Hey

Hey you all. So I figured I would try to update everyone on my life and also have a chance to write a post. Well nothing much has changed since my last post. I visited Carleton twice last month. I went up to see the Minnesota Challenge and I also went back about a week later to watch MIAC’s. My main motivation to go up was mainly to see my gf, but it was nice to get to see some people swim which for some would be their last competitive meet as a Carleton swimmer. Also both times Tim was a pretty tight host as he got me acquainted with Big Buck Hunter, which I beat him in, and we got to bottle some of the beer he started brewing. Tim should blog about his beer to let us know how it turned out.


I’m still trying to adjust to the real world and living here in Chicago, but I often feel like I’m not being very successful and after being in Minneapolis a few times I have actually dabbled with the idea of moving there soon. However that would have to wait since I just got a new internship! I’m still doing my internship at the American Red Cross, but since my schedule there is really flexible I managed to fit in another job. I’m interning with a small theatre in downtown Chicago called the Silk Road Theatre Project. The internship is mainly focused on marketing and administration to help the two directors manage and create revenue. I just started this week and it seems like and interesting gig. This was my first week and they asked me if I could help them with a workshop they were having for one of their upcoming plays. I doubt I’ll normally do this in the future, but it seems like the intern that usually does this couldn’t make it this week so I was asked to fill in. The play I helped them work on is really interesting. It’s called the Mosque Alert and it’s a short 10-minute play with 4 actors. The play focuses on the debate to build mosques in communities and different issues that arise within this discourse. The 4 actors represent a family of a dad who is a long standing city official who was once a liberal but has since drifted sharply to the right, a mom who is just recently starting a career at a PR firm, a son who is an ivy league grad student representing the young liberal movement, and a daughter who I imagine as a 19 year old Sarah Palin. The plot of the play is about the mom setting up a meeting with a reporter and the Imam Mustapha and the Dad, who was just recently caught on video bad mouthing Muslims after a mosque was allowed to be built in their town. The play touches on several issues that have to do Islamophobia, integration of Muslims into communities, and different family issues which I thought was really interesting especially since each character represented a different group and idea and essentially had their own agenda when it came to the mosque debate. If you guys have comments on this play or the discourse please share.

It seems like this theatre works with some really cool plays and one of the projects they’re going to have me working on is putting clips from their plays online. Once I get started with this I’ll try to see if I can post them on here to see what you guys think. Well if I see any other cool plays or anything exciting happens I’ll let you guys know.

Alfie