James and the Giant Peach

This past Sunday, I went with my dad and my brother to see JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, starring Zeum's Jerrod and Perry. Perry played the grasshopper and Jarrod played the earthworm. In the story, James' parents died so he had to live with his awful aunts. He wished for a better life and his wish came true when he decided to run away and live in a peach and made a lot of new friends who were bugs. The peach rolls off the aunts hill and lands in the Atlantic ocean. They used their teamwork and skills to escape the man eating sharks. They had a lot of struggles but survived through the challenges and obstacles.

I wanted to write about this is because Zeum is all about story telling and performance and being creative... so I really felt like it was related. whether its through creating an animation or a production at the production stage and being creative and that's what the play is, creating a story come to life and being creative.

The part of the story that affected me was when James ran away from home because at times I feel like running away because life at home can get hard. A lot of the times I have to a lot of the work like James...I get blamed for things my brother did. The other part that touched me was when James made friends with the bugs and they became really close and became best friends for life. I have a few close friends who are my best friends. I don't know what I would do with out them, that's how close to them. I also have a few close people here at Zeum, if something were to happen to them I would break down and cry. They are like my family.

The play was AWSOME. The actors and actresses did an amazing job especially since they had about 2-3 roles EACH and had to memorize SO MANY lines. They all seem so dedicated and put a lot of time and hard work into making the show ...you can tell. Just watching the play, I could tell that to be in a show like this, you have to have completely dedicated to what you're working on. That's inspiring. If you are not 110% dedicated you wont be able to learn your lines on time for the play. And also if your not 110% dedicated you'll probably not be focused during rehearsal which will determine how you do on opening night

When i talked to Perry and Jerrod after the show, they said it was great seeing someone from work seeing the play. they were excited to see me there and same for me. I was SO EXCITED to see them. the main reason i went was to see perry and to support him.

I can totally relate the experience of going to the theater to working at Zeum. Since we have a music production lab and a production studio, people learn to be comfortable with getting in front of the camera. When you do a play you have to be comfortable being in front of an audience or else you'll freeze up and mess the entire show up.

When I have to get in front of an audience of any kind I get so nervous. A lot of the time I feel so nervous my hand shakes, i feel like throwing up or I feel like breaking down and crying. I feel this way because I am afraid if people will judge me or make fun of me.

Since working here at Zeum, I'm not nervous talking in front of strangers.... for example when I greet them and explain what they can do in the room I am always perky and friendly but I still feel the same way if I'mtalking in front of people i know. I feel a lot more nervous talking in front of people I am really close to like my co-workers or friends.

I totally recommend seeing this show. It's at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts in Berkeley.

A Little Local Theater....Assassins!

Last night we went to see Perry's show, Assassins. It was fun to see a live performance because everything becomes a lot more real to you since the characters are basically right there in front of you. You may not get the special effects of Hollywood but its fun to have a front row seat (and we did!) to see the action that is going on on stage. It was also great because we actually got to see Perry on stage performing to his fullest. I liked saying that I personally knew one of the actors in the show.

Assassins was different from what I'd expected. I assumed it would be another history lesson on people that have killed presidents. Instead it was told from the side of the assassins in a not so depressing way so it wasn't at all boring. What really kept my interest was all the songs that the characters sang - they weren't so serious, actually they had a comic overtone. They told the story with sort of a carnival background "Win a prize try to kill a President." Instead of just having one person come out at a time and tell their story they made it seem like they were all friends and tied all their assassinations in together with one another.

Seeing the way the actors portrayed the characters was good for me - It was great to see all the different kinds of emotions coming out of each person they played. They didn't have to be sad all the time they could go from mad to even happy or just crazy. It's good to know the different type of acting techniques that people can do on stage. I love seeing different styles and ways people act. It's like a mini acting lesson for me.

I love acting, especially in musicals. When I go see plays it only helps me get more into what I am doing because I have a chance to see how other actors work in their space, with their characters, and in the performance they are doing.

Even though it was a small space, the performers used all the open areas they could find to perform in making us feel like we were involved in what was going on in that scene. At Zeum we could do the same we have a lot of space and its fun to use it all because you get a bigger effect when you take up all you have. We could use things like the spiral walkway to do something fun or the metafield maze to get everyone involved. What if??

An special addition to getting treated to a performance was we got CREAMPUFFS that Ari bought for us. They were vanilla and strawberry and extremely good and we ate almost all of them. Good show and good creampuffs.