Takasago

It's really late, and I should go to bed, but I just read a Noh play for the first time. (Sad that I only just read one my senior year of college.)

I haven't had a whole lot of exposure to Asian theatre. I did a research paper on Kabuki for Advanced Writing my freshman year (had no idea what it was or what I was doing, but it was good to start thinking outside of the box and explore new kinds of theatre all at once--I was in Intro to Theatre at the same time).

So tonight I read Takasago by Zeami, generally considered the greatest Noh playwright. I mean, the man wrote 100 of the 240 plays in the active Noh repertory today.

Noh is one of Japan's forms of classical theatre. It was very much influenced by Zen Buddhism, as well as the strict feudal system that emerged in the late 12th century.

I liked especially the poetic nature of Takasago. A quote that one of the translators included:

The principal Japanese word for 'poem' is uta, which more generally means song. Thus we are told that "each sound of beings feeling and non-feeling, every last one, is a song."

Takasago is referred to as the best-loved god play, and I think I know why. Here's the story line--

Takasago by Zeami is a god or deity play about the paired pines of Takasago and Suminoe (or Sumiyoshi). Two travelers, Sideman and Sideman Second undertake a journey to Miyako, and hope to see sights along the way. They stop at Takasago, or “dune,” and see Doer and Second, an old couple. Second sweeps pine needles from under the pine with a broom while Doer (holding a rake) talks to Sideman and Sideman Second. Sideman asks about the Takasago pine and how its soul is supposedly paired with the Suminoe pine and asks how that can be since they are so far away (in different provinces). Doer and Second also happen to be from those exact same provinces, and we discover that they are actually the spirits of the two pines. Second explains that, “Though ten thousand leagues of hill and streams divide them, for lovers' hearts finely attuned, the way is never long.” They talk awhile longer about the pines, and then Sideman and Sideman Second call over a Fool to tell them more. He tells them they should go on a pilgrimage to the Suminoe pine, but they say they don’t have a way to get there. The Fool lets them borrow his boat, and they make the journey to the Suminoe pine, where they encounter the god of Sumiyoshi.

Like I said, I loved the poetry, and I really liked the romantic symbolism of the pines. I want to visit Japan and see some Noh plays.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning, when Sideman and Sideman Second are traveling:

Travel wear 
unfolding long
Miyako Way
cut out for us 
now waves touch shore 
and ship lanes lie
calm the spring breeze 
how many days 
stretch on, ahead
behind, all's vague 
white clouds trail away

And here are a couple of pictures. There's something about that image of the old couple, one with a broom and one with a rake, tending to the pine trees that is time- and culture-transcendent. Which is probably why they call it the "best-loved" one.

So, there you have it. My Theatre History homework. I should probably sleep now.

I Love My Senior Project: (in which I vent optimism and excitement)

I love working on My Name is Rachel Corrie. I love that this is my senior project.

Unfortunately, while I love working on it and talking about it, I don't want to talk about it all the time, nor do I feel like I can talk about it with everyone. Therefore I'll just vent all my excitement here. So. If you're reading this, yay for you. ILOVETHISPROJECT.

We did a full run-through on Thursday that ran an hour and twenty minutes (EXACTLY my target run-time!), shaving an entire twenty minutes off my previous run-time.

I mean, I'll take it.

In the run-through, I was present with the text--very much in the moment. My energy stayed up, and my director said she could feel it driving the run. I did call for line once, and there were a handful of times when I got stuck because of lines--I still can't get through the whole thing without getting stuck in a couple of places. My stage manager, Honey, and my media-tech designer, Daniel, both saw it for the first time, and perhaps MOST encouraging to me was that they both came out of it saying that I held their attention and kept them engaged the entire time. Which is more than I could have hoped for in an hour-twenty-minute performance of a one-woman show. Maybe there's hope yet.

I'm now in the middle of working on acquiring costume and some final props. Which, when you're budgetless, can be merciless to college student pockets. But I really love this project, and so I don't mind paying for things at all. It's just difficult.

I still need:
An ash try (note to self: check props closet)
Fake stage cigarettes
3 to 4 1990s fashion magazines
A package or two of black ballpoint pens

Khaki cargo pants
Black or charcoal rib-knit tank top
Hiking boots (I'm currently highest bidder for a pair on Ebay--guess we'll see. I've never bid for anything on Ebay before. I'm thinking of it as an adventure.)

I found some of these recently. These first two are from the very first staging of My Name is Rachel Corrie--directed by Alan Rickman and starring Megan Dodds--at the Playhouse Theatre in London, April 2005. I really liked them.

And the rest of these images are from other productions of the show.

Senior Jitters?

Remember that time the little missionary kid became a working professional actor?

Unfortunately, I haven't heard that story yet. I mean, maybe it's happened, but if it has I haven't heard about it yet. 

I'm not sure if it's because the first day of my senior year of college starts the day after tomorrow or if I'm just going nuts, but this weekend I suddenly got really scared. 

I don't know what comes next.

I don't know how to get work as a professional actor.

I don't know how to get that first gig--that first job where I would get paid to act--that I could put on my resume that would announce to the world, "Look! Someone actually thought I had enough talent and skill and chutzpah to hire me and pay me to do my favorite thing in the entire world!"

Scarier yet: at this moment in time I can't envision myself doing anything else right after I graduate. I think this is what I'm supposed to do.

I'm compiling a list of theatres and auditions to look into this year and trying to keep calm. And I know I still have a year of school to go and that plenty of people (not just theatre majors) don't have a job lined up right after they graduate. 

But so far that hasn't stopped me from shaking in my boots.