Stream of Consciousness
Word Count: 510
There are many things that make up my identity. I'm a white, makeup-loving, stereotypically feminine girl with Italian-Catholic, German-Jewish ancestry. I'm from a small, horse farm town in "upstate" New York where everyone knows everything about everyone. All of these things take part in who I am as a person. In fact, my post was originally going to be about makeup and how it's affected my life in a variety of ways. I'm changing the subject though. I was forcing my writing, when the idea of this post is supposed to be a stream of consciousness about my identity - but what makes up who I am more in this very instant than what I can't take my mind off of? I was having so much trouble concentrating because honestly my mind is a million miles from what I was originally trying to put into words. Humans are constantly evolving and what takes up a huge part of my identity right now may take up a smaller portion tomorrow, leaving more room for a separate part of my identity to grow for that day. Today, theater is taking up my entire being.
I've loved the idea of performing since I was a child. I was ecstatic to finally get a chance to be a part of school shows when I entered middle school, performing in drama club plays and school musicals all the way through to my senior year. I took acting classes from middle school graduation to high school graduation. In college, I started branching out of performance. When I went to school at SUNY Albany (before transferring to Rutgers University specifically for the better theater programs and better opportunities), I was on costume crew and took a couple theater classes to go towards my major. Now, here at Rutgers, I am the costume and props designer for the Livingston Theater Company's production of Cabaret.
Today, I discussed ideas with the show's director on how to take the vision and ideas of the show and put them into the costumes. My identification with theater and love for creative expression has never been stronger than it was today, so my identification as a transfer student is something that I really thought about today. I came here to Rutgers for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons was that the theater program at Albany was terrible and Rutgers has a great reputation and seemed to have more opportunities. So far, my expectations have been exceeded. The creative freedom I have here just as a sophomore is something I'd never have at Albany as a senior. At Albany, there's minimal opportunities - the school shows and the club shows are synonymous. The production staff is all faculty members, so if you're backstage you are a crew member with no creative input. Here at Rutgers, we have completely student run clubs, where each person has a voice and the ability to bring their vision for a show to life. For this reason, I couldn't be happier that I chose to be a Rutgers transfer.
There are many things that make up my identity. I'm a white, makeup-loving, stereotypically feminine girl with Italian-Catholic, German-Jewish ancestry. I'm from a small, horse farm town in "upstate" New York where everyone knows everything about everyone. All of these things take part in who I am as a person. In fact, my post was originally going to be about makeup and how it's affected my life in a variety of ways. I'm changing the subject though. I was forcing my writing, when the idea of this post is supposed to be a stream of consciousness about my identity - but what makes up who I am more in this very instant than what I can't take my mind off of? I was having so much trouble concentrating because honestly my mind is a million miles from what I was originally trying to put into words. Humans are constantly evolving and what takes up a huge part of my identity right now may take up a smaller portion tomorrow, leaving more room for a separate part of my identity to grow for that day. Today, theater is taking up my entire being.
I've loved the idea of performing since I was a child. I was ecstatic to finally get a chance to be a part of school shows when I entered middle school, performing in drama club plays and school musicals all the way through to my senior year. I took acting classes from middle school graduation to high school graduation. In college, I started branching out of performance. When I went to school at SUNY Albany (before transferring to Rutgers University specifically for the better theater programs and better opportunities), I was on costume crew and took a couple theater classes to go towards my major. Now, here at Rutgers, I am the costume and props designer for the Livingston Theater Company's production of Cabaret.
Today, I discussed ideas with the show's director on how to take the vision and ideas of the show and put them into the costumes. My identification with theater and love for creative expression has never been stronger than it was today, so my identification as a transfer student is something that I really thought about today. I came here to Rutgers for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons was that the theater program at Albany was terrible and Rutgers has a great reputation and seemed to have more opportunities. So far, my expectations have been exceeded. The creative freedom I have here just as a sophomore is something I'd never have at Albany as a senior. At Albany, there's minimal opportunities - the school shows and the club shows are synonymous. The production staff is all faculty members, so if you're backstage you are a crew member with no creative input. Here at Rutgers, we have completely student run clubs, where each person has a voice and the ability to bring their vision for a show to life. For this reason, I couldn't be happier that I chose to be a Rutgers transfer.
Okay, good, push yourself with this. One thing you could do is combine the two pieces you're mentioning here--your love of make-up and your love of theater and how those two intersect. Both are about creating another version of reality that's supposedly more "beautiful" than the original, and both require artifice. This started out strong, and then it felt like you got lost a little bit, and so remind yourself to keep your writing in scene if you can. As a theater person, you know what this means. You don't want a character onstage talking about what she's thinking for too long, you want action and motion and specificity. Strive for that in your writing too, and push yourself to make connections that present themselves. I was a theater major too, and so could read about this for pages and pages.
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