End of Spring Break and Start of Week 22 (March 7-13; 14-20, 2016)

End of Spring Break

Highlights from the last week of Spring Break 2016: The Woodsman Play, Julie Delpy Talk, Jeepney (Filipino GastroPub)

The Woodsman Play

Film Society of Lincoln Center Free Talk: Julie Delpy

Jeepney (Filipino Gastropub)!

Bicol Express, Tahong and Coconut Rice

Rehearsals

It's only the first week out of spring break and we are already deep into our work in rehearsals for Pecong and Scene Study class.
"Pecong" is Steve Carter's adaptation of Euripides' "Medea" and is set in a fictional Caribbean island. Roles are split among different actors throughout the entire play as in our Discovery Project: Pericles.
For Scene Study class I was assigned "Gittel Mosca" in "Two for the Seesaw" by William Gibson. It is a beautiful play with only two characters (Gittel Mosca and Jerry Ryan). Ann Bancroft (The Graduate) and Henry Fonda originated the two roles in the original Broadway production.
I am thrilled to be working on those two plays and I am grateful to be in a program that casts actors "outside of the box." I think that the program and I are on the same page in terms of being cast not according to one's "look" but according to possibility and who one can become.

Birthday 2016

I remember as a kid growing in the Philippines, I would look forward to my birthday because I love throwing a party (with cake, balloons, party food, etc.), making a wish and opening presents. In my 27th birthday I did none of those things because I needed none of them any more. I did buy myself three cheesecakes (caramel, vanilla and red velvet) from Magnolia Bakery, 1 candle and a "Happy Birthday" pick I can stick on one of the cheesecakes. I still wanted to take a deep breath and blow a candle even on my own. 

March 20, 2016 Palm Sunday and the First Day of Spring!

First Birthday out on my own. Cake given as a surprise by my suite mates :)

As I grow older I seem to want less material things (thank God) and the need to "wish" for the future becomes less. As I appreciate, accept and understand the "ongoingness" of life more and more, as I gather more wonderful people into my new "family," as I become more aware of how I want to live my life from day to day - the need to fantasize for a "better future" becomes less as the present becomes more like a gift.

I am grateful to have finally found my tribe in Group 48 and in my extended Juilliard family, I am grateful to be in a program that encourages me to continually draw from who I am, I am grateful to finally have the space, independence and freedom to choose what I want to include in and exclude from my life.