Rose Passion, Dutch Tulips, Coco Mademoiselle.

Channelled my inner Bel Rowley this evening for Christmas party schmoozing, and schmooze I did. 

&c.: Ohmyword I am so smitten with this new skirt. I wish it came in several different colours because I would buy one in each.

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, and I do hope you all get what you wished for, eat tonnes of delectable goodies, and generally have a day filled with joviality and general wonder 

xxxxxxxxxx ALL THE LOVE

Spent the day in the room, furiously finishing my Origins review, and reading Oedipus for tomorrow.  Discovered that rain is particularly comforting in Winters, but only if you've nothing to do for the rest of the day.  Today would be perfect for curling up under the duvet, but alas.

Boisterous October weather.

Well, hello there October!

I can't even express how happy it makes me the leaves have started turning here, because the campus is made twenty-six times (that's a calculated number, by the way!) prettier with all the colours.  It makes me really hope that Winters decides to have a leaf-raking-and-jumping bonanza, just because that's the sort of thing we would do.  That would make me the happiest little university student ever.

As for actual university-related things, all seems to be going okay.  Theatre classes are all still amazing, Film is okay, but my tutorials aren't that great, and French is... French.  It's nice to be speaking the language again, but I still don't really know how I feel about my prof.  She just seems sort of... aloof and unapproachable, at least right now.  Maybe, after a few weeks, I'll have a better feel for her.

I've finally finished up my Carpentry classes for Stagecraft (lots of fun; we built boxes and learnt some very basic things about set design and construction, and I guess that'll be expanded upon next term), which means, I'm in the Costuming labs next, and guess who's over the moon? This girl! That's the reason I'm going to interview for Production at the end of the year (well, also because I genuinely like backstage work as much as the onstage stuff), to be honest; if I can spend five hours a week in front of a sewing machine, I will be pleased as punch.  And they tell us to keep an open mind about all aspects of the program, which of course, I'm trying to do, but I'm already interested in everything, so it sort of simplifies everything for me!

This weekend's going to be cut a touch short because I have Crew on Friday and Saturday, so I won't be getting home until Saturday aft, but I suppose it's still a decent amount of time off.  It'll be nice to have dinner with the fam-jam, but I don't think I'm going to be able to help make dinner this time around, because we're having our do on Saturday night because of conflicting family plans (boooooo!).  Maybe I can still make gravy or something.

Meghan and I also realised that we aren't going to go broke the way normal university students do; we're going to end up on the streets because we see too many shows.  We've gone to two already, and we're seeing two more (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead at the Hart House Theatre; Tear the Curtain at the Bluma Appel) in the next... two weeks, I think? But both sound like absolutely amazing productions, and I've heard G&R has been very well received, especially by the people in our program who have seen it.  Can't wait! I've started keeping a journal of the shows I see (as prompted by my Origins of Theatre prof - an absolute gem of a man), so I'm hoping those will both be very positive entries.

One last thing: books!  And words, of course.

 
Last week, I started - and finished - The Emperor of Paris by C.S. Richardson.  This book.  This book, darlings.  It is the bitter-sweet chocolate of the literary world; absolutely delicious prose, and sentences to make a bibliophile sigh and swoon, but with a story which reads like a photo album, and feels like a skinned knee.  The format of the book is a bit of a puzzle, because it has two separate chronologies which fit together individually, and then collectively at the end (much like Memento, but minus the amnesia), but it's not inaccessible or elevated by any means.  It flows far too well for that.  And the language.  Poetic and simple and beautiful and certainly not something I expected to find in the New Releases section of Indigo (really, it was just lying on the table - and of course, an historical drama which unfolds in le Gai Paris is mandatory reading), but I'm ever so glad I did.

I cried, at the end.  Just a little, but I did.  And I'm still sitting here like a besotted teenager just thinking about it.

I've also made a sort of introspective realisation: I can never be a book critic.  Ever.  But that's okay, really.

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So here's what's happening:

Apparently I haven't written anything since May, which is just appalling behaviour on my part.  My sincerest apologies to anybody who actually does read this; I'll send you baked goods in the hopes you'll forgive me.

First and foremost: I've officially started university (which is old news to pretty much everybody, but typing it out still makes me feel lovely and giddy). There really hasn't been much time to actually let myself get accustomed to everything, since our Department essentially just throws us in and makes us figure things out for ourselves. 

Backing uuuuup quite a bit: we had our first Company Meeting sometime last week (already, it's become a blur!), and all of us first-years got a chance to meet all our heads, and see the designs for the first show we're putting up, called Wounds to the Face.  More on that later, because while it sounds really, really interesting, it takes a bit of time to explain.

Crew's also started, which means, for me, no work for a little while, lots and lots of work moving things and loading the set in, and then no work again.  

This morning, our regular Stagecraft lecture was thrown out the window, and we spent three hours in our BIGBIG theatre, going over terms, and then we had a walk-around tour.  Let me tell you, being 75 feet off the ground, with only an inch-and-a-half of steel grating between you and a rather nasty free-fall, is a pretty eye-opening experience.

That's about it for actual school-related stuff, aside from classes, which are pretty neat for the most part.  I absolutely adore my Theatre professors.  That's about everything I can say on the matter without rambling on for lines and lines of text.  They're fabulous.  Seriously.  Love 'em.

Also: it's finally starting cooling down to acceptable temperatures around here, which means cozy sweaters, thick wooly scarves, and of course, coats.  Coloured leaves and pumpkin-flavoured everything (I think every single coffee shop here serves a pumpkin-spice latte; personally, I don't like.  Not really), puffs of breath and bundling up on chilly nights.  I find I do a lot more reading during this kind of weather, because it just seems like the perfect environment for it.  I'm still plugging away at the Book List, and enjoying quite a few of them - I've also made some changes to the list itself, because some books are just impossible to find.

The ones that stand out as absolutely beautiful pieces of literature?

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafòn

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

I highly recommend all of them! I'd elaborate, but generally, if a book makes my head fall back and puts a lump in my throat, there's way too much to even talk about.  But yes; if you get the chance, pick any of them up and love them a little.

And nooooooow I think it's probably best I get on with my Stagecraft assignment.  I need to start channelling my Hemingway (does anybody understand how amazed I was when my prof told us to try and emulate Ernest? No long-winded essay-writing!) to get the narrative right, but I'm determined to do well on this assignment.  

Just switched the kettle on, and organised my notes, and I am all set to go!

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Here's to all the years ahead....

And to our Zombie Prom.

With tonight being closing night, I suppose this would be an excellent time to write up everything that's happened in the past few weeks, since I've been too busy/knackered/dead to even contemplate school work, let alone blog posts.

We've had a fantastic run of the show, so far.  It's been hectic, and I can't say my body is thanking me for pushing it so hard this week, but the energy resulting from all the extra effort on everyone's part is just amazing.  Matinee-Evening Thursday, Matinee-Evening Friday, with one final show tonight, and I cannot wait. 

But there is, of course, one enormous personal tragedy with the final closing of the curtain at 9:30ish this evening.  Knowing that, as of then, I will never, ever again be on that stage again as a performer.

I honestly cannot imagine how I'm going to react to tonight's closing speeches/cast party.

I still can't fathom that my life as an Aldershot theatre kid is coming to an end.  I mean, the shows have been my life for the better part of six years, and I owe a huge part of my soul to the program.

I've worked both onstage and behind the scenes for three years, and at least 10 productions, whether they're school-wide or just for class.  And it... it just strikes me that even though I'm going to university to study Theatre, this is where I really had my start.  And I'm so thankful that I decided to audition for Pirates of Penzance all those years ago, and then carry on auditioning subsequently.  I really will miss it.  God, I will.

Sephton's making two speeches this evening, one before the show, to just talk to everyone about how well everybody's done, and how proud we should be of ourselves, and one after, to tell the audience how awesome everyone is, how hard they've worked, how devoted each and every actor, from the chorus to the leads was, and hopefully he can put into words what I'd like to.  I have never had this much fun working on a show, and even though being AD/Co-SM/Props Coordinator/Senior Cast Member/Director's Reminder-er of Common Sense, on top of having to learn a new role in less than two weeks, I've enjoyed every single minute of it.  There may have been times that I worked myself into a bit of a frenzy over things, but this is the best way I can think of to finish my time as an A-shot Theatre kid (Hehe, I should start a brand with that, I really should.  We could get t-shirts and everything).

I said last night in my little speech to the cast, as a sort of pep talk, that if I "didn't stop talking soon, I was going to start rambling and possibly crying", and at this point, it really looks like that might happen tonight.  I can't put into words how I'm feeling right now or how tight my throat and chest are, because of the excitement and the sadness of it all, but I guess I'll have to make the most of tonight, and just give 'er.  I know that everybody's going to be devastated once this is all over; you just can't break the kind of bond that a cast with this level of energy has and not expect everyone to be torn up about it.

Speaking of the cast: Every single one of them has just been incredible, with all of the work they've put into learning their parts, and just being a totally fun, totally stellar, totally talented group of people to watch grow and expand as actors and actresses.  And stage crew members, of course!  Darlings, if any of you read this, please know that these words cannot possibly express the amount of love, pride and honour that I've had working with each and every single one of you.  I hope you all audition for the shows in years to come, and I get to see most, if not all of your faces when I come back for visits.

I think I've probably exhausted all the coherent thoughts in my head right now (come to think of it, this probably isn't very coherent anyway!), so I think I'll have a quick rest, and get myself ready for this evening.  It's gonna be a long one, and I couldn't be more thrilled.  

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