December in LISPA-land

And it's suddenly week 6. My goodness, how did that happen? Much has happened since my last update, so here's the news:

We've been working on Commedia dell'Arte in class, which basically means getting in touch with the "healthy selfishness" inside all of us, stealing things, murdering people, having lots of stage sex, yelling and screaming and swearing and having a fabulous time. It's felt really good to explore those baser parts of humanity, going to a place beyond all societal norms: once you've been there, it's a lot cooler to pull it back and explore "normal" stuff, but with all the richness of the dark side.

Our end of term presentation is coming up, so we as a group have to decide what we're going to show to the first years. It's both wonderful and frustrating to sit in a group of thirty-five people and try to decide on, well, anything at all. I can say for certain that if we hadn't gone through an entire year of LISPA we would not be able to do this, but after a very long meeting on Monday we decided on which platform and commedia pieces we would think about presenting next Thursday. Both of my pieces got voted out, but I'm working on a new six-person piece about lovers in a hotel, and if it works it might get shown next Thursday. But the great thing is that even if that new piece doesn't work and I'm not performing in anything, it doesn't matter, because those of us who don't perform will help the other groups by being outside eyes, getting props and costumes, being set-movers during the performance, and basically chipping in to something that is more about our group than any of us individually, and that feels really good.

On the non-school front, the move to a new house is finally happening! About two weeks ago I found a three-bedroom flat that happened to be cheaper than 2 Henniker, closer to school, and much nicer (there's actual tiling in the bathroom and a common space! hooray!). So Frank, Gaidig, her boyfriend Damien and I put down a deposit, and we're getting the keys tomorrow! My stuff is mostly packed up, but I still can't believe I'm actually leaving this house, where I've lived for more than a year now. Jill and Ana are already gone to their new place, and the house feels quite big and empty with all their stuff gone. It feels right to have a new house for a new year of LISPA, and I'm happy to be living with wonderful LISPA-folk, but I will miss the good time we had in this house.