Today was a good day to be an artist..

Obviously I've been away for a while longer than anticipated. Story of my life. Here's a quick review of the important things that have transpired the last couple of months:

1. I rehearsed and opend Noises Off. It was the hardest show of my life and one of the most fun. I grew tremendously, fell in love with the cast and was nominated for an "Irene Ryan" national award for my performance...kind of the college equivalent of a Tony or Oscar I guess. Eeeeek!!! So SO excited! The other nominees are fucking brilliant! A year ago I was beating my head against a wall to get my work noticed. The front side of the set. It looks small here, but it was a beautiful, revolving monstrosity.

2. My family came and visited together for the first time ever, and it was wonderful. I miss them so much.

3. I did Thanksgiving with Tim's family and that too was wonderful...he's kind of wonderful. :) There was the one mishap where Granny (his) threw up during Thanksgiving dinner but...ya know...nothin to see there folks.

4. Got cast as Lennox in a February production of Macbeth. Rehearsals start tomorrow morning.

And now that you're all caught up to speed...

A good friend of mine once said that being an artist is like being in a relationship where there are days of passionate fighting and days of passionate loving but no matter what, days of passion. Today...was the 2nd of those and amidst finals and juries where most days have been the first in that list, it couldn't have come at a better time. My last 24 hrs have gone something like this:

Last Night. 7:30 pm. Me. Roommate. British beau. Her's. Cirque: Illumination tour. First Cirque experience. Edge of my seat. Silent 4 letter words of amazement. Whole lives devoted to defying the normally perceived boundaries of the body. Incredible. Moscow. A culture that embraces Circus training as a profession? Moved up a few places on my "want to visit" list.

Today. 9 am. Me. Classmate. Small and civil debate. Representation of women and their power in 17th and 18th century drama.

12 pm. Hear of friend and alum's audition success. Live from Times Square. New Year's Eve. Get it!

1 pm. Standing in cold. Rachel (Noises Off castmate, kindred spirit, partner for Irene Ryan Award competition) picks me up. Starbucks. Discussion. Read through #471 of potential scenes. Consensus. Loving her. Back to campus for meeting.

2pm. Rachel and I reading through potential scenes aloud for faculty. Not quite it. More scenes. Closer but not perfect. Something shorter. Something with more male focus. Something quirkier. More scenes. Foreign languages. Stutters. Breakups. Propositions. No. No. No. Awkward lovers under the stars saying "I love you" for the first time. Emphasis on the awkward. Perfect. Thank god. Huge weight off the shoulders. Rachel leaves. Me. Faculty. Shakespeare. Reading. Cutting. Reading. Romeo? Yes.

3:30pm. Acting juries. Me. Brian. Prior. Louis. Angels in America. Stepping back 25 years. Fighting to protect the person I love more than anything in the world from a disease I cannot even protect myself from. Hard place to get to. Going to miss breathing life into that part of my soul. Professing love to clinging to love all in one day. Exhausting in the best way. Peers. One scene after another. So proud.

5 pm. Dinner with roommate, Amy, Devan. Rehearsal. They're off. Freshman join me. Ask me for advice. Didn't think I would ever be one to have any to give. Assured them all will be ok. Felt nice to be able to do that.

8 pm. In Darfur. Play about the genocide in Darfur. Classmates. Independent project. Waiting for play to start. Begin talk with Jacob about living in Chicago post graduation. Door reopened. Play begins. So heartbreaking. So enlightening. So angering! Intermission. Talk with Jacob about activism in America. Activism in our generation. Or lack thereof. Ideas run rampant. So happy this atrocity is being brought to light. Death toll reaching 100,000+ a MONTH. Go here to learn more and or donate to the cause. http://www.standnow.org/



10:30 pm. Walk through the dark, quiet cold to the house...humming and just generally inspired by all the people and things around me. There's so much out there to see and do and make happen, and so much that's already happening. Today was a good day to be artist...today was a good day to be alive, in the fullest sense of the word.