Deranged Ramblings

A short but violent storm hit here yesterday, and while I was largely unaware of it in my dark little cubicle, it wreaked a bit of carnage outside. On the way home from work, I came to a very busy intersection of two major roads where the traffic lights had very recently gone out and there was not yet an officer on the scene to impose order. Behind my anxiety and eager desire to get home, I found the situation interesting on a conceptual level. What would happen, I was curious to know, in the absence of some kind of arbitration of order, without the presence of law? Last year an acquaintance of mine tried at great lengths to convince me that any kind of prescriptive law or governing body was by its very nature repressive and restrictive and that the only truly free and happy society would be found through anarchy. In the absence of these repressive orders, he argued, there would not be violent chaos but some kind of spontaneous and natural order that needed no enforcement by some kind ...

One grows accustomed to all surroundings, of course, but on the first day my fresh eye was drawn to the foreign, the strange, the slightly off – so that by lunchtime on Monday I felt unsettled by the nagging feeling that something was decidedly odd about my new place of temporary employment. It looked nice at first - high ceilings, marble floor in the lobby, ultramodern flourescent lighting, but upon closer inspection there were cracks in the façade. Many of the lights were broken or barely working, and a crack in one wall let in a stream of curious local bugs. Immediately on entry I noticed a sign: “No Smoking – No Weapons.” I was delighted by the implicit assumption behind the sign that these two rules were of equal importance and severity, and then immediately horrified by mental images of a cigarette-smoking gunman running rampant through the building. Then there were the doors, which are somewhat narrower than average yet very tall, reaching right up to the ceiling. Each one is id...

When I lived in Utah, I thought that I couldn’t wait to leave. I wanted to quit the state like a bad job, and leave the entire place behind me. Sure, I had many friends and loved ones who I would leave behind, but I was unsatisfied and restless and found myself growing more irritated with the land where I finally discovered what it was like to call one place home. I think, in retrospect, that it was merely the desire to move on to the next phase of life, the next step in my progression through life, that drove me away, and Utah itself was actually rather blameless. In fact, since my self-imposed exile began, I’ve only grown more fiercely attached to the state I still think of as home. After all, nothing increases your fondness for home like living someplace much, much worse. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve been quite happy here in South Carolina, and have surrounded myself with good and inspiring people (many of whom actually were born and raised here). But it doesn’t compare. Seriously...

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, I had the distinct opportunity to create a solo performance and bring it to life. Here are some pictures from my show, "David & Jonathan":

My, this blog is certainly dusty. Anybody here? Hello? I really need to clean this place up. Maybe a change of curtains and a loveseat in the corner would make me want to be around the blog more often. We are nearing the end of my second year of graduate school, and hasn't the time just flown by. I played Romeo, wrote and performed a one-man show, and now I'm in a play set in 17th century France in which I hide for an entire act in a very small harpsichord. Fun stuff. It's looking like I'll stay here in Columbia for the summer and most of the fall. At some point around December I'll head up to Virginia to work for a regional theater as an intern. I'll play Romeo again in a touring, up-to-date, totally hip production that tours to high schools. And then I'll be graduated! Time really has gone by quickly. Not sure when I'll be back in Utah, but I miss all my friends and relations terribly. Oh, and one other thought: that thing you've always wanted to d...

So I actually found myself with a little free time today, and thought I would put something up here for anybody curious about what I am up to lately. It's a very busy semester! I'm in the process of rehearsing Romeo and Juliet, which has been taking up the bulk of my time. We open on February 22nd or something, and are running alternately with a production of the Tempest in the same space. Playing Romeo is nuts. I have notes in my journal from my time in London about the various actors I saw play the part over there, and I was very critical. Now that I'm in their shoes, I'm much more sympathetic. Of course, once there are some pictures I'll put them up here. The second show of the semester was supposed to be "The Inspector General" but it got canceled for reasons passing human understanding. Still no official word on what will take its place, so for now we are just not thinking about it. This semester we also have to prepare a showcase for theaters conside...