Here I go again on my own...

1. CLASSES START TOMORROW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my "academic" days... where I take classes that are not through PHTS. I kick it off with my really awesome Reinventions of Love class. You might say, "Colleen, how do you know the class is really awesome? It hasn't started yet." I say, first of all, the class is called Reinventions of Love, second of all, it's being taught by one of those incredible teachers from PHTS that I rave on and on about. Even though it's not a PHTS class. I will likely be swamped with work for this class in the best of all possible ways. Thirdly, I've chatted with the teacher about this class on multiple occasions and he's so excited for it (it's brand new). And, fourth, it will be filled with awesome people who I like, such as Lindsay.

Second, I JUST got off the waitlist and into Tisch's Playwrighting Practicum. I did a lot of playwrighting before coming to NYU, both in high school and in summer programs (one that was founded by Sondheim, ftw!), but haven't taken class in it since--simply because I had a lot of classroom background in playwrighting and wanted to use those hours for something else. I'm very excited to go back to it now, though. And I get to daydream about potential plays to write. (Really, the fact is that every single play I've started for a while now has been the same play trying to get out in various ways. It's always "guy has been left by girl who was somehow his muse and interacts with some shade of her to confront his grief"... and then something happens. Perhaps that one should actually come out and I can stop writing it.)

My other non-PHTS class I don't have until Thursday, but that's the elective Masked Drama, which I've wanted to take for ages but it's never fit into my schedule until now.

2. Stephanie has finished moving in, we've had our first visitor (who brought us cookies), and we've decorated the walls. Still a giant blank spot on the floor, because that room's actually too big for the amount of furniture we have. We're considering an installation art piece made out of the random things we have from the fact that we're in theater school. (Stephanie: I have strips of red vinyl. Me: I have a self-inflating whoopee cushion.)

3. Saw Rock of Ages tonight for the second time. (I got a comp.) Rock of Ages is probably the most ridiculous thing on Broadway right now, but since we all know I still want to be a rock star, I not-so-secretly love it. It doesn't try to be anything it's not. It says, "Hey, let's have a good time by belting out 80's metal. We know our characters are shallow and our plot is very thin, but we're gonna ROCK IT." And they do. I appreciate that honesty. Also, any show that starts Act II with "The Final Countdown" and ends with "Don't Stop Believin'" is okay in my book. Also, one of my teachers worked on it.

4. Stepping outside of my apartment today, I smelled the distinctly New York smell that I remember from high school, when I would visit or do summer programs. It was a warm reminder of when I first fell in love with this city, and how much I dreamed of actually living here. Going through an old binder, I found a paper I wrote for Becker that was dated November 15th, 2005, that expressed my wish to study directing at PHTS. I had my first production meeting of the semester today (for the musical I mentioned I'm dramaturging), which was a joy. Later in the day I got a call from my costume designer (I guess still potential costume designer, since we don't have a production calendar yet, but she's a second year and therefore less bound by it and she's thrillingly excited for the piece), which turned into an immediate coffee date where we walked around the Village and Soho, discussing the play, and art, and how dissatisfied we are with the lack of care in today's world, and loneliness, and vulnerability, and performance style, and William Morris. (And I was able to identify the brand of trenchcoat she was wearing by texture alone.) Both these meetings were nice was to ease into the semester, and re-energize myself on the projects.

5. In church yesterday, we sang "Lift Every Voice and Sing". Hymns in hymnals are often categorized by theme ("Easter" or "Jesus is Lord" or "Christian Life"), and I noticed that, in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is categorized in "Christian Responsibility". I thought that was beautiful--the idea that it is not just our joy, but our responsibility, to left every voice and sing 'til earth and heaven ring.

Also, the sermon was on suffering vs. the Lord of Abundance, with a special appearance by Job. Clearly right up my alley.

6. I think as Christians we are called to love ourselves. To acknowledge the sin, yes, but only for the purpose of repentance. Dwelling in our sin saying "we suck we suck we suck" completely takes away what Christ did on the cross, which was freeing us from our sin. So we must love ourselves. And we must love others more. And we must love God most.




I think this is going to be a very interesting semester, to say the least.