Here we go...

've created this blog because I need a place to really discuss/catalog my findings, ideas, and concepts when it comes to the theater. This is not going to be some whiny teenage angst blog or anything like that. I'd like to at least start with a little bit of credibility. This is going to be mostly for me so I can track myself as my projects and my ideas about theater begin to change as time progresses. I want to be able to say, oh this is what I was doing last year and this is how my goals have changed. The reason it's public is so that anyone who might be interested in my opinions or goals or artistic growth can be a part of it too. On here in the future you will find:

-current project updates

-my thoughts on theater that I've seen

-thoughts on plays I'm reading

-literature that I might recommend

-plays/scenes I've been writing

maybe even design concept sketches, show photos, and so on. we'll see how it goes.

Alright, well let's get this started. The reason I thought this blog was important was because I'm making some real steps forward in my career. A major one took place yesterday afternoon. I went into a meeting with Amy Hodgdon at Philadelphia Young Playwrights and she expressed a lot of interest in taking me on as an intern. We had been talking about it back and forth for some time. most of the summer really. but this was the first time we really sat down and said, "okay let's do this." She went on to tell me all the things that I could hope to take part in at P.Y.P. and they all excited me. So I am now employed with them under the title of Programming Intern/Teaching Artist Apprentice for the next 12 months. My goals there are the following:

-To gain both a theoretical and practical knowledge of what it means to be a teaching artist by taking advantage of teaching opportunities in the classrooms of Philadelphia schools as well as constantly reevaluating effective methods of education through theater and specifically the process of playwriting

-To gain a knowledge of administrative theater in the are of programming. More specifically designing/setting up/marketing for P.Y.P. events throughout the year. Such as their New Voices monologue festival at Interact Theater Company (where I will be directing some professional actors who will be performing student written pieces.)


Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about it. My commitment in the beginning will be a couple days a week but Amy said that when the ball really gets rolling in November that things will pick up and that she may even have a desk for me at the office. I'll have a desk, and an office. wow.

My other projects over the next 12 months are:

-Assistant Directing/Designing/Performing in New City Stage Company's production of Talk Radio. You'll hear plenty about that as we get closer to a start date. First production meeting is going to be sometime in the next 2 weeks. Then I'll have a clearer idea of what I'm doing there. The rehearsal start date for that is November 5 and we run for 6 weeks, Dec 5, 2008-Jan. 11, 2009.

-Directing the UArts Studio Theater production of Savage in Limbo by John Patrick Shanley. It's a great play and I would recommend it to anyone. It's a one act that I've chosen to direct for my senior project. I'll be doing all the analytical work up until January and then I'll be actually directing come the second semester. I might even post the paperwork as I complete it.

Those are the 3 major ones (including PYP) that I've got going at the moment, but as is always the case tiny little design or SM jobs will crop up from time to time.

Basically, I figured it was time to start cataloging my career so I know where I've been and where I'm headed. I'm in the process of putting together a 1,3,5 plan for after I graduate and I'll discuss that as it comes to completion. Well, here goes nothin'.