Sun, 11 Jun 67 – Wyriga, MN
Back for more with the Theatre Nuns! What is it I like so much about the Sisters of St. Hilarious? Is it that fierce battle of Inner vs. Outer? Must be. The students on the other hand, give me the creeps. Long skirts, weirdly puffed hair and old fashioned makeup makes me feel they’ve stepped out of the pages of Little House on the Prairie. In fact we are putting on Giraudoux’s Madwoman of Chaillot – too modern for them if anything. They are worried whether the audience will “get” it. How can they miss it? I hate finding out I’m such a snob but I might as well be honest. Picked up at the airport by Dr. Magnus and driven to the just completed dorms –smells like the mortar is still drying – where the other students claim to “adore” my “accent”. Didn’t know I had one but presumably they can’t hear their own nasal twang. Fortunately I have my own room – the senior I was supposed to room with – Josephine – has taken an apt! Yay! Now I can stay up all night if I want to. First class is Ballet (!!!) where I am forced to admit I am starting from rock bottom. Imitating a leaf in Miss Pleverer’s modern dance class when I was six has apparently not helped me at all. (She was another Misbegotten Wretch Mom wanted to support.) The only direction I have to go is Up. After that, Voice. Stress makes me screech – we are trying to lower my high whine. After that, casting for our play – I got cast as The Spanish Dancer because the director (with whom all the girls are in love) did not see me in Ballet. He selected me to lead the mazurka! Uh oh! Here’s hoping I pick it up. There’s a very good actor named Robin (didn’t get his last name) blond hair, long nose, tall and thin, poor posture but a terrific actor. He can imitate anyone – he is electric onstage! He’s also charming and funny and seems to like me. I’m trying out for one of the leads in The Mousetrap. I wouldn’t have the nerve if the others weren’t so hopeless. Tried calling home – was feeling homesick which Mom cured by lecturing e. The office chose that moment to cut us off. When I finally got her back I discovered she thought I hung up on her. I don’t think she really believes that I didn’t. Wish we were closer but she is going through a Bad Period. She is very angry that Genevieve wants to leave Radcliffe and go to Boston College with the rest of the rabble. She thinks she’s doing it for “some boy” and even if she were I don’t see why that invalidates her dislike of Radcliffe. It is a snooty, stupid place. I think she’s really upset because every time we talk about Africa, I cry! It’s automatic at this point and she thinks I’m doing it just to make her feel bad. “Mom, you took me to a war.” Neither Mom nor Dad want to know what we REALLY think which is especially awkward since all our friends praise them for their Honesty and Involvement in our lives! Our job now seems to be to tell them over and over again, You’ve Been Perfect but they raised us to be honest, analyze Problems and Problem-Solve. But only for the Benighted , apparently, which by definition our parents can’t be. For example, they are furious at Merrill’s husband for joining the Air Force. But if he JOINS as opposed to being drafted, he gets to take Merrill with him to Meteorology School in Athens, Greece! This sounds better to them than the jungles of Vietnam and I concur! (Wish I was there.) I HAVE to defend my sisters. Cried fiercely in my room afterwards – a girl came to be nice but I was old and proud. Slept till one PM Sunday. So great not having a roommate. Napoleon says “a man needs six hours of sleep, a woman seven and a fool eight”. A theatre student needs nine! I keep missing meals so bought lemonade and cottage cheese with pineapple and just got full on that. The lemonade I keep in my room, and there’s a kitchen with a fridge down the hall for my cottage cheese. LOVE that stuff! Rehearsals lasted till ten pm! My part is insignificant so I sit in the audience reading. Finished Genet’s The Maids (love it!!) starting Deathwatch. Almost completed Markham’s Napoleon and Dostoevsky’s The Idiot but left them in my room. Love Prince Myshkin and Jacques Louis David. Robin offered me a ride to the Black Hawk – the local night club. My high hopes were dashed. Sleazy dive with a juke box. Made me even MORE homesick. Missing Shawn. Tues 13 June 67 Finished the Idiot, then speed-read The Blight on the Ivy by “The Gordons”. I was hoping to sound well informed on student suicide rates in my next argument. But what a terrible book! Authors condescending to their readers fall between three stools: lurid Sat. Eve Post article, useful survey or Ma Gordon’s Common Sense Advice. No opportunity for Nat Moralizing was missed. They told me to read their other book entitled The Split Level Trap. No thank you! I saw the movie (No Down Payment.) Really didn’t understand Deathwatch. Trying to read Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey – to my surprise, I haven’t read her before but I enjoy it.
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Alysse Aallyn
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