The Bots

The WiP and the final lineart for one of the CHoW competitions on Conceptart.org a while back. I'm trying to post stuff more regularly so this is my first step towards that.




Alpha was the first Bot created by inventor M. Gord. Unintentionally Alpha was given the ability to question. Frustrated by his failed attempts to fix the glitch, M. Gord installed the religious texts of the world as a morality code and behavioral guide instead. Alpha has since decided that he is the Avatar of the gods...

Iota was a special creation of inventor M. Gord. After creating his successful civic bots, and his infamous Court-Bots, M. Gord created this mysterious bot known as "The Gorilla." Little is known about his purpose except that he is to one day open the canister on his back and consequently save the world. His answer to the question, "when?" is always the same: "It is not yet time, little friend."

Sigma is better known as 'The Gunslinger." Created for the sole purpose of hunting down and deactivating the Apacolypse-bot, The Gunslinger is among the post powerful of M. Gord's creations.

"Rabbit Hole" Review (incomplete)

Below you will find a fragment of what was intended to be a full review of the play "Rabbit Hole" which I caught a few weeks back at ULV. I regret not finishing it, but I feel it's been too long now for me to actually recall the nuances I wished to comment on. So to my friends in the show, I apologize. I hope you can still find something useful here.

Cheers!

"Rabbit Hole" Review

(incomplete)

"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."

-Oscar Wilde

An actor-friend of mine, a Mr. Joshua Prisk, used that quote while describing his experiences playing Howie Corbett of “Rabbit Hole” as his senior acting thesis. While I cannot dare to comment on his experiences as they are his own, I can dare to say that the quote is perfectly suited to my experience of David Lindsay-Abaire’s play as produced on the night of February 7, 2010 at the University of La Verne. The production was the senior acting thesis of not only Joshua Prisk, but also my friend Jennifer Scarr, and new-comer to the ULV theatre (though not to theatre in general, as her performance showed) Brittany Lokar.

I mention that this production is the senior thesis of several friends of mine precisely because it affects the way I approached the show. I know these people. I know Sean Dillon, the director. I know Hailey Heisick (who played Nat, the mother of Becca and Izzy) and Josh and Jen. I’ve performed with them and seen them grow. And this is to be their senior acting thesis—the showcase of their talent and culminative studies in drama while at ULV. There is an expectation that comes with a senior thesis. I expect to be wowed.

I suppose here would be as good a time as any to declare my intentions in writing about this show. It is my hope to briefly discuss what I experienced, from the unique vantage point of one who not only has studied drama, and also has a personal relationship with both the people involved and the department producing this show. Which brings me to an interesting point that I’d like to discuss as a preface to my review; that is, the concept of intentions and opinions. It is my intention to discuss the show based on my unique sensibilities. It is also my intention in writing this to attempt to learn something myself—to take the hazy emotional responses I had about the show and bring them fully into focus. It is not my intention to criticize for the sake of criticizing; it is my intention to criticize where criticism is due for the sake of an honest critique.

I should also preface now with my overall impression, and slowly bring that impression into focus over the course of this paper. My overall impression, in one sentence or less: “Rabbit Hole” as performed last night was a tender and beautiful study of the nature of grief and comfort, riddled with tears and sprinkled with laughs. With that as my starting point, I will now attempt to discuss the show by focusing on the components of the machine. For the purposes here, these components will be acting and design. For acting, I will attempt to discuss overall character choices, vocal character, physical character, staging, and script/emotional understanding. With regards to design, I will discuss overall atmosphere, set design, set decoration, lighting, costuming, props, and sound. I will not discuss directing for the simple reason that I hold the director responsible for everything. Let’s begin, shall we?

The acting was excellent. It was tender (a word I will continue to use), subtle, and reflected a deep maturity. There is always a slight disconnect when roles are not cast age-appropriately. However, when one has real actors (yes, opposed to fake actors) the magic of the theatre can do its work. I had no trouble believing Jen Scarr as the downtrodden Becca, nor Hailey as her aging mother. I use those two as examples; the same can be said of the entire cast. The show was excellently cast. I found each one believable, and more—genuine.

Jen Scarr played Becca Corbett; a woman who was by design a mother, but by fate had her motherhood taken away. The action of the play begins months after the death of their four year old Danny. Becca and Howie are attempting to put their lives back in order, but are finding that their methods differ considerable. For one, Becca cannot find comfort in the group counseling that Howie does. She finds no comfort in the constant “It was God’s plan”/”He’s in a better place” prattle of the group. Her inability to find comfort is another step in isolating her from her husband and family.

CHoW 161

This was created for CHoW 161 on ConceptArt.org.

The challenge was to create a character that embodied a city. I chose Praha (Prague). Every since visiting that gorgeous, I can't seem to get it out of my head. It has this sort of dark seductive quality coupled with a sense that their was something deeper (and darker?) just around the corner...but you could never take your eyes off of what was right in front of you.

I've become obsessed recently with combating two of the great weakness in my work; texture and character acting. I pushed myself to tackle both of these here and left myself no time to colour before the challenge was up. Oh well. I still like it

All the little goings-ons...

Firstly, a picture of my office. Apparently the LEDs are new. They change to blue and red (pictured), green and purple. Currently blue is showing through my windows. Wait, now green. Regardless, that's the East side of the building. It is my intention to take some footage of the crazy path I have to take to get to my room. I think I counted 40 small flights of stairs. It's pretty crazy. I keep discovering new rooms. And at night, I swear someone is moving walls and doors just to screw with me.

That said, I've been quite busy. Though the latter part of last week and the weekend was a bit lax. I finished the portals and had them to the printer friday morning at 8:30am and was back in my room by 9-something. Sunday was my first full day off and I spent the day drawing. Somewhere in there I finished Harlan Ellison's "Angry Candy," which I'd been reading--an amazing book of short stories. I have no problem admitting that the introduction brought tears to my eyes. The entire book was kind of written in honor of his dead friends and all the stories dealt with a different element of death. He introduction however dealt with how we have a right to be angry, after all "if we aren't angry, how much did we care to begin with?" I'd love to write a detailed summary of the book and my feelings about it, but instead I'm just going to invite you to read it yourself. It's amazing. You'll love it. Trust me.

At some point last week, Alma and Glowa took me to a "domestic" restaurant. That is, a pace only the locals go. Glowa ordered duck for me. It was quite good, though not as amazing as the veal "a pecka" I had in Zagreb or the Templar Knight's steak. Friday, the Prime Minister was at the theatre holding a banquet. This was quite strange. Rounding corners and finding government agents scowering at you is a unique experience. We did however get to enjoy lunch, or what was left from his banquet. It wasn't my favorite meal by far.

Sunday I rushed to finish the "Crombie's Zombies" pilot for the Vesperine crew at home. I had worked the night before, but grew too tired. I used my 9 hours ahead to my advantage and finished in the afternoon (the wee small hours of the morning for you California folk). Then I had my first lunch alone. I went to Dominicos, a pizza joint around the corner. I sat for three hours, I think, enjoying pizza picante and then coffee. The wait-staff kept noticing me drawing and eventually said the cook wanted me to draw the restaurant for him in exchange for free food. I happily obliged and spent the latter half of those three hours doing a graphite and ink drawing. I spent the evening drawing more.

Monday David was too tired to come to Varazdin from Zagreb and rested up. This left me free again. I spent the day drawing. It was quite nice. Monday night I went to see a show at this theatre with Ksenija and several of the cast members. Steve had been warned off of it, but I was curious. I have no idea what it was called, but it was a Bosnian play about war. Ksenija kept whisper to me, giving me enough bits of information to figure out what was going on. Afterwards, I started to excuse myself, when they insisted that I came to the reception in the upstairs bar. I drank vodka/coke and proved my tolerance. I out drank the Croatians, much to their surprise. Steve had warned me that Croatians drink like fish. I have my doubts now. I wasnt even buzzed when I returned to me room and Ksenija was slurring her words. Her English make a bastardized mix of Croatian, German and English. It was delightful entertaining, but made conversation difficult. I must most surprised by her openness about her divorce from Prga and her frankness about not wanting to visit the US. It's very strange; for some reason we have this idea that everyone shoud or does want to come to America. And yet here's a succeful director who's lived in Prague for 8 years and Croatia the rest of her life. And Glowa too. And Hana. All these people have vague or wavering or no interest at all in "the most powerful nation on Earth." It's was very interesting to hear their thoughts about us and our pushy culture. I cant say I agree with everything, but I can understand how they got the impressions that they did.

Tuesday David arrived and I started to get busy. But first! We took him over to Angelos and made him try the horseraddish soup. He loved it. See? I told you it was good. He immediately picked up that Alma was running on empty and asked her permission to work on her. David's healing abilities are fascinating. If I didn't know that he designed disco for so long, I'd believe he was out of some Western fairytale; some real life incarnation of an ancient shaman. And to hear him talking about is even more fascinating.

I spent the first part of today filming and taking pictures of all the transitions and the basic staging of the show for David. I sat in one of the theatre boxes on stage left and juggle between my camera and David's video camcorder. During out break, Steve and I visited the bank and the Konzum (market), before parting to go our seprate ways. The latter half of my night has been spent making master sheets of all the transitions and staging from the photos, as well as doing a mock up in photoshop of what the stage will look like with the tapestries hung.

It sounds like my next few days are going to be rivalled in content of work only by my first weekend when I had only 2 days to create all those tapestries. Between the scene painting, technical problems, hang and focus and everything else--I'm going to be quite busy it sounds like.

David and Steve both keep trying to get me back into Zagreb, or Vienna or up to Buhdapest. But I'm afraid it won't happen. Not that I really mind. I wanted to come for the experience of doing this show and it is my sincere hope that I get back to Europe for tourism at another time.

Before I wrap this up, I wanted to leave you with some translated phrases that are common here that are quite strange to my California idealogy and jargon.

1) "I want to eat something with a sppon." = "I want soup."
2) "I'm going to go kill my eye." = "I'm going to go take a nap
3) "I slept like I was slaughtered." = "I slept very well."
4) "I slept like a slaughtered baby." = "I selpt amazing well."

A few sketchbook drawings:

JAMES BOND:













FRANJO:










Well, I think that's it for me for now. Cheers to all!

Spectacular! Spectacular!

Alright. Life here has been busy. Like really busy. Not like that pseudo-busy where you have a lot to do but not of it urgent. I've been busy. I spent the weekend in my room alone hunched over my computer like some drone working away at these giant tapestries for the set. But it's not easy as just designing a tapestry that I like. O-the difficulties, shall I count thee? Okay.

1) Steve, the director must also approve. Obvious enough and part of the job, but nonetheless requires time and meetings.
2) David, the guy who designed the thing must also approve. Only he's back in Cali and I must e-mail WiPs (works in progress) to him and wait for his responses.
3) The tapestries are as tall as the stage. Like 6 to 10 meters tall.
4) Metric is a bit alien to me and all measurements, including what the printer wants is metric.
5) Because the tapestries are so big and must be designed at a 1:1 ratio, the files are huge.
6) I'm on my laptop and large files are trouble. The average save took 10 minutes.
7) The photography session that was to generate the photos used for the tapestries was pushed back until Thursday, thereby limiting the time I had to create the tapestries by 1/3.
8) I'm going to stop now, less I give more of my life to those damn tapestries.

Regardless, my Monday morning 8am meeting with the printer became a 1pm meeting and then a Tuesday morning 8am meeting. However, in my defense, the tapestries were ready to print at 2:30pm on Monday. The final shift happened because the printer closed at 3. I promised they'd be done Monday and I did not lie. However! The portals were not done. Those must be complete by tomorrow morning at 8am!

So, Monday at 2:30 I finished the tapestries. Steve and I went out to nice dinner to celebrate. I had a Templar Knights steak that was amazing. It literally melted in my mouth. And the red wine they recommended was perfect. It was strange; this was one of those nice restaurants were they offer wine based on what bottle their connoisseur has opened for the night. I was I had written down the name. That night, I slept fast. Tuesday was going to be a long day--and my favorite day here so far.

Tuesday! I woke up in time to talk to Megan via AIM. The conversation took me right up until 8am when I had to meet my driver at the porta. The meeting was short. The designer look at the files and, satisfied with my layout, said that they would be easy to print. I was back in my room by 9:15am. I knew that afternoon I'd be joining Glowa, Franjo, Alma and Steve on a trip to Zagreb and would be seeing the three actors (and Hana) in a show there. I therefore did nothing for the next few hours. Well, nothing important. At 1:30 I met everyone in the coffee bar and we headed out.

The drive to Zagreb was slow and we were all tired. And the winter wonderland scenery was quite tranquil. Glowa slept. Alma, Franjo and Steve discussed rehearsals. I spent the majority of the trip between Steve and Ivan (our driver) thinking about how to visually represent the idea that time is non-linear, but on a microcosmic scale. I never figured out how to do it. Thankfully, however, it was a complicated enough problem that before I knew it we were in traffic entering the city. We dropped Steve off at his friend Roco's house (I think I spelled that correctly). Franjo was dropped with his wife and kids. And Alma, Glowa and I were dropped at the National Theatre building.

The National Theatre in Zagreb was a magnificient Baroque building surrounded by several schools and a full 260 degree garden. It was a king-building among its subjects. We got out of the little van-thing at the drama school across the street. Alma and Glowa accompanied me some distance before I was left to wander the city of bit on my own.

Within twenty minutes, I had found what I was looking for: my pipe. I walked in this little tobacco shop and asked the girl behind the counter if she spoke English. The look she gave me really was as if I had asked, "Can you count to three?." "Of course," she blurted with only a faint accent. I asked if they had any pipes and she said, "Only expensive ones. Like 6 or 700 kunas." This translated to roughly what a good pipe would cost anywhere. I asked to see them. She had a small selection, but I found one that was strangely fitting. There was a small pipe in a leather case that came with pipe cleaners and filters and the like. It was only 200 kuna (roughly $40 US) and I liked its shape better than the others. It was quite serendepteous. The birdseye wasn't in the right place, it had a nice shape and the kit was nice. I bought it and some whuskey-laced tobacco.

I was happy; I had my pipe. I wandered Zagreb for about an hour and a half more before meeting with Lada. I visted the cathedral, the square, a few little streets. The part of the city I was in was very beautiful and very old Europe. And the women here--I've never seen a higher concentration of beautiful women. Ever. The city is saturated with them.

That said, I met Lada by the big horse/general statue in the square and we went to dinner with plans for Steve to meet us. We discussed her career and Steve and David's relationship to Croatian theatre and the city a bit. We arrived at the restaurant--a favorite of her and Steve. It was a large joint. "Very communist," Lada said. The restaurant had several private rooms reserved for VIPs. A lot of the old communists business men and politicians still frequent them, I was told. We sat and and Lada ordered for me. Apparantly veal cooked "a peka" is a specialty in these parts. And I ordered a glass of red wine for myself. I asked for a merlot the waiter recommended, but he corrected me by saying, "You can get merlot anywhere. Try our..." I forget what he said which is a tragedy because it may have been the best red wine of my life.

We discussed Lada's plays and our love of the Greek plays while waiting for Steve. She's going to try and get me a copy in English of a few of her works. Steve arrived and ordered Ćevapčići, a Bosnian specialty. It looked like sausages served with onion which was to be eaten together. The results was an erotic dance of flavor in my mouth. Between that and my fantastic veal "a peka," I was stuffed.

Lada walked us (belabored by our delicious meal) to the theatre. I felt tacky with my backpack, but there wasn't much I could do. From walking in the door, it was one big reunion for Steve. We were given center theatre boxes with the option of second row center as well. We took the theatre box, which really was the perfect seat for the spectacle that was this show. I still do not know its name, but Glowa called it "Horses." How do I describe this maddness? It was a musical, but it used rock and pop songs from the US (the only English in the show). Some of the performers were incredible (or so I thought based on the acting of their bodies). Others were not. The staging was terrible-lots of unmotivated movements. I was excited to hear Queen's "The Show Must Go On," but more excited to hear Europe's "The Final Countdown." The show ended without an intermission. Steve and I missed a good deal of the plot points, but got the overall. Several of the performers (including Alma, Franjo (who was used far too little), Hana and Glowa) really stole the show. Of an ensemble cast of 47, it must've been hard to stand out. I can see why Steve cast those that he did; they really are the best. And Alma got a huge ovation, despite her small part.

With the show ended, Steve and I headed backstage. Roco, who is the stage manager for the Zagreb National, met us on our way. Steve pawned me onto him so I could see the Royal box, where to Kings and Presidents sit during shows. The box was huge, with its own bathroom and guest room. I was quite impressed. Roco then took me onstage and demonstrated the revolve for me. Which reminds me: this show used ever technical element avaliable--it really was the "All Singing, All Dancing, All Technical" spectacle. It had a prop-firing gun, a revolve, mirrors, music, dance--it even had a disco ball! Anyway, standing on that stage looking out into that house was really something neat. You could really feel the history.

I met Steve and the others in the coffee bar in the basement (a trend, I'm noticing). He was surrounded by people he had worked with before. These people were quite excite to see him. I was introduced, but can't remember any names. Glowa suggeted we head home rather quickly and we obliged.

The car ride home was filled with questions. Steve and I wanted clarification on plot points. Alma, Glowa and Franjo politely explained everything. And, of course, we got a little insider information on the troubles of that show. The ride went fast. We arrived at the hotel in Varazdin that Franjo and Alma were staying in. They insisted that we stay for drinks and food.

We had the basement restaurant all to ourselves. We sat and talked and ate and drank and I broke in my pipe. Franjo come over and stood behind me and tasted the smoke. He really like the smell, he said. We talked for hours. It was 2am quickly. I wish I had the time and memory to recall the entire conversation, but all I can say is that these are really special people. Steve and I were tired by this time and excused ourselves to the protests of the others. I slept well

Yesterday and today were a blur. I worked on the portals and enjoyed the snow. I sit now in the coffee bar, procastinating working out the files for the printer. I think I'm about done now. I know there are things I missed here, but my mind is a little dulled.

Cheers!

Cast of Characters

I've now been in Croatia for one week and I've only blogged once. What a colossal failure. However! I am remedying that now with a second post! I had hoped to post again yesterday, but I've been damn busy with the tapestry designs for the show. Which brings to mind an interesting point: I'm in Croatia as the assistant designer on The National Theatre's production of Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo." I'm here with ULV director Steve Kent and working for/assisting scenographer Dr. David Flaten, also of ULV.

Now! I wanted to talk about the people:

Jasna: I'll start with Jasna because she was the first person from the theatre that I met upon arrival. As the acting head of the Hrvatsko Narodno Kazalište u Varaždinu (that's the Croatian National Theatre at Varazdin, folks!), she is one busy woman. In fact, I've barely seen here for more than a few moments since she picked me up at the airport. She's a plump reddish woman with a huge personality. And tough as stone. She is not a woman I'd pick a fight with. Ever. Lucky for me, I don't pick many fights.

Lada: I have no idea if that's how it's spelled, but I think I'm close. Anyway, Lada is the dramaturg for this production. The brightest bulb in the room too. A master of classical morphology, a poet, playwright, director and dramaturg. She wears squarish glasses and has to be right in your face when she talks to you. She's extremely animated--to the point where I think one could render her inable to speech if one tied her hands together. Altogether, a genius at what she does (how many languages are you fluent in?) and a funny woman. Watching her and Steve try and figure out how to translates a joke that cannot exist in Croatian because of the use of 'Jesus" as an exclamation was one of the most fanscinating and complex conversations I've ever been privy too.

Mladin: Again, I'm not sure I'm spelling his name correctly. At least this time I know I have the 'Ml' correct. I met Mladin, the Literary Director of the theatre, last night in the coffee bar. He's a large Santa Claus-man who smokes a Dutch pipe filled with Virgina weed (that's tobacco). He explained to Steve and me why Russia shut off the oil, including the political histories of this region. Every few minutes he'd apologize for his bad English, which in fact was excellent. I kept telling him it was better than my Croatian.

Slaven: Ha! I know I'm spelling this one correctly. Slaven is a thin man with young features. Darker skin than me, but that's not saying much. His English is excellent. He seems to strive to make everyone happy (with him, being the unspoken part of that). but one cannot blame him. he's the technical director here. i'm not sure what to say about him except that he's the kind of guy I'd rather get a beer with than work for.

Ksenija: Ksenija is Steve's assistant. She is a funny girl who's older than she looks. she looks young enough to be called girl and not woman. She serves as Steve's production manager and translator. She was married to Pgra, who plays Father Donnelly, and has a child with him. They have a funny relationship together as exes. Well, funny for the outsiders, I suppose.

Alma: Alma is playing "Bette." She has the air, and grace and beauty of a vintage movie star. The woman is simply gorgeous with a personality that shines as brightly. She also has more talent in her pinky fingers that most American actors do in their bodies. There's a certain majesty to her presence.

Franjo: pronounced Fran-yo, Franjo is playing "Boo." Franjo looks like Russel Crowe and acts equally well. He's the kind of actor that has to wait around for 3 weeks in rehearsal while the other actors get their shit together so he can do his thing. And yet, he's so patient. He has these kind eyes. We had a funny little moment the other night: I walked onto stage as Steve, Lada and Franjo were going through Franjo's family photo album which he had brought for me to take pictures of for the tapestries in the set design. Lada was translating to Steve and I as Franjo explained each picture. Towards the end of the album, we started seeing show pictures and we came across one of Franjo as Laertes. Steve excalimed, "He just played Laertes," pointing at me. Franjo asked (in hesistant English): "Twice?" I shook my head. "No, just once. Last year." He smiled. "Ah ha!" And gave me the 'up yours' arm gesture playfully. There's something very humbly about having Franjo, a famous European actor, one up-ing me jovially.

Pgra: Pgra is a tall lanky Dalmatian. Landon's skinny-ness has nothing on this guy. His talent seems to be stiffled by his emotional indulgences though. So much so that he continues to stop rehearsals. Steve finally got fed up the other day. When he isnt indulging his emotions, he's terrifically funny and inventive.

Glowa: pronounced Glo-va, Glowa looks like Orlando Bloom. But with more talent. He looks 16, but is 32. This guy could be huge in the States if he ever came over and did some work. He's so polite and inventive and funny. Franjo calls him the Future of Croatian Theatre. He bought me lunch the other day, though I'm still not sure why. He said it was to say 'thank you' for coming over here on my own budget and work with them. It felt so backwards. Steve thinks I should invite him over for one of my projects.

Suna: Suna is a big earthy woman trapped in this tiny little body. And with the most intense neck I've ever seen. Like Lada, she is delightfully expressive and cannot talk without gestures. She's one of my favorites to watch during rehearsals. She literally becomes "Soot" in the play. It inhabits her. Its very strange. She's very strange. But delightful and a wonderful conversationalists.

Robbie: Robbie (who plays "Paul") and I haven't really gotten to talk much. He's very reserved and always seems to be on the edge about something.

Zeliko: Zeliko is an older actor who has a large personality, even though I can't understand anything he says (as he speaks zero English). His "Karl" is vile and nasty and yet Zeliko seems sweet and grandpa-ish.

Maria: Is a large personality also. She plays "Margaret" wonderfully. She's another that I can't seem to get to know. The language barrier makes conversation difficult.

Barbara: Barbara who plays "Joan" seems like everybody's aunt. I haven't really seen her out of character, so my opinion is kind of tainted towards bitch. but that's because "Joan" is a bitch.

Hana: Hana looks like Helen Bonham Carter. Her English is perfect (including contemporary vernacular) and she often assists in translating. She plays "Emily" as this silly confused child. I have no idea how old she is, but I know she's married with a kid.

Vedran: Vedran is the prop guy on the show. He's young. In fact, he looks younger than me. He always seems to be going somewhere. His English is pretty good. If he would stop, I could probably get to know him better.

And that's it for now! These are the crazy and wonderful characters inhabiting my life currently.

More soon! Cheers!

The start of an adventure...

Strange days, indeed. I'm not even sure where to start. I should have started this a week ago. I don't really know where to start, except of course with this rambling. I suppose I should just start. With the real content, I mean. Not this bullshit rambling. Out with it:

I'm in Croatia. Or The Republika Hrvatska to be precise. The town of Varaždin to be very precise. In the National Theatre on the top floor (I think it's the top floor anyway) in a large room to be very very precise. I arrived on Sunday after spending the night in Guildford with my good friend, Seanette, and my new good friend, Tom Hill. Fantastic people. I wrote several pages in my journal of London, Guildford, getting to Guildford, returning to London/Heathrow and getting to Zagreb...but, to be honest, I really don't feel like repeating all that. Outside of meeting Tom and seeing Guildford, there realy isn't much to tell. Except I am now a fan of the show "Black Books." Amazingly funny show. Almost on the level of "Arrested Development." Strangely both are canceled now.

So: Zagreb. Easiest airport ever. It had snowed just a day or so before I arrived so white rooftops and dirty snowbanks were everywhere. I waited a few minutes in the airport lobby-area waiting for Jasna, the woman Steve sent to pick me up. That wording is strange. Jasna runs the theatre in Varaždin. She's the top dog. And she happened to be in Zagreb and offered to pick me up. She's delightful. I watched her approach another guy about my age, asking if his name was Matt and knew that the rosy plump woman before me was Jasna. I should clarify: Jasna is pronounced Yaz-na. She insisted on a cup of coffee before getting on the road.

I'm getting into too much detail here. If I keep this up, I'll never finish. (I suddenly thought of Spaceballs: 'This ship is too big. If I walk, the movie will be over.'). Anyway, so it took an hour-ish to get to Varaždin. Steve met me at the theatre and we went to Angelos for dinner where I had horseraddish soup (it was amazing). I slept well, but fast and woke up at 3 or 4 or something. The long and short: my first few days here have been busy and fantastic both. These people are talented in a way that's inspiring. Watching this cast in a rehearsal makes me yearn for the stage again. The way they invent and play is unlike anything I've experience yet. The level of professionalism here is unbelievable.

Hmmm...Something interesting: the school here have no concept of popular. No in crowd. I can barely imagine high school without popularity.

Alright so I've got to get back to work. I'll try and catch up on the little details and such next time around. Or I'll just dive right into whatever's currently going on and you'll all be lost in the tempest like I was my first days. Mwahaha! The laugh seems really ridiculus now. That said: I'm off! Rehearsal starts in 7 minutes.

Cheers!