What I've been up to...

Yes, I am still alive.. shocking, I  know. This last semester started to get quite difficult, and so pretty much all fun was stopped while I slaved over paper after paper. My only breaks came from being able to work on my ceramics projects. Let me just tell you, I freaking love pottery and ceramics! It is definitely my medium. I may still produce beginner looking pieces, but I get so much joy and satisfaction from turning a lump of clay into a functional bowl. It's pretty sweet. Anywho.. I was able to pass all of my 18 credits while maintaining my GPA of 3.8 and man that was hard. But the semester is over, Christmas is tomorrow, and I only have to look forward to 12 credits next semester! WOOOT!

On the kitty cat front; both Michonne and Sherlock are terrible. They are just so bad it's not even funny. They love to knock things off of every horizontal surface, they try to climb every vertical surface, and rough house to the point of breaking something. I love them to death, but this stage in their cat life can pass at any point... I won't mind at all. And Little has been really different since I brought Sherlock into the mix. First off, Sherlock loves to annoy and mess with him. I just feel so bad for my Little. And now Little has started peeing on my clothes and on the carpet. I don't know if it is territorial or rebellion or old age, but either way, it is frustrating. I cleaned up my room (because the mountains of clothes on the floor weren't helping the situation) and I added one more litter box, so hopefully that is the solution.

I was just cast in Antigone by Sophocles as Ismene, so I'm really looking forward to being on the stage again. I've also started to look very closely at what I'm going to do after I graduate from HACC. All that is solidified is that I want to get a masters as well as a bachelors, but I don't know in what yet. Probably for acting, but I've taken a fancy to set design and dramaturgy this semester. It will have something to do with the theatre though!

So that is about it; nothing spectacular. I leave you with a couple pictures of things I've recently enjoyed!

Covered bridges in winter are just pretty! 

I'm loving having a fireplace.. and so do the kitties! 

Kudos, fortune cookie, for having a really insightful fortune.

I've been working the lights and sound for some of the children's shows at work and it's been really fun.

Merry Christmas!!

Allison

Traveling Abroad

from May 11-22, I was in London (and Dublin for a day)! it was a study abroad theatre class and it was just indescribable! we toured Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Warwick Castle, Stonehenge, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Globe Theatre, the National Theatre, and lots of museums. we also had enormous amounts of free time, so I was able to explore some of the city by myself. It was just an amazing experience and I look forward to visiting (and maybe living?) there again some day!

forever and ever

the past two months i have been the busiest bee of all the bee's. well, probably not, but i have been pretty swamped with things. the biggest of the things has been Our Town. man oh man did that take up my time. now that it is over, i'm a bit sad, but happy to be sleeping again. (i've taken 4+ hour naps every day this week). here are just so photos, credit going to the set designer, Dave.

and last but not least..

i know.

 

 

Allison

omg! it's march!

february seemed like a short month this year! (LOL) i have been working my ass off with this play i've been in. and the show is in 5 days. needless to say, i'm so freaking nervous. not to mention that the guy who is playing George was in the hospital on wednesday. that had me freaking out, but thank goodness he is better! and i just feel like i'm not ready... hopefully that will change by the 6th. (deep breath) hey! if any of you are in the area (central PA) and have nothing to do, come see Our Town produced by HACCtheatreworks. the shows are March 7th (student night) at 7, March 8th & 9th at 7, and March 10th at 2 in the Rose Lehrman Arts Center.

also, my cat, though he is the most adorable kitty on this earth, is also becoming the most annoying! he will not let me sleep in! if it is past 10:30, he will meow and meow and meow and then step on me and scratch at the window. thats when i kick him out of the room, but by that point, i'm already too awake to fall asleep.

and another update: I LOVE THE WALKING DEAD!!!

Allison

changing my mind

i started off this year wanting to keep a daily record of every day this year. just a little sentence or two or a list of things that happened that day that i found memorable. that failed miserably. i just forgot about it after january 12th. "wow," you gasped, while i shamefully muttered, "i know." however, there is a silver lining! i am required to keep an acting journal for my acting II class, so i thought that every once in a while, i would share an entry on this little thing. what do you say?

*this has to do with a production i am in right now, Our Town. sorry if you aren't familiar with it*

"While driving home today, I was thinking a lot about Emily; her relationship with George, but mostly I was thinking about her 'goodbye' monologue. With George, I know she loves him, but how much? Nine years have gone by since their wedding and their kid is four. That means there are five years that is just the two of them, which was very rare back then. At the turn of the century, couples would get married and have kids right off the bat, because that is what was done back then. It was the social norm. I think that George and Emily wanted to spend as much time together, just the two of them, as long as socially possible, becasue they didn't just love each other; they were IN love with each other. They were absolutely crazy about each other.
So I then thought about my 'goodbye' monologue and I was greatly upset by the fact that she says goodbye to clock ticking, but not to George and the baby. If she was so in love with him, why didn't she have one final farewell to him. Then it hit me. The point of the monologue is for her to finally say goodbye to life so she can embrace death. If she even thinks about George, she won't want to forget her life. So she can't remember him.
At the end of the monologue, I think she has fully embraced death, however, George comes back in and is sobbing at her grave. By that point, she has completely forgotten about George so she is taken aback to see him. Then, when she says 'It's George!" the second time, I want to say it full of remorse and sorrow, becasue all my love for him, both the love I felt in life and the realized emotions I know I have now in death explode throughout me. But when I see him sobbing, and I ask Mother Gibbs 'they don't understand, do they?' I realize that the love he, as a human, has for me is NOTHING compared to what we could of have if we had lived every moment of every minute of our lives, which is one of the lessons that Thornton Wilder is trying to teach through this play."

allison