Rehearsals have begun for Student Directed One-Acts. I have been cast in Chamber Music by Arthur Kopit, directed by senior Jordan Michael Loyd. The play is an absurdist piece about a handful of women in a psychiatric facility planning a counterattack against the men's ward. Each of these women believes they are a different woman from history. Naturally, there are several clashes between the characters caused by their extremely different personalities. The play, at first read, seems to be nothing but crazy ladies trying to talk over each other.
One of Jordan's inspiration photos
The brilliant thing about absurdist theatre is it does not have to make sense. In fact, you could say it is deliberately obtuse. That means, however, you can do anything you want with it and it will never be wrong. Absurdism invites the audience to make their own judgements. It allows them to view a piece of art, interpret it and ask questions about what made them have those impressions or come to those conclusions. Theatre of the absurd is theatre that undeniably asks a lot of its audiences.
The first several rehearsals for this piece include something referred to as "table work," meaning the actors and director spend their time focusing primarily on the text and what it means to them. Jordan has asked his actors to share their initial impressions of the script and share images etc. that they think would inspire their performance.
I love art types like absurdism. I love things that do not make sense and force people to think. Theatre, in particular, has a special quality about it that allows strangeness to transcend. The deliberately obtuse becomes something entirely transformative and influential. It challenges the way people view themselves, their lives and society as a whole. I got into theatre because I wanted to do the weird stuff: the stuff that makes a difference. I am beyond excited to have the opportunity to do this.
Earlier today, I posted a podcast about my experience as a Tumblr user and how it has improved my life and networking skills. As a blogging website turned community-driven social media platform, it is ahead of its time. However, one thing I did not mention is the fact that long-time users have been unsatisfied with many of the most recent updates.
Tumblr has gotten rid of one of its greatest features: replying to posts. Though the website still has personal communication capabilities through instant messaging, inboxing and a feature called "fan mail," there is no way to respond directly to a post without reblogging it or addressing the author ambiguously through the other messaging systems.
Tumblr's strong sense of community has been strongly compromised by this new update and users are extremely upset. Though Tumblr is still a good way for companies to reach out to and engage with their fans, their fans are going to start leaving this particular platform if the people in charge continue to refuse to listen to them.
In the PR and social media world, it is important to listen to your audiences and respond to them accordingly. Replies have been missing from Tumblr since November 2015 and the staff have refused to address the issue. That is definitely not real-time responding.
Until next time!
Kathryn
Today's podcast:
Edit 3/28/16: Tumblr has brought back replies! Thank you staff!
Never have I ever gone on a spring break trip. Usually I use the time to pick up extra work hours at the coffee shop I have worked at for several years and tackle whatever projects I've been putting off, like deep cleaning or doing ironic cross stitching. This year, sadly, I was not scheduled to work and found myself with a lot of free time.
#nomakeup #nofilter #wokeuplikethis
The first part of my break was fairly uneventful: I followed up on some applications for summer internships, spent some time with my pet snake and went stargazing on some roofs. I am including the next part for the sake of full disclosure, rather than attention or pity: Tuesday night I had a near-death incident that put me in the hospital for most of Wednesday. I spent Thursday and Friday in a haze, sleeping and trying to recover. I am fine now and have outwardly moved on, almost like it never happened, but I can not shake the sense that I have experienced a profoundly esoteric event. As Mobb Deep (and Lin Manuel-Miranda) says, "I'm only 19 but my mind is old." I am always willing to talk to people about my past and am very proud of everything that I have overcome, but I am still processing what happened and probably will be for a long time. Rather than dwelling too much on it, enjoy the inclusion of an incredibly flattering picture my boyfriend, Dayvon, took of us that I have absolutely no recollection of.
In other news, Saturday was incredible! I bought Dayvon and I tickets to a concert for one of our favorite rap artists, Kyle Harvey, at Park Street Saloon in Columbus. There were three local acts before Kyle; two were entirely forgettable, but the third act was a trio that instantly caught my attention. Their frontman came out strong to a Kanye beat and maintained the high energy throughout their set by freestyling, handing roses out to girls in the audience and sharing some really intuitive lyrics. His name is sarob. (Rob Tate), and he was supported by his crowdsurfing friend and fellow rapper Joey Aich (still Joey Aich) as well as their DJ magician Möbius (Carter Moebius). Immediately following them was the main event, Kyle (previously known as K.I.D.) and his SuperDuper crew, all of whom were phenomenal to watch.
Of course, as soon as the show was over Dayvon and I rushed to the nearest Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate and Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz fights. For the record, I absolutely called the results for both of them.
After following up with Rob and his friends the next day on Twitter, I discovered they are all students at Denison University, which is just a few minutes away from where I live. Dayvon and I met up with Rob at my coffee shop to talk about life and congratulate him on an awesome show. He turned out to be an absolutely lovely individual, humble to the point of pseudo-shyness and pursuing a degree in Political Science. Dayvon's father, Travis Davis, happens to collaborate on a Columbus-based hip-hop podcast, DaBeeside, so is looking at getting an interview for them.
If I had to sum up this week, I would say that life is absolutely crazy. I keep finding myself with all of these networking opportunities, whether someone is helping me or I am trying to help them, and it feels great to finally start making my mark on the world. Above all, I am super excited to make new friends, as always.
Thanks for looking at all the extra stuff in this post, and please actually check out the music these guys are making. They have a really neat vibe and I think they deserve all the new fans they can get.
