The goal of this work is to explain the process through which I develop a character as an actor. I will explain the crucial elements that I believe great actors exude and also where I have been able--and also unable--to adopt these elements. The act of writing down these ideas is beneficial to myself because it requires me to express on paper what could easily be discussed with any other actor endlessly in circles comparing and contrasting processes and tendencies of practice. I will be able to look back to this particular work in the future and see how I have grown and what principles I'm sure I'll possibly still believe are paramount to great acting. I hope this work will also benefit younger actors who might come across my words and realize that they aren't as clueless and off-the-mark as they might think they are as a result of doing this type of work. I could certainly be the one who is clueless--and only time will answer that question. By exploring and expressing the ways in which I work, I hope I am able to offer some tangible insight to the general public as to what an actor actually does in preparation for a role that they might see onstage or in a film.

My work as a queer, feminist playwright is centered around reimagining the presentation of women and other marginalized people on stage. I write highly theatrical comedies meant to highlight and satirize aspects of presentation and representation related to gender, race and power. This play is titled The Age of Innocence, like the Edith Wharton novel which I have never read. I learned from the internet that Wharton wrote the novel in 1920 when she was 50 years old and thinking about her childhood days in New York City in the 1870’s long before the horrors of WWI. The novel is about the forbidden love and extramarital affair between very wealthy white people who cannot deny their love but are afraid of any impropriety that could threaten their wealth and social status. My play of the same title is inspired by Wharton’s novel and also by the very public breakup announcement made by famous television writer-director Jill Soloway and famous poet Eileen Myles. Soloway and Myles announced their breakup at a museum lecture that was supposed to be about queer media and queer literature. They decided to use the public speaking opportunity to publicly announce their breakup and process details of their relationship with the audience. My play is a comedy that borrows the premise of the Soloway Myles breakup announcement and a little of the structure of Wharton’s novel to examine gender presentation, race, privilege, romance and age.

Communication, involves the skill and craftsmanship of an aspiring artist to investigate the possibilities within. Interaction and communion with the world is amplified by practice of breathing in, during multiple circumstances. Acting is reacting to the world and the multiple microcosms in it. But why is this important, why is this necessary, why is there a need to act, to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances? This University is a place that has given me the opportunity to investigate these curiosities. Not everyone has the opportunity to commit to the investigation of what it means to breathe in the atmosphere in a specific context and to respond with impulse in forms of both sound and movement. This process is investigating what it means to find truth in oneself in response to the space, time, and people. The investigating is of what it means to be, rather than to manipulate a world that caters to the ego, in truth the ego must dissipate. I came here with ideas and determinations, but all of this anticipatory preparation is what I had to let go of in pursuance of truth and the development of a craft. I used to believe my time here was an end point that would lead me to a goal. It is not; it is an introduction to the rest of my life. I am a student now and forever. I encourage the reader to take one thing, consider what it means to be a life long learner.

No description available.

No description available.

There was Vietnam in books. And this war and that war. And is war just? And is justice fair? And is there poetry there? Anywhere? In pockets, around certain corners? On buses? In gardens? On Sundays? And there where? And there why? And says who? And--we should talk about it more. Why don't we talk about war?

Surrendering to what is the nature of compassion, the power of silence, a true commitment to the character, a complete freedom of the imagination, and the will, at any given moment, to let go of who we think we are in order to become who we are meant to be - has been the greatest teacher of all. .-Eckhart Tolle

No description available.

The mass of words written about the German poet and prose writer Heinrich Heine (1?97-1856) is intimidating. He is considered to be one of the most controversial and paradoxical authors of the Western literature, an enigmatic figure among German writers, and the only German writer between Goethe and Thomas Mann to achieve during his lifetime a reputation beyond the bounds of German-speaking countries. He has been termed "the pioneer of radical political literature, an eccentric poet." His works became a milestone of German thought.

During the research for the components of a musical production tour company of “The Sound of Music” (Play by Lindsey and Cruze and Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein), the Producer begins with constructing the organizational structure and ascribing essential jobs focusing on the Stage Manager’s position and his duties. As an organized and informative leader, the Stage Manager’s main responsibility is to create a book which will assist him/her in processing necessary evolving data into a clear and communicative information. During the production phases, The Stage Manager’s book assists with managing technical and artistic needs using distinctive lists: sound, lights, props, costume, and ground plans. Also, it assists the Stage Manager in prompting sound, light and crew cues from a well-prepared prompt script, which generates smooth rehearsals and performances. Thus, in a large musical capacity the creation of a Stage Manager’s book is an inevitable organizational production tool.