Thursday, June 15, 2006
Sweet Fresh Berries and Art...
...both joyous proof that it is good to be alive this day!!
I started out the early morning with a brewed coffee and a bowlful of large, juicy blackberries...berries that burst between my teeth with an expression of immediate sweetness and gently resistant crunch, a sweet sweet protest, a giving up of its wondrous gift of juice and joy...i'm tellingyou, those large sumptuous blackberries were a definite treat....bare, raw, deeply yummy blackberries...mmmmmmm.
The coffee was good too.
Then i completed some paperwork for Susan Einhorn over at Queens College: they have offered me a class to teach in the Fall semester: Musical Theater...it would dove-tail nicely with my two NYU classes, making for a very long Wednesday, but totally do-able, and I feel honored that Susan and Charles Repole want me for the position. Though the offer seems firm, there are some things the College needs for its files, like resumes, recommendationa, MFA proofs,etc. that I have never had to gather before in this way, and so it has been good for me to do so. Susan Einhorn, an old friend from I CAN'T KEEP RUNNING IN PLACE years ago at The Westside Arts Theater....a terrific director, a good woman, a brilliant one,really. She's been at Queens College for many years now, tenured, I would think. And so it is nice to know she thought of me for the job.
MEANWHILE, The New School Musical Theater Summer Immersion is well underway and it has been a busy week! I was downtown at the Bank Street Building (formerly Westbeth Collective) by 8:00 Mnday morning of this week, and I did not see daylight until 6:00 pm! Since the New School has never done this particular program before, with this particular gathering of teachers and this newly-invented curriculum full of teaching and Master Classes, we were all running arund like maniacs making it work well. Thank God it was all in one building that day! And as it turned out, the day was great and productive: a good way to kick off the entire 15 day process. After an initial morning meeting, the 19 students came to Room 206, where I started them out with an entire Relaxation Is The Most Important Thing In Life process that seemed to truly get them set for what was ahead for them all....it was gratifying to see it work so well. And we went right into the Round Robin of Song exercise, enabling them all to open their mouths in front of each other for the first time! It also gave Nova and me a chance to hear what we have to work with . And, as usual, it was really fun! Phillip, my class pianist, is terrific! He happens to be an old pal of my niece Riachel too! Small world .
Anyway, then they had a short break before they went into singing yet another song in a more formal format, in the 3rd Floor Theater...I do believe that the earlier relaxation exercise made them perform better than they otherwise would have. In any event, it gave us all another chance to see what they were like, so we could then go ahead and cast them in short musical scenes to be handed out later that day.
After lunch, they had the pleasure of being in a Master Class with Judy Kuhn, who I had the most fun watching teach. Judy and i have not really spoken in depth since we did RAGS together some 20 years ago! (She pointed out the particular passage of time, shocking us both)..and it was terrific to see her be so relaxed and nurturing and effective with the students....she was deeply inspiring, as she instructed them in the ways of breathing through the language of a song to genuinely inhabit it....I learned so much from watching her work. She managed to work with about 4 students and the difference in their singing and presentation was immediately visible. They felt it too. Judy Kuhn is a really good teacher. And we were able to catch up a bit on life as we have been living it over the past two decades! That was nice too.
The students then went into Nova's class, where she began to instruct them about Core Voice, ascertaining their Base Pitch, how speaking goes into singing,etc. I watched for a while and learned from her too! And that is fun to do. While she was teaching, I was organizing scenes and casting them for specific students. Stacy, our Administrative Assistant, beautifully copied them all and made them readable and decipherable for the kids to learn from. And she had it all ready for us by the 4:45 Synthesis Meeting with the students. We assigned and handed them out there and then, so they would have something to rehearse that evening with the pianists hired to help them. They all seemed thrilled with what I gave them to learn.
And by then it was nearly 6:00 and i could hardly stand I was so tired!
So I hopped a cab, made it home fast, kicked off my shoes, ate a lovey dinner made by the ever wondr0us Peter, and was asleep by 9:00pm!!! I slept through the night.
Which was good, because I had an early morning the next day!
And so it has been going.....yesterday they had a Master Class with Performance Psychologist Don Green...interesting approach to the work of auditioning...and Robert Lupone...a very interesting man who heads the New School Drama School...and Michelle Pawk, a wonderful singer and actress....there are so many lined up for them to learn from...I teach again tomorrow morning. And it is my job to help synthesize everything and pull it all together for them in their consciousness. So far, that has been easy and fun to do. I like this group.
Tonight, we are going down to a meditation study meeting at the Jewel Heart Sangha, which we have been hearing and reading about...also a Tibetean based Buddhist group.
I am deeply involved in reading so many wonderful books right now. It's a pleasure to go into our Meditation Room, shut the door, light some incense, chant and meditate...then read and read. A genuine source of relaxation and pleasure.
Peter and I are planning a trip to the West Coast in July with Paul and Steve. Pacific Ocean: HERE WE COME! San Francisco: OPEN YOUR GOLDEN GATES!
This all seems like part of a process that is opening and changing our lives in unexpected ways. Odd how performing in the theater aw an actress, a thing that has always been what I thought was a core of my identity, is morphing into other things that matter more...enriching things more in unimagined ways. Opening doors tp new understandings and more creative ways of being in this world. Honestly, life is such a surprise. So fluid and glorious.
And The Buddha knew this way way back then. Amazing.
I started out the early morning with a brewed coffee and a bowlful of large, juicy blackberries...berries that burst between my teeth with an expression of immediate sweetness and gently resistant crunch, a sweet sweet protest, a giving up of its wondrous gift of juice and joy...i'm tellingyou, those large sumptuous blackberries were a definite treat....bare, raw, deeply yummy blackberries...mmmmmmm.
The coffee was good too.
Then i completed some paperwork for Susan Einhorn over at Queens College: they have offered me a class to teach in the Fall semester: Musical Theater...it would dove-tail nicely with my two NYU classes, making for a very long Wednesday, but totally do-able, and I feel honored that Susan and Charles Repole want me for the position. Though the offer seems firm, there are some things the College needs for its files, like resumes, recommendationa, MFA proofs,etc. that I have never had to gather before in this way, and so it has been good for me to do so. Susan Einhorn, an old friend from I CAN'T KEEP RUNNING IN PLACE years ago at The Westside Arts Theater....a terrific director, a good woman, a brilliant one,really. She's been at Queens College for many years now, tenured, I would think. And so it is nice to know she thought of me for the job.
MEANWHILE, The New School Musical Theater Summer Immersion is well underway and it has been a busy week! I was downtown at the Bank Street Building (formerly Westbeth Collective) by 8:00 Mnday morning of this week, and I did not see daylight until 6:00 pm! Since the New School has never done this particular program before, with this particular gathering of teachers and this newly-invented curriculum full of teaching and Master Classes, we were all running arund like maniacs making it work well. Thank God it was all in one building that day! And as it turned out, the day was great and productive: a good way to kick off the entire 15 day process. After an initial morning meeting, the 19 students came to Room 206, where I started them out with an entire Relaxation Is The Most Important Thing In Life process that seemed to truly get them set for what was ahead for them all....it was gratifying to see it work so well. And we went right into the Round Robin of Song exercise, enabling them all to open their mouths in front of each other for the first time! It also gave Nova and me a chance to hear what we have to work with . And, as usual, it was really fun! Phillip, my class pianist, is terrific! He happens to be an old pal of my niece Riachel too! Small world .
Anyway, then they had a short break before they went into singing yet another song in a more formal format, in the 3rd Floor Theater...I do believe that the earlier relaxation exercise made them perform better than they otherwise would have. In any event, it gave us all another chance to see what they were like, so we could then go ahead and cast them in short musical scenes to be handed out later that day.
After lunch, they had the pleasure of being in a Master Class with Judy Kuhn, who I had the most fun watching teach. Judy and i have not really spoken in depth since we did RAGS together some 20 years ago! (She pointed out the particular passage of time, shocking us both)..and it was terrific to see her be so relaxed and nurturing and effective with the students....she was deeply inspiring, as she instructed them in the ways of breathing through the language of a song to genuinely inhabit it....I learned so much from watching her work. She managed to work with about 4 students and the difference in their singing and presentation was immediately visible. They felt it too. Judy Kuhn is a really good teacher. And we were able to catch up a bit on life as we have been living it over the past two decades! That was nice too.
The students then went into Nova's class, where she began to instruct them about Core Voice, ascertaining their Base Pitch, how speaking goes into singing,etc. I watched for a while and learned from her too! And that is fun to do. While she was teaching, I was organizing scenes and casting them for specific students. Stacy, our Administrative Assistant, beautifully copied them all and made them readable and decipherable for the kids to learn from. And she had it all ready for us by the 4:45 Synthesis Meeting with the students. We assigned and handed them out there and then, so they would have something to rehearse that evening with the pianists hired to help them. They all seemed thrilled with what I gave them to learn.
And by then it was nearly 6:00 and i could hardly stand I was so tired!
So I hopped a cab, made it home fast, kicked off my shoes, ate a lovey dinner made by the ever wondr0us Peter, and was asleep by 9:00pm!!! I slept through the night.
Which was good, because I had an early morning the next day!
And so it has been going.....yesterday they had a Master Class with Performance Psychologist Don Green...interesting approach to the work of auditioning...and Robert Lupone...a very interesting man who heads the New School Drama School...and Michelle Pawk, a wonderful singer and actress....there are so many lined up for them to learn from...I teach again tomorrow morning. And it is my job to help synthesize everything and pull it all together for them in their consciousness. So far, that has been easy and fun to do. I like this group.
Tonight, we are going down to a meditation study meeting at the Jewel Heart Sangha, which we have been hearing and reading about...also a Tibetean based Buddhist group.
I am deeply involved in reading so many wonderful books right now. It's a pleasure to go into our Meditation Room, shut the door, light some incense, chant and meditate...then read and read. A genuine source of relaxation and pleasure.
Peter and I are planning a trip to the West Coast in July with Paul and Steve. Pacific Ocean: HERE WE COME! San Francisco: OPEN YOUR GOLDEN GATES!
This all seems like part of a process that is opening and changing our lives in unexpected ways. Odd how performing in the theater aw an actress, a thing that has always been what I thought was a core of my identity, is morphing into other things that matter more...enriching things more in unimagined ways. Opening doors tp new understandings and more creative ways of being in this world. Honestly, life is such a surprise. So fluid and glorious.
And The Buddha knew this way way back then. Amazing.
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