Ok, now I'm in Dublin. I think the chronologically crap should stop and I can keep shorter updates with just cool stuff. Dublin seems pretty awesome. I got in a day to early to move into my flat so I got a hostel for the night and found my way to the IES center the next day where I was then directed to my place. My housemates are pretty cool, one of them in the theatre program too and is from Portland so we already have that in common and he actually knows Holly Coombs so that rocks. Things work a little different in the flat than they do in the US. Doors seem harder to lock, and most appliances have little symbols on them and I didn't know what they meant until someone showed me.
The people on the program seems great, especially the Theatre Performance program. For the first couple weeks it will be just classes of us, but in October we will integrate with the Gaiety students on their first day. Classes seem awesome, some of them seem a little over the top artsy, but I won't pass an judgement until I get in there. For orientation we went to this place called Glendalough where there is a Monastic ruin that was cool and we say some elk and beautiful scenery. On our first night our RAs took all the students to a pub. There are pubs on every corner and we are still trying to find the cheaper ones. Dublin is apparently the 3rd most expensive city, which is a little ominous.
I got some sight seeing out of the way on an open top bus tour and got to seem some of the great history of Ireland and Dublin as well as going on a tour of the Guiness Brewery. And lucky for me, I like Guiness. So it was pretty good for me when some of the girls we went with couldn't finish their pints.
We get to see a lot of plays in the program and we will get a lot of time to travel on the weekend which will rock. We watched the Irish National Hurling championship yesterday in a pub and it was really fun to watch, though I'm not sure how the scoring works. If anyone knows please feel free to explain it to me. I guess that is all I have for now, so I will update again but i want to try and keep them shorter. I miss everyone, and please know that you are all always on my mind.
Love.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Begining of the Travels Part 2
Sorry about the abrupt ending to the previous post. Although the program said we would have a computer, we still have yet to recieve one in our Flat so I have been using the computers at the IES Study Abroad center in Dublin, that closes at 5:30. Now let me continue.
So Paris was touristy and expensive, and with no one to show us around, we didn't get to do that much off the beaten path, and thank god for Matt who speaks better French than he lets on. So, when our departure day arrived, we were pretty ready to move on to our next destination Switzerland. We had booked an early train before we left the states to take us to Switzerland, and although we woke up on time, we misjudged how long it would take us to get to the Train Station and in a big heap of bags and stress, we arrived on the platform just in time to see our train pulling out of the station. We dejectedly walked to the ticket counter and in a confusing interaction in which a language barrier was clumbsly climbed over, we ended up having to buy 2 new tickets at 70 euro each for the next train that left in 4 hours. We spent said 4 hours in the train station determined not to run the risk of missing our train. (Note for if you are traveling abroad. Sometimes you miss trains and its sad. I would say that one should get a EurRail Pass or buy your tickets at the station to avoid missing trains). Needless to say, we were a little down trodden after our ordeal, but we made it on the train with no problems after that.
If you haven't heard yet, Matt Jackson and I are working on a two man play together about the conflict in Northern Ireland. And much of our travel and down time was spent talking about the play and bouncing ideas off of eachother. This train ride was no different, but I ended up finishing the book on Nothern Ireland I had bought and I gave it to Matt to read because the Book (The Belfast Diaries) really helped educate me about the conflict. We will be premiering the show on the University of Puget Sound campus in the spring of 2009, so be sure keep an eye and ear out for advertisements.
With some confusion at a transfering stop we finally made it to Fribourg, Switzerland. We arrived a little later than we had planned, but after we checked into our hostel we went out and saw what Fribourg had to offer.
Fribourg is absolutely gorgeous with a huge cathedral and tons of old buildings and those cute narrow streets you always see when you think of a small european town. It was beautiful and magnificent and as soon as I get a cable for my camera, some pictures will be up here. The sun set and after sight seeing until dark we spent 2 hours finding our way back. We had hoped that things would be cheaper in Switzerland because the Swiss Franc is about 1 to 1 with the US dollar, but we were wrong. It may be even with the US Dollar, but the Franc doesn't go very far. For example, a meal at McDonalds cost 11-16 Francs. Matt and I fell back on our popular and cheap food establishment, a Kabob/Kabab place.
Since Annie's last meal, we had to take care of our own food. The staples of our diet were bread and cheese, and Kabab places. In Switzerland, every Hostel served us breakfast, and the other meals were up to us. He also bought a can of beans and some rice-like couscous stuff that tasted aweful and made up one dinner as well. We also picked up some vegetables, when we had the chance.
The next morning in Fribourg, we checked out of our hostle, went into the tourist center by the train station, got a map, and put our bags in a train station locker. From there we decided to go on a hike in the area surrounding Fribourg. The hike was incredible, I'm not sure how far we went, but it was quite a ways and much of it was through rolling countryside as well a ravine cut by a small but quick river. On this hike we decided on a name for our 10 day exodus, Wanderweg. On the trail we were hiking on, we kept coming across signs with a backpacker on them with the word Wanderweg underneith them, we assume it is German and means something along the lines of Trail, or Backpacker, but we believe that this word is a great name for our Travels we had together. We also learned on this hiking trip, that Fribourg and Freibourg are the same place after a baffeling junction that could have sent us in multiple wrong directions. In the end we got back alright and bought a ticket for Bern, Switzerland.
We arrived in Bern after about a 20 minute ride and since had thought ahead and had our previous hostel receptionist book us a place in Bern, there was very little hassel. Matt and I checked in and then wandered around for a while until we came back that night to eat some of the horrible food we had that I mentioned earlier. Two British girl who were staying in the same dorm as us, and commented on the strange yet humourous interactions between Matt and I and in the end they came down and talked to us for quite a while while we slowly ate our not so good dinner. The two british girls Becky and Sarah are not very far into their two month adventure in Europe and when they get back they will most likely get in contact with Matt (who was very Popular with them) in London.
The next day the girls woke us up for breakfast and after saying goodbuy they boarded a train for their next destination and we set out to explore Bern. Bern is in the German speaking part of Switzerland so this time Matt and I were on the same level, but that didn't seem to matter much, because it turns out that most Swiss people speak English, and it may be taught in school. Matt and I did some exploreing but we were both pretty worn out and after a little while we decided to just head to Geneva a little early and take it fairly easy. On the way to the Train station we saw the only street performer of the entire trip and he was incredible, he spoke in French and German and seemed to tell a story and then sang along with an interesting instrument that sounded and looked like an inverted steal drum. It sounded incredible and he could also hum and whistle at the same time which Matt and I continued to try for the next few hours and on the train.
We then bought train tickets to Geneva and we arrived there in one piece. After some wandering we found our hostel and set up camp. We then set out to see some of the sights and we walked past this huge fountain that is set up in the middle of the bay that shoots a single stream straight up at least 150ft. We continued our wandering and then came to a park with chess and checker boards on the ground with chess pieces that stand as tall as your knee. Matt and I started up a checker game and since I am not very good at strategic games Matt soon had me backed into the corner. About that time a man came over and sat on the bench next to our board and started saying things in French. He started directing me and telling me I needed glasses, all in French, and I ended up giving in to Matt and taking my loss. The man, who we call Marc (because it is really hard to understand a man who speaks French with an Italian Accent), then challenged Matt and I both to a game. We ended up playing two games with him and he swept the floor with us. It turns out that Marc grew up in Italy and in his 20s we think he moved to Switzerland and worked as a mason though he is retired now. He is a great guy and it really made Matt and I happy to talk to him. That night Matt and I bought a bottle of wine to go along with our bread and cheese.
We went back and crashed that night and the next day we set out with a plan. We saw the United Nations, the Botanical Gardens, and the Red Cross museum which was really interesting and quite the learning experience. We then wandered some more, and we were both pretty beat. We had been traveling for 9 days and had walked just about everywhere. Matt however, being the beast that he is, was fine with continuing our trek at just a slower pace. I however was dead. We walked along Lake Geneva and when I realized we had walked all the way back to the Botanical Gardens I broke into an exhaused laughing fit and layed on the ground and refused to get up. Matt finally coaxed me to find a softer spot af grass and once we did we both layed down for a nap.
About 2 hours after I started my nap I was awoken by a security guard telling me that the Botanical gardens were closing. Matt was no where to be found. On a small piece of paper I saw written, "Be right back." and as the guard went about telling other people they were closing I waited for Matt. Turns out he had gone to the bathroom and he showed up not too long after and we were not locked inside the Botanical Gardens.
After that we went and checked to see what bus we had to take to the airport the next day and then we went back and went to bed.
The next day was uneventful, we caught our bus to the airport and Matt was the first one to fly out. We said our goodbyes and wished eachother luck on our programs, and then he was gone, headed for London. I killed 4 hours by walking up and down the terminal. (Yeah, I know. Now I can walk for hours.) I then caught my flight for Dublin with no hiccups and that was the end of our 10 days of european travel.
So Paris was touristy and expensive, and with no one to show us around, we didn't get to do that much off the beaten path, and thank god for Matt who speaks better French than he lets on. So, when our departure day arrived, we were pretty ready to move on to our next destination Switzerland. We had booked an early train before we left the states to take us to Switzerland, and although we woke up on time, we misjudged how long it would take us to get to the Train Station and in a big heap of bags and stress, we arrived on the platform just in time to see our train pulling out of the station. We dejectedly walked to the ticket counter and in a confusing interaction in which a language barrier was clumbsly climbed over, we ended up having to buy 2 new tickets at 70 euro each for the next train that left in 4 hours. We spent said 4 hours in the train station determined not to run the risk of missing our train. (Note for if you are traveling abroad. Sometimes you miss trains and its sad. I would say that one should get a EurRail Pass or buy your tickets at the station to avoid missing trains). Needless to say, we were a little down trodden after our ordeal, but we made it on the train with no problems after that.
If you haven't heard yet, Matt Jackson and I are working on a two man play together about the conflict in Northern Ireland. And much of our travel and down time was spent talking about the play and bouncing ideas off of eachother. This train ride was no different, but I ended up finishing the book on Nothern Ireland I had bought and I gave it to Matt to read because the Book (The Belfast Diaries) really helped educate me about the conflict. We will be premiering the show on the University of Puget Sound campus in the spring of 2009, so be sure keep an eye and ear out for advertisements.
With some confusion at a transfering stop we finally made it to Fribourg, Switzerland. We arrived a little later than we had planned, but after we checked into our hostel we went out and saw what Fribourg had to offer.
Fribourg is absolutely gorgeous with a huge cathedral and tons of old buildings and those cute narrow streets you always see when you think of a small european town. It was beautiful and magnificent and as soon as I get a cable for my camera, some pictures will be up here. The sun set and after sight seeing until dark we spent 2 hours finding our way back. We had hoped that things would be cheaper in Switzerland because the Swiss Franc is about 1 to 1 with the US dollar, but we were wrong. It may be even with the US Dollar, but the Franc doesn't go very far. For example, a meal at McDonalds cost 11-16 Francs. Matt and I fell back on our popular and cheap food establishment, a Kabob/Kabab place.
Since Annie's last meal, we had to take care of our own food. The staples of our diet were bread and cheese, and Kabab places. In Switzerland, every Hostel served us breakfast, and the other meals were up to us. He also bought a can of beans and some rice-like couscous stuff that tasted aweful and made up one dinner as well. We also picked up some vegetables, when we had the chance.
The next morning in Fribourg, we checked out of our hostle, went into the tourist center by the train station, got a map, and put our bags in a train station locker. From there we decided to go on a hike in the area surrounding Fribourg. The hike was incredible, I'm not sure how far we went, but it was quite a ways and much of it was through rolling countryside as well a ravine cut by a small but quick river. On this hike we decided on a name for our 10 day exodus, Wanderweg. On the trail we were hiking on, we kept coming across signs with a backpacker on them with the word Wanderweg underneith them, we assume it is German and means something along the lines of Trail, or Backpacker, but we believe that this word is a great name for our Travels we had together. We also learned on this hiking trip, that Fribourg and Freibourg are the same place after a baffeling junction that could have sent us in multiple wrong directions. In the end we got back alright and bought a ticket for Bern, Switzerland.
We arrived in Bern after about a 20 minute ride and since had thought ahead and had our previous hostel receptionist book us a place in Bern, there was very little hassel. Matt and I checked in and then wandered around for a while until we came back that night to eat some of the horrible food we had that I mentioned earlier. Two British girl who were staying in the same dorm as us, and commented on the strange yet humourous interactions between Matt and I and in the end they came down and talked to us for quite a while while we slowly ate our not so good dinner. The two british girls Becky and Sarah are not very far into their two month adventure in Europe and when they get back they will most likely get in contact with Matt (who was very Popular with them) in London.
The next day the girls woke us up for breakfast and after saying goodbuy they boarded a train for their next destination and we set out to explore Bern. Bern is in the German speaking part of Switzerland so this time Matt and I were on the same level, but that didn't seem to matter much, because it turns out that most Swiss people speak English, and it may be taught in school. Matt and I did some exploreing but we were both pretty worn out and after a little while we decided to just head to Geneva a little early and take it fairly easy. On the way to the Train station we saw the only street performer of the entire trip and he was incredible, he spoke in French and German and seemed to tell a story and then sang along with an interesting instrument that sounded and looked like an inverted steal drum. It sounded incredible and he could also hum and whistle at the same time which Matt and I continued to try for the next few hours and on the train.
We then bought train tickets to Geneva and we arrived there in one piece. After some wandering we found our hostel and set up camp. We then set out to see some of the sights and we walked past this huge fountain that is set up in the middle of the bay that shoots a single stream straight up at least 150ft. We continued our wandering and then came to a park with chess and checker boards on the ground with chess pieces that stand as tall as your knee. Matt and I started up a checker game and since I am not very good at strategic games Matt soon had me backed into the corner. About that time a man came over and sat on the bench next to our board and started saying things in French. He started directing me and telling me I needed glasses, all in French, and I ended up giving in to Matt and taking my loss. The man, who we call Marc (because it is really hard to understand a man who speaks French with an Italian Accent), then challenged Matt and I both to a game. We ended up playing two games with him and he swept the floor with us. It turns out that Marc grew up in Italy and in his 20s we think he moved to Switzerland and worked as a mason though he is retired now. He is a great guy and it really made Matt and I happy to talk to him. That night Matt and I bought a bottle of wine to go along with our bread and cheese.
We went back and crashed that night and the next day we set out with a plan. We saw the United Nations, the Botanical Gardens, and the Red Cross museum which was really interesting and quite the learning experience. We then wandered some more, and we were both pretty beat. We had been traveling for 9 days and had walked just about everywhere. Matt however, being the beast that he is, was fine with continuing our trek at just a slower pace. I however was dead. We walked along Lake Geneva and when I realized we had walked all the way back to the Botanical Gardens I broke into an exhaused laughing fit and layed on the ground and refused to get up. Matt finally coaxed me to find a softer spot af grass and once we did we both layed down for a nap.
About 2 hours after I started my nap I was awoken by a security guard telling me that the Botanical gardens were closing. Matt was no where to be found. On a small piece of paper I saw written, "Be right back." and as the guard went about telling other people they were closing I waited for Matt. Turns out he had gone to the bathroom and he showed up not too long after and we were not locked inside the Botanical Gardens.
After that we went and checked to see what bus we had to take to the airport the next day and then we went back and went to bed.
The next day was uneventful, we caught our bus to the airport and Matt was the first one to fly out. We said our goodbyes and wished eachother luck on our programs, and then he was gone, headed for London. I killed 4 hours by walking up and down the terminal. (Yeah, I know. Now I can walk for hours.) I then caught my flight for Dublin with no hiccups and that was the end of our 10 days of european travel.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Begining of the Travels
Alright, now I’m in Dublin. It took a while but I am finally set up in Dublin and I start orientation tomorrow. I guess the best way to go about explaining my trip up until this point is chronologically, but I promise it won’t be too dragged our or bogged down my details.
It was a clear chilly morning as I stepped outside my house the morning of the 22nd in Oregon. I caught an early flight to Phoenix Arizona and then after a torturous 10 hour layover I got on a plane for Heathrow Airport, London. The plane was awesome, I’ve never been on an International flight, but British Airways takes good care of you. I got a meal and they gave me some free wine with it, and there were video screens in the seat in front of you with movies and stuff in them. I watched the movie Redbelt, whish wasn’t too bad but not that great either. It has the guy in it who played the Villain in 4 Brothers.
I got into London after a total of 30ish hours of travelling and waiting around but I had taken naps so I was ready. I got a day pass on the tube and ran around London for half the day taking pictures and seeing all the sights. I had my backpack with all my stuff in it on the whole time. I was scheduled to meet Matt Jackson in front of Big Ben at midnight and after some wandering, I managed to find Big Ben and I bedded down for a nap in a small green in front of the clock tower. I woke up after my nap around 11:30 and while staring at the base of the clock tower, I saw a familiar swagger. I chased down said swaggerer and in a way much like a mugger, I managed to let him know that I found him with a surprise hug. (Matt had been walking around for an hour or so trying to find a place to pee.) We caught a train and a bus to where Matt was staying and I spend the night.
Pearl, the woman Matt was staying with was incredibly kind and fed me the next morning and ended up driving us to the airport because she is so nice. We hopped a plane to Marseille, France where the incredible and very kind Annie met us at the airport. Annie is a friend of Matt’s parents and she gave us room and board while we stayed there.
Marseille is an incredible city and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go to France. It was warm the whole time and it is a beautiful city with a lot of wonderful sights. We went to a place called the Collonqucese (I know how to say it but not how to spell it) which is a group of coves into the Mediterranean where we got to swim and see some amazing water, and rock formations. French people drive crazy, and that being said, Annie, in her driving Matt and I around got into an accident which totalled her car. We were all fine, but the car was no more. In any case, after Matt and I took Annie out for a thank you dinner, we boarded a train for Paris.
Paris was great and I got to see the Eiffel tower and go to the Louvre but most of what we did was touristy and we didn’t have much money so no cafes were entered. The centre is closing so I have to run, but I will finish this story in a day or two.
It was a clear chilly morning as I stepped outside my house the morning of the 22nd in Oregon. I caught an early flight to Phoenix Arizona and then after a torturous 10 hour layover I got on a plane for Heathrow Airport, London. The plane was awesome, I’ve never been on an International flight, but British Airways takes good care of you. I got a meal and they gave me some free wine with it, and there were video screens in the seat in front of you with movies and stuff in them. I watched the movie Redbelt, whish wasn’t too bad but not that great either. It has the guy in it who played the Villain in 4 Brothers.
I got into London after a total of 30ish hours of travelling and waiting around but I had taken naps so I was ready. I got a day pass on the tube and ran around London for half the day taking pictures and seeing all the sights. I had my backpack with all my stuff in it on the whole time. I was scheduled to meet Matt Jackson in front of Big Ben at midnight and after some wandering, I managed to find Big Ben and I bedded down for a nap in a small green in front of the clock tower. I woke up after my nap around 11:30 and while staring at the base of the clock tower, I saw a familiar swagger. I chased down said swaggerer and in a way much like a mugger, I managed to let him know that I found him with a surprise hug. (Matt had been walking around for an hour or so trying to find a place to pee.) We caught a train and a bus to where Matt was staying and I spend the night.
Pearl, the woman Matt was staying with was incredibly kind and fed me the next morning and ended up driving us to the airport because she is so nice. We hopped a plane to Marseille, France where the incredible and very kind Annie met us at the airport. Annie is a friend of Matt’s parents and she gave us room and board while we stayed there.
Marseille is an incredible city and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go to France. It was warm the whole time and it is a beautiful city with a lot of wonderful sights. We went to a place called the Collonqucese (I know how to say it but not how to spell it) which is a group of coves into the Mediterranean where we got to swim and see some amazing water, and rock formations. French people drive crazy, and that being said, Annie, in her driving Matt and I around got into an accident which totalled her car. We were all fine, but the car was no more. In any case, after Matt and I took Annie out for a thank you dinner, we boarded a train for Paris.
Paris was great and I got to see the Eiffel tower and go to the Louvre but most of what we did was touristy and we didn’t have much money so no cafes were entered. The centre is closing so I have to run, but I will finish this story in a day or two.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Summer Update
I want to take just a little while to write about my summer before I leave tomorrow at 4am. So, although this should be a lot longer, I don’t have that much time so a few minutes will have to do.
This summer has been such an incredible and eye opening experience. Here is a list of my summer jobs. Office Cleaner, Waiter, Farm Hand, Pretend Astronaut, Intern, Extra, Trade Show Worker, Capri Sun Pusher, Stand-up Comedian, and maybe others that I can’t remember.
I want to thank Basil Kelley for giving me the farm hand job this summer even though I may not have been the most experienced person for the job. His flexibility let me do a lot of great new things. Working for him I mucked stalls, and weeded and watered a lot.
Izzy’s sucks because they stopped giving me hours a month ago. Enough said.
My internship at Artist’s Reparatory Theatre in Portland was an incredible experience. I worked with them for 2 weeks on their children’s theatre Camp called “Spotlight” 10 children worked with 10 playwrights and 10 actors to create a 2 person show that was performed by the child and their assigned actor. Each play was tailored to the child acting in it. It was incredible to see so much interesting material come to life with the raw creativity of the children filtered through the amazing talent of the playwrights and actors. I met incredible actors and found out that it is possible to make a living in Portland being a theatre artist.
I was able to be in two commercials this summer, which blows my mind. The first one I was in was very hush hush so I don’t know much about it other thanthe fact that it is for the video game Rock Band in some way. The lovely Jenny Tate and I both auditioned and though I didn’t get in but Jenny did in the initial decisions, I was called up to come in when the shoot time had changed.
My second extra experience was as a featured extra in a commercial for Portland Community College to be shown in the Portland area. I got to work with two great individuals who seem to know a lot about the acting scene in the Portland area. Talking to them was incredible. Both of these commercials should be showing soon. The Rock Band commercial is national and I will be in a crowd listening to the band Bang Camero, and the PCC commercial is local to Portland but should show a shot of me working on homework with a voice over talking about being the first one in your family to go to college.
To start off my summer I did some work in Promotional Events which I didn’t even know existed until this summer. The world of Promotional Events is made up of a bunch of companies that staff certain events and festivals throughout the year as well as Guerilla marketing campaigns. The first one I did was for the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum and a team of people including me dressed up in Astronaut suits and walked around Portland handing out freeze dried ice cream and stickers. It turns out that some people do promotional events for a living, while others just do it as a job on the side. I had a lot of fun and so I did another one.
I worked for Capri Sun down at the Rose Festival in Portland where they had a large area full of activities for their demographic which is the 8 to 12 year olds. There was a half pipe there where some very talented action sports athletes performed. My job during most of the promotion was to ride a Capri Sun long board around Portland and hand out free Capri Sun. I wasn’t very good on the skateboard to begin with but after the week was over I got pretty awesome on it. One of the tour managers who was traveling with the tour which was criscrossing the US turned out to be a dancer and actor. Once he was finished touring with Capri Sun, he was going to move to New York to try and make it on Broadway. He said something really interesting to me, that promotional jobs were the new waiting tables for actors. I think that is a fair assessment because of the sporadic nature of both professions. I learned a lot and will defiantly try to do more in the future.
One last thing I wanted to talk about were the incredible trips I had with friends this summer. Artshare with Jacki was fun and invigorating. I went on a fated adventure hiking with David Wolf and although we had to turn back halfway I would do it again. The rafting trips with David Cohn and Mike Heppner were awesome and crazy. Mike is fighting a forest fire right now so keep him in your hearts while he is out there. Meghan and I had an incredible hiking trip and although it was extremely planned out, we had an incredible and exciting time, especially with large shadows walking past your tent. Also I want to thank those people I had an incredible time with at the beach, and on 4th of July in Tacoma. So basically, this summer has been great and I couldn’t have wished for a better one.
Feel free to ask me more questions about it if you like, but right now I have a 6am flight I have to get to in the morning so I will update this some time, but it might have to wait until after I get through London, Marseilles, Paris, Fribourg, and Geneva. But I will defiantly update in Dublin. I wish you all happy travels back to school or where ever you are going as I embark on my adventure. Thank you everybody. Good night.
This summer has been such an incredible and eye opening experience. Here is a list of my summer jobs. Office Cleaner, Waiter, Farm Hand, Pretend Astronaut, Intern, Extra, Trade Show Worker, Capri Sun Pusher, Stand-up Comedian, and maybe others that I can’t remember.
I want to thank Basil Kelley for giving me the farm hand job this summer even though I may not have been the most experienced person for the job. His flexibility let me do a lot of great new things. Working for him I mucked stalls, and weeded and watered a lot.
Izzy’s sucks because they stopped giving me hours a month ago. Enough said.
My internship at Artist’s Reparatory Theatre in Portland was an incredible experience. I worked with them for 2 weeks on their children’s theatre Camp called “Spotlight” 10 children worked with 10 playwrights and 10 actors to create a 2 person show that was performed by the child and their assigned actor. Each play was tailored to the child acting in it. It was incredible to see so much interesting material come to life with the raw creativity of the children filtered through the amazing talent of the playwrights and actors. I met incredible actors and found out that it is possible to make a living in Portland being a theatre artist.
I was able to be in two commercials this summer, which blows my mind. The first one I was in was very hush hush so I don’t know much about it other thanthe fact that it is for the video game Rock Band in some way. The lovely Jenny Tate and I both auditioned and though I didn’t get in but Jenny did in the initial decisions, I was called up to come in when the shoot time had changed.
My second extra experience was as a featured extra in a commercial for Portland Community College to be shown in the Portland area. I got to work with two great individuals who seem to know a lot about the acting scene in the Portland area. Talking to them was incredible. Both of these commercials should be showing soon. The Rock Band commercial is national and I will be in a crowd listening to the band Bang Camero, and the PCC commercial is local to Portland but should show a shot of me working on homework with a voice over talking about being the first one in your family to go to college.
To start off my summer I did some work in Promotional Events which I didn’t even know existed until this summer. The world of Promotional Events is made up of a bunch of companies that staff certain events and festivals throughout the year as well as Guerilla marketing campaigns. The first one I did was for the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum and a team of people including me dressed up in Astronaut suits and walked around Portland handing out freeze dried ice cream and stickers. It turns out that some people do promotional events for a living, while others just do it as a job on the side. I had a lot of fun and so I did another one.
I worked for Capri Sun down at the Rose Festival in Portland where they had a large area full of activities for their demographic which is the 8 to 12 year olds. There was a half pipe there where some very talented action sports athletes performed. My job during most of the promotion was to ride a Capri Sun long board around Portland and hand out free Capri Sun. I wasn’t very good on the skateboard to begin with but after the week was over I got pretty awesome on it. One of the tour managers who was traveling with the tour which was criscrossing the US turned out to be a dancer and actor. Once he was finished touring with Capri Sun, he was going to move to New York to try and make it on Broadway. He said something really interesting to me, that promotional jobs were the new waiting tables for actors. I think that is a fair assessment because of the sporadic nature of both professions. I learned a lot and will defiantly try to do more in the future.
One last thing I wanted to talk about were the incredible trips I had with friends this summer. Artshare with Jacki was fun and invigorating. I went on a fated adventure hiking with David Wolf and although we had to turn back halfway I would do it again. The rafting trips with David Cohn and Mike Heppner were awesome and crazy. Mike is fighting a forest fire right now so keep him in your hearts while he is out there. Meghan and I had an incredible hiking trip and although it was extremely planned out, we had an incredible and exciting time, especially with large shadows walking past your tent. Also I want to thank those people I had an incredible time with at the beach, and on 4th of July in Tacoma. So basically, this summer has been great and I couldn’t have wished for a better one.
Feel free to ask me more questions about it if you like, but right now I have a 6am flight I have to get to in the morning so I will update this some time, but it might have to wait until after I get through London, Marseilles, Paris, Fribourg, and Geneva. But I will defiantly update in Dublin. I wish you all happy travels back to school or where ever you are going as I embark on my adventure. Thank you everybody. Good night.
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