on holiday

lobster feast

2011-02-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

every year, actors theatre hosts a big fundraising dinner called lobster feast. there's a different theme every year, and it's a fun event--lots of costumes, and lobster. this years theme was the sixties. and in one of the planning meetings, the party planning team asked how can we use and humiliate the apprentices? the answer was dressing us up as sixties icons and putting us to work throughout the evening. the results were hysterical.

featured in these pictures are emily kunkel as ginger from gillian's island, dinah as genie from i dream of genie, jordan as mick jagger, victoria as Q, daniel as andy warhol, and me and peter as sonny and cher.

peace&love,

ellen

new headshots!

2011-01-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

last week, a guy named alden ford came down from new york and took all of our headshots so we'd have new, pretty ones in time for humana. and boy, do they look great. a headshot is supposed to look like "you on a good day" and show your personality--you want to look good without looking like just an attractive robot. these are two of my favorites:

look, an article!

2011-01-10T07:03:00.001-08:00

an article in the louisville courier-journal about the tens:

click here

the new year

2011-01-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

well, here we are, on the other side of the new year. we're at our halfway point of the program. the last big projects that we'll be doing are our ten minute plays (the tens), the end (our humana show), the the new voices festival (plays written by local high schoolers).

we go into tech for the tens this weekend. tech means long hours, snacks, reading, and waiting. and this weekend, it'll be a lot of last minute rehearsing, too. martina bonolis (co-apprentice) and i are in a plays called "that first fall" about two best friends who return from college to find they've drifted apart. it's a dense little play, and martina and i were fortunate enough to work on it with lila neugebauer. lila was a directing intern at actors two years ago, and she's absolutely one of my favorite directors i've ever worked with. she has a great ability to make her actors feel challenged and safe at the same time. she also has this crazy ability to approach a play intellectually and accessibly at the same time. but, she lives in new york. so the week before break, she flew down, we created the play in four days, and now she's coming back to tech to make sure we haven't messed it up too badly. so this weekend will be long. fantastic, but lots of long hours and hard work.

Christmas Carol pictures!

2010-12-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

Our first show, a preview, is on Tuesday, and we open on Thursday! These pictures are from dress rehearsal.

this is the whole cast singing joy to the world at the end of the show. i'm standing next to scrooge on the right.

this is the ghost of christmas past with scrooge. lindsay, who plays past, is an acrobat, and she flings herself around the two silks in the picture. it's super cool.

this is the fred party scene. from left to right, lexi (mrs. fred, a former apprentice), devin (on the ground, apprentice), daniel (topper, apprentice), john (fred, equity actor), jordan (on the ground, apprentice), rebecca (my roommate and apprentice), and martina (apprentice).

pictures

2010-11-28T14:58:00.000-08:00

here's a link to the pictures from solo mio round 1:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/actorstheatreoflouisville/5196576341/in/set-72157625442535336/

other than me, the apprentices that did their pieces were monica (red jacket and glasses), victoria (bellydancing), jordan (wearing the hat), brandon (with rope), devin (dancing), and daniel (with the balloons).

rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal

2010-11-16T05:45:00.001-08:00

Hello!

Last Friday we started rehearsals for A Christmas Carol, and it is so exciting and wonderful to be rehearsing a play! The version here is very similar to the one at the KC Rep, but there's a little more singing, and the narration is a little different. It's lots of fun to be singing so much again--I'm very grateful for all of those years of choir at Shawnee Mission East (thanks for not letting me quit, mom).

The actors in the show are all quite young, in their thirties...I remember everyone at the Rep being much old. But I think that's because I was 12, and everyone over the age of 18 is pretty much 90 from that perspective. They're a great bunch and I"m looking forward to celebrating Christmas with them everyday for the next two months!

xoxo,

ellen

the humana festival of new american plays

2010-11-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

hello everyone!

i'm so sorry it has been so long--the past few weeks have been totally insane. the mystery of irma vep closed, we worked all week on the load in of the sets and lights of a christmas story, i've been watching all of the story rehearsals, christmas carol prep, etc, etc, etc. but this weekend and week my schedule is calming down a lot. so on my to-do list is "call people". if you are a homo sapien that i know, expect a phone call.

we've got big news at actors--the lineup for the humana festival of new american plays! the humana festival is a BIG deal. it's been around since the 70s and is the most important new play festival in the country. lots of plays that you've heard of premiered here--crimes of the heart, dinner with friends, becky shaw, the list goes on and on. the festival runs throughout the month of march, and tons of actors, directors, designers, critics, and theatre lovers descend on louisville to create plays and watch them and then take them back to their own theatres and produce them there. i've attached the link for the press release at the bottom so you can look at the plays and playwrights.

also super exciting is that the apprentice company has their own show in humana--it's called "the end", and it's about the apocalypse. there are five playwrights who are working together to create this play for us, and we do the show during all of the big humana weekends.

http://actorstheatre.org/2010/11/07/35th-annual-humana-festival-lineup-announcement/

talk to ya'll soon!

ellen

'tis the christmas season!

2010-10-19T05:41:00.001-07:00

i know it's only the middle of october, but here at actors, it's the start of christmas season. last week we started rehearsals for a christmas story, which runs in the month of november, and in a few weeks we'll be starting rehearsals for a christmas carol, which runs in december.

i'm the understudy to the mother in a christmas story, which means that if she ever gets sick or hurt then i have to go on. it's my job to know all of her lines and blocking and basically do the role exactly as she does it--it's not my job to create my own character. so i've been watching all of the rehearsals and writing everything down and memorizing my lines. it's a lot of work; the apprenti call it "rehearsing for that play you're not in". i would hope that jessie (the woman who plays the mother) would get sick, but she's so sweet and kind (and a former apprentice!) that i can't do that.

for a christmas carol, i got cast as the part of fan! you might remember me playing this role in 7th and 8th grade. the version of christmas carol that actors does is very similar to the version at the kc rep, but they both have added different songs over the years and tell the story slightly differently. there isn't a dickens narrator in this one; the narration is done by all of the members of the company.

so from now until i see ya'll on december 24th, i'll be steeped in christmas!

xoxo, ellen

video time!

2010-10-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hello!

It's video time! The show i'm crewing right now is The Mystery of Irma Vep, a fun gothic-melodrama spoof. The whole show is done by two guys, Larry and Blake, who play 6 characters. They're absolutely hysterical, and so I thought I'd share their promo videos:

Here's the second one:

And, just for fun, here's a video for the education department that me and fellow apprentice Jordan Brodess did. It's to promote the New Voices Playwrights Festival for high school kids:

flash mob

2010-09-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

today, the apprenti took panera by storm and performed a flash mob to promote the production of dracula currently running at actors. a flash mob is when people seemingly spontaneously break out into some sort of performance--of course it's all very well rehearsed. we choreographed a quick dance to lady gaga's song "teeth".

enjoy!

my solo mio

2010-09-22T20:34:00.001-07:00

hi ya'll

this friday and saturday i'm performing my solo mio. we've been in rehearsal for these for three weeks. we each wrote our own pieces, and had a director and dramaturg to help us refine, edit, and perform these puppies! i thought i'd post my final draft here, so you can at least read it. imagine throughout the piece that i'm putting on the makeup that i'm talking about. please keep in mind that all names are changed, and characters are expanded for theatrical purposes. i'll post pictures soon!

"Um…guys…it says right here that for blue eyes, lavender eye shadow is good…is this one lavender?"

How did I get here? Buying makeup was NOT my idea—it was Jessie’s! I just brought the seventeen magazine and she picked it up and now here we are, in front of foundation, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, lip gloss.

-Yeah, Ellen, you should have that lavender eyeshadow, and this blush because you’re pale and your cheeks need to stand out….ohmygosh, can I give you a makeover?!

~~We went back to my house, and Jessie took me hostage. She came at me with the black eyeliner. Upper lashline first. And then the lower lash line. OUCH! It hurt!~~

Ohmygod. I looked like one of those cool girls who weren’t in my math classes and who sat at the other table at lunch and who wore Abercrombie and Fitch. This isn’t me, this is someone else…

-It looks great, Jessie! I don’t know if I’ll wear it at school, but…I’d wear it if…I were going to a party.

I didn’t go to parties. But maybe..if I went to that dance at the country club next week…I could wear this eyeliner. And maybe Josh would be there…

-You’re the best, Jessie, thanks!

I kept most of that makeup for a long time, much longer than you’re supposed to keep it for—because I just didn’t use it all that often. My party-going career didn’t take off like it was supposed to in middle school. But high school—that was a different story. There are a lot of parties in high school. The best one is Homecoming. My first dance ever. With my first boyfriend ever. Brian. He’s super cute and does debate.

I went to Target and bought some new makeup—pink sparkly eyeshadow, and some new pink lipgloss, My dress is turquoise, and my shoes and bag are silver, so I’m thinking the pink eyeshadow will be a nice accent. The dance is at school at 8, we’re all going to dinner at 6:30 at Hibachi, and pictures are at 5:45 at Tom’s house. So…I should probably start getting ready at 2. That’s what Caitlin said she’s doing [finish applying makeup]

Okay, So it’s 2:30. Um…Do I need to be doing more to get ready? Didn’t Caitlin say she was gonna start getting ready at 2? Do I need more lipgloss?

I decided I should just do my geometry homework. Finally it was time to go to Toms!

Hey Brian!

-You look really pretty, Ellen

Yeah. Well…I tried really hard.

-Ha, yeah. It’s like totally not fair, like guys just have to shower and put on a suit, and like, girls have to spend so much time getting ready and stuff.

Yeah, you’re right. I had to get ready all day! Totally not fair. Yeah…well, you wanna go take pictures?

I threw out that pink eye shadow a few months later…it was way too sparkly. And I bought new black eyeliner…and I kinda liked it. It looked….definitive.

Mom hurry up! I don’t want to be late to school again! Please drive faster!

-Did you eat any breakfast?

No, Mom, I wasn’t hungry.

-Honey, why do you wear so much eyeliner? I bet it’s the light in the van, you don’t realize how strong it is. If you did it before we got in the car, you wouldn’t wear as much.

Whatever, mom. I like it.

-Well, what are you guys doing in English class today, honey?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It’s an awesome book. It’s like an allegory, Nurse Ratched is like society in general and the patients are, like, fighting against her. It’s cool.

-Oh...I don’t remember that from the movie.

The movie isn’t as good as the book, mom. Okay I’ll see you after school, Bye!

I applied that black eyeliner diligently every morning those next few years. I got involved with every after school activity. I stayed up late studying to keep my GPA a 4.0, and took every honors class I could to make it weighted to 4.65. I wanted and needed to be perfect. But in English class we read Cuckoos Nest and Catcher in the Rye and All Quiet on the Western Front and The Great Gatsby and I realized that in these books and in the world at large there was something much, much bigger than what I was trying to control with my eyeliner and eating habits and grades. I couldn’t escape those pressures in my day to day high school life, but I could escape with Chief Broom and wonder where the ducks when and see the green light from my window.

In the next few years I went through lots of black eyeliner.

But then I moved to LA. People in LA are easy going and chill…and tan. It became obvious I needed a new makeup routine. So I left the black eyeliner behind, and discovered bronzer.

Okay, Professor. Here’s my abstract for my seminar paper. The two texts I’m using are Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and Appetites by Caroline Knapp.

Hey Sammy, can you do a smoky eye? Thank you, you are the best. Adrian and I are going to dinner at Fat Fish and then there’s a beer pong tournament, so we’re playing in that…How did I become one of those girls that dates a Sigma Chi?

So I want to start the paper analyzing the way that Cassius seduces Brutus into getting him to kill Caesar. And then I’ll compare how Knapp analyzes social pressures on women of our generation. Cassius wants Brutus to seek for more, and Knapp says we’re told to want less, but I want to show how the two arguments are constructed in exactly the same way.

I’m meeting his mom tomorrow… so are we dating? I dunno…he hasn’t asked me to be his girlfriend. I’m not really seeing anyone else…I just don’t know what he wants.

Keeping in mind those arguments, I’m going to analyze this article about Angelina Jolie in last month’s Vogue. I’ll use this modern day example to talk about the pressures on modern day women and how smothering they are. Do you think that sounds okay?

Ohmygosh, thank you so much Sammy! It looks fantastic. You have to teach me how to do it myself.

I got an A on that paper, I learned how to do a smoky eye, and last winter I bought myself my first lipstick. In fire engine red. And then I bought a pinky-red. And then a hot pink . And coral.

Lipstick is grown up. It is sexy. It’s confident.

I am not sure if I am grown up, sexy, or confident. Wearing lipstick doesn’t help with the feeling in the pit of your stomach when the boy you like talks to the other girl at the bar. It doesn’t make you feel less awkward or lonely when the conversation isn’t going well.

But when I’m wearing it, I do feel grown up. I feel sexy. I feel confident. I haven’t created the Ellen that I want to become. But I’ve imagined her. And she’s usually wearing lipstick.

fun links!

2010-09-18T06:56:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone!

I don't have much to report that's new this week. kite runner crew keeps on going, and my solo mio goes up next week. that is causing me some panic but...oh well! such is life in theatre.

so i thought i'd share some fun links with you all! first of all, this is the actors theatre homepage:

http://www.actorstheatre.org/index.htm

here is a blog written by one of my fellow apprenti, ryan. he's from iowa and a stand-up gentleman.

http://www.ryanwestwood.blogspot.com/

and this is the inside actors blog, updated by the marketing intern. it's full of great behind the scenes info:

http://actorstheatre.wordpress.com/

so get reading, ya'll!

(yeah i've started saying ya'll. it's super convenient and almost as cool as vosotros.)

xoxo, ellen

new plays!

2010-09-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite things about actors theatre is that they are a flagship theatre for developing new works. the humana festival of new american plays is the biggest new play festival in the country, and the shows that premiere here almost always go on to other productions. quite a few have been pulitzer prize finalists or winners, including Crimes of the Heart. remember when you saw me do that in high school? it was the one about the three sisters.

at usc and at bada, my training has mostly been based on classic works and basic tenants of theatre. mary joan and all of my other wonderful professors were always pushing us to understand the heart of the play and analyze how our characters fit into that. we were trained to think about the world of the play and the unity of that world and develop our characters within that.

the great thing about the new plays here is that they push a lot of theatrical boundaries--playwrights and artists here think big. but they always hold onto the basic ideas about theatre that i've been taught. this makes a lot of great plays that tell wonderful stories in new and interesting ways.

i'm off to kite runner!

ellen

the first month

2010-09-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

at our company meeting on saturday, michael congratulated us on being at the end of our first month. woo, a whole month! it feels like we've been here for both a really, really, really long time and a just a second. 8 more months!

last week we all began working on our solo performance pieces. i hate solo performance for many, many reasons, so last week was a little trying. but the good news is that i have an idea for my show, which will go up september 24th and 25th. One of the directing interns, Zach, is directing my piece, and i know he's gonna be great. (He did go to Stanford, but i'm able to work through that. fortunately he doesn't know football very well, so we don't have to talk about how I've never seen my team beat his.) i have a draft done and our first rehearsal is tomorrow!

kite runner is getting easier and more fun; i'm actually enjoying hanging out backstage and doing quick changes. and whenever any actor gives me trouble, i just tell him to knock it off or i won't change his clothes and he'll look like a fool onstage. mmm, power!

and finally, i got cast as the understudy for the mother in christmas story! this means i will learn her role just in case she gets sick. this is awesome becuase i get equity point for doing it! also, does anybody know where i can get some black market viral infection to possibly take out a person for 24 hours with flu like symptoms? i mean, i'd never do that...

love,

ellen

running with kites

2010-08-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

last weekend, i started working on the crew of the kite runner. it was technical rehearsal weekend, so we worked two twelve hour days back to back. there are four apprentices crewing the show: me, daniel, brandon, and monica. monica and i are the wardrobe girls so we're in charge of all of the backstage costume changes. it's a hard show to work, and we're running around all of the time. it's exhausting. but the cast is wonderful--they are all so kind to us and they are a lot of fun to be around. so while the work is grueling, it's a great place to be.

every time i walk into actors theatre, i fall in love with it all over again. everyone that works here is so kind and willing to teach us, mentor us, and just put up with us. michael and amy, the directors of our program, are so dedicated to us i can't believe it. we put in long hours, but they work harder than we do, making sure that we're prepared for whatever we want to do when we leave here.

over the last few days i've really realized just how challenging this year is going to be, but i also know in my gut that this is the absolutely best place for me to be right now.

i'm off to rub my sore feet,

ellen

week three in luh'vulle

2010-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

the entire acting apprentice and administrative intern company

(i'm on the left end of the third row. my neck has disappeared.)

i've become a true citizen of louisville: i've learned to pronounce it correctly.

it's not three syllables, lou-ee-ville. mush them all together, luhvull. if you must, put an apostrophe in between (honestly, that's where i am right now): luh'ah'vull.

as week three starts, we're starting to get really geared up for all of our work. our ensemble project, a short, 45 minute play that we've created from newspaper stories, goes up on friday and saturday. also this weekend, i'll begin working on crew for the kite runner. i'm actually very excited about that--the kite runner cast is very friendly, and they have a lot of wisdom to bestow on us young pups. they love to play soccer and go out with the apprentices to the several bars that actors theatre frequents. by the end of this week, i'll have an idea of how the rest of my year will be scheduled.

i finally feel like i'm beginning to have a routine here--i know where to buy groceries, what bars are fun, and i have a running route. i have favorite yoga teachers at the YMCA and a favorite coffee shop. i'm feeling less and less like i'm studying abroad in louisville and more like i live here.

xoxo, ellen

one week ago

2010-08-16T14:26:00.001-07:00

...one week ago, the 22 apprentices had just met each other.

rebecca, devin, and dinah outside of the main lobby

this is totally bizarre, because we feel like we've known each other for years. we've all become fast friends, and we're all ready to throw everything we've got into these next nine months. our first project together is our ensemble project, where we create a play out of newspapers we all brought with us from our hometowns. we're performing this in two weeks (crazy!). also, we're starting to work on crew for dracula, the kite runner, and the mystery of irma vep. oh, and we are starting our solo performance pieces next week. the list keeps going on and on.

while this all keeps us super busy, we are sure to find time to hang out and drink margaritas. case in point, last friday at los aztecas mexican restaurant. here is a picture of most of the group.

the new place

2010-08-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

i have a new apartment!

rebecca and dinah (my new roommates) and i all moved in early last week. after unpacking, decorating, and shopping at target, it's ready to make its debut. it's beautiful, and i'm very happy to call it home for now. my room:

and grandma's blue chair in the living room:

the other side of the living room:

we're about two miles from the theatre, in a beautiful area called old louisville. all of the houses are old and have been maintained very well. this city is full our surprises; there are lots of blocks of great restaurants and shops and farmers markets.

we start working tomorrow, and i can't wait!

xoxo, ellen

packing up and moving out

2010-07-30T07:50:00.001-07:00

hello everyone!

after a year long hiatus, i've decided to start updating on holiday again. on monday, i leave for kentucky to spend a year working at actors theatre of louisville. i'm going a little crazy, doing last minute packing (let's be honest, just plain packing), trying to learn one more monologue before i leave, dog sitting, and thinking of all sorts of other last minute things i need to do.

it's going to be a busy nine months--acting, crewing, working in the office, all day, every day. one moment i'm so thrilled to go and totally ready, and the next i'm panicking and wondering why i ever left los angeles.

i can't wait for this next adventure. over and out!

week three: parade!

2009-06-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

so dad might have told you by now, but i have become a new lakers fan. this is because i live in los angeles, have never paid attention to professional basketball before, and i hear the lakers are awfully good. also, they had a parade that went right by my house.

yes, the lakers are the 2009 nba champs, so yes, they decided to have a victory parade (whats a $52 million deficit for the city of LA to stop that for?). and because i live one block away from figureoa avenue, where the parade was, i decided to go. kimmy, my roommate, is a big lakers fan, as are her boyfriend ryan and sister angie, and so they came to the parade with us. the following pictures are courtesy of angie.

ryan, me, and kimmy, waiting for the parade to start!

this is my new favorite lakers player, pau, the center. he is my favorite becuase he is 7 feet tall and from spain.

i think i need to learn a little bit more about basketball. but i like liking this team! as long as they keep having parades.

week two

2009-06-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

well, it's week two of my summer holiday. one update: i have a new internship, with an acting manager. a manager is someone who represents actors, gets them out on auditions, and supports them if they get jobs. so now, every wednesday, i'll be helping this manager submit her actors for auditions, making calls to coordinate between the actors, etc. i'm very excited; this is a part of the acting business that i know nothing about!

the exciting thing that i did this week was go to see the play "our town" at the actors gang. my friends and i are trying to see a lot of LA theatre this summer, since it's what we all want to do, and because it's important to know the theatre scene. our town is one of my all-time favorite plays, and many of you probably remember sitting through a version i did at good ol' shawnee mission east. with no disrespect to the lancers, this version was probably much better. it was a very simple, moving version of the play and i loved it. i laughed and cried (if you don't cry at the end of this play, there is something wrong with you). Here is a production still from the actors gang blog:

that's ma and doc gibbs, father of george gibbs, the male lead. it was so good!

ta ta for now!

ellen

week one

2009-06-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

week one of my summer holiday.

kimmy, ellen, and me at the end of hike in griffith park.

the highlight of this week was on saturday, when me, my roommate kimmy, and my friends ellen and kami went for a hike in griffith park. griffith park is a city park at the top of the hollywood hills just north of los angeles. you can hike all the way up to the top of the hill and get a great view of the entire city of LA. you don't realize just how huge the city is until you see all of it. cases in point (s):

this is the west part of the city. the horizon is actually the beach.

this is the east part of the city. the tall group of buildings is downtown, and usc is just past that. you can't see the school; the buildings are too small.

i'll update next week!

ellen

it's the summer holidays

2009-06-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

well friends,

after a long and tiring semester in which on holiday was sadly updated only sparsely, i am back! it's the summer holiday, and i will be spending it in los angeles, because it is sunny here.

these are the things i will be doing:

1. working in the usc grand street library: this is the library where usc books go when they are unloved. i shelve them and update the records. but the best part is when i steal away, snatch a book from the shelves, and read in the book stacks. books perused so far include: what to do with your money, best business schools in america, manifest destiny and the period before the civil war, and a 1928 copy of "vanity fair."

2. interning at pacific stages. they're an up-and-coming theatre company, and i will be helping to produce the summer season of staged readings.

3. planning lots of events and things for the girls that will join adpi in the fall. this includes planning bid night, buying lots of thing with "alpha delta pi!!!!" written on them, and checking another email account.

i promise to update weekly, with details of these happenings and also of the shenanigans that take place during the weekends. i'm planning to "tour" LA and do things i've never done before, like to to griffith park and the la brea tarpits.

xoxo

ellen

drinking legally

2009-04-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

it is 21st birthday season. both my roommate kimmy and i became legal this month, which conseqeuntly opens lots of fun things that we can do in LA! these pictures are from kimmy's birthday party, where we went to LA Live, a new devleopment kind of like the Power and Light District. we celebrated at lucky strike, a swankified bowling alley, and yardhouse, a cool restaurant that has a late night happy hour from 10-12 with lots of flavored martinis. yum!

bowling shoes!
all the girls: kimmy, anna, ellen, amy, and me (all adpi's)

kimmy gets a strike!

ADPi invite

2009-02-21T19:34:00.000-08:00

ah, invite time. for the uninitiated (literally), invites a sorority and fraternity parties that are either in costume or semi-formal. our most recent invite was costumed (aka AWESOME) and the theme was American Pi. my date alex (you'll recognize him from the macchu pichu and argentina pics) had the good fortune of having two colonial wigs, so we went as george and martha washington. pretty sweet. here are the good pictures:

this is brad and my friend ellen (the only other one i know!) who i'm living with next year. they were a stepford couple:

the next one is me and alex. he's pretending to cross the delaware.

this is my roommate kimmy and me. she was an apple, and her boyfriend ryan was johnny appleseed.

lear pictures

2009-02-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

so, i just got the stills from king lear today, and they are awesome! these got uploaded backwards, so don't try to follow the story. it would be very post modern and confusing. this first picture is the end of the play, cordelia and lear dead down center, the fool singing, dead edmund and goneril in the background.

cordelia and lear reunited.
regan and cornwall putting kent in the shackles, gloucester protesting.
the company, pre-show.
the first scene in the show, kent protecting cordelia and lear exiling kent.

aren't these great? i miss london so!

what college students do in their spare time

2009-02-06T10:20:00.001-08:00

if you're on facebook, you know by now the cult of "25 things you didn't know about me!". if you're not, please don't get one. facebook will take over your life and it will be horrible.
for the uninformed, 25 things you don't know about me is a note that you write about yourself...hopefully you have 25 interesting things to fill up the entry. so i was procrastinating yesterday, and i wrote one. i figured i'd post it here, too, just for fun.

drumroll, please!

a list. by ellen.
1. i really hate wearing pants. i don't think they're comfortable at all. which is why i love leggings. i wear them as often as i can. i like to think i look like a hipster.
2. i really love sunglasses. they make me feel glamorous.
3. I wish i was really into music and could tell you about this really cool indie band i love. i'm usually listening to the other people talking about great music, write the bands down, and go listen to them. it's how i earn my street cred.
4. i take my moleskine with me almost everywhere i go. i make lists, plan things, write important/funny things down. it's how i remember all the stupid stuff my friends say. ex, they WOUND their enemies (pronounced like winding thread)
5. i'm really proud of what i did in london.
6. i like to have life chats with mary joan negro. she gives me the courage to do the things that i want to do, deep down.
7. i really wish i was good at photography.
8. i think i am independent, to a fault.
9. onetime one of my "dear mr. president" letters was posted on mcsweeney's. it was one of my proudest white people moments.
10. the quote in the little box on my wall is from the website "stuff white people like". i'm not that self absorbed.
11. i really want to live my life doing theatre. i want to act badly. and i want to be an artistic director someday too. and i want to be good.
12. i love roofs with views.
13. i feel very silly filing this out.
14. my mom thinks i'm REALLY organized and that i manage my time well. i don't know where she got this idea. i mean, she used to live with me. and i'm filling this thing out.
15. if my parents get facebook, i'll freak.
16. i want to live in LA after i graduate. I like this city a lot, and I just started going out and seeing it.
17. i want to move to chicago and work in theatre after i graduate.
18. i'll go wherever hires me after i graduate, which might happen at the end of the fall.
19. i hate how women my age hate feminism. you're where you are now because of feminism, ladies. i don't know where this idea came from, that feminists have to hate men and not shower. i'm a girl. i dress up. i like being treated equally. i'm a feminist.
20. i'd love to marry someone tall, so i can wear heels.
21. i'm really glad i'm from the midwest.
22. i think south america is a wonderful place. i really want to go back.
23. i miss my friends and family when i'm gone, but i'm really terrible at staying in touch.
24. i hate my class on don quijote. probably becuase we don't talk about don quijote in class. we talk about los angeles and sci fi novels. it's making the experience of reading it...terrible.
25. i wish i had been in america when barack obama was elected.

back in sunny california

2009-02-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

it's been taking me a while to get back into the swing of things here in sunny CA, but i'm trying as best i can. this semester i'm taking it slow, focusing on classes and my internship and kinda/maybe thinking about what i'm going to do with the rest of my life.
ah!
ok, so now i'm no longer thinking about my life plans.
that's about the amount of time i can stand to do that.

so, this semester, i'm working in the executive offices of center theatre group, one of the two big theatre companies in LA. everyone in the office is a lot of fun, and it's a very relaxing place to go to work. the executive offices are where the artistic director and managing director work. as the intern, i am at the very bottom of the fish in this pool. however, i do get to do lots of interesting things such as answering phones and filing. um...no, really, it's a great place to work.
i'm also making real money at the usc costume shop, putting away clothes in the basement and loosing all feeling in my fingers from sewing on buttons all day.

my travel plans for the semester are pretty low key, but i am going to seattle for a weekend to visit my good friend carly, who graduated last year. i'll be back in KC for spring break, too.

xoxo,
e

leaving londontown

2008-12-10T02:10:00.001-08:00

sorry that my posts have been few and far between, but we have been hard at work on king lear. the show is great, and it's been one of the best play experiences that i've ever had. kelly is such an inspirational director; we always come home from rehearsal exhausted.

the show is on thursday, but we've been doing lots of performances for various people's families and we even did a run in regent's park. it was freezing and we got lots of strange looks from the passers-by, but quite a few people stopped and watched.

i fly home on saturday. i'm ready to be stateside again, but i'll definitely miss london.
anyway, i can't think about that too much, becuase it will make me sad.

see you soon!
ellen

oxford

2008-11-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

this weekend i took a much needed break and visited one of my best friends, mel, in oxford. she's studying at keble college this year, and so i spent the weekend running around oxford with her, taking pictures and pretending to be a college student again.

saturday, i got in around 1, so we got lunch at a local cafe and then walked around the city all afternoon. this is the bod, or the bodleian, the really, really, really, really big library in oxford. apparently it runs for miles, underneath the streets. that night, we saw a really cool production of romeo and juliet that one of mel's friends was in. it was a promenade performance, which means you mill around with the actors and a lot of scenes happen simultaneously. it really imaginative but still a good, coherent story.

the next day, we walked around oxford again, visiting the oxford castle, which is really old (pre norman invasion!) and has a really great timeline in the sidewalk outside of it.

then we got ben's cookies, which make real-life american cookies (british biscuits just don't cut it after a while), with steve, the son of one of mom's really good friends from smu. we snuck our way into christ church, where they filmed harry potter, by pretending we were students, and we took lots of pictures.

that night mel swiped some robes for me, and we had dinner in the keble dining hall. there are three long dining tables, and you must wear your academic robe. all the students enter and sit at the long tables, and then the professors in their full academic robes come in and sit at the high table at the head of the dining hall. then some choir boys sang and we at dinner. it was oh so harry potter and fabulous!

i grabbed the bus home late that night, and made it back for a very early 9:30 rehearsal of king lear. the show is going wonderfully--i can't believe we're in our 3rd week of rehearsals! it's going so fast!

happy thanksgiving everyone!

drumroll, please!

2008-11-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

so today was our second day of rehearsals, and so this morning kelly told us our parts.
i'm cordelia!
she's the good sister, who refuses to "heave [her] heart into [her] mouth" and declare her love for lear in order to recieve a part of his kingdom. he consequently banishes her, and she is taken in by the duke of france, and becomes the queen of france. she returns at the end of the play with the french army to take over england and save her father, and i won't spoil the end for you...but it's a tragedy.

xoxo,
ellen

election 2008-where were you?

2008-11-10T13:07:00.000-08:00

election night, 2008. it was our last night in barcelona, and we had decided to go dancing. sticking true to spanish style, we grabbed dinner around 10 and headed out to a club around midnight. before leaving, we had the bbc on, but knew that nothing would be happening becuase that was just when the first polls were closing--there is a 6 hour time difference between barcelona and the west coast.

on the way to the club, we walked past a bar where they had put on the election coverage after the FC Barcelona game (first priority, clearly). the first returns were coming in, so we popped in and watched a few true-blue northeast states go obama. we then left to go dancing and get our mind off of things.

but when we left the club at 3, we knew that things would be happening. we got back to our hotel room (with a bottle of optimistic champagne in hand) and turned on the bbc. obama was up 175 to 95, but ohio and pennsylvania hadn't come in yet. we watched as the BBC commentators interviewed such experts as eddie izzard and some republican in colorado. clearly, the top peeps were taken by cnn and fox. then ohio got called--and pennsylvania. it was around 4, and we were beginning to feel confident enough to nod off...so one by one, we crashed on the beds. but an hour later, at 5, ritu woke us all up, shouting, "GUYS HE WON! HE WON!" we all jumped up and hugged each other, and smiled, and feel back asleep, becuase we had to leave for a flight in two hours.

then we headed off to berlin, where we had a wonderful time. berlin is basically like a big brooklyn--there is art, ethnic food, and music everywhere. we listened to german music, saw an absurdist play (in german), saw james bond, visited the holocaust memorial, and on our last night made friends with a very charming and friendly gay german art magazine publicist.

sunday was a rest and chill day, with the grandparents and poppa haun visiting.

today was our first day of rehearsal--kelly is my director, and i'm in king lear, as a sister. but i won't find out which one til tomorrow...so expect another update!

love,

ellen

p.s. to all the wonderful adpis who sent me that fabulous care package--i love you!

we´re in barcelona!

2008-11-03T03:13:00.000-08:00

so on friday, we had auditions and that night found out what show we´re in. i´m in king lear! however, we don´t know what parts we have. there are only three of us girls, so we´re the sisters, and we know that amy is a bad sister, but between me and jaq we can´t figure out who is bad and who is cordelia. either way, i´m absolutely thrilled!

after celebratign the end of audtions and halloween on friday, we promtly boarded a plane! ritu, annie (my roomies), parker, tom and i are currently in barcelona. we leave for berlin on wednesday and will spend a few days there before heading back on saturday. barcelona is amazing. we live in la ribera, right next to the old gothic quarter. i´m getting to practice my spanish and translate for everyone, and it´s lots of fun. i forgot how much i love spanish culture and the people. everyone is so friendly here, and the men arent as creepy as they were in argentina, so it´s a perfect combo! yesterday we went to thepicasso museum, which was incredible. they mostly had his early and more obscure works, which were fascinating to see. it helped me to understand just how brilliant he is. then we saw the barcelona cathedral, which was amazing, and that night we went to a free jazz concert that was part of the barcelona jazz festival. these three guys played jazz for 3 hours straight and it was some of the msot incredible guitar playing i´ve ever heard in my entire life. we had a table right in the middle of the tiny, crowded club, and my clothes still smell like cigarettes, but it was amazing.

illl update when i can,
love, ellen

potions class and the rest of the weekend

2008-10-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

so, friday...normal day...you know...oh wait, no, silly ellen, alan rickman came!
he came to do a q&a session, since he could only stay for an hour. so he walked in with this very stern snape-glare on his face. and i was scared. either he was going to take over the building (and since we didnt have bruce willis, what were we going to do????) or he was going to make us make a polyjuice potion, and i haven't praticed that one. but no, he immediately began answering questions, and was very kind, very funny, and cracked lots of jokes. here are the words of wisdom i gleaned from him:
put 120% of effort into everything.
after you've done that and put in the discipline, comes absolute artistic freedom.
take risks, and dare to screw up and be bad
listen very, very closely, and non-judgementally

after this, we were all on an absolute high. me and the boys in the flat next door went for a post-alan pint in camden, and then came back to watch lord of the rings. becuase we have these moments when we're overwhelmingly cool...

the next day, i decided to actaully get out into london, and went to the tower of london! we took a tour with a very friendly and boisterous beefeater, ran after the ravens, and saw the crown jewels. then we came back to all go out to dinner for jason's big 21st birthday dinner and went to the moose, a good local pub, to finish off the night.

sunday was a restful day, with some cheap shopping at primark.
so all in all, a perfect weekend!
love,
ellen

stonehenge and bath

2008-10-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

yesterday we (me, harrison, and sam) decided that we needed to get out of london. so what did we decide to do on such short notice? go to stonehenge and bath!
on friday night, we found a little tour company to take us on a bus. we called them up, booked tickets, and rolled out of bed at 7:00am saturday morning to get to the bus station. after procuring coffee, we rode on the bus for about an hour and a half to get to stonehenge. upon arrival, we spent about an hour and a half walking around stonehenge and listening to our audio guides, which told us that no one really knows what the hell stonehenge is. it was awesome.

then, it was on to bath, which a really, really, really old city. there are hot springs, and it was oringially settled by celts, but when the romans came they really settled the place and built a huge temple to minerva and lots of baths and bath houses. hence the city's name. we had three hours in the city, so we toured the bath house, went to the abbey, had fish and chips, and walked along the river bank. it was beautiful.
sorry i have been a little slow about posting, life has become very busy! today we have a master class with alan rickman--and i am SO excited! this weekend will be pretty low key, as we are all preparing for auditions next week. we're grabbing dinner tonight in camden, and tomorrow i'd like to visit the tower of london.
i will update on sunday with the weekend's adventures and stories of snape...i mean alan.
love,
ellen

pictures!

2008-10-12T04:48:00.000-07:00

picture time! this is an obligatory photo from london bridge, taken on the second day we were here, from a bus tour. this is billy shakes's grave (kind of morbid, i know) taken when we went to stratford. trinity church was beautiful.
this is the royal shakespeare company's current theatre in stratford, as they are renovating their other one. this is where we saw "a midsummer night's dream". they own the theatre world. i adore them.
this is my favorite group picture, taken at the volunteer, one of our local pubs. on the curve from left to right, it's jason, sydney, harrison, amy, pat, drew, amy, annie, me, lindsay, anne, will, tess, russ, and conrad. i LOVE these people so much!

xoxo,
ellen

how on earth is it october 10th?

2008-10-10T01:24:00.000-07:00

i don't know where all the time is going! we're finishing week 5 of classes--here is the class round-up:
shakespeare: we're doing scenes. i'm juliet in the juliet/nurse scene in romeo and juliet (how many times can YOU say juliet in one sentence? also--did shakespeare ever realize he'd named a character juliet capulet? ew.) and celia in rosalind/celia from as you like it. LOTS of fun!
high comedy: i'm working on lady fullbank from aphra behn's 'the lucky chance'. it's a kind-of forgotten restoration comedy by a female playwright, and it's great. our teacher kathryn was in it with 'alan' (rickman, that is).
modern physical: we're doing mask work!
stage combat: basically, you all should be very scared when i come home. very, very scared. i could kill you with my dagger and rapier.
tutorials: i've got some mean monologues from richard the third and the merchant of venice.

for a life round-up, i'm going to barcelona and berlin during our week long break with my roommates, annie and ritu. ritu has friends in berlin, and i can speak spanish, so that's how we chose those two cities.
this weekend, the portobello road market is on the to-do list, as is a visit to the tate modern and brick lane for indian food.

my replacement camera battery came today so i will post pictures as soon as i can!
love, ellen

and today, we saw alan rickman

2008-10-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

i think spoiling the end of your story is one of the first things they teach you not to do in writing school. however, i am in drama school. and i recall something called foreshadowing. so think of the title as foreshadowing.

SO about 5 other students and i were headed to the donmar warehouse in the west end, where we were going to see 'creditors' by alan strindberg and directed by alan rickman. anne, who is one of the most laid-back people in the entire world, said as we were walking, "wouldnt it be great if we saw HIM?" anne is...obsessed. as are, all of us, but anne especially.

so we were running a little late, of course, and we were walking down earlham st with the donmar in sight, and right there, in front of a small restaurant a few buildings down from the theatre, is alan, chatting with some friends. drew and i walk right by, trying to keep our cool but stealing sidelong glances. anne, however, freezes. drew and i turn around, and we see anne approaching very slowly. she says "um, mr. rickman...hi, um, my name is anne, and we're all acting students at bada and i just wanted to say i really admire your work. we're on our way to see the show right now, but i just wanted to let you know how much i look up to you." to which alan replied, "oh, why thank you so much. isn't it 7:15? shouldn't you get to your seats?" anne smiled and said "yeah, we're hurrying! thanks so much! and...you should do a masterclass!" to which alan smiled and said "oh, yes..."

yes, yes, the show was wonderful. but we saw alan!!!

in moments like these, the only thing i can do is think 'snape...snape...severus snape....DUMBLEDORE!'

from across the pond

2008-09-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

this week has been theatre-filled. i've seen three shows:
1. cooped. recommended to us by our modern physical teacher, this was an hour and a half of british humor. everyone was made fun of--germans, spaniards, americans, women, old people. men dressed in women's clothes. there were rubber chickens and ping pong balls. it was great.

2. ivanov. kenneth branagh starred--it was the first time he's been onstage in five years. we were in the super-cheap seats: back of the top balcony, standing, but we could see and hear everything. it was tom stoppard's new adaptation of chekov's play, so the writing was excellent. and the rest of the cast was equally as talented. really, really fabulous.

3. hedda. this was a modern adaptation of hedda gabbler by ibsen at a small theatre in notting hill. i loved it--the adaptation was very true to the play but changed some really interesting things, and all of the actors were totally phenomenal.

one of my favorite things about london so far is how diverse theatre is here--there is always something for everyone, and the audiences are always full of all different sorts of people.
i found the cord which uploads my pictures to my computer, so i will post pictures soon!

love,
ellen

this week, in review

2008-09-21T11:43:00.001-07:00

classes got harder this week, and the work began to pile on. this isn't a bad thing, though, and i'm quite head-over-heels for all of my professors. here are this week's highlights:

1. in high comedy, our teacher kathryn told us two stories. the first one began "well, when i was in 'the lucky chance' [a restoration comedy that i am working on] i was leticia and alan was gayman. alan rickman, you know him? a very, very fine actor, but he just did not play this scene well..." each and every one of us stopped listening around this point and started drooling. the next story began "when i was portia in merchant of venice at the globe". portia is (in my opinion) the greatest female shakespearean character of all time (and in 'merchant' she is by far the biggest character) and the globe is the old globe. where they do all shakespeare, all the time. i love this woman!

2. julian glover did our masterclass on friday. he's was clasically trained at the national theatre, and was a member of the royal shakespeare company. he was also this guy in star wars:and he managed to work in this story to our class: "don't beat yourself up about lines, when i did star wars the only thing i had to say was "fire up the main generators" and i just couldn't remember it! i wasted seven takes!"

3. bada took us to stratford-upon-avon (more commonly referred to as "disneyshakespeareland) to see the royal shakespeare company's production of a midsummer nights dream. we were able to cut through tourist land to pay our respects to billy at holy trinity church, play some theatre games and practice sword fighting on the banks of avon, and eat at the dirty duck (the company's favorite pub) under a signed picture of judy dench. to top it all off, the production was amazing--i've rarely seen a production so unified in its design, acting, and tone. it was magnificent.

too-do-lo!
ellen

the weekend's adventures

2008-09-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

this weekend was our first out and about in london, and we had many adventures.

the first was i went with my roommates annie and ritu and yasmine to see damien hurst's art exhibit at southeby's. he is a bad-boy contemporary artist who is most famous for his diamond-encrusted skull, preserving sharks and zebras and horses in formaldahyde, and large canvasses with dead butterflies. he was auctioning off his own work, and before that it was all on display. the first day of the auction was today, and he walked off with a solid 70 million pounds. that's 140 million dollars.

that night, we made a cake for parker and steve, who both had had birthdays earlier in the week. after, we headed to our local, round-the-corner pub, the duke of york, for celibratory pints.

sunday was a grocery store, laundry, and work day, but i did make time at night to head to the thames and see the fireworks at the end of the thames festival. the were launched from blackfriars bridge, the nighttime view of city with the fireworks was beautiful.

chip chip cheerio!
love,
ellen

it's been a bloody long week!

2008-09-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

we are rounding the corner on the end of our first week of classes. methinks i'll give you a summary of my classes here, so when i come home and have all these theatre games and monologues to show you all you'll know why!

modern physical: taught by mick who looks and acts like he just walked out of monty python, this class focuses on movement and being playful and engaging onstage. we run around a lot, improv a lot, and he makes fun of us. it's bloody brilliant.

shakespeare: this is taught by ian, the dean of bada, who drops in liners like "oh, that's just helen," to which we respond..."helen mirren?" he is brilliant and tough, but very kind hearted and very funny.

high comedy: this is taught by katherine, an actress with the attention span of a rabbit. but she's wonderful and reminds me of one of my favorite professors at usc. she's one of the most honest people i've ever met.

movement: marcel is our teacher. she's a little firecracker, and makes us run around the room with our eyes closed.

stage fighting: natalie is our teacher ("my name has a t in it, you americans say it nadalie") and she's downright scary. she could beat us all up. at the same time. but now we all know how to fake punch! and we'll be learning sword and rapier!

every friday we have masterclasses, which are like one-time classes from someone interesting. tomorrow is fiona shaw, most commonly known as mrs. dursely from the harry potter movies. she's awesome.

school is wonderful. i go monday-friday from around 10-6 and come home exhausted, but its wonderful, and i know this semester is going to be amazing!
plan for this weekend: get out and explore london a little bit, hopefully shoreditch and hoxon.

cheerio!
ellen

cheerio from london (finally!)

2008-09-07T11:09:00.001-07:00

i am, finally, in london. the story of my arrival is quite a saga, so i'll tell it script-style.

scene 1. kansas city airport.
ellen: i'm going to chicago and then on to london!
united worker: oh dear....you're probably not going to make it tonight. there's major weather issues in chicago, and your plane to chicago hasn't left there yet. hopefully it will be here at 8:00, so you might be able to make your 9:30 flight, because it will probably be delayed too.
ellen: okay...

scene 2. mom and ellen waiting in kci. they look up at the departure ticker. it reads "to chicago. delayed. departure time: 8:00"

scene 3.
ellen: well, mom, it's 7 now, so i'm going to go through security.
mom: okay.
they look at the departure list. it now reads "to chicago. delayed. departure time: 9:00"
ellen: never mind.

scene 4. ellen sits inside security at kci.
untied worker: okay, our plane to chicago is finally here!
ellen looks at the time on her cell phone. it is 9:30.

scene 5. chicago o'hare. the united terminal. it is 12:00am.
ellen: okay, so my flight was delayed and i missed my flight to london. can i get on the next one?
united worker: maybe...the only one you would have a guaranteed seat on is the 4:00pm flight.
ellen: please?
united worker: okay. i'll put you on the 6:00am flight to heathrow.

scene 6. chicago o'hare. ellen is sleeping on the chairs outside of departure gate 13.

scene 7. 5:00 am. ellen wakes up.
united worker: attention passengers, we are now boarding flight 922 to london!
ellen grabs her bag and queues up to board the plane.

scene 8. 10:30 pm, london time. heathrow airport.
some guy in the customs line: hey, i've been on your flight since chicago, what's your name?
ellen: oh hi, i'm ellen.
guy: cool, what are you doing in london?
ellen: oh, studying.
guy: where?
ellen: bada.
guy: me too!!!
ellen: sweet!! where are our flats, and how do we get there?
guy: i have no idea....

scene 9: united baggage claim.
ellen: so, my baggage didn't come...
united worker: oh yeah. becuase your flight was delayed.
ellen: uh...yeah.
united worker: we'll deliver them tomorrow.
ellen: okay!

scene 10: ellen and isaac (the guy) in paddington station. isaac has his laptop open.
ellen: did they send you the address?
isaace: yep!

scene 11: ellen and isaac enter the landward, where their flat building.
ellen and isaac: we're here! *high five

epilogue: ellen's baggage did, indeed, arrive the next day.

we had orientation today, and i am so excited to start school tomorrow. i've met a lot of very cool people and the program sounds like it's going to be very intense in a good sort of way.

chip chip cheerio,
ellen

more lists

2008-08-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

hola chicos!

so, i have hit the two weeks to london mark. this meant a panic-induced list making session last night that included people to see, places to go, things to buy, appointments to make, and lots of stuff to do. i won't bore you with the various lists here, but just know that i will be running around for the next two weeks trying to scratch things off the various lists but actually adding to them. *sigh

and yes, i continue updating in london. so keep reading.

my trips in the month of august:
1. to the brothel, aka annie and jessie's house in lawrence: delicious chinese food and champagne to toast the new house. it's straight out of pottery barn: college.
2. to los angeles: i have a killer sunburn, the knowledge that one of my writer friends has a blanket covered in times new roman adjectives that he uses every night (and this knowledge will be used to taunt him for years to come), and i shouted at girls doing a door block "IF YOU CAN HEAR YOURSELF YOU'RE NOT BEING LOUD ENOUGH...THEY NEED TO HEAR YOU DOWN AT PIKE AND TKE!!!!

besitos,
h-ellen

home again, home again

2008-08-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

well.
after meeting up with the haun girls in florida and a week in sanibel, i'm finally back in kansas city. and boy is it good to be home.
i think that the thing i always miss the most are all of the people here--sure, oklahoma joes and hi hat are high up on that list too, but it's the old smeast/ku crowd that always pulls me back. right now we're all headed in such different directions (boston, london/oxford, ku), but its so refreshing to know when we all plop back down in kc, be it in lawrence or an apartment or a neighbor's pool, we've got our history and midwest love as a common denominator. and we always have fabulous stories to tell each other.

in other news, my wisdom teeth came out on wednesday, so i've been reduced to a diet of cream of wheat and soup.

upcoming travels:
tim hawk's farm, for an advanced rep. theatre reunion par-tay! aug 11-12
lawrence, to the brothel, as often as i can
los angeles, for recruitment school and general usc-loving, aug 18-21

vida/amor/pan.

fotos

2008-07-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

there's not much to say about machu picchu other than the pictures, so here they are:

and this is the whole group: alex, me, beth, and abby
this is the part of the city where the people lived (not the farming terraces)
the main square, plaza de armas, in cuzco, lima, the former center of the incan empire
perú's politcally incorrect restaurants:
besos, ellen

un país diferente

2008-07-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

hey guys,

so if you hadn´t memorized my schedule for the summer, i left ba on last saturday and went with beth thorne, alex clendennen, and abby wallace to perú. yesterday and today we went to machu picchu. we have one more day here in cuzco (the oldest city of the incan empire) and then we go to lima for a day and a half before heading back to the states.

perú is making us all realize how different ba is from the rest of south america. in argentina we could blend in (for the most part), but here, since the majority of the population has a lot of incan blood, we stand out like toursits with a capital T. this is making it an alltogether different experience, but a very enlightening one. perú is much poorer than ba, but the people here seem to be much friendlier and more open to talk about their culture. i suppose that´s becuase the spaniards pretty much wiped them out--according to our machu picchu guide, omar, the dominicans killed 90% of the incan population and attempted to destroy as much as they could of incan culture. what´s known now has been passed down in oral tradition and the ruins that somehow remain.

i can´t upload pictures now becuase there is no wifi in cuzco (i´m on a shared computer in a locutorio) but needless to say machu picchu was amazing. it´s beautiful and stunning and there are llamas that roam around and chew the grass!

i´ll be back in the states soon,
ellen

estoy con el campo

2008-07-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

last night after dinner, when i was supposed to be studying, i instead got into a long conversation with my argentine mom, marcela, about politics in argentina.

some background: last night, the senate was voting on a tax that presidnet cristina kircher tried to put in place a few months ago. the tax is a steep tax on soy, which is a huge argentine export, that is tied to the world market value of soy. right now, the tax would be 45%. she tried to institute it a few months ago, but the people in the country began protesting, and this has been a contentous issue for a while now. it´s the reason we almost got stuck in iguazu--the protests were happening along the highway. it´s a strange issue, becuase it united both the poor farmers and the wealthy land owners. the people that elected cristina were the people in the country, she didnt win a single city when she was elected last year.

so last night was the vote in the senate. the tv isn´t on a lot at my house, but yesterday it and th e radio were on all day, as they were everywhere. the crazy thing about this tax is that it´s unconsitutional--their consitution says that a tax can´t be more than thirty five percent. but their constitution is only fifteen-ish years old, and marcela said that didn´t even really matter. everyone here is very distrustful of the government--everyone says its a given that there is corruption, and that all of the politicans are slimeballs (okay, my word, i dont think slimeball translates). and a huge part of the crash in 2001 was rampant corruption.

argentinians basically distrust all of their institutions. which got me thinking. no one in the states is particularly happy with the government and they haven´t been for a while, but we are all waiting it out until november, becuase we know there will be a peaceful change. and we have faith that while corruption may invade our institutions from time to time, our checks and balances will weed it out. sleaze and i love to run around getting angry about various things and asking where all of the crazies are, but we also have a politician that we really, really like.

i guess you just dont know how lucky you are til you leave.

in other exciting news: i dreamed a little in spanish the other night! granted, all i dreamt was an old woman saying ¨ella puede entender un poco¨and then it was all gibberish, but that´s a good sign, right?

we leave for peru on saturday, and i think my internet access might be a little limited when we´re there, but i´ll certainly update as soon as i can.

besos!

una semana más

2008-07-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

qué lástima.

i only have one week and weekend left in BA. consequently, we have all made long lists of everything we want to squeeze into this time period, and are running around the city like maniacs trying to make it happen. here is my list:

1. go to a party with porteños--done. an alum of usc, matt, moved down here after he graduated and is having a party at his apartment tonight. he doesnt have american friends here, so this means lots of porteños and speaking spanish! hooray!

2. see rent in spanish--apparently the translation is wonderful, as is the acting.

3. see "open house"--it's a play that is very critically acclaimed, and a little more "edgy" or small-theatre than rent.

4. go to this restaurant called kansas--i MUST have a picture of me in front of this, i dont care if the food is good or not.

5. go to thelonius, a jazz bar. it's supposed to be great, but of course i'll be judging it against kc jazz.

things that were on the list that i've done:

1. see a movie in spanish--i saw "super agente 86" (get smart) in english with spanish subtitles, and yesterday i saw a documentary called 4 de julio, about 5 priests that were killed by the government durning the military dictatorship. understood the first one, the second one....er....well, 50%!

2. go to cafe tortoni-- it's a total tourist spot now, but it's the oldest cafe in ba, and it claims that borges wrote there. it was beautiful, with lots of old wood work and colums.

3. buy harry potter in spanish: harry potter y el prisionero de azkaban!

this picture has nothing to do with this post, but i thought i'd put it up anyway becuase it's adorable. this is from our night in rio at rio scenarium, a samba club. it was great--becuase all of our professors came with us and we samba-ed the night away with them!

besos y abrazos,
ellen

una carta a los porteños

2008-07-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

a letter to the people of buenos aires:

dear porteños,
i like you. i like you a lot--you're all beautiful, you're very friendly, you make out with your signifigant others on park benches, you hire people to walk your dogs--you're quirky, and i like it. but we need to have a talk.

i do not consider myself to be a picky eater. there's not a vegetable that i hate, fruit is awesome, i love carbs, yogurt is good. and i love to eat: restaurants drain my bank account.

and even though i live in LA, i do not consider myself to be a health nut. sure, i try to eat my veggies and whole grains, but this girlfriend loves cookies. still, porteños, we have to have a talk.

potatoes are not a vegetable. they're delicious--mashed, sweet, boiled, plain, salted, with cheese, whatev. but they are a starch. let's just keep this in mind as we proceed.

when you pair your "vegetable", potatoes, with one of your favorite dishes, pasta with cream sauce, there is one color on your plate. one hint: it's not green. there is only one food group on your plate. also, when you give me a plate 12 inches in diameter, piling it 5 inches high with this meal satisfies my body's white-carb craving for 3 weeks. except you like to eat it a few times a week.

another thing: salads do not some served on a bed of white rice. lettuce or spinach. lettuce or spinach. lettuce or spinach.

breakfast is the most important meal of the day. i understand that you all like to skip it, but let me explain something: when you do choose to eat breakfast to be "healthy", choosing to eat white bread with dulce de leche doesn't count.

dulce de leche is amazing: carmely and thick and super-sweet. this means you only need a little, and it goes a long way. you don't need to put a cup of it in between two pieces of cake for dessert: let's try a tablespoon.

i know that you love your beef and bread, but let's try to branch out a little: some veggies, a little dairy, perhaps some beans or nuts. new things! whooo hoo!

that's all.

querida,
ellen

hemos regresado a buenos aires

2008-06-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

we all arrived back in ba from rio safe and sound, thank you very much. rio was great--it was wonderful to see a different city and culture in south america. we arrived on sunday, and our schedule from monday-friday was sightseeing and lunch with the group, some freetime, dinner, and more freetime. we hit all of the touristy highlights of rio as well as a few others.

touristy highlight number 1: cristo redemptor. this is a really, really, really, really big statue of jesus. it's a wonder of the world (which i didnt know), and i can understand why--it's incredibly impressive and influences the city in ways i didn't realize. this is me and beth, makin' adpi diamonds!

not so touristy highlight number 2: o flavela. flavelas are the slums of rio, and we walked through one with a guide. we went through rosina, which is widely considered to be the nicest one and is not super-dangerous. we were dropped off at a little market where they sell goods that denizens of the flavela make, and then we walked down through the city. don't be picking up the phone to send me home right now--the slums here have become organized communities, with schoools, community centers, electricity, running water, markets, etc. all of the buildings are solid (not like the tin shacks in india), and i was amazed at the genuine sense of community that we encountered. it was good to see, becuase it's a part of the city that most people don't.

and, finally, touristy highlight number 3: beach day!
when i talked to dad after getting back on sunday, he asked me if i had any new tats or piercings--how do parents always know??? yes, while we were on the beach all of us got henna tatoos--henna is indian ink that they paint on you, so, never fear, it will be gone in 10 days. the beach in rio is absolutely beautiful--fine, soft sand and very clear water. here's a picture to make you jealous:

although rio was a blast, it's good to be back in BA. i'm very comfortable here now becuase i know my way around and can fairly successfully navigate the langauge, neither of which i could do in rio. i can't believe we only have 3 weeks left in the city--i'm determined to take full advantage of it!

besos, ellen

que bárbaro

2008-06-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

this is me and alex, being brave souls and dancing the tango at a milonga.

midterms are over (already!)

which means that after this weekend in BA, we go to rio! i know absolutley nothing about rio de janiero, except that they do not speak either of the 1.5 languages that i do. that, and beth thorne and i are going to get a diamond adpi pic in front of the big statue of jesus.

kinda like this adpi pic in front of the cathedral in la plata-->

i'm really looking forward to this weekend to get to explore the city--i live in barrio norte, which is part of recoleta. the biggest parts of the city are san telmo (the old, historic city), la boca (not a very nice part of town, but famous for its brightly painted houses), retiro (where the rich moved), recoleta (famous for the cemetary), puerto madero (the docks, new and shiny), palermo (the new, trendy part of the city), the microcentro and congreso (where the goverment and business district are). on the to do list this weekend are la feria (the fair) in san telmo, the cemetary in recoleta, shopping in palermo, and just walking around!

i've been putting up a lot of pics of where we've been going, so here are some of all of the awesome people on this trip--
this is in acabar, a great bar in palermo. they have lots of board games that you can play--it's one of our favorite spots. we came here on tuesday to celebrate austin's birthday (he's the one on everyone's lap). from left to right, alicia, natalie, stephen (yes, he always looks this way in pictures, he swears he's having a good time :) ), sruti, jonathan, me, alex, madeline, and abigail.

this is some of the best grafitti in the world in uruguay--beth, andrea, alicia, sruti, and caroline.

besos, ellen

las cataratas iguazú

2008-06-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

this weekend was a long three day weekend, so me and five other girls decided to make a trip to iguazú falls. iguazú falls lies at the intersection of paraguay, brasil, and argentina, and it's a 20 hour bus-ride away. we were being adventurous.

friday night we boarded our bus at 9:30 in the madness that was the retiro bus station--think punk rock concert, then think of three of them. when i say 'bus', i don't mean 'yellow school' i mean 'full bed, wide seats, lots of leg room, and food', so the trip wasn't too terrible. we got in on saturday around 3, which didn' t leave us enough time to get to the falls that day, but we spent several hours at a very good pizzeria in the town adjacent to the falls. we stayed in a hostel that night, which was clean--all you can ask for.

the next morning we woke up at 6 to make it to the falls when the park opened, since our bus home left at 5:00pm. and once we got there, any ounce of regret we had at missing a weekend in BA flew out of the proverbial window.

the pic on the right is a close up of the falls i'm standing in front of in the pic up top; they're on the argentinan side.

this is garganta del diablo, or the devil's throat. it's the biggest fall, and it is closer to the brazilian side.

querida,
ellen

puede sacar una foto?

2008-06-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

this is libertador ave, a big avenue that runs the lenth of the city along rio de la plata. it's huge--all of this is one way.

this is the plaza de mayo and the casa rosada, where the president (cristina kirchner) lives. all of those people and signs in the plaza de mayo are protestors. argentinians are always excersizing their right to petition and protest--right now there is a huge problem with taxes that the government is trying to put on imports and exports. the really, really rich land owners are protesting this along with the poor campesinos, and this is a new, strange dynamic. it was amazing to see all of the protestors so close to the casa rosada, but this has been happening for years.
this are the mothers of the plaza de mayo, the women who have protested the disapparence of their children in the dirty war in the 1970s every thursday since then. i didnt realize they would be there when we went, but at 3:30 all of the other protestors made way for the mothers. it was very emotional--they all had pictures of their childen, and there were so many of them. i wasn't sure if i should take a picture or not, but when i turned around there was a local who discretly snapped a picture with his camera phone, so i did the same.

chau!

fuimos a uruguay

2008-06-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

hola a todos--

we have now been in BA for a full week, but it feels so much longer than that--we have been going everywhere and doing everything. i feel like i now have a pretty good geographic sense of the city, especially the barrios where my friends and i live--the microcentro is a little more confusing.

about 7 of us got up at the crack of dawn today to make it to the buquebus station at the port to sail across the rio de la plata to colonia, uruguay. it's about 3 hours away by buquebus (the buquebus is basically a bar, beds, and a duty free store on a very large boat). colonia is an old port town from the portugese and spaniards, who fought over it for years. mostly it was used to smuggle british goods into buenos aires, when the spaniairds kept really tight control of the port. it was incredibly picturesque and quaint--very touristy, but beautiful.

for some reason the picture uploader isn't working, so check back tomorrow for some pictures from the last week.

besos y abrazos!

la americana estupida

2008-06-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

here's the breakdown of la familia inchauspe, the family that i am living with:
marcela, the mom
santiago, married with three kids
pepe, engaged
ines, engaged
luis, a law student
biche, an economics student
gonzalo, my age

there's also another american student living here, mitch, so it's a crowded house, but it's a lot of fun. on sunday, everyone came over for empenadas. we were eating and talking about a politically contentious topic, the taxes that the argentine government is trying to put on all of the country's imports and exports. the family has 2 big farms, so they've been talking about this a lot. well, right in the middle of a lot of yelling and hand waving, pepe, blurts out, "well, ana and i are getting married!" everyone paused, and marcela asked, "en serio?", pepe said yes, and everyone jumped up and down and said felicitaciones!

so i was relaying this incident to mitch on monday when we were getting coffee, and he was very excited. we got back to the apartment and were hanging out in the living room with marcela, biche, ines, and mitch asked ines, "so is pepe getting married?" ines's eyes got very big and she said "no, no, no, i'm getting married." my heart started racing. my spanish isn't that great, but is it really THAT bad? how could i have misunderstood the whole situation? weren't they talking about un anillo, a ring? i was mortified. biche asked mitch, "who told you pepe was getting married?", to which i answered, "oh...i guess i didn't understand correctly..." then the subject was dropped.

so last night at dinner, marcela and luis started talking about pepe's wedding. mitch kept looking at me, and then listening to the conversation, and i was just getting more and more confused. finally he asked, "so is pepe getting married or not?" and luis said "oh! yeah!" we relayed what happened on monday and luis said, "oh, that was becuase biche doesn't know yet and pepe wants to tell her himself! so ines just blamed mitch's question on ellen's confusion...biche still doesn't suspect a thing!"

this was a HUGE relief to hear--i'm not a totally stupid american. even if ines did use my "she cant really understand what's happening" status to keep biche unawares. as long as i'm not going crazy!

this picture is me and beth from a walking tour we had of the city. the statue is the monument to the spaniards in palermo.
beso y abrazos!

ps. last night, we toasted to barack obama, and our waiter joined in.

el vino

2008-06-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

mendoza, the wine-growing region in northwest argentina, specializes in malbec, which is a red wine whose grape was imported from france a long time ago. abby, caroline, alicia and i ate at la biela this afternoon, in recoleta, and had our first bottle of argentine wine--malbec, of course. it was delicious--very, very smooth and fruity. we spoke spanish with our waiter, and he asked me if i was russian or american. herm...well, i guess i need to work on that accent...

recoleta has an fair every sunday outside of the cemetary, and it was packed with people.
the people here are all very friendly and very beautiful. i succesfully navitaged el subte (the subway) back to my apartment, so i'm thinking of today as a success!

besos!

no puedo entender español a 50mph!

2008-05-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

we landed in buenos aires this morning!

there were a lot of us on my flight from dallas to ba (me, beth, alex, andrea, brynne, hillary, and abby), and after making it through customs we were greeted by claudia and roberto, our professors. then we went to an apartment where our families picked us up!

i was greeted by my host mom, marcela, and she took me to their apartment--it's in barrio norte on the seventh floor of a very beautiful apartment building. i say on the seventh flor...i should say it IS the seventh floor.

i wandered around a little on my own today--we get our phones tomorrow, so we had no way of getting in touch with each other. everyone is very friendly, but they all speak very, very, very, very quickly, so i couldn't understand a lot of what was happening today. i hope that will change...

it's 10:40 now, i'm going to eat some sushi with my host sister and her friends and then probably go to bed to recover from last night while they go out. dinner is eaten around 10 or 11, and going out starts, at the earliest, at 2; it ends at 7. i don't think i can function tomorrow on 2 hours of sleep, so i will be skipping tonight, thank you very much.

loves!

so many errands, so little time

2008-05-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

i leave on FRIDAY.

holey moley, this snuck up on me.
please email me your address so i can send you a postcard!
ellenvirginia@gmail.com

in the meantime, i'll be running to target, grandma's house, radio shack, the sprint store, reruns, last dinners/lunches/coffees, costco...

a whirlwind, or, a tumbleweed

2008-05-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

deepest apologies for the lack of updates, but i have been quite busy readying myself for my holiday(s). first off, i shall relate my cross country road trip to bring my beloved car, gertrude, back to kansas.

my friend richard and i drove back together. this makes sense becuase 1. he is from kansas city (bv north) and 2. likes roadtrips. we took along his pinata and named it tumbleweed becuase in the middle of arizona, richard saw his first tumbleweed.

these are my roomates, chasing us and waving goodbye.

we stopped the first night in kingman, arizona, right after the ca/az border. the next morning, we at breakfast with 6 guys from the netherlands riding their harleys along route 66. on day two, we drove across arizona and new mexico, stopping at a meteor crater. they entrapped tourists with tantalizing signs such as this:

obviously, we stopped. we arrived that night in albequequre (i still can't spell it) to stay with our friend tyler. we at delicious tamales at the frontier, a unm legendary diner.

the next day we drove for 13, count 'em, 13 hours to come home to KC. highlights include:

i was very glad to be home.

until!

i discovered that my friend beth did not have the receipt necessary to pick up my visa at the brazilian consulate in los angeles becuase i had never given it to her becuase i had LOST IT. i had never, ever, lost anything this important before.

plan number 1: fly to LA two days before we were supposed to leave for BAires, get my visa, then fly straight to dallas and then to BA.

why plan number 1 failed: ticket prices were EXPENSIVE, in the $500 range. so i looked to use my southwest free flight, but i couldnt use them for the dates i wanted. the dates i could use them for: the very next day at 7:30 am. there were also multiple flights available wednesday and thursday to come home. so, at 10:30 pm i booked my flight and told mom she had to take me to KCI at 5:50am.

i arrived in LA at 9:00, and my good friend sarah picked me up. she was kind enough to let me borrow her car. long story short, i drove to the brazilian consulate, aruged with the security gaurd for a little while, and left with my visa in hand 3 hours later. i treated myself with a honey vanilla latte from urth caffe, and returned to sarah's apartment, where i booked a flight for 7:05 that night. i got back to KC at 12:20 that night, where mom picked me up a mere 20 hours later.

this is how fast i move.

countdown to argentina holiday: 6 days!

san diego

2008-05-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

emily and i were kidnapped by carly and maddy to san diego. we left on saturday afternoon, checked in to our hotel, and spent the evening wandering around downtown san diego.

downtown san diego is a perfect example of what downtown renovation should be: there are condos and houses right around the corner from restaurants, coffeeshops, and grocery stores, and it's all connected by public transportation. the original architecure is still present and still beautiful, and the new buildings fit in perfectly.

and, we found a whale mural.

sunday we went to the zoo!

i love the zoo!

a mystery holiday

2008-05-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

I have been informed that this weekend I will be kidnapped and will embark on a mystery holiday--my big sis Carly and her friend Maddy have decided to kidnap my friend Emily and I.

Pictures and details when we return!

$1.75/15 minutes!!! really!!!

2008-04-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

beth and i took our passports to the brazilian embassy today to get our visas. a few perplexing points:

1. why does portugese sound nothing like spanish? i kept hearing words i recognized and would get excited, and then it sounded like someone was speaking french. trés, muy confusing.

2. labeling something "public parking" when it is really valet is unfair. this isn't perplexing, just irritating.

3. i have a spanish paper due tomorrow, and i'm procrastinating. once again, not perplexing--totally, absolutely straightforward.

oh, and more travels: my friend richard and i are going to make the drive back to KC together, so i will also be seeing: arizona, new mexico, texas, oklahoma, a moon crater, and route 66.

loves,

2008-04-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

sorry to disappoint, all, but i have found that i no longer feel any need to travel anywhere, because of a miraculous event that happened to me this morning.

i was leaving the set of "ben and burman" (see: things i do to waste time, more aptly named things i do that take over my life and soul). it was 9:30, and i had been there since 5:30 (am, folks). i threw on my sweater, grabbed my bag, put on my sunglasses to hide my lack of makeup, clutched my now-empty coffee mug, and walked over to filming to say bye to everyone. i did, and as i turned to leave, james the dp said:

you look so fabulous with your sunglasses and coffee.

and this, children, is how i attained everything i ever wanted to be: fabulous.

travel agents scare me.

2008-04-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

my first experience with a travel agent was today, and i so was oh-so-impressed with the grown-up manner in which i handled everything. she planned several flights for me and then asked, "which one do you think sounds best?"

i said, "um.....lemme go call my dad."

list making

2008-04-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

trendy mcsweeney's has a trendy feature called "lists." these lists comprise lots of clever things, such as:

"significant ways i differ from carly simon"

the 6:23 out of penn station is making me wait.

do not find you to be particularly vain.

have got time for the pain.

as i was making my own lists, however, i noticed that mine are much less exciting:

to-do for argentina:

get visa from brazilian consulate

get health insurance info

find 3 good machu picchu tours and call them

do i need a visa for peru?

to-do for london:

paperwork.

mcsweeneys, please tell me how my lists can become more like yours.

2008-03-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

well, this should be fun.

general studying abroad orientation 3/26: highlights include tomm addressing the unfortunate stereotype that "americans are free", charts of the emotions encountered during culture shock, and having to look at a picture of what the brits eat for breakfast.

buenos aires studying aborad orientation 3/27: conducted entirely in spanish. understood everything, but the amount of ticket planning and travel arranging that has to be done in the next week or so is daunting.

what makes it all the more daunting: my beloved laptop, stella, has decided now would be a good time to make a trip to the mac doctor becuase of sudden case of, oh, a dead hard drive.
stressed you say? oh, no. just panicked and hyperventilating.

i could really use this holiday!

2008-03-25T00:50:00.000-07:00

all right kids, here's the deal:

i am about to jet set. because, as grandma haun told me, travel when you're young. when you're old, you have to take cruises.

june-july: buenos aires-rio de janiero-buenos aires. to actually learn to speak spanish. then a stop in machu picchu for kicks and giggles. because when is the next time i'll be in sudamérica? can't get to machu picchu on a cruise.

august: home. kansas city, with road trips to the brothel in lawrence, the flint hills, and anywhere else you want to go with me.

september-december: london. to study acting. hopefully a saunter down to spain in the mid semester break.

december: bumming around hostels in france, spain, italy, germany, austria. until i run out of money and have to re-earn all of the savings i've just blown.

buckle in.

to come: planning, balancing, more planning, and more balancing.

loves.

hola!

2008-03-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

my name is ellen.

i am going on holiday.