Dutch Tastes

This might just be the grain that tips the scales. I'm gonna have to leave this valley centered around Amherst. There's nothing I, a non-intellectual, can do here. It's like being a fisher in a mining community.

So, I'm looking around and Chicago might just be the place I move in about a year once I raise enough capital. I think it's pretty groovy that it actually has a restaurant for Dutch pancakes, which are like crepes, except that they have goodies embedded in the batter!

I remember those (pannenkoeken) were always the pancakes my dad would make for me. I was introduced to flapjacks (American) at a later date. I thought they were too thick and spongey for my taste. I have since learned to like them, but not as much as pannenkoeken.

The Dutch like to put chocolate sprinkles on their bread. They use butter to make it stick.

The Dutch also like to put peanut butter on their bread. Now the logical conclusion is that it's okay to use peanut butter to make the chocolate sprinkles stick, but do that, and you're just an eccentric.

My dad first did this when he was younger, and my grandfather thought it was excessive. Anyway, the tradition was passed down to me.

One of the most decadent things one can do is eat peanut butter with a spoon. I like to one up my non-Dutch friends by adding a little Dutch chocolate garnish to each spoonful. Two great tastes that taste great together, plus it has a little crunch. I would recommend sticking to creamy and not chunky peanut butter if you are going to attempt this.

Nobody in America seems to like the salty black licorice the Dutch love. Well, one of my friends does, but he's weird. Whenever I go to Holland, I try to get stroopwafels for my friends.

Stroopwafels are made of two thin wafers with a gooey syrup in the middle that hardens. Best thing to do is place it over a steaming cup of coffee to soften it up.

I think the Dutch like marzipan, too. I like marzipan. If I ever get married (hopefully not anytime soon), I'd like a marzipan wedding cake. And an espresso machine for a wedding gift.

Beard Update

Yes. This is all my face could muster in three and a half weeks. I still see new sproutlings every week, so it may be a full 'stache and goatee by June 30, the premier night of Hamlet. No, the two entities do not connect.

A Very Awesome Birthday

Last week was a very awesome birthday. There were several elements that made it so. For one, my tax refund finally came in the mail (it's all going to my car, by the way), I ate Mexican food with my brother at Mama Iguana's, but best of all was my first rehearsal for Hamlet.

Most people would be bummed to have a rehearsal on their birthday, or so I'm told. I relished the idea. I've spent too many years (about two not counting that fundraising gig I had in February) off the stage, so this was a nice gift.

Tina, the stage manager, knew it was my birthday and surprised me with cupcakes and candles!!! It was amazing and delicious.

Also, the scene we were practicing is a real challenge. The whole part is. It's not the biggest part I've ever accepted, but it's definitely the most challenging. In this scene, I go from distrusting King Claudius, to trusting him, to mourning my sister's death. That's quite an emotional roller coaster for one scene. I'm excited for it, though. I hope this part will help me grow as an actor.

At the end, though, I was very sad about the events of that scene, so I stuffed my face with a chocolate cupcake. Chocolate frosting actually helps darken my mustache, so perhaps I should do that before every performance.

When I got home, my mom gave me a gift that finally arrived in the mail: A shiny rapier. I'm gonna have so much fun practicing my fight scenes!

Devilishly Good Entertainment

Today, I saw an incredible staging of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. It was at the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Arts, set in a small black room in their big barn. The setting was nice and intimate.

I think the most most mind-blowing casting was for Mephistopheles, a strong woman with a deep voice named Diedre Devere Bollinger. Her costume was very masculine, complete with a strap-on bulge between her legs. When he (the character Mephistopheles) surrenders his sword to Doctor Faustus, I could not help but think this was castration. But the scene went further when Faustus asks Mephistopheles for a wife. Mephistopheles strips himself of the heavy padding on his chest to reveal a woman's torso in a black shirt and then strips himself of the bulge in between his legs.

It added something tragic to Mephistopheles enslaving himself to Faustus. In doing so, he emasculates himself, and by the end, I could not think of him as either a complete man or a complete woman. Just a shattered being, which I guess is what a fallen angel is.

I confessed to her after the show that I was almost scared to congratulate her because she frightened me so much. She played the demonic part very well but nevertheless played the human element very well, too. Her sorrow was very evident at having been thrown from Heaven along with Lucifer.

Matt Roehrig played a very sympathetic, and of course pompous, Doctor Faustus. He had an unwavering sincerity that added warmth to a part that seemed cold to me on paper (I read this play for high school). He debates repenting for selling his soul to the Devil, and this debate takes on the form of two voices: John Donaldson playing the Good Angel and Nicole Hamidi playing the Evil Angel. Very eerie effect to hear and not see these angels. Made me wonder whether Doctor Faustus was just imagining it. We the audience hope and pray for him to repent, but are sympathetic nevertheless when he doesn't.

Helen was played comically by a non-too-graceful Jacinthe Connor in a white mask and blonde wig. Matt's sensual baritone added to the humor of the scene. While Helen resembled a clown, Matt seemed like a German professor featured on the cover of a steamy Romance Novel... perhaps "Doctor Faustus Makes a House Call!"

Too bad I'm writing this now. Today was the last performance. But I'm just letting those know who didn't attend: y'all missed out.

Beards

Well, this is the second attempt in my life to grow a beard. It's going much better than the first attempt two years ago. A man's facial hair may develop throughout his 20s. I'm 25, and I still don't have what you could call a full beard.

After week one, I was at a Frida Kahlo.

After week two, I described myself as somewhere between a Frida Kahlo and an Orlando Bloom.

I'm at week three. Still not quite Orlando Bloom, which is probably the very best I can hope for. Definitely cannot grow a ZZ Top.

I would not normally attempt such a stunt, but I think it would be really good for the part of Laertes. Even a rougeish thing on my upper lip and my chin. By the way, my mustache and goatee do not attach to create a ring beard.

I have not left it completely un-tampered. I can't stand neck beard, so I started shaving that. Also, I have to pluck out the high stragglers on my cheek bones. And not every hair grows at the same rate, so I have to use scissors to keep them at a uniform length. Who knew growing a beard could be so much more work than shaving it off? It itches, too, like nobody's business.

Last night I dreamed I was kissing a gorgeous woman, but she had to stop because I was scratching up her face. It'll be a lonely couple of months until the show's over. Well, not really, because I'm with a cast and company I love.

Here I am

Alright... so I'm tired of paying for my domain http://www.pdev.us, so I decided to start my own blog here, under the advice of my old roommate, Eli, who keeps his own blog, Rust Belt Philosophy.

So, about myself: I am the son of Dutch immigrants and I grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Theater is my main passion in life. I tried to deny that for a while. I tried taking a safer route in life and attended many job interviews for positions I didn't want. But the Recession has taught me that there is no safe route in life, so I might as well pursue what I love.

I know. I'm gambling with my future. But every choice is a gamble. I could be offered guaranteed employment pursuing something else, but I might run the risk of excruciating boredom. I also know that there is probably no woman out there who would want an aspiring actor, but I've tried being loved for who I'm not. Nothing could be lonelier.

I'll tell you how it happened. I had given up theater after acting in two Hampshire Shakespeare productions in the summer of 2008. Instead, I tried very hard to be someone's boyfriend. I decided I was a writer, instead, and tried writing a novel. The relationship ended, and I still thought I was a writer, not an actor.

Then my good friends at the Hampshire Shakespeare Company gave me a call in February. They needed an MC for their fundraiser "Sleeping with Shakespeare." I decided to do it. It all came back to me. This was where I belonged. And I needed to get into one of their summer shows.

And so I auditioned for Hamlet and got the part of Laertes. And this part is going to be the bulk of the subject matter of my entries from now until the end of July. And then, hopefully I can write about other acting experiences.