Freedom & Flurries, Collaboration & Cooking
Well, what with essays and major homework projects done until May and the latest bit of travelling properly recorded in photo, blog, and journal formats, and all my reading for the week done, things are looking almost eerily quiet here on the not-quite-homefront. Never in the past two years at least have I descended so far on my to-do list--I've even got books on there to read for my own personal enjoyment! Yes, this is definitely a part of why I came here--to isolate myself from the wonderful madness I would otherwise be joyfully but hopelessly drowning myself in at the moment. It's not that I have nothing to do. I just don't think I'm the type. But I finally have time to do all the things I always wish I could, but never quite have the time for. So I'm looking forward to a few weeks of that, at least.
In other news, the snow has continued in fits and flurries here, much to my chilly delight. It's just so fascinating to wake up, glance out my bedroom window, and see frosty flakes of whiteness meandering through the sky. It never sticks around long, but we do get a little while of powdered dusting before the sun comes along again to melt it all away. I took a walk in the stuff yesterday, which was quite fantastic.
Today I had a meeting with my group for Creative Drama. We're working on our main project for the class, a performance of about ten minutes we are to write and then perform at the end of the course. I'm really excited about the project, although it's definitely a challenge. We got into groups pretty randomly, which I don't think was the best way to go about such a long-term project. Really, I think, we should have each shared what kind of work we were interested in doing with the whole class, and then people could have joined up with others with compatible goals. Because really, you all have to be passionate and invested in the direction your piece is going, or else you'll never get anywhere. At least, that's my analysis of the situation after the first week of working on the project. We had an interesting starting point (looking at old photographs and finding the stories they suggested/inspired) but without any real idea of where we wanted to go from there, what we wanted our work to do, and why we were concerned with photographs or stories, we were basically getting stuck.
So at today's meeting we talked about our own personal opinions, passions, and beliefs regarding the purpose of theatre and the kinds of questions we would want audience members to come away asking themselves. It was a very helpful process, and I feel like I really clarified to myself why exactly I'm going into theatre and what I want out of the theatre I make. The trouble is, although the three of us in the group have a lot in common in terms of goals and beliefs, we also have some fundamental differences. For instance, while I feel the whole point of theatre is to encourage audience members to form their own definitive opinions, one of the other girls in the group doesn't really have or seem to believe it's important to have strong opinions. Which, as those of you who've known me for more than a good five minutes can probably attest, are the only kind of opinions I have. So that seems to be a perhaps insurmountable conflict. The one possible solution I can forsee would be to examine the very opinion about whether or not you should form strong opinions, by looking at a couple different people with different approaches to opinion-forming. Which could be very interesting. We ran out of time today, so we'll have to meet again on Saturday to clarify our plan of attack and work out something to show the class for Monday. But I think we made a good start today. And really, it was worth it for the insight I gained into my own beliefs and goals even if none of it ends up in the group project.
Also had a lovely dinner with the Skeptics folk tonight. Tomorrow I venture out to the grocery store to gather supplies for some culinary experiments, including a quiche complete with crust from scratch, and possibly a vegetable lasagna. (Any tips/suggestions, Mim?) Which should be a welcome change from the rather monotonous and makeshift diet composed mainly of tortillas, rice, beans, cheese and scrambled eggs in varying combinations to which I've been driven by the lack of time for a trip to ASDA the past few weeks. Then I've got a Metaphysics seminar, and tomorrow evening I'm meeting Justin to watch Waking Life, his favorite philosophical movie. Should be fun. May love and joy rain (or even snow!) upon you, now and always.
In other news, the snow has continued in fits and flurries here, much to my chilly delight. It's just so fascinating to wake up, glance out my bedroom window, and see frosty flakes of whiteness meandering through the sky. It never sticks around long, but we do get a little while of powdered dusting before the sun comes along again to melt it all away. I took a walk in the stuff yesterday, which was quite fantastic.
Today I had a meeting with my group for Creative Drama. We're working on our main project for the class, a performance of about ten minutes we are to write and then perform at the end of the course. I'm really excited about the project, although it's definitely a challenge. We got into groups pretty randomly, which I don't think was the best way to go about such a long-term project. Really, I think, we should have each shared what kind of work we were interested in doing with the whole class, and then people could have joined up with others with compatible goals. Because really, you all have to be passionate and invested in the direction your piece is going, or else you'll never get anywhere. At least, that's my analysis of the situation after the first week of working on the project. We had an interesting starting point (looking at old photographs and finding the stories they suggested/inspired) but without any real idea of where we wanted to go from there, what we wanted our work to do, and why we were concerned with photographs or stories, we were basically getting stuck.
So at today's meeting we talked about our own personal opinions, passions, and beliefs regarding the purpose of theatre and the kinds of questions we would want audience members to come away asking themselves. It was a very helpful process, and I feel like I really clarified to myself why exactly I'm going into theatre and what I want out of the theatre I make. The trouble is, although the three of us in the group have a lot in common in terms of goals and beliefs, we also have some fundamental differences. For instance, while I feel the whole point of theatre is to encourage audience members to form their own definitive opinions, one of the other girls in the group doesn't really have or seem to believe it's important to have strong opinions. Which, as those of you who've known me for more than a good five minutes can probably attest, are the only kind of opinions I have. So that seems to be a perhaps insurmountable conflict. The one possible solution I can forsee would be to examine the very opinion about whether or not you should form strong opinions, by looking at a couple different people with different approaches to opinion-forming. Which could be very interesting. We ran out of time today, so we'll have to meet again on Saturday to clarify our plan of attack and work out something to show the class for Monday. But I think we made a good start today. And really, it was worth it for the insight I gained into my own beliefs and goals even if none of it ends up in the group project.
Also had a lovely dinner with the Skeptics folk tonight. Tomorrow I venture out to the grocery store to gather supplies for some culinary experiments, including a quiche complete with crust from scratch, and possibly a vegetable lasagna. (Any tips/suggestions, Mim?) Which should be a welcome change from the rather monotonous and makeshift diet composed mainly of tortillas, rice, beans, cheese and scrambled eggs in varying combinations to which I've been driven by the lack of time for a trip to ASDA the past few weeks. Then I've got a Metaphysics seminar, and tomorrow evening I'm meeting Justin to watch Waking Life, his favorite philosophical movie. Should be fun. May love and joy rain (or even snow!) upon you, now and always.
1 Comments:
It does not seem likely that outside his poetry he was a very simple minded Catholic or Protestant or Atheist, as some have maintained; but we cannot be sure -- as with those other poets we can -- that in his works he expressed his deepest and most cherished convictions on ultimate questions, or even that he had any.
A.C. Bradley
So, I think it's authoritative. Shakespeare had no strong opinions and you shouldn't either. :P J/K
Uncle Frank
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