Absent Minded Actor

YOU BETTER COME TO THIS!!!

Come join us on a trip through the American Dreamscape….





The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Intern Companypresents
THE SLOW, TORTUROUS LOVE AFFAIR OF STATEN ISLAND AND PERTH AMBOY
by Alexis Kozak
directed by Jesse Edward Rosbrow
When Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox eat their way across the country from California to Perth Amboy, NJ, what’s to stop them from devouring NYC’s most underrated borough, Staten Island?! Special appearances by Staten Island, Perth Amboy, an earthquake, Benjamin Franklin, a flock of seagulls, and some crabs!
starringAubrey Clinedinst, Katie Healy, Pearl Huang, Miriam Ibrahim, Shannon Keyes, Nicole Loewenstein, Alice Mottola, Jenny Vallancourt
lighting design by Meagan Miller-McKeevercostume design by Aubrey Clinedinstsound design by Alice Mottolastage management, assistant direction, and props by Teresa Campbellproduced by Jesse Edward Rosbrow
Two Performances Only!
Wednesday, June 22nd at 4pm(For Tickets to Wednesday, June 22nd’s 4pm performance: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8960215)Saturday, June 25th at 6pm(For Tickets to Saturday, June 25th’s 6pm performance: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8960225)Tickets are $18.(Festivity participants can get in for free on a stand-by basis – but seeing as there are only two performances, we might sell out, so you might want to buy your ticket instead of banking on a comp, especially if you’re coming to the Saturday, June 25th at 6pm performance!)
The Robert Moss Theater440 Lafayette3rd FloorJust a few doors south of Astor PlaceNew York, NY 10003
THE SLOW, TORTUROUS LOVE AFFAIR OF STATEN ISLAND AND PERTH AMBOY will be benefiting Only Make Believe.

Only Make Believe is a non-profit organization that creates and performs interactive theatre for children in hospitals and care facilities. Only Make Believe is dedicated to the principle that freeing a child’s imagination is a valuable part of the healing process.

Roma

So the weekend immediately following spring break, I decided to be nice to my body and my wallet after an amazing but intensive week of body weathering, and I stayed in Arezzo. We finally found the open air market! I spent the whole day there with David, though I chickened out of buying what I wanted. I bought a pair of pants, but they were waaaaaaaay too small…so now Jilly or Blythe has a present. We ended up meeting Paul and an MFA student, Katie, at the market and sitting with them for a long time. Paul took us to a great wine store where I of course couldn’t drink, but I appreciated all the stuff there. Then we hung out at Katie’s house for a long time. It was a lot of fun…I even took a semi nap and read…I also obtained a shirt there because Katie claimed it didn’t fit her…yay!

The next weekend we went to Rome with ADA and it was gorgeous. We actually got there on Thursday, had a class on Friday, and the had the weekend to chill in Rome and the surrounding area. So on Thursday we took a tour with Monica of the coliseum, the old city of Rome, Capitol Hill, and the Wedding cake of Italy. All the sights were stunning…I did not get a chance to go into the coliseum, but I was told it was not terribly worth it. Regardless, it was all super beautiful. Theres a really cool statue of a horse that stands on three legs without support and just a bunch of interesting things that the Romans accomplished and we couldn’t til computers. What the hell happened? Where did all that technology suddenly go?

Anyway, we then ended up at some Roman baths, which were not too fun, and in the end we went back “home” to the hotel and relaxed a bit before heading out to dinner in Trastevere. We found a delicious affordable place that everyone else seemed to find as well. It was delicious…I love gnocchi :) The area was also very beautiful…but soon it was time for me to head home and relax.

The next day we had an awesomely fun tarantella class in Rome with Gianni, the dance teacher. It was just so much fun, I wish we could take that class more often (and in fact we convinced Claudia to let us take the class again :) ). I love love loved that class. Then after the class, I went to the Vatican with Rachel, Gillian, and Stuart and we sped through the museum a bit, but when we got to the Sistine Chapel, it was all worth it. Looking at this stuff, there’s just no replacing it. Then we exited, after I sent a quick post card to Littles, and went over to St. Peters which was also beautiful. The altar piece just floored me. I love churches…soo pretty. We then stood in the city, and I secretly hoped we could see the Pope. We didn’t. But we then went to Trastevere for dinner and gelato again. It was pretty good, though I think the night before was better. Everyone was coming down with the plague, which was an awful tummy virus, but I was surviving…only catching one symptom of it. But we brought Kathryn back some pizza as a result.

The next day it was time to check out, and me, Dani, Gina, and Khelsi headed down to Pompeii, which was just stunning. We spent quite a few hours there and I feel like we saw everything. If I ever go again though, I will invest in a tour guide because it is just too much to tackle very successfully on your own. But it was so amazing to see…my jeans and sneakers are still full of ash. We did follow the tour guides we found for awhile and listened to what they were telling their groups.

We then went back to Rome for the night, and Dani and I pulled a Paris the next day and went and saw the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and the Plaza della Republica. It was a gorgeous day. We then jetted over to the Vatican and WE SAW THE POPE!!!! I GOT A BLESSING FROM THE POPE!!! granted he was blessing everyone in the city from out his window but still, I received a greeting from the Pope. We then wandered around Rome a but more with Khelsi’s friend before we wrangled our way back to the train station and back home to Arezzo. All in all it was a very good trip.       

The Rest of London

So on the second full day of London, Dani, feeling a little better got out of bed for me to go take her to the sights. We tried to do as much as possible. We went first to Camden Market which was soo much fun…at least for me…Dani was not feelin it. Anyway, the Camden Market is like a street fair on crack…there are some official looking stores, but most of them are little stalls, and what seems like only a block at first turned out to be HUGE!!! Dani was successful in talking me out of spending money, which I kind of regret now, but it’s probably better I didn’t start spending or I might have never stopped. But I saw some fantastic clothes that I think I might try to replicate :)

What I did buy was some DELICIOUS chicken tikka masala…it was just from a street vendor, but it was the best damn tikka masala of my life. I can’t wait to have more. 

After Camden Market, we crossed town a bit and tried to go the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the AWESOME costume collection…but it was out until 2012…lagrimas! However, while we were in the neighborhood we stopped to have tea at a delicious tea house. Dani and I split a pot of lemon verbena tea and had scones with clotted cream and jam…damn did it hit the spot. We walked around a bit and back to the metro station, when we decided to return to the hostel for a bit before we went to BILLY ELIOT!!!! Thats right, I went and saw Billy freakin Eliot on London’s west end (after having an 8pound bowl of ramen…thats like $15 for ramen). But holy shit this show was amazing…we were in horrible nose bleed seats but it was still spectacular. Of course the little boy playing Billy that night was named Rhys (my favourite name ever)…and he had only been dance for like 4 years…I’ve danced for much longer than that, and I cannot even dream of moving like that kid did…Goshdamn it was amazing

Then next next day it was raining A LOT, but Dani and I finally made it over to see the Tower of London, which was cool and gruesome and wonderful and beautiful all in one…I don’t think we left a place untouched…so much cool gross history. Our tour guide, though since it was raining we didnt get a real tour, WAS HILARIOUS. The crown jewels were stunning, but they got very upset when I tried them on, I don’t know why. When we finished there, we caught a quick fish and chips and moved on to see Peter Pan in the park and he was beautiful…we then wandered over to Oxford street again, and Dani and I actually went shopping, though again, she was too good at controlling my wallet. Anyway, we went into a bunch of stores and I love london fashion…we also went into an 18+ store, just for laughs, and got carded lol….must of looks young that day. It was a good deal of fun, and then just when night fell I took her over to Picadilly Circus, which she also loved, and I broke and got a wonderful delicious Cinnabon…I know I shouldn’t have, but it was soo good. They also had chocobuns, which i seem to remember and no one else does, but wanting to leave London weighing the same as when I went in, I resisted and tried to find some real dinner. It failed, so we went back to swiss cottage and I had a horrible burger there. But oh well, means I’ll enjoy it more when I get to the states. 

Then our journey in England came to a close. The next morning we got up disgustingly early to catch a car to Heathrow, where we caught our plan back to Pisa. Once back to the Villa, I ate and then crashed…our spring break adventure was over  

SO I suck a lot

We’re gunna catch up on blogposts…here we go

For the second half of spring break, we finished up in Paris by doing EVERYTHING

In one day we…

went to the Louvre

climbed Sacre Coeur 

saw Moulin Rouge

AND CLIMBED THE EIFFEL TOWER…and I mean we climbed it…we took the stairs cuz the line was smaller and it was cheaper and we explored every level, i freaked out cuz of the height, and we watched the sunset and the city light up on top of it…Gorgeous :) we saw about two seconds of the light show…we were stuck on the elevator :( but we were part of the light show :)

The next day, we got up nice and early and made our way to Gare du Nord to get on our train to LONDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That first afternoon we took it super easy because I was feeling like shit…yay things attacking my immune system. So we checked in, figured out the metro system which again was super easy just like Paris…why cant New York be that easy???

We explored Swiss Cottage which is a great area, not too metropolitan, not too quaint and filled with thrift shops :) We ate some BEEF…i miss it so…and had just a good relaxing night

The next day we met up with the fantastic Chris Reily who took us all over London…in one day we saw Abby Road Studios, Big Ben and Parliment, the outside of Westminster Abby, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Green park, had some terrible fish and chips, saw the outside of the Tower of London and crossed the bridge, saw London Bridge, and toured the Globe (I almost died I was so happy). After that, Dani really didn’t feel well so we went to a bar in Covent Garden for some refreshment, and she decided to go home. Chris and I stayed in Covent Garden for a wee bit and watched a great street performer. Then we decided to head towards Picadilly Circus…but we got off on Oxford Street and meandered along there, looking at all kinds of things we couldn’t afford. Of course, the only store we actually went into was Hamleys and we played with all the toys and I fawned over the Paddingtons and Chris got free a free “sweet” (we americans call it candy). After playing around in there, it was the perfect dark outside, so we walked over to Picadilly Circus, and I was blown away…absolutely blown away. It was all lit up, just like Times Square, only not so tall and prettier looking due to the style of buildings. It was soo pretty. I just sat there and happy danced that I was finally in freaking London. We wandered for a bit, and then realized Chris would need to get home soon, so we went back to Swiss Cottage where I broke my vow and had some subway with Chris…then he got on the subway to go home, and I went to sleep in the hostel awaiting the adventures of the next day….

And now y’all will await the next post for the rest :) 

delirare:

ask me how.

(poster credit:  justaturnofthedial).

For Thomas

scotterwho:

Soft Kitty

Warm Kitty

Little ball of fur

Happy Kitty

Sleepy Kitty

Purr, purr, purr

Paris!

Ok, so first thing’s first…Sorry I didn’t post last weekend. Thomas got in and sadly the whole week went by in a whirlwind. I cannot believe he has gone already. Sad. However, he and I did have a wonderful time at the antique market in Arezzo, and I swear he knows the town better than me. But that’s ADAs fault for never giving us free time. 

Now, to the reason you all clicked on this post, I’m in Paris! Yes, Paris France. And yes, I know you are all wondering, I did eat a snail. Not as bad as expected but not a venture to be repeated. Danielle and Candace however loved them…weirdos. Anyway, this is my second night here, and I feel I haven’t done a lot but I have. As far as sightseeing goes, we have done a lot of walking around. We have been to Notre Dame, twice in fact…both times the walk closed on us :( But we went inside at least and it was wonderful. Smaller than I thought, but still just as beautiful. Quasimodo seems to be on vacation though. We also walked around that entire area and saw the latin quarter, the pont neuf…its nice and the metro system was simple to understand and french is not so terrible to understand either. We saw the Orsay today, which was nice, but tomorrow we are going to the Louvre! And what about the Eiffel Tower you may say…we are going there tomorrow evening as well. 

And now for the really important part….THE FOOD. I have had two crepes so far: one lemon and one nutella+banana. I liked the lemon flavour better, but as far as the actual crepe goes, the one that had nutella on it was better. I also had a cheap french meal last night, and today I had a glorious french meal where i did try the snail as well as some raw beef. Personally I had a steak because I like my meat. It was really delicious. I am so bloated. No croissant yet, but that and creme brulee are on the menu for tomorrow. I also had some amazing ice cream (le glace) and sorbet today from Berthlion (i think that’s how you spell it). It was super delicious—I somehow forgot french vanilla came from France, and the vanilla is amazing. As you can see, the food is more important to me than anything else. That might change tomorrow with the major sight seeing. Then Tuesday morning it’s off to LONDON!!!!! I’m not excited…only wanted to go my like whole life…it’s whatever. I’m glad to be meeting up with Chris, though sad it seems I missed my friend Christy in Paris. If you’re reading this dear, I hope you feel better. 

Anyway, this is all I can write for now, I am very tired, but expect more later this week. And sorry again about the lackage of posts :)

Au Revoir!

Foiano…AHHH!

Ok, so five of us went to Foiano for what was supposed to be a ridiculously good Carnevale celebration and parade. However, on the way there, it started raining. Well rain we can deal with…then it got freezing…then we got there and nothing was happening…it was alll over…then we decided to go home…and then we found out the buses weren’t running…and then the cab company kept hanging up on us. We were so upset, so stranded, SOOO COLD!!!!!!!! We were taking refuge in a bar, and after our third attempt with a cab company, I asked the lady at the bar if she could call a cab for us. Well, she couldn’t find the number, but a gaggle of little old italian men got us the number, called and ordered the cab for us, and then one of them got in the cab with us to make sure we got home alright. Another funny story about this guy, was he could tell I was freaking out when they took my friend to get the number and very sweetly told me to calm down. Then he kept trying to feed us peanuts…we felt like a circus attraction and was very interested about our being students of dance…he didnt understand theatre and music:). Also, the cab driver thought it was funny that we were a group of 4 girls and one boy, though three of the girls have boyfriends and the boy has a girlfriend. It was a half an hour cab ride. Normally, that would be like 100euro…well this guy said his normal rate was only 40euro, but he only wanted to charge us 35…WELL because we were soo grateful we paid him the full 40, and thanked them within an inch of their lives. He gave us his card and said we should go back next weekend. It would be much much much better, and he would help us out again. I don’t know if we are going to take him up on it, but what a sweet wonderful caring group of people…I love Italians…so much…what a kind, caring, loving, wonderful group of people :)

Thank you God, faith in humanity restored :)

Siena! and First week of Commedia classes

I’m sorry I suck so much about updates. I will try to be better. Today, Dani and I took a day trip over to Sienna. It was really very pretty, however, after hitting up Il Campo and The Duomo, which was so pretty I might marry it, there wasnt too much to do that didnt cost lots of money. We had lunch at the most delicious and homey restaurant ever…when I remember the name I will tell you, but I of course had the gnocchi and they were the freshest, best gnocchi I have ever tasted. I feel bad that we didn’t have the carne dish, but we were so full! I had a salad that I was offered though because I felt bad. The owner was just so sweet and wonderful. There were no menus, he just came up and recited it to you. Then we had gelato; I had frutti di bosco (berry) and caffe, which went surprisingly well together. Back to Sienna, it was great to walk around in, and was beautiful, but there wasn’t that much to do—unless you like really commercial shopping. 

Commedia class finally started this week and holy crap I love it so much. I’m bruised within an inch of my life, but it has been so challenging and fun. My teacher is cute and fun, he’s just so funny and expressive, its great (his name is Michele Bottini, and if you google that name, all the links and all the pictures that come up are actually of him…it’s so cool). I really really think I am doing well in the class and it makes me really happy to be getting something right :)

The other classes are going really well too, don’t get me wrong, I really love them and I am getting better at them, but the weekends are a nice break. I don’t know if I’ll be able to deal with American classes again. I do miss them though, and have already started to plan out my next semester. I’m excited…also…spring break in in two weeks?!? I cannot believe this program is going by so fast. I do NOT want it to be over :( (not that i don’t miss and love y’all, but I’m living in ITALY)

FIRENZE!

I just got back from spending the weekend in Florence and my was it wonderful. When we got there on Friday, we were pretty tired so we just ate out, which was delish, and then we got gelato, but it isn’t like we didn’t do any sightseeing because Dani’s friend lived right across the street from the Duomo…literally, you looked out the window and there it was. 

First thing on Saturday, we went to the Boboli Gardens and it was gorgeous. It was not in full bloom, but it was like 65 degrees out. SO BEAUTIFUL! It was one piece of the Medici empire, and had a building there. We didn’t see any of the exhibits, except for the gardens, and of course the COSTUME COLLECTION! It was sooo beautiful, so many pretty dresses, and not only that, I got to see a legitimately 500+ year old dress. It belonged to one of the medici’s wives. It was so pretty, even though all that remained was scraps. There were also pieces of Cosimo Medici’s clothing, which were in better condition than the dress, but still were so old and touched a Medici.

We then took a small break for lunch, just some pizza, and took a small siesta before we toddled over to the Accademia, and fell in love with a man named David. The statue was gorgeous. The replicas, even the official one in the center of town could not begin to give justice to the magnificence of this statue. My favourite feature was his face. The expression was so uniquely human…it was like a really good actor; you could feel every emotion he did: hate, triumph, determination, and love. One day, I wish to be able to get face to face with him so I could really look him in the eye. 

Then after another small break, we went to the Uffizi and saw the Birth of Venus, which is damaged! No one ever tells you, and you don’t see it in pictures, but there is a distinctive crease right down the center of the painting. My dad says that’s how the canvas was put together, but I dunno. The rest of the paintings were beautiful, and I had to keep remembering to look up, because even the ceilings were paintings. My favourite part was being able to see the Annunciation, which is a beautiful panel painting on wood, but not only that, the official copy of that painting is in Bernardsville. I’ve seen that painting my whole life, and I finally got to see the original from 1330. 

After leaving there, we went back home and I finally got my moment to cook, because it is killing me that I can’t cook while here in Italy, and I decided to whip up some of my alfredo (which is something I have yet to see offered here). Well, I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed, and the cheese didn’t melt properly and it was a big mess. I was disappointed, no one else was. As Thomas put it, a bad version is better than no version at all (he was very jealous, and is missing my cooking a lot). We then went to a club, which was my first time at a club, and I did end up having quite a good deal of fun. No one bothered me, most people realized I was just there to have fun with my friends. One guy didn’t, and he’s lucky his hands aren’t broken :) 

Today was very calm. We didn’t end up climbing the Duomo, but the outside was prettier than the inside anyway. We got our crepes with Nutella for breakfast, and I FINALLY GOT ORANGE JUICE. You see here in Italy “juice” is like tang. It’s only 30%real juice. Orange juice as we know it, does not exist. But, we just happened upon this cafe, and unbeknownst to us they had fresh squeezed juice. I had a full glass of fresh squeezed blood orange juice and all I want is more. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Maybe I can find some in Arezzo. I love juice.

Well that’s all for now. You can consult my facebook for pictures from this eventful weekend. Yay Italy!