It’s amazing starting to notice how many sentences you start with the words “I hate.” Time to start becoming accountable for myself and my speech.
-Brandon Monokian: Director
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
on the same page
Jedediah Schultz, an interview subject and eventual character in The Laramie Project, recently wrote an article reflecting on his involvement and experience with the play. He is quoted as saying "A city, like a person, contains beauty and ugliness and is ultimately much, much more than a single tragic moment in time." I think this is incredibly crucial to remember, now and always. We must remember all the facets of Laramie, of Matthew, of the perpetrators Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, of the notorious Fred Phelps, of Montclair State University, of ourselves, of the world. Yoko Ono says "we are all on the same page." To share my personal opinion, I do not believe in good people and bad people. I believe in people.
-Victoria, assistant director
it's that time...
it's officially opening night eve for us, which is pretty damn exciting! the typical rush of having a show open comes back to me as i think about the last few shows i've done. but this is a different type of feeling. sure i'm extremely excited about my family and friends coming and them seeing us do this powerful piece as actors, but i've never felt so natural while doing a piece. and i think that's got a lot to do with all our exercises that involve being connected to each other as humans, making beautiful images, etc. so that's good. kudos us :)
also, i read an entry from greg pierotti written in 2008 on the actual laramie blog. he mentioned visiting marge murray and amanda gronich playing her. because i play both these characters i feel incredibly connected to them. almost like i know them. it's so interesting to read the real blog and articles about the tectonic members because i feel that i'm a part of it. not directly obviously, but to know the names of the people they mention, and the places and descriptions they give, i think it's really cool. and i know i am going to have a hard time when our show ends. not that i'm anticipating it, of course, we still have the entire week to go! but i feel like i can connect with the real members because they even say in the play that it was hard to move on afterwards, that they were stuck after the whole thing. sometimes i just can't wrap my mind around how beautiful this entire piece and experience is. it's getting extra emotional at rehearsals now, especially with the lovely music, and it's all just really deep and beautiful and moving. i can't say enough how honored i feel to be playing such amazing people. and everyone is doing a really amazing job and i'm so glad the cast has gone through the entire process together. i'm so grateful for everything. i am SO ready for our last dress rehearsal and for opening night!
also, i read an entry from greg pierotti written in 2008 on the actual laramie blog. he mentioned visiting marge murray and amanda gronich playing her. because i play both these characters i feel incredibly connected to them. almost like i know them. it's so interesting to read the real blog and articles about the tectonic members because i feel that i'm a part of it. not directly obviously, but to know the names of the people they mention, and the places and descriptions they give, i think it's really cool. and i know i am going to have a hard time when our show ends. not that i'm anticipating it, of course, we still have the entire week to go! but i feel like i can connect with the real members because they even say in the play that it was hard to move on afterwards, that they were stuck after the whole thing. sometimes i just can't wrap my mind around how beautiful this entire piece and experience is. it's getting extra emotional at rehearsals now, especially with the lovely music, and it's all just really deep and beautiful and moving. i can't say enough how honored i feel to be playing such amazing people. and everyone is doing a really amazing job and i'm so glad the cast has gone through the entire process together. i'm so grateful for everything. i am SO ready for our last dress rehearsal and for opening night!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
spread the love
When I first began to work on The Laramie Project, it did not really occur to me that this was more than just a piece of theater for entertainment. This script depicts humanity, in the strongest way, through text; real life quotes from real life people for real life people. From my perspective, everyone in the cast and crew has been respecting and appreciating the characters they are playing or listening to. People have done research on their characters backgrounds, discovering simple things, even down to the kind of jacket their character, the human they are portraying, would and does wear. This is not like anything I have ever done before, and I believe that most of the cast and crew would agree with me…character backgrounds on people who actually exist. We don’t even know these people who the cast is portraying. The most we know about them is from the tiny descriptions the text supplies, as well as the words they spoke that were chosen to be put into the script. We can do extensive research through search engines or Wikipedia, but we will never really know these people. Yet, the effort that the cast is making to portray these strangers is incredible to observe. Imagine if we all made the effort to get to know each other for who we are, and not define each other with short descriptions told by somebody else. We have been taking the time to learn the ins and outs of the characters, who are actually people; learning how they tick, what makes them tick, where they come from, what they come from, why they say things, how they say things. What if we did this with the people we meet on a regular basis? Well we would go crazy, but I am taking a vow to always keep this in the back of my mind—taking even just a minute, to maybe, consider what someone is going through. You never really know what someone is enduring, whether it be in a particular minute, hour, day, week, year, or anything further, in the past, present or future. I promise to smile at more people, to talk to more people, ask them how they are. In the end, we are all each other has. If you throw away our surroundings and our materials, it comes down to humanity and there is nothing better than trusting each other. The first step to doing that is being honest and faithful, so I will make an effort to do that myself. I will allow myself to be vulnerable and take initiative when it comes to interacting with others. Even though it is a feeling that could never be explained, love is something that should always be exchanging, through a glance, a hug, a smile, a kiss, a conversation. I just looked up the definition of Love on dictionary.com. There were many definitions, but this one stood out to me the most: Love: affectionate concern for the well-being of others. Is that all it takes? Spread the love .
Daria Feneis, Stage Manager
Daria Feneis, Stage Manager
Saturday, February 20, 2010
nearly showtime
tonight my roommates and i were talking about when they were planning on coming to see the show. and i had also been talking to my friends from high school and letting them know about the dates and whatnot. and as much as i am excited to have my roommates and others see me challenge myself as an actor, i keep telling the people i'm inviting to the show that it's not about me, or any of the other actors, essentially. i mean, sure, obviously, this is is a great opportunity for all of us as theatre artists to collaborate and be talented and awesome together (or something) but i'm really focusing on letting everyone know that it's about the message we're trying to spread through this story, which is one about love and compassion and erasing hate. and i've never done that before about shows that i've been in, and it keeps reminding me how honored and blessed and special i feel about being a part of this and being able to spread this message through this beautiful piece of theatre and history.
some thoughts
So I've been feeling really off lately and it's taken me this long to make the connection between this weird feeling and the show. I've felt a lot more vulnerable and sort of as if I could break at any point; which is what happened last night.
We watched this movie about a school shooting called Elephant as a cast and as I was driving home I knew what was coming. I got home and told my aunt about the movie and I was telling her why its different from our show. This movie was purely informational and was just exploring what might occur at a school on a day like this. It was unforgiving; there was no message; there was no recuperation. I'm not criticizing it as a movie at all, I'm just noting that this is they way they approached this subject matter and they did a very nice job of it. I appreciate it as a piece of film and it definitely affected me but its not a movie I ever need to see again. Its not a movie I could describe as one I like. Laramie is different because while it does delve into the horrific details of this crime there is a message. Its a show that leaves you with hope and love. This movie left us with death and insanity and redemption at all; not even for a second. And I'm not saying that they should have because very often in real life that is the case but on a personal level I just couldn't take it.
I was thinking about this as I was leaving my aunt's room and going to my own room and I felt like I was being physically hit over the head. I just stopped dead in my tracks and started crying and could not stop myself for at least a half an hour. Even after I calmed down I slept for maybe about 3 hours that night.
In a perfect world good inspires other works of good and sometimes thats how it goes. Sometimes its not. Sometimes evil is what we get. But good comes out of evil too. Thats the thing we need to walk away with from all of these kinds of situations, I think. I mean yea, two people in Laramie, Wyoming did something unforgivable and heartbreaking but from that mess came Romaine Patterson and her Angels. What a tragically beautiful thing.
Judy Shepard told people to go home and hug their kids and never let a day go by without telling them you love them, and Rulon Stacey comments about how this made him think about his own daughters and how Judy doesn't have her kid anymore. That visual really resinates with me. And so does all of the mother/ daughter stuff going on with Reggie, who is one of my characters, and her own mother.
Lately I've taken to calling my mother for no reason; I just want to talk, or when I get upset, instead of a friend I'll call her. I didn't realize until last night that this show is the reason for that. When I was upset after the movie I called her and she made me feel better and the next day she texted me and told me she was coming up to stay the night and I don't know why but I wanted to cry when I got it.
Sorry this entry is kind of all over the place but I just wanted to get my thoughts down before I forgot them.
-kelsey
We watched this movie about a school shooting called Elephant as a cast and as I was driving home I knew what was coming. I got home and told my aunt about the movie and I was telling her why its different from our show. This movie was purely informational and was just exploring what might occur at a school on a day like this. It was unforgiving; there was no message; there was no recuperation. I'm not criticizing it as a movie at all, I'm just noting that this is they way they approached this subject matter and they did a very nice job of it. I appreciate it as a piece of film and it definitely affected me but its not a movie I ever need to see again. Its not a movie I could describe as one I like. Laramie is different because while it does delve into the horrific details of this crime there is a message. Its a show that leaves you with hope and love. This movie left us with death and insanity and redemption at all; not even for a second. And I'm not saying that they should have because very often in real life that is the case but on a personal level I just couldn't take it.
I was thinking about this as I was leaving my aunt's room and going to my own room and I felt like I was being physically hit over the head. I just stopped dead in my tracks and started crying and could not stop myself for at least a half an hour. Even after I calmed down I slept for maybe about 3 hours that night.
In a perfect world good inspires other works of good and sometimes thats how it goes. Sometimes its not. Sometimes evil is what we get. But good comes out of evil too. Thats the thing we need to walk away with from all of these kinds of situations, I think. I mean yea, two people in Laramie, Wyoming did something unforgivable and heartbreaking but from that mess came Romaine Patterson and her Angels. What a tragically beautiful thing.
Judy Shepard told people to go home and hug their kids and never let a day go by without telling them you love them, and Rulon Stacey comments about how this made him think about his own daughters and how Judy doesn't have her kid anymore. That visual really resinates with me. And so does all of the mother/ daughter stuff going on with Reggie, who is one of my characters, and her own mother.
Lately I've taken to calling my mother for no reason; I just want to talk, or when I get upset, instead of a friend I'll call her. I didn't realize until last night that this show is the reason for that. When I was upset after the movie I called her and she made me feel better and the next day she texted me and told me she was coming up to stay the night and I don't know why but I wanted to cry when I got it.
Sorry this entry is kind of all over the place but I just wanted to get my thoughts down before I forgot them.
-kelsey
Monday, February 8, 2010
close to home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgRLWMO78DY
thanks to Kaitlin, who flagged this video of WBC protesting at Rutgers University, our southern NJ counterpart.
Despite being 2010, in the 21st century, and despite their deceptive mask of Christianity and Jesus Christ, people are still preaching hate over tolerance.
thanks to Kaitlin, who flagged this video of WBC protesting at Rutgers University, our southern NJ counterpart.
Despite being 2010, in the 21st century, and despite their deceptive mask of Christianity and Jesus Christ, people are still preaching hate over tolerance.
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