GISS Conference

Participating in the GISS conference this year was phenomenal. I hosted two students from Maputo, Mozambique and I got to meet a lot of very interesting people. Meeting Spencer West was probably the highlight of the conference (in my mind). I even got a picture with him (above). I think the magic of the GISS conference is getting to meet so many peers who are just as interesting in the same kinds of issues as I am. And, we get to have great discussions and even argue over controversies.
So, the Key Note Speakers were probably my favorite part of the conference. Apart from Spencer West, I also got to meet (and hang out with) Cassandra Lin, who is truly a phenomenal person. Justin Bedard's activity was also really interesting. Although I would've liked to get to know why he was so active in the Jump! Foundation instead of getting us all to bond. The Kenyan Panel wasn't that great, in fact, they were quite boring, but that's probably because I already knew a lot about what they were talking about.
The service day was great because we got to go out to a beautiful area and work with a project called Plants for Life. It was fascinating because this one man (the owner of the area) had bought this land 15 years ago, torn down all the eucalyptus trees growing on the property and planted trees and plants indigenous to Africa. He took us on a tour, and his knowledge of every single plant on his property was truly remarkable. So, after he gave us a tour, we got to plant trees and contribute to the beautiful landscape.
Meeting people like Cassandra Lin, who's only 14 years old and has already gotten her home state of Rhode Island, to make it a law to recycle cooking oil so that it can be turned into biofuel, is truly inspiring. It's also a but of a bummer. As an 18 year old, I feel like I haven't accomplished anything. But that's the beauty of the GISS conference; it give you hope that you can and will get somewhere in like and change the world in one way or another.

Marich IC Trip 2013

Fringe Performances

Getting to perform in front of an audience in full costume and makeup is the best part of acting. Audience reactions are extremely helpful in telling us actors how we're doing in our performance and what kind of things we can improve on. That's the beauty of the stage, we get to to it several times, on different nights, with different audiences. We performed two nights; Wednesday Feb. 20th and Thursday Feb 21st. Wednesday's performances weren't as good as Thursday night's. It was a little disappointing because people in the audience weren't laughing at our jokes. The problem was that the jokes had to do with Shakespeare and several of his plays (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet). Some of those plays are quite well-known and so are the characters we parodied, such as Lady Macbeth from Macbeth and Juliet from Romeo and Juliet. However, others weren't as well-know and so some of the jokes went over people's heads. My role (as Lady Macbeth) was entertaining because I was playing an alcoholic woman, so I substituted whiskey with Apple Juice, which was... interesting. In all I think I drank two bottles of apples juice over both nights. It was fun at first, but then I just go really full. But, it did help me get into character, so it was useful in that regard. The Fringe Festival is always A LOT OF FUN and this year was no exception.

Fringe Rehearsals

On Monday, Feb. 18th, we had our last day of Fringe Rehearsals before our group rehearsal on Sunday (right after the GISS conference), so it was a big cramming day. We had already figured out our blocking so it was mainly about characterization. For me, getting into character was fun because I was playing an inebriated woman. So basically I just went around stumbling and saying really dumb things. Playing Lady Macbeth in a play other than Macbeth and as a relatively different character than she is usually portrayed as was very interesting. Doing research on the character was fun, but also very familiar. So, instead of looking at ways Lady Macbeth was portrayed in that past, I looked up famous alcoholics such as Dianna Ross, Tracy Morgan, Betty Ford etc. I found out what made them tick and why they started drinking. Mostly, it's about depression and basically not having any reason to live a full life. I decided to really push that idea with Lady Macbeth. As this play was a comedy, she also had to be funny. So, I was playing a drunk, out of control woman. Acting opposite Mico for most of my lines was also really rewarding seeing as he is fully immersed and a wonderful actor. He really got into character with Gertrude and it allowed me to respond to the lines he threw at me in much more of an "in character" fashion. Having better actors to act opposite of is extremely important because I find it truly improves performance. For example, I felt at my best in Arabian Nights acting against Lydia and Nikita than anyone else who acted opposite me. Working with others who truly get into character and put their all into the role helps me get into character. Rehearsals were very, very fun and so was working with such an amazing cast.