ten red hen: Excuses, Excuses.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Excuses, Excuses.

I am so ashamed that I haven't been blogging--I have been very, very busy. Don't believe me?

This year, I've been teaching an Intro Drama class at a high school, the East Oakland School of the Arts (formerly Castlemont) through my employing organization, Opera Piccola. This semester, my class will be doing Week 21 of 365 Days/365 Plays, so I have been generating a syllabus that takes my high schoolers through Suzan Lori Parks' various works and concerns. This is difficult. Shit, her plays are difficult for most grown adults who go to the theater. I'm accepting any advice on this matter. My after-school classes that I was also teaching didn't end til late January.

I acted in a production of the Tempest, with company Ragged Wing. This is the first time I was onstage in 8 years. I'll probably write more about this experience later.

The second I finished my after-school classes, I went into auditions for a (dare I say, BRECHTIAN??) deconstruction of HAIR that I'm directing with students at Berkeley High--using HAIR as a way for the students to interrogate the legacy of the 1960s.

I'm consulting on an amazing project at The Arc of San Francisco, doing a production of Grease with a community of developmentally disabled folks.

I have a company to run now. That means many, many, many grant proposals. Many. Plus more proposals for other things that I'll tell you about if I get 'em. There is actually something quite useful, organizationally, about having to write everything out--pitching the project keeps you really specific about what exactly you're trying to do, plus keeping on top of the budget and timeline and all that. Doesn't mean it ain't tedious as all hell.

Other day-jobby free-lancey type things to keep the bills paid.

And most importantly:

I've been in rehearsal and am three weeks away from opening CLOWN BIBLE with my company. I should have been blogging the process, as it has been a tremendously rich one, but generally I'm working 7am to 10pm and come home and pass out.

Now, look, I know I tend towards hyperbole, but our cast and crew are OUT OF CONTROL with their brilliance. We have a band! We have acrobatics! We have designers! I have the smartest stage manager in the world! Dave Malloy has written a score that will send chills up and down your spine! Buy your tickets, now!

I will have a lot more to say about all this, but let's let it go for now. Enjoy the new website.

# posted by Maya : Friday, March 02, 2007