And We're Off...

...to the start of a brand new semester! A new school, a new city and a new semester. So much to digest, analyze and execute that a person could go crazy! But I'm just trying to flow with it all and enjoy it while it lasts. Today I went to campus for a couple of theatre meetings and the theatre picnic. People were nice for the majority and it seems to be a great program. I'm still in awe of the amazing facilities that UMd has to offer! But the meetings went well and the administrators talked at us about tons of information, some of which I already knew, some I didn't. They went over everything from study habits to the Undergraduate Theatre Arts Society (UTAS). I really want to get involved with this theatre community and judging from what I've seen so far, that won't be a problem. There are so many opportunities and organizations here. So much theatre around! On and off campus. This weekend I'll be seeing Ibsen's An Enemy of the People at the Shakespeare Theatre downtown. Some reps from Squonk Opera will be coming in a week or so to do a workshop for UMd students and audition for extra roles in their new production of College Park: the opera. Squonk seems like such a fun and crazy theatre company from the research I've done on them and I'm crazy excited about seeing them. A mixture of Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group it seems. But before that happens I'm going to audition for the Off Center production of The Wier. I'm going to try to audition and see as much theatre as possible here, those were original goals I'd set for myself before coming here and now I must see them through. I want to start working hard on my theatre career, hard and serious. And I know I'm ready. So bring it on!

In other news, I've been reading and studying more of Respect for Acting by Ms. Hagen. As I delve further into it I'm not sure how much this method of theatre is for me. It seems to be a method of acting that I feel relies too much on props and costumes and focuses more so on acting as yourself instead of acting the part (which I may think is the way to act, I'm just not sure yet). But in any case, I plan on continuing my private study of Hagen's teachings and applying them to scene and monologue work that I'm doing myself. I still have the CAPA audition growing nearer by the day, and I'll use the methods from this book towards this audition and see what comes of it, if anything, and if I like the way it feels. If I don't like the results, or even if I do, I'll continue my research on acting methods, next studying the Meisner approach. But it will probably be a few months or even December before I'm able to take on and apply another method, because my classes and extra cirriculars will be taking up a lot of my time.