Last week I was privileged to attend KCACTF in Hollywood. This is basically just an entire week of theatre. It is a wonderful feeling to be immersed in the work and to not have anything to do for a week but attend shows and focus on the art. First of all, I love California. I love cities in general, but L.A. is wonderful. I love the art deco/art nouveau architecture of the old buildings juxtaposed with the sleek modern skyscrapers. We went on foot most of the the time and really got to discover some fun little restaurants. However, the best part of the whole week was watching the plays. My new favorite play is called Debris by Dennis Kelly. It was performed by California State University, Stanislaus. This play contains some of the most beautiful poetic language I've heard since Shakespeare. If Shakespeare had lived today, this is what his works would sound like. The language was gritty and at times graphic, but it contained an elegance. The critics described it as "muscular poetry." Another play I really enjoyed was called "If All the Sky Were Paper." The author copied letters from war veterans and created a play from them. I've always been sad that writing letters has become a dying art form, and this play discussed that. It exposed the poetry of the letters written by soldiers in the thick of the action and gave a message of hope. It wasn't anti- or pro-war: it merely displayed war for what it is. It left the audience with a sense of hope.
There was some pretty bad theatre I saw this week as well. I saw my first full-length Brecht this week: The Judith of Shimoda. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Brecht in the first place. Personally, I enjoy theatre because I forget that I'm watching a play. I love getting lost in the story, and Brecht tries his best to not allow that. The other issue I had was the acting. I don't know if it was the fault of the direction, or the fact that it was Brecht, but I did not like the style of acting they used. It was very presentational and left me not caring about the characters. It also didn't help that the play was 3 hours long and had about 4 false endings. Apart from Judith I enjoyed almost everything else I saw. Last year, I saw maybe one or two shows that I really actually liked. This year I liked or loved nearly everything I saw.
On the other side of things, I got to perform this year. I was a scene partner for the Irene Ryan's and I was in a directing competition piece. The scene went really well and it was the best we'd ever performed it although we didn't move on. However, the directing piece did move on and our director continued on to win the competition. She now gets to go to nationals in Washington D.C.! I am so proud of her and I am proud to have been able to participate in her piece.
