Protesting a Protest

Last week was "Proud To Be Out Week", here at UVA, with events every day to make the general student body aware of the prevalence of and obstacles faced by 'out' members of the community, especially other students. On Friday was a performance of "The Laramie Project", essentially a play written from the documentary of the responses in the Laramie, Wyoming community to the murder of Matthew Shepard. A few other universities were also having performances, I think that PTBOW is a national thing.

On about Tuesday, word got out that Westboro Baptist Church (yes, that one: the small congregation that protested Shepard's funeral, as well as funerals for soldiers and even the victims of the VA Tech Shootings two years ago) was going to come to UVA to protest the "Laramie Project" performance.

A counter-protest was organized. Anyone interested in showing Westboro Baptist Church that their hateful messages were unwanted were to show up outside the performance venue wearing black, to line the pathways to prevent WBC from preventing the audience from entering. I decided that I felt strongly enough about the issue that I went, though I've never protested anything in my life.

We organized an hour before the start of the play and lined the brick pathways, which at that point of Grounds extend in three directions. The protest-protest organizers passed out candles; the plan was to maintain silence no matter what WBC did or said, just in a line of solidarity and light. It was incredible to see so many people there, to see the radiant candles against the sea of black.

Westboro Baptist Church never showed up. A rumor spread about that they might have gone to Richmond to protest their "Laramie Project" instead of ours. It didn't matter, really, that we had no opposition. I think the overflowing support for the rights of a play to be shown, for a group of people to exist without hate, was a message in and of itself. It's a shame that we couldn't do that without an outside threat, but all the same... it was beautiful.


In the news!:
Local CBS news (check out the video at the bottom!)
Cavalier Daily (student paper)

One of my favorite signs at the protest simply said:
Love One Another
As I Have Loved You

Show Time.

First, most excitedly, I have started eating at the little cafes around the University area. One of these is called Elephants and Bagels, a cafe serving coffees and teas, and bagel sandwiches, decorated with pictures, tapestries, statues, of elephants. It is a sister cafe of Elephant House, slightly posher, famous for hosting JK Rowling as she escaped her unheated flat to write Harry Potter.

I intended to go in with a camera but I feel too touristy doing that.
And if anyone wants an Elephant House shirt/bag/mug/etc, let me know and be prepared to reimburse me for exorbitant amounts of money. Anyway.


Last night I ran the lights for The Visit, by Friedrich Durrenmatt, with Theatre Paradok. Most of it I got dead-on. The only cues that got messed up were the fault of both me and the actor delivering the cue line. So mostly it was good, what I got I got well. What I missed I hope wasn't too obvious.

It's a pretty good play too... I'm not sure. I always like reading things, and even though it's translated from German I think it's a good play to read. But so much of the comedy was in the physical acting, otherwise the written words had a more cynical, black humour to them.

If you get a chance to see a production, I'd take it.

Bright as Yellow

I haven't updated much because I guess nothing is really happening... this is the third-to-last week of classes, so after the next two weeks it's exam time. Theoretically, everyone's focused on those problem sets, essays, and exam-studying.

But, I am now the proud owner of a new pair of glasses! And my first-ever sunglasses!
The sunglasses will be very helpful on my morning walks to class... actually, really, any time I walk in a Southerly Direction. Currently the sun rises at 7:50 and sets at 4:04 (according to weather.com) and spends much of the day at a low angle. My walks to KB are especially bad, it's half an hour long, at around 9, and going S/SE the whole way. Ouch, eyes.

Also keeping me busy are rehearsals for the Theatre Paradok production of "The Visit", by uhh, Durrenmatt? someone German anyway. I wasn't going to participate in it after all, but a week or two ago I agreed to help with lighting and so whenever we're in the theatre space I've been going to rehearsals, in an attempt to see what parts of the stage need to be lit when.
The play goes up next week, but I still shouldn't be too busy. It's a lecture theatre, so really our lighting will be pretty minimal: be able to light the three regions of stage (there's a small platform in front, close to the audience, and an extra 'room' in the back of the stage, usually hidden by a curtain) with the lights we have. Probably don't have enough lights to use colors... besides, we can't find gels and don't want to buy any.
So, simple enough.


This is something I've meant to put in this blog for weeks:
Anyone in any sort of hazardous occupation has a bright, neon yellow vest as part of their uniform. Construction workers, traffic police, other police, crossing guards. Cyclists. Police cars and ambulances also use neon yellow paint, although they are still white with blue.
I think fire trucks are still all-red but I could be wrong.

A daughter's right is to obey.

Last night I went to see "The House of Bernarda Alba", by Federico Garcia Lorca, performed at Bedlam Theatre. It was especially interesting because all the characters were female, with two off-stage male characters (one of whom had just died). Also in this particular production, there were chairs on either side of the stage, so the audience could watch from three sides. Sarah and I sat up on Stage Left, which was a little intimidating actually because there is a lot of fighting and yelling in that family, and sometimes they were a few feet away. But I like plays that are done in that way, the blocking feels much more natural to me, even if certain lines of site are impossible.

It was a very good production, and a very good play in general... so I would recommend it, if you ever get the chance.

It's been quite cold recently. I finally caved and bought myself a wool coat. Bright red. Not perfect, but warm and close enough to what I wanted, so I'm happy with it.

Only 30% or so of students go on to uni, which sounds like a very low number to me. A lot more go on to college (like trade school) for more practical degrees.

first weekend

I now have a finalized timetable (schedule) for my courses (classes). A lot busier than I originally anticipated, those tutorials really fill in time. For the curious:

Monday: all in GS
9-9.50 Archaeology of Scotland
-Homework time at the library?
14-14.50 Musical Acoustics (I did not know this word was spelled differently outside America)
15-15.50 Mus. Ac. Tutorial

Tuesday: all in KB
9-9.50 Quantum Mechanics
10-10.50 Physical Mathematics
12-12.50 P. Maths Workshop (like a tutorial?)

Wednesday: in KB 11.10-13 Quantum Tutorial

Thursday: all in GS
9-9.50 Archaeology of Scotland
-Homework time?
14-14.50 Musical Acoustics

Friday: begins at KB
9-9.50 Quantum
10-10.50 P. Maths
12-12.50 P. Maths Comp Lab (mandatory?)
-walk/bus to GS. Very easy, the bus runs every 20-30 minutes, and walking isn't bad.
14-14.50 Mus. Ac.

Plus an archaeology tutorial somewhere in there. My courses all seem very interesting, but especially different is the Acoustics class, half music students, half physics students. Eventually we will examine how different instruments are able to create sound, and learn what effects pitch, timbre, as well as our own hearing. For now it is two old, bumbling-yet-loveable professors who ramble and occasionally play a few notes on a trumpet. I think I will learn a lot from it, though... it's all the interesting parts of music you don't learn when picking up an instrument, and already I feel I have a better understanding for keys and chords, and other things that always mystified me.

I am now an official member of the Physics Society. Last night was a kind of pub quiz night, and although I was absolutely useless at identifing theme songs of British TV shows, I made up for it during the American states round.
I think that was the first time yet I've been the only American in the room?

And, an update on theatre:
I won't be acting in anything I auditioned for this semester, but that's okay, at least I tried out. I'm still planning on doing techwork for "The Visit"... and I'm really excited about it.

Set, and Match.

Last night I went to a Rugby World Cup match here in Edinburgh, at Murrayfield stadium. It was Scotland against Romania, and although the game was boring in that the 42-0 score was overwhelming for the Romanian team the experience was still wonderful. Before I had only seen about one and a half games of rugby, and those were at UVA in Mad Bowl. I'm not saying the UVA teams are bad, but it's not the same as watching a world cup match.

The really amazing thing is how much I understood the game. So much is like american football but at a much better pace. I think I asked three questions the entire 80-minute game, and two were clarification. I'm not saying I understand the finer points of the games, and I definitely don't understand what happens when penalties happen, but it was really good to watch and figure out a game I had explained to me at tea.


Today was my last audition, I think. It was for the uni's "alternative theater", Theatre Paradok. This semester they are performing Durrenmatt's "The Visit" the week of Thanksgiving/one of the last weeks of the term, and they're looking for about ten people to fill in, and possibly double up on, small roles.

I think it was one of my favorite auditions. The small group, about fifteen including the directors, did warm-ups and exercises for about 40 minutes, then they passed out scenes to random pairs or groups, and so we performed for a few minutes then watched other scenes while looking over our next assignments. A lot of fun, very interactive, and at the least I am sold on watching the play two months from now

Break a leg.

Auditions for Bedlam Theatre, the entirely student-run group, were this afternoon. Kind of a replacement Drama Department, no UK uni's have drama programs. I went even though I had a lovely cold-voice.

I was concerned that my American accent might throw directors away from me, but one play specifically requested American accents---Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I auditioned for it twice, each with a different part, and so only had time to audition for one more before leaving, The Real Inspector Hound. I swear that play stalks me.
We'll see about those plays, I don't even know when I'd find out how I did. There were a lot of people trying out and none of the plays had very many female parts.

There's always tech, too, and I so very much love teching.