August 07, 2004
The more things change...
...the more they stay exactly the same.
I went back to Regal for a few weeks to make a few extra dollars. The reasoning behind the decision mainly revolved around my thought that I wouldn't be able to find something in Philadelphia that would pay as well as I was getting here and also schedule me for full-time until school started, and then scale back after that. So I went back, tail between my legs, after pretty much promising both friends and family that my days of working at the movies (shoveling popcorn, sweeping out theaters in between showtimes, dealing with pissed-off-at-the-outrageous-prices customers) were over.
Truth be told, I'm liking the job. The people are good. There's a vibe that I haven't felt there since I first started 4 or 5 summers ago - youthful, fun-loving, and few cliques to deal with among the people who matter most, the floor staff. Of course, things have always been good on my returns - this time might just revolve around the idea that I have a firm ending date, and my spirit will hardly be crushed in the few weeks I'm there.
I'm also seeing people that I haven't seen in years there. The first words out of my mouth have been "This is temporary...I'm going to grad school" right after my bright "Hello!" I'm wearing the job like a curse when I see these people - friends I graduated high school with, people I used to work with at the theater who have moved on...I feel compulsively drawn to make sure that people understand that yes, I have moved on. I won't be pushing popcorn forever.
The vibe among management has been pretty awesome too...I'm working on a lot of shifts with a bunch of college kids who, like the kids on the floor, are there to have fun...they see the copious amounts of BS and manage to laugh at the stuff that needs laughing at. And there's plenty of corporate/local policy that needs laughing at.
But still, a lot of things are the same. The same as when I first started 5 years ago. The same as when I last left in January. But, it's a paycheck. It's something to do to get some free movies. It kills a lot of time that would otherwise go to waste.
The more that I work there, the more I'm convinced that I'm going to get a book out of the place. If anything, it'll be therapy for me, but I think it may have commercial value somewhere along the line. As always I just have to put the damn pen to the page.
So the revised plan is still in effect. My sister is home on the 13th. I'm looking at heading back to Philadelphia on the 16th or 17th. I have class starting the 25th, and a reception to attend with the other grad students (!) on the 24th. My schedule is finally posted online - Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoon/evenings from 4:00 - 7:30ish. (which is nerve racking, as I have no idea what the workload will be outside of those classes (the days of the 3-5 page paper are over, I fear)...more than undergrad...plus the 80-hour required practicum working on the shows for the season...)
The classes sound interesting - I'm taking an acting class (as was advised to, because it becomes an "almost requirement" for a lot of later classes in the department) an introduction to dramaturgy class and a script analysis class. 3 classes, 9 credits, full time.
Otherwise, this past week has been pretty uneventful. I saw "The Village." Contrary to popular opinion, I liked it. It's a twist movie. After viewing, you could poke holes through most of the plot. But I was sufficiently intrigued by the plot, and by the twist to actually like the film. The people I've spoken to who hated the film have at least agreed that the cinematography is beautiful and the acting is pretty decent. (Brody borders on being miscast, and Ron Howard's daughter needs to decide in the second half of the film if she's blind, balanced with William Hurt being fantastic) It's not scary. It's a bit eerie, but I wasn't that scary. I went in with the mindset that there was going to be a twist, and wasn't incredibly disappointed. I won't buy the DVD, but it was worth 2 hours of time to see.
Tuesday I had lunch with one of my old high school professors, Mr. Motsay. The strange thing is, I still can't bring myself to call him by his first name for some reason. He's been a mentor to me over the last few years with everything: the film and TV stuff, La Salle in general, and then to what I see as my newest calling, the whole theatre thing. He's as excited as I am about Villanova.
Right now I'm content. My newly-graduated friends are beginning to disperse across the country, and I'm trying to keep abreast of who's going where, and when, although this is proving difficult.
The hardest part is keeping perspective. I found something hopeful doing preliminary research for my "Dramaturgy: the Classic tradition" class. John Gay (who wrote a play called "The Beggar's Opera" is buried in Westminster Abbey under the following epitaph:
I thought so once: but now I know it.
I dunno, it kind of made me laugh the other day when I saw it for the first time.
Edit: Was going to leave it there, but found this quote from "The Beggar's Opera" too:
Let us drink and sport to-day,
--Ours is not to-morrow:
Love with youth flies swift away,
--Age is naught but sorrow.
---Dance and sing,
---Time's on the wing,
Life never knows the return of spring.
There. Now I'm finished. 