, 2005
Happy Labor Day
In honor of the day, some pictures of the household beasts, doing what they do best. (I think it's pretty obvious they trust us completely.):
Imogen on the Rug
Katala Tummy
(I know it's out of focus. I just don't know why. Stupid camera.)
SnugglePoly
Pajama Quickly
She put herself here. She likes to sleep in my pajamas.
Bonus Quickly
Last night, I was getting ready for bed and turned around to find Quickly in this position. Dave saw her at the same time, and we both burst out laughing. She stayed this way while Dave petted her tummy, while I talked to her and while I went into my office to get the camera. Then she let me take lots of pictures of her. This is the best of the bunch. She heard a noise down the hall, which is why her head is up. The red ring near her head is one of her favorite toys.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...
The Dorkiest Cat in the Whole World
Posted by sally at 09:55 AM
September 04, 2005
Internal Reprogramming
I cannot believe this. I am a professional artist. I may not make a living from my work, but I commit myself fully to doing it and I actively seek more opportunities. I have also just spent a shitload of money to get further training in my field.
And yet, as I was working on my Artist Trading Cards, I found myself thinking, "You know, Sal, you've got so many other things to do. You should be doing more important stuff than this."
More important stuff? Like weeding? Laundry? Working out? Painting the bathroom? I'm an artist. Art is important. It's my job.
I've discovered that working on teenytiny pieces like the trading cards gives me the freedom to experiment and try things without worrying about the cost in terms of time or materials. I don't have to plan everything out beforehand to make sure it's perfect. That freedom is creeping into my acting, little by little, which will only make me a better actor, allowing me to truly play and live/work/be in the moment. Helping me escape the need to regiment and perfect things.
So where does that voice come from? And will I ever be able to make it go away? I notice it never says anything when I'm playing video games or surfing the net.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Posted by sally at 12:38 PM
September 02, 2005
And One More Thing
May I just say that the Mayor of New Orleans is my new hero?
(I'm sorry to see that CNN changed the headline. The original read, "Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses,'" which was, in my humble opinion, the best CNN headline ever.)
Posted by sally at 10:53 AM
I Feel So Useless
Here I sit in balmy Moscow, Idaho, thousands of miles away from New Orleans. Not only can I not really offer housing for those who need it (being thousands of miles from New Orleans), but in the coming months when they will need volunteer labor to help rebuild, a flooded city in an area with normally high humidity is probably not a place where I, the asthmatic with a tendency to erupt in pneumonia the minute I even think the word "mold," will be much use. At this point, all I can do is throw money at the problem and encourage others to do the same.
I wonder if they will need a kickass secretary to help with efforts somewhere not quite so full of airborne substances that could kill me.
Posted by sally at 10:12 AM
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