Sic Transit Gloria Seami

And another one:

http://aussietheatre.com/comedy09reviews.htm#model

I'm stoked by getting mentions in these.... :).

Translating ancient plays
I have a thing for it. A sick obsession that will not die. It is both easier and harder than writing a new one, I think. Easier because you don't have to worry about the whole plot thing. Harder because (if you're me) you very much feel the weight of history on your shoulders. You're the latest in a line of translators that stretches back centuries. You're also producing works that people have 'expectations' of, and that you know your audience may well have seen literally dozens of times before. So it has it's own pressures.... But I like it. I really like the process of trying to get into an author's head and transpose their ideas into something for today. I also really like the idea of using it as a tool to better understand a text - it's like experimental archaeology for theatre.....

Performing vs directing
Both have pros and cons. And I deeply love both practices. Performing gives you a direct control over your scenes/bits/whatever. Directing gives you incomplete control over the entirety of the piece. That's how I'd sum it up....

Both involve you working out your dramatic vocabulary, and then applying it to the text you have before you. I don't come into either with set notions/pre-conceptions about how I want something to look/feel like. I have ideas, I have a sense of a piece, but it's never too detailed at the start of a rehearsal period. It comes together the more I see of what actors can actually do and acheive in the 6-8 weeks we've got to throw it into a performance.

Directing involves a lot of compromise. Often the ideas that pop into your head won't work because they are physically impossible, or they involve too much refinement in your time frame, or actor X simply can't run with it. So you have to let them go. I think that's the hardest part of it to come to terms with.

Acting involves compromise because your ideas and the directors ideas are not always in line. So you have to let them go. But you end up with a lot more of 'you' in it.

Office politics
Politics occurs whenever there's more than 3 people in a group. It's inevitable, and it is part of the human condition. Problems arise when it festers.... And that's the fun circumstance I've walked into at the playground. A bunch of people who have had this kind of seething undercurrent of stupid that has been floating around the joint for (from what I can tell) about 10 years or so. Sigh....

Greece
Nice place to visit, would not want to live there.... I had a great time when I was over there - seeing things on the ground made it all more magical for me. But seeing life in modern Athens - yeah.... wouldn't want to live there. I liked it there too because my Greek improved muchly, which is handy!

Rock climbing
It rocks! I answered this previously but to summarise: It challenges body and brain. It's awesome!