Letters to Myself

Posted on February 4, 2014 by drosvally

At the moment, I’m serving as fight director for Tufts University’s production of RENT. This has caused no small amount of internal time travel.

Music is extremely evocative, and the music from RENT was something that I lived with on a constant basis in my high school years. I listened to that soundtrack so much that I can still sing it top to bottom, backwards and forwards. I may just know RENT better than I know Hamlet (and, as you know, that’s saying something). Last night, I was sitting in on the first minute or two of their run-through (because that’s when my violence occurs… remember? Collins gets the snot beat out of him and his coat stolen in the first number?) which meant that, inevitably, I came home to spend some time with my high school self. And I have a few things to tell her. So, in the event that time travel is a real thing some day, I’m publishing this open letter to my high school self in a place where she’s sure to find it using google.

Dear high school self,

You have to understand first and foremost that nothing I’m about to say is a joke. I know you’re going to find it incredulous that some of these things have happened to you and that this is your life now, but if you can believe in time travel you can believe in this.

You still work in the theatre. You moved to Boston to get a PhD and you’re on your way to becoming a Shakespeare Scholar. You travel around the country to present your work at conferences (just this year, you sat in the Blackfriar’s playhouse in Staunton VA where you heard Russ MacDonald give a keynote… yep… that guy whose book you’re going to read in about three years while sitting on a plane to London where you’re going to study with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/Royal Shakespeare company… oh yea, that happens too). You’re also a freelance writer, and (get this) you work as a Fight Director. Yep. In Boston. People pay you to do that (and, by the way, really enjoy your work).

I know you think that New York is the greatest city in the world and you’ll never leave. Well, you still think that and you miss it terribly. But there are things about Boston that you don’t find half bad (being able to have a car, for instance, is pretty rockin’).

Most of your friends are now married with kids. You’re not. It’s the cost of progress.

This is the earliest readily available picture of myself that I can find. I’m in my New York Apartment living room painting a set for “Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abrgd]”.

Don’t go stressing out about it though; you like their kids but you also like your sleep. Sleep is important when you regularly work twelve and thirteen hour days. Don’t worry, it doesn’t feel like work most of the time (because you love doing it), but does take a lot of energy to sustain.

Let me prepare you for this one too: some pretty tough stuff is going to happen to you. Friends will come and go, people will die, you’ll fall in and out of love, you’re not going to succeed at everything (and some of the things you fail at you’re going to have worked really hard for)… You’re going to understand a broad spectrum of human emotions before you write this letter to you. None of the bad stuff feels good when you’re going through it, but at the end of the day I promise something good comes from each and every awful thing. They help you to understand yourself in ways you didn’t before which, for you, is really important. They make you a better human being. And, if you really don’t care about that (which I’m not convinced you do), they also make you a better actor.

Oh, by the way, you’re pretty good at that acting thing. Don’t let the countless fruitless auditions and meetings with agents/managers get you down. You’re going to get to play some pretty cool roles and work with some pretty great people. But don’t let this go to your head either; the best thing you can do is learn humility as quickly as possible. Even if whomever you’re dealing with doesn’t know more than you do, you’ll get further with the assumption that he does rather than the opposite. And you’ll be surprised the things you can (and will) learn from these situations.

Strive to be curious. Curiosity will take you to great and wonderful places.

Always be tenacious. Bouncing back with fervent persistence is one of your greatest strengths. Whatever it is that you’re pursuing, chase it down and shake it until it’s dead. Unless you don’t actually want to kill it (even in metaphor), in which case chase it down and hug it forever and ever.

I could go on, but I don’t want to spoil anything. The bottom line: it’s all going to work out. You’ll have ups, you’ll have downs, the downs are tough and the ups are great. I can promise you this: you’ll always have some awesome friends around to help you, there will always be a new adventure waiting, and you’ll only ever be as stagnant as you let yourself become.

Much love,

Future you

Looking Back to Look Forward

Posted on January 7, 2014 by drosvally

Today was back to the grind.

Which meant that I, like the rest of the world, spent the first half of my day unburying my inbox and summarily removing my head from the sand. While I did do e-mail triage when I was away (I really can’t help it; I absolutely hate seeing those little red notification numbers pop up on my iPhone and not doing anything about them), this still took up a significant chunk of my time. Which was a shame because my to-do list today was mammoth and included a large number of tasks, most of which could go on for an indefinite period of time.

I haven’t, until recently, really tested the outer limits of my juggling skills. I know that my time management skills are superb, and I know (relatively) how much I can take before things begin to slip through the cracks. As such, I tend to take on projects (especially short-term or intermittent projects) until my plate is absolutely at its breaking point. I recently did a count of how many jobs I am actually working right now. To qualify, I

A neat bookstore we found during our New York Adventures last week.

considered a “job” as an ongoing project that has to do with my professional resume (either as an artist or an academic; because at this point one feeds the other and so they are essentially the same thing… I’m a mecha-demic). Since I’ve been taking on various fight directing projects and small acting gigs (to keep up with these or where you can see my work, bop on by to my extracurricular activities page which I regularly update), the number fluctuates somewhere between five and ten on any given week.

It’s gotten so bad that my boyfriend, when I mention “my boss” or “my job”, has taken to asking “which one?”. When we go see a show, which we do on a regular basis, he has to ask me “where did these tickets come from again?” Usually he remembers to ask this question before the show so as to temper his feedback accordingly (you don’t know awkward until you’ve experienced a car-ride home from a show which you slammed before asking your companion how she was actually involved in its production only to find out that her input was exactly what you just vehemently protested*).

Occasionally I think that perhaps I should scale back. When I have these thoughts, I like to remind myself that despite working long days, late nights, odd hours, and weekends on occasion**, I actually enjoy 80% of the things that I do (and that lingering 20% consists of necessary by-products; i.e. paperwork, annoying administration stuff, etc.). There aren’t many people who can say that their job is consistently rewarding, always interesting, and ever-changing. So even though paying my bills every month is a constant struggle, I can’t help but feel inescapably lucky.

I’m lucky to have the opportunity to pursue the level of education that I have, and I’m lucky to do so at an institution which is geographically located in a place where I actually want to live.

I’m lucky to have friends and loved ones who support (even if they don’t fully comprehend) my endeavors and are willing to listen to me ramble about history when I’ve had a bit to drink.

I’m lucky to be an artist of enough varying types that people are willing to pay me to

If you go see my latest FD project at Apollinaire, you’ll see this audience set dressing. You won’t see the shadow puppet; that was a special addition from my darling other half.

execute my art, and give me the opportunity to showcase and stretch it on a regular basis.

I’m lucky to encounter so many talented and intelligent people in my travels: students, mentors, and colleagues.

I’m lucky to have the means to participate in all the extracurricular activities which keep my multitude of jobs going; conferences, workshops, seminars, performances, classes, lectures, etc…

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it’s a great start. As I look into 2014, I see some changes on the wind. It’s nice to take stock of what I have, even as I know it’s going to become what I had.

One more week of break before classes start and I’m determined to make it count.

*please note that this hasn’t happened in quite some time; whether that says something about the growth of my skills or the quality of my current company is yet to be determined.

**…okay, fine, on a regular basis.

Christmas won’t be Christmas without Research, Grumbled Dani

Posted on December 23, 2013 by drosvally

So, by the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, tomorrow is Christmas Eve.

Also, by the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, a lot of places are closed tomorrow and Wednesday.

I mention this only because it completely crept up on me and I had banked on this entire week to get some work done in order to appease the research panic I’m currently working through. I knew I needed access to a bunch of things but was pretty casual about when I actually got that access. Except next week I’ll be going to New York to spend some time with my family because apparently Christmas doesn’t happen on Christmas if you’re a member of my family and you thereby need to celebrate it on viable days when archives happen to be open instead of closed.

So that whole week that I thought I had is instead three days. Unless I was smart and got a bunch of archive stuff done today, Monday, before it closed. And by “a bunch” I mean I need to page through about thirty years’ worth of material to analyze a couple patterns I’m tracking. I also needed to pick up a few ILL books that had arrived. Which basically meant that, unless I got my cute behind to the library today, I was going to be caught in a grinding halt for the entirety of Christmas (you know, whatever time I found in those two days to eke work out). I time-manage best when I have piles of work I can do, even if I don’t necessarily have the time to get through them.

Sure. I thought, No problem. Archive day Monday then I’ll be good to go for the break. No. Big. Deal.

A couple observations:

Okay; see those four shelves of GIANT GREEN BOOKS in the middle? Yea. That was “a day’s work”. Hah.

If a publication is a monthly publication, thirty years is a lot of material to look through. Like… a lot. Like… an impossible amount. For one day at least.

Campus is really deserted today. Like… ghost town. Kinda creepy deserted. I have an entire floor of the library to myself.

Which leads me to believe that if I do stay after closing today (five PM because the library apparently operates by normal business hours during intersession rather than the “yea we’re open like all the time forever” hours that I’m used to), nobody would really notice my presence down here in bound periodicals. I could spend Christmas happily paging through and doing my research by the light of my laptop.

….anyone feel like delivering a Christmas goose to Tisch Library? If you need me, I’ll be buried under this pile of periodicals.

Snow Woes

Posted on December 16, 2013 by drosvally

My brain is a little numb. I’ve been working very hard for a very long time, and there really isn’t a break in sight. Well… there kinda is, but not one that I’m getting any close to (in a matter of a month I can take a pseudo-break but I can’t call it a “real” break since the semester will have just started and, thusly, I’ll be teaching at that point). For now, I’m buried in books and, no matter how much reading I do, the book fort never seems to get any smaller (probably due to the fact that I keep piling library books on top of it even as I read them out from the bottom of the stacks).

To make matters worse, over the weekend we got our first major snowstorm here in the

From last year and with an APPROPRIATE amount of snow. Harumph.

Northeast. This at least gave me the ability to successfully test my hypothesis that I would rather do any other task in my household than shovel. As I suited up to deal with the icy toboggan-trail that had become my driveway, I couldn’t help but wryly remark to myself that snow days really ain’t what they used to be.

The funny thing about snow in Boston is you’d think that, since it’s a city inhabited by New Englanders, nobody would have a problem with it. They’d go about their business without much to-do and continue on their merry ways amidst the downfall. But no. Somehow, inevitably, the first snow of the year transforms the city into a conglomerate of royal jerks who have all miraculously forgotten how to drive. Additionally, even though the roads are still slippy/slidey, Bostonians think that snow on the sidewalk makes it acceptable to walk in the road rather than tromp on their nice, safe, designated walkway. I can’t even begin to tell you how many pedestrians I almost ran down on my way home from rehearsal last night.

As an added bonus, since my driveway is uphill both ways and the nice fluffy pillows of wonder that fell from the sky this weekend froze over with about an inch of caked-on skating-rink quality ice, my back seems to have called up its union and gone on strike in protest of hard manual labor.

And we’re expecting more snow tomorrow.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my cave. Grumbling.

Mid Semester Slump: Fall Edition

Posted on October 30, 2013 by drosvally

Even though it’s well past midterms, I’m definitely feeling the effects of mid-semester crunch.

This is partly due to how my semester is scheduled (two conferences in three weeks will make a girl extremely tired; especially when she’s still dealing with orals, work for various professional committees she’s on, teaching her class, and still trying near-futilely to catch up on sleep/sanity from the summer). But I think there’s also a certain degree of universality to it: suddenly, those piles of grading on your desk have a new urgency. The star-struck wonder and optimistic first few weeks of any fresh start (a semester included) has faded; this is where the real work begins.

With fatigue setting in, I’m having to return to my old “find the energy” axioms. Here are a few that are keeping me going right now; hopefully some of them can also add some inspiration to your day.

1) It’s fall in New England and everything is beautiful. I can barely move without

Captured on a walk yesterday!

having to pause for a foliage picture (thanks to a new-found interest in photography apps for my pocket-robot, I have some great tools with which to capture these).

2) Fall also means pumpkin flavored everything. Though by virtue of having discovered a wonderful pumpkin spice flavor syrup recipe I am no longer limited by the calendar as to when I consume my pumpkin coffee, it’s still comforting to know that on days when I just don’t have time to make myself a latte I can rely on good ol’ dunks to provide.

3) Soon it will be winter. Winter is when a break happens. Winter is also when my favorite holiday happens. This also means that, very soon, I will have full social license to blast my Christmas Music for at least a few months before it becomes taboo again to do so until next year. Believe you me, nothing brings a smile to a poor downtrodden graduate student like pop culture icons belting Christmas tunes.

4) While conference season is stressful, it also gives me an excuse to wear my favorite tweed jacket. Though I haven’t had a moment to install the requisite leather elbow patches, that particular upgrade is definitely in the works and I hope to have it in place by the next wave of professional gigs which require professorly clothing.

The blue mountains as seen from my plane during the fly-over last week

5) Despite all efforts by nature to kill it, my herb garden is still going strong. As is my aloe plant. For those not in the know, I (until very recently) was self-titled DANIOR MURDERER OF VEGETATION (caps required for proper voice intonation). When my trusty bamboo plant was killed by a tragic fungal infection last year, I thought my days of caring for flora were over. However, convinced by my own tenacity, I managed to overcome my grief and acquire several new plant-friends. I don’t want to say this too loudly for fear that they might overhear and decide that it’s a great time to kick the proverbial bucket, but they may just be long-lasting installments in my life/office.

6) Even though I’m really tired, I know that I’m just one workout away from an endorphin high and a quick battery recharge. It’s not a permanent solution, but it definitely helps me plug along and plow through the multitudes of material on my desk (today’s challenge: several period fencing manuals, most unavailable in modern typesetting… the joys of archival/textual scholarship).

And on that note, perhaps hitting the gym will give me a little pick-me-up and help me through the rest of this afternoon.

I hope you’re having a productive day, and that the mid-semester slump isn’t hitting you too hard!

Rejuvenated

Posted on October 28, 2013 by drosvally

I have just returned from Shakespeare Camp and OH MAN am I excited.

In this case, “Shakespeare Camp” is the 2013 Blackfriars Conference. Held every other year, the conference is hosted by the American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia. On odd numbered years, this sleepy little town (charming to us city-folk) plays host to the hoard of Shakespeareans who descend en masse to give papers, hear keynotes, drink copiously, and network network network.

This year, I gave a paper on my work surrounding the African Grove Theatre’s production

A particularly dramatic moment of my presentation
captured by the wonderful Amy Wratchford of the ASC

of Richard III. It was received extremely well and I spent the rest of the conference in scholar heaven with loads of encouragement, plenty of questions, and oodles of intellectual fodder. Sometimes, it really takes another eye to help take your work to the next level. In this case, I had a couple hundred eyes and I’m so excited by all the questions and feedback that I got.

This was a very long conference. I didn’t make it down until Wednesday afternoon, but it technically begins on Tuesday evening and stretches until Sunday. Essentially, that’s a week’s worth of work that we all miss to come and play with each other at the Blackfriars. By the end of the conference, you’re tired (sessions begin at 8AM and often don’t end until midnight, and that’s not even counting post-panel drinks and networking at the hotel bar which is amongst the most important part of what we do at conferences), you’re stressed out by the amount of work that’s lurking on your desk and has accumulated since you’ve left, but you’re invigorated.

For me, the beauty of a good conference is the amount of inspiration it provides. I always know that a conference was worthwhile if I come home really ready to attack my work so that I can meet newfound goals provided by the conferencing atmosphere. Especially given the amount of mental drain that I’ve experienced over the past several months due to the examination process, this was a much-needed rejuvenation.

Another very neat aspect of these things is that since everyone goes to them you get to meet people from fellow graduate students all the way to superstar academics. On Friday morning I sat in a keynote given by Russ McDonald. It was interesting and he was absolutely charming, but here was the best part:

Another presentation shot; this one courtesy of Eric Johnson of the Folger Shakespeare Library

Six years ago, in my undergrad, I spent a summer researching in Stratford upon Avon. It was one of the first times that I had a taste of what “real” research is like, and certainly was the first time I had been given the opportunity to do archival work. It was the first time that I really realized this could be a life choice, that I could possibly spend the rest of my life doing this. I’d say that, while it wasn’t my first date with Will, it was definitely the moment when things got serious.

As preparation for that trip, I had to read several introductory articles and books (including things by McDonald… Russ, not Old). I will be honest and say that it’s not something I think about every day, or even every week, but as I sat in that keynote address, I suddenly remembered the feeling of reading that work. The over-arching wonder that I was going to be visiting (and living in) Stratford; that I would walk those streets; that I would see those shows in that place. When I remembered that, everything just clicked into place and I had a feeling of vertigo. How far had I come in six years; how much had I experienced. It all flew past me like some sappy eighties montage culminating with a thunking landing on that seat in the Blackfriars playhouse.

So here’s to the last six years; and the next six years; and all the intervals in between.

A shot of the last panel of the conference starring the infamous ASC bear which chases you offstage if you go over your allotted time

Let’s see how productive I can be in the interim between Blackfriars so that next time (October 2015) I can re-encounter old acquaintances with new vigor, new stories, and new bylines on my CV.

So now: back to your regularly scheduled programing.

Getting Ready for an Adventure

Posted on October 21, 2013 by drosvally

Ah the magic of conference prep.

How is it that I always manage to convince myself that writing the conference paper is the hard part? How is it that when it comes time to actually pack, and plan, and travel, I then remember that the paper, while the focus of the voyage, is small pickings compared to

My desk. I will miss it!

hotel arrangements, packing, planning snacks, planning meals, figuring out how to dress, networking, figuring out how much work to bring, figuring out how much work I can miss, planning travel-knitting, planning travel reading, not forgetting dumb stuff like a cell phone power cable, transportation arrangements to/from airport on either side, and oh yea! Blogging! And whatever other projects I’m working on….

I’m leaving on Wednesday morning for Staunton, Virginia to participate in the 7^th biennial Blackfriars Conference where I hope to spend a glorious five days absolutely steeped in Shakespearean Geekery. My panel is at 9AM on Friday, in case you were somehow magically in the Shenandoah Valley and wanted to say hi. In the interim, I will be panicking about the things I’m (probably not) forgetting and hoping that I don’t insult anyone by saying something utterly dumb about bad Hamlet quartos. I may check in again later this week, but if I don’t, rest assured that I am not dead… just in Virginia.

Jargon

Posted on October 9, 2013 by drosvally

I’m at a truly odd point of my PhD process. That is: the in-between place.

Right now, I’m not quite a “Student” not quite a “Candidate”. I’ve passed 2/3 of my exams, but I still have 1/3 to go before I can say that I’ve completed them and, thereby, moved into the next stage of my PhD.

Explaining this to folks who are outside of the academy has been an interesting process. There are many terms and definitions that are commonplace to us denizens of the ivory tower but sound mostly the same to folks on the outside. As such, I’ve found myself having the same conversation over and over again (which I don’t begrudge; it’s wonderful that

…bringing this one back because it’s quite possibly my favorite pic I’ve ever posted on the blog. I am, in fact, a Shakespeare Paladin.

folks in my life care enough about me to ask questions about this process). However, since I’ve found that it is a common communication issue, I also think it would be useful to have an easy-access reference guide for those less-than-familiar with this process.

So, in case you have a struggling Graduate Student in your life, here’s some good vocabulary for you to know:

A.B.D.: Stands for “All But Dissertation”. This is a colloquial term that we use to refer to someone who has passed all of her degree requirements except writing the book. It’s also a way to refer to someone who is a….

Doctoral Candidate: Someone who has passed all degree requirements except the dissertation (generally means that the dissertation is in process). This is not to be confused with…

Doctoral Student: (Yes, this is a different thing, only in academia….) A Doctoral Student is someone who is in progress with the early parts of the degree (coursework, exams, etc.). Alternately, someone who has been accepted into a program but hasn’t started that program yet. As an aside: mixing up these two terms can be… awkward. You are either giving someone credit for work they did not already do and thereby devaluing that work, or taking away a hard-earned benchmark. I have, over the years, been called by well-meaning onlookers a “Doctoral Candidate” and even “Dr. Rosvally” before needing to quickly correct this. In an industry that functions almost exclusively on the importance of words, it is not considered supportive to devalue those words by using them outside of their accepted meanings. In short: try to use the appropriate title for someone in the process of his PhD. Don’t worry; you have the rest of his lives to call him “Dr.”.

Comprehensive Exams: Or “Comps” (yes, if you’ve been following this blog at all over the last few months, you already know what this means). The exhaustive, stressful exam generally administered at the end of coursework (sometimes administered in steps over the course of coursework) that proves a student is a competent generalist in her field and, thereby, is qualified to move on to the next step.

Orals: Sometimes, the comps include an oral examination as well as a written examination (this is the case in my department).

Dissertation: The large piece of writing you produce as one of the final steps in your PhD process. This is an exhaustive, original piece of scholarship and (presumable) a PhD’s first long-term project. It is sometimes colloquially shortened to “diss”. It is not to be confused with a…

Thesis: This generally refers to the culminating project of a Master’s degree. It is shorter than a dissertation and with less expectations of originality. The big difference between a Master’s degree and a doctoral degree is that a Master’s degree shows that you have mastered a given field while a doctoral degree shows that you have added something to the field. The capstone writing projects for each degree exhibit this difference; the thesis is based upon work that has already been done and the dissertation is something completely new.

Home Institution: The place where a scholar calls “home”. This implies that the scholar is somehow in residence at the institution, either as a student, candidate, or professor.

Committee: An assembled group of scholars (who, ideally, have some expertise in the field which the candidate is writing about) who evaluate the dissertation for its worthiness

alternately, you could find a partner to go dance in a bookstore with. No word of a lie, this is a past time of mine.

as an original piece of scholarship. Generally, this group consists mostly of scholars from the candidate’s home institution with one outside reader for consistency/fairness/representation of the field at large.

So now that you’re able to use the lingo, your academic street cred just went up by at least 10%. Seriously. Go have a latte and stand on the steps of the library chatting about your most recent re-read of a major canonical work and see if I’m wrong.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Lazy, Hazy Days

Posted on August 27, 2013 by drosvally

Yesterday, I meandered onto campus to run a few errands in what I will blissfully refer to as “the last golden days of summer”.

Summer (or any large break for that matter) on a university campus is a blissful time. A peaceful time. A time when graduate students can haul books around without fear of being held up by a large pack of care-free mozying undergrads taking up the entire sidewalk. A time when a graduate student can be assured that librarians (or diligent hard-working student laborers) will be at the circulation desk and, thereby, will not be told that she can just “leave her books over there” when clearly she wants them checked in in front of her because she has 150 check-outs and can’t afford overdue fees due to some error or loss between her hand and the library’s tender cradle. A time when on-campus errands can be accomplished in a breezy way since there are no lines at the public safety desk and thereby IDs and Parking Passes can be picked up in fifteen minutes rather than two hours.

In this last week of summer, I was smart enough to do all of my pre-semester business before the crowds arrive (a wonder in itself that I had the presence of mind since my brain is essential blown for anything that’s not theatre history right now, and even that is touch and go). As I looked around I realized a few things:

1) Wow, this was really smart.

2) Some of these fresh-faced kids sporting around campus may be my students in just a few weeks.

3) …I had probably better find somewhere else to practice my bullwhip.

Sixteen days to comps lift-off. Headed back to the grind now.

Training Montage

Posted on May 30, 2013 by drosvally

I am still not dead; my life has just been consumed by prep for comps.

And it’s not even June yet.

I wanted to sit down and write some solid reviews of all the theatre I saw last week (Punk Rock by Zeitgeist, an unsettling portrayal of school violence and bullying; From Denmark with Love by Vaquero Playground, a romp through Hamlet mashed with Bond films which doesn’t close until Monday so you should totally go see it, the next installment of the RPG-inspired New Hampshire based improv show; and Richard III by Seven Stages Shakespeare read in the parking lot of Throwback brewery… yes, they are brilliant and

my live-updated character map of Richard III that I kept to help my roomate follow the story. A great exercise and I was impressed with my own memory!

this reading was a truly wonderful way to spend Memorial day). Last week was pretty amazing.

Really, what I’ve got knocking around in my head right now is a bunch of information about Greek theatre, a bunch of speculation about Greek theatre, and the threads of plots from several random plays because I’ve been catching up on all the things I was supposed to read as a good theatre person and have never gotten around to for one reason or another. The other day, I fell asleep while reading Aristophanes’ Clouds which led to some interesting dreams (… if you’ve never read it, I think the humor translates reasonably well and if nothing else, you could read it with an eye towards what these dreams might possibly have been). Last night, I dreamt about dancing and Argentine Tango while discussing the Spanish Golden Age (which is doubly interesting because, at least for the moment, my knowledge of Spanish Golden Age is limited at best). I’m awaiting a dream similar to one described to me by a senior colleague that he experienced while he was in his own comps process. It was essentially a Mortal Kombat style mash-up battle dream in which he was fighting some famous Japanese performers in a historiographically accurate Greek theatre. He valiantly defeated his nemesis by loudly declaring that some details of this theatre were not, actually, backed by firm evidence.

When you’re studying for this exam, it consumes your life. Everything I do or say now is somehow related to comps (and, if it’s not, I feel like I’m wasting my time). My social interactions are only valuable to me if they include some discussion of theatre. As demonstrated by the previous paragraph, even my naps/dreams have become an arena in which to study and process information.

I am, essentially, becoming a theatre history machine.

If this were a training montage, Marvin Carlson would be yelling obscenities at me while I ran up and down flights of stairs reciting dates, facts, and figures from memory. Cut to me paging through tomes with a highlighter, viciously attacking certain sections as I daringly attempt to stuff that information into my mind. Smash cut to me sitting in a theatre watching a play while information scrolls past the side of the screen Sherlock-style and I attempt to situate this both within its historical context and within the context of contemporary American theatre. Then cross-reference that to how it may have been approached during an era entirely unrelated to either of those things.

Shot from the reading; not the best but you get the idea

This process is something that I am actually enjoying despite the life-consuming nature of it. I am learning a vast amount and most of what I’m learning are things that I’ve been assumed to have known all along. In a lot of ways, the comps process is a certain amount of “destiny fulfilling”. If we want to take it to the ultimate geeky extreme (and, really, who doesn’t?) it’s the process of becoming the chosen one. We’re on Dagobah being trained by the great Yodas of our time to bring balance to the academy. We’re growing into those shiny shiny robes that they let us wear to our hooding ceremonies. We’re crafting of ourselves something that won’t embarrass our home institutions when we walk around with their names in our byline.

…and if I look at it that way, I can’t be too upset when I fall on my face a few times. Luke did too, after all, and he grew up to defeat the Empire.

Daniprose

academic adventures, theatric theoretics, and sundry snobberies.

Category Archives: Graduate School