Sometimes You Need to Note The Good Times

Had a great weekend!

Friday:

Watched my Contemporary Theatre students at Boston Conservatory at Berklee further develop their show with Double Edge Theatre. That goes up next Sunday. Details to come. That evening I took in a performance of THIS IS OUR YOUTH produced and performed by Musical Theatre students  from BoCo in an apartment.

Saturday:

Worked with my teenage acting students at Walnut Hill School for the Arts...and then I got an offer to add on another advanced acting class in the spring to deepen the work with some of the more experienced kids. That night I drove with Katelyn to Old Sturbridge Village...and ate more than I should have.

Sunday:

Helped out Katelyn's family work around their house in Connecticut and then went home to laze around, watch the season finale of Westworld and then prep for the end of the semester and an upcoming audition.

Now...sleep...maybe.

Lost Memories.

I've been going over my old blogs, some other loose writings I've kept around the house, and notes I have on receipts and napkins.

Some of my writing is truly laughable and terrible...well...most of it is.

Still, I wish I had written more, and put more of it up here if only for the lone fact that my brain has become a blender and I can remember next-to-nothing of things that have happened.

I have 12 wonderful students right now at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and it pains me to even allow myself to think that some of them might fall away into the lost sewer systems of my cesspool of a memory, but, well, there you have it. I'm looking through some writing and just noticing fragments of thoughts, shorthanded notes to myself that I can no longer remember what they meant, lost and forgotten loves, jobs, and worries.

Actually, the worries stayed.

My prose hasn't gotten any more concise, or any truer, but I hope I can come back to this form of sharing myself with myself.

New Reality

The news is beyond depressing...only slightly more depressing than seeing "news" reports that still focus on the "Clinton machine" that apparently is still an evil, and powerfully menacing thing, even in defeat. 

Apparently I'm supposed to blame Democrats for the republic's now quick unraveling, and not a whole host of thugs who have spent the last 30+ years spreading disinformation like a virus, while defunding education across the country so most people can't tell the difference between what is and is not a lie.

Apparently I'm supposed to agree Trump doesn't mean what he says except when he does.

Apparently there is no more truth. We're "post-truth." But even that's a lie because we just went back to old tactics with that choice.

Apparently if you care that nothing makes sense you're just "too sensitive," but not sensitive enough to care about people in a conservative bubble because your liberal bubble is too powerful a bubble...despite the fact that it has lost all three branches of government.

Apparently it's now time to register religions to big government, but not to the bad kind of big government...just the good kind...even though no one can tell me what either is.

Apparently it's time to surrender my sanity, faith in humanity, and last semblances of decency.

Thank God I'm a damn moron.

It would be terrible if I could think and feel the pain of these thoughts.

A Post About My Fiancee and The Election from November 9th

I've been working hard my entire adult life, struggling to simply get a footing in my career, or to make a difference in my personal life and the society around me. 

Tonight I am watching a misogynistic, racist, xenophobic bigot born with a silver spoon in his mouth who proved in three failed debates that not only was he was massively unprepared and uninformed, but that he didn't deserve any executive office...and now he possibly will get enough votes to win the office of President of The United States of America. His ascension to even this point makes me want to vomit. It proves that all the years of hard work, education, constant attempts at decency in my own day-to-day life (and sometimes failing) guarantee nothing in the realm of political desires, and especially in the face of the whims of mob mentality. I've been let down not only by total strangers, but those I used to look up to from years gone by who voiced their support for a sociopath and a bully. 

I'm proud to have supported a candidate with integrity and decency like Hillary Clinton, and I would do it again. I'm also proud of my fiancée Katelyn Dix who also supported her with so much sincere hope for a better future for not just our home and the family we hope to have, our immediate community, or the country, but also the world. Katelyn is a wonderful example to everyone around her and the type of adult others should aspire to be, just like Hillary Clinton is. 

This night is shaping up to be a big letdown in not just my political hopes, but also my faith in the judgment of most of the world's humanity. The citizenry of the United States is on the verge of a terrible misjudgment on par with that of other countries around the globe in recent years. I have belief in education, art, God, and humanity that cannot make sense of any of this, nor square tonight's events with those who CLAIM they believe in these. Still, my faith in common decency, rationale and logic are shaken, but not destroyed.

I may be truly terrified for our world now, but that is why the work at home is now more important than ever. So many have decided to elect a virtual madman as a world leader...and if there is any hope for our future it begins at home. I have, at home, someone who will continue to be a great example to her students, her family, and everyone around her with her intelligence, decency, creativity, and strong spirit. She deserved a champion like Hillary Clinton, but I have no doubt Katelyn will be a great example and champion to others around her no matter what happens.

We all must be...especially since so many irresponsible people have wrought so many ill decisions upon us in the past year alone. There can be no falling into the abyss of despair and giving up. I look at Katelyn and she never gives up. She works harder whenever she gets knocked down. Those of us who had hoped for a better world can't fall down. We have to get up and keep working hard no matter what.

Our work will lead us to peace. Whenever your faith wavers look to the great examples at home like Katelyn.

TRUE DETECTIVE & GREEK TRAGIC THEATRE

For anyone who has been watching True Detective on HBO you have come to know Rust Cohle's strange, seemingly rambling, existential monologues really well.

Case in point, the following now famous, or infamous (depending on how you feel about it) example of speechifying to the two African American detectives from Episode 5, “The Secret Fate of All Life,” has divided many on the internet, as well as friends and loved ones close to me, who watch the show. (Full disclosure: I love it when Rust goes on these little metaphysical “rants.”)

COHLE: You ever heard of something called membrane theory, detectives?

PAPANIA: No. That's over my head.

COHLE: It's like, in this universe, we process time linearly. Forward. But outside of our space-time, from what would be a fourth-dimensional perspective, time wouldn't exist. And from that vantage, could we attain it, we'd see – [he crushes a can of Lone Star between his palms] --our space-time look flattened, like a seamless sculpture. Matter in a super-position—every place it ever occupied. Our sentience just cycling through our lives like carts on a track. See, everything outside our dimension—that's eternity. Eternity looking down on us. Now, to us, it's a sphere. But to them, it's a circle.

Theories, and opinions, abound about this little monologue. There are those who see this as nothing more than mumbo-jumbo Cohle is spewing to throw the two rube detectives off his track of either evil deeds, or being a “TRUE DETECTIVE,” as opposed to (as Rust calls them later), “company men.” Others see it as an ongoing shout out in the series that goes back to H.P. Lovecraft and other writers of his era. There are hints of Cthulhu-type descriptions of an infamous “green-eared, spaghetti-faced man,” or “Carcosa” and “The Yellow King,” which are a references to an influence and contemporary of Lovecraft's, Robert W. Chambers and his work, The King in Yellow.

I've read a bunch of theories how people have sees this series as nothing more than a bunch of fanboys who got together to write their pay-network-TV episodic homage to weird literature and its themes and structures. There have also been a great many individual theories that have stated the references are just pointers to plot points in the series' narrative in specific and nothing more.

Rust is the “True Detective” and will end up saving the day, while Marty will end up being exposed as a “company man” involved in the rituals.

Rust will be exposed as a “False Detective” covering his tracks.

All of this has been a red herring just to keep us away from the real “Yellow King!” Marty's now ex-wife!

And they go on and on...

So I figured I'd offere my interpretation.

Well, actually, the theory belongs somewhat to Jan Kott, who wrote a book about Greek tragedy called The Eating of The Gods, a book that looks at the structure, history, and present day relevance of ancient Greek tragedy. I picked up the book today for the first time in a long time and reread the first chapter...which started to sound, at times, oddly like Rust's seemingly meandering monologues.

The first chapter is called, “The Vertical Axis, or The Ambiguities of Prometheus.” Replace Promethesus's name with Rust's and we're talking about a present day HBO TV show, instead of the physical structure of Greek theatres, and their relation to society and the narratives of their plays. Other lines in Kott's first chapter struck me as somewhat Rust-esque. The opening line is:

“Gods are above, men are below.” (Kott p.1)

Sure that line is too frank and direct to sound like Rust, but it immediately fits in with his “membrane theory.” If you're ready to turn this theory down, just read what Mr. Kott has to say later in the same chapter about the structure of Greek theatre:

“In Aeschylus' drama [Promethesus Unbound] the entire cosmos takes part: the gods, men and the elements. This cosmos has a vertical structure: above, the seat of the gods and power; below, the place of exile and punishment. In the middle is the flat circle of the earth and the flat dish of the orchestra around it where the action unfolds. The vertical structure of the world with its definite functions, symbols and destiny, the above and the below, is one of the most universal and perennial archetypes.” (Kott p.4)

In True Detective there are definite people who can be considered gods (the Tuttles, the man with scars, etc.), men (the detectives, Marty's wife, others), and the elements...? Well, Rust's “visions,” the birds flying in one episode into the definite formation of the symbol that appears again and again drawn on dead women's backs, and more.

What about this “orchestra.”

Well, we're watching it...WE...the AUDIENCE.

This is our Greek tragedy. We can watch it again-and-again, over-and-over, trying to behave, ourselves, like a Greek tragic audience, like True Detectives. Don't believe me yet? Let me offer up this last bit of Kott from the end of Part I of Chapter 1. Tell me if you don't hear equal parts Kott Greek tragic analysis, and Rust Cohle metaphysical mumbo jumbo in this:

“Prometheus is crucified by the emissaries of the gods who have come from above to punish him for his excessive love for men who are below. Zeus is not seen, but it is to him that Promethesus directs his reproaches and threats—to him, and to men who are the audience. God and man are both parties in the drama. Promethesus is the accused; but the accused turns into the accueser, whereas in the Oedipus of Sophocles, it is the accuser who becomes the accused. Above, a political drama is being performed, and the rulers change. Below, men have emerged from their primeval animal condition. Men change; so do the forces of nature and the gods. The entire cosmos moves in time but still preserves its vertical structure, with Olympus, Tartarus and earth's flat (orchestra-like) circle in between. A topcosm moves in time, but a time that runs at different speeds for gods and for men. Gods are immortal, men mortal-- brotoi who die but once. Emissaries of the gods derisively call them “ephemerids”: for an ephemerid, a damselfly, one day is all time.” (Kott p.7)

I wish I could have Rust give a dramatic reading at an interrogation of that passage. It would fit if he just randomly started spouting nonsense about Greek tragedy just as equally as when he talks about Membrane theory.

Anyway, for those of you who watched tonight's Episode 7 (“After You've Gone”), instead of the Oscars sleep-inducing boredom, look again at the last scene of the man on the lawn mower as the camera pulls away from him. He has mown a concentric circle, similar to the ancient Greeks' playing space, “orchestra.” There are white objects piled in the background that vaguely resemble a skene, or some sort of backdrop, and the whole area surrounding him looks like an almost perfectly rounded amphitheatre.

Noir tropes be damned! WE are the gods. These people on the screen are our “brotoi” playing out a day for us. We are Rust's version of “eternity” looking down on them playing out this drama over and over. The makers of this show are actually honoring several major tropes of Greek tragedy. The reversal at the climax of this story should be one hell of a cathartic reveal, if they continue on with following Kott's interpretation...or nothing will be revealed, reversed, or resolved...and it will end having been all about a green, spaghetti-faced weirdo named Cthulhu.

That would just be stupid.

IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY (or, IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD)

I don't know why I do this...

I don't know why I get involved in Facebook comment thread discussions about JFK.  Differentiating between possible trolls and earnest, heartfelt people who want a discussion is so difficult.

Anyway, I posted this as a response to someone who still thinks that Lee Harvey Oswald was aided by a second shooter.  



If he was shot from the front, and there was, in fact, a conspiracy, then you have to accept that the assassination of William McKinely by Leon Czolgosz was a conspiracy. I mean, really, who could believe that a known anarchist would be allowed to approach the President of the United States? You have to accept that the assassination of James A. Garfied by Charles Guiteau was a conspiracy. And Lincoln's...?

There have been roughly 31 attempts or plots on current and former Presidents that have made major headlines. Four plots that succeeded in execution. Two others succeeded in hitting the target (Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan). However, only one of the attempts appears to be a government conspiracy, and that was the attempt by Saddam Hussein to kill George H.W. Bush in Kuwait. Every single other attempt that involved a group of people on domestic soil could only be called a conspiracy because a group of like-minded individuals got together with a plot to kill the president. The one that succeeded that involved something remotely resembling a true conspiracy plot was the assassination of Lincoln. And yet, still, that attempt was headed and carried out by a man, John Wilkes Booth, who's own brother, Edwin Booth, stated his brother had mental problems.

In fact, in almost every single case the assassins were stated to be "agitated," or seemed "unstable" prior to the shootings for years by those closest to them. This is the one defining factor of each and every attempt on the head of state in a relatively peaceful and stable nation like the United States.

Andrew Jackson had a man point 2 guns, which misfired, at him in front of the White House. God knows how many plots tried to kill Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt was shot at by a true crank...when he was running as a 3rd party candidate. Argentine anarchists tried, and failed, to kill Hoover...before they could even get to try.

However, Giuseppe Zangara might be the guy you're looking for. He's the guy who tried to kill FDR, but failed. His motives have never been clearly established. He may, or may not, have been hired by the mob to kill the Chicago mayor and the new President then. Still, who knows...? Lone gunmen are kind of live wires with weird motives anyway.

A guy named Stern Gang sent letter bombs to Truman. A few Puerto Rican nationalists tried to kill him too...in Washington DC.

Kennedy had two or three other attempts on him during his presidency. One had been thwarted just a few weeks prior that was supposed to be carried out by four people. They wanted to shoot him while he was going under a highway overpass. Here's a strange fact to consider though before its suggested this proves there were several conspiracies in the works all around JFK. It was not a federal crime to kill or threaten the President at the time. The approach to all of this was just a shrug of the shoulders. There was actually little the government could legally do to monitor possible assassins. However, after 11/22/63 those attitudes, and laws, toward such a thing drastically changed.

Still, there was more. A guy named Arthur Bremmer wanted to kill Nixon. He killed George Wallace instead. A guy named Samuel Byck wanted to kill Nixon too, but got killed in a shootout instead (He took his own life when he realized he lost).

A follower of Charles Manson tried killing Ford.

An unemployed drifter tried to kill Carter.

John Hinkley Jr. thought he had a great way to impress Jodie Foster...by shooting Reagan.

A bunch of whack jobs tried to kill Clinton. Osama bin Laden even put a bomb under a bridge in '96 to try to kill him.

An assassin for the 2nd Bush apparently had "emotional problems."

Oh, and President Obama has had a bunch of attempts on his life, some through the mail in the form of ricin.

Sorry, for the mound of information here, with this many attempts on our presidents' lives (and these are just the ones on Wikipedia) you seriously think the government is hiding something from us about a sinister second shooter? I lived in Dallas for 3 years. I've been to Dealey Plaza. There isn't, and wasn't in 1963, really anywhere to run to except a giant parking lot behind the now mythical Grassy Knoll. It's not so mystical and when you stand there it's completely plausible and acceptable that Oswald killed him.

The man in the umbrella and trench coat didn't do it. Mr. Zapruder didn't do it, or capture anyone else doing it. It was Lee Harvey Oswald, alone, on the 6th floor. You know why? Because he was a poorly educated, somewhat skilled marksman, with severe emotional problems. He was 24, had been rejected for residence in the Soviet Union (and that is an accomplishment only the most unstable mentally or intellectually could achieve), married to a Russian woman in a somewhat volatile relationship, had a kid, and a dead-end job. Sorry, he fits the profile of almost every last single other nut who tried to kill the other presidents.

Kennedy was shot from behind. End of story. If you want a conspiracy, apparently Zachary Taylor and Warren G. Harding may have been assassinated. Now why aren't we talking about those mysteries? Oh right...there was no one standing around with a camera.

Patti Smith, NYC, DC, and Baltimore

I posted a link to the following article on Facebook.

Patti Smith Says NYC Is Closed, Find A New City

I got some interesting and varied responses to this posting, especially since I added my own comment: "Kind of what I thought..."

The responses it produced came from a New York based Assoicate Producer at a film company who attended Southern Methodist University with me:

"I was at a party of NYC performance artists and Penny Arcade said the same thing. Interesting right?"

NOTE - For those not in the know (I wasn't) Penny Arcade is a performance artist in New York City.  

The next response was from another New York resident, someone with whom I attended Towson University, who is now the Artistic Director of a prominent theatre company:

"I think this is dogmatic. New York nourished me as a young broke artist. Certainly, it isn't the NYC rendered in Patti Smith's Just Kids but it still feels inspired and creative to me."

The following response came from an independent musician who has composed music for productions I've created in Washington DC and was referring to him and his wife and their time in New York in relation to this posting:

"It's why we left"

The final series of responses came from an actor who lives and works in Washington DC.  He offered these three replies:

1)  "yup. the young and hungry searching for artistic fulfillment end up feeding into the service industry and are too exhausted after 16 hour shifts to make a difference. NYC is for the established, the young who want to struggle, and/or the wealthy."

2)  "that said, I wouldn't trade my years there for anything..."

3)  "dude, I'm thinking that it's Baltimore's time..."

For those of you who don't know, I live in Baltimore.  I've been hearing this about Baltimore for some time.  It's changed a lot over the years, but all I could initially offer as a response was this:

"Maybe."

I had a lot to say...about New York, Baltimore, and even Washington DC.  There were also people who "Liked" my posting.  God knows what the hell that means.

Do they like that artists are fleeing New York in droves?
Are they thrilled Patti Smith thinks the city is a cultural wasteland?
Do they agree with me?

Whatever.  

I'll save you their partial biographies since they only shared little white thumbs rather than opinions.   I weighed my options, considered some of the politics I should play with people who are both friends and professionals, and what I should write in response...if I should write any real response at all.  Then I thought, "What the hell...  I'll just write what's on my mind."

This was my extended response to the conversation:

I think this is less about Patti Smith's lost New York, or Sarah Jessica Parker saying it's "too pricey," or Madonna saying it's boring, or even David Byrne saying the city as he knew it is gone. It's about something else that is happening.

An arts scene will always be alive in any city. The state of its health is always in flux, or defined by the eye of the beholder. It's never going to fully die, but it might find itself in periods of being on life support. Anyway, again, how one defines that is in the eye of the beholder.

The more troubling thing I keep hearing is just how expensive the city has become in such a short time. DC may not be as "pricey," but is experiencing a similar kind of "accelerated gentrification" (I think that's the term used by The Post a few months back). I agree with P-. The end point is that fewer and fewer people from the class people like Patti Smith came from can afford to live in that city and actually practice their art, craft, whatever. Hell, I know people who have "regular jobs/careers" outside of the arts and are dancing on the razor's edge of being able to afford living there, or in DC.

What to do? I don't know. Some leave. Some stay and fight. Some succeed. Some fail. Others start ashrams. Find your place. Find your fight. Find your ashram...I guess. Or a safe and affordable suburb?

As for Baltimore...?

I've lived here on and off since '98 when I first came to school at Towson University. Back then I would never have even STOOD on the corner of North and Howard in what is now called Station North. Back then I thought of it more as NO MAN'S LAND. Maybe I thought that because it looked and felt dangerous as hell...and there were these kids who rode by on mopeds and four wheelers (two kids to each vehicle) popping wheelies while holding little brown paper baggies, weaving in and out of traffic.

I saw those types of kids a couple of years ago, but now there's a pizza place on that corner. As they rode by I went into it. It's called Joe Squared. Every time I eat there I can't believe I am eating a meal at that corner. Go there. Eat there. I recommend either the Irish Pizza, or the risotto with venison and arugula. They are both divine.

Baltimore has that going for it.

Joe Squared's full address is:

133 W. North Ave.

Baltimore, MD 21201

They have a location in Power Plant Live, a performing arts venue in the Inner Harbor, but I hate that place...and so should you...unless you're going to the National Aquarium.  Then you're fine.  

NOTE - The Irish Pizza has Roasted garlic cream, corned beef, potato, caramelized onion, mozzarella and Swiss cheeses.  It's really something else.  

THE INTERNET IS A CREEPY PLACE

The internet is a really creepy place.

I am writing this blog post not to just reiterate what has already been made apparent by countless stories of cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking, and news about the government's "surveillance" of phone records (or whatever it was they were doing by culling billions upon billions bits of data).  I writing to ask if anyone has received messages similar to ones I received this past weekend, and to determine whether or not they were just bots, or something worse.

I got some strange semi-threatening anonymous messages in my email inbox from two different sources.

One was delivered as part of a connection request on the professional website LinkedIn. It was sent from a profile name that was listed as "not available" and was listed as being employed with, or part of, something called "Assassin at Brotherhood" and apparently this person is (according to the profile) based in Owings Mills, MD. Anyway, the message was as follows:

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE
I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE 
I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU 
I KNOW YOU BETTER THAN YOU DO 
CHEERS

I thought this nothing more than probably a crank, or an internet "bot"...until I got another message delievered to my personal email, and was submitted to there via my personal acting website.

I got the message on the same day (two days ago...but didn't see them until today). This message was submitted by someone using the email unknownnumber15@gmail.com. A similar message was submitted to me from this sender as well:

I SEE YOU 
I HEAR YOU 
I WATCH YOU AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA 
JUST KNOW I'M WATCHING 
CHEERS

So I am reasonably unnerved by these two messages and a little unsure as to who to call, or if there is anything one can do with anonymous postings like these. I haven't responded to either message, and don't know if I even want to bother. I have started making inquiries with some friends in law enforcement about how to proceed with this, so I'll see what that brings.  However, I am also writing this blog post just to see if anyone out there has received messages like this.  I could use some peace of mind these are just "bots," or general anonymous "pranks" people pull on each other in this age and are done en masse to just annoy people.

Anyway, I am considering pulling down my profiles everywhere now because of this.  Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. Still, if anyone out there has a similar story to this I would love to hear it.

My Accomplishments for the Academic Year of 2012 - 2013

 So I was asked by the chair of the Theatre department at Carver Center (where I currently work) to write down my accomplishments for my end of the year evaluation this upcoming Friday.  I went overboard with detail...not to impress my bosses, or to curry favor, but to evaluate just what the hell I did this year.  Also, I'm curious why I'm so damn tired and exhausted lately.  As the list grew and grew it has become clear

 

This is the list.  Still, this only includes the stuff I remember doing, and doesn't include lost, or (temporarily) abandoned projects.  It doesn't include the things I tried to do and just fell apart before my eyes.  I tried to just focus on the positive. 

 

- MK

 

·         Teaching - Developed a new class (Acting I), which incorporated exercises and projects based on the work of several theatre theorists (Stanislavski, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Michael Chekhov, etc.).  Also, collaborated with Joseph Ritsch on merging this group with the Directing class throughout the year in order to provide directing students with actors in scene work, and actors an opportunity to implement acting theory work with peer directors.

·         Professional Development –Prior to the school year (Summer 2012), taught in the Shakespeare Summer Camp program for the Tony Award winning Shakespeare Theatre Company.  Taught primarily students of ages 10-12 in an early summer (late June to early July) session that culminated in a “mini-production” of Much Ado About Nothing, which I co-directed.  Also, was invited to work with older students (15-18 years old) in the Advanced Camp as a substitute for a colleague, and was asked to help block/choreograph difficult large ensemble scenes in their culminating production of Love’s Labours Lost.

·         Professional Development – From September to November, rehearsed and performed in a critically acclaimed production of Our Class by Tadeusz Slobodzianek at Washington DC’s Theater J.  During the course of the production I was also able to receive direct personal feedback from the playwright, Polish ambassador to the United States, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about the artistic, cultural, international, and historical significance of not just the text, but our production in particular.  The production was chosen by The Washingtonian as one of its “Top 12 Plays of 2012” and was also nominated for Best Resident Production Award at The Helen Hayes Awards.  An interview about my personal history and its connection to the piece was conducted with The Washington Post (http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-16/lifestyle/35500464_1_krawczyk-labor-camps-poland).  Also, provided the script and dramaturgical research material to Katelyn Shanklin in order to aid her in developing a new lesson plan for material related to Elie Wiesel’s Night.  We are also planning a collaborative lesson in which I will visit her class to talk to students about how we approached the text as actors.  Finally, one of my students (to my knowledge) was able to attend the production, and I was able to speak to him, and his parents, about their reactions/thoughts after the show.

·         Professional Development – Performed extra/background film acting work for an independent film called Jamesy Boy, sometime in early December. 

·         Professional Development – Was approached to become the Executive Director and to help develop the Mission Statement, and the legal/financial foundations for a new Montgomery County based arts group called “M.Y. Actors Society” (aka – Montgomery County Young Actors Society).  The group focuses on introducing young people of Montgomery County to productions and the realities of working in the acting profession in both film/TV and theatre.

·         Professional Development – Was asked to submit materials by a colleague, Dara Weinberg, for a possible theatre grant project titled End of The Line, which is about personal experiences of people of Polish or Jewish heritage in relation to a grandparent.  I submitted written material which became large chunks of the script that is currently being performed by Polish actors in theatres in Poland and Hungary.

·         Professional Development – Was part of a theatre field trip with the theatre students to see Double Edge Theatre’s The Grand Parade and was able to talk to my students about the process of creating new work.  Also, took part in a weekend workshop with the theatre company in order to further immerse myself in their devised theatre process.

·         Community Outreach – The work in Our Class led me to take part in a project with a soup kitchen in Washington DC called “Miriam’s Kitchen.”  Initially I was simply one of two cast members invited to take part in a conversation with several homeless people who frequent the soup kitchen (and Theater J) and are members of its arts group to talk about the difficulties in developing a production that spans around 80 years of history.  However, the majority of the conversation ended up focusing on the difficulty of “being a part of on-stage trauma night after night…” (which can be found documented in the following link: http://www.theatrewashington.org/content/because-we-matter).  Because of this talk, one of the participants from the group personally requested that I read his written work in public for a projects called Stories from The Kitchen, a one-night only event during which some of the homeless people from the group, as a means of art therapy, have their work read aloud/performed by a professional actor on the stage at Theater J.  This event took place on December 19^th, 2012 and I read a piece titled, “Oh Canada.”    

·         Professional Development – Co-produced, rehearsed, and remounted/performed a critically acclaimed production of Ivan Vyrypaev’s play Oxygen with Taffety Punk theatre company, located at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in the Eastern Market area of Washington DC.  The production was originally developed over a  6 month period in 2012, and received another 6 month rehearsal/re-contextualization period from January to late March 2013 for a 4 week performance run. Also, the show featured new music, composed and performed exclusively for our show in the style of late 90s/early 2000s “east European electronica”, by DC based bands The Caribbean, E.D. Sedgwick, Electric Blanketland, The Gena Rowlands Band, The Inexhaustible Chalice, and Jupiter Rex.  The production was chosen to be archived on video by the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive (WAPAVA) for its cultural/artistic significance.  Also, participated in an audience talkback with a Russian cultural group to talk about the cultural significance of the text, and the process of contextualizing it for an American audience.  Several of my students were also able to attend the performance and talk to me about their reactions.

·         Guest Speakers – Was able to have several guest speakers come in to work with the students in our program.  Emma Jaster (an international and DC area choreographer/actor) and Joe Isenberg (a Helen Hayes Award winning fight choreographer) came in to work with Freshman acting students on a movement workshop that incorporated both basic dance and fight choreography, and those two also gave professional evaluations and feedback to the Audition Seminar students.  Also, Paul Diem (former Fellow and now a current member of the Single Carrot Theatre Company Acting Ensemble) came in on two separate occasions to work with the Freshman ensemble and the Audition Seminar students.  Once was on basic monologue performance evaluations.  Another time he worked with the Freshman on ensemble work generation and with the Audition Seminar students he led a workshop on the realities of working in the Los Angeles acting community.

·         Directing – Directed a production of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour.   Developed a concept that didn’t change the text, but allowed for dramatically increasing the stage time of all student actors playing even minor characters, which increased their overall involvement in the collaborative process.  Also, empowered two students to take on significant leadership roles within the company during the rehearsal process.  J.A. (Junior - Theatre) was brought on to be Assistant Director and took on significant responsibilities involving staging large scenes, and working individual moments with other actors while other work was being done with the rest of the company with the Director.  Also, I cast M.R. (Sophomore - Music) who plays Lois Fischer.  M.R. was given the given the task of being Music Director and coordinating the harmonies sung by the actors playing the young students in the production.  Also, incorporated elements from the exhibition of Robert Miller’s work into the overall color scheme for the costumes of the adult characters in the play, and used several visuals as inspiration for different aesthetic choices in the production.  Personally, I’m really proud of the fact that several students who have viewed the production feel compelled to come multiple times, or have already seen it twice.  This includes both theatre and non-theatre students.

·         Coaching – Coached several acting students outside of class in order to prepare them for college auditions.  Several of the students I helped coach, along with other acting teachers, were accepted to schools such as Hofstra, Pace, Rutgers Mason Gross, Howard, Bowling Green, UMBC, Nazareth University, and Towson University (among others).  Also, independently coached several other students in order to prepare them for theatre auditions in the Baltimore area theatre community several of whom were cast in local productions.

·         Carver Community – Gave my time to several business and literary students who wanted to do interviews for the various publications/writing projects being done here at Carver Center.  K.Y. (Business) interviewed me for two different articles.  One was on the effect of theatre and film on the populace in terms of views of homosexuals, and the other was a profile on C.G. (Theatre).  T.H. (Literary) interviewed me for an article on The Children’s Hour process.  D.S.M. (Literary) interviewed me for a literary profile project.  R.A.(Literary) asked me to answer an email questionnaire on another teacher.

·         Prime-Time Day – Successfully ran two devised theatre workshops for Dance students from the Freshman and Sophomore classes.  The workshop was one I run with my Freshman students in order to develop FSE pieces, but this workshop was slightly reworked in order to 1) engage the dance students in showing them their ability to create independent theatre pieces with their dance training, and 2) engaging them in a feedback session of what the workshop meant to them as dancers.  Received particularly moving and enlightening feedback from the Sophomore group that their work rarely engaged them in a way that asked for their personal input, or emotional experience and that this workshop truly helped them engage in their work in the creative process in a new way.

·         Auditions – Helped administer incoming Freshman auditions for the 2013-2014 year on the initial day of auditions, as well as several makeup days for students who either missed the initial audition, or appealed the results of the initial audition.

·         Teaching Assistant – Was able to empower I.C. as T.A. for my Audition Seminar class to give enriching and necessary feedback to her peers/colleagues, as well as lead two entire classes as instructor on how to audition for the camera in both close-up and wide-angle shots.

·         IN TOTAL – I might be wrong about this, but some students might have either learned something about acting and theatre, and some might actually like it more, or at all, now.  I’m going to assume that happened with at least a few kids.

On Teaching and Guns

A friend of mine, Brian Normoyle, posted this comment on his timeline around December 18th, 2012:

From my friend Lucas, a bit of reason I've been saying since Friday:

"I have heard so much stupidity over the last couple of days, so let me take one piece of it and amend it so that it makes sense. 'If only the teacher had been carrying a gun....She would have died with a gun in her hand, and several children would still be dead.'"

This kid used a military-style assault rifle than fired many, many rounds in a matter of minutes. You don't solve that problem with MORE guns in a K-4 elementary school.

I've been wanting to write my response for a few days now to this topic.  I just started writing and this is what came out.  I thought I'd share it with the world...you know...for perspective.

Here it is:

I've been working as a teacher the last year and a half. I can't believe that people have been saying that teachers should be armed. 

As a teacher I don't want several things:

1) The expectation that I am the member of the SWAT team, or a stationed member of the armed forces in your school. I am not a trained killing machine. I am a teacher and an actor. Forget the notion that I am a soldier RIGHT NOW...but...for the sake of conversation...here are some more of my concerns.

2) The added liability of being blamed if, God forbid, any of my students should be killed by a mad gunman. I can just hear the cries now. "HE'S to blame! He had a gun and didn't use it properly! Now let's sue HIM. He clearly had an opportunity to stop this madness and didn't do it in time with his gun!" I'd really be looking forward to the double guilt put on me by myself for general survivor's guilt, and then the mad guilt of a mob looking for someone to blame as revenge.

3) Any of my students KNOWING that I am secretly packing heat... Some students are already shy. Knowing their teacher is carrying a firearm is not going to add to them "opening up." I can already see the ones who keep their eyes averted from everything in class out of some secret shame now cowering in a corner for pure fear of their teacher going off the deep end. Also, some youngsters welcome a challenge of authority. I think having a gun on a teacher would be like sticking a giant "ULTIMATE CHALLENGE" sticker on his/her forehead and dare some students to do something dumb...like reach for the teacher's gun. There are some boys with abundant amounts of testosterone, and girls with territorial tendencies who are always trying to test a teacher. In both these cases I can just imagine the ONE student who is a little erratic reaching for the weapon for the sheer bliss of saying to his/her friends, "I went for the gun! Did you see that?!" And did you see the teacher getting carted off to jail for...[fill in reason here]? This leads me to the next point...

4) As fun as it is to muse about such questions as an absurd joke (and actually...it's not), I don't want the following to become a normal reality: "When do my students become viable threats to me, and when am I allowed to draw my weapon on them?" Seriously, when do I get to consider their posturing toward me, making aggressive movements against me, or even their possible attacking me at all a reasonable enough threat to draw my weapon? When do the ones I'm protecting become threats themselves? Do I get to use SWAT team techniques with other teachers on them? Do we get to draw our weapons in the case of student fights in the corridor? Why the hell do I have to ask these questions?!

5) I don't want to consider any of the other thousand, or so, liabilities I can't imagine right now. Seriously? How many other ways will my safety and my liability be threatened if I carry a weapon in general? Will we have an "accidental discharge policy" if my weapon malfunctions and a projectile unwittingly kills one of my students? Jesus...I could go on and on.

Anyway...that's my rant on this subject.
I would also like to add that no teacher is a cross between Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Holland's Opus and Tom Berenger in The Substitute. They're much more like Edward James Olmos in Stand And Deliver. They struggle to impart lessons using cajoling or dry wit, compassion for those who struggle to keep up, and assertiveness of character with those who step out of line with disrespect...not by drawing a gun. And...maybe don't look to movies for examples. Maybe...TALK to teachers. Actual ones.

With all the madness of idiots suggesting arming teachers (and they're STILL suggesting it!), I thought this was appropriate to post here.  Supporters of such ideas think they're protecting the children because evil and insane people are always hard at work circumventing society's rules...so it doesn't matter to pass any laws to make it harder to shoot up schools.  There may be no rest for the wicked, but there is also no relief from the morons.