My Week in Bed

Cough!

Yup, that's what I was doing all last week. After coming back from Montreal, I was hoping my cold might go away. Unfortunately, with all of the stress of making up for missed classes and such, my sickness did not get better. I started to get rid of the cold, but then I got a stomach flu. Still, I kept trying to push through and stay up to do work. Stupid idea! The sickness just stayed in my system. So by Thursday I put my foot down and decided to put my school life on hold in order to get better. I postponed some things and climbed into bed. By about Saturday afternoon it had completely been worked out of my system. Now I am back on my feet and going full speed ahead!

As you can gather from the above, last week was quiet and less eventful. Nevertheless, there was still some things going on in my life. The main thing of course was the opera production of Dido and Aeneas which I am in. It goes up this coming weekend! This past weekend we started putting all of the elements together. I choreographed a few of the little dances. The choir joined us. The orchestra has also come in. So it's finally starting to feel like a cohesive whole, which is good. Now we are embarking on tech week. We are running the show all week and adding in lights, sets, and costumes. We open on Friday!

Over the weekend, the Windsor Theatre presented two one-act plays, both directed by students. The first was The Lover, by Harold Pinter. It's about a British couple who love each other, but both knowingly engage in unfaithful relationships during the days with other lovers. It's a very awkward play, as is the case with most Pinter. There were lots of painful pauses, and of course more sexual tension than you could ever ask for!

The second show was Crave, which was written by another British playwright, Sarah Kane. If you have never read or experienced a Kane play, you have to do so at least once before you die. They are extremely strange and disturbing but important pieces of theatre. Kane was a very troubled woman, who suffered from various mental breakdowns and eventually committed suicide. Her plays represent her madness - love, death, sex, suicide, anorexia, and lots of swearing, yelling, and violence. Crave is unique because the show is sparse. It's just four actors whose names are just single letters. The script has no stage directions and has little punctuation. The dialogue flows between the four actors in a very poetic way, and it's difficult to decipher any plot or relations. As such, every production is different and unique. This production was very well done. The material is very demanding. The actors had a lot of lines to memorize and they had to dig pretty deep into their souls to get these feelings out. There was a lot of yelling and lots of banging of fists against the wall. While the show made me very angry and upset, I thought it was a great experience and an important voice to express.

Over the weekend I held rehearsals with my cast for the workshop of the musical I have been writing. We learned a few more of the chorus songs and they are sounding so amazing! I am so excited to premiere them in March.

Well I think that is it for now. I am going to be in the theatre all week for the opera. But when I post next time, I will update you on how the show goes and share some pictures of it. Until then, please take care and don't get sick!

Landon

lsbraverman@mta.ca