Two weddings, a funeral and King John

Hello Everyone!

As I said, this summer has been totally busy mayhem.  But also quite amazing.

The bulk of my summer has been dedicated to the internship at Marin Shakespeare Company and it has been the experience of a lifetime, and it's not over yet!

I have met and worked with some amazing people. For example, our teacher for our Verse and Text class in the first few weeks is a wonderful man named Barry Kraft. He has worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for twenty five years and has been in EVERY Shakespeare show that has been discovered. He also knows absolutely everything about the man as well as having a strong interest in chess, eclipses, and caves. The proudest moment of my life is when I get to help with his makeup for King John in which he plays Phillip of France.

Part of the internship is that I am also in one of the shows for the festival and I am in King John, a rarely produced Shakespeare play.  Popular in its day, this play has fallen out of production because it doesn't have the same appeal as some of the other histories like Richard III. It is actually quite a good play and I am very proud of my small and silent role as throne bearer/ citizen of Angiers. I also am quite enthralled with all of the professional actors in the play because they are all quite amazing.

Everything about this play is solid from the amazing director to the fabulous set, which is a replica of the Globe stage.

Here's an example of why this show works so well:

Last night was our opening for King John at Marin Shakespeare Company. During Shakespeare’s Act two, the lights went out. It’s an outdoor theater so it was still light at this point but then half an hour later, the lights and sound and backstage monitor went out.

Us actors were getting prepared to create the sound cues on our own but everything began to work before intermission ended (except the lights,which we kept in one cue). And not a single actor freaked out, good job.

After we remembered that it was Friday the 13th, and maybe one should not have opening nights on that date. It goes without saying that it was a very exciting opening.

Awesome, right?

The acting interns of MSC also have been working on scenes and speeches from Shakespeare for our showcase on August 4th and I've never felt more confident in my acting or in awe of the other interns who are quite amazing. Needless to say, I am loving this internship more then anything in the world!

My cousin also got married a few weeks ago and it was the wedding of all weddings. Considering the last wedding I went to was in the 1990s, I was quite excited about this big event. And it lived up to that dream I had. Her brother, my other cousin, actually got married a few days before so it was a full week of weddings and prep and celebrating which was an incredible amount of fun as well as being exhausting. It was quite nice to add two new cousins to the O'Neill clan and hang out with the original ones. 

Now the rest of the summer is dedicated to loving Shakespeare more and more. As well as working on my Sonya monologue from Uncle Vanya so that I can be cast in Hedda Gabler in the fall. I would so die to play Mrs.Thea!!

But I have time for that, a lot of time.

So everyone, Come see King John at Marin Shakespeare Company in San Rafael!! It runs through August 12th!!!

Bye-Bye!