That's a little vague. But let me give you some examples.
From the time that I was a precious lil Gollum-looking toddler, I've always loved to sing. If I wasn't having full-length and intense conversations with license plates from my car seat in Bev's horrendous Dodge caravan, I was most likely singing. Or I was quoting anything that I saw was getting laughs from TV and telling them to family members and strangers alike (uncensored, of course.) I was also pretty convinced that I was going to be an actress growing up (Thanks Days of Our Lives,) so I was doing THAT whole thing in addition to taking various dance classes for many years. But it wasn't until I got to high school that I even realized there was a thing called "musical theatre"...you know, a thing where I could act, sing, and even DANCE onstage if the part called for it. Learning that simple fact shaped the entirety of my high school career and was one of the reasons that I went through the pains of "dual enrollment" at Hahnville High and NOCCA, an incredible performing arts high school where I learned the ins-and-outs of this wonderful art form.
Flash forward seven years to now, and here I am on my computer googling such queries as "Jim Henson Creature Shop" and "How does one even learn about building puppets?" and "Puppetry graduate school programs." Most people, my teachers included, are so intrigued with my sudden interest in puppetry...and trust me, I'm just as equally intrigued. But after many hours of my brain feverishly sifting through my heart and trying to make sense of its random passions and desires, this is all I can come up with...
I love working in the scene shop. The steel toe shoes, the ground plans, the crazy and often dangerous power tools, the sense of accomplishment you get when you've put together a complicated piece of scenery that is clearly the brain child of Clinnin or Heil...all of it. I just can't get enough of it. People who've known me since high school also know that I am all about mascots and teaching high schoolers how to embrace the big ball of fuzzy awkwardness that is a mascot suit and make it a character that everyone loves and can't get enough of. And let's not forget that I still love everything about the theatre. All the singing, dancing, and acting that happens...I am alllll about it.
So why my brain hasn't put 1+1+1+1+1 together until this year, I don't know. I don't know how my brain couldn't process the idea of creating literal hand mascots for the theatre as a mode of story-telling until, oh, about eight months before I'm forced to grow up and graduate. I don't even know. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE scenic design too. (Seriously, I love too many things. It's frustrating and embarrassing.) The challenges that come with creating a semi-practical world in which to tell a story is exhilarating and terrifying and agonizing all at the same time; it's pretty much my form of a roller coaster adrenaline rush, minus the whole being strapped into a scary scrap of metal and being tossed around like the beans inside of a maracca (IT'S THE BEST METAPHOR I COULD COME UP WITH AT 11 PM, LEAVE ME ALONE.) But now I've just gotta keep my eyes peeled for more opportunites to learn about puppetry and see if it's something I wanna dedicate myself to for the rest of my life, while still doing scenic designs of course.
I think at the end of the day, I just wanna be good at a lot of things. My heart is just so big and full of such crazy ideas that I just want to express them all in as many ways as I can. I just want to tell stories. I just want to talk about things that matter to me without using words. I just want to make art, y'all. So sue me.
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