Showing posts with label theater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theater. Show all posts

Friday, June 08, 2007

An interesting, yet slightly depressing Friday Five

Well Friday's almost over but here is still a Friday Five. This week I'll list five writing related projects I would like to do or have an idea for but have yet to start. This one is hard for me because you know how I hate giving away details about my work before it's completed.

1. I would love to write a children's book. I have an idea for it and I think if I kept the art pretty basic and practiced a lot, I could even do the illustrations. It would feature a dog very similar to Kreeg, some kids and it would be about not fitting in.

2. I always thought it would be fun to do a comic strip. I have an idea for it and the idea would involve very minimal art so I could possibly do that too. The few ideas I have for it would make it a political cartoon but in a subtle way that only clever people would get.

3. There is a mini-movie script that I wrote. I would love to get it made. I've had two other three minute movies made for a contest and those were a lot of fun. This one is longer. Since the writing is actually done it's not technically a writing project but I would never try to get it published in script form. I would need to produce it as a movie. It's something like Mean Girls meets comic nerds.

4. One project that I've been planning for a while but I am seriously afraid of messing up is turning some of my writing into a piece of art where it would hang on the wall.

5. While I hate public speaking in anyway, I always thought it would be interesting to read some of my work out load. Kind of like a poetry reading, except probably not poetry. Sounds weird for someone who hates public speaking but I love performing. Little known fact, in my school days I performed in various dance recitals, choir concerts and in school plays on a regular basis. My plan, once I graduated from high school, was to move to New York City and be on Broadway or move to Vegas and become a flare bartender. But my plans didn't really work out, obviously.

Anyway, enough about that. I'll only depress myself.

On a side note, I heard from one of my writing group no shows. Apparently, 'something came up' and she was only in town for one week so she won't be there next week or ever. I did get another reply from another person but I'm worried that now it will only be me and one other person.
Also, I got another rejection with only $.39 worth of postage. Is the post office slipping up or being nice?

Just finished reading: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Currently reading: The Stand by Stephen King
Just watched: Stick It

Sunday, April 08, 2007

RENT!

YAY! I just got home from seeing RENT again! I am so excited because not only did I get to see RENT, LAAN(Lansing Area AIDS Network) threw an after party where you could meet the cast and crew. I didn't know about it until I was leaving the show with my fellow RENT goers and I saw some of the LAAN staff. I stopped by to say "hi" because none of us had the $50 per person fee for the after party (it's not that outrageous because it is for charity). The LAAN staff was so awesome because they invited all of us to stay for free! I was so out of mind with excitement. I got to meet and chat with the cast of the RENT national tour. It was so exciting. I got them all to sign my RENT poster. I was bummed because even if my camera had been working I wouldn't have brought it since I had no clue about the party and it's not allowed in the theater. It was so amazing. The biggest bummer was that Jenni couldn't be there with me.
And the show was unbelievable. I wanted to jump out of my seat when they started singing RENT, I got goose bumps when Roger started singing One SongGlory and when they sang Seasons Of Love, I was in tears when Mimi sang Goodbye Love and when Collins sang the I'll Cover You reprise and I didn't even realize I was moving along with Today For You Tomorrow For Me, La Vie Boheme and the Tango Maureen until people told me after the show. I want to see it a hundred more times. The music and lyrics have so much meaning and are so powerful and the cast's performance is always so intense. Once again I can't rave about it enough.

I know that I may seem obsessed with RENT and the truth is that I am. This is one of those things that I have writer's envy over. I wish I had written something so amazing that touches so many people. Johnathon Larson made something so incredible and I can't imagine every being able to create something like it.
The reason I love it so much is because I relate to it. There are tons of things about RENT that make me think of my own life. I would list them all but lots of it is just too personal to share with any random people that may wander by. But one reason fits right in on my blog about writing.
No one in my family gets me and a lot of my 'friends' don't either. I'm not even entirely sure that any of them remember I write and that's probably because I make very little money doing it. Alright, I make no money! Anyway, you get a good job that earns you lots of money. That makes you successful which equals happiness. That's what they think anyway.
I've rarely had more money than enough to cover the bills in all my life. Sometimes I can't even pay the bills. And I'm okay with that because I want to enjoy what I do. I don't want to spend my whole life working to pay the bills and be completely unhappy. I want to do what I love and writing is one of those things for me even if I don't make money at it. When I try to explain this to my family they look at me like I'm nuts. When I got this new "good job" my family wondered why I wasn't ecstatic but my first thought was 'when will I have time to write, and paint and play my guitar and I be all alone with no one to talk to'. I wasn't happy about it and I'm still not sure it was the right choice. But to my family it was the only choice because having money makes you happy. That's why when I see RENT, and there are people who are okay with being poor as long as they have time to spend on the things that really matter to them, I don't feel alone. I think to myself 'wow someone finally gets it'. And that's just one of the reasons that I love it so much.