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