Beauty and the Beast

When you're broken on the ground

You will be found Today I found out a friend of mine that I care about a great deal was in a car accident. Life has been a challenge for this friend. She is divorced, in school, dealing with children and life and loneliness several states away from her family. I am the type that wants to run to the side of those in need and help in any way that I can, which is very frustrating when I am far away and cannot do anything. This time, it hurts even more, because, I was her. Alone and scared and frustrated and far from those who I love. As I drove home, the words from Dear Evan Hansen struck me "Have you ever felt like nobody was there? Have you felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere? Have you ever felt like you could disappear? Like you could fall and no one would hear?" Yes, I have felt that. I have felt the darkness come in around me. I have read that JK Rowling based the idea of the dementors on her experience with depression, and I have to adm...

24 Hours in San Francisco

I have ventured into San Francisco to participate in the conference for the American Theatre Critics Association #ATCA. This is my first conference as a new member. I have also been spending a lot of time hearing about the fact that I graduated from high school 20 years ago. This causes me to reflect on my senior trip, to New York City, as a young Utahn who really knew very little about the world and even less about art and theatre, though I had well worn CDs and CD jackets of lyrics and felt myself to be an expert of epic proportions. Of course, now I am older and wiser and see theatre all over, have been to many places all over the country, lived in two of the best theatre meccas in the United States, and can calmly and eloquently give my expert opinion. Ha! If you believed that last part, you have no clue who I really am. Every time I come to a new place, I feel like that niave yet excited 18 year old who felt like a rebel stepping into a bar to find ...

Dr. Maren

I took time off from blogging. I am certain there were many people crying silently into their pillows because of the definite loss that they felt when they no longer read my writing on a semi-frequent basis. I am offering my deepest apologies to all five of you. I had to focus instead on the little matter of getting married, and also finishing my PhD. One of those things was infinitely more difficult than the other. All of my life, well, at least since junior high school, I have harbored a dream of getting a doctorate degree. I love school. I love learning. I love writing papers. I know what an absolute nerd this makes me. I don't really care. Life and difficulties all got in the way, and now, a few weeks before my 40th birthday, which happens to be tomorrow, I finally finished this goal that I told myself about when I was 12. Part of the reason I wanted to do this was because I learned that for many generations, women could not go...

Maren's Many Moments

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