clotwo.blog.

whether i like it or not, my final year of school is fast approaching. i’ve had a hell of a summer to preface it. these past few months have been the most fun of my life, and i leave them with an excitement and confidence to get out into the real world and just be great. my saying that is not indicative of any pretension, i just feel absolutely wonderful and privileged to be living this crazy life that theatre brings.

my summer got off to a kick start in late may. i took a trip with members of philadelphia’s ego po productions to pittsburgh for a pennpat conference. we performed a scene from spring awakening (yeah, that show again) for a collective of producers and other members of the pennsylvania theatre community. the time that we weren’t spending rehearsing or performing was spent exploring the city and drinking. it was a fun little excursion that i was happy to be a part of. my final thought on pittsburgh: very clean.

near the end of that trip i got a phone call from john bellomo, a director in philly that i love working with. he was directing a tour william shakespeare’s taming of the shrew for the maryland shakespeare festival and offered me the part of hortensio. the initial thought of essentially stranding myself in maryland with a bunch of people i didn’t know was admittedly kind of frightening to me. i decided that the experience would be worth it nonetheless, and in mid-june i trekked down to frederick, md to begin rehearsals.

the tour was a #$%@ing blast. i woke up, went to rehearsal, got dinner and a few drinks at the bar on my breaks, went back to rehearsal, and got back to the housing at around midnight every night. to me, this was everything theatre should be. the ensemble was wonderful to work with, and i made a few really good friends. i traveled all over the state with the same group of people for a month, which really tightened our bond. it’s not an experience that i’ll easily forget. in addition to the acting side, i wrote a handful of songs for the ensemble to sing and got my first professional composition credit! the whole experience was invaluable and i took a great deal from it. here’s a couple photos taken during the tour:

now i’m working on a commedia dell’arte show for the philadelphia fringe. it’s called the power of magic (or la forza della magia), and it’s being produced by ombelico mask ensemble. i’m working with three european actors who will be speaking their native tongue during performances (french, italian, and english). i’ll talk a little bit more about it when we’ve gotten into the meat of things.

anything you’d like to say? feel free to comment. i’d love to hear from you. until next time, friends. i leave you with random photos of my summer life.

A.

okay, yeah yeah, i know it’s been forever since i’ve typed in this. forever of course is a hyperbole, because it’s actually been a little over two months. but nonetheless, i know that kind of sucks. at least for my one or two readers. bosco and ralphienna, your dedication to my writing is unrivaled (mainly because you have no rivals). okay. i’m done with the dry introduction. now i’ll talk about the theatre department.

so it seems like some things happened in the past couple months. the first i’ll talk about being the theatre department’s production of our country’s good. it was a very brechtian production in that we never made a great effort to hide the fact that it was a play. the actors played set pieces, and were almost always visible. when we weren’t on stage, we were sitting on benches in the background. it made for a very interesting show. it was gritty and visceral, with every actor reaching into their ugly side. not exactly the prettiest show to watch, but i felt like it was pretty compelling. we had a highly positive reception. the process itself required a lot of hard work, with changes constantly being made to an exhaustive extent, but it all paid off. now here’s the part you skipped reading all that for:

next came michael pliskin’s production of neil simon’s fools in our lab theatre. another very interesting process, for different reasons. apparently, simon wrote the play to fail, as he had a stipulation in his divorce proceedings that all his earnings for his next broadway show would go to his wife. so he wrote something that was good enough to go on broadway, but bad enough to fail. not surprisingly, it was a very stupid show. essentially a cartoon. it took place in the fictional village of kulyenchikov in ukraine, where everyone is cursed with stupidity. that’s about all you need to know. it went off without a hitch, though, and we ended up getting a pretty overwhelming turnout. it was a great amount of fun, and the audience seemed to love it. all neurosis that existed before we opened (”we’re not funny”, “everyone’s going to hate this”, etc.) disappeared the instant we heard the audience laugh. a slap happy good time for all.

the dance department put on an outdoor production called on leaves of grass, singing songs of myself. i wasn’t a part of it so i couldn’t tell you much about the process, but i thought it was great. i love our dance department. there is no pretension in what they do, it’s pure expression through movement, and it’s so fun to watch. so if anyone who was involved with that show is reading this, props. next was the theatre department’s production of lillian hellman’s the children’s hour. i did wardrobe crew for it, so i didn’t see much of the show (though from what i did see, the performances were strong). if anyone has any feedback on it, comment! i can tell you a little about what i did on the crew, which was essentially laundering and repairing the actor’s costumes and being their mirrors to make sure nothing was too askew. i became relatively passionate about costuming for a weekend, which has always been my kryptonite and usually results in me having a complete nervous breakdown because it took me five hours to sew a button onto a blouse. it felt good, though, and i had fun doing it and actually kind of felt competent with it. no pictures of me wardrobing. sorry.

i had a long but fantastic weekend. last thursday alpha psi omega, the theatre national honors society, hosted the alphie awards in our lab theatre. we parodied all the shows of the past year as well as gave out awards honoring the hard work of our students. the day after, though, was the botda (bureau of theatre and dance) banquet. oh botda. everyone in the theatre and dance department get together, dress fancy, and just have the time of their lives. which i did. here is proof:

please support our department, everyone. we work very hard and are unrelentingly dedicated to our craft. this is what we love to do, and we do it well. come see the sketch/improv club perform in the lab theatre at 9:30p tonight, and check out the student choreography showcase this weekend!

do you read this? have anything you want to say? feel free to comment. take care now. bye bye then.

A.

i’m nips-deep into the new semester now. taking pretty much your standard theatre major courses. i’ve got some acting in there, some costuming, some theatre history… the whole shebang (which apparently is a real word according to dictionary.com). it’s nice to get to a point where i don’t really have to worry about gen-eds any more and focus completely on my course of study. i sure would be screwed if i had second thoughts about my career path though!

in terms of actually applying what i’m learning, i’m working on timberlake wertenbaker’s our country’s good and just auditioned (and made the ensemble) for a weird little hodgepodge show in philadelphia. on the flip side of things, i played a show at the north star bar in philly this past tuesday, which was a whole lot of fun. the drive home wasn’t, considering it snowed about a foot as i was playing. trekking through those side streets in philly praying with all of my being that my brakes don’t give out is surprisingly very nerve-wrecking. but what do you care, grandma?

oscar nominations just got released. some really nice surprises in there. i’m glad to see milk getting good recognition, particularly for sean penn and josh brolin’s performances. i was very pleased to hear about brolin’s nom, as the man’s just had a really great year (including a grossly underrated performance in w., which wasn’t a bad film at all). downey’s nom was another pleasant surprise. the academy rarely honors comedy, but again, the man’s had a great year, and that character was hilariously played. apparently kate winslet was “snubbed” for best actress for revolutionary road, even though it was a lousy performance in a lousy movie. which may not be her fault. what exactly entails a “snub”, anyway? if it means that a generally well-liked performance didn’t get academy recognition, then i guess ben burtt got snubbed for wall-e. whatever. michael shannon’s performance was wonderful though, a well-deserved nomination.

blah blah blah. this was kind of a lazy entry. i’m aware. here’s some pictures.

I should probably write in this thing more regularly. For what, I’m still not exactly sure. I do occasionally wonder if it serves as an influence to any potential students who stumble upon it to go to this school. Then I realize, “probably not,” and I go have a Fresca.

I started rehearsal for Spring Awakening a few days ago. We go up at UArt’s Merriam Theatre on Thursday. 1,800 seats. With no amplification. Which means I’ll be screaming my lines to the judge who insists on sitting in the back of the theatre so as not to intimidate the performers. I’m a really great actor, guys. Because a few of the students chickened out weren’t available to do it this time around, the director got a couple actors from his company to fill in. We’ve basically just been working to get accustomed to working with the new actors (you’re all very talented, please don’t beat me up again) and refreshing our memories on the blocking and text. It has all come surprisingly easy. It’s like riding a bike. A bike made out of obscenity and controversy.

There is a scene in the EgoPo take on Spring Awakening where a group of boys play a game that basically involves trying to touch a ball to walls on opposite sides of the stage. In order to prevent that person from “scoring,” the players defending must lift the person up a few feet above the ground and throw them back down. I am a scrawny man. I never claimed to be strong. I have the physical endurance of a twig. And I am in a lot of pain. If you come to see the show, I’d like you to take note of the fear of imminent death twinkling in my eye when a student comes charging at me, expecting me to support them as I hoist and throw them six feet up in the air. If my arms haven’t fallen off by performance time, in which case they’ll have to admittedly do some considerable re-writing of my part. Sorry, Wedekind.

I’ve been occupying myself this break by working at the Provost’s office here at the university. His name is on the Wikipedia page for the school, which means I work for a famous person. This means I am famous by proxy. These entries will be published years down the line in an exposé that will sell millions. In which case I’ll be able to pay off about half of my student loans. I’ve also been doing that whole alternate pipe dream thing and doing the whole singer-songwriter bit. I’ve got a gig at Doc Watson’s in Philly this Friday, the day after the show goes up. Considering most of my lines are screamed, I’ll have a very fun time singing my gentle folk songs. Think Paul Simon being interpreted by Tom Waits. Check the MySpace link on the sidebar.

I’m moving into a single this semester. The reason I chose a single is because I’m virtually impossible to room with. I wake up early and don’t make a lot of noise. I listen to classical music. I prepare wholesome meals for two every time I cook, by reflex. I leave money lying around with no concern for it and where it goes. I’m a monster, guys.

I don’t really have any pertinent pictures. I know that’s what you kids like to see these days, because the only time I’ve ever gotten a comment on my blog, it’s been, “The pictures are nice.” So I’ll just post some random pictures I have lying around in my Flickr account.

I’ll update again in a few days. Thanks for reading, Grandma. Lumpkin loves his Gammy.

A.

Who am I kidding… who actually reads this thing? Well, I guess if my face is going to be on that clean little meet the students page I should update this thing accordingly.

So I haven’t really updated all semester. Yeah yeah, I’m a slacker, whatever. It’s been a busy one. Finals week is just around the corner, so I’m running around like a chicken sans head, but I managed to squeeze enough time to update you, my faithful reader(s?) on what I’ve been up to.

I may have mentioned in my last post (I’m too lazy to actually check) that I just got done doing Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest on the main stage here at Rowan. We brought in a Barrymore award-winning guest director, Madi DiStefano, from Philadelphia. It was a big, bright, colorful show, full of plenty of overacting and tragically American students attempting to do British accents. It certainly was a blast. We recently (finally) started letting students in for free, so the turnout was nice.

I also just auditioned for, and accordingly was cast in, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good for the main stage here. That will most definitely be an intense show. It takes place in an English prison off the coast of Australia, with the premise generally being the prisoners attempting to stage a play. It’s so much more than just that, though. What more, exactly? I guess you’ll just have to see it. Don’t worry, I’ll continue to hammer that into your head over the next few months before it opens. I should have at least two more entries until then (that, unfortunately, was a joke). I play two characters, one being an upper class English governor, and the other being a poor, decrepit Cockney prisoner with an interest in words. Hooray for intense accent work. Let’s see if my tongue falls off.

I recently received word that the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KC-ACTF) wants the original Rowan cast to stage our production of Spring Awakening at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia. That is very exciting news, and will most certainly keep me occupied over winter break.

I’ve got some pictures I’d like to share with you. A few are from my Thanksgiving break, why not? One is from the senior recital of one of my friends from the music department, and then there’s a good chunk from Earnest. “Enjoy.”

A.

Look who the cat dragged in. It’s li’l ol’ Andrew Clotworthy, back from the dead.

I’m just letting my devoted reader (Grandma) know that I am in fact, alive, and busy as [expletive censored by pottymouth™]. I need to take some photographs, or something. I highly doubt people want to read just text. But basically, here’s the gist: I just got done with The Importance Of Being Earnest, I just had my junior review, Marisol, the first lab show of the season, goes up tomorrow, and grew an inch (are you proud of me now, Mom?). I’ll expound more on these topics when I have a second to sit down, and also when I have pretty pictures to put up for you. I realize plain text is not the most pleasant medium.

Until next time, which will be soon, promise.

A.

Looks like I still have access to this little blog here.

This summer I’m living in Glassboro and working at the Provost’s Office at Rowan. Hopefully I’ll be acting in the Philadelphia Fringe festival too. Just waiting on a call for that one.

I felt the need to update this because if my face is going to be under the second listing of the Fine and Performing arts website, I’ll be damned if I’ll leave it outdated.

Ta.

A.

I’m a slacker. But I’m still alive.

I haven’t been updating this thing because I accidentally left my camera at home.

Busy with Spring Storm and Il Capitano Duped.

Bigger update at a later time.

Keep reading.

A.

Spring break has begun. The campus is desolate and quiet, as the children of Rowan have all gone home. Everyone except me, of course. I’m here until Monday for rehearsal for Il Capitano Duped, the Commedia Dell’Arte piece produced by John Bellomo. It’s not so bad, actually. Just very, very quiet. Ample atmosphere for taking walks.

I made the decision this past week that I wanted to go to London in the fall. So I made that happen. From Wednesday to Friday I was running back and forth like a headless hen getting letters of recommendations and filling out forms to aid in my haphazardly-thrown-together plan to exit the country. Somehow, I did it, and got all the forms in by Friday afternoon. Now I’m just incredibly psyched. I’ve never been out of the country before, and that in itself is an experience, but the fact that I’m going to be studying my craft for a whole four months is just… incredible to me. I’m studying at Middlesex University, on the Trent Park campus. Read a little bit about Trent Park. Look up some pictures on Google Images. Wow.

I’ve been rehearsing for the Commedia piece and Spring Storm by Tennessee Williams more lately, now that Spring Awakening is over and done with. Commedia is a very funny, physical thing. I’m playing one of the lovers, Flavio, and so basically I get to run around being led by my heart spouting out ridiculously flowery language and beaming about my love for Isabella. It’s fun stuff. Improvisation is something I’ve never gotten too heavily in to, but I’m enjoying it. Spring Storm is where I get to do a lot of my more mental acting… the role I have in that is pretty challenging, but really rewarding. It’ll probably be one of my favorites that I’ve ever done, just because of how much I like this character. Although I have to get off book for the entire play over the next week (I’ve only memorized the first scene I’m in that we’ve worked on so far). Wish me luck.

So I figured I’d just post another one of my well-received updates as I sit here staring out the window at the grey sky listening to Wilco. Thanks for reading. Sorry about the lack of photos. Haven’t had my camera on me this past week.

Take care.

A.

Whoa. Been slacking.

I apologize, reader (I refer to you solely because I understand that I’m lucky if I have one reader), for the lack of updates. Been a crazy, crazy couple of weeks with Spring Awakening and all.

We closed today after a two-weekend run. The show went wonderfully and the reception has been great from the people who didn’t walk out (no, seriously). It’s amazing to see that a play written in the late 1800’s can still inspire disgust to the point of leaving the production in what we perceive to be an open society.

After today’s show we were spoken to by an adjudicator from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Usually after every mainstage show a representative comes to nominate two people to go. It’s a very fun experience. I went this year as a scene partner for Bri Sudia, who was nominated for The Doctor In Spite Of Himself last fall. So we sat, listened to his comments, and then we went and struck the set. Seeing as how most of the set was comprised of dirt and flowers, needless to say I got the brown lung.

Now I got a little more free time, with the exception of the Commedia Dell’Arte piece. That’s looking pretty fun, though. I’d have liked to keep my schedule free after the absolute b-word of the rehearsal process for Spring Awakening, but I need to keep working on physical acting, since it’s always been my weak point. So hopefully I’ll take a lot from this next experience, as I did with the previous one.

As a special treat (oh yeah, really, thanks so much for this Drew, it’s such a privilege to be given this insight), here’s some more behind the scenes photos.

Oh wait, how’d that last one get in there? Uh yeah, that’s just me playing guitar at the on-campus grill, like I do every Thursday night at the Open Mic. Just thought I’d share that. I knew you’d care. You’re always so supportive.

Alright. I don’t know if you checked the time tag, but I’m friggin’ exhausted. So it’s time to hit the old bedstack.

Take care.

A.