Act One/Scene Two

Question: Has anyone ever been sitting in a waiting room, or on the bus, or standing in line at the grocery store and felt compelled to talk to the person next to you? Even though this person is a total stranger?

Personally, I feel really awkward talking to a total stranger. But I notice that other people do it all the time.

Let's raise the stakes here.

What if this person in the grocery store or on the bus is someone that you don't know but you see them at this place all the time. Is the fact the you frequent the same place at the same time grounds to strike up a conversation?

Let's raise the stakes even higher. What if your thoughts of or about this person happen when you AREN'T at the grocery store. What if this person slowly ends up in every other thought throughout any particular day. Is that grounds to say hello and introduce yourself the next time you are both buying milk and bread on saturday afternoon?

I am directing a short play in my directing 2 class this semester and this scenario that I have just described is the plot. Except the two characters, Sue and David, sit in the waiting room of their therapists office every Monday night, waiting to go into each of their therapists offices and begin their session. They do not know each other and they have waited in the same waiting room at the same doctor's office every Monday night for the last 18 months. He has noticed her. She has noticed him. Attraction? Well, of course. But not a word has been exchanged.

In the scene, David decides to finally talk to her. But mostly because this is his last therapy session and presumably, they will never see each other again.

The stakes are not high.

I am curious and interested in why people do things or say things when they think they have nothing to lose.



Stay tuned and I will tell you how my directing scene goes.

Act One/Scene One

"This directing thing just sort of fell my way and landed in my lap."
-Charles S. Dutton

When I was in high school, it never entered into my mind that I could be a director. I always thought the only way to do theatre was to act...which is something that I'm terrified of (go figure). I thought that maybe some day I would grow out of being shy. And then I got to college and guess what? I'm still terrified.

It wasn't until I took my first Directing class that I realized that this is what I really enjoy doing. I mean, it makes sense...I don't have to be onstage to create art. In fact, the director is the one who creates the art...the actors are just the tools. So take that!

It really just donned on me one day that I enjoy putting together and telling stories.

When I was younger I used to have to go to the airport and ride the plane back and forth in between my mom's house and father's house. Hours and hours in the airport and on the plane is not the best thing in the world for a kid but I entertained myself by making up stories about the people waiting in the terminal or sitting next to me on the plane. I made up intricate, detailed stories about where these people were coming from and where they were going and what they were going to do when they got there...also, what their clothes and luggage and hairstyle and the way they walked said about their life/lifestyle. A couple of times, when I had time to spare before boarding the plane, I rode the tram several times around the airport by myself just to see how many different types of stories I could create. It was all completely made up but for some reason it felt so real to me.

(I guess I wasn't afraid of being kidnapped)

I still make up these stories whenever I go somewhere where there are a lot of people...grocery stores, at school (there are about 50,000 students and teachers at UT, for goodness sake), libraries, malls, etc. I don't frequent airports anymore so I've had to find alternatives.

It's funny how children spend a lot of their "growing up" years wondering and wondering and hoping and thinking about what they will be when they grow up. A rockstar! An astronaut! (or in my case: A princess!) And then one day, you just know. This epiphany may come at any point in one's life, but inevitably, you just know.

It's what you believe, it's what you're passionate about, it's what you would do even if no one paid you to do it.

Okay, From the Top.

Well, here it is.

My first post.

I started a blog because I want to share bits of my life with others...or maybe I just like to talkS about myself. Meh, either one works.

I'm mostly going to be writing about what I spend a majority of my time doing: directing.
It's what I'm most interested in can talk about for hours on end.
I'm taking a Directing 2 class this semester as well as two classes on theatre and art in education
so my knowledge on this subject is pretty intense.

Directing is essentially knowing a lot about everything and a smart director knows that 90% of directing is casting right. If you have good actors, your job is simple. A director is a jack of all trades and pays attention to detail. No decision is a small decision.

So there it is.

Stay tuned for regular posts.