Mask Profiles: The Scorpion People

Newest update: The Scorpion People. Inspiration for these enigmatic lovelies came from the mask stylings of Libby Appel. By studying the style of her neutral masks while racking my brain for a useful way to portray these guards of the Mountains of Mashu interestingly, I sketched these two. One is meant to be female and the other male, but I don't imagine it matters much if the gender of the actors beneath matches or not. They allow Gilgamesh to pass with little resistance ultimately, and their eyes are meant to cause fatal paralysis in mortals - such is why I love what the Appel masks' eyes do. Their emotion is neutral, but the dark eyes draw your focus immediately as well as the sloping features surrounding them. I don't believe I want much color in these masks, but if there -is- some, I'd want it to be from a neutral palette as well.

I look forward to playing around with the actors in devising the movement of the scorpion folk and the voices they'll have! They don't hang about very long, but I wanted them to stand out in their wake.

More to come!

"At high tide, fish eat ants. At low tide, ants eat fish." - Thailand

-Jo-

Mask Profiles: Humbaba

Greetings one and all! Great strides were had today in my attempts to sketch a certain guardian in A Man Sees Death in Things today! I've been sketching this entire week in hopes that my pencil could stumble upon the notorious "Humbaba", whom Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight in the Cedar Forest. I wanted this battle in particular to be quite epic in its own right, and deserving of a quite epic mask.

What I came up with is something along the lines of the "mask-headdress" utilization used to give a single actor (hopefully a very large actor!) as much as a whole extra foot of height with the mask worn -atop- the head. The actor would be able to see his surroundings through a veil at the level of Humbaba's shaggy beard.

Design-wise, Humbaba ended up an oversized mask. I wanted this to give his form size and weight otherwise not gifted to normal maskery tactics. I wish to provide some imposing gloves to the actor playing Humbaba so that his fingers and hand-size might also be increased. (If there's time, I'd love to distress/wrap some boots to do the same with the feet.) The mask would be made of VERY lightweight material and will probably have to be fixed to the actor using a chinstrap to counterbalance the weight and height. I anticipate though that whomever is big enough to handle this mask should have no problem with its weight, but I hold the actor's comfort as my priority regardless. Humbaba's features are very wide, primitive, horned features. I struggled a long time with whether or not I wanted to make him "bull-like", but settled on him being a sort of hulking gargoyle/devil creature instead. His horns, I've decided, will not look as pristine as they do here, but they are reminiscent of ram horns that curve to front like mandibles. His shaggy beard will be just chock full of disturbing goodies too -- bones, beads, leaves, spit...just awesome stuff. I adore him for his grossness and hope you do too.


"The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand."
- Frank Herbert -

-Jo-

Mask Profiles: Enkidu

Mask Sketch Profiles: Utnapishtim

Greetings all. Above you will see beginning sketches for the legendary immortal "Noah" figure in the tale of Gilgamesh as I've interpreted him for this project: Utnapishtim. I interpreted him with a bit of age to his features - since he indicates he's "decaying" - but I didn't want to make him scary. This might have figured into my original thoughts on his facial features, for my research images are a bit spooky in comparison, but I'm surprised and delighted that he's turning out rather warm. I believe this is because of my feelings on him emparting "fatherly" vibes on Gilgamesh when he visits. Also, Utnapishtim speaks of hope and reconciliation with one's fate and place in the world, so I wanted his face/mask to be one that comforted the viewer, even if it's a bit rough in places. Utnapishtim's right eye was "damaged", but I've more scarred it shut than done anything gory with it. I don't want it to be distracting to the action. I'm still trying to decide if I want the mask to be symmetrical around the mouth or no - I like the idea of him chipping away like an old monument...
Also, in the air of Libby Appel mask stylings, I've made his expression a bit enigmatic. I'll go further with this in sculpting, but I wish to give him an ambiguous enough face that the actor behind the mask will have some freedom to create who he/she thinks he is for -them-.

I'm excited - are you? More more more on the way.

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln

-Jo-

Mask Sketch Profiles: Urshanabi

Greetings world! I realize it's been awhile since my last post, but you must forgive me. My laptop was experiencing some unpleasant malfunctions and had to be sent in for repair. All is well now, and I'm able to show you some sketches as they progress. Expect more in a more frequent succession.

These are beginning sketches for "Urshanabi", the boatman who traverses the deathly river that forms a barrier between the world and the immortal Utnapishtim. I've taken some of my design from flatter, more archaic and edgy African mask designs. Something about the flatness of the mask, the thin quality, and the slit nature of the eye placement fit in my mind when I considered the cynical gent who'd ferry across the would-be Styx with no one to entertain him but himself. I've tweaked the original image as the sketch progressed to be longer, thinner, and perhaps flatter. I imagine it'll be made from either bristol or foamcore board with paint to give it a shabby-chic chipped-paint look, as though the "ornament" of driving the boat has worn away with the paint itself. I consider him a charming Grim Reaper sort, and imagine him carrying an oar with him like a staff when on land, having grown so accustomed to rowing it may even be part of his gestures. (But that's for an actor to decide, not I. ^_~) Enjoy. More to come.

"All of these lines across my face, they tell you the story of who I am."
-Unknown-

-Jo-

Gilgamesh Update: First Draft Complete

Well ladies and gentleman, after planting myself in the summer sun with an extension cord for my laptop, my research, and a mug of Coke classic to nurse, it is finally finished! The first draft of A Man Sees Death in Things: A Masked Piece has finally reached completion. It rounded out at a chubby 36 pages total. I'm hoping to prune it down to a lean low-twenties number with the coming month of June. With its completion, I may now sketch with a bit more freedom and certainty about the structure of the piece, and with the second round of edits, copies will be available for those already involved with the project as well as those hoping to design. (My fingers are crossed on the latter front!) Happy Memorial Day weekend and be safe.

"Love Love Love. It's Easy." - The Beatles

-Jo-

P.S. The link is to inspirational music by Zoe Keating. Enjoy.

Gilgamesh Update: Script Progress aka "Letting it Be"

Greetings. I write tonight just to get some thoughts out of my head and in concrete form. I've nearly finished my interpretation of that beloved Sumerian/Mesopotamian tale The Epic of Gilgamesh, but I'm afraid I've hit a bit of a snag - a minor snag, but a snag nonetheless. I've come to realize that some of my editing is not as a result of what will fit into an hour'ish stage production of this piece, but rather because of what I worry an audience will accept. This is unacceptable! I realized this annoying fact early this afternoon when I spoke with my would-be dramaturg James E.W. Bennett, who cautioned me to "never alter the integrity of a piece for worry of offending an audience." Such advice came at a necessary time, for I'd considered cutting what is an integral point in the epic for fear that an audience might not accept it: the prostitute and Enkidu's blaming of her for civilizing him. I'd considered cutting this point/the related lines because I worried the audience would perceive this as a chauvinistic jeer at women and would distance viewers from the heartbreak of Enkidu's death. Also, I feared that the line of the piece, "...and a man sees death in things," would be compromised by this throwback to the prostitute. By speaking with James, I've decided that not should this line remain, but it is essential to the audience's understanding of the entirety of the plot!

This epic is centered around the notion that one must nurture that yin and yang of one's being in order to achieve that age-old state of true manhood and stability. The only reason Enkidu is introduced to the knowledge of the outside world is because of the temple prostitute teaching him the ways of "modern man". This knowledge ultimately led him to his would-be soulmate Gilgamesh. Likewise, had Gilgamesh not acknowledged his loneliness and sent said prostitute to Enkidu in the woods, having heard of a "beast of the Steppe", he would not have been united with his other half. Therefore, a woman is not the bane that one might be tempted to assume Enkidu is referring to, but the knowledge that comes with knowing the larger scope of being. That is to say that with the joy of knowing one's whole self is the pain of the realization of the existence of horrid things in this life - namely Death in this narrative, or the prospect that joy itself is not everlasting. To sum up, Enkidu damns his newfound knowledge, for he's found joys he has to let go of in his death - he's not damning women. In knowing/recognizing this fully, I can include these lines unaltered and allow the audience to make what they will of them as is their right.

Also, I've discovered an interesting pattern in the latter half of Gilgamesh that I'm not sure what to do with yet. Where Gilgamesh worries he'll be lonesome now that Enkidu is dead, he encounters/is apart of various pairs throughout part III of the narrative. First, he encounters the pair of the Scorpion people that guard the mountain of Mashu, a man and his wife that can kill at a glance like Medusa. Second, he encounters Siduri who refreshes him and offers to be a pair with him and to love him in the place of his friend - he refuses and journeys on. Next he encounters Urshanabi, who in one translation travels the would-be river Styx with Gilgamesh in another pair because Gilgamesh destroys the pair of stones that otherwise would have led him across alone. Gilgamesh is paired with Utnapishtim for a lengthy portion during the Flood explanation like father and son, and lastly Utnapishtim (in utter opposition to the notion of the "female place" in this narrative earlier) is eternally paired with his beloved wife, with whom he shares such an intimate connection that she and he need not speak. I'm especially interested in exploring -that- relationship in mask-format and rehearsal. Overall, these last scenes become interesting 2-3 person scenes and very intimate where the first two-thirds of the tale were rather "epic" in proportional comparison. Interesting...

More to come as I delve deeper/try to preserve the text for what it is rather than what I fear an audience will understand in play-format. Stay tuned and think on life.

"Let your belly be full. Make every day a day of rejoicing. Dance and play every night. Let your raiment be clean. Let your wife rejoice in your breast, and cherish the little one holding your hand. -- Old Babylonian version (Sippar iii.1-14)"

-Jo-

P.S. A short video of some spoken-word presentation of the epic to lyre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSWEeBGhz4M&feature=related

Shakespeare's As You Like It

Greetings and hello! I've had one hell of a week so far. Butler University had its graduation ceremony only -6- days ago on May 10th, and yesterday, May 15th, I received word from The City Center Children's Theatre's Playhouse in the Park series, centered in Carmel, IN that I was invited to play Celia and Phoebe in their upcoming production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Needless to say, I was and still am amazed and ecstatic. This equity production will be directed by Robert Niel - of various IRT production fame and of considerable name throughout the IN area. (I remember him mainly from years of playing Jacob Marley in IRT's production of Dicken's A Christmas Carol.) More to come as far as info goes for the showtimes and the like, but this lady's overjoyed she's a working actor this summer.

In other news, I've been "invited to audition" for one of the three witches in the production of a "scottish play" at IRT...wish me luck...^_~

Thinking the air smells a bit sweeter these days,
~A humbled Joanna Eve~

Gilgamesh Update: Script Progress

Just a friendly word for the week. A Man Sees Death In Things is coming along nicely. I've only in the past hour finished Act II - at last! All that remains is the last leg of Gilgamesh's journey - though some would argue it's the first big step. To sum up the script thusfar, it looks like this:

ACT I: Gilgamesh and Enkidu are introduced, battle, and unite as brothers.

ACT II: Gilgamesh and Enkidu defy the gods, Ishtar, and slay two behemoths; Humbaba and The Bull of Heaven. Enkidu is cursed and the pair are parted by Enkidu's death.

ACT III: Gilgamesh attempts to reconcile death. He resolves that he must not die and seeks Utnapishtim and the secret of Eternal Life, only to find man cannot run from death and live his life by it, but must live for the moment as Enkidu had as a beast -and- as a warrior confronting his fears and death as Gilgamesh has to be whole with his body and spirit.

I hope in the next week to finish adapting ACT III and to begin edits and construction on mockups of the masks. More to come - keep in touch.

Live. Live. Live.
-Jo-

Gilgamesh Update!

Exciting news from the worlde of music! Talented and eccentric Frank Felice, recent winner of BU's Blackbox Awards Best Sound Design for our recent production of Lamentations has agreed to lend his hand to the impending sound design of my personal project A Man Sees Death in Things. With Felice's expertise, this work is yet another step closer to reaching its true potential. Needless to say I'm elated with this news and will have meetings with him over the coming weeks - after this whole graduation thing is out of my curly hair. ^_^ More to come, and with any luck, by late May/early June the script will be posted in pdf format for parousal. Stay tuned, Gilga-fans. I'm looking at potentially early January for staging this work with rehearsals beginning in mid-November, so visit for updates on auditions. (You are free to listen to Frank Felice's intriguing works at http://www.frank-felice.com.)

Peace and prosperity,
-Jo-

Big Thoughts and a Tightenning Wallet

An update about the goings on in the acting world for this graduating senior. This past March I had the privilege of working extensively with my unofficial acting coach, spiritual guru, and confidant Elaina Artemiev on a total of 5 monologues so that I might have a full arsenal of classical and contemporary works to take with me to this year's NETC, or New England Theatre Conference. When I arrived, I was taken aback at the ...variety of people I saw in attendance. I've spent the past 4 years of my college career dabbling in all aspects of traditional and experimental theatre such as site specific works and the like. What I found when I auditioned that early Saturday morning were girls much younger than me (looking about 18'ish) in treacherous-looking stilettos and with an inch of makeup on. All of which were singing showtunes in their bubbily, warbling falsettos to the canary-colored lounge walls and dark doors. Needless to say, I was glad to have my dear brothers with me for some much needed Linklater warm-up to drown them out in my head. As I got my number and bits and pieces and looked them over, I found that most if not all the theatre companies that were in attendance and/or looking for performers were -musical theatre- companies. Such explained my painted, fake-eyelashed and high-stepping company, didn't it? Out of the 50 companies that attended, less than 10 were looking for non-musical performers. Divide that in twine to ease out the children's theatre teaching companies searching for education faculty, and there were even fewer companies I wished would call for me. I was dissapointed.

I am pleased to say that out of that less-than-10 group I got called back for 5 companies total and had lovely callbacks, but ultimately this trip turned out to be a terrific bust. Such is what I hear happens for new-grads and folk like moi. However, though I had invested a good deal of my savings in this first trip out to test my skills...I was not dismayed. I used my talents, was not shaken by the fact I was part of only a freckling of -color- among the snowy Mass./New Hampshire crowd of prancing horses, presented my unique material flawlessly, made it to my callbacks on-time, and did all I knew to do to get noticed without being a nuisance. (I even had the chance to walk out of an audition because of a certain theatre company's apparent -refusal- to let me read for a leading lady's role, regardless of my time in the room. I also suspected...distasteful filtering at work, so I excused myself. I wish I had my headshot back...) So, in short, though this trip might outwardly look like a waste, I gained a firm grasp of "what it'll be like" coupled with a refreshing competitive energy that welled up inside me like a warm summer wind.

I would not suggest one attend these Midwest/Southeast/Northeast theatre conferences though at the end of the day. Considering the amount of travel time, money involved in the hotel stay added to the "processing fee" of one's application on top of the price of food/locale you might be stuck in upon arrival...it's not worth the preparation or time. Seriously. I'm continually amazed at my educational institution's failure to warn me of such scams and advise you to audition exclusively for what. you. want. to be apart of. Then you may stay at the hotel you choose, sight-see if you want, and save yourself all these dubious fees. As theatre practicioners, you must keep your eyes open for who is and who isn't trying to squeeze the dollar from you. I'm happy to've learned this lesson early.

Thank you, however, to any and all people who supported me in my efforts. As a personal update, I now have a whopping 10 monologues I can do without fail from classical and contemporary works including August Wilson, Anton Chekhov, Niel Simon, Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, and several other authors of repute. I'm currently working on a high honors paper concerning August Wilson's contributions to contemporary theatre (since my dept. head deems Beckett more worthy of praise than him...)


I have a portfolio in the works for an original piece I wish to devise for the stage with masks using text from the Epic of Gilgamesh with the current working title A Man Sees Death in Things for which I am adapting/writing the script and designing and constructing the masks. I hope to get the aide of Butler's wonderful Frank Felice when devising music for the work as well and wish for it to have a dark, ancient, craggy and delightfully earthy darkness to it. With any luck, this summer will see my moving to Chicago -and- the finishing of the script as well as beginning sketches of the masks to be involved. Posts will appear more frequently concerning this event, too, so stay tuned. ^___^

Love, Peace, and Everlasting Light,

-Joanna-

P.S. Wish me luck at upcoming auditions for CCCT and HART in Indy these coming weeks.

Maskery

I'm adding a few more pictures of my works as a mask-maker so far in my theatre career at Butler University. Here as some of the masks I've created in the past four years, but not all by any means. Puppets, commissions, and seminar masks have yet to be thoroughly documented, but will be up soon/on the resume website under technical works before long.

The larger, toothy mask is "Kate & Moon" mask, modeled after "Moon Goddess and Demon" - a decorative mask - that was made practical for John Green's production of The Tamer Tamed by John Fletcher. The older man mask, "Gremio" was said character from this show as well.

The bottom few pictures are from Caryl Churchill's The Skriker and feature "The Hag", various characters at the underground banquet (Drink-Drank-Drunk), and myself in the upper and lower right in my "Yallery Brown" mask playing said role in this production.

St. Mary's Speakeasy

Myself and my brother at a charity event for the children of St. Mary's hospital. It was a 20's-themed event. Pictured here with me is my older brother, also an actor: Noah Winston. Our character names, by the end of the night, were "Jimmy the Teeth" and "Dupree". We made over $500 in our personal poker chip selling efforts.

Gem of the Ocean

Myself with Earnest Perry Jr. at the after party of IRT's production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. I had recently completed my internship there under Timothy Douglas. Earnest is currently performing at ATC in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

A Mask in Performance

A mask I designed and constructed for John Green's production of The Tamer Tamed by John Fletcher. This is a mask created for Kate's character when she is to have finally lost her mind in marriage. (I apologize for some blurriness.)

A Morsel

This is an image from a show I participated in last spring, a devised piece by Kait Lamasky: Doors to Perception. We explored themes of how the media can shape our perception of the issues around us for better and for worse. It was performed at Butler University.

Welcome!

Greetings! Welcome to the beginnings of my acting blog. Here you will find updates as to what I am currently acting in, auditions I will be attending, and updates about my locations, travels, and work as a actor/theatrical designer. Everything's still in the fetal stages yet, but with the coming weeks a gallery will be up with recent show photos and pictures of work I've done for costume design, mask design, and set design. Stay tuned - good things lie ahead.