Drama League Blog! Hello!

This is Shira Milikowsky writing, one of the 2008 fall fellows.

Here are some of the things we did on wonder week:
we had meetings. We met with casting directors, agents, artistic directors galore. We saw shows for free - Thurgood, Boeing Boeing, Hair, Animals out of Paper and Buffalo Gal. We scuttled uptown and downtown. We met many alumni, all of whom were generous and kind and interested and interesting. We ate delicious food at the Gramercy Tavern. We learned how to describe who we are and what we do in 60 seconds or less. Well some of us learned it, and some of us are doing our best at figuring out the best way to do it...

Then we went to the promised land of Stump Sprouts and each directed two monologues and one scene from Romeo & Juliet. I hadn't worked on Shakespeare in a while, and it was such a treat to be up in the woods, with talented actors, and just to have time to play. Daniela Varon - our master teacher at the retreat - led two master classes. One was about connecting words to imagery, about stimulating your own imagination, and one was a fast-paced and impressively thorough guide to analyzing text. Each time we had a master class I felt my mind expand and reach for new ideas. The scene I directed grew exponentially after working with Daniela. Usually our lives are divided between work and, if we're lucky, continued study. To get to have them both back to back like that in one day, to study the text and then immediately put your new skills into action in rehearsal, that was something special and thrilling.

The final four scenes that we presented were magical. I have so much respect for each of my three colleagues, and I also really like being around them. So lucky me.

That's all for now, but hopefully I've started the blog ball rolling.