Back to Monday

Oh, Monday. This is supposed to be the first Monday of finals week, but because of the way our university goes about their scheduling, today we still have normal classes. Finals starts tomorrow. Odd, but we'll deal.

The reading, by the by, went wonderfully - a crowd of less then 10, but what are ya gonna do... people studying for finals, getting that last bang at their homework, it's understandable. Because of the small crowd, lots of the humor fell flat. BUT! The professors now want me to submit the play to KCACTF, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Karen Anselm is the National Designer Chair for the festival (shameless plug) so she'd know whether it was up to par with other scripts being sent in. "Script" still needs a good deal of editing, but the festival isn't accepting submissions until the Fall. I have time.

I also have a video of the reading that I'm going to post on this here website. It's on a tape at the moment, however, and I'll need to edit it off and into some kind of beautiful file. It's been a few years since I've worked with video editing on Final Cut Pro... shouldn't be too hard, as long as I can grab some time in the video editing lab. Then I can put it up on here for ya'll to enjoy!

Such a weekend. Saturday was the Bloomsburg annual Renaissance Jamboree. Lots of entertainment. I woke up that morning to a country band playing outside my front door. I don't like country music, but the idea of a band being outside my door was exciting. I bought some peach-flavored dip, for pretzels and the like, and I'm saving it for some time this week where I'm allowed to have some sort of relaxation. I also bought this cool looking necklace. And a snowcone. The snowcone was my favorite. Don't dis the childhood memories.

On Sunday, I went to... audition?... for a modeling gig in the summer. Never did anything of the sort but, hey, why not? Do something you fear every day, right? They seemed impressed by my theatre experience and contacts, though my headshots were crap (the printer hates me). Since I was about one of 5 total people who showed up, I might very well get the job. I'm very excited about this - it's outside of what I normally do, but I think I'd have a heck of a fun time doing it. And you can never get too much experience in anything. You never know when some modeling experience might come in handy.

ALSO! The most exciting thing to happen this weekend - on Sunday, Alpha Psi Omega (Alpha Omicron cast), National Honors Fraternity for the Dramatics, inducted it's new members! Ooooh congrats to them all! We got some sexy new people up in here.

I'll update soon - hopefully with some news about my next project: I'm currently caught between two ideas - "The Itch" and "Closet 22". Both are based on stories that I heard during the semester, and thought they would be interesting to pursue.

"Closet 22" is about a headline - "Man Attempts Assault on Woman, Woman Traps Man in Closet for Months". Apparently this guy tried to make a few advances on this businesswoman in eastern Europe. She took none of that, locked him in her office closet, and kept him as a sex slave for a good long while. Upon being rescued, he said he's "never been treated better" - he was given food and water, pretty good treatment, and just periodically raped every so often. He's mentally messed up, of course, and that's almost intriguing - how he can feel both violated and nurtured at the same time. Plus, with all the rape plays and ilk around these days, it'd be a great change to write about a violated guy! Raped and abused men get FAR to little air-time.

"The Itch" - now here's an interesting one, but it would require a good deal of research. Like all good science-based interesting things, I learned about this one through the website Cracked, and the article 7 Simple Questions You Won't Believe Science Just Answered. #3 - How Scratching Relieves an Itch. Turns out, there's a funny little nerve in your spine that actually controls it. And, in some people, that part gets broken. This led me to an article in the New Yorker about a lady they term "M."... who has been itchy for years. YEARS. Many, many years. On her scalp. Yeah. Made me itchy just thinking about it. No rash, no marks, nothing that doctors could figure out - the only thing they could see were the scratch marks she'd make. Poor M. would scratch in her sleep, and wake up with blood all over her pillow. I quote: "One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery now, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain." Wow. And doctors never found out what was wrong, either. She is still itchy. At one point in her life, she had to be put in a mental hospital - not because she was crazy, but because people had to tie her down and put huge boxing gloves on her hands so she wouldn't scratch in her sleep. Yowsa. I feel like this needs to be addressed... I might not have all the info I need quite yet, but DAYUM! I'd watch that play!

So! Hopefully, when the summer finally arrives, I'll begin work on one of those two.