Handed in the first chapter and a bit of my dissertation today. Exciting stuff. I already had 3000 words down, however after having a talk with my supervisor I realised that I'd gone of track straying and forgetting that I'm doing a dissertation on performance!
I've had a hell of a two weeks. My whistle-stop tour to Aberystwyth was a successful affair, however commuted from Tywyn to Aber each day got pretty tiring. I met some interesting people from all over the world skilled in performance, geography and anthropology and was fortunate enough to have encountered this research. It has given my dissertation a great boost. An unforeseen factor was going back to Aberystwyth. I don't know what it is about that place that pulls me unlike any other. I think its due to its comparative remoteness, up there in the middle of the Welsh coast. Walking through its streets and its hillsides reiterates memories of old. Its such a small place that they overlap. A walk to the best view in aber was one that I had done many a time, and before driving back to Tywyn one night I decided to do it.
Crossing the road at the point where Jon and I once drunkenly fell into a hedge, to the base of the bridge where one night it was really foggy and looked like a level in silent hill, past my old house, over the grass where we built our pirate snowman, round the corner into the woods where Pete, Emily and I stopped once and sat on a bench, to the forest where Craig and I walked into some Live action role players in battle, where Pete climbed a tree, where I took my family in my first year, through the trees and scrambling upwards into the daylight to behold the whole town from above; left: the university, national library, panning right through the town; train station, castle, pier, short-tempered sea, constitution hill; behind me where we had a bbq once and on the way back James' bag caught alight. Its still there.
I bumped into one of my old lecturers when I was there which was nice, and got to see Kevo (Twelfth Night, Cafe Cappella, Macbeth), the last of us who stuck around. He showed me his footage from the third year performances we did 2 years ago, which I had never seen. Which was great. It made me feel glad for not leaving Exeter this year. This year has gone too fast for my liking, I've been lucky enough to meet some truly wonderful people from all over the globe, and look forward to meeting more over the next three years.
I spent one night at home after the conference and then drove down here to Exeter for dress rehearsals for the Shakespeare project. I was pretty nervous. But it was good. It made me realise that acting is not really my thing anymore. I had a great time with the cast, and I thouroughly enjoyed working on that production, but its not for me anymore. We had a good turn out audience-wise considering it was the end of term, and hopefully I was psychotically-peverted enough for them. The final run, I really went for it, and relished every moment; something I hadn't done since Amadeus. Its such a bizzarre machine, acting. Its not about being believable, becoming someone else or thinking your someone else; its about telling stories. You are not given a part in a play, but a story to tell. It may not be a long story, or even a detailed one, but it is a story nonetheless.
After wrapping up the Shakespeare (or so I thought) I focussed all my attention on the dissertation. Unable to let go of the Bard fully, I took part in some Shakespeare workshops with Liz looking at all-male casts in Shakespeare's plays. It was nice, and over three days I got to play Rosalind, Macbeth, Duke Orsino and many others. I think I'm Shakespeared out at the moment.
Now, I am cracking on with Chapter 2 of my diss waiting for the cinema later.
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