SETC, the place to be

It has been a completely insane and wonderful and overwhelming day.

Stacey and I travelled 11 hours to Chattanooga with Denise and Shawn. It was a lovely drive and definitely did not feel 11 hours long. They are completely wonderful for taking us, and it was so lovely to get to know Shawn better. And to learn that he has every single disco-funk song known to man on his iPod. And has a cool Bruce Willis story. And Stacey is just such a sweet angel - I'm very glad she's here.

After we got to the hotel at about quarter till 8, we swam in the heated indoor pool! Oh, it was heaven. It was just Stacey and I at first, then some other SETC folk came in, followed by our fellow roommates, Chaffee, Tim, and Danielle. Thank god we're all here - we're staying in this beautiful, very nice hotel, that is made affordable by splitting it into 5! So that's wonderful. Even if poor Tim has to sleep on an air mattress on the scant floor space we could find for it.

I've been pretty sleepy and reserved and ever-so-slightly cranky for a fair portion of the trip so far, I'd say. I think I've just been mentally and physically exhausted and nervous. And I've also been used to, these last few...months, I guess - a pretty fair amount of alone time and quiet time. Which I think happened without me even realizing it! It's weird. I guess because Monica and I are always on such insanely opposite schedules, it often feels like I live alone. With an invisible roommate who always leaves her bathroom light on ;)

So anyway. I hope my SETC roomies aren't bothered by that, but this is a very personal trip for me, and I just feel the need to be very independent and autonomous, and...really, I *am* very independent and autonomous, I have realized. It's really silly, but when my mom and I were talking about the 5K and I was saying how I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up with Megan, she just said, "You have to run your own race." And...I do have to. And I *do*. I've always been the kind of person where...if I want to see a movie, for example, and no one will go with me, I'll go by myself and enjoy my little private field trip.

I don't know. I'm rambling. It's been such an insane day and I feel the need to just pour my brain out through the keyboard. I'm sure no one's read this far into it anyway, so I think I'm fine!


Anyway! SETC!


I was slightly nervous and discouraged this morning - first of all, because it was positively POURING when Stacey and I walked over, so my nice job interview clothes got FREAKING SOAKED...but I dried off and it was fine...so let's not talk about it - anyway... a couple of the presentations I went to this morning were just kind of...I don't know. It was either stuff I already knew, wasn't geared toward me, or information I could've garnered in 5 minutes. Or something that I'd prefer to deal with one-on-one (like the prospect of contributing some writing for Southern Theatre Magazine! how freaking awesome would that be?) rather than in a group setting because I'm weird like that.

So, I was starting to think...eh. I don't know if this is for me.

And then I went to the Job Contact Service - the REAL reason I was at SETC in the first place.

It was so great. It was a HUUUUUGE room with bazillions of tables/stations set up for TONS of different theatres. A lot of them weren't really for me (summer stock, opera, etc) and a lot of them were theatres I'd totally be interested in, but didn't offer anything even in the ballpark of what I'm looking for - which I've gotten used to, at this point. I've accepted the fact that very very very few places offer directing internships of any kind! Though there are a lot of dramaturgical/literary opportunities, which is a second choice I am very excited about. And if at the end of all this madness the only thing available would be more administrative or (god help me I'm so rusty!) stage management (!), I'd be more than happy to do that as well. I just want to work in a wonderful theatre!

It was wonderful to be there because I discovered so many theatres that I hadn't found yet in my own pithy little research (and there are a hell of a lot of regional theatres in Florida! I had no idea). The Actor's Theatre of Louisville, for one, has a phenomenal sounding internship program (and they offer a directing internship!) that would be...oh man. Working there would be like winning the lottery.

One of the most exciting moments of the job contact thing was my interview with the California Theatre Center. I had never heard of them, and they were the first table I hesitantly approached. The young guy sitting at it was so nice, and he's also a young director. He told me the closest thing they'd be able to offer that's suited my interest is stage management - but as a freaking JOB, not an internship! And he talked about how that's how he got his start, and then they started giving him AD jobs, and then eventually some directing jobs. It's in the Silicon Valley and it just sounds like a phenomenal place. So that was nice, and then he scheduled me a time to come back int he afternoon to talk with some of the higher-ups that were going to be there.

It was one of the most professional gratifying experiences EVER.

I have absolutely no clue if anything will happen for me with them, but oh my god. The lady was SO nice, she was really impressed with my resume and portfolio - she complimented my portfolio like 8 thousand times which just made me want to cry because I feel like that thing has been a worry for me forEVER and it's just...gratifying. And it was a completely lovely conversation. I talked about how I feel like my big weakness is in technical theatre and we just had this frank, wonderful discussion about strengths and weaknesses and the opportunity to learn and build up experience...and she also asked me if I acted! She said I'd be a great type for their theatre! That made me smile inside. (And outside.) There was another gentlemen there, but he was a bit more quiet and observant - I mostly talked with the lady. But they were both amazing.

So it would take me 8 thousand years to talk about my whole Job Contact day fun. I still have to write out a total list of who I talked to and just...what's the word Denise always uses? I can't think of it, but...I have to reflect. I think she's say "soak." I'll certainly have to make a list of who I'm going to follow up with! I met a lot of lovely people.


The last thing I'm going to say about it before I move on though...and oh yes, there is plenty more to come in this supersized entry...is less about jobs and more about the absolute absurdity and insanity of life and what a bizarre and small world theatre is.

So, I'm walking along and observing all the different companies that have tables set up, and I see a big ol' setup for Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. And I thought ot myself, "Oh, Garth did Henry VI there last year. Cool." And I keep looking, and I notice that they have a display of 3 severed heads (props...obviously).

And I see that one of them looks awfully familiar.

And then I remember Garth calling me backstage and telling me about how his head is now being handled by whatever character.

I SAW GARTH'S FAKE DISEMBODIED HEAD AT SETC.

How freaking weird is that???

I told him and he told me to take a picture. So get ready for that.

And even funnier, Christopher Owens, the lovely artistic director for VA Shakes, was at a station almost right across from them. So I pointed it out to him and he was thoroughly weirded out ;) And speaking of Christopher and VSF, I also ran into his lovely wife Tamara, who was our Nurse in R&J last year. So that was neat.


So yeah. That's the end of the Job Contact saga.

I got back, and my feet were tired, I was exhausted, my brain was full to bursting with information and sensory overload, and if I were the kind of person to take naps, I would've been out like a light. But alas, I cannot nap. And I'm also working on a little thing called a freaking 10K, and today was supposed to be my Long Run! Yikes!

So I sucked it up, changed my clothes, and went down to the lovely exercise facility here and I did 7.13 kilometers in 57 minutes and 36 seconds. I wanted to die a few times, but Defying Gravity came on when I had just hit 6 kilometers, and I hadn't heard it in ages, and it of course was my singing-with-Carol-in-the-car-at-the-top-of-our-lungs song junior year, and it helped me run the last kilometer without stopping. Hooray for Wicked! So that felt good.

I came back to the room for a superquick shower and to stuff my face with my lunch leftovers and a Luna bar, and then went off to my evening activity - "Theatre Behind Bars: Twelve Angry Men" "Using the play Twelve Angry Men with inmates at Green River Correctional Complex in Central City, KY, to perform a classic drama while studying conflict resolution."

It was one of the most incredible things ever. We didn't actually get to see the play, obviously, but the woman who put the whole theatre-behind-bars program together just talked to us about her experiences these past 7 years working with these inmates and it was just...fascinating, moving, beautiful, frightening, horrible, wonderful...I mean, I can't even find a word sufficient to describe it. "Moving" just doesn't cover it. For a good deal of it I had to exercise overwhelming self control to keep from just weeping the whole time.

I have no idea why the notion of rehabilitation through art - theatre - affects me so much. It takes me back to early early freshman year when I walked into Gaines theatre to see my very first TheaterCNU production, Our Country's Good. That was one of the major defining moments in my life. It turned me into a bona fide TheaterCNU groupie-fangirl, for one thing. What they did with the space, the set, how wonderful the actors were, and how unbelievably POWERFUL the story and the script and the characters were...it overwhelmed me. And it inspired me to do a little bit of research - nothing official and nothing huge - on the practice of having prisoners/inmates/criminals/what have you work on productions as part of rehabilitation or just...general betterment.

It's something I want to do in my life when I'm older and have sixty-five years of life experience, like this amazing amazing lady does. I just can't imagine how rewarding and terrifying the experience is, and she ahd nothing but glowing things to say. She kept saying how she has finally found the absolute love of her life. It was just so beautiful. Something about the power of redemption through art overwhelms me.

And also! One of the inmates - Kevin - was apparently amazing. (Well, according to her, they were all amazing - but she never shied away from telling us the terrible things they did to get there, and she acknowledged that they paid their price and deserved to be there and...if I get on this tangent I'll just ramble on for another 13 paragraphs, so let's just get back to Kevin) He was a Mensa member in high school, committed murder when he was 21, and is now 43, serving two life sentences. Kevin is an artist and she displayed - and even freaking raffled off - some of his work. And the poster he did for the show was gorgeous and insane. I didn't get anything, sadly, but it was awesome nonetheless.

So it was all I could do to keep myself together to talk to her at the end, and thank her, and I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I told her how moved I was, and we talked about Our Country's Good and stuff, and she was just so sweet. I had to hide in the bathroom and just cry for awhile before I could come back to the hotel. Nuts.


And that just about brings me to here. I'm alone in our messy lovely hotel room, listening to some gorgeous and mellow Jeff Buckley - it's been awhile since darling Jeff and I have gotten together. His cover of Dylan's If You See Her Say Hello is gorgeous.

Next up...cleaning and reorganizing my little area, organizing all the little pamphlets and packets I got today, and updating my little job chart in Word. And then passing the eff out.

Last thing...I called and left a voicemail for my lovely little Lisa on the walk back to the hotel, and I just saw that she called me as I was writing this insanely long entry. I'm feeling too introvert-y to talk on the phone right now, but I adore and love her so much and value her wonderful support more than I can possibly express. So I'm going to end on her words...


"Go get 'em, tiger!"
-Lisa Helmi Johanson :)

Good night, all.