The Dark Knight was worth the exhaustion

saw the midnight showing of dark night
private screening
with THE richard ryan (who was fight arranger for the film)
and a bunch of actor combatants, AC's in training, fight masters, fight directors and CT's of the SAFD
and did i mention richard ryan
who used his celebrity to get us not only our own theatre but got us in without waiting in the mile-long line
admit it
you're jealous
;)

Letter number two - electric boogaloo

Another copied letter - i know i know.. but seriously there's not enough time to blog on our breaks - and by the time i get back to my laptop of an evening... forget making sensical phrases much less telling a story... so here are the highlights from an update i sent a friend (in fact one who recommended this workshop to me in the first place)

day five just passed - or 5 weeks later, in safd workshop years... i have little grasp of time these days (altho i understand space now in an entirely new and heretofore unthinkable manner...) so much information has been thrown at me (and absorbed!) the last few days i'm simultaneously reeling and giddy - and have retained much of it!

this is seriously, the most amazing experience i've ever had in my entire creative life - anyhow - i promised gossip... this is as close as it gets for now...

• um... broadsword is so ridiculously kickass that i can't contain myself!
• R&D and our 1/2 course in small sword is hurting my brain (no experience other than that 8 move bit i had in the tavern scene in A.P - and half of that fight was really unarmed) but am getting it and each revelation is a crazy exciting win... got the r&d room to myself with one partner for the first hour of our first rehearsal night tonight and drilled my ass off... am getting it - and it's kinda wheeee...
• K. Jenny is not only an awesome and really Real person, but her approach to unarmed is revolutionary and so damn Smart! she's changed my whole perception of theatre completely - and i;m sorta in awe of her.... despite the fact that's she's completely approachable... and has even helped me when peeking in on other classes...
  
• Richard is just iconic and everyone is in awe of him - all the students have an admitted teacher-crush on him - male and female with no concerns about sexual orientation... it's the combo of skill and confidence and accent (damn we americans are suckers) but Martin (last name..last name...) is assisting and also super awesome - and helps immensely with reinterpreting something that's off when i'm not getting it (and i got to - and succeeded at - cracking a whip in his master class!)
• Brimmer... ha! I adore him (between you and me) - he Totally called me out for being in patriot (and it was so cool he remembered me - but apparently i'm a 'dead ringer' for an old friend of his - go fig :P) and he's so canny.. we have (in my track we have broadsword last- they're shuffling us every few days but i've been on the same schedule so far) first few days spent discussing concepts and asking what we've already learned (and all of us striving to impress then reMember what we learned and then didn't bother to re-teach us anything but moved forward... Broadsword is the only class we have any of the 'official choreography' for - altho there's a sound looking rumor going on about a sequence in r&d we've been working on...
• i just realized what a dork i am and how little you probably care about these little details... i'm this high on the entire experience and apologize for the freaked-out-excited-rambling :P)
  
• the general consensus of brimmer can be summed up thusly: his name was mentioned - one of my classmates called out the now colloquial 'he's a teddy bear' to which i reposted 'that will eat you' which was met by a general ripple of amused agreement - but i luv'im and he's awesome...
• our first night we had a gathering and there is picture and video evidence of all the instructors playing guitar hero (well - not richard or brimmer - but Jenny played - and 'm pretty sure mike did too - and a number of the other assistants, etc... kinda fun (richard and brimmer held court - and you couldn't help but be drawn in..) then i got caught looking at the bus map (longer story - basically i didnt' have enough time to save up for housing too so found a 'relatively close' sublet) and mike (who remembers you - it came up in the car..) basically insisted on driving me home instead... i also have a definite teacher-crush on him.. not just for the day one kindness... but he's a great teacher - and we get knife on our 'odd hour'NaHalf' for the second half - which i am super-psyched for!

and really at the end of this very long day/week/life... this is incredible - and.. there are no true words at hand to 'sAy' but i know you must understand :D

The joke of this letter is my friend replied with 'say hi' requests... a big sloppy kiss for brimmer - willingly executed, and appreciated (altho he admit it was more fun coming from me than 'twould have been from my friend.. what can i say, the both of us are cute, but i'm cuter ;) a bit of smack-talk to martin (who has quickly become my other favorite teacher-crush... i have to separate my favorite teachers from my favorite teacher crushes from my favorite awe-inspiring instructors because really i am in love with the entire staff, and that includes the interns - the fact of it is i am writing this entry a food week after i am dating it because i'm trying to keep the separation of events to avoid the longest blog entry ever) and hugs to my TC mike and his wife...

which i then (because i read the repost after a bad class when i'm having an 'i suck and the world hates me moment) misinterpret as his clever way of saying dude was married since i used the word crush (in however a facetious manner as it had been intended) but a.) i knew that and b.) teacher crushes aren't sexual or romantic in nature but born out of sheer appreciation of skill and personality... 'I' know this and my class mates know this (it's the floating term for 'favorite' this summer) but i go weird and assume that my friend doesn't know this and parry the statement in my response - to which the reply was 'i have no idea what you're talking about...

i'd be Way more embarrassed if i hadn't been busy making a fool of myself in class all week :P

Letter to a Frog...

notes from my 2nd day (OMG was that only day two? was that only 36 hours ago? are you my mommy?)

I'm currently two days behind - so am cheating... this here is excerpts from an email i sent wildly at 1 am a day and a half ago (or 2 weeks ago in ACW years) and will try to not get too much further behind than i already am - there is so much to tell and so much to learn and time is my oyster...

still sort of following my class around and checking the schedule all the time :P and all our classes are in the same buildinig - but i'm so brain-full and 'oh right' not sleeping that the memorization of a paltry schedule when i have so many other things to absorb is really not worth the entire brain cell it might require... uh do not be surprised if random phrases i throw out at you end up on my blog, i don't have enough time to rephrase concepts i find amusing and may include :P *rolls eyes* wow i'm so tired i'm speaking in smilies I wish i had - forgetting that i Can type it out as a smiley because i'm not currently in chat and will it not animate it incorrectly :P) but AnYway ...sigh... my point is i have lunch in that 12:30ish to 2ish period and may be online most days 'round then cuz i can't really go into the dining hall without the plan and that's where my whole class is usually :( so yay computer lab (OMG i;ve got the tv on and am hearing 'Viva Viagra" [as in - to the tune of 'viva las vegas'] in the background... i kid you not!) and i do want to try and keep up with the blog and late nights is hard... as it is i need to crash asap...

blah blah clearly in exhaustion meets wired mode (crazy awesome master classes tonight... i cracked a whip!! a Real indiana jones type one (and i was the first person to make it happen! - altho i wasn't able to be quite as consistent as some others
in class... martin said he'd totally be willing to practice with those of us interested and unbusy when time and schedule permits.. and i think i Have to take him up on that!! I mean A.) So Awesome!! and b.) how many chix have 'i can crack a whip' on their resume?? and also did a crowd dive masked as a trust exercise - hee! :D) and am simply blathering at you now... gotsta wind down off the late night adrenaline rush and i'm keeping my toxin intake to a minimum so as not to hurt worse than the classes are already taking care of for me so can't try and drug myself to sleep (this is NOT Qui's sunday afternoon class where you can kinda get away with having indulged too well saturday night... not by a Long Shot!)

i can't believe it's only day two.. i can't imagine how much i have to learn and how natural these halting things will be by the time i have done... i am less scared because of fight studio because i know how things just finally click and then you're gold.. that in weeks and an amount of hours i am have already completed more than half of.. on day TWO! and really it's not as bad as i think - tho i am fighting to learn and retrain myself... but broadsword is basically just a VERY Very very freaking heavy kitana (and you have to stay lower and more square to support the weight) but the handling of it is clearly related... unarmed i'm obv familiar with - but treating as if i'm not and K. Jenny Jones (the first female safd fight master in over 30 years - kind of a big deal) has a very different style (both as a teacher and in approach) than i'm used to and of course worlds more experience than anyone i've worked with perviously and as i inferred earlier i have already corrected an actual mistake in my tumbling technique (and one of the assistants actually called me out for doing a good thing today in class and the class intern said i was 'rockin' today... and i thought i'd done badly!) my class is bonding like crazy and they're reportedly shuffling us up again in a few days and I'm Really unhappy about that... we're 18 in our half as it is and i'm still learning all the names straight but we've gone thru all the painful first steps together as well as done special trust exercise classes etc. and we Know each other... and i;m just not a fan of all that mixing it up thing (i was concerned enough as it was about
choosing a spt partner from my current and awesome class) but crap - whatevs,
it's not like i can Do anything about it...

of course i'm also now really unhappy i'm staying off campus, i made a bad call - and am consoling myself that since they required payment in cash and early, i literally couldn't pay the roomNboard too in time (and since i hadn't secured a sublet yet - i was considering it up to the last minute - but as it was i had to pay my tuition 3
days late in order to wait for chex to clear and... i needed the extra weeks to
get the money for my much cheaper sublet... but i'm sad... next time (and
that'll be intermediates in Vegas!!... cuz I'm also thinking why put myself thru
the stress of trying to fit a class into my city schedule (unless it's an unusual weapon) when i can vacay with safd...

the bug?... she has bitten!

Oh ok, just one more thing... rapier dagger? admittedly the most unfamiliar of the forms i'll be tested in - since i Do have a sound foundation in unarmed and broadsword has so many similarities to the kitana - but, we all know how much i love my escrima... and wielding a second weapon and using it as flexibly as the 'primary weapon' is far from unfamiliar.. and the feel of having a flexible yet strong steel weapon in one hand and a dagger almost the length f your stick in the other... it's Awesome, and so cool because i can focus on learning these new positions and footwork and not have to worry about what my silly hands are doing (just a bit of a mindfuck when fighting against the lefthanders in the room - everything flips - but not exactly :P) but, yeah pretty awesome stuff...

OMG Wow!!

So this is a sorrowfully short post as I just discovered the computer lounge and yesterday was WAY too tired to post by the time I got home.. an hour just isn't enough to stuff (necessary!) food things down my throat - do admin blahblah And post everything I've already experienced but I will do my very bestest to catch up before I fall So far behind that fabulous stories of excellence get forgotten in the realms of my own personal fascination...

man the keyboards here are Loud - sorry to the other students :P but what can I say I have loads to speak about and haven't yet discovered how easy it is for me to sneak into the dining hall so I can goof with my class mates between classes...

So far I have already learned the basics of multiple types of swords - relearned some unarmed basics (and begun correcting some bad habits I didn't even know I had) And gotten to listen to a few of my instructors hold court and regale us with their awesomeness... if i can have a career even Half as amazing as theirs have been not only will i never need a 'day job' again but I'll be a V happy and V contented kitteh for the rest of my days...

gotta dash - my cliff bar is calling me and Just enough time for a cup'o'joe (which always struck me as a weird phrase since my dad's name is Joe.. a cup of dad? yeah too weird...)

and this is before the true exhaustion has even set in - it'll be fabulous to see How disjointed these posts become as the brain becomes full and the sleep becomes token....

That $20 you just found in your pocket - put it to good use!

I'm way too sore and still a bit giddy and bemused... yes your mind is in the gutter and yes you'z probably right ;) ... to bother writing any of my own story today... so instead I will do my good deed of the week...

Theater needs your help - so HELP!! (cuz really you were totally gonna waste that $20 on cheetos and porn)

Will LeVasseur sent you a message on Facebook

--------------------
Subject: Help

Hey guys!

I don’t do this very often. However, in light of recent events, it has become a necessity. As many of you know, I’m putting together a show of Lonely Planet by Steven Dietz, though many of you don’t know quite what it’s about.

Set in 1992 during the height of the AIDS crisis, when people were dropping dead left and right, two characters, Jody and Carl, struggle to find their place in the storm whirling around them. Jody, owner of Jody’s Maps, has holed himself up in his store, refusing to leave and acknowledge what’s happening to his friends and neighborhood. Carl, a fixture and customer of Jody’s Maps, keeps bringing in chairs to Jody, to bring to him what he’s missing out his front door. While the subject matter is deep and serious, Lonely Planet is covered in comedy to make this jagged little pill easier to swallow.

This show is important to me for several reasons. 1) It’s my return to the stage as a lead role Off-Off Broadway in four years. 2) The subject matter is very close to my heart as quite a few of those I love dearly are living with HIV and AIDS. And 3) This show is just as relevant now as it was 16 years ago. New HIV cases for 12-27 year olds in NYC for 2007 has risen 85%. Yes, you read that right, 85%. Those of my generation and younger view the AIDS crisis as a page in history. I was 11 when the crisis hit its peak. I, or those my age, have no visceral idea of what it was to live in that era, and now we’re seeing risky behaviors on the rise (New stat came out last week, 40% of those who have multiple sex partners in NYC admit to barebacking, or not using a condom.). There’s no question that we need a wake up call, and my part of that is doing this show.

We’re talking with outreach groups and charities like Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS to get the word out and get people to see this show. To not view this crisis as a thing of the past, but a beast that hibernated long enough to regain strength and has come back to feed.

Now that you know the back story, this is where I ask for your help.

I’ve tapped out all my resources, and my fund raiser netted less than $100 (thanks to those who showed!). Right now, as it stands, if donations don’t start to come in, I won’t be able to do this show.

I’m asking if you have $1, $5, $10 or more to spare, to please follow the link below:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=info%40stolenchair%2eorg&item_name=Tax%2ddeductible%20contribution%20to%20Redd%20Tale%20Productions&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

STOLEN CHAIR THEATRE COMPANY is generous enough to umbrella my theatre company, REDD TALE, and any amount that comes is will be given a tax-deductible receipt for that amount for 2008.

As a special gift till July 15th, if you donate $25, I’ll give you a ticket to come see the show. If you’ve donated already, you get a ticket! Just let me know what date you prefer. The more you donate, the better the benefits. You can visit www.reddtale.org and click on DONATE to learn more.

In addition, if you visit the website, we’re offering discounted tickets of $12 as a presale. Get your tickets now by clicking the date (hyperlinks are hidden) and Paypal will take care of the rest! Hurry, this special ends July 15th!

Word of mouth is a great tool. If you’re not able to donate or purchase a ticket, believe me, I totally understand. If you would be so kind to pass this on to some great folks, it would be greatly appreciated. Even a good thought our direction helps! Can’t get enough of those!

Thank you very much for your time, and your kindness.

Love and light,

Will Le Vasseur
Artistic Director of Redd Tale Theatre Company
--------------------

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http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1003227936035


AND...

Look at Tuckaberry Productions’ fantastic new sound system progress!

Holy Hamiltons, Batman! We're off to a great start thanks to our contributors to the

Three Hundred Hamiltons!

Campaign.

Contributors so far: Anonymous, Margaret Cross, Helen Wicker

We're asking everyone reading this to please consider a ten-dollar donation this summer.

Ten dollars:

…It's less than the cost of a ticket to a summer movie.

…It's the price of a pair of Duane Reade sunglasses.

…It's a bottle of sunscreen.

It's the chance to get Tuckaberry on its feet for 2008-2009 so that we can keep bringing Brooklyn families and local schools great theater for reasonable prices.

Click HERE to make a donation online

or to donate by mail, send checks to:

Tuckaberry Productions, Inc.

85 Eastern Parkway, 6E

Brooklyn, NY 11238

Tuckaberry Productions is a non-profit New York State charity. All donations are tax-deductible, and 100% of your donation goes to producing high-quality theater for kids, their families, and their teachers.

let's start at the very middle

it's a very good place to start as well... (is obnoxious lesson-song from banal 1960's musical theatre piece stuck in your head yet?)

i can't seem to catch a break to save my life - if, that is, the break includes being able to get a sufficient amount of Sleep... sleep is a beautiful thing - i adore it - and yet we seem to never be in the same room together; an unrequited love which i gallantly allow to slip through my fingertips rather than following my heart, chasing down, clubbing over the head and dragging back to my cave to indulge in at length...

damn i'm tired...

see, this year (which is exactly half way over - hence the very middle) has been a mite on the whirlwind side, got cast in a show early (on hold for march/april/may in early Feb ?? :P) just in time to have survival job explode into 150% of the work i never do on a regular basis anyway which calmed down to the day of tech for said show opening and beginning rehearsals for my current project which closes tonight... trust me, that sentence may not be grammatically correct - but it sure as shootin' is perfectly indicative of the last 6 months of life...

the past week has been a roller coaster of an entirely different type of theme park; Chaosland. with a three week trip to winston-salem NC for the SAFD actor combatant workshop (oh Yeah!) only minutes away (well thousands of minutes - but still) i had planned to sublet my apartment for the month... found what looked like the perfect situation - despite needing to couch surf a bit on the front end to make up the week i wasn't out of town but had given away the house... until lameobrains writes two days into the sublease to back out and i discover the jerk hadn't fed my cats... went All the way back to my house to return the keys and STILL did not feed the living creatures she had pledged to care for... let's just say if we knew each other better i'd be using stronger terminology than jerk...

ensue frantic scramble - and miraculous finding of new Better sublesse and relieved passing of the torch (complete with mailbox key) and then planned to move on to couch surf destination #2... another benevolent shift in the winds of the universe which saw my friend in need of a cat sitter the very week I was out of a home before traveling... last night was to be my first night, but my penultimate show was the one my folk could actually make it out to attend and so of course the post-show drink and deconstruct had to happen before I made my way over to the wilds of 84th and York... after walkabouting randomly for 40 blocks or so I gave up and hitched a cab for the remainder of the journey and pulled up in front of my destination - brand new set of keys in hand.... labeled and carabinered and everything... 'front' check - 'front' again... no sweat... Ah hell 4th floor walk-up... trudge trudge trudge... "A" sweet... 'bottom' - ah one of those ones you gotta hold open.. .K, 'top'... click, click, clickclickclickclick What The Fuuu You are seriously kidding me - right?

it was no joke... rule number one kiddos ALWAYS check the copies of your keys before handing them over to the person feeding your Cat!!!

an hour and a half and $225 later (which she swears she will get back to me - and oh you better believe it 'cuz Dudeface only took cash) I finally close the apartment door behind me...

The cat attacks, I kid you not, I lost some skin...