A Note of Interest

For some reason, today, I am feeling abnormally brave.
I would hesitate to share my writing in any way shape or form, but my illness from yesterday must have carried over today and made me a fool.

I will surely regret this in the morning...
However, all the same, I've learned to take advantage of my fleeting moments of insanity and act upon them.
Below, I link various forms of my writing and enjoyment.

I admit myself that my style is not for everyone, but perhaps someone will share my amusement.

Musings - a new collaborative project of three aspiring writers (which some might see if they click upon the changed username)

Cienpher - my ongoing hobby and a record of characters I have played in writing (only a fraction, for many have been deleted due to a glitch of the site); as I have explained once, long ago, while I am often too shy as an actor in the physical sense, I am obsessed with acting through text.

Feine Haleseer - currently my most prominent online persona; this one in particular is of peculiar nature, because there are few who would admit to writing in a serious fashion about Pokemon of all things... but all the same, I greatly enjoy playing this role in this humorously crafted world.

Again, I am sure that I will regret this in the morning, but at this moment, I would regret not sharing it, so... whatever. Whether you read'em or not is purely your choice.

Mother Courage Live Notes

Holy crow, my notes make no sense. I need to stop jumping around

Brecht and Mother Courage and Her Children

• Thirty Years' War
• Went to experience the actual 'set'
• bones and skulls, just piled up... just... terrifying
• loaded into the bottom of a church?
• Meryl Streep: "This plain has seen so many wars... fought over... an interpretation of the bible"
• "Stripped open" "Theatre is forced to respond"
• Jeanine Tessori
• Costumes 'no specific historical moment' but it should be recognizable
• Kevin Kline (the Cook)
• "Maybe there's a way the world could change so that that wouldn't happen anymore?"
• "The harm they do"
• "He decided that it was his job to give himself up for someth... I missed the quote, darn it
• "It would just be a scream of pain"
• "Is that truth strong enough or bold enough to fill out this space?"
• "Her business must thrive to protect her family, but what she doesn't see is that protecting her business would destroy her family"
• "You don't think 'oh well serves you right Mother Courage' you think just, 'Oh my God' because you can see that..." - you can see the reasons behind everything
• Mother Courage, that's your son... oh my gosh, that poor woman... that's terrible, just... there are no words to express what Meryl Streep conveys with her presence
• Brecht interrogation: pretended he didn't speak English
• Brecht wrote most of his plays, including Mother Courage, in exile
• Many artists committed suicide because they were accused of being Communist (the Red Scare)
• Hollywood tin - Brecht left America the day after his testimony
• "Always looking for ways to have commentary in the action"
• "It's not virtue that pays in this world... but wickedness. Just how the world is. And it shouldn't be that way."
• "People use God"
• Brecht puts twists in the emotions
• "The Fatal Virtue" - tragic characters are supposed to be killed by a flaw, but with Brecht (and Shakespeare) they are killed by their virtues (which at one point, does become a flaw)
• He does not blame the characters
• It's not the characters that have to change - it's the society they're in
• Change the context in which these people make their decisions
• Duality is evident in his plays (characters, settings, situations)
• How abrupt is a director?
• "What attracts us to that which destroys us?"

Sophie's Choice (Meryl Streep + Kevin Kline)
Iron Weed (Meryl Streep + Jack Nickelson) - the crew thought she was dead

July 21, 2006

• Crisis in the Mideast: Enemy in Eye
• Partisan Divide in Iraq exceeds Vietnam
• END THE WAR
• DARN GOOD LIAR
• We, The People, SAY NO

Meryl Streep:

• "Someday, you should do this role"
• Readaloud vs. Actual Performance; similar yet different - a striking difference
• "I'm the voice of dead people, and I'm the one who interprets the lost songs."
• "Show me your new building and you show them the plumbing and the sewerline"
• Mother Courage - the scene where she denies the corpse is her son is so painful...
• Oh gosh, poor Mother Courage ;__;
• The Song of Great Capitulation is amazingly expressive; so discordant yet fits with the jovial melody... o...o
• Why she did she want to do this play: the lullaby
• in that moment, she is only a mother, saying "Why?" 

Barbara Brecht:

• "I had a very happy childhood"
• "I don't know how they managed it, but my parents made it seem like we lived in a very safe and happy world"
• "I was not even three when we fled the country"

Berlin - "It is a ghost city." "War has indeed come home to Germany, and the German people"

• Ruins... like the Wastes of Aethes
• German announcement of Mother Courage's debut
• "...gains nothing but stands to lose everything"

BTB: A Response to a Response

I am always so eager for constructive criticism - so anxious, worried, and eager all at the same time that I can't call it anything other than unhealthy. It is so rare, so difficult to find unbiased critique and the fact that the IBY1 Theatre Play has brought such an opportunity is one of my greatest joys.

Mr. Black's response was direct - all the points made are true. I will admit that most of my attention in reading was devoted to the 'lighting' section, my contribution to the production. His praise for use of the followspot inspired much confidence in me particularly, because much of those decisions were my contribution. His more constructive points were a tad hard to read (mainly because I have this absurd sense of pride/perfectionism) but they were all true points that I will surely remember to consider in the future. With his advice, and given that future productions will be slightly less pressed for time, I feel that should I ever be a part of the lighting production team again, I will be able to improve.

Regarding the set: sight-lines. It was an unfortunate oversight on all our parts regarding the positioning of the audience. However, we live and we learn - in the future we shall be more careful.

A Talk with Miss Nancy Kim

Note Time~

• All businesses change with time; the Dark Ages are no more
• Not talented in acting but shares a love for theatre; somewhat like me
• Volunteered for a university production directed by Robert le Page
• not an actor's director; perfects the first scene before moving on
• all the actors must be present or the process would not work
• perfection > continuity
• Mask Theatre/Physical Theatre
• University of Toronto Drama Program
• as a theatre person, you must take acting even if you are not an actor
• vocal and kinetic training
• Good Soul (GS): disconnect between intent with physicality/dialogue/breath

You don't do theatre for money - you do it for love

• Stage Management 

Art is Survival

• French Theatre; holograms
• Beauty and the Beast
• Macbeth
• Robert Wilson; aggressive
• Eating a banana for twenty minutes; pulls out another?
• The importance of stillness
• walks out very slowly, gets to the podium, looks down at the podium, looks up at out at the people, takes it in; literally five minutes
• (person organizing the even was freaking out XD)
• (walked in a few years ago, stood there for ten minutes, and then walked out)
• five minutes later he starts talking about stillness
• a time when he was at the zoo; spent about twenty minutes near closing time; there was a  wildcat and they didn't move, just stared at each other
• he discovered so much movement in the stillness
• Those who worked with him knew it was a great opportunity, but they hated it
• walked from one side of the room to the other from 9AM to 5PM
• Wilson was trying to remove the tics and normalize the movements of their bodies; remove the unnecessary movements
• stillness; spurt of energy
• Most profound impact on Miss Kim as a director
• acting teacher studied with Jack Lecoq; a very physical person who found importance in creating meaningful actions within a script
• be ready or be torn down
• many people leave crying, but it forces them to reflect
• raise the standards
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• The granddaughter of Bertolt Brecht says that if he were alive, his theatre would have changed
• he never wanted to be pinned down into any one style

• Unbiased theatre critique >www< yeeeeessss
• Oh gosh, I don't even have to write it down; I will remember this all
• I am way too eager for constructive criticism ""OTL

Miss Kim sometimes runs out of things to say, but she becomes just so enthusiastic when she talks about the practitioners such as Robert Wilson; her love for theatre is contagious >w<