It never hit me. Post-college depression.

University life is over, and I am fine with that, for now.

Yes, I definitely miss my friends. I miss the inescapable, yet dependable community that college life creates. I miss cuddling in a dilapidated, half-frozen apartment with my housemate over Winter break. I miss my professors. I miss that last minute enormous group paper and presentation that must be finished before the end of the semester. (Okay, maybe that’s a lie; group papers can stay buried in the past…)

I’ve already lived all of those moments, and I don’t feel the need for another dose.

I am enjoying a new chapter in my life with no regrets.

Completion of college has, by no means, meant the end of my education. I’m taking improv and acting classes and have found new teachers and coaches that can assign group exercises or long monologues or scripts to be memorized. Not to mention, the best learning happens, not in the classroom, but out in the world making mistakes.

Throughout my life, I frequently find myself in situations where I think How the _____ did I get here?! What the ____ was I thinking! Usually, this occurs when I’m about to perform something in playhouse full of people. Not the best time to realize you are, in fact, totally inexperienced and completely clueless.

Somehow, I thought those instances would decrease after college…i was wrong.

In the past few weeks, I’ve found myself thinking those words exactly. On stage about to improvise in a format I’ve never rehearsed, in front of my computer preparing to write a play that I’ve told someone already exists, and on my way to auditions that require skills – puppetry, rollerblading, improvised singing – I had never studied. Unless, of course, you consider youtube’s expert village videos a proper education.

In all of these instances, what typically transpires is a trial and error, learn by doing and learn by failing educational experience. More often than not, I hit a brick wall feeling defeated for just a moment, then I ball up my fist and blast through thinking awww just freakin’ go for it! And what do ya know, I get a gig or two or three!

Currently I’m in an improvised parody/homage to the Twilight Saga called Dusk: Improvised Tween Erotica.

Don't worry, it's erotica to the level a tween would be comfortable with: lots of eye gazing, hand holding, and almost kisses. Rated PG13.

Our promotional pictures….

The folks in these pics are a few of my Duskie castmates: our best look-a-likes for Bella, Edward, the Cullens, and the wolf pack. You should immediately google the actual posters so you can see what a brilliant job we did of parodying the actual movie posters.

Dusk opens this weekend at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre (2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78723 ) at 8pm. Tickets can be bought online and before the show, but they should sell out fast.

Here's the link to get tickets online: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/436400285

There's a rotating cast of 16 people. Eight perform each night. So far, I'm the narrator on October 24 and the female lead on October 30.

I'll know the other castings at least one week ahead of time.

Dusk will be fun for the Twilight fans and foes, and the indifferent. Other than that, I can't tell you what the show will be like because it's improv - we make it up on the spot based on audience suggestion!

On Friday, October 16, I got to see the production of a play I wrote at The Rose Theatre in San Antonio. It’s a short play in a series of scary Halloween plays.

I’m in an improvised puppet musical called Crack; I finished making one of the puppets yesterday. The musical goes up in late November.

Meet Trevor Adelbert.

I play the only human in a puppet television show for kids, not unlike Sesame Street or Mr. Rodgers, called Funmi and Friends. To be filmed in several weeks.

Still playin almost every weekend in ComedySportz, only now I’m in the ComedySportz Austin family, though I miss my San Antonio CSz family like crazy.

I guess that’s the reason I haven’t felt that missing feeling that most college graduates get. I’ve surrounded myself with new families and have become a contributing part of a new set of communities. Between improv and acting gigs, and my day job riding horses (save that for another blog post…) I haven’t had room for nostalgia. I guess that's why it never hit me. Maybe it will...

One day sixty years from now, sitting in my front porch on my rocking chair, drinking my beat pulp...I'll suddenly have this longing to be in a rundown, uninsulated apartment with my housemates, our feet inching closer and closer to the single space heater, because more than one space heater overloads the circuit and blows out the power in the apartment...maybe...one day.

that is all.
madistalgic

Posted by Maddy at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)