Accidental Art--an Experiment in Theatre Making

A nice interview with project leader Nessah Muthy, Ph.D. student Tania Batzoglou, director Anouke Brook, and myself did for the London Theatre Blog about the Accidental Festival piece I did, Accidental Art. Go here.

A Look at the New Homestead

As per requested by my parents, here's a little tour of the flat I'm holed up at the moment. My flatmate Loukia makes a brief appearance as well.

I'll try to write a real entry tomorrow. I promise. To try.

Desperate Housewife-dom

I finished moving into my new flat Saturday morning, and have been essentially nesting this past week. I cannot express in words adequately how overjoyed I am to have a kitchen again--it makes all the difference in the world. I have bought groceries several times this week and have been relishing being able to cook food for myself, so much so that I will be having a little dinner party next week, complete with friends, liquor, and a lot of home cooked Cuban food courtesy of me. May my abuela, the greatest cook who ever lived, smile down on me from heaven that day, and guide my hands as I season, stir, and saute up a storm. I'm really excited: I do love being a domestic.

Just to catch up what's gone on the past couple weeks, the Turbulence Festival closed nicely with England 2009, a performance composed of short vignettes that were devised during the day of the performance using assigned stimuli that were collected from various locations across England. My group got a box full of chalk from the white cliffs of Dover<--and yes, the only thing I knew about Dover up until that day was the song named after said cliffs. Rather predictably, dealing with the chalk (and flour substituting for chalk) was a focal point of what my ensemble produced, and as in Stage Two, I ended the performance covered in stuff:

Looks like a bad minstrel show.

The Fourth of July here was nice. After dropping of my last bag and unpacking a bit in the new flat, I headed out to Camden to Max and Amy's for an American celebration and gathering. En route, I bought a huge case of Budweiser and two six packs of Coke--classic flavours of American culture.

An American super-hero.

I made salsa and platanos, a favorite Cuban snack that will also be a fixture at the dinner I host next week. You may ask, why serve a Cuban dish at an American celebration. Well, firstly, they are delicious. Secondly, the Cubans, like the Americans, were also revolutionaries. And thirdly, they were fried: very American indeed.

Fried bananas=Deliciousness.

We were joined by US citizens Heidi, Caitlin, and Elizabeths Fazzio and Gibbs, as well as the ever fabulous Greek, Maria. We cooked, drank, ate (a lot--it was an American holiday, after all), and finished off the evening by emptying bags of English Breakfast tea into the Regent's Canal while yelling "No taxation without representation!", followed by setting off a large confetti shooter. It was a delightful evening, and even though it didn't supply the light show of Macy's, it was definitely a great substitute.

I will try to update more over the next few days to make up for my near non-existence over the past couple weeks. Right now, though--I should go clean my kitchen from today's culinary flurry.

What I do when I put off work:

It's past midnight, and I have just over twelve hours before the paper I'm writing about character building in a devising process on is due. Predictably, I've been putting it off. I wrote a strong outline, but then thought of a great cover page image, and have spent about an hour working on that.

Lame? Perhaps. Completely human? Absolutely. Here's what I've come up with so far:


Completely narcissistic? Could be. But I don't kid around when I call myself an actor, alright?

In the saddest news I've heard in some time, Karl Malden is dead. More on this tomorrow (today).

Play Reading Challenge: Momentary Break

I'm not reading any more plays this week. I'll make it up to you--and to me, I promise. The week is just too full, and there isn't any time for it.

That being said, I will leave you now.