Issues with Communication

Communication between friends is so very, very important. This is something everyone should remember. Lack thereof always results in something awful, many times the end of a relationship with another. So it has happened to me. Thankfully, I am not the one who isn't communicating, but rather the one not being communicated to. And it doesn't feel good. This "friend," whom I almost want to call an ex-friend but won't merely because I hate the word, has some issues she needs to work out if she wants to stay connected with me at all. I really don't have the time or effort to continually put up with her problems. And it's not just the problems of a normal friendship, she causes them. So I am distancing myself from her, something I vowed I would do from many a friend that was bringing me down. And this is what she's doing. So please, for the sake of all that is enjoyable, communicate with those friends you want to keep. It's something valuable. If something bothers you, tell them so. If you need something, tell them. They will more than likely accomodate your request until you really hurt them. Then it may be unrepairable. So just communicate.

ANYWAY! On with my life. Thankfully, especially in the wake of this, I have found new friends on campus. I was at first having a hard time doing so because of two reasons. One, I generally hate people from this area, and two, I only like theatre people if they're serious about the business (which no one here is) otherwise there is a conflict of interest. So, luckily for me I have found friendship in for French people: Delphine, Odail, Auré, and Clement, Two Germans: Tabea and Stephani, and a Palestinian: Fifi. So yay! Now I can speak and practice my French language as well my friendship with these people. And they are so very nice. Just this past weekend we all attended a showing of The Scarlet Pimpernel at the Barter in Abingdon. Tabea and Stephani won the "far away first timer" prize. Very much fun. And this is good for me. Very good.

I was interviewed the previous day for an internship at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. I do hope that I get offered a job. If so, it would take me away to Orlando for the months of January through June. That would be wonderful. But who knows? I should find out in a couple of weeks or so. And the NYC trip is starting to become a more pressing issue. I actually just got off the phone with the bus company - at which the lady always calls me Chris - to try and get our quote, which they don't have yet. Of course they wouldn't. With the meeting tomorrow, I'm in a rush to get things settled. And I have yet to pick the third show. I'm hoping that Jerry Springer: the Opera makes it to B'way so we can go see that. But I can't wait too long or I wont be able to get good seats for anything! So who knows. We'll just wait and see what happens.

A Few Day 'Till Equinox...

...And my sinuses are going to kill me! Anytime there is a seasonal change, like clockwork, my sinuses flare up and bite me! I hate it! And I really do believe it is the area that I'm in. This wouldn't happen in all climate conditions. Or at least that's what I think....

Anyway...lately I've been enraptured in college - going to classes, all the reading, etc. etc. I went to the first meeting of Patchwork Players this past Thursday night. Patchwork is the student ran theatre organization here on campus. I'm hoping to get involved there, but from the initial meeting it seems it might be a waste of my time and effort, so I'm considering not going back. Also, I'm planning the NYC trip for Abingdon High's "drama dept" (as dubbed by moi) again. Plus, for this halloween, I'm working at a haunted house!!! This I'm very excited about! I get (a little) compensation for my talents, but when you're scaring people in a creepy mansion, who cares? There is something about haunted houses that I love, always have and always will. I love a good scare, it's healthy. So this haunted house, called Krone House, will be at the Thunder Valley Campground beside of Bristol Motor Speedway throughout the month of October, and everyone reading this sould come. It's better than the average jump-and-say-boo walk. I think you'll see what I mean when you come. For more infor visit: http://www.kronehouse.net

Last weekend I went to the Barter with Ryan Cury and Jenna Melgar to see the opening of The Scarlet Pimpernel which is AMAZING! I urge everyone to go see this show, it's one of Barter's best. The best I've seen since Falsettos a few years back. The reason I love it so much is because the music serves a purpose, it isn't frivilous or haphazzardly shoved in in an akward spot. This is characteristic of all of Frank Wildhorn's work, the composer. All of his show's are great. They're smart, make sense, and can purvey a sense of darkness even when you're laughing. I urgered and begged Mrs. Payne, my high school coral director, to do Jekyll & Hyde for our spring chorus musical one year, and of course she never did. Instead we were stuck with the unimportant fluff of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Irving Berlin! This was because nobody wanted to do it, mainly nobody knew what it was. And not many people have the mental capabilities to like and understand Wildhorn's shows (as with Sondheim, JRB, and many other geniuses of musical theatre.) At least not without seeing them on stage first. And then they STILL may not like them. I've come to the conclusion of why this is so: people (the majority) in this area don't like to think when they go to the theatre. They would rather see pretty sets and costumes, maniacal, jittery dances, and listen to farmiliar, catchy songs that rhyme. If you see a show by Sondheim, or Wildhorn, or JRB you have to listen to the music and get the story from it. You have to think about what is happening, it faces true issues in society and uses such props as symbolism and the human condition to tell its story. They have meaning and life. A purpose. And most of the time when people see these shows, and aren't the illiterate nincompoops that hear "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" and smile, they like them. They leave the theatre with a different idea or perspective on something. The reason people don't like musical theatre is because of the fluff like Rodgers and Hammerstein. It makes no sense and is frivilous garbage except to show the history of musical theatre. We have come a long way since Oklahoma!, so why do we have to keep going back there? I just get so sick and tired of people saying that they hate shows by geniuses like Sondheim and Wildhorn. They obviously know very little about theatre and are very simple minded to think poorly of one of these masterpieces. They are the people setting the cornerstone to the future of musical theatre. People should embrace it and learn to like it because there's much more where it came from.