Wednesday, October 5, 2011

So I'm like doing theatre-y things

Hey, quick question: What is the difference between "theatre" and "theater," assuming that I'm not in the UK? Because I'm confused, so I just take a guess and figure I have a 50% chance of being right.

But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about school things.

So the first thing that I've learned is that the Theater/re department here is not as frightening or as intense as I was led to believe. I mean, it's definitely an intense course (the kind of course where you work 12 hours a week to get 2 credits) but I don't think it's as scary as I was led to believe.

See, the reason why Theatre/er really freaks me out is because I honestly don't know what I'm doing. My theaterre experience is close to nonexistent (acting in two shows, being a guerrilla hair assistant at one show, costuming one show,* and costume designing two shows), and most of my den brothers are in it for performance, meaning that I'm kind of the odd one out in the group.
I'm also the only girl in my den, but I don't have super rigidly-defined gender roles (Unlike one of the people in my den, henceforth referred to as Gender Roles Guy).

But, yeah, thus far I haven't majorly pissed off anyone.

Also, I've noticed something that I do with my clothes, and as, well, I AM a costume designer**, I started trying to figure out what I'm doing and why.

I don't dress femininely at all for foundations. I wear jeans, a unisex t-shirt, and tie my hair back in a braid or a ponytail or a bun or something. I don't do makeup. And then after 10:30, I go back to my dorm and change. I didn't think about why I do this, but I've finally figured it out. Part 1: Gender Roles Guy has really REALLY rigidly defined gender roles, bordering on misogyny. I'm not going to dress myself as a target, because being targeted would be a distraction. Part 2: I'm not there to impress anyone with my looks. I'm not there to impress anyone at all. I'm there to learn. If I happen to impress anyone with anything, it will be with my actions, with my skills, and not with my body. Part 3: This isn't about me, and as a costume designer***, I want to dress to reflect that. Being a costume designer is different from being a fashion designer. Fashion designers are what they sell. They need to look good all the time. Everything they wear reflects their unique sense of style, because they're clothing the masses. Being a costume designer means that sometimes you have to design really ugly wedding dresses or something. It's not about looking good. It's about reflecting what you are.

Not that I'm actually a costume designer, yet. Mostly, I'm just reusing a joke that started getting old at Comic-Con. though, when you look at the factorials, it's still really funny.

Anyway, I don't know what I'm saying anymore, so I guess I'll just leave. Give my love to Fay!
____
*NONE OF MY WRITING TEACHERS USE THE OXFORD COMMA. I LOVE THE OXFORD COMMA. They don't mark it as wrong, but they don't use it online or anything. #rant

**Drink.

***DRINK DAMMIT

1 comment:

  1. Yes, theatre is BE, theater is AE (must know it because my English teacher sent me an assignment without mark back for using AE in a BE Text (no joke).
    Theater is great. You'll surely have a lot of fun!

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