It's been awhile

Good lord it's been a long time since I've posted here. The last six weeks have been papers, papers, and more papers (of the academic kind), alongside finals and everything tha come with them. I turned in my last paper yesterday, though, which makes me a considerably happier person. And, I only have one final on Thursday - a final for which the professor has already given us the exam prompts. So I'm really not that worried.

This all means, however, that graduation is waiting just around the corner, something that is both exciting and sad. I don't feel like I did everything I wanted to do in college, but at the same time I'm very ready to leave academia for the time being. And it's also just a bit strange not knowing where I'll be in three months. Whereas before, it was always "Back to School" come September, now its "Find a Job. Any Job. Just find something." So we'll see how that turns out.

But for now - London in two weeks, and the Kennedy Center in the summer. Both very exciting things to look forward to!

Despite finals, I haven't been skipping out on shows. Some capsule reviews from the past few months:

MATTHEW BOURNE'S PLAY WITHOUT WORDS at the Ahmanson Theatre. A fun, stylish and sexy show from Matthew Bourne (who is responsible for modern adaptations of "Swan Lake", "Nutcracker" and "Cinderella"). This piece is a lot more intimate and story focused than Bourne's previous spectacles, and he does some very fascinating things in storytelling mode. In one instance, for example, he places three couples on stage playing the same roles, and all at the same time they play out different parts of a single scene simultaneously in differnet parts of the stage. You thus see the beginning, end, and middle of a scene at the same time - this sounds confusing, but its really not, it's quite clear and very fascinating live. Oh yeah, and did I mention that this show was sexy, too? Lots of fun I'm telling 'ya. The Ahmanson does have rush tickets for this show; call them for details. Incindentally, Bourne's landmark "Swan Lake" will be at the Ahmanson next year, and also on national tour. Don't miss it when it comes around.

SAVION GLOVER: IMPROVOGRAPHY 2005 at the Kodak Theatre on March 22. This was a very loud show - meaning the speakers were focused on Glover's tapping, and they turned the volume way up. I felt a bit deafened aftewards. But it's fitting, I guess, since the show was more about the audio than the visual elements. Glover tap danced in his usual brilliance, but the taps were more like another musical instrument in the jazz band that accompanied him. Highly interesting in its own right, but I came in with different expectations.

BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on April 2. Interesting enough modern dance, but in the wrong theatre. The Chandler is enormous and it simply swallowed up the poor little company. The works almost demand more intimacy: you want to be able to see their faces and hear the words they are speaking over the poorly microphoned replacement audio. Next time, I suppose.

ELECTRICIDAD, a new play by Luis Alfaro, at the Mark Taper Forum on April 6. This was an adaptation of the Greek play "Electra," reset in Latino gangland Los Angeles - a fascinating resetting that worked brilliantly, for the most part. The play managed to be both brilliant and shockingly cruel, getting at the senselessness of gang violence. Only flaw was that some of the characterizations didn't come through as successfully. The mother, for example, was adapted too sympathetically and you don't understand at the end why Electra still wants to kill her. The acting was fantastic, truly one of the best parts of this show.