beef day!

this is a belated pic from my 28th birthday party, aka the beefday party.

it was thusly named because one of my favorite classmates (pictured) shares my birthday, and he is affectionately known to our entire class as Beef. so we figured since i love beef, and he is beef, we'd call it the beefday party and throw it at cambridge's only serious barbecue joint, redbones.

we had a blast, eating way too much meat and drinking a couple too many margaritas. look closely and notice that i am wearing a boy scout shirt, ironic since i never was a boy scout and Beef is an eagle scout! luckily, he was very forgiving of my sacrilege.

just like that? you're walking out on me?

I'm in the last week of my first session at A.R.T. It's been a lightning-quick two months, and yet it's amazing how far we've come in this time.

I can spell in two new alphabets: the Russian alphabet and I.P.A. annotation. (IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet- with IPA one can essentially 'spell' pronunciation for any word, including every word in English in every single potential dialect in which an actor might wish to speak it.)

I can do a headstand, a handstand, four kinds of bridges, ambulating bridges (forwards, backwards, and rolling), a chair roll, a crocodile, a jumping crocodile, a backwards somersault, a running somersault, a fish flop, a flying caterpillar, and a Russian cartwheel!

I've learned how to let my body tremor in 6 different positions in order to encourage the breath response that is perfect for voice work.

I can count, make small talk, and describe simply in Russian.

After two months of basic exercises and ensemble-building in daily acting classes, I've become unnaturally close to 18 exciting, challenging, and fantastic people.

And this was the 'light' term!

I can't wait to see what September brings.

Chairs and Structure

BNN Finally Makes the Complete Shift to Blog Format

It became clear to the editors here at the Big Neil Newsletter that the 3 Headline, 3 Story newsletter format is antiquated, and can sometimes prove daunting when there's less to report. So, from here on out, posts will appear in single headline, single story format. Woo hoo!

Pictured is my acting class after the 'chair sculpture' exercise. Yes, we build a sculpture out of chairs. And yes, it has something, somehow to do with acting. Just don't ask me what.

2.4.2 Big Fun

From left: Chris, me, Cheryl, and birthday girl Emmy Lou. Foreground: Bud.

2.4.1 The Ladies of 2007

From left: Emmy Lou (whose birthday it was last night), Natalie, Jackie, and Kristen, members of the prestigious class of 2007 with yours truly.

2.4 "Several pounds of spicy meat..."

The Big Neil Newsletter, Series 2, Volume 4.

Today's headlines:

1. One Month In, Graduate School Still Cool

2. BTP Keeps the Home Fires Burning

3. Russia Knows How to Party


1. One Month In, Graduate School Still Cool

Classes have continued to be engaging, overwhelming, and totally fun. We've begun singing lessons, which is both scary and awesome. In voice class I'm learning to move my rib cage in what feels like totally unnatural ways. In movement, I'm already surprising myself with headstands and walking bridges and the uber-painful jumping caterpillar! In our acting 'etudes,' I've portrayed a gorilla, a coat hanger, an inadvertent puppy-killer, a drifting born-again sidewalk evangelist, and a murderous tyrannical king. If I don't yet demonstrate skill, at least I demonstrate range!

2. BTP Keeps the Home Fires Burning

The last weekend of July, I took a whirlwind trip to Florida for two days. I was able to go see the Broadway Theatre Project's final show, in an effort not to have missed BTP entirely in 2005. It was a bittersweet opportunity- fantastic to see everyone, and the great show, but, in truth, I had missed it entirely. What makes BTP amazing is the atmosphere of learning, working, craft, and process- the final show is just the button on the end of it all. I hope to be back and part of the whole shebang again in 2006.

While in Florida, I also, thankfully, got to visit Monica and see her perform in a special benefit performance of The Exonerated with the likes of Sandy Duncan and World Lightweight Boxing Champion Antonio Tarver. At first I noted that Tarver was out of his league in the company of Ms. Duncan and Monica, but then it occurred to me that neither woman would last 30 seconds in the boxing ring with him, and I became a lot more forgiving. It was a fun cocktail of actors and celebrities and non-actor local luminaries, and the play itself, if you've never read it, absoulutely compelling.

3. Russia Knows How to Party

It is a tradition in the summer here at ART for the first-year students to throw a couple of 'Russian Parties' for our Russkie faculty. Last night was the first, and my head is still ringing.

The potluck party was hosted by my good friend Aaron (yes, the wacky Canadian Blue-Jays-Jersey guy) and he noted that most people had signed up to bring things like 'paper plates' and 'cookies,' and that a main course was desperately needed. So my classmate Beef and I went to the grocery store and got the fixins for what any party with overflowing vodka needs: TACOS!!

It occurred to me an hour later as we were whipping up several pounds of spicy meat that not only was I grossly mixing cultures, but I was not helping things by preparing it all in a giant wok.


The party was an absolute blast, and we quickly learned that our professor Romon has as much to teach us about making toasts and drinking vodka in general as he does about acting. Unfortunately, as the night wore on, one thing many of my classmates didn't learn was that just because Romon can toss them back all night without ever appearing inebriated, much less making a fool of himself, the rest of us, most definitely, CAN'T.

All in the name of group bonding, I guess.

I miss you all, love getting your notes, and hearing your responses to my wayward newsletter/blog ramblings.

Yours,
Neil