Thursday Think Tank With Hung: Or is it Friday’s Feels?

Before I go any further, allow me to give my sincerest apology for the late entry. I am fully aware that today is Friday, that yesterday is Thursday, and that there wasn’t any Think Tank yesterday…

I should have known that AP classes can go a little out of hand in spring. But all in all, I have zero excuse for self-defense; I took a break I didn’t actually deserve, a quick nap, really, from 9.30 till 7 the next day. It was a good nap though, despite the fact my coughing got slightly worse. Also, my greatest apology for those who anticipate a sample video of theater’s Warm-up. Mr. H thought the Warm-up routine is a bit of a private portion of the rehearsal and was less inclined to have it publicized. And the truth is, I agree with that. I’m not a modernist novelist by any mean, but I believe that like many experiences in life, like this one time when I got locked out of my winter break’s host’s apartment, slept outside, and in the freezing cold woke up to the sunrise atop an abandoned house, or the other time when I waved good-bye to all the annoying problems and pains and just generally dead weights as I shaved my hair bits by bits and in came a Mohawk (if you look back at Jeff’s entry “Set Build # 2” last Sunday, you will find a picture in which there is a guy with a Mohawk having zero clue how to build a platform. That would be me.), Warm-ups are hard to be deemed beautiful unless one experiences them first-hand, not merely watches a snippet of them.

*That was a long sentence*

And yet, even when one does go through a journey first-hand, finding words and images that can do the experience justice is even more ridiculous of a task. So many times I have spent trying to breathe out the right words and phrases, to look for the right images in my mind, hoping they will catch on with my feels, so many times I have failed, and so many times I have looked like an idiot in front of more than one person. It’s hard and painful, really, to try to confine the feels with words. Just gotta feel the feels, I suppose.

While we’re at it, let’s name this entry “Friday’s feels”. And you guys know how I feel this Friday? I feel like a cheater.

Y’all know, cheater. I’m talking straight up A4 cheat sheets, invisible pens, atomic-size hand-writings, and all that good stuff. It’s cool though, cause everyone’s doing it; everyone’s making cheat sheets for tech rehearsal tomorrow, up until the opening night next week.

“They’re extremely important. The only time I made a mistake with my blocking was when I didn’t check my cheat sheets.” Rebecca commented, responding to Mr. H’s question with regards to the importance of making these cute little angels in disguise. Other than blockings of his/her own play, Mr. H noted, one is expected to know where to be, what to bring, whom to help, when to exit and enter during the remainder of the show. And cheat sheets are great aids, if not the greatest, in helping everyone plow through the show in the most efficient way possible.

“It helps you be less concerned about memorizing the chores off-stage, and gives you more room to focus on what is truly at stake on stage; the less you have to think, the better your performance will be.” Mr. H remarked.

After the speech, everyone stayed back to help with the load-in. We brought in the props and costume closet, swept the floor, prepared the stage to the most we could for tech rehearsal the next day. All the while, Mr. H’s words of advice kept hitting the replay button in my head; Less thinking. More feeling. ‘nough said.

And with that, today’s entry has come full circle. But wait, there’s more. I have two comments in the last entry.

Guys.

Two.

Comments.

This is stupendous.  I look forward to receiving more comments from you two too, anonymous citizens.

Ok, now I’m officially calling it a day. Stay awesome, global citizens.

P/s: Mr. Howard’s close friend is, indeed, not Seymour. I was hoping while editing the blog, Heather would catch it and be like “O you little brat you” in a complimentary way. I didn’t know if she ever did. Maybe she did and just left the joke untouched so people can take me for Gump. Forrest Gump. I hate mind games.

P/p/s: Next blog entry, and most likely the last, will definitely be online on Thursday. One more Tank coming your way. Get excited.

by Hung Hoang, '13

Thursday Think Tank With Hung: Madness Is In. So is everyone.

The crew had just finished Dying Goat today when I suddenly realized I forgot to bring a camera to record rehearsal’s warm-up. For the fourth time. And people say third time’s a charm.

“Now think of something that happened today that you want to forget.” Mr. Howard, who was co-leading the warm-up with Tom today, spoke calmly. I dropped dead inside. There was no way I could forget that I forgot something four times in a row. The image of our beloved Heather growing two horns and stirring the inferno cauldron with a red trident, while bursting out the most diabolical laugh ever known to mankind, crossed my mind and sent a shiver down my spine.

The next thing I knew, we were sitting down as Mr. Howard switched to story-time mode and told us the story of how his best friend, Seymour, and he carried themselves through a musical that, as Mr. Howard argued, really sucked. It was my first session ever of Inspiring Thoughts With Mr. Howard. The story was short, but it was the conclusion he made from the story that got me thinking. So pardon me as I now fast-forward to approximately three minutes later.

“Thousands of high schools across the country are making spring shows. So if you think about it, really what we are doing here doesn’t matter,” confessed Mr. Howard, “What we do doesn’t matter. What matters here is how we do it.”

It’s just like the new Mtn Dew commercial with Lil Wayne, only a helluva lot better. As such, it sent a shiver down my spine again, but this time it was a different kind of shiver. It was a kind of shiver that excites the particles within my body, that engraves onto my mind, vague as it may be, a work ethics ideal that, hopefully ten years from now, can still keep me in the hearts of the people I have been having the privilege to work with for the past month, and them in me. After all, when we say we miss a certain place, we are, in reality, only missing the people that make that place our home. And I am sure as hell starting to miss Berkshire. We have two weeks left until the first play. No more Thursdays off. Madness is officially in. But that’s OK, because so is everyone.

Anyway, for the rest of the day, my two lovely fellow cast members, Christiena and Kay, and I worked with Mr. Howard on the Canadian Rapping Scene in !Artistic Inspiration and the beginning of the Gargoyle scene. I still struggled with projection and diction, but overall everything had a way of working themselves out. The Canadian scene, in fact, has inspired me to make a public compliment to Heather that, you guessed it, rhymes. Here we go.

Hey Heather, it’s true,
That I did imagine you
Growing horns, groping trident, stirring a devil stew.
And yeah it’s true
I imagine that laugh you do
As the most diabolical sound human kind ever knew.
It crossed my mind, sent shivers down my spine,
But it only lasted for a second twenty-nine.
‘Cause your character design,
Is top of the line,
Everyone wants to sit with you,
‘Cause you’re real fine.

That’s all I have so far. I’m sorry but I do have some work to do. But before I go any further, allow me to say that the last two lines are inside jokes between Heather and I.

Now that I have made a compliment for Heather that rhymes, hopefully I am still alive by the next sunshine. But seriously though, Heather, I will have the video up by tomorrow.

Cause that is how I do.

Stay awesome, global citizen.

by Hung Hoang, '13