Prospies
Our campus has been overrun by admitted prospies for the past 2 weeks. I remember when I did my April program (and skipped some of the final Black Comedy rehearsals, if I recall) I didn't want to talk to anyone, students or fellow prospies. I can remember being so nervous that I decided to just observe as much as I could and not interact with anyone else. This memory, however, has not stopped me from being aggressive to the current prospies in getting them to ask me questions. So far I've given 2 tours and attended a breakfast-mingle where I ate doughnuts and made grand speeches about the housing system.
I can also remember attending classes and raising my hand once or twice when I deigned think that I might know what the professor was talking about. One of these classes was History of Western Civ, where I wanted to answer a question about the French 3rd estate. Katy Weintraub made some good-natured joke about prospective students raising their hands and gracefully ignored me, which, in retrospect, saved me in a big way from embarrassing myself. Most of the high school students sitting in my classes this quarter have been much better behaved, except for the kid in SOSC this morning who raised his hand and asked the professor's opinion about how Lacan's notion of the subject and the Other differs from William James's theory. Not only did the class let out a collective silent groan, the two other prospective students flanking him were probably instantaneously convinced not to attend the school for fear that they might share a class with this kid.
I also talked to a girl who was deciding between NYU and Chicago. I mentioned something like, "Well first of all, you probably won't walk out of your building here and run into Woody Allen." To which her mother chimed in, very seriously, "She would not want to. I've heard that Woody Allen is the rudest person ever!"
Our spring show Umbrella for Beginners opens a week from today, which is a hard thing for my mind to wrap itself around. Especially since our concept has been changing 2-3 times each week. At least we've narrowed it down to a basic form. The show, at least for the first week, will be an altered Harold, which is a type of long-form improvisation that is Chicagoan by birth but is rocked hard by the Upright Citizens Brigade. The Harold looks like this:
Group Opening
1a
1b
1c
Group Game
2a
2b
2c
Group Game
3a
3b
3c
See? You're laughing already!
Recently abdicated Off-Off members will be performing "Pulling Out!" at the Chicago Improv Festival tonight, which I can't wait to do next year. Then later in the week for more improv awesomeness will be "Jagodowski & Pasquesi" at IO, which consists of two IO veterans doing a 45-minute long form show sans any suggestions. It's supposed to blow anyone's mind who sees it, and I'm psyched that we're going to attend two nights before our own show opens. Also, as a part of CIF, Saturday night IO's Late Night Show will feature Adam McKay, the former SNL writer and director of Anchorman, during which, as I understand it, he will not just talk but actually improvise, which will be better than the writer from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle who came to campus a few weeks ago and turned out to be the most boring person ever. He would be an alumnus.
I don't know why I'm writing all this. It's just nice to think about people being funny and not thinking about being without a second-major or grad school plans for once. This week has been so busy, and tomorrow I've got to take time out to apply for programs and summer grants and all sorts of nerve-wracking shit that I won't get. It's so weird that I can lead this double-life, where in one I've got my mind buried in school, and in the other I'm performing a scene in which I'm a gay seargant leading a barbershop quarter during the Korean War. This divided line in my life is illustrated by the fact that we rehearse in the same classroom in which I have my Socrates & The Sophists class. At 4:00 I'm listening to a lecture on the intelligibility of forms, and at 7:30 I'm down on the floor sock wrestling and skinning my knees.
As a final note: has anyone heard, or read on the school website, that Milton is throwing a closing ceremony for all graduates and alumni Sunday May 23, the sunday after my sister's graduation? Everybody's going to be home for this, yes?
Our campus has been overrun by admitted prospies for the past 2 weeks. I remember when I did my April program (and skipped some of the final Black Comedy rehearsals, if I recall) I didn't want to talk to anyone, students or fellow prospies. I can remember being so nervous that I decided to just observe as much as I could and not interact with anyone else. This memory, however, has not stopped me from being aggressive to the current prospies in getting them to ask me questions. So far I've given 2 tours and attended a breakfast-mingle where I ate doughnuts and made grand speeches about the housing system.
I can also remember attending classes and raising my hand once or twice when I deigned think that I might know what the professor was talking about. One of these classes was History of Western Civ, where I wanted to answer a question about the French 3rd estate. Katy Weintraub made some good-natured joke about prospective students raising their hands and gracefully ignored me, which, in retrospect, saved me in a big way from embarrassing myself. Most of the high school students sitting in my classes this quarter have been much better behaved, except for the kid in SOSC this morning who raised his hand and asked the professor's opinion about how Lacan's notion of the subject and the Other differs from William James's theory. Not only did the class let out a collective silent groan, the two other prospective students flanking him were probably instantaneously convinced not to attend the school for fear that they might share a class with this kid.
I also talked to a girl who was deciding between NYU and Chicago. I mentioned something like, "Well first of all, you probably won't walk out of your building here and run into Woody Allen." To which her mother chimed in, very seriously, "She would not want to. I've heard that Woody Allen is the rudest person ever!"
Our spring show Umbrella for Beginners opens a week from today, which is a hard thing for my mind to wrap itself around. Especially since our concept has been changing 2-3 times each week. At least we've narrowed it down to a basic form. The show, at least for the first week, will be an altered Harold, which is a type of long-form improvisation that is Chicagoan by birth but is rocked hard by the Upright Citizens Brigade. The Harold looks like this:
Group Opening
1a
1b
1c
Group Game
2a
2b
2c
Group Game
3a
3b
3c
See? You're laughing already!
Recently abdicated Off-Off members will be performing "Pulling Out!" at the Chicago Improv Festival tonight, which I can't wait to do next year. Then later in the week for more improv awesomeness will be "Jagodowski & Pasquesi" at IO, which consists of two IO veterans doing a 45-minute long form show sans any suggestions. It's supposed to blow anyone's mind who sees it, and I'm psyched that we're going to attend two nights before our own show opens. Also, as a part of CIF, Saturday night IO's Late Night Show will feature Adam McKay, the former SNL writer and director of Anchorman, during which, as I understand it, he will not just talk but actually improvise, which will be better than the writer from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle who came to campus a few weeks ago and turned out to be the most boring person ever. He would be an alumnus.
I don't know why I'm writing all this. It's just nice to think about people being funny and not thinking about being without a second-major or grad school plans for once. This week has been so busy, and tomorrow I've got to take time out to apply for programs and summer grants and all sorts of nerve-wracking shit that I won't get. It's so weird that I can lead this double-life, where in one I've got my mind buried in school, and in the other I'm performing a scene in which I'm a gay seargant leading a barbershop quarter during the Korean War. This divided line in my life is illustrated by the fact that we rehearse in the same classroom in which I have my Socrates & The Sophists class. At 4:00 I'm listening to a lecture on the intelligibility of forms, and at 7:30 I'm down on the floor sock wrestling and skinning my knees.
As a final note: has anyone heard, or read on the school website, that Milton is throwing a closing ceremony for all graduates and alumni Sunday May 23, the sunday after my sister's graduation? Everybody's going to be home for this, yes?
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