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 Patrick Lamborn, Michael Jorizzo, Angela Carter, Amanda Schoonover Oh my, it's been a minute. What a busy (and lovely) summer. Last I wrote, I had just started an internship at the Arden, and I was getting psyched for Is This the End? and Seek and Hide. LOTS has happened since then. 1. Seek and Hide was a blast. My day of glory playing a triking (a viking riding around a playhouse on a tricycle) was....well, glorious. It was great to have a project to work on/to meet some other really terrific artists. 2. Is This the End? went quite well! Thanks to the friends who came out for it. I made all sorts of changes to In Many Ways over the course of rehearsals. HUGE thanks to Sam, and to the terrific cast. I learned a lot - it will come in handy when it's remounted with iNtuitons for ATF this fall. Wahoo! Blurry pic from the reading to the left. (Also congrats to the other writers, and a big thanks to Primary Stages.) 3. All done at the Arden for the moment. Had a great summer there. /Got to check out A Little Night Music and Pinocchio before I left, too. As a non-romantic-opera-lover, I still found Night Music totally enjoyable. And as a non-six-year-old, I was completely enchanted by Pinocchio. 4. I got to be a reader (okay, just stage directions, but shhh) for a reading of a new work at InterAct this past month. The piece, called Two Front Teeth, was written by Katharine Clark Gray - one of the core playwrights there. Really neat, moving, complex piece of theatre - focused on the struggles of a lower-class couple, after the husband accidentally knocks out his wife's teeth in a plumbing accident. 5. I was in a student film project before the year ended, and a final cut was just posted online. Wahoo! I sort of co-wrote the script. (I.e. I wrote it, but then they sort of chopped it down by a factor of ten and rewrote it. Cuz apparently a 30 minute mind-trip-cross-cut-chick-flick "wasn't feasible?") Anyway, Missy Gouverne led the direction, and did a lot of the editing. Still a "student film" project, etc (i.e. not a lot of time/artistic freedom). But I think it turned out rather well! Featuring the super talented Jeremy Berman. Check it below. 6. ......I'm in London now! See pics below. Here for a stint, settling/checking out some awesome theatre. It's beautiful, to boot - so I've been taking some pics. I start at Oxford (BADA) on the 11th. Working a monologue, seeing as we have to re-audition when we get there. Getting lots of good ole' inspiration from all the wonderful stuff I've been seeing here. Oh, and BADA just announced three guest artists for the midsummer program. John Barton, Brian Cox and Fiona Shaw. Apparently there will be more. SO I'm feeling pretty damn lucky right now. 7. Oh! New poem. Okay, thaz all for now. Cheerio, and stuff!
Ten days later, and finals are over, I am *somewhat* employed for the summer, Penn class of '13 has graduated, and I'm back home for a stint. I had a blast doing two photoshoots over the past week. One was with the extremely talented and lovely Sarah Middough, and one was with fellow theatre artists Anya, Jay, Maddie and Tom. The latter group (as of Monday!) are now UPenn alumnae. Check out some of my favorite shots below. (Will upload more of them on the photography tab when I get around to it....) Also, found out about a week ago that a play of mine will be included in the iNtuitons Alternative Theatre Festival (ATF) as part of the Philly Fringe! Whee! iNtuitons produces the festival at the start of each fall semester - it's comprised of 4-6 short, original and "experimental" plays. I will be directing my own piece, called In Many Ways. (I wrote it this semester for my play-writing class. etc etc etc.) Very stoked. In other news, I've seen a lot of wonderful theatre these past few weeks. Had the opportunity to attend several readings of original work, reconnected with some old theatre friends, made some new ones. Feeling super inspired. On that note, here also is a charcoal & pastel I made of e.e. cummings. I was staring at a Klimt card when I was finishing it up, so. He's in there too. Sorta. Happy summer, officially! (but not technically.) The school year is winding down, the weather is getting warmer, and the summer is teeming with ALL of the projects. 1.) Just found out I've been selected to direct A Midsummer Night's Dream for iNtuitons Experimental Theatre this upcoming fall! Couldn't be more excited. Check out the announcement on our fb page. And check out this nifty Pinterest page where designers are already brainstorming. I'm going to spend a lot of the summer preparing for September, when we will cast/begin rehearsing the show. It will likely go up in November. 2.) It seems like everyone wants a photoshoot this month. Which is great, cuz I love taking pikchas. Just did a shoot with the lovely Kendra Birdsall (pic below, also more in "Recent Captures" under photography). I have at least two more shoots booked in the coming week for some lovely actresses I work with at Penn. So stay tuned for more shots. 3.) New pome! Check it. Just the audio, plus the text posted below. Feedback always encouraged and appreciated. 4.) Thanks to my friend Zach, I've finally found a crash spot for Gretchen. My drum set. I'm going to start teaching him to play pretty soon. Hopefully this means I can start giving lessons to others as well! I'm all for spreading the percussion. or, whatever. That's all for now! 
Woww. It's been a minute. I'll go right into updates. 1. Cloud 9 happened! Two weeks ago now, which is crazy. It was probably the most fun I've had performing in a while. The play, by Caryl Churchill, follows the lives (and sexual habits) of a family in Colonial Africa, and then re-imagines them in London during the 1970s sexual revolution. It's a fantastic piece. Check out the full album here. And two of my favorite pics below. 2. I've been doing some shooting! More specifically, I just did a shoot with the fabulous Trevor Pierce. Check out some photos in "recent captures" on the "photographer" page, as well as below. Spring = better light = time for shooting! 3. This Friday, I will be reading the role of Shprintsa in Cary Mazer's brand new Peer Gynt adaptation, called Pinchas Vontz. It reimagines the story through a Jewish/Yiddish lens. The reading is directed by Ed Sobel, and features other Penn students, professors and professional actors. Details here! 4. The iNtuitons First Annual Experimental Play-Reading is this Saturday! Details here. I'm producing the project, which features three original works by professional Philadelphia playwrights. (I am also acting in two of the pieces!) Very excited for this project - it's (kind of) my baby. Also, the poster is beautiful. Also, Jackie Goldfinger will be leading a talk-back. 5. On MONDAY my playwriting class will be having a reading - of our new work, produced in the class this semester. 2:15 pm, Bruce Montgomery Theatre on Penn's campus. I will be acting in the reading, as well as listening to my play read by professionals for the first time! (Very excited.) Class was taught by the inimitable Jacqueline Goldfinger. 6. LAST but not least - Pennsylvania Players is having a reading! April 26. I will be playing Julie in Impenetrable, directed by Jeremy Berman. More details coming soon. That's all for now! In other news, I'm already getting stoked for BADA, and looking for projects for May/June. Have a lovely Thursday! Oh boy. All of the things are happening! I think I'll go ahead and just make a list. 1. Poems! (The Excelano Project Show is in a week in a half. "Split No Lightning.") 2. Lines lines lines! (Children's Hour opens in 2.5 weeks. Cloud 9 opens in 4.5. BADA audition in 1.5) 3. Summer Apps! (Finishing up my very last application for summer acting intensive programs.) 4. Thesis! (Working on a proposal for an honors English thesis for UPenn.) 5. Playwriting! (Something I'm totally new at. Submitted a short piece to a Penn contest, for funsies) In my spare time, I'm writing little short poems, and taking too many pictures. Check out the view from where I'm staying. Other things: I just watched a documentary called "The Artist is Present," about a performance art piece at the MOMA by Marina Abromovic. Check it out. One of those changes-the-way-I-think-about-humanity type things. I also just watched Amanda Palmer's TED talk. (Fun fact: I was at the gig when she first "practiced" the talk. If you track down the video, I'm sitting in the front row in an awkward green tank top.) Anyway, it was super inspiring. It's about the music industry, but also how art functions as an honest/personal exchange between artist and audience. In other news, here's a video I acted in for a friend last year. (See below.) It was one of those "final project" type videos for a Video I class. I.e. all of us working on it agreed it was totally abysmal. But....The music! Is spectacular! And written by my extremely talented older sister, who wants to score films professionally. Check out that film score. And check out her website.  It's official! EP raised $1,100 for WE CAN at our Cape Cod gig a few weeks ago. Super proud of The Excelano Project. Making money while making art to raise money to help other people make a change? Kind of the best thing ever. In other news - went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Today. And spent 45 minutes sitting in the Cy Twombly Trojan War Room. Anyone who's into contemporary (or really any) art - check that shiz out. It's breathtakingly beautiful. (See below photograph of one Lauren Yates, in said room. And one VanJawn, looking like a 12-year-old outside the museum.) In other news - rehearsals for Children's Hour and Cloud 9 are progressing swimmingly. So very excited. In other news - I recently lined up an audition for the BADA Summer in Oxford program, and an interview with the Stella Adler Studio in NYC for their Summer Conservatory program. *fingers crossed* I can study theatre somewhere this summer. In other news, there is no other news. 
This week, I had the pleasure of doing a casual shoot for one of my very best friends - the inimitable Lauren Yates. Lauren (who goes by Yates, more than Lauren) is an incredibly talented poet and performer, and a recent graduate of UPenn. We wrote together in The Excelano Project for three consecutive semesters (i.e. she patiently taught me how to write, perform and edit for three consecutive semesters). Check out her blog. And when her chapbook drops, buy that shiz. Below are some of my favorite images from the shoot. (Location: the bio pond at the south end of Penn's campus.) |
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January 2016
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