Sunday, November 23, 2008

A post with many links

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I've been quite busy, working full-time and taking two classes at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre (one of the perks to working at a large-ish theatre company is that I get to take free theatre classes). I'm taking an acting class, which is pretty straightforward, and a playwriting class, which I'm using to develop a full-length play about a Greek tyrant who inherited the throne from his father, sought to bring equality to a socially polarized city, and ended up going mad, murdering his wife and committing a mass murder of the brightest and wealthiest citizens of Corinth.

That's just what happened in "real life" (if such a thing can be gleaned from the pages of Herodotus). In my play, a conspiracy develops against him, his daughter is raped, and his wife is framed. It should be great fun. I've already admitted to myself that I won't be finishing a draft of the play before the class is over (it, uhh...ends on Tuesday), but I'm hoping to have a solid portion of the first draft completed by then.

In other news, I've been seeing lots of plays. Highlights include: a TOTALLY BADASS site-specific production of Macbeth at Fort Point in San Francisco (this play deserves a post...no, MANY posts unto itself. I've been putting off writing about it because it was just so freaking incredible words won't do it justice.); Mary Zimmerman's latest lovechild, The Arabian Nights (also deserving of a post); a lovely play called Blessed Unrest by Gary Graves (my playwriting teacher) based on Paul Hawkins' novel of the same title; and much more.

In other other news, I landed an internship at Crowded Fire Theatre Company, which should start sometime in early 2009. We're going to tailor the internship to their needs and my interests, so if all goes well, it should include Assistant Directing, researching, marketing, etc.

So yeah. That's what's up with me. What's up with you?

4 comments:

Ben Colahan said...

Trash, and lots of it!

Ben Colahan said...

You should do a post about how corporate Hollywood is colonizing live theatre via Broadway: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/theater/12Shre.html

Daniel said...

That all sounds awesome. I'd love to hear (read) about Macbeth, especially about a production that was THAT awesome. Also, your play sounds really cool; I hope that it is going well.
As for me... nothing of note.

Elana said...

Ben--interesting article! A post is forthcoming, although I can't promise to stick to the discussion you suggested...I know, shocking, right?

Dan--good to hear from you! You'll have to update me soon with something a little more detailed than "nothing of note," but that will suffice for now :).I will have to post about Macbeth, especially before the awesomeness leaks out of my brain. "The awesomeness leaks out of my brain." What a strange expression. I hope to use it as much as possible in the near future.