CLUBBIN' HORROR STORIES

Well children. All has been well in the world of CMU drama. Things have really been busy lately so I haven't been able to post. I audition in a little over a week (Wednesday at 10 specifically) so send good thoughts my way that day.Here's a quick class overview then a story:

Movement: This week is pilates week because our wonderful teacher is gone because the play he's directing opens this week. Today was our first day and it was pretty simple but challenging. Our substitute (who trains our usual teacher) is precious! She has a dancer's body and this short, cute blonde hair. It will be a fun week, and hopefully she'll rekindle the rockin' bod that Matt created.

Audition: Monlogue city USA. We just work monologues everyday and get ready for the audition. It's fun but can get boring watching other people.

Acting: So fun! We're into our scene work now. We work hard on our scenes in effort to get selected for "scene night" which is the night before auditions. Drama Faculty is invited to watch your scene work as well as the rest of CMU. My partner is wonderful and we're working hard... so fingers crossed!

Drama Lit: Oh lord. Here's the thing: I love this class. I hate what we're doing. We're studying Epic Theatre, aka, Brecht's turf. Now for all my CCC girlies, I know you're right there with me in my Brecht hate, but let me reiterate my hate. I hate Brecht. I hate him so much. I hate everything he stands for. I hate that it's all based around an idea not a story or characters. I hate that it involves the audience. I hate that it's basically a sermon in play format. I hate it. There's that. I could go on, but I feel like I'd be more productive otherwise. Anyway, we're still analyzing how Epic theatre has had affects on contemporary theatre... (it only fuels my hate for Brecht.) (that was the last hate shout out, I swear)

Voice & Speech: Working with the phonetic alphabet now and Shakespearian sonnets. We had to write our name (and other stuff) phonetically and I had to call my mom to ask how to say my name. Is it Muh-kenzie, Mack-enzie, mick-enzie? We agreed on Muh-kinzie. So that's that. Our teacher said if we can get all our work done this week we might work on dialects the last week. That would be fun. I hope it happens.

Styles: This class is so wonderful. I love the teacher, love the kids. It is so fun. We start with a fun Shakespeare-ish warm up. Like the other day we called each other Shakespearean insults then got into monologues. My Helena monologue is a beast to conquer... or at least I feel like it is. We hit it hard again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll make some progress!

Directing: We are the Viewpoint capital. Viewpoints are cool. They're designed to get you "thinking like a school of fish". For instance: in one exercise (in groups of 5 or so) you try to all jump, stop, or turn around at the same time with no leader. Viewpoints incorporate tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, repetition, shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship and floor pattern. One excercise we walked in a grid, others (for kinesthetic response) we lined up 5 chairs and moved on impulses, another one we lined up in a column and essentially made up a dance (person by person) then performed in different groups. One exercise I really liked was we got with a partner and made 7 different poses that had to run in the vein of "coming together and moving apart". Then our teacher threw in the surprise of adding text. Then from that we had to move from pose to pose (smoothly) with text. It's a great way of approaching staging and interesting tableaus.

Now the story: GUESS WHO DIDN'T GET KILLED! This girl right here! Guess who almost did? Like 14 kids. Alright so, my friend Marco turned 18 this past week and decided to have a party at Club Zoo, which is an underage club in Pittsburgh. UNDERAGE MY FOOT. Children (sketch children, not CMU kids) were smoking up a storm and actin' a fool. So, my girl Jenna and I classily rolled up in a Yellow cab, got the driver's number, went in and told the birthday boy happy birthday, then politely called the driver and said goodbye. We avoided all conflict. Then I went up to my room and wrote Jenna's grandparents a thank you note for taking me to dinner the night before. MEANWHILE...

Horror Story 1: My girlies Erin & Katie took the riskier route and stayed to party it out. They departed the club around 11 or so to get back for curfew at 12. All the cabs were getting snatched up at the club, so they walked down a block with a group of other friends to see if there were more cabs. Keep in mind these circumstances: it is STORMING, and they're in the middle of sketch Pittsburgh. All of the sudden this tough-going group of men come around the corner. The other friends take off running. BUT Katie can't run because of her broken foot! So Erin (and Eve, Erin's roommate) stay with Katie. BUT the tough men start running after them! They legit described it as that one scene in Twilight were Bella nearly gets raped (which sounds dumb but is accurate). THEN, by the grace of God, a cab pulled around the corner and they quickly got across the street to it. Creepy men followed. Luckily the cab driver was their Edward Cullen and told the men to leave. DANGER.

Worse Horror Story 2: So, same circumstances, outside club zoo, storming. This time a little after 11. A group of about 10 of my friends are frantically trying to get a cab, but they're all taken outside the club. Also, a group of girls were getting arrested so that created a transportation obstacle as well. They tried calling Yellow Cab but they were just getting progressively pissed and told them all their cabs were already in the strip district (where the club is). So, next option, look for a bus. They walked about a block before a bus finally stopped. They asked if the bus went to Oakland (CMU district) to which the driver replied "I can go close to Oakland!" The kids were just grateful for that much and got on. The bus reached the last stop and those kids got off in the middle of sketch-danger-middle-of-nowhere USA. They had no clue where they were. Then the police roll up. To help them? Oh no. To warn them that they're in a gun zone and that someone had just been shot 3 blocks down. The police couldn't help because they had to get to the gun shots. AWESOME FOR THEM, HUH? Now, the downside of this is I actually do not know how they ended up getting back. I think they called campus police and they helped. That's what I would like to believe happened. BUT they got back at 1:00 and were in BIG trouble. They're on "probation" (which doesn't sound like a huge deal) but I just feel sorry for those kids because of their awful experience.

I would have been scared for life. But it makes me feel thankful for how classy Jenna and I are. Just think, while these kids were nearly getting raped I was writing thank you notes. HA.

This was good and long. So I won't feel obligated to post again for awhile.