I Graduated from High School! #WHAT

Senior Art Exhibition/ My first book, Humans of Emma Willard School x The Bicentennial Edition, is now available online in both PDF and Hardcopy versions at http://www.blurb.com/b/5238144-hu

Baccalaureate

Senior Commencement Eve Concert/ Playing a girl for the first time at my school!

Graduation

Graduation weekend, or rather high school, went by in a blink of an eye. I still can't believe I've graduated after one week at home. It's crazy to think how I started this blog when I first entered the school, and how I've grown and changed these past three years. Life at this "nun dungeon" (what I used to call my school when I was totally miserable in Sophomore year) was sometimes tough, but it was also fun, totally worth it and one of the best experiences ever. I'm so thankful for everything that happened and all the people I encountered, and now I can truly say that I know who I am and I'm strong enough to face challenges that lies ahead (much feminism implanted as well). High school, you will be missed. College here I come!

Frosted Diamond

Frosted Diamond is both the first show I've ever directed and the last show I'm in at my high school. Frosted Diamond is a beautiful memory play about a girl who cheats in her three relationships and ultimately finds hope in a piece of diamond that can freeze her feelings, making her complete and luminous. With my background as both an actor and an artist, I recited the show through the acting and the aesthetic, encouraging my cast to play with and react to the space they visualise with their five senses. Though I miss acting on stage, this experience is valuable in helping me see myself as an actor through my cast, and I'm really thankful for it. Until now, I've never thought about how vital a director plays in a show and how much work there is to the role. Now fingers crossed that I'll have many more shows to come in college! 

99th Revels

It's hard to explain Revels to anyone who hasn't experienced it before, but basically it's the most important tradition at my school where the senior class put up the show in a week with all parts kept secret, and on the very night of it, continuous cheering of the underclasswomen deafens you for days. I loved my eccentric role of the Alchemist (a surprise to everyone, I believe)- the feeling of being crazy and letting everything go on stage, plus harassing the audience. Though quite different from the normal theatre productions I've done, Revels is one of the best things I've experienced at my school, and it put me right into the Christmas Spirit. 

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Eurydice

I have to admit that I was emotionally, mentally, and physically challenged in playing the role of Orpheus in Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. Playing a guy's role was nothing new to me (our director has yet to cast me as a female character… Or maybe she will never), but Orpheus, as the god of music, loved his wife Eurydice dearly, had so much hope in finding her, and even became slightly too crazy from planning his trip to the underworld (aka hell), finally broke down in realizing that Eurydice and him would never be together again. This play shows how powerful passion is. It was incredibly beautiful and I had fun singing for the first time on stage. I learned and loved my role as Orpheus more and more every rehearsal. It taught me the pride and burden of being the lead (not to mention how to find the spotlight and interact with the space around me), and am really thankful for getting casted as it. It was  very rewarding to hear from the audience how they were so moved that they teared up. Hopefully, this will not be my performance at my high school. I am debating whether to audition for or do stage sets in the spring production as it's a musical (still uncertain about my singing though everyone seemed to have enjoyed it); but if I do audition, can I be casted as a girl? Please? 

Architecture vs. Theatre

Romeo and Juliet Stage Set © Mom

Tribabies © http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com

During the past summer, I tried to find the ultimate link between architecture and theatre, the two forms of art that I love. The link between sounds rather nonexistence and abstract at first, and not that I have found my perfect answer already, but I'm glad to say that Tisch somehow helped me connect them together. For one, the technique of "viewpoints" in theatre made me realize that  actors don't exist on their own; the audience is seeing the interaction with and within the space, and together they narrate the story. With my passion for both structural precision and emotional expression,  I decided to be involved in the Advanced Arts Project at school so that I can create art in my own way. A few of my ideas now are building stage sets that emphasizes on the relationship between actors and the architecture surrounding them and making life-size taped human figures to place around my campus (The People Project). These figures will do specific actions that suit the function of the architecture. My goal for TPP is that people at my school will look at the figures and be more aware of how they, too, can interact with what is around them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my final presentation, but hopefully this whole art project will make an impact on my community. Excited to see how this year will turn out! 

Summer 13' x Tisch

 © My Roomie Olga Ushakova 

My past month spent at Tisch NYU was rewarding and life-changing. The people I had encountered were so passionate about arts, in particular theatre, that they inspired me to work, play, and live to the fullest. Not to mention, New York was so vibrant and cultural, that no wonder people always described it as a city where "anything could happen". Hopefully, now a little clearer of what I love and a little bolder in living, I'll be able to enjoy senior year and get to university (yay)! 

Shakespearean Birthday Weekend

February was a busy month filled with heavy coursework and late night rehearsals- so glad we're finally marching into spring (see the pun there?). I spent my birthday weekend this year not on the plane, but mostly on stage performing works of my dear friend Shakespeare. 

On Friday and Saturday nights, our cast of ten presented The Complete Works of William Shakespeare- Abridged at our school. The play is a parody of 37 Shakespearean plays and Shakespeare addicts find it either hysterically funny or offensive. The script contained many references to pop culture and we improvised some of them along our rehearsals. As a result, some of the modern twists we added could only be understood by people from our school. My two main characters (I had a total of five characters) were Titus in Titus Andronicus and Claudius in Hamlet. Titus Andronicus, originally a tragedy, was performed as a cooking show. I loved my role as Titus the most because I got to be a maniac on stage (but really, try going crazy because it releases stress)! For example, one line I said to the rapist was "let me go grind your bones to power small... and make a pasty of your shameful head!" (in an Indian accent). The fourth wall was nonexistent during my scene and I had the great honor of harassing and persuading the front role audience to try the lovely human head pie. My role as Claudius was yet another challenge because we had to perform the scene and our lines backwards, which looked like we all resurrected from death.

Titus in Titus Andronicus

Claudius in Hamlet

Claudius in Hamlet

Claudius in Hamlet

The thing about having a deep voice at a girls' school is that you are always casted as a guy... I guess my goal for my senior year plays is to have a female role. Luckily for the English-Speaking Union's regional Shakespeare Competition, I got to choose my own pieces while representing the school. I performed one monologue as Viola in Twelfth Night Act II Scene II and Sonnet 147. I ended up as the top 5 finalists. Although I would love to win and perform in the Lincoln Center in NYC, the experience of seeing other people perform Shakespearean texts was very enlightening. Here is a video of my first round performance:

In addition to the whole Shakespearean madness, my advisor baked me cupcakes for my birthday and my friend surprised me with a cake on Sunday night (by surprise I also mean I was pied)!

Stuck in Titus' World

What's better than a Shakespearean Birthday Weekend? :)

Soul Train

I have stayed out of the theatre for a while since my last performance 3 years ago; I tried looking for opportunities to be on stage, but they just didn't fit well to my always-flying-across-the-pacific-ocean schedule. This fall at my school, I decided to join the fall play- Pullman Car Hiawatha by Thornton Wilder.

The play ended in claps and cheers as well as in queries. Pullman Car Hiawatha is set on a train travelling from New York to Chicago in the 1930s. It depicts the lives of about a dozen individuals, including people and objects like "the field", who all have their own problems and obsessions. In the middle of the play, the scene transform to beyond the train in the universe, where the sun, planets, and arch angels appear. Though highly symbolic, this play is beautiful and represents the souls of being (our cast decided "soul train" would best describe the play). 

As the porter and workman of the play, I was at first clueless about my roles. Luckily, I was able to grasp hold of the characters before the show and add my own twist to bring the house down and "play". Until being on stage again, I did not realize I've missed owning the spotlight. 

Thanks to this girl, my make-up got done!

Our Cast