just a minute, mr. postman

Two more dress rehearsals until we open Theatre of New Voices 2010! Two more! ahhhhhh!



This year promises a decent crop of shows, unlike TNV 2008 in which I acted rather than directed, mainly because the four plays were written by two of my dearest friends who happen to be extremely talented writers. I'm directing "Please, Mr. Postman", written by Jess, and starring Mr. Justin Thompson & Ms. Emily Candia. Last night's run still left some stuff to be desired, but overall I'm very pleased with how my actors have been doing and have no doubts that Thursday's opening will be utterly magical.

Working on TNV this year really has been a great experience (I say that now in the calm before the storm that is my mad-rush-to-finish-props-before-opening, so we'll see how I'm feeling in a couple of hours when the white spray painted props aren't drying fast enough (; ). I mean, don't get me wrong, I love acting, and watching these dress rehearsals each night just make me even more antsy to get onstage and perform, but it's also reminded me why I wanted to try directing in the first place.
(Here's my beautiful cast (: )

Working with Justin & Emily as they find and strengthen the connections between their characters and themselves feels so cool! Like, one rehearsal in particular, my actors started crying after an exercise I had them try concerning good & bad memories; it was sad but also kind of awesome. Watching my actors truly connect with something real onstage is really a beautiful thing, and I have loved getting to be a part of their journeys.

I had said earlier, while writing my cast bio, that I was BSing the whole thing, as is custom, by saying I felt "blessed to have been granted this opportunity", but thinking back on what I've learned and felt during this past month and a half of directing "Postman", I really do feel very blessed, and I thank God for this opportunity. How many theatre students my age get to play lead roles, create original characters, write plays that actually have a chance to be produced, and direct shows for the public on a pretty much monthly basis? I think that as much as we all complain about CSUB and Bakersfield, we really are blessed with such wonderful opportunities to be able to take part in nearly every aspect of theatre as opposed to if we went to a bigger performing arts university where we'd be more likely to be shoved aside. So, all BSing aside, thank you, Lord, for letting me direct in this year's One Act Festival; it really has been wonderful.

mjl.

oh! and another thing....

Since I started taking this design class for theatre, I've been drawing a lot lately. I'm currently working on this one picture of Twiggy that I really love, but until I finish that one & put it up, here's one I did recently for the actual class.

The picture is from a Chanel advert that I absolutely love & I'm actually kind of proud of the way it turned out. I'll hopefully be posting more soon.


♥
mjl

do you ever wonder...

why you let some people in your life? Like, obviously, we can't help a lot of the crazies that we encounter (and I encounter a lot), BUT there are some people who we keep around & allow to become commonplace fixtures in our lives like an ugly orange lamp in the corner that you inherited from your great-grandma, but haven't had the heart to throw out. Well, I've recently been forced to do some spring cleaning & readjusting of the Myspace Top Friends list that is my life, and I actually feel surprisingly good about it.
Not good in a conventional way, but good like when you have a toothache that's been killing you for a long time & have to get it pulled, which hurts for a little bit, but then you feel a lot better & will be healthier in the long run...that kind of good.
So, yeah. My "toothache" is gone, and though it was a prolonged and painful effort to get rid of it, I feel so much better.

♥
mjl

well,

damn.



mjl.

berlin, ich liebe! ♥

The White Ribbon won Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes last night! Go Germany!!! ^.^

AAAAAAND, Christoph Waltz took home a Globe for his phenomenal performance in Inglorious Basterds (which, seriously, should've won...if not for Best Picture, than at least for writing or directing...I don't even like Quentin Tarantino that much, but he totally deserved it)

But, RDJ won for Sherlock Holmes, as he well should have. And Sandra Bullock, whose dress was BEAUTIFUL btw, won for Blindside...also well deserved.
Take that Julia...maybe next time you should focus more on accepting good movie roles rather than stumbling drunk down the red carpet.


*siiiiiigh* I love awards season.

mjl

for the moments i feel faint

So, I've never really understood the deep philosophical thought supposedly produced by the question "What is your purpose in life?" because, to me, my purpose has always been quite simple: spread the love of my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ.

Now, obviously, I fail at this purpose every single day, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, is a little disheartening, to say the least. For instance, I'll be doing something that not only keeps me from achieving my purpose in life, but flat out goes against everything for which my purpose stands. And the worst part is I'll acknowledge this fact and then continue to do it anyway! It's so frustrating! It's like being morbidly obese, knowing that you need to lose weight, but then purposefully sabotaging yourself & your efforts to improve your life by indulging in crap that you know is bad for you. So, long story, short (too late, I know): my inadequacies of my own faith are often a major contributor to my feelings of consternation with myself and my life.

Bypassing my little tangent, and returning to my original point: my purpose in life is to spread the love of God. I know this. So one of my daily prayers is for God to use me in whatever way He can to achieve His purpose, which, coincidentally, is very similar to mine (: (aka sharing His unending love with His creation).

Now, sometimes it feels like God is denying me this reiterated request, which wouldn't really make sense, except for the fact that when I look back at my life, I clearly see that He has granted me soooooooo many opportunities to share His love & word, but I totally blow it. This happens either by me being too scared to speak up about it or me being too stupid to recognize it.
Then I also realize that perhaps I'm not being granted as many opportunities because I'm coming at this from a selfish angle. For instance, there are honestly few things in this world that make me more ecstatic than someone coming to Christ, and if I had any part in their journey, as the New Yorker's say, fuhgeddaboudit!
I go crazy! It's truly a feeling that I can't put into words because the happiness it evokes within me can't really be covered by all caps, exclamation points, or a whole bunch of "e"s in "reeeeeeeeeally happy". But although I should totally feel that happiness when I find another brother or sister in Christ, it's not my victory, and I think I sometimes forget that I really have no part in what goes on with someone's spirit: it's all God. If He chooses to work through me somehow, then it's not me, but Him.
Like one of my favorite verses says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." (1 corinthians 15:10)

So all of that basically adds up to me not being able to share God's love as effectively as I could be, due to my own shortcomings, and, as I've said before, this has been really disheartening. However, I just got a wonderful reminder tonight, via a note from a friend, that God can literally work through anything & anyone (even without his/her knowledge). He uses me even when I haven't the slightest inkling that I'm being used! And, honestly, I'm kind of feeling that joy right about now :D

So, whenever I'm feeling stressed because of school/family/relationship/work/friend drama, someone PLEASE remind me that God is always at work in my life, even if I can't see it or feel the immediate results.

Amen & Amen :D
mjl

youth is wasted on the young people

Here are some pictures of Jess & I after our Stage Makeup class today on Old People makeup (:

It's quite fitting seeing as, only yesterday, we were discussing how we already share the same demeanors as old, cynical, British men, like Sir Ian McKellen, since our tolerance for stupidity is getting dangerously lower all the time.

So, in case you were wondering what Jess & I may look like when we get older (who WOULDN'T want to know that?? :P), here ya go (:

♥
mjl