white, cold, virgin snow upon my heart ~ the tempest

Snow, snow, SNOW!!

Alas, the gathered snow is melting from the world of alabaster, leading it's inhabitants to a greener life; leaving behind it's glistening treasures in puddles of stolen memories of a once frozen world...

Okay, so that would be the poetic way to say it, or I could be a bit more realistic and say:
"Well, there's a little snow left on the ground here and there, but mostly everything has turned to cold mud."

Yep. That's probably more like it.

You see, this was my first REAL snow experience. Little 'Ole Nashville received about 10 inches of snowfall, and for a Florida-girl-gone-San-Diego-then-on-to-Nashville transplant, this was a pretty amazing experience of a weekend. The snow started falling on Friday morning, and literally didn't stop until Sunday.

Friday night, about four inches had fallen and I was in awe. Melissa and I didn't have rehearsal and decided to brave the winter chills and blustery snowfall for a night at the theater. Nashville Shakespeare Festival was performing The Tempest (one of my favorites) and I was determined to make it to the show.

When we arrived, covered in snowdust, the girl behind the ticket counter told us that their ticket machine wasn't working right, and that we would have to use sticky notes as our stubs (she wrote our seat numbers on them and that we had paid). So, with our programs in hand, and our sticky notes attached, we went up the staircase and into the upper lobby. The ticket-taker, looked at our sticky notes, and then politely asked us if we needed help finding our seats. Now, normally, this would seem to be a noteworthy question, however, there were not even 15 other audience members in the theater, as it wasn't exactly a night for travelling outside the home. (Nashville pretty much shuts down at the mention of snow.) Melissa and I looked at each other, then turned to her and said: "Well, can't we just sit anywhere?" To which she sweetly replied: "No, you have assigned seats, but feel free to move when the overture starts, if the seat you wish to occupy still isn't taken." Melissa and I proceeded into the theater, looking at our sticky-notes, when we realized that each of us had been assigned a seat in different rows! We weren't even sitting together! So, as we laughed and stumbled through the theater giggling, we started scouring the rows for our respective letters and numbers, pausing at row "K" accidentally. A lady sitting in the seat at the end of row "K" looked at us and quickly said: "Oh, am I sitting in your seats? I just took a seat on a whim, and didn't look to see where I was supposed to be assigned, so I'll be happy to move if--" We cut her off, with a smile, and said, "No really, we don't know where we're supposed to sit, and according to our sticky-notes, we aren't even sitting together!" So, I looked up toward the front of the theater, and seeing that the ENTIRE front row was empty and the time was 7:29pm and the show was to go up at 7:30pm, I grabbed Melissa's arm and we sat down front and center.

Amidst the magic of the scenery, and the flight of the mischievous spirit Ariel, played by Denice Hicks, and the eloquent and wonderfully talented Brian Russell who played Prospero, and the humorous Trinculo and Stephano, it was a play to watch again and again. My only complaint was that I got to see it only once. I should give the cast their due honor by writing an audience member's review, which perhaps I shall, and send it to them for their own personal gain. For too many times, we tend to watch a show with a critical eye and dote upon the mistakes, yet this cast proved to take a well-beloved Shakespearean play, and bring it to life with a new light and much needed rekindling to a show that can be performed with a mundane routine about it.

After the show, we stood outside the theater on the street corner, throwing snowballs at the passing cars. It was, after all, my first real snowfall, so throwing snowballs at oncoming traffic was a must! Luckily the drivers waved and smiled at our revelry, instead of stopping the car and chasing after us! We grabbed a bite of sushi and a small carafe of sake at PM, right across from the Troutt Theater, and then headed home for a midnight stroll through the snowy streets, taking pictures, making snow angels, and running after late-night passersby with our snowball ammunition.

In bed by 2am, no doubt to be awake and at rehearsal the next day, I dreamed of dreams I hadn't yet lived in my sleep, for now my head was filled with wintry thoughts and icy memories of a tempestuous, winter's night.

that she is busy and she cannot come ~ taming of the shrew

So now I'm feeling the pressures of a life which I love, and yet have set aside for so long.

I took a break from theater and dance for an entire year. AN ENTIRE YEAR. That, in itself, is almost a lifetime in my book. I was up to performing/directing/choreographing anywhere from 8-13 shows a year, and up to 5 shows at a time!! Between a 40 hour work week and 40-50 hours of theater, I was never home, and never relaxing.

Things changed this past year. I became happier in a way that I hadn't experienced before. I learned how to s l o w
d
o
w
n which was not necessarily an easy accomplishment. At times I felt sluggish, and lazy, I felt like I wasn't doing enough, but overall, I realized that there are other things that are important in life. Like sleep. Ha. I have never valued that before. Now, I seem to grasp its importance in allowing me to have a better head on my shoulders (for the most part).

I also learned that when you love someone, you truly LOVE spending time with them. And then you actually desire to have spare moments in time. I used to devour the fact that I would race from work to rehearsal, rehearsal to another rehearsal, go home, spend a few hours learning my lines, wake up, do it all over again - day after day after day, leaving no spare time for anything else. Now, I have seen the other side. I kinda like it. Kinda. I mean, I really enjoy spending the time with B, he's been the best thing that's happened to me. I hate it when I have to say "Sorry babe, I can't make it, I have rehearsal" - but on the other hand, sitting on my shoulder, there's this little green worm with a uni-brow twitching his fuzzy little mustache, eeking out an evil laugh while saying: "But Lauren, you LOVE this life!! You love being taken over by your schedule and you delight in its demands. Welcome home...(evil wormish laugh)"

Yeah, that little green worm is probably right. I do enjoy it. Sigh. I think right now I enjoy it because I've been away from it all for a year. Possibly it'll wear off. Who knows. I seem to be happiest when I'm the most busy. Although, this past year has been amazingly lovely in a way I never expected it could. I mean, with all the ups and downs and all the disasters and potholes into which I fell. But this year off, proved to help me, okay FINE, I'll be cliche - GROW, a little.

For now, the things that are going to suffer are my other creative outlets - poetry, writing, READING!! Poor George*!! He's stuck by me these past three days when I've been trying to get through being sick!! He stayed by my side every minute and told me stories. I've got to at least do him the respect of sharing his stories with everyone else. But first, I have SWING! rehearsal tonight and we had the read through for Fat Pig last night, and I found out that I have to be off book in two weeks for Fat Pig, so I have to start working on that immediately!! I have some terrifically long monologues (rants if you will) to learn, so I need to step up my game and get on it!!

And so, it continues...

*George Washington is the reference here. For more understanding, please refer to my other blog, "Trading in the Tudors" for which you will find a link to the left.

my sickness grows upon me ~ king lear

I'm sick.
Tissues don't seem to be bountiful enough and it's so difficult to keep my eyes open.
That's about it for today.