Day 29 and my hair is in a ponytail

Mmmmmmmmmm sleepy.

Today was our Seminar with the actor from the Norman Conquests. He is hilarious. He talked about his career and all that he's been through and he was a very charming fellow - very real with us and took lots of questions and had a good time. I liked him. He said a lot of good things about the business and didn't sugarcoat anything. Very good Seminar.

Classical Text with Sybil (British woman, signature move: "Get out of your head - speak from the LOINS!") consisted of King Leer readings. When I was onstage she stopped me and said, "Don't. Say. Another. Word. Unless. It's. From. THE LOINS!" It was an intense class, but I felt I did the best I've done so far. It was good for me. All of these things are good for me.

Terry (Yoda woman) does an exercise in her class that she feels "incorporates all of the areas necessary" to tell her about an actor - we sing part of a song syllable by syllable, breathing deeply, closing and opening our eyes, and she checks us for physical tension and resonance and things, then we sing a portion of the song naturally. Remember, Terry is ancient. She has an amazingly good reading on people... and I think the real point of the exercise is for her to do her kung-fu Yogi master reading of us... With me she said that she wrote down in her notes (about me) "Sturdy, but - " and couldn't figure out the rest. She asked if I might know why she would include the "but" and as we talked I confessed that I'm intensely afraid of not having a way to provide for myself. She said that quote, something like "I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better." Then she said, "In my life (and she has been around since the dinosaurs) I have found that it doesn't much matter." Of course, I find it impossible to believe that because to me it matters very much. She asked about my family, my siblings, what they do, and said (as I've heard from others for years) "You have quite the examples set for you." It was an interesting experience.

After rehearsing with my scene partner (we go in class tomorrow!) I went to see a Musical Cabaret for free (I have been going to all the free shows I can - we get tickets to random things through Circle) with a bunch of kids from my group. We had a riot. This one woman in the show appeared as at least six different characters including Barbara Streisand. It was entertaining, but kinda "Meh" and we had more fun imitating the performances after the show in Madison Square Park.

Magical Moment de jour: walking into the park after the show. The night air was incredible tonight. It was warm and still and as we walked I could see little green blinking. LIGHTNING BUGS! The last time I saw Lightning Bugs (that I can remember) is when I was 4 years old living in Missouri. So, this was a pretty magical moment for me. I loved it. I caught them in my hands and watched them crawling about. My friends were kind of weirded out by my sudden nostalgia, but it was a very special evening for me and those little bugs. I hope everyone can feel that magic at some point in life.

Goodnight, Moon. And bugs.

Love to all.