Read more plays

Moved to Cleveland and got involved at a community theater. During rehearsals for Arsenic and Old Lace I read Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Strindburg’s The Ghost Sonata, and Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. I recently read Other People’s Money, An Inspector Calls, and Laughing Stock (by Morey) in preparation for the next season of shows.

Almost a decade ago a passage in the play “The Glass Menagerie” moved me to re-examine my life and move to California. I moved about ten times since then, but I’m back in California now mostly because of the eloquence of Tennessee Williams. It was the passage toward the end of that play where the speech fellow yacks about how ‘all the glamorous people are hogging up’ all the fun [and] ‘people go to movies instead of moving themselves’. He’s really good.

Yesterday I finally got around to ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’. I can’t hide from my English major nerd-ness. Of course I ate up the metaphors. There were some logistical errors but over all it was beautiful and oh so sad. Why is everything beautiful and right on the nail always sad? With Tennessee Williams, so far for me, you can read lots of fluff in between and feel for a second like you’re wasting your time, then some heart ripping monologue comes from out of the blue and all you can do is say, “Damn he’s so good!”. With ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ it was the speech about how life is hard, bills need to be paid, you make love to a woman you no longer love…and get used to it instead of using crutches…don’t lie to yourself….to lie is to live with disgust. Damn he is good. I don’t know what my next read will be, in the play genre, but if anyone can recommend something well worth reading, I’ll find a rock somewhere with a good view and read till the last page.

Just read “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” by Neil Simon for an audition, and “Dog Sees God” looking for a monologue! I really like the Simon piece. But so far, no callback!

im being forced to read a variety of plays in my class and its been sooo interesting. im getting a wider knowledge of plays and authors while understanding different themes. I love it!

I just finished reading A Thousand Clowns another play a want to direct someday.

I read Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me in preparation to audition for a role at a local community theatre. I didn’t get a part, but I’m trying to get my foot in the door with some local community theatre.

I have the script for Butterflies Are Free and will read it in the next couple weeks. Refer to goal #10 as well because this goal is in preparation for that one.

Read a bunch of Oscar Wilde looking for a new monologue for my dialect class. He was funny!

Including

Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
The Cherry Orchard (Tchehov)
Death of a Salesman (Miller)
A Doll’s House (oh crap, forgotten)
The Threepenny Opera (Brecht)
Six Characters In Search of an Author (Pirandello)

I’ve also read a bunch of other Shakespeares and some other plays, but I’m not including school setworks in the list. Feels too much like cheating :P

I’ve definitely been reading more plays, so I think I can actually consider this goal done. Hmmmm. I would still like to read more plays, of course. So I shall carry on doing that :)

I had an audition for The Hairy Ape at Irish Rep, so I went out and bought a book of O’Neill plays. I love that guy! I also bought My Name is Rachel Corrie, because I recently auditioned for that as well! It feels good! If only my sagging Ikea bookshelf would hold it all!!!