First year of grad school done. It was amazing. I know I use that word a lot, but I really don't know how else to describe this past year. It was a lot. A fantastic lot. I'm still trying to process all of it...actually fuck that, I'm NOT trying because I feel like trying to process it would end up with me working too hard, and creating a block. So, I'm just gonna let the juices of year 1 wash over me, and I'm gonna marinade.
Here are some of the things I think I've realized during/post year 1 of Columbia University's MFA Acting Program:
1. how little I know
2. how much I know...I ♥ my experiential brain.
3. how much appreciation my body deserves
4. how pleasurable this work can be
5. how nice it can be to let myself need people, say what I mean, and ask for what I want/need
6. how important patience is
7. how important proactivity is
8. lastly, how important it is to voice/write your experiences.
Sounds general, right? I could talk about each of them for hours though...hmmmmm...I say I grasp these things, but do I? Most of the time...okay...I'm gonna turn on the crock pot and let that list do a little slow cooking, because shit like that cannot be figured out over the course of a blog post.
So here's a quick update on my life this summer:
1. worked on an original play for a comic book theatre festival
2. worked on a theatrical dada collage, part of the Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program (under Daniel Irizarry)
3. been working at a restaurant, The Stanton Social (enjoyable)
4. been babysitting a sweet 14-month-old (enjoyable)
5. been working as a "model" at Abercrombie & Fitch on 5th ave (I'm tolerating it...)
I've been busy. Very busy. Busy since school ended on May 8th.
Some of the pros to being this busy/doing all that I have been doing are:
1. meeting lots of great people
2. getting really great at trekking my way around NYC ( a year ago, I didn't know which subway went where, now tourists ask me about the MTA and I can answer)
3. I'm NEVER bored, and free time is like gold
Life in NYC is not simple, so you have to find simple things to do to ground you. This summer I've been reading a lot. I've read The Help and Bossypants. Now I'm reading Just Kids, by Patti Smith and loving it. I'm finding a lot of comfort in it, and it's really adding flavor the post-year 1 marination. I'm reading for pleasure this summer. It's great. I look forward to getting in bed with my book/kindle after days of mediocre wages and public transit.
Next on the reading list is a whole lot of Shakespeare/Elizabethan background materials. Kristin sent out a list of reads and assigned us each a sonnet. 33 and I are getting to know each other. I also want to get a head start on some Chekhov. We'll be working on that with Andrei. Excitement.
Before school starts though I want to see a lot more of the city...learn to play the ukulele...collect a few records...and make some jewelry...
Yup.
