My Triumphant Return From Dissertation Hibernation

I had intended to be really good about keeping up with this blog this year, but I fear I have failed whompingly. Honestly, I can’t entirely fault myself. This autumn was chaotic, not in a bad way, just really, really busy. So this is sort of the highlight reel, and from here on in I’m going to try to be better about more frequent posting, even if it’s not very detailed or long, just so you know I’m not dead.

Since last I wrote (the end of October, and here it is March already!) the biggest thing has been, of course, the dissertation. Well, technically the biggest thing; I did the vast majority of the work for it in the last month (February), and in the end I actually really enjoyed spending six hours a day at the computer writing. I got very fond of the Mystery Plays, and I certainly feel like I know them extremely well at this point. Remarkably, although there was still a bit of a chaotic push towards the end, I did pace myself reasonably well, and the last week of it wasn’t insanity or anything, just steady work throughout. Now that it’s done- two weeks now- it’s a little strange, like I don’t quite know what to do with myself.

In case you were curious, the ultimate study was of the twentieth-century revivals and how they reflect perceptions of the Middle Ages. The answer to the question is: it depends upon the director. Some years, the Plays are very medieval looking, especially since they’ve moved back onto the wagons in the streets of York. In a couple of years, at the Theatre Royal, they bore no resemblance to the Middle Ages whatsoever, except the odd archaic word in the script here or there. Some directors seem to like using medieval costume and settings as a sort of extra layer of story- one year they framed the Plays with a “medieval street” scene, so it was like a play-in-a-play- while others view the Mystery Plays as scripts like any other, to be used as plays, full stop, and the medieval is simply not important or necessary. I am curiously torn on this issue: as an academic interest I rather like having the medieval in there, and I’m really delighted that they’re back on the wagons (and hot damn do I intend to be here to direct the Lords’ play come 2010 when they next run!); on the flip side, I’m not sure, as a director, that I would want to feel hemmed in by that if something else came to mind. Admittedly, I’m not a big fan of updated versions in general (Shakespeare set in the twentieth century just doesn’t work, to my way of thinking), but that doesn’t mean it’s inherently wrong. My academic and director personalities fought about this a lot while I was writing.

Which brings me to theatre, which, as I’m sure we’ve all figured out by now, is really my truer calling and the thing that really takes up most of my time (I’m just a medievalist in between plays). This fall we did the Nativity plays- The Annunciation (Townley, I think), Joseph’s Trouble About Mary (from the York Cycle), and the Second Shepherd’s Play (whatever it’s fashionable to call that cycle these days- nobody knows where it’s from, and I usually think of it as the N-Town Cycle, but Rachel consistently referred to it as Wakefield, which is actually pretty well disproved at this point). I was only in Joseph’s Trouble, which is actually a fairly comic and one of my favourites, since it deals with a very human point that the Bible rather skips over, namely the idea that it took a bit of convincing for Joseph to be kosher with his wife being knocked up by God. Pragya directed it and the Annunciation, and I’ll say only that I think she’s a much better secretary for Lords than director, and I’m not all that convinced she’s got a calling to secretarial work. There were a lot of problems, not merely in her camp, but in lack of line-learning by Joseph up to opening night, which was flummoxing everyone else horribly, and similar difficulties. I honestly went into opening night pretty sure I was going to want to go home and crawl under my bed and die of embarassment. How we pulled it together, I still couldn’t say. It was a genuine miracle of people really pulling together in the eleventh hour, and we were quite shocked that it worked out. (There were still a few truly cringe-worthy moments.) Second Shepherd’s was excellent- Rachel directed it, and however much I may disagree about certain administrative ideas she has for Lords, she’s a decent comedy director. She also had good fortune in her cast- she had Louisa and Fernando as Mak and Gill, the sheep-thief and his wife; James Wright and Kate Thomas and Bill White and Tom Davies were the shepherds, and they’re all good character actors. This show lead off what is apparently the theme of the year: obscene sheep jokes, which are pretty common in England anyway (and usually at the expense of Wales), and which we’ve carried over to the winter show.

The winter show has been a disaster from day one, and it remains to be seen how that will all resolve itself. Fernando and Jeremy are directing it; Fernando’s just really, really flaky, and although Jeremy is actually a very good director, he’s rather too passive about it and tends to act as the silent partner, which is a pity. We’ve had a lot of chaos over dates, casting, script revisions, and I could go on for several hours on this point, but won’t. Suffice to say that there have been several nights when we might not have survived were it not for the pub after the fact, and copious amounts of beer, and some heavy-duty kvetching sessions. We find ways to amuse ourselves in spite of it all, like the ongoing betting pool about how many times in any rehearsal Pragya will play backseat director, or how often Strasz will be out to lunch and miss his lines or an entrance. (I have an astonishingly good track record at winning this game.)

The date changes of the winter show have put paid to my intentions to visit this States this spring and see everyone; as it turns out, I will only be back Stateside for the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and then I have to get home again for Hell Week. Hopefully, even before that, we’ll have started rehearsing for the summer show. Adrienne and I have a proposal in to do “Macbeth”, and we’ve been campaigning for it all year with the seriousness of a national election. Too many shows with dubious direction have made me desperate to get back at the helm of things, and I really want to do that show; we have some brilliant ideas for it. Our competition is Strasz, who’s got the Olly problem from last year of slating Lords in only when it’s convenient for Drama Society on campus; I hate the thought of our play being directed by someone who doesn’t see Lords as a priority. This isn’t really a personal slam, as I have nothing against him, I just think that if Drama Soc is his primary focus, he should go with that, and let us get on with Lords. He’s proposing “Richard III”, which I actually think is not a bad idea. Rumour hath it that Louisa is putting in for “Midsummer”, which I don’t quite understand, since she’s in the States until June, last I heard. But I know she wanted to do it last year, and I think Louisa will make a good director. Still, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I desperately want “Macbeth” to win.

I suppose the other really big development is that I moved out of Constantine House. My original plan when I came to York was to spend the first year in university housing and then get a flat, and give or take a few it’s worked out pretty much according to plan. James and Adrienne and I found a lovely house just south of Micklegate Bar. It’s not much from the front, just a plain terrace rowhouse, but inside it’s gorgeous. The owners have clearly put money and love into it, for it’s quite updated, but it has the original Victorian tiling in the foyer, and they’ve kept that style throughout- we have the lovely textured Victorian walls, high ceilings, a fireplace, wood floors… and we have a nice little backyard, where we’re going to have a pot-garden of tomatoes and herbs and beans and things. There’s also a shed in the back with a loo (The Oubliette), and two rooms that we’re calling the Brewery, as we plan to put in beer and mead and wine-making stuff, and my Pantry, where I can keep all the preserves and veg and things that I’m making. We’ve christened the house the Villa Epicuria, because we’re all snobs with a fondness for food and wine and general elegance, and it’s sort of the central hub for the York Gourmet & Snob Society, a group made up of the Tribe and general friends.

The Tribe is our name for the inner circle of people this year, which is a very different group from last year. We’re completely decentralised, really, as opposed to be a Constantine cadre. James I, Adrienne, and I are here at the Villa; fairly obviously, they’ve become my closest friends in York this year. It’s strangely not unlike my life in Washington, minus some of the chaotic overtones. James II (I gave up on trying to find nicknames, because absolutely nothing would stick for either of them, so I’ve resorted to numbers) is usually the fourth person at the centre of our group, my other best friend here in York, which is somewhat unexpected, given that I knew him for a good part of last year without ever really paying him any mind. Charlotte, SA, and Kate Thomas are the other three who are often around in one way or another, and who come to most Wednesday outingts. (The G&SS meets every week on Wednesday for lunch or dinner, either at a restaurant or at someone’s house, and we usually spend the day antiquing or shopping or doing something amusing.) Charlotte and Kate did their MAs with James and Adrienne, and now they’re back to do PhD’s; SA was an online friend of Adrienne’s who is in York doing a philosophy MA. The other G&SS folks, who aren’t around quite often enough to really be part of the Tribe, are Shamsi, Sara, and Alison, the latter two of whom are really new to the group. It’s an interesting and very mixed group of people, and I’m quite happy with my friendship circle at present.

This fall has really been, apart from the easy chaos of dissertation, which I can handle easily, as it’s intellectual, not emotional, exceedingly calm and pleasant. We celebrated the end of 2007 with a three-day house-party at Constantine, while I was still living there, and welcomed in 2008 with the most glorious Victorian New Year’s, also about a three-day event. (There are pictures of a lot of this, and other things, up at the photography site.) And this year really has been quite good to me. Having finished the dissertation, I now have all the time in the world (until this fall and my next MA or Mphil) to enjoy my life in the Villa and being among kindred spirits. After the nightmare of drama that was last year, it’s incredibly relaxing and something I really appreciate. It’s not often that life gives you a reward for just hanging in there. I mean to enjoy this as much, and as long, as I possibly can.