where I pimp my skillz

On March 28th, WNEP will be holding its annual bowling fundraiser, and what better use of my blog than trolling for pledges? This is one of our company’s most important fundraisers for the year. We generally raise around $6500-$7500 for a night of bowling.

To some of you, my asking for pledges has a familiar ring, and for others, this is a brand new experience.

Here’s how it works:

I get pledges from friends, family, passersby, etc. People can pledge as much or as little as they like. Let’s say you pledge $.05 per pin.

On March 28th, we go to Timber Lanes bowling alley and bowl three games. I generally average, over three games, around 100 pins/game.

Then I email you, tell you how many pins I hit and what you owe me:

300 pins x $.05 per pin = $15.00

Fifteen dollars might not seem like a lot, but from just 10 people, it would net WNEP $150. And that's quite a few set pieces and costumes in our penny-pinching budget.

You can also decide to pledge creatively and give me a dollar per gutter ball, or $.50 per strike. Or you can pledge me to do other things. Two years ago, I was pledged a $10 to goose Don Hall. I think I made $40 on that alone.

If you want to pledge some coinage, please check out our site.

If you need further convincing, you can check out the exciting year we have planned. It includes "Metaluna," more DADA, and some world premieres.

So there you have it. If you can pledge, many thanks. If you can’t, that’s fine too. It will in no way adversely affect our relationship. And to those of you who have pledged in the past, a million thanks for your support!

reflections

Soiree DADA is over now, and though part of me is grateful to have so much of my time back, it's a little sad that I won't get to be seeing all these people on a regular basis anymore. The cast was so much fun to be with.

It's the sad nature of short-run theater shows. It's probably similar to working on a movie set. You spend an intense amount of time with a group of people, and then you all go your separate ways, back into your regular lives or on to new projects. It's so difficult to keep up those friendships, even when it's someone you'd really like to remain friends with. At this point, into our 20s and 30s, most of us have as many friends as we can handle (or more). It's difficult to fit a new person into the schedules of our lives, unless both people are willing to work at it.

The other thing I noticed about the DADA show is how many people in my social circle are in long-term relationships. In a cast of 11 and crew of 4, 11 people were married, 2 in long-term relationships, and 2 single. Those are just staggering numbers to me. It seems like every year, I feel more and more like Bridget Jones.

DADA dolls

Last week I completed my most ambitious knitting project to date - 11 DADA dolls in 5 weeks. I got the idea right before Soiree DADA opened to knit a doll of each of the 11 cast members of the show.

In retrospect, it was nuts, and was a lot more work than I planned. But, they came out so fabulous, and eveyrone seems to love them, so the work was worth it.

The cast of Soiree DADA: Blinde Esel Hopse.


The German DADAs, (L-R), Rusty Cluster, Boxcar, Hoydl and Mondo Yippieeeeeeee.


The French DADAs, (L-R), DomDelouise, Nip, Brova and Flutter.


The UberDADA and the Amazing Backups, (L-R), Grizzle, Dabo and Quiche.

DADA!

A few more awesome DADA reviews!

TimeOut Chicago:

There's poignancy in the latest Soiree DADA; it’s just not in Hallmark-card form. These Dadaists will move you, but they’re not going to be mushy about it...Hall and his cast take us on one daft roller-coaster ride, careening from the sublimely silly (the petulant Dadaists fight over their belongings like toddlers) to that aforementioned prickly poignancy—witness Jen Ellison’s aggressive, desperately powerful, climactic counting piece. Those allergic to audience participation should find other plans, but a little harmless “in your face” is a small price to pay for some darn good “in your brain.”

The Chicago Tribune:

A cross between the Mad Hatter's tea party and a performance art festival performed by feral children, the ensemble of white-faced tricksters slips the occasional shiv of social commentary in between the ribs of the audience...A series of interactions, sketches, songs, and confrontations among the Dadas suggests that the primal urge for instant gratification is the bedrock of most human endeavor, and that most people will do as they're told by an authority figure. (Here, audience members took aim at the Dadas in a game called "Shoot the Freaks.")

and in conclusion, I am not so smart...

I'm kind of a dummy sometimes. I keep taking on more projects, despite the fact that I'm pretty much overloaded at this point. I just spent the last three days down with a cold that was at least partially due to stress-reduced immunity (and probably partially due to something called a "virus" - but, you know, I'm not a doctor).

All the things I'm doing, though, are really great projects, or else related to my future career. Most recently, I just agreed to start tutoring for a family with four(!) kids. It looks like I'll primarily be working with the oldest (fifth grade) on her homework, at least for the time being. I'll start on Wednesday, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also trying to start working on grant-writing for my theater companies, as teachers who can write grants are highly sought-after.

Soiree DADA is going really well - we had a great opening weekend, and we were just listed as Critic's Choice in this week's Chicago Reader, which is a huge boon.

Hugo Ball, whose Cabaret Voltaire birthed Dada during World War I, described it as "both buffoonery and a requiem mass." The latest in WNEP Theater's "Soiree Dada" series, whose subtitle means "Blind Donkey Hopscotch," gets that. Performed by nine clowns in whiteface and tramp costumes, the piece's anarchic games and strangely mesmerizing nonsense poems are ingeniously buffoonish while its half-giddy, half-terrified insistence on the cruel emptiness at the center of things becomes a kind of merry dirge. The original dadaists, with their oft-professed disdain for the artistic past, might have scorned the idea of attempting to re-create the spirit of a 90-year-old experiment, but WNEP's well-crafted chaos proves that Dada retains its power to tickle and prod. --Zac Thompson

TimeOut also put us in a list of 5 matinees to see while high, provided you aren't the paranoid type.

So, high or not, come check out the show. This weekend, wear one white sock and one black sock and get $5 off.

I'm also kind of a dummy because I'm currently nursing a slight impossible crush. But honestly, I haven't had a crush of any kind in a while, so despite knowing it's impossible, I'm going to just enjoy the tingly feeling for a while before turning it off entirely.

FAQ on DADA

Apparently my bloggy readers aren't that into political rants.

I don't really have anything going on right now, other than tech week for WNEP's newest show - "Soiree DADA: Blinde Esel Hopse."

Questions we sometimes get about DADA shows:

1. What is DADA?
DADA is hard to explain. Don tends to tell people that it's like Blue Man Group, except they're in white face, they're German (and French), and they're pissed off. When I tell people about it, I try to explain the historical signifigance behind the creation of DADA as an anti-political movement responding to the horrors of WWI and the rise of mechanized warfare and industry.

Wikipedia sums it up nicely:

"Many Dadaists believed that the 'reason' and 'logic' of bourgeois (capitalist) society had led people into the horrors of war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embrace chaos and irrationality... According to its proponents, Dada was not art — it was "anti-art". It was anti-art in the sense that Dadaists protested against the contemporary academic and cultured values of art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend."

2. Why do a DADA show now, almost 100 years after World War I?
Are we as a society still using logic to get ourselves to some twisted places? It seems like it, so then can DADA be used to comment on or decontruct our society?

3. Is it funny? Will I like it?
Don's current blog post on the show goes somewhat into the question of "liking" DADA:

When it comes to art, I'm not sure the answer to that question is relevant or necessary. Spend an afternoon at the Art Institute and look at the works of Chagall. Did you like it? Sounds like a silly and small word - 'like' - to describe the feelings that art is designed to evoke. As a theater artist, I don't really care if you 'like' the DADA show. That is not to say that I want the audience experience to be overwhelmingly negative - I want the audience to be stimulated and entertained in some way, but I don't really care if they 'like' the experience...

DADA does not dictate the response. It is either comic or tragic, nonsense or wise, depending entirely on the person viewing it. This is one of the reasons it is so difficult to sell to the public - the outcome is a mystery, so attendance is of a higher risk than going to "Tits: The Comic Musical" or "The World Sucks: A Play About the Tragedy of Incest" - those pieces tell you how you're going to feel before you even get there. DADA says "Come on in. However this makes you feel, whatever it makes you think about, is the right response."

4. Am I going to have to participate?
There is also, of course, the fact that DADA severely breaks the fourth wall. In order to stimulate the audience into reacting, DADAists interact with the audience. If you want to watch actors perform without being aware that you are there, you can go to a movie. The beauty of live theater is that it is LIVE and the actors and the audience are IN THE SAME ROOM, and Soiree DADA uses that wonderous fact to full advantage. It scares people some. In the last DADA run, we had people come in and ask "are they going to talk to me?" and we'd say "Absolutely." And those people would sometimes ask for their money back and leave.

Even if you are scared, come see the DADA show. No one will hurt you, you won't get messy, and there's only a small chance you'll be embarassed. The only bad response is boredom, and trust me, you won't be bored.

the cause for rebels

Don Hall blogged this morning about the "blandization" of theater, asking where the outlaws willing to push the envelope have gone.

Try and name one "cool" character in history who was conformist and law abiding. Even Jesus Christ was a complete fringe rebel fighting the conformist dogma of the day, so don't hand me some right wing conservative nonsense about being a good, obedient Christian.

Where did that kid with all the self-respect and independence go?

The common picture is that he grew up and out of his child-like ways. That today's liberal progressive anti-government long hair just needs to get a job, make some money, have some kids and he will naturally become conservative in his thinking. This equates conformism and materialism with adulthood and wisdom but does not bear out empirically. Mahatma Gandhi was a rule-breaker; Churchill was a rebel; John Brown might have been insane but he was right.

Where DID they all go? Is the rebel slowly fading out of existance? Not just in theater, but everywhere? Why? What's happening?

Is our process of education to blame? It makes me think about what I've seen in CPS schools. Kids required to walk everywhere in striaght, silent lines. Teachers who work and work to break the rebels into compliance, forcing them to sit in corners and stare at walls, sending them to the principal instead of finding a way to challenge them or engage them.

Is our prescription drug culture to blame? Are all the rebels being Prozaced out of existance? Most of the artists and thinkers and rebels were a little crazy. Are we stunting that creativity and those outlaw personalities with drugs so that our children can "do well" in school and "fit in" and get a "good job"? (according to whose standards?)

Is the American Dream to blame? America is one of the few countries where we believe that everyone can "make it" if only they work hard enough. Nothing is ever good enough, and we're sold this idea that we have to work harder and get more, achieve some success that is always just out of reach. But that "success" that we're being sold - it's someone else's ideal, not our own. The skinny models, the muscular bodies, the yacht, the mansion, the corner office - it's a manufactured want, and for so many, it drowns out their real wants, and worse, causes them to judge the wants of others. People who want the simple, or the fringe, are made to feel like failures by friends and family and society, for not wanting what the masses can understand. Many give up, and they join in mocking the rebels, maybe partially out of jealousy that they aren't one any longer.

Putting on a good show isn't "success" in the eyes of the masses. It's not "how good was the show?" but "how much did you make?" that is the question on everyone's lips. It's not "how many students did you help this year?" but "how many days of vacation do you get?"

I can blame myself a little. I'm not much of a rebel. I chose not to pursue theater because I wanted health insurance and a steady paycheck. I wish I had more of Don's rebelliousness in me, didn't have this need for security. Instead, I rebel in small ways, I cheer for the rebels, do my best to make them feel less alone in a world that wants to put them in the corner and break them into compliance.

on the nature of embarrassment

The thing about embarrassment is that the times that we do things that we fear will embarrass us, they tend to turn out okay. Embarrassment more often sneaks up on us in ways big and small, jumping out from behind a bush like a brother with a pet tarantula.

The past weekend, I went with WNEP Theater to Three Oaks, MI to hold the Skald Storytelling Competition at the Acorn Theater. Initially, my job was only to be the stage manager. However, as there were only 8 performers able to attend (6 from the Chicago Skalders, and 2 who were auditions from the local area), and Don really wanted 10, I was one of those drafted at the last minute to perform, based on my (though unsuccessful) audition last year. Don swore I could do it, so I buckled down, and after some advice from Don, rewrote my story and prepared it.

I was terrified to do it, afraid of humiliation through multiple channels, such as falling down, forgetting my story, or of talking at Mach-10. I convinced myself to do it by deciding that WNEP folks wouldn't laugh at me, and I didn't know the rest of the people, so who cares what they thought.

I actually did quite well. It was fun to be on stage again, and my story seemed to go over very well. I didn't win, but I didn't care - getting up and just doing it was enough for me. And I wasn't humiliated, so bonus!

On the other hand, while crossing the very busy Michigan Ave. this afternoon, I stepped wrong and fell off my shoe. I started to right myself, windmilled a bit, lost my balance and managed to spin around before sprawling somewhat lightly onto the ground. This in front of numerous cars, as well as tourists and businessmen crossing Michigan Ave.

Embarrassment sneaks in on little cat feet.

bowling for dollars

The WNEP Bowl-a-thon was this past Friday, and it was awesomely fun. I highly recommend Timber Lanes on Irving Park near Ravenswood if you get the urge to bowl.

We had the whole place to ourselves, so we loaded the juke box up with classic rock hits that we could belt out as we bowled.

This picture of me and Don (with Jen's finger) is my favorite of the night.

bowling for dollars

WNEP is holding it's annual Bowl-a-thon fundraiser this Friday, March 30. We collect pledges and donations, and then we bowl our little hearts out to make money for the company.

If you read this blog, you're probably a friend or a person who knows me, so how about sending a donation of $5 or $10 our way? Or, we bowl three games, and so a pledge per pin of $.05, on a three-game average of 300, is $15. Make a donation or a pledge for me, will ya?

WNEP is a great theater company that I love to work with. We've got some great shows coming up this year. Your support is awesome.

another entry where I'm down on myself

what does it mean when you are just sitting at your computer, browsing through your friends' myspace pages, and as some point, when you aren't looking at anything particular, your stomach just clenches? sort of in that way that it does when you're nervous, because you're about to do something you know will make you look stupid and foolish, like tap-dance in a talent show or hit on someone way out of your league. that feeling of sort of a sick dread...

i think it was triggered by a friend of mine who is trying to encourage friends to respond to creative prompts. a positive goal, but one i feel unworthy to attempt. combined with thinking about all the ways i'm unable to be creatively involved in my life, though i'm surrounded by creative endeavors. i spend so much of my time surrounded by creative people, and yet i so rarely have the confidence in my abilities to participate, or even to feel that i'm wanted to begin with. i want to be creative, but its either not where my strengths lie, or else i'm so self-judgemental that i rarely even let myself try.

and so i take on the grunt work for those creative people. those that can't do, teach. Or those that can't do, produce? tech? kibbitz from the sidelines? hang around and hope the creativity rubs off? i enjoy a lot of the stuff i do, really, but the thanklessness gets tiresome sometimes. and so does this sick feeling that maybe I should try, but what if I look stupid, and what if they think i'm stupid, and what if I really have no creative talent and all, and what if i do but i'm losing it, and am i scared or jealous or both?

it's painful and sad to feel like you are bad at things you enjoy. or that you are dismissed, even unintentionally, by people who are better at them than you.

bowling is good fun

If you're a person who likes bowling, or theater, or is just my friend, please consider sponsoring me in this year's WNEP Bowl-a-Thon. It's just what it sounds like. You pledge a small amount per pin, and I bowl three games. You donate your per pin amount X my number of pins in three games. I usually average around 100-110 per game. So if I bowled 109/120/97 - that's 326 total. If you pledged 5 cents per pin, you'd give me $16.30. If you prefer, you can just make a flat donation.

Please help us out? WNEP does such great work, and I'm so proud to be a part of it.

WNEP kicks some ass

back in the spring, I worked on a wonderful show with WNEP called "Invasion of the Minnesota Normals." The writing, directing and the cast were all top-notch, and it was one of the best theater experiences I've had in Chicago. In her year-end wrap-up of Off-Loop Theater, Nina Metz of the Tribune named "Normals" as one of her top five Off-Loop shows for 2006.

speaking of WNEP and awesome theater experiences, the "Armageddon Radio Hour New Year's Eve" show was last night, and was spectacular. The cast did a fabulous job, and the show was so much fun. The whole night was fun. I imagine I'll have pictures from someone, somewhere, sooner or later.

But now, it's very early on New Year's Day, and I really need some french toast and bacon to properly welcome the new year.

freedom!

At last, I am done with this quarter. I just finished my last paper, which I will turn in in a few hours. I now have four days ahead of me to myself (mostly). I'll have Thanksgiving with a few friends, work a couple of shifts at the Playground. Paint the stage at the Playground. Clean my house and do laundry. And spend a good deal of time laying around, watching TV and knitting.

Ah, sweet bliss.

bruiser

I played two football games this weekend for the Playground in the theater football league. I'm pretty freakin' sore right now, especially because I managed to be behind one of the guys when he jumped fof a catch and pretty much landed on me. I think he weighed less than me, but i took a cleat to the shin and have an awesome bruise developing there. i'm just hoping i can still walk to tomorrow.

the league rules are 6 on 6, with at least one girl on the field at all times. the last couple of seasons, I was the only girl. thankfully, this year there were more of us, which means that i'm not the only one playing the entire game.

i'm pretty unathletic, to say the least, but i love playing football with the PG guys because despite the fact that I suck and i'm a girl, they still treat me like an equal. they work me into plays, try to get the ball to me once in a while, and generally don't treat me like something in the way, to be worked around. i suppose my foul mouth and superspirit also help in making me part of the team.

i now have a ton of writing for school that i need to work on. i'm totally procrastinating right now.

it's a roller coaster

i made it back from new york alive, the better for having visited brooklyn and the strand, and toting peanut butter and an alternate dimension. the shows went really well and felt good. details are available on the DSTW NYC Blog.

so i came home to disaster, in the form of boxes taking over the apartment. Ed is all moved in - well, in that everything is in the apartment. the act of figuring out where things will go, how it will fit, and how it's all going to look, is another thing. right now our place looks like an army training ground for teaching urban warfare. it's impossible to walk anywhere - every path requires dodging boxes or stepping over half assembled shelving or sliding between a bookcase and a box fan. we're both a little stressed out by the confusion and the changes, so if we can make it to the weekend without strangling each other, i'll consider it good progress.

apparently, i'm in new york (soon)

unexpectedly, i will be going to NYC for 6 days next week, accompanying the cast of Don't Spit the Water to the New York Fringe Festival.

the cast is required to have a non-performing producer/manager of sorts along, to handle problems, answer questions, and be the liasion between the cast and the festival. i had originally been invited to attend the festival in this capacity, but had to decline on the basis that my summer class ended on Wednesday, and I would have needed to be in NYC on Tuesday. after my class actually started, i was bitterly disappointed to learn that the prof wasn't HAVING class on the last Wednesday, as that apparently is "exam day" and we weren't having an exam.

so when I found out this afternoon that the liasion who was going to be attending suddenly could not, i managed to wiggle a few things around and will now be hopping on a place Tuesday morning.

I'm very excited, as the folks who are going are all great, and I had a fabulous time when I went last summer with WNEP. I'll feel like an old hand now, and rather than try to see everything, I'll be able to do the things I loved before while finding some new things to love.

having put a lot of time and energy into helping DSTW to succeed in the past year, it's also great to be able to have this reward with the cast, especially since my involvement, at least for the next few months, will be almost nil because of school.

my darling boyfriend is being a complete nice guy about my suddenly jetting off to the coast, seeing as how the weekend while I be in NYC is also the planned MOVE IN weekend. and he encouraged me to go and not worry about the fact that i'm dumping all the moving problems off on him (but of course I'll worry anyway and feel guilty, because that's what i do).

i think he just wants me gone so that he can move everything around and let the cats "accidentally" get out.

i have no idea where i am

i've got so many things going on right now, that i can't seem to blog. my mind can't focus on one topic long enough to write about it.

i spent this past sunday in a haze of sweat and sawdust, working at the Playground with my committee and a prospective member team, doing a much-needed overhaul on the Playground. We worked our asses off for seven hours, and when we were done and things were put away and swept up, we stood in the middle of the stage and realized that the place looked almost exactly the same as it had when we'd arrived that morning. all of our changes were behind the scenes - the old lightbooth (hidden behind a curtain) torn down and the space made into a dressing room; a new ladder and storage in the greenroom; some cleaning in the cleaning storage room; junk thrown out. A non-shaky ceiling fan and some paint touchups were the only changes visible to the casual observer. Nonetheless, we left exhausted, but thrilled with the overhaul. We just need to hang some new lights, and we'll be done.

My boring "introduction to research class" (see previous entries on procrastination) is killing me. thankfully, tonight's class (our next to last) was cancelled. So next week I just have to sit through presentations and I'm done. Oh, except for the 8 articles I have left to read and the 8 analysis I have left to write.

i'm having a yard sale this weekend to clear out some of my clutter and make room for my guy to move in. if you like furniture, books or women's clothes, come on by. I'm having a yard sale with 4 other women, so it should be interesting.

i'm also reinvesting in exercise and a healthier diet. the goal is to lose 30 lbs by Halloween. If I manage it, the candy gorging will be severe.

the teller

This past weekend, I auditioned for the WNEP Skald competition. The Skald is a storytelling competition, in which the tellers stand up and tell a seven minute prepared story.

So, I auditioned (bucked up by Don Hall's enthusiasm and support). I'll find out today if I won a spot in the competition. But hoenstly, regardless, I'm really glad I did it. There are SO many things that I just don't even try at all, because I'm so afraid of failure. It was really good for me to get up and do something that I'm not sure I would be good at. I hope I get in, but even if I don't, I'm glad I did it anyway.

As for the audition itself, I have no idea. I think I blew through my stories in typical "speedy" fashion. Since I haven't had two months to prepare my story (as I will if I do the actual Skald), I was nervous and not sure of myself, so I started talking faster and faster (I think I do this in prepared speeches partially out of nerves, and partially because I'm afraid I'll forget a part, so I want to get to all of it at once). But, since the point was to show HOW you tell, not what you tell, I'm not entirely sure how I did. The group at the callbacks was very supportive, which was nice. There were some really great people there, with great stories. Anyone who gets chosen will be fabulous, so I'm really looking forward to the event, no matter what.

As part of the Skald this year (a weeklong event for the first time), WNEP will also be holding workshops on storytelling for adults and kids. I've been asked if I will work on one of the kids' workshops, which I plan to do, and should be a blast.

UPDATE:
As I suspected, i did not get a place in the competition. I think my fast-talking did me in, and there were some great storytellers who auditioned. But yay for me for trying!

invaded

Invasion of the Minnesota Normals opened last night, and as we all expected, it really is an excellent show. I'm very proud to be working on this production. Everyone has gone above and beyond, and created something really special.

but i am really looking forward to spending a good deal of this weekend sleeping.