Sunday, April 17, 2011

Three Beautiful Things 04/16/11: Rhythms, China House, Singing Shakespeare

1.  In the usual rhythm of my life, I am in bed by 9:30 or 10:00.  Rehearsing and performing a play takes me out of that usual rhythm and I'm up past midnight.  This morning I lounged. I rested.  I dealt with being tired after another late night and not sleeping in by assuming the prone position for the early part of the day and napping.

2.  It was too rainy to go out and take pictures today, a disappointment.  But, Russell and I met at Yi Shen and I had a tasty plate of ginger chicken.  A fun moment occurred when the woman who co-owns and operates Yi Shen overheard me talking with Russell about how much I used to enjoy their former restaurant on 29th and Willamette:  China House.  Tasty Thai is there now.  She enjoyed knowing that when I go to Tasty Thai, I always imagine myself still at China House.  I enjoy China House a lot.  I enjoy Yi Shen even more.

3.  Our already strong production of "The Taming of the Shrew" continues to get better.  Because I see the whole play, I can hear new vocal varieties, see physical moves sharpen, and know that our actors continue to tighten the show.  The best news:  no sense of complacency, no sense in the company that we've "arrived".  We never will "arrive".  The fun now is in making it all better and, I think, moving closer and closer to expressing, almost singing,  the music of Shakespeare's poetry and prose.  I'm hearing more and more "singing".   The "singing", to me, is the reward of running and performing this play so many times. 

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