Acting. Writing.

Okay, I haven't been blogging much. I've had a lot of stuff happen in the last couple of weeks that's left me feeling uncreative. Much of it has to do with work, and some with friend's personal crisis, neither of which I'm going to write about. But the result is that I go home at night and barely have the energy to do playwriting, never mind blogging.

Speaking of playwriting, the school year has started, which means playwriting class is back in session. I was happy to see it end last June, as I was very busy, but now I'm happy to see it start again. I don't think I've realized before now just how much of a creative kick I get just from being in that class. Seeing readings of other people's plays (member of class act them out) can be very inspiring. And acting in them, even more so.

Originally, I went to the class just to act (before I started taking it as a writer), and I still tend to do a lot of the acting. I did more acting last night than I have in a while, and it was a wonderful creative rush. The beginning students brought their first assignments (three page plays), and I read in a number of them (the very first was a wonderful, over-the-top Roman general).

But the best part was an improv exercise, designed to illustrate multiple plot lines. We had four people performing, each of whom had a goal/desire. Mine was that I was a Druid who has snuck into Stonehenge. I decided I needed to make a blood sacrifice to the raven goddess, so I ran around the front of the room, grabbing at imaginary birds and gophers, until I caught one, killed it, and smeared its "blood" on my face. I then turned to one of the other actors, took off my belt, and announced "for the next part of the ceremony, I need to be naked."

That's when the instructor stopped the exercise.