Curtain Up. Light the Lights.

After playing around with this for the past 45 minutes or so, I’ve becoming increasingly frustrated. I can’t seem to figure out how to get certain things to show up on my blog, like the blogroll. Every link has been clicked, and yet I’ve found nothing. I really wanted to figure this out myself, so that I really understand it, but I see that I’m going to have to ask for help. This is something that I’ve always had trouble with, and I couldn’t tell you why. Okay, that’s a total life. I absolutely can tell you why. Asking for help makes me feel awkward and stupid. Yes, I know, this is a ridiculous thing to think because we all have to ask for help at some point, but that doesn’t make me feel less lame. Also, I realize that most people that could help me have busy lives, just like I do, and I don’t want to take away their time just so they can sit down and explain things to me. Even as I write this, I realize that I have to get over this immediately, or I’m never going to get anywhere. This is completely new territory, and while I’m irritated at myself for not understanding it, I also have to realize that I don’t just inherently know how to use this stuff. So… would anyone be willing to sit down with me for half an hour or so and help me out? I would really, REALLY appreciate it.

Today – well, yesterday, technically – I found out that I was cast in She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, which I’m absolutely ecstatic about. Last spring, when this year’s season was announced, I knew immediately that I wanted to be in this show, perhaps even do my senior project on it. Well, both of my wishes came true when I saw my name on the cast list next to Miss Constance Neville. This is going to be the most ridiculous and amazing process, and I want to start right now!!

Lastly, I was reading the January issue of American Theatre in my spare time today, and I was reading a small piece about a play festival that they’re having in New York City. One of the performances was just a guy sitting on stage, apparently hooked up to a machine that would shock him with electricity whenever anyone in the audience sighed, cracked a joint, giggled, or anything of the sort. I just wondered, Is this really theatre??? Sure it’s a performance, but what is the point? What is the artist trying to get at? What is he trying to say? And mostly, doesn’t that hurt? I always think of theatre as a group of actors on stage with the audience on one, three or four sides watching as the actors tell a story. This… just doesn’t seem like theatre to me.

I just made my del.icio.us account and am slowly learning what to do with it. It seems like a really interesting and easy way to share things with people who have the same interests as you. I’m sure there’s a way to get into the same network as all of the people in Ideas, but I’m working on that. This technology thing is so crazy! I’ve had a blog before and kept up with it religiously for a long time in high school, and still post every once in a while, so this isn’t really anything new. The rest of it though… wow. Flikr seems easy enough, since I’ve used webshots before, but that’s about it. Getting interviews that I record on here and embedding things and glossing text and all of that business… I assume I’ll work it all out. Hopefully all of you reading will be there to help me, too! It’s strange how fast technology goes these days. I mean, when I was growing up – elementary school, all that – computers weren’t anywhere near as prolific as they are today. Now everyone has one. My uncle worked on some of the first computers built, the ones that filled whole rooms. Now they’re tiny! It’s so crazy, but it’s so fantastic at the same time. I try to keep up as much as I can with technology as it progresses, but there’s just so much of it I can’t do everything. This class is going to be really helpful for so many reasons. Not only do I get to learn about these cool technology things, but I get to make contacts, learn my way around New York, hang out with my friends, learn more about theatre, and tons of other things. It doesn’t get much better.