Bram Stoker's "Dracula" adapted by Smyth and Meads @ CUAA

So it's Sunday September 30, 2012 about 9:15 pm and I'm about to head into a very exciting and scary week. I'm currently the Assistant Director for my University's production of "Dracula" adapted from the Bram Stoker novel by Robert Smyth and Kerry Meads and premiered at the Lamb's Player's theatre in 1987. The play is very true to the novel with only a few modifications that are necessary to keep it short and feasible for theatre. It has a narrative like quality with journal entries very similar to the layout of the book. It casts a different light on the book and vampire theory. Count Dracula actually has less stage time than most of the characters, though his presence in the course events is very evident. The Count and Lucy are the only vampires seen and they tend to represent evil rather than sexuality and gore. The play focuses on good verses evil, love over hate and unity over greed.

 I have been very blessed to be apart of this and I know the cast has put a lot of hard work and we have overcome many obstacles, just like the character of the play. This next week we start to prepare for tech week and we should finally be completely off book very soon. At this point things can start to go very smooth or they could get rocky as patience is tested and stresses build. If we get to where the director and I want to be the whole cast will be experimenting with different aspects of their characters and perspectives of the events, rather than settling down and losing their energy and enthusiasm. We want them to be comfortable with the process and be willing to try different things rather than pinnacling too soon.

This is my first experience as a director and it's very exciting though I wonder if I'm acting like a director. I'm the assistant so my director does a lot, I just feel like the second voice and another brain with ideas for making a scene work. I also feel like another actor giving the less experienced actors guidance and tips. Which I guess is part of being a director/assistant. I'm not all unsatisfied but I just wonder if I'm doing enough. Though I suppose that this is a learning experience and hopefully I'll be able to learn from my director's example.

Anyway, with my own insecurities aside I'm looking forward to this week with apprehension but also knowing that I need to move forward and face those fears to help the actors and the whole crew get ready for what's going to lay ahead.

This production is certainly going to be a very exciting step for the Department and  the University. If any of you are in the Ann Arbor area I encourage you to come to Concordia University on October 11,12, and/or 13 at 8pm for "Dracula", I'll post a link about ticket information below and hopefully keep you updated on progress and if and when online tickets are available.

http://www.cuaa.edu/KnowConcordia/arts/drama.html

"Dracula" by Bram Stoker

Adapted for the stage by Kerry Meads and Robert Smyth

When: October 11, 12, 13 at 8:00 p.m.
Where: Kreft Center Black Box Theater
Tickets: $10 ($5 students and seniors)

This version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula premiered at Lamb’s Players Theater in San Diego. It invites us to witness a more presentational, unapologetically melodramatic form foreign to the postmodern eye and ear. But be patient, watch and listen, for despite its de-emphasis of blood and gore, the strength of its story ushers us in to a redemptive dis-ease. The evil embodied by Count Dracula is spiritual more than physical, and the play casts a light on our own moral shortcomings and on the monsters that lurk within each of us.

[Anxiety]

For just a moment ignore the title. I'd just like to say I've had my first comment on this blog and I'm just now looking at my blog an noticing this as I write. Once again I forgot about this blog, I don't have any other blogs but I still manage to forget that I have it. To my commenter, Jon, I thank you for your input and encouragement. Another side note not pertaining to "this week's thought", I greatly appreciate comments big or small, meaningful or silly. Just not rude, ignorant or just plain mean/pointless. Criticism is great but it has to have a purpose.

So anxiety, I have it. It is probably worth going to a professional about it but I don't. Certain situations or even the possibility of a certain situation arising out of other situations can cause me to rapidly remove my self from them. I am overly analytical and very observant. My observations fuel my analysis and my foresight generates notions of possible disaster. Anxiety is a plague that rots away every support that exists to keep me, and I believe everyone, sane. Umm I lost where is was going with that so I'll just leave that wonderful metaphor to sit in your brain and move on.

The worst side effect that I feel most often is the feeling of a traffic jam in my brain when Anxiety meets Depression which meets the Other-part-of-me that just wants everything to get out of it's way so that I can live my life without all this crap and baggage. The problem is when in either one of these three states you forget about how real the feelings are when in the other. When depressed you forget how good you feel when you're not, and vice versa. You forget how bad things really did feel when you ran out of the room on the brink of tears or hysteria.

Sometimes you want to give up but you can't stop fighting. What does it mean to give up? How do you give up? What does it feel like to not have to fight?

I can and can't answer these questions. God can, but I don't know what he would do. I just have to make it through and just wait for the answer to come.

Wow that got really deep didn't it? Well maybe not REALLY deep but pretty deep. Anyway thank you for enduring this if you made it this far. Until next time!