Yogurt coverd Chocolate Balls
Tonight, I did something extraordinary. There are truly few moments in life like this…the first crush, the first kiss, or the first …. uh… firework show in your pants.
About a month ago, my South African friend Pieter Vorster asked me to participate in Extreme Theater at a space called Mindful Phoenix here in
Kaohsiung . An enterprising gentleman named Thomas Sebastian, an Australian, and lethally good looking, decided to open up a space for people to learn kung fu, tap dancing, salsa, and put on plays. Kung fu and tap dancing. Who would have even had the gumption to put the two together?
So once every other month, they put on Extreme Theater. The concept is that on a Friday night, 3 writers are invited and given three facts: (1) a person, (2) a place, and (3) a prop. These writers have 24 hours to write a play incorporating these three facts, get actors to rehearse and act out the play by 8pm the following evening. I reluctantly volunteered to act.
I had never done any stage work before, which is the main reason why I decided to venture into this unknown. The three facts in my play were (1) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, (2) a treacherous mountain range, and (3) a hot air balloon. Craig wrote the play, called “Tonight we devour the Wolves”. I played a hot air balloon captain, who is hired to take Charlie’s 9 month pregnant wife to look for him because he had freaked out about the impending baby, and took off with the guise of discovering the perfect yogurt covered chocolate balls. The short of it is that Charlie get’s devoured by a pack of wolves, and I deliver a baby. My co-actress Erin did such a great job. Her delight of the day was the opportunity to slap me across the face as part of the act. She REALLY got into it. I left with a rosy left cheek. She left satisfied.
The story is unimportant. What’s important about tonight was that I learned yet another valuable lesson. I pushed myself to do something I had never done before, and the growth was invaluable. I have a new found respect for actors. To put yourself in front of people against every grain of entrenched social limitation, with the possibility of total embarrassment, is unfathomable. Yet the thrill of the experience gave me a rush of adrenaline like that of the first firework show. You know what I mean. I highly recommend the rush. You’re stomach will never be as tightly knotted or as filled with a swarm of butterflies. You will open up parts of yourself that you never imagined to have existed before. Just for today, I was a thespian.
December 15th, 2005 at 12:35 am
Dear Yuta,
I am so proud of you for pushing yourself to do what you did. Wish I was there to watch it. Here’s the cuddle, big big cuddles for the soulful you!
With love,
Ling
December 15th, 2005 at 12:44 am
Yogurt covered chocolate balls…would they taste better than chocolate covered yogurt balls? They must do because the initial taste-stimulation on the taste buds is so different. Surely more people have seen and tasted chocolate balls than yogurt balls. I’d want to be chocolatically stimulated…hmm…
December 15th, 2005 at 10:41 pm
Too bad that I wasn’t there. The place and events sounds so cool! BTW, I had some trainning on Judo and tae-kwon-do before. Maybe I could continue my Kung fu lessons there. Please be aware that I’m a dangerous girl!! Ha ~~~
December 21st, 2005 at 5:46 pm
I recommend that to heighten the experience, you try acting with 4 to 6 drinks (drink = 1×12 oz beer, 1×4 oz wine, or 1x 1.5oz liquor). The knots get smaller and the fireworks…ahem…warmer. You will also have the experience of being the drunk actor…not to be missed.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Blogwalking ..
nice posting i found here,.. thanks for the info