Casting and Cooking

Hello Again!

So, it occurred to me that in my last post I mentioned pretty much every aspect of The Mark in all of its toast-filled greatness, but nothing whatsoever regarding who I  actually am. Or, maybe I did? I don't think I did... I could go check, but at this point I'm sort of exhausted and just want to write this blog post while I'm still focusing. So, anyway, at the risk of sounding superfluous, here goes:

(EDIT: I checked and did not, in fact, mention anything about myself. Whoops!)


Hello Again (Again)!

My name is Elise Barberis. Because this Blogger account is linked to my ONID I'm listed as Elise Catherine Barberis, so now I guess you all know my middle name as well. There's actually a Lucia thrown in there, too, so if we want to get super formal I guess Elise Catherine Lucia Barberis would be most fitting. I'm good with just Elise though.

I'm a theatre major here at OSU, though I didn't start out that way. I actually entered my freshman year intending to study biochemistry/biophysics, but that didn't last long. That's probably a story for a different time though. Regardless, somehow I ended-up transitioning from spending my evenings in a lab cloning M. tuberculosis genes to spending them in play rehearsals. Who'd have thought?! Just for the record, I'd never actually done any sort of theatre prior to my time here at OSU, so I'm still really new at all of this. Also, for the record, I've never been happier than I am now. Becoming a member of OSU's theatre community is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I'm thankful every single day I get to walk into Withycombe.

So, yeah, just like every other aspect of my theatre experience, I'm totally new to playwrighting. I've always liked writing, but, in truth, haven't done all that much of it. I received my first journal when I was five years-old. It has two entries in it. One about how brave my friends are for going through the haunted house at Enchanted Forest and one about how much I hate my sister (Sorry Lily! Promise I love you more now.). Every journal I've owned since has followed this same pattern: two or so entries followed by hundreds of blank pages just begging to be written on. Luckily, I managed to get more than two pages into my one-act, so here we are!

Speaking of one-acts, we've made some excellent progress since I last wrote. Last week The Mark was cast and the goofy little characters I wrote now have awesomely talented actors to bring them to life. I was absolutely flabbergasted by the turn-out for auditions! A ton of really, really creative people displayed their really, really impressive repertoire of skills and made casting really, really difficult. Anna, however, was able to overcome the struggle and picked out four awesome thespians to portray our characters. She's been in contact with them via email and we're meeting-up for the first time tomorrow for a read-thru. Yay!

So, yet another fun fact about me is I love to cook. Like, really love to cook. I know a lot of people who stress-eat when they're under pressure. I don't really like to eat when I'm stressed, but I love to cook. Seriously, I stress-cook/stress-bake like nobody's business. Actually, it kind of works because I'm able to supply stress-eaters with food. It's the perfect symbiotic relationship, really. Huh. I'm getting really off-topic. The entire point of this tangent was to gush about all the exciting menu items I'm bringing with me to the read-thru tomorrow!

So, for tomorrow I've prepared a grilled salad, fresh tropical fruit salad, chocolate cupcakes (which may end-up with some caramel drizzle, depending on how I'm feeling tomorrow), and pumpkin mole jackfruit enchiladas. I'm super excited. Especially for the pumpkin mole jackfruit enchiladas because I've pretty much developed the recipe myself. I chose a jackfruit filling because of its uncanny similarity to pulled chicken. Oh, I'm vegan, by the way, so I don't eat chicken. But, yeah, jackfruit's amazing. I'm hoping my actors will agree. It's always a bit intimidating cooking a big vegan meal for a bunch of omnivores who aren't necessarily familiar with the ingredients I use. But I haven't failed a dinner party yet! Hopefully tomorrow won't establish a new precedent. I'll let you all know how they go over.

Yikes! This entry's gotten really long really fast... Congratulations if you've managed to make it through this entire thing! I promise the next one won't be nearly as self-indulgent and I'll have more information to give you regarding The Mark's progress.    

Bye for now!
Elise (Catherine Lucia Barberis)