Welcome LT cast!
This is exciting! A second cast to add onto the blog and to the history of this play. Thanks to Luke Grimes (who played Rainboy in the premiere of The Smell of Rain When It's Raining) for deciding to direct this play at his high school. I'm so impressed with the work he and the cast have done already and am really excited to the see the show!
LT cast, I hope you will make this blog your online home during the show and post your thoughts, ideas, experiences with the script and in rehearsal.
For starters, how about you each talk about your relationship with the stars... that should get things rolling.
janis
11 comments:
Hey Janis =]
(first LT post =] woot!)
Lets see....relationship with the stars....
Funnily enough, the conversation that I have with Sam as Orion is one of the many subjects that come to my mind with stars. But she puts it in better words than I do.
One thing I really love about the stars is that they're always there. One night I might be really upset, or just feel like things are spinning out of control, but I look out my wndows at the stars. I think to myslef, "The stars don't change. They're always there, even when everything else changes. When I go to sleep, they're there, and when I wake up they will still be there, just watching from up above." That's what I love about stars, and why I connect so much with this character. Although she knows a lot more than I do when it comes to "up high", she verbalizes what's in my head, a lot better than I ever could.
Hi Sara. First off, I think it's totally awesome that Orion is female in this show. A stellar huntress. Very rad. Thanks for your comments. I'm totally with you on feeling calmed by the constance of the stars. I'm curious which lines of Orion's you especially connect with and what is it about them that rings true for you.
Actually, I'd be curious to hear that from everyone... what lines in the play do you connect the most with and why?
My favorite line is when she asks why the stars couldn't be all around us. It's one of those lines that you can't be really sure if she's saying to Sam or to herself.
Hey Janis, I haven't had a chance to ask this Luke, but I wanted to get your idea about this-my costume is probably going to be pretty plain, black or something, but since Luke is makeup chair, he's going to go crazy with makeup. Do you think it would be too much if I wore the same makeup as both Orion and Nurse? I wasn't sure if that would be too corny/obvious, but I wanted your opinion.
Hey. That's definitely a director question, not a playwright one since I'm don't know too much about his design concept for the show as a whole. If you're asking if I think you can visibly draw connections between the two characters, my answer is definitely yes. The more connections, the better. Have you thought at all about your belt? That's probably the most important costume element. :-)
Oh man, two questions to answer. Okay first one...
My relationship with the stars is hard to explain. One of my favourite things to do is lay on the pier at my house in Michigan and stare at the stars. They are probably the only thing I am truly inspired by. I can't imagine anyone who can look at the stars and not dream. It's almost like I feel that everything comes into place and I know exactly what I want in that moment. I never feel like that at any other time.
The second one...
The lines I connect most with are actually some of Jessie's lines, most specifically about her wish. It's the same as mine. I've always wanted an older brother. I almost had one too... The thing is, I connect more with guys as friends than girls. My best friend is a guy. My closest cousins are my boy cousins. It's like I have everything just short of an actual older brother. But also, like Jessie, I've accepted that technically I don't have one, but I love what I have because it feels like what having a brother would feel like, in my mind at least.
Okay one more thing I just thought of. I learned something from this play! Okay, so Anthony's lines, about being afraid of heights? Well a few years ago I was actually diagnosed with acrophobia (the fear of heights) but no one ever specifically explained it to me. But now that I've read that, I can say that it's pretty true.
Hi Ally. Thanks for your comments! I love the connections between you and Jessie. Very cool.
See you on Saturday!
Hey Janis!
When I think about the stars, I feel really happy. This is because they are such small parts of the vast expanse of darkness and yet they are so much more. At first glance they may seem to be just little dots of light. After a while though you can really see how much more of an impact on everything they have. Without the stars, the night would be plain black darkness with no shimmering of hope. That's what I enjoy most about the stars. The fact that they are so seemingly insignificant but really take on a much larger role. And when you look hard enough, you see that they are everywhere! I like to think about people in this way. That everybody has their own niche and role to step into. Everybody has their time to shine. Because without it, we live in darkness and in the darkness is no place to live.
But that's just me.
Elliot
"Robert"
ahh so the play is over but I think it's sort of sad that only three of us answered your (Janis's) question so I'll but in my two cents...
My biggest moment with the stars was this past summer:
Through a company called The Road Less Travelled that does summer programs for high school kids, I went to India last July. For the first three weeks we were in Ladakh which is the northern-most region of India. It's near both the Tibetan-Indian border as well as the Pakistan-Indian border (southern of Ladakh is Kashmir which is probably one of the most violent places in the more recent history of India though it was peaceful when were there). Anyway it's in the Himalayas and it's very rural and it's sort of an unknown place in the grand scheme of things. We were doing volunteer work at a government school and I remember there was one day when we climbed up onto this mountain and all sat in our own secluded spots and journaled our thoughts about the first day of work. I remember wondering why I was given so much when the kids we met had almost nothing...these kids were the regions first-generation students-none of their parents or relatives had ever been educated. Resources there are scarce and the region relies on tourists who come to the Buddhist monasteries and for hiking in the Himalayas.The utter randomness of life just seemed so unfair and confusing. That night we left the dining tent and gathered around a fire and talked about the day and at the end of it we sat in silence. I don't have a picture but I can tell you that the stars were clearer than I had ever seen them. I realized that the children we had met that day weren't sad about their existence. It didn't matter to them that they lived in what we Westerners would see as a remote corner of what we have deemed a third-world country. India is one of richest countries in the world. They give so much and are so incredibly kind and humble...I often wish I was more like the people I met this past summer. I guess it sort of goes against what my character (Sydney) believed in the play but I (Matti) think that the stars are indifferent to us. And I think that's beautiful. No matter how we classify who were are in terms of where we are or what we have the stars are the same anywhere. If we cover them up with smog or streetlights it doesn't matter- they are still there. Unchanging. Constant. In the end people are people no matter where they are. We're on the same earth under the same sky and we have the same internal makeup and struggles..we all want to give credence to our existence somehow. India isn't scary or dangerous and I'm not brave for going there. I wish people would realize the commonalities that we have.
this was very long...haha. Ok I'm done now.
p.s. I really love how I (Elliot) learn from Orion in the play. After he talks with Sam about how important the darkness is Elliot begins to look at the in a new way. You see this when he questions Reul about the darkness, asking her if she can touch it and furthering the idea that the concept of darkness can be taken anywhere. I really loved this about Elliot because he grew to know so much about the stars and, becoming a star, learned about himself. He was finally free when he jumped off with Reul to Orion. It really hit home because he is so sure about his existance now and I have always wondered who I will be, could be, might be, pretend to be, want to be, want to be with, and why that is all so. So the stars can really give answers and hope in this sense. That one day I will know exactly what my purpose in life is and how my star will shine.
thanks for all of these awesome comments. i so enjoy reading them about learning about your connections with the play and with the stars. you're all beautiful.
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