Light at the end of the tunnel

The rain is hitting the window now, and I'm sitting here coloring.  We just had our last Finnish engagement for the season tonight (concert and dinner, for which we got the compliment that it was the nicest one we'd done), so we're off until January.  Our concert on Monday got double-booked, so we rescheduled for some time in the winter.

I have a lot to get through in the next week: moving out of a friend's basement (because that finally has to happen for real, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of that stuff, I don't need it); two events I have to provide food for; figure out what I'm doing for Christmas and arrange for that (and see if I can actually drive a car, I haven't tried since I hurt my hip, it's the braking that's the issue); possible audition; applications for a couple of projects I want to do (but I have to decide if I want to do them, and ask people if they will help); I think most of the stress is from the moving, it probably won't be as bad as I'm making it out to be, but I don't know where I'm gonna put it all until I can find places to take it all.

Went to watch/listen to six plays (in development) last night.  They were all interesting, but the last three were particularly strong, and part of that was the directors used staging.  One of those had a little too much dialogue for me (I zoned out), but the subject matter across the board was intriguing (a vague interview, a protest, an encounter on a ferry dock, a return home, a fairy tale, a final Thanksgiving), and the actors were great (particularly in the ferry, protest, and interview excerpts; those three had more active direction than the others.  And I've decided that I like it; also, from trying to create work this past year, I think seeing it moving onstage like that helps with the reworking of the words on the page.)

I've been watching Buster Keaton clips/movies this week.  Both to see how to write a script/screenplay without dialogue, and on the flipside, to watch how to perform without the use of words.  As an actor, I prefer words, and as a clown I prefer not having words, and I'm trying to get around both those things.  I think I'm using them both as a crutch in each situation, and yet most of the stuff I've been collaborating on lately is wordless: words seem superfluous in those cases.  You just really have to know where you want to go and be clear with it.  It's good practice.

(Oh, and someone gifted me with French-language cd's, ostensibly for going to Quebec, but perhaps I'll change the dialogue in the solo piece into French for when I'm in France.  I haven't decided.  But hopefully my pronunciation will improve.)

Back to coloring.