Melissa Dunphy

Firstly, many thanks to Matt, who took time out from his busy server-moving, Linux-crunching schedule over at the NIN Hotline to iron out a few bugs on the performance page, huzzah. While he was at it, I replaced a couple of the sidebar widgets on this blog page which were unsatisfactory. The Flickr slideshow I had been using, for example, suddenly started sprouting ads. Goddamn.

Last week, Network for New Music performed my latest piece, Tangled/Triangle, a sound/art collaboration with the amazing artist Becca Burrow:



This Thursday, a 20-minute selection from my Gonzales Cantata is being performed at the West Chester University New Music Concert (free admission!), along with lots of fantastic music from fellow WCU students and some lesser known amateurs named Lutoslawski and Corigliano. Once that's done, I'll augment the rehearsal session and full performance with the new audio, and hopefully have a really good recording to add to the official cantata website and send around with the score.

In the meantime, I am desperately trying to juggle Macbeth performances, Hamlet rehearsals, my teaching schedule, and the final weeks of my undergraduate degree. Despite this craziness, I managed to find time last week to discover the perfect necklace, which I would probably buy if I had ever spent anything close to $250 on an item of jewelry in my life.

Labels: jobs, music, website

Starting this September, I'll be teaching drama classes and private lessons at Village Productions in Pottstown (I know, I've already talked to them about possibly working on the website). The company have found themselves a permanent facility for the first time -- an old furniture warehouse is being transformed into the Tri-County Performing Arts Center, or TriPAC. I visited the site for the first time today, and I'm tremendously excited about it because (a) I'm renovation-nuts and (b) watching a theatre take shape like this is kind of cool.

Here's the main stage, which will be a black box. That's an orchestra loft above the stage, although the set-up will be very flexible so that the stage and audience risers can be configured any which way within the space.



On the second level are offices and three large classrooms, which can be combined by folding away acoustic wall panels to form a second performance area, shown here. (N.B. exposed brick wall at the right is being preserved as-is, aha!) I'll be teaching four classes a week in this space.



This is the fourth wall from the last shot, because metal studs and foil-backed insulation bales look sweet.



In the basement is a fairly extensive backstage area (green room, dressing rooms with sinks, two showers!) and costume/scenic workshops, as well as a couple of private studios where I'll be giving one-on-one coaching. This is a shot from the scenic workshop through exposed studs into the green room. You can see plumbing hookups for the green room kitchenette on the lower left, and on the right is the entrance to one of the dressing rooms.



So, yay. Everyone enroll your kids and your neighbors' kids in classes here, please.

• The downside to having to visit the TriPAC today is that I missed seeing John Waters' live show in DE :(

Labels: acting, jobs, photos

Life is more complicated than anyone can ever imagine. Enough said about that.

In not-really-life related news: I am excited to be starting work at PlayPenn tomorrow -- I have two weeks of rehearsal for a staged reading of a new play, Another Man's Son. I will be playing Lucine, who is an Armenian, and I will probably have to whip out an American accent. Yes, that's American, not Armenian, which is a relief, but I still think it looks funny written out.

I've been teaching week-long theatre camps, and while they are ludicrously satisfying (personally, not financially), they are also incredibly exhausting. Last week I had to look after twenty campers, nineteen of whom were between the ages of 5 and 8, from nine till four every day without a break -- I sit with them and keep them entertained through lunch as well. There were tears every single day from at least one of the campers, and quite often there were tears from me as soon as I stepped through my front door again. But they did put on a lovely show at the end of it, and even though I feel like I spent half my time disciplining them, they were super-affectionate. The week before, I taught Hamlet to a class of five kids aged seven through eleven, culminating in a performance of the final fight. Srsly. (Most bizarre part: the seven-year-old understood the play better than anyone.) I have two more camps to teach; the last is a musical theatre camp for which I am a little nervous because I don't really have a clue.

The next two weeks are going to be tough for reasons I'm (again) not going to go into. Uh, into which I'm not going to go. Uh. I don't really want to go into the reasons. Suffice to say that I'm going to try focusing on reading, writing, and ... cello-ing in my spare time, which is somehow simultaneously too scarce and not scarce enough. Wish me luck.

Labels: acting, jobs, love

Yesterday, I worked as Miss Chiquita Banana at the opening of a Harris Teeter store in southern Delaware. Afterwards, I took a detour east and caught my first look at the Atlantic Ocean from the shore. It's hard to believe, but in the years I've been in the States, I haven't had the chance to see an East Coast beach until now. And what better to do at a deserted windy beach than take a few narcissistic melancholy self-portraits:



And for those of you who want a damn good laugh, here. I have a new-found respect for Carmen Miranda; my hat was filled with fake foam fruit, but it was still incredibly heavy -- and I wasn't even dancing. Carmen must have had a neck of steel.



One more review of the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival season appeared in the Broad Street Review with some nice comments about me and my headshot right at the top.

I installed a new stereo in my car. I screwed something up and blew a fuse, and in the process of replacing the fuse, I did exactly the same thing as this guy. Thank god for the internet -- until I found that thread, I was driving around town setting off my car alarm every time I accidentally tried to turn on my dome light.

Labels: acting, jobs, photos, travel

Things you may not know about me, since I have been so slack in blogging, I haven't mentioned them.

Months ago, I got a free 30Gb Zune as a result of doing promotions for Zune at the Tweeter Center all summer. It is pretty boss, although I think the software is a little buggy and non-customizable. Still, I prefer it to iTunes and I rather enjoy shunning membership of the iPod borg.

I did get that job teaching theater at my local YMCA, and it's a load of fun, although after factoring in (a) the money I spend out of my own pocket organizing costumes for the performances because HOLY CHRIST HOW DO THEY EXPECT SMALL CHILDREN TO PERFORM WITHOUT COSTUMES, (b) the hours I spend putting together lesson plans and writing at least two scripts per semester, and (c) the fact I have zero time to take advantage of the free Y membership, I am actually losing money in the enterprise. But the kids are great.

Yesterday I called in sick to the YMCA because I was running a fever and had a sore throat from hell, and the woman in charge of youth programs had the hide to get tetchy and borderline rude about it. Like I have some sort of obligation to ignore debilitating malady for a $9-an-hour job.

I've decided that one day, when all my other ideas have dried up, I'd like to open my own drama school, where I can teach my own (AMEB/TCL) way. They'll start with learning how to recite poetry properly, then move onto monologues, and they'll get a good grounding in the physiology of voice production. I'll even run an eisteddfod, old-school-Australian-style. My graduates will land every theatrical and cinematic child role in Philadelphia, because nobody is teaching the next generation of actors how to audition, nobody.

Last night, thanks to an unexpected windfall, I did the UNTHINKABLE. I bought a guitar. A GUITAR. This is all thanks to an anti-Ron-Paul punk song* I wrote at the end of last semester. I discovered that my hands are too small to comfortably play bar chords, so I began looking into smaller guitars. My next revelation was that guitars are, on the whole, too heavy and would probably kill my neck after prolongued playing, so I searched for something lighter. Finally, the cheapskate in me wanted a great deal. Behold:



Daisy Rock's Stardust Retro-H semi-hollow electric guitar has been discontinued, so it's possible to find them for only $150 delivered. It's ordered and on its way.

Apparently I am going through a fulfillment phase of gear lust, because I also recently became the proud owner of one of these:



Years ago, I heard Brian Eno play with a Korg Kaoss Pad in a radio interview, improvising Autechre-style beats. Covetousness was instant. Two weeks ago, Matt found one on Craigslist for $200.

WRONG MAN = flowers and/or chocolates for Valentine's Day. LAME.
RIGHT MAN = Kaoss Pad 2 for Valentine's Day. YES.

Last year, after deciding that enough was enough, I decided to give antidepressants a try, specifically fluoxetine, as I was (am) pretty sure my SADS is getting worse. It was an interesting experience, sometimes negative, sometimes positive. On the negative side, I was neurotic and anxious for the first few weeks, my sleep patterns went haywire, and I continually had mildly disturbing dreams. On the positive side, my PMS disappeared. In fact, when I told Matt one day that it was that time of the month, he was stunned by my complete lack of symptoms. On the I-can't-decide-if-it's-good-or-bad side, Prozac took the edge off my drive. I didn't feel like I had to kill myself to do well at school, for example. This perhaps resulted in some substandard work, but I also allowed myself to relax more than I usually do, which some people claim is a healthy way to live.

We're coming into spring, and the dreams were becoming annoying, so I took myself off them. No side effects of cessation to report so far. The dreams, which I will document in a later entry, have gone away. A recent study says Prozac is useless, which is interesting.

I'm about to head into tech week for Romeo & Juliet. As previously mentioned, I am sick as a dog.

• Machines "to match man by 2029". I have been watching the dreadful Sarah Connor Chronicles on Hulu, so this headline gave me the giggles.

*I did actually record this, though it seemed stupid to put it online after Ron Paul received his expected drubbing in the primaries. Still, maybe I'll post it for lolz sometime.

Labels: acting, gadgets, jobs, music, psychobabble

I am seriously considering becoming an egg donor. According to a post on Craigslist Asian egg donors are particularly prized -- I sent them an application, and was sent in return a very comprehensive screening packet, with the promise of $5000 if I actually went through with everything.

I find the whole thing very interesting. As I said, I'm considering it.

• The Colonial Theatre


• Lapsura | Aphex Twin Sheet Music


• McAfee SiteAdvisor - Spam Quiz: "YOU GOT 8 OF 8 QUESTIONS CORRECT
  Rating: Safety Guru -- Spammy e-mails don't even stand a chance of penetrating your inbox. Your practically clairvoyant knowledge of the Web allows you to distinguish between safe sites and those that might share your personal information with third parties. We're impressed!" The funny thing about this is that I did it based on instincts about the sites' design, rather than actually reading their privacy policies.


• I'm always pondering how few people even come close to my Chinese-Greek ethnic combination. Well, here's a whole town of people who might be vaguely similar: the population of Liqian, in China, may be the descendents of a lost Roman legion. Chinese folk with green eyes and blond hair. Awesome.


• Drawings on an acid trip. Really interesting.


• AIEEEEEEEEE!!!

Labels: jobs

Lovely jobs! Wonderful jobs!
Lovely jobs! Wonderful jobs!

A few weeks ago, I started to freak out about finances a little. Despite scholarships galore, we're still overspending because we're trying to renovate a house. Additionally, for the first time in my life, I am seeking worthwhile professional help for my neck and shoulder muscles, which have been rather royally fucked by two decades of stringed instruments. We have health insurance through Matt's job at the Free Apple Gadget Dispenser, but there's still a $20 copay for physiotherapy (Americans refer to it as 'physical therapy,' I suppose because six syllables in a single word is daunting), which means I'm paying $60 per week to work out and receive dope massages. Good news - the mobility in my neck has increased from 60% to about 75%.

I started applying for employment through Craigslist, and now I am TOTALLY OVERWHELMED with part time jobs, many of which I will be able to continue through the school year.

First up, tomorrow I start work as a brand ambassador for the Microsoft Zune at the Tweeter Center. Basically, I demonstrate the Zune to concertgoers while in the comfort of a tent, or 'Zune Zone' (I don't know if I get a free Zune - here's hoping). The neat part about this is that I get to hang out at concerts which I would never go to otherwise because I am po'. Some of the concerts are actually quite interesting, others are just funny. In the next month, you will see me at:

• Marilyn Manson and Slayer with Bleeding Through
• Vans Warped Tour 2007 (A Static Lullaby, All Time Low, Amber Pacific, As I Lay Dying, Bad Religion, Bayside, Biffy Clyro, Big D and the Kids Table, Bleed The Dream, Bless The Fall, Boys Like Girls, Chiodos, Circa Survive, Coheed and Cambria, Cute Is What We Aim For, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Envy On The Coast, Escape The Fate, Evaline, Flogging Molly, Gallows, Hawthorne Heights, Hot Rod Circuit, IainTerry band, It Dies Today, Jonzetta, K-OS, kaddisfly, Killswitch Engage, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, MC Chris, Meg and Dia, Monty Are I, My American Heart CA, New Found Glory, Paramore, Parkway Drive, Pepper, Poison The Well, POS, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Revolution Mother, So They Say, Still Remains, Street Drum Corps, The Almost, The Confession, The Fabulous Rudies, The Fold, The Matches, The Rocket Summer, the spill canvas, The Starting Line, The Unseen, The Vincent Black Shadow, Throwdown, Tiger Army, Underoath)
• Brad Paisley with Taylor Swift, Jack Ingram and Kellie Pickler
• Family Values Tour ft. Evanescence and Korn with Atreyu, Flyleaf, Hellyeah, Trivium and Droid
• Dave Matthews Band with Xavier Rudd
• Dave Matthews Band with Toots and The Maytals
• The Allman Brothers Band and RatDog with special guest Keller Williams
• O.A.R. with Augustana, and Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers
• Velvet Revolver and Alice in Chains with Kill Hannah
• Ozzfest - Ozzy Osbourne, Lamb of God, Static X, Lordi, Hatebreed, Behemoth, Nick Oliveri and the Mondo Generator, Nile, Ankla, Circus Diablo, The Showdown, 3 Inches of Blood, Chthonic, Daath, In This Moment
• Projekt Revolution Tour ft Linkin Park with My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, Placebo, Julien-K, Mindless Self Indulgence, Saosin, The Bled, Styles of Beyond and Madina Lake
• Opie & Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour with Bob Saget, Louis C.K., Stephen Lynch, Frank Caliendo, Jim Norton, Rich Vos, Bob Kelly, Otto & George and Patrice O'Neal
• MMRBQ2, Last Call featuring Live with Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Collective Soul and Seether

You know what excites me the most? Bob Saget. Seriously, I hope I get to see or hear Bob Saget. Also, Lordi.

I have a job interview tomorrow to teach theatre at the local YMCA. The best thing about it, other than the fact I'm genuinely 'uniquely qualified,' is that I would get free YMCA membership, so I could take all the yoga classes I want for free. Wish me luck. I hope I didn't just jinx myself by telling you.

I'm also interviewing for another promotional job on Monday, and I have a phone interview for a music lesson school. Oh, and I got a job with an office temp agency as well, and next week I'm working five days from 9-3pm.

Lovely jobs! (Lovely jobs!)
Lovely jobs! (Lovely jobs!)
Lovely jobs!

Jobs!
Jobs!
Jobs!
JOBS!

Labels: jobs