Friday, November 19, 2010

Life Update


Halloween 2010: Me and my 'turt-o-lantern'
Greetings all! Perhaps you've been here before back when I blogged about my experience in Spain, or maybe you just got my hybrid graduation/moving announcement and wanted to know what I've been up to in the last year and a half or whenever it was I saw you last. So, what's new? Ha - that depends on a lot of factors, so I'll go with what registers as new for me. Having a place to live is the newest of the new right now, and I guess secondary to that new-ness is my new job -- Education Associate at North Carolina Stage Company (through AmeriCorps VISTA, my second year), and third, I suppose, is... the fact that I'm still in Asheville, NC.

As you may know, I spent a good deal of this spring applying to internships or apprenticeships with professional theatres all over the country. They all have really neat things going on so check them out! They might be in your neck of the woods...

*McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, NJ)
* - designates those with which I had interviews! But they didn't materialize into actual internships... c'est la vie. I work in a theatre now! 

Bard-a-thon: Our 48 hours of Shakespeare fun(d)raiser
So what do I do these days? As 'Education Associate,' I work to get theatre teaching artists into Western North Carolina schools through communication with teachers and administrators, grant writing, and recruitment of teaching artists. I also help run the administrative end of our Acting Intensives (acting classes) that we just started this fall. I'm hoping to take the class in the spring to keep my creative juices flowing. Another aspect of my position is to update the theatre's blog to do informative/educational promotion about the work we're doing, like our recent production of Angels in America, Millennium Approaches

Able helping me in some street promotion for NC Stage.

I've been living in my 'new' apartment now for about two months, and I'm still settling in. Though I graduated from Warren Wilson in May 2009 and had my position as VISTA at the College's Service Learning office until mid-July of this year, my housing was paid for by the program, so this is the first time I've paid my own rent and utilities. New life experiences and responsibilities? Check. The housing search was a hell of a process, but right about when I had given up, we found a sweet little basement apartment on the cheap (relatively speaking) and they accepted our application the same day we turned it in. Quite a relief, especially since I could finally move the many, many boxes out of my car and into an actual form of shelter/living space. Anyhow, things are good and garage sales have helped to furnish the place pleasantly. We even have a neighborly cat that likes to hang out in our yard and on our little tiny porch... even while we were painting it (the porch) blue.

Look closely and you'll see a nice bit of blue on its tail.

So, what else? Friends are probably aware of this, but family might not be (and might be curious), so I guess I should mention/introduce the boyfriend. His name's Able, he's fantastic, a talented blacksmith, quite the contra dancer, and also a WWC grad, having majored in Political Science and History. He grew up much farther west in Western North Carolina -- in Brasstown, home of the John C. Campbell Folk School. He spent a semester abroad studying in the Sultanate of Oman in spring 2009, so he's always spouting Arabic phrases that I can't understand, but find intriguing. We like to go dancing, watch movies and live theatre, and see famous politicians who come to Asheville, like Steny Hoyer (not below) and Bill Clinton (see below). 

President Clinton, speaking in support of congressman Heath Shuler.
 In general, life is good. Tomorrow night I get to play the role of "Puck" in a collaboration piece between NC Stage and the Asheville Symphony for Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream Suite.' I'm excited. As I crouched in my hiding place for the start of the show in a rehearsal last night, I realized how a symphony is truly surround sound, and it's awe-some. 

What's next? I'm hoping to travel more in the near future, and I'm considering the whole "going back to school" thing, but right now, I'm pretty happy, and I'll figure things out as they come along. 

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Just a little show...

This is what I've been up to for the past 10 months or so... check it out!
-L

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Long time, new post...

As it turns out, my last semester of college kind of filled up and left me with little time to blog. Here's a summary: my Senior Project - 4.48 Psychosis, filling final gen. ed. requirements, road-(and train-)tripping to and from Chicago over Spring Break, finding out about the opportunity of my current job (and getting it!), being cast in Montford Park Players' production of Cymbeline as Imogen, and then the whole graduating/winning college-thing. Then summer happened...lots of landscaping, play rehearsal, movies, teaching a friend to drive, and a tiny weeklong vacation before I started my new job.

Nowadays, I'm still at the college working as an AmeriCorps VISTA in our Service Learning Program. It's a different perspective being at Wilson in a non-student role. As familiar a place as it is, there's plenty newness around. I still get to participate in theatre productions, for which I am very grateful, and a little over a month ago, I took on the role of Hermione in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. It had a shorter rehearsal period than usual (about six weeks) and a tight-knit ensemble, most everyone playing more than one role. In short, a wonderful and challenging experience that left an impact.
Giny-Camilla, Lauren-Hermione (me), Sofia-Perdita, Rachel-Paulina

Since that time, among other things, I led a service trip in Asheville over Fall Break called "Artists Serving, Serving Artists." I created the whole trip from scratch working with arts non-profits in the area, many of which the school had never had "official" service relationships previously. Eight students went on the trip, and it was extremely successful. We worked with Asheville Mural Project, Asheville FM, Burton Street Center, Asheville Community Theatre, Just Home in the Mountains/Homeward Bound, NC Stage, Montford Community Center, puppeteer Hobey Ford, and Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre. Initially I was worried we wouldn't have enough to do during the week, but in actuality, it was packed to the brim, and still a lot of fun.

Last Day Group Shot at Moments Café

Then I got sick, turned 22, got into a bit of a head-fog-funk, went to a couple NC Campus Compact events, and went about my day-to-day business. I'll do my best to get some more posts up here regularly. Much love to all...

Lauren

Oh, and just for fun, take a peek at a couple shots from a mask workshop I was able to observe a couple weekends ago...amazing stuff.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Lauren in London

Actually I'm about to leave London, but look for lots of posts (or at least a couple) soon. Having seen a play, musical, or some other sort of performance nearly every night I've been here these past three weeks(ish), I have a lot to say, but being on an airport computer with limited time, I can't say it now. I'll be back in the U.S. in a matter of hours!
Be well,
Lauren