Figuring It Out

I had an epiphanous day today. It was awesome, in fact. And after yesterday was so horrible! It was really amazing to feel connected again, to feel as though I fit and know what I want to do. The car is still a problem. I don't have a car now and I am going to have to spend a mint of money to get it fixed or get a new car (not yet sure which.)

BUT

I stayed up last night reading Faust. In fact, I finally decided circa 2:00a that I wasn't going to be able to finish both Act Four and Act Five before morning and so I ought to skip ahead, read Act Five, and just read the notes on Act Four. So I finished doing all of that at about 3:00 and decided to try to get some sleep, feeling a little disappointed that I couldn't finish... but I couldn't just not sleep. Right? Right?

So all of my reading was rewarded during class while MKD (that's my professor: I think I linked you to her bio before) talked about Faust. It was great! And the more she talked the more I realized why we had to read Faust. Here it is: the play is ridiculous and obtuse and filled with nonsense. It's epic and ambitious and out of control. It's also unreadable and punishing and horrible. I dare anyone who reads this blog to read it and not say What The Fuck? And this is great for Dramaturgy because it means that none of us wants anything more to do with the show, but we must. So it's perfect for us as a casebook. Because we have to find a way in to the material.
See, because of all of the reasons I listed earlier, the list of questions to ask about Faust has got to be nearly endless. For instance, in class, I started thinking about Faust in the context of contemporary Christianity. What does Faust say about Christianity in the German states at the time? How does the Catholic church figure into Faust if it does? How did clerics at the time feel about Faust and what it says about sin and redemption and The Bible? See what I mean? I can ask a hundred questions right off the bat. And with Faust you can do this on literally a hundred different topics: Symbolism, Greek mythology, pregnancy, demonology, North Germanic witchery, pageantry, alchemy, the list is practically endless. There are probably hundreds of dissertation topics still to be mined from Faust. Seriously.

Anyway, in addition to this "way in" to Faust, which was exactly what I needed for Dramaturgy to work as a class, I decided on my own dramaturgical topic for the class (we each have to pick a play.) I'm going to write about Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner and I'm really really excited.

AND

While I was talking to MKD about Wallace Shawn and Goethe, I was talking about the NEA4 for a while. I had been thinking about doing a research project on them for the Dramaturgy thing, but instead a new project came to mind about the NEA4. I don't want to write about it here... it's too public but I have an NEA4 project I'm going to start very soon and I'm so excited.

As usual. One day down; the next day up. Just like directing. Fucking Piscean nature.