Living On the Inside of a Notebook

First off let me say forget everything that you’ve heard. Don’t go into Duke’s class with these preconceived notions about her because more than likely you’re gonna be dead wrong. Go into the class with an open mind and a will to learn. If you don’t have those tools than nothing I can say after this can help you. Be prepared to work. If you’re not prepared to work you’re gonna die! And please don’t think you’re going to walk into class, not have read what you were supposed to read, give some half baked, crap answers and think she’s going to accept that. She will notice, she will call you out on it, and you will be picking up your face off the floor. Basically just suck it up and do the work. Oh and a positive attitude always helps. Work hard and you’re gonna “learn somthin.’” Good luck!

For acts 2 through 5 of Hamlet my english class has been listening to the audio version. Your version was quite good. My only problem was that at times you talked a little fast. I could see where it could’ve been difficult for some people to keep up. Something that I learned as an actor is that sometimes speaking slower gets the feeling across the better than speaking fast. Overall you really brought life to the character. I enjoyed it.

A new fan,

Taylor

I am writing to tell you how nuch i enjoyed your version of Hamlet. After watching act 1 in my English 3 class, I went home and finished the movie on my own. As silly as this is, I think my favorite part in the film is when Hamlet javelin throws the sword and pins Claudius to the thrown. While it was a bit hammy, no pun intended, the symbolism was very cool. I thought there couldn’t have been a better choice for Ophelia than Kate Winslet. I loved the scene when Gertrude was trying to talk to her but she was to vacant to be talked to. Also Billy Crystal as the grave digger was genius! That version of the beginning of Act 5, Scene 1 was great! The “alas poor Yorick” soliloquy was very well done(despite how creepy Yorick was).

I must say Hamlet overall seemed a bit over acted. I guess it worked to a certain extent with the character but at some points he kind of got on my nerves.

By the way I was a big fan of you in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Road to El Dorado, and in Wild Wild West. You’ve said some of my favorite movie lines. “Fame is a fickle friend Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does. Remember that.” “We’ll follow that trail! The trail that we blaze!” “It’s me, dear friends – alive and kicking! Well, alive, anyway.”

A big fan,

Taylor

The thing I’ve noticed most about this section is FOOLISHNESS! COMPLETE AND UTTER FOOLISHNESS! TOTAL TOMFOOLERY! Ok now that my little rant is over I can speak clearly. The two of them just get caught up in the classic “i’m him and you’re you” scenario. I wasn’t sure If I was reading  RAGAD or watching some Abbot and Costello.

After the meeting with the King and Queen, in which they seem to keep themselves from looking like total idiots, they go right back to their antics. I think I want to commit murder. Death to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!

Ok so All City Teen Poetry Slam is coming up in a few weeks. Its going to be AWESOME!!! Everyone should come out to see it. I’m going to be competing with the City At Peace Slam Team and we’re gonna be fantastic. One of the poems I’m going to compete with called Ode to Lost Children was posted a long time ago and if you haven’t read it already you should. This new one I’m writing is untitled and I’m not really sure where its going. Its written from the POV of a child that has died before it has been born. I got the inspiration from a woman I know who has just recently had her second miscarraige in the past year. Everyone was trying to console her and her husband but I couldn’t stop thinking about the child: if he/she felt anything, if he’she thought anything, if he/she wanted to say something to his/her parents. I know this is like super sad but if you could read this little part I have and give feedback it would be greatly appreciated.

On March 30, 2009

at the ripe age of negative infinity

I died

I died without the chance to stare in wonder at my little fingers and toes

I died before my first taste of mother’s milk

I died before I could memorize the imprint of Mama’s hands, or the color of Daddy’s skin, or the scent in the air when one or both of them was in the room

I died

and my nonexistent heartbeat still rings in my ears

clear as the silence that presses me in.

Remember this is only the beginning of it. Read and give feedback. Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks y’all.

Where do I begin? First let me tell you all that Theater is NOT a spectator sport. Well technically it is but if you’re an actor its not. Its the most disciplined sport anyone could ever play. I’ve had bruises, I’ve been sore, I’ve shed blood, I’ve seen other people bleed. I know one guy who after doing 3 weeks of a show where he played a soldier, had almost ruined his shoulders from all the push ups. Its intense. If you’re ever around a group of theater people, they will more than likely start singing. In this situation you either start singing along or you get over it. If you try to stop them there will more than likely be blood. If you are not a theater person, henceforth known as a Thespian, you should be. As a Thespian I know 1st hand that the Stage Manager reigns supreme. DO NOT UPSET THE STAGE MANAGER. They WILL break you. The crew makes everything the actors do possible and yet they get no respect. You should love your crew. And last and most of all, UTA HAGEN, IDINA MENZEL, KRISTIN CHENOWETH, PATTI LUPONE, AND BERNADETTE PETERS ARE MY IDOLS!!!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system(as if I could ever), its Hamlet time. Hamlet is a Shakespearean tragedy. About a Danish prince whose uncle kills his father for the throne. There’s also some madness thrown in there for good measure. Don’t ask me who’s mad cause I don’t know. I really want to watch this play because as I said before Theater is not a spectator sport(that’s kinda contradictory isn’t it?) What I’m trying to say is that you should watch Shakespeare because in reading it you miss all the nuances you can only get by seeing it performed. It is a play after all.

La Vie Boheme

Wicked The Musical is a pretty good quest story. The first act alone follows the basic guidelines. Its the story of Elphaba who is your pretty classic underdog heroish type. She goes to Shiz University with her sister and in hopes of finding her place in the world (your quester). Her first quest is to meet the Wizard so that she can work with him. She finds out that he’s actually the scum of the earth but on the way she comes into an understanding of herself (Defying Gravity). Oh and there’s also a hunky, stupid prince=damsel named Fiyero. 

Then there’s Little Shop of Horrors. All our poor litle shmucky Seymour, quester, wants is to eventually get his girl, Audrey. But while trying to make this happen there’s a crazed, bloodthirsty plant that promises him fortune and fame, Audrey’s psycho bf Orin Scrivello D.D.S, and everyone only wanting him for his new found glory. Ironically  he has to die so he can get what he wants but hey you gotta do what you gotta do.

West Side Story is also kind of questy. You’ve got your starcrosed lovers, Tony and Maria, who are desparate to be together. Since they come from two different cultures, nobody wants that to happen. Maria’s brother Bernardo is overprotective and Tony’s best friend Riff wants Tony’s help in fighting Bernardo. In the end Tony dies and Maria wnats to know “How many bullets are left in this gun Chino? Is it enough for chu? And for chu?!” Tony’s death and Maria’s killer monologue help everyone see how dumb they were being.

Beowulf’s time period and its hving been passed through oral tradition have a maor impact on the story as we know it. We see a lot of value in honor and strength. You also see a lot of macho man features like battles, weapons and dragons. Notice how there are basically no women in the story? 

Beowulf is so much a product of its time that at some points its comical. You can tell when there are variations in time periods by little flaws, like the random mention of God in a pagan society. 

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This is the poem I got 29.8 points with in the January poetry slam. Since people took such an interest in the slam I figured I would put this up just to give y’all a little taste. Enjoy!

This is for the lost children

All alone and forgotten

For the little broken babies

Crippled from birth

Plucked from quiet gardens from quiet gardens and pressed like dying daisies

under the imaginary press boards of no fathers

This is for the hypocrite preachers with angels as bastard sons

This is for the little boys

carbon copies of an unknown original

and for the little girl who wouldn’t know her own father if she saw him in the supermarket

This is for my father

because for him I’m nothing but a stand in for a dead stranger

This is for all the unwanted

the unloved

the misused

and the abused

This is for us

This is a message to the sperm donors who forgot about us

You made this mess

Your son walked out on his family because you walked out on him

Your daughter is 16 and petrified of commitment because in her mind every man is just like you

Your babies are dead babies in frames on the wall

This is for the hurt thats bigger than my own

This is for the hurt of each and every lost child cuz maybe, if we put all of our hurts together

and arrange them just so, we can spell out all of our fathers names on our lives

as well as on our birth certificates

This goes out to all the babies with the broken backs

Stand up straight and tall

Stand in for each others errant fathers

Teach what they were never there to teach

and break the generational curse laid on us by DNA

Lost children

Find yourselves

I think it’s safe to say that Beowulf is my favorite book that I’ve read in this class so far. Its just so simple. Not to say that I don’t like complex thinking but sometimes its good to just kick back and enjoy the story. I lucked out and stumbled across the audio version and it was awesome. Its narrated by Seamus Heaney so you really get the feel of how its supposed to sound.

I’m really into the language of the story. Being a poet myself, I have a deeper appreciation of the way words link together than most people night. When Heaney says “Your sway is wide as the wind’s home,” I had a spaz! O the joy of words!!!