Anywho, I presume that if you've wandered over to this page, it's because you have the overwhelming desire to know a little bit about myself (which "little bit" may be entirely rambly). And, in the words of Mr. Bennet (from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice), "You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it!" (Of course, he also says, "What do we live for if not to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" Either one is applicable, I suppose.)
I am a recent college graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where I received my degree in English: Literature and Drama, as well as the Great Books Program. And, rather than starving in garrets - as seems to be the normal course of action for any English major (jobs for Perpetual Students simply not plentiful) - I am living quite joyfully at home and teaching music and art to kingergarten through eighth grade.
Contrary also to the domestic paraphanalia of the inkstained, impecunious, emaciated artist, I own no cats, nor dogs, nor parakeets, nor goldfish - nor even, alas, my very own yodeling Sven (yet - see below). However, in grateful lieu of these, I am surrounded by my loving family of six (parental units included), of which I am the eldest child.
My extended family takes the "extended" bit rather seriously, and I've a plethora of cousins on either side, with the requisite Aunts and Uncles to complete the number.
And, no, I've not a significant other, yet, although I've two gentlemen callers, ready to take the job: Sven, the Yodelling Goatherd of the Alps, and Someone who keeps telling me to "Use the Florist!"
And, since the more family the merrier, I am also a member of the Bellwether household, and consequently have ten more sisters, three brothers-in-law (with two pending), and who knows how many brothers from our brother household, Brothers in the Spirit. Perhaps a word about households would be appropriate here:
Households are a unique aspect of student life at FUS, differentiated from groups of friends and not to be confused with sororities/fraternities. Each household is a covenant - and consequentially, a vocation. The households themselves are based on individual religious consecrations/dedications, rather than friendships or social activities. For example, both Bellwether and Brothers in the Spirit have a special devotion to the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In addition to this devotion, we, as Bellwether (lit: [OE] the sheep that wears the bell; the lead sheep of the flock) are dedicated - consecrated - to discovering our roles of leadership under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Households are therefore places of covenanted fellowship for spiritual growth and discernment (finding out where God wants us to be, what He wants us to do). This relationship is vastly different from any other, because it is a commitment to the other members - the other sisters - of the household and is not the willful bond of friendship. In other words: one chooses one's friends, whom one will speak to and whom one will love. Friendships are beautiful relationships, but are also dependant upon opinion - taste and common interests and temperment, if you will. Sisterhood is not. My sister may drive me up a wall, she may be a dreadful emotional leech, she may not like me...but I must still love her and show her all the devotion a sister should. I may not be friends with every one of my sisters (thank God, I am), but I must still love every one of my sisters. Hopefully, one's sisters will become one's friends (otherwise household life will be awfully tough), and - more importantly - this sisterhood/friendship/covenant should extend past the comfortable dormitory environment and into the world, when support is needed to stand against this depraved era.
Off the soapbox, now, and back to egoism. I've talked quite a bit about the artsiness, but have yet to mention anything I've done (besides getting my degree) that vaguely resembles something artsy. Well, to assuage your burning curiosity: I'm a struggling...
Besides writing long and wordy thesis (such as one on Political Fantasy), I also have written articles, essays, poetry, reviews, stories, plays, and I just finished my first novel, Not All Wealth! (Yaaay!) However, I do have the requisite, "interminable" novel, at the moment unimaginatively named Elspeth, from which I derived a nickname that "stuck" with me over on The Republic of Pemberley.
I've been published in local literary journals, such as New Horizons, Soundings, and Impact - the latter of which I edited for two years, and which two years the whole journal placed first in local competition. Two fantasy stories of mine, "If We Shadows Have Offended" and "Better Seen Than Heard," have been bought for Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine and her anthology, Sword and Sorceress (number 19), respectively. And alleluia!, as of 1 March, 2000, the first came out in vol. 46, Winter 2000 issue of MZBFM! Rush out and buy a copy today! The second story will be available at your local bookstore in approximately three years. Another recently published work is my poem, "Calliope: Scintilla" in Fantasy, Fairytales & Folklore. You have to subscribe to read the magazine, but you can access my poem by taking the tour, located at the top of the page. And finally, my play, The French Butler - An Evening's Diversion, a rather longish three-scene one-act in the style of Oscar Wilde's comedies, was produced and directed by me in FUS's Anathan Theatre in the Spring of 1998. Which brings me to...
Theatre! Those who knew me in college, thought I lived, breathed, and slept Anathan (pronounced: AH-nuh-thn) Theatre at Steubie-U (for the song *snicker* click here). Judging from the albino-paleness of my skin, they may be right. I've always had a flair for the dramatic - from my impromptu debut in nursery school singing, "I'm a Little Teapot" (both the real and the "funny" version), to giving my parents a flashlight to hold on me while I entertained them in the living room, to allowing my siblings to join me for "Snyder Talent Shows," to actual School Talent Shows, to School Shows, to Anathan, and now to community theatre...well, I'd say there's a trend there. But, you say, this is acting, not directing! This girl's off her rocker. Ah, but I didn't mention all those long, glorious childhood hours in the backyard, marching all my friends through stories I had made up - some of which they had to memorize original music for! (Bwahahahahahaha!) My résumé (which will be posted soon, I hope) is rather eclectic in scope - I tend to be casted in the most original character roles - comprised of most every aspect of the theatre: directing, acting, technical, backstage, design, publicity and house.
The majority of my work, unsurprisingly, has been through Anathan Theatre at FUS. I had not intended, when I first went to Steubenville, to ever be a drama major. I enjoyed being on stage, but was sensible enough to never really think about majoring in it (I was, rather, being sensible by majoring in Creative Writing...yah). However, on a dare, I took Professor Dougherty's "Fundamentals of Acting Class," at the end of which he gave us a few directing tips. It was if the whole world had come alive - and I knew I must change my major. Change it I did, and jumped in with both feet in the hopes of severely "broken legs." I assistant stage managed for Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge, was Feste the (male) Jester for Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, and Mrs. Soames (the one who cries at the wedding) in Our Town by Thorton Wilder, and then Quince/Prologue in our rendition of "Pyramus and Thisbe" from A Midsummer Night's Dream, again by Shakespeare. At the same time, I built the sets, helped design music, posters, etc., and held down a publicity job for the Theatre (oy - I still have headaches). The same year as Feste, I directed (produced/designed/etc.) French Butler, and the same year as Mrs. Soames I designed lights and sound for The Land of Counterpane by something Ellis (sorry!), directed by my fellow drama major, and then directed (produced/designed/publicized/built/etc.) Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Phew! Inbetween, of course, there's acting in scenes, directing scenes, and so forth and so on, with an entire semester devoted to (mumblegrumble - burn it! - grrrrr) designing Arthur Miller's The Crucible (grrr snarl hiss).
My most recent escapades include the part of the "Palsied Hag" and one of the Choral Bridesmaids (I told you directors peg me as a character actor - yeesh) in the Sudbury Savoyard's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore or the Witch's Curse (so technically I was the [secondary] Title Character!). As my first G&S it went extraordinarily well...well enough that I auditioned for their summer show, "You Can't Take it With You" - and got the part of Mrs. Kirby, a repressed Wall-Street wife who's into spiritualism. *sigh*
Inbetween being burnt at the stake nightly and reading scripts cold, I directed the LifeTeen Passion Play for Palm Sunday. The Gospel for 2000 is Mark - a singularly unpoetic evangelist - but while reading him I realised that the passion as he lays it out IS the Mass as Catholics celebrate it. To that end, I had the characters dress in "modern uniforms": business suits for Pilate and the High Priests, a pretty blue dress for Mary, army fatigues for the Centurion, and Jesus in a priest's alb (the white garment under the outer garments). The theme was "O Come Let Us Adore Him!" - and I sincerely hope that the production brought people to adore Him.
God's good and I was able to go to England to study Shakespearean verse for a whole month! You can read all about it here. Since then, I've put on a Christmas Pageant for my school, and am currently working on directing The Wizard of Oz for the Spring Show.
OK - well, technically, I'm not really a struggling opera singer, but for a while it was a possibility. For two and a half years during high school, I took Voice Lessons, with the intent of going on in that field. I sang a few things for various recitals - such as the role of Pamina from Mozart's The Magic Flute, but by the grace of God, I was pulled out of that and into Steubenville. However, He is a very gracious God, and so I was in the aforementioned Ruddigore Operetta. I still love to sing, though, and have found that music affects both how I write and how I direct. I prefer lines that sing and gestures that dance. I didn't really notice this until someone else mentioned it - but one can't be fully introspective, can one? Anywho, to reiterate just what a sense of humour God has, He gave me a job teaching music to elementary and middle school!
Although my knees stridently deny the sport and threaten to go on strike whenever the weather turns ill, we've worked out a compromise so that I can continue to dance. Formal dancing that is (no gymnastics for me, I'm afraid!). In the Fall of 1997, I had the great opportunity to stay in Austria for three months, taking classes Monday - Thursday, and then travelling Thursday night to Sunday. Well, one can hardly go abroad and not waltz - and better than waltz, I learnt several Austrian Dances, leaving only the Tango for me to overcome. Swing (a.k.a. Jitterbugging) is also a useful knowledge, and Country Line Dancing - although not quite as practical - has the great advantage of being romantic. My sister has proved a pleasant (and shorter) partner for me to try dance moves/hand holds on, although for some reason she becomes rather nervous when I suggest we dance down supermarket aisles....
Now that you've slogged your way through that, let me reclaim my soapbox for a moment, and pull out a Bible and a Rosary. Although I attended the preeminent Catholic university in America (in my not so humble and rather biased opinion), I spent - as you well know by now - most of my time below ground breathing in sawdust and seeing by aid of par lamps, rather than taking classes from the likes of Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Mirivalli, Dr. Shreck and all the other super-duper Theology Professors we have floating around campus. Naturally, and possibly correctly, my mother nagged me for four years about this seemingly abysmal curricular oversight on my part, to which I would respond that I intended to graduate with my GPA intact, and that the big-wig professors did not teach "Theology 101!" But God, in His infinite mirth, has placed in my obsessive compulsive path the challenge and necessity to beef up on my Catholic Apologetics, or "Having an answer to 'Why the heck do you Catholics do/believe THAT?!?!?' " The scholar in me loves it - and, more importantly, the challenge has really made me grow in my Faith. Praise God! Slowly - very slowly it seems some days - I'm memorising the basic verses for the Biblical defense of Purgatory (1 Cor 3:15), Sacred Tradition (1 Tim. 2:15, 2 Thess. 3:15 and on and on....), and, of course, the Eucharist (John 6, every Last Supper discourse, 1 Cor 10 & 11) - and so much more! This warms my parents' hearts as well, and that in itself gives me joy.
(c) 7 January, 2000
AuthorDirectorEt cetera, et cetera, et cetera
Another art I enjoy is...well...art. My sister is a far better artist than I, and has even gone so far as to paint her room this wonderful montage of the fantastic. I do enjoy dabbling in drawing, though, and consequently still own every single one of my school notebooks - not necessarily for the notes, but for the drawings. This "doodling" was put to good use by that dear old dank and dingy dungeon, Anathan Theatre, in the commissioning of posters for six shows. If I ever figure out how to work the scanner, I'll post some.
Updated 5 September, 2001
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