I've always had a fascination with light. The way an object can catch or reflect its beams of energy. One particular wall in the theater does this in a weird way. How it dried gave emotion an otherwise stone cold wall. The streaks of running paint drops look like tears. Now as you can see from this 100% accurate representation of a crying wall, this is a unique happening for me. I never would've thought that a sliver of sun through the crack in a theater door would inspire this all.

Photo made by myself

          I began to think about tears and the theater, Drama causes tears in some people and this is a drama club. Why have some of our members cried? A hard break up, roll their ankle sliding down a rickety banister. Perhaps the tears are from when you just preformed your first major role in your first play and did a nearly perfect performance. "They cry for our performances because they're so beautiful" (Clune). The stress has caused many of my friends to shatter under the pressure and lose all composure a week prior to opening night. A broken heart or two has caused the wooden floor to become slick with a thin salty layer of liquid emotion. The joys of a crowd cheering for you or when Mereu hands our seniors each a rose as they take their final bow. "Maybe they cry for all the students who have come and gone. (Clune)" Some think they cry with us.

No matter what they cry for or they even do; we believe so. We assume that a 90 degree slope feels for what we do. It gives us a sense of hope I think. Something to impress that only gives us the feedback of a dew drops of paint.

Works Cited

Clune, Mickayla. Personal interview. 13 Nov. 2014

          This week I changed up my pattern by ignoring the theater's occupants and observed the theater itself. Sitting in many locations in the numerous seats that will one day host over three hundred souls. But even when there is no play going on nor a practice session; one soul always remains in this old proscenium theater. As legend goes, there is a restless spirit that will forever preform his ghastly performance.

The story goes that one day a teacher went into the upper section of the theater. He clambered up the twenty or so steep steps, hoisting a bundle of rope with him. He reached the peak of the stairwell and peered around for an anchor with which he could make a most sinister Halloween decoration. Noose in hand, he headed to an unknown location in the upper portion of the stage to where we keep all of our props. (This location is ironically called Prop Heaven.) However, there was no heaven awaiting this poor sod. He was left bound to the theater forever.

Where this is a very sad and tragic event, this teacher's name has been lost in the sands of time. What does this say for us though? No perfect performance will have a name resonating from underneath six feet of earth forever. We'll all one day be sealed in either a glorified and ornate crate or in a ceramic pot on either a mantle or around a neck in a small vial. But what of the body's essence, their spirit? Where does it go? Is it coaxed to a land of perfection or sent to Hell in a hand basket? Or are they forced to live forever in a land that they aren't welcomed in, the real of the living?

The river that once flowed with energy has seemed to have dried up and has left all but a small trickle through the rocks of lethargy and lack of enthusiasm. But for the few that are actively practicing, their skill is growing at a fast rate. We had Mark Kornhauser observe us a lot this week though so that sparked up the ones who actually are contributing. He brought some other magicians (whose names I did not get) on Friday to watch some apprentice magicians' routines. I also just began to work on a new routine that'll take quite some time to learn.
         
          Mark Kornhauser has been oh so generous to be willing to take his own time to be willing to help us all with the refinement and development of our routines. His presence has a certain weight to it that seems to make us realize that it's go time for us magicians. He sat down one on one with some students and would give them advise on how to improve their technique. His two guests on Friday was also a nice tough. They just recently returned from a tour in Atlantic City, NJ; so magic was still fresh in the mind. They mostly watched and didn't help as much as did Kornhauser but it was still good practice for being in front of an audience. (Especially if they know so much more about what you're doing than you do.)


The new trick I'm attempting to learn will take a lot of getting used to. Apparently I don't have much of a stage presence nor do I "own" the stage. I'm staying in an invisible box that only I can see. It'll take time to do that alone. The trick is an entirely other thing. Pin point accuracy is a must have if I want to get this right. Covering my corners on a very heavy sight maneuver. (God help me.) It'll be a while before I'm anywhere close to being ready to preform in front of a paying audience; buy I'll get there.

          Hopefully, more to come.

 

 

This was a very strange yet enjoyable week in drama club. We didn't practice much but instead went to the local library Tuesday through Friday to watch world class magic acts. Each day was a different magician, all courtesy of Spellbinders. (That's what this whole thing was called by the way.) Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos or record any videos of the performances so just use your imagination.

On Tuesday, we saw a man named John Carney I believe preform his magic up close. (As with all other magicians this week.) He was a very good magician with a solid routine but was also a bit of a comedian. He kind of had a gambler's theme going on with roulette balls and the like. He did something similar to what Lexi is doing (see previous post) with them. Card manipulation was a smaller part in his act too. His person himself was well refined. He reminded me of Philip Seymour Hoffman in way of appearance and dress. Carney was a great performer.

Wednesday brought a man who I believe was Swedish but I didn't catch his name. His accent was thicker than molasses in January. His routine was very heavily card based but a recent turn of events gave him difficulty with his tricks. He said that he'd suffered a stroke in the past months so this made his speech and tricks more difficult. He was very good but not exactly the most memorable.

Thursday brought who was easily the most impressive magician I've ever seen in my life. A Japanese native named Shoot Ogawa (who might have the best website ever, holyshoot.com) preformed what was easily the best performance I've ever seen. He had three separate coins become three different sizes at three separate times. Incredible. One crucial flaw is that I was hypnotized by his non-hypnotic tricks and ended up staring through him and not fully observing the tricks; if that makes any sense. The most memorable trick was one that might as well have broken the guy sitting next to me's sanity.he made seven goldfish appear out of thin air and into an empty wine glass.

Friday's magician was a guy named Bob. he said he was "that one weird uncle that everyone has". He was certainly weird. He mainly did the trick with the ball and three cups, except with a pea. He mainly did variations of this trick. He relied heavily on crowd participation and energy. Top notch magician.

All in all they proved why each was world renowned magician. Unfortunately all these magicians have left by now and will not return for either in six or so months or a year.

More to come soon.

The flow of magic has slowed down to a crawl. The freshmen have seem to have all but  fade away. The theater has become almost dead silent normally. The most action is from either Mickayla, Jackson, or Lexi. They're currently the life of the entire drama club.

Mickayla's card manipulation tricks are really impressive. To someone who wouldn't know what to look for, its a very convincing trick. Her card vomiting looks promising but needs a lot of work for perfection. Her back palming (video below, not her by the way) is easily her most promising segment of her performance once it begins to come together.

                                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJq1ieXtOdM

Lexi's billiard ball disappearing act is coming along. I'm not sure what she'll do from here but I'm anticipating it a lot. The video provided is similar to what she'll be doing. (She is not the Vietnamese man)

                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3r2FpmhpYM

Jackson's act is very unique to say the least. He's finished his own script and is refining and memorizing it verbatim. I don't have a video of his performance and am not sure if he wants it out but it's pretty top. He needs to get his cube still and then he can begin to solidify his idea.

More to come after the break.

These people in my drama club are fantastic. Varying degrees of complication and effort and of time consumption and  dedication. All so diverse but bound in one small way or another. There are those who might as well be on a mission  from God when it comes their work. Practicing vigorously whenever they catch my gaze. Always doing something to further refine their already impressive trick. New moves and questioning what can and what cannot be done; pushing their still pre-mature skills. Then there's the group lost in what I'm calling "Freshman Limbo". They show up and immediately group together like rain water at the bottom of a valley. All they do its talk talk talk and display little interest in learning magic. But there's something about them that keeps them in mind. Their minimal care makes them interesting. I'm enthralled for a short time; then am immediately reminded why I don't associate myself with them. This makes up the club. Those who practice and throes who take up practice space. An interesting group none the less. More to come soon.