Inescapably Bound

Ever heard someone say the phrase: "I'm a lifelong learner?" Well I have discovered that, whether I like it or not, I am inescapably bound to be a lifelong learner. See, some people take time to make decisions. They carefully plot out their next life move, weigh the positives and negatives, perhaps even ask friends and family for advice, and then slowly and confidently make their move. I just barge right in and bumble through the consequences. I make a gut choice, go with what seems right, and ask questions later. I have found that this leads me to make lots of mistakes, but also learn a lot in the process.

When I came up with the idea to mount a production of Pygmalion I had no inclination into the world of producing theatre. All I knew was that I wanted to direct and that I was going to make that happen.

Well with starting a production company with my brothers we, all three of us, began delving into the world of producing, but with Zach in Okinawa and Michael just moved and settling into New York, a lot of the footwork fell to me.

Like a lot of you dedicated readers already know, I tried to do this play in the park. Well that fell through for many reasons, most of which were my misunderstanding of how to go about reserving a park in New York City. See, I thought it would be easy. How dumb was that? HA!

Anyways, After hiring Stage Manager Annmargaret Centeno and choreographer Sean Roschman and driving Michael back for Pygmalion, and after having a beautifully talented cast ready to tackle this great play, I needed to start booking rehearsal space. See again, I didn’t plan ahead for this one. I didn’t have any misconceived notions or anything, I literally just didn’t plan ahead. I guess I didn’t realize that I needed space to rehearse? Idk. Anyways, I was suddenly tasked with finding rehearsal space for my 15 actors and our humble play.

So I found the awesome website nycpaspaces.org, which is basically a huge database of rehearse spaces and prices in New York City. I highly recommend it if you are looking for space. The prices fall generally in the 10-30 dollar price range, and it actually turns into a kind of game for finding the biggest room for the cheapest price that isn’t falling apart or covered in bedbugs.

Well I found three spaces that we have been primarily using for our rehearsal spaces. The first was Triskelion Arts Studios, which I had rehearsed at before on a previous project. This place is sooo Brooklyn Hipster rehearsal space. What I mean by that is, it is open 24 hours a day. You get your own set of keys and key codes, and you pay by leaving a check or cash in an envelope in a mail slot. It’s a huge space with great rooms and some of the cheapest prices you will find in New York City. Its run by chill people who trust everyone they rent to, which in turn, makes you want to fulfill that trust.

The second space I found was the National Opera Center America, which we use for our music rehearsals. They are a very ritzy place with Baby Grand Pianos in each room and that offers discounted prices to non-profit groups. When we went for our first rehearsal they said that our room had been accidently double booked and bumped us up to the rehearsal hall for free at no extra cost. and it turned out I had accidently reserved the room for the wrong day, and they still let us rehearse! They are amazing and we are most definitely having Marley Rehearsals there.

The Third Place I found was the 133rd Street Arts Center, which is also going to be our performance space. It is a very young theatre in the New York World, so it is relatively unknown and its prices are not hugely inflated yet, so its actually very affordable. It has a great rustic sort of charm to it with exposed brick walls and antique windows. I am really looking forward to putting our show in it. Plus! As a bonus, he is renting out the space to us for rehearsal, so in a New York Rarity, we actually get to rehearse in the space we will be performing in! How’s that for awesome?

So yeah. I don’t like producing. It’s a lot of stressful work that I’m not good at. But I’m learning a lot in the process. I’m learning how to find good rehearsal space. I’m learning just how expensive everything is. And lastly I’m learning just how much I love theatre in all its various and sundry shapes. I truly hope everyone can come see this awesome show. Not for me, but for all these amazingly talented actors myself and my brothers have had the luck and pleasure of working with. Seriously. They are awesome. Like, I’m working them really hard, and they are meeting all these challenges with ease and finesse. They are pro’s. So seriously, come see them. Don’t come see me. Don’t even talk to me. UNTIL NEXT TIME :P

"Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well as now."

-P.T.Barnum

Resolution

Hey. Guess what. Its June. You know what that means? The year is half over Also, less importantly, Michael's birthday. Wish him a happy birthday on June 24th.

Anyway back to the main point. The year is half over. How are your New Year's resolutions coming along? Yeah I'm gonna call you out on them. Have you been doing them? Did you forget? What happened? Well there is good news! There are 6 more months starting now for you to get them all done. Here were my resolutions from my To Create Blog post:

1: Direct a play/musical

2: Write a screenplay

3: Continue Blogging

 Lets start with the first one: Direct a Play/Musical. I directed Analisa veleZ's play Ain't No Such Thing As Free Pizza in April, so I think that counts right? Yeah. CHECK! That was an awesome learning experience and I was continually humbled by getting to work with such a

Ain' No Such Thing As Free Pizza

 fantastic, beautiful, and talented cast, and a playwright that will be famous some day, if she keeps writing (La verdad mi amigo!). It was an amazing expereince and I am gcontinually grateful for being allowed to work on it. 

And now I am directing my second show, Pygmalion, which is also self-produced by my production company Stamp Brothers Productions with the funds we received from our very successful first fundraiser. We are currently entering our second week of rehearsals and are set to go up July 12th, 13th, and 14th at the 133rd Street Arts Center in West Harlem. It's my second directorial experience, but also my first as a co-producer with my brothers. We are having tons of fun figuring it all out. Keep checking in for updates on that, and come see it if you can! It's completely free.

Ok, moving on to number two: Write a screenplay. Well, this one hasn't happened. But! If you remember my January blog post I'm Writing a Musical, you will remember that I asked if it was ok to change the resolution to write a musical in stead of write a screenplay. No one objected, or perhaps no one read that post, so I changed the resolution! and I wrote a musical.

But I have a confession to make. I actually wrote two musicals. The nameless first one I sent out for people to read and give me pointers on, and that one is still in development, but the second one I wrote in secret. I spent long countless hours laboring over a typewriter because typewriters are a lot slower so it takes long countless hours to type on... and I wrote a musical based off of the Greek Tragedy by Euripides: Hippolytus (or in the day Hippolytos Stephanophoros), and I am announcing here and now that it has been picked up for a festival at the Cabrini Repertory Theatre and will be performed this August in New York City. Adam O'Dell is writing the music for it, and my brother Michael is Music Directing it. Its called Marley: A Musical Tragedy. And here is the first draft of the poster designed by Kristen Anhalt.

So yeah! Pretty exciting stuff. Stay tuned for more about that. But I would say that goal number 2 is complete. CHECK

And My last goal: Continue Blogging. Well. Yeah. CHECK.

So, the key to goals is simple: Set ones that you will want achieve. This might seem obvious, but it's true. All of these things I wanted to do. I don't want to become an Olympic swimmer, so why would I make myself swim every day? That benefits no one. I want to be a director and maybe a writer (we'll see...) but, I am setting goals that I want to achieve, and so achieving them is possible, and makes me feel good when I do. And now that the year is half done, and my to-do list is all clear, I got 6 months to just cruise and relax. :P UNTIL NEXT TIME.

"You know, I rather like this God fellow. He’s very theatrical. A little pestilence here, a plague there... Omnipotence...got to get me some of that."

-Stewie Griffin, Family Guy

Frustration

Ever have one of those weeks where everything seems to be working against you? Like no matter how much you try, nothing seems to work out? That was my last week. People like to say “Ah, it’ll be fine, everything will all work out”, and its true, but it still sucks having to go through it all because you have to put up with annoying people, disappointments, and loss of sleep, amiright?

If you haven’t yet clicked back to Facebook, either you want to hear the happy ending, or you like reading about me suffering. Either way, keep reading.

So, before I left for my vacation I had been working with the Hudson River Park and they had

SO MUCH ROAD TRIP FUN

nearly guaranteed me a performance space. They had told me that would email me a confirmation within a week, so I expected to get the good news at some point on my road trip home. Speaking of which, it was a blast. Check out the webpage on Trackmytour.com to see photos from all that I did!

Then Mic and I drove 16 hours back to New York, and I still hadn’t heard from them. I was starting to get very worried.  Well, once I got back to New York, after sending multiple emails and making tons of call, they send me a little email this past Monday saying that they would no longer be able to host us due to conflicting programming. I was floored. It was like I was building a dam, and then they said I couldn’t use bricks, and now I’m holding back all the water. I had 18 actors and actresses, a choreographer, a stage manager, a music director I drove a thousand back from Iowa with, and now no place to do my show. AHHH. Plus mix in the average amount gritty New York City anger and regular ol' life frustration, and the pot of water that was my mind was boiling over.

Tuesday. No progress. I needed to find both a rehearsal space and a performance space on a showstring of a budget. Both myself and my brothers are incredibly grateful for all the finical support that people gave us in our April fundraiser, and it’s helped us get this far, but believe me when I tell you New York is expensive! Average rates for a rehearsal room run about twenty dollars and hour. And to rent a stage or a black box performance space is around 200 dollars and hour. We simply do not have that kind of money.

So Zach and Mic and I began thinking. Hard thinking. Like obsessive one-track mind kind of thinking. We explored every kind of possible space we could perform in: Parking lots, parks, offices, apartments, rooftops, underwater, library's,  public spaces... we didn’t actually talk about underwater, but wouldn’t that be cool?

Anyways, fast forward through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and we still haven’t found a space to perform. We found a rehearsal space that is very affordable, and nearly brand new which means no one really knows about it yet, so we jumped on that. Check out our brand new website TheStampBros.com to find out more about that. But we still haven’t found a home for our show. We have a few leads, but nothing solid yet. I tricked you! There is no happy ending in this post. Not yet anyways. Hopefully that’ll be in next weeks post. Or maybe the week after. But, ha. No resolution.

Tomorrow we have our first read through, and Mic and I are super excited to get started on that. We have a beautiful and talented cast, an amazing choreographer, and a lovely stage manager all passonate about getting the play off the ground. So stay tuned because things are about to get very very interesting. Until Next Time!

“Never forget who you are, for surely the world won’t. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.” 
― Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Travel Tripping

Today I am excited. I am excited because I am flying home. I have been away from home for 9 months and 2 days. Its the longest I have ever been out of the state of Iowa. If it weren't for me being blessed with visitors from home like every three weeks I probably would have gotten homesick, but amazingly I never did.

I love technology. I wrote a rather lengthy blog post awhile back about my obsession with it, and how I have been surrounded by it from my infancy, and so I'm always on the look out for the coolest new thing like I will own Google Glass and The Oculus Rift when they come out of testing phase. Oh and if you haven't heard of the Ouya, check it out. Its a game changer in the console world.

But I am digressing. I found this cool app/website called Track My Tour where you can use your smart phone and upload pictures as you travel and then people can see and follow your journey.

Since I am flying home and then road tripping back with Michael, the boy wonder, I thought it would be cool to test this app out on all you followers and especially to that small group of dedicated readers in Germany who read this blog for some reason ;D

So! You have three ways of following me on my journey home and back again. You can see it here, if you click on that little link below, or you can see it on the offical site's webpage at http://trackmytour.com/4XW62, or thirdly you can download the app on your smart device and use the same link to follow me on said device.


Click here to TrackMyTour!


Just a quick update with everything else: I had pygmalion audition on tuesday and they were fantastic. There were so many talented people who came and auditioned. I'm in the process of calling people and offering them roles, so once all that gets figured out and settled upon, and i get back in the state, rehearsals will begin! Expect to see lots of pictures of this exciting adventure. Until Next Time!

"People don't take trips . . . trips take people." 

- John Steinbeck

Keeping Up

OK, what happened to April? Seriously? Who stole April?

Alright, Life have been super busy, so this lame excuse for a blog post is going to be a quick update for everyone on what I have been doing this past month.

April 4th is when the fundraiser for SnappyTitleHere officially ended. We were not successful in raising ten thousand dollars, so Craig and I parted ways on our artistic endeavor and I took the share from my people that donated and I am starting my own production company: Stamp Brothers Production. Yes, that’s right; Michael, Zach, and I are starting a production company. Zach and Mic and I have pretty much been in constant communication about this for the past month. We are working with the IRS and a Lawyer to acquired 501(c)(3) status, so hopefully very soon we can start accepting tax-deductible donations and apply for grants. Our official launch will be May 20th, but you can check out our facebook and our website, both still being developed, as we get ready to start that. 

As we speak, The Stamp Brothers are gearing up for their first production, and my second as director. We plan to produce George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion this summer in New York. My vision for it is to have a "give what you can" outdoor performance of it in a NYC Park throughout the month of July. There will be lots of dancing and music, so basically a party every night. Im still in search of a Choreographer and a Stage Manager and we are having auditions Next Tuesday May 7th, so things are really gearing up for all that!

Two weeks ago I successfully opened my first play as director, Ain't No Such Thing As Free Pizza in New York at The Cabrini Repertory Theatre in Washington Heights. The actors were amazing, the audiences were great, and everyone loved Analisa's play. The play festival that I directed this play for is a competition, so there is a chance that our play could move on to the second round, but we won’t know for a while. I believe in the work and that we stand a good chance, so stay tuned for more updates about that.

In a week I will be flying home for the first time in almost a year. I’m really really excited about that for two reasons: 1) That I will get to see all my friends and family again and 2) That I will finally get to eat good, home-cooked, Iowa food again. It's one of those things you don't know you miss until its gone, but there is nothing like it over here. Everyone is into healthy food, vegan this, organic that, pasteurized blah-de-blah. Give me meat loaf. Give me mashed potatoes. Give me corn-on-the-cob dripping with butter. Give me fresh lemonade and some peach cobbler sitting on the porch enjoying that cool summer breeze and watching the dogs run around. That’s all I really want. So yeah, I can’t wait to come home.

The Boy Wonder.

Then! The most exciting part, Michael will be living with me in New York this summer! That's right, the Boy Wonder is nearly done with his first year of college and he is going to join me this summer and help get Stamp Brothers Productions on its feet by Music Directing Pygmalion and helping out with other projects. Its going to be an awesome summer for sure.

  

I just recently moved again, this time to Washington Heights. I now have an official lease on a 1 bedroom apartment. It’s nothing huge, but it’s a room of my own. This means that I am not longer living in Chinatown, sad to say. I shall miss the dirty streets, the humble people, and the smell of the fresh fruit and fish markets... But these times, they are a changing, so it’s time to move. And with that, I think it’s time to cue the music, until next time!!

(I'm not really moving to the east side, but it feels appropriate)

Making Ripples

This blog post was going to be a blog post thanking all those people who helped me after the posting of my last entry, and I was epically going to brag about the college I went to and how awesome the professors are there. I mean, of the people who gave me good advice and helped me, some of them were professors from my college. I mean how awesome is that? Not only are these people my Facebook friends, not only am I on a first name basis with them, but they read my blog and helped me out, and I'm not even a paying student anymore!

BUT. This post is not going to be about how awesome my college is because in the midst of all the struggle I was going through.... they censored me.

This is literally my face. Its what I look like right now.
People are staring...

Let me re-preface this again: I love my friends and family and I am truly blessed and humbled by the outreach of support that was given to me after I outlined my financial difficulties for everyone to read. My hope for the previous post was to shed some light for both adults and students alike on what it’s like to be a post college-graduate in 2013. That handling loans is frustrating and confusing and hard to deal with.  I directed all of my frustration towards the loan companies because, honestly, that is where all my frustration lies.

                       

After posting about the struggles I am having with student loans, in an attempt to enlighten people, both young and old about the struggles of a post-college grad in 2013, I received a message from the admissions department of my alma mater….

You see, a few months ago the admissions department asked me if I would be willing to have my blog linked to on the webpage. I was flattered and, having been a face of my college for 2 years on the web page, and an active student in student government, work study jobs, and many other extra-curricular activities, I said yes, of course.

Well, after my most recent post they notified me that, because of the content, they would be severing the connection between themselves and my blog because it didn’t fit in with their recruitment efforts. I totally get this, as an institution it is there goal to get students excited to go the school in any way possible, and talking about the negative effects of loans and how much money they will end up spending is a sure fire way to make that excitement go flaccid.

I mean that is how the advertising world works right? Get the customers to think about the positive aspects of the product they are buying and reduce the impact of the negative aspects. That’s how corporations are able to sell Call of Duty to children and cigarettes to addicts. Anyone from J.P Morgan to a common drug dealer knows this game.  The problem I am struggling with is that Education is not a product. It is not something that needs to be bought by consumers. Educations is a necessity for the enlightenment and enrichment of life. This is doubly true if that institute of knowledge is founded as a non-profit corporation because in their founding documents they decided that education was not about making money! I mean of course big state school would take the approach to making college a serviceable package. That’s how they work. I mean hell, check out some of the big money schools and their webpages, the dorms they advertise look like luxury spas and retirement homes more than houses for the academics of our world.

So I was honestly very disappointed that my alma mater would take this approach of advertising-over-honesty. I mean as a very small, catholic, liberal arts, and NON-PROFIT educational facility, you would think that their goal is to educate mind and to take brilliant people and enrich those seeking to be learned in the ways of the world and the teaching of the ancient and modern minds and philosophies.

I understand that a school needs bodies to keep it going and pay the staff and the board members. But student loan debt has reached an all-time high, and we need to start fixing this issue. I can’t imagine how hard it is for those who are not as lucky as I am to have such wonderful people in my life. My hope for the previous post was to shed some light for both adults and students alike on what it’s like to be a post college-graduate in 2013. That handling loans is frustrating and confusing and hard to deal with.But censoring me proves my point even more so that there is NO HELP when it comes to student loans. It is a problem that people just want to ignore. It’s the turd in the punch bowl that no one is talking about.

In closing, from the bottom of my heart I love each and every one of those people who reached out to help me after my last blog post about struggling with my student loans. And I especially want to give a thank you to those professors whom I count amongst my friends. Thank you everyone. You all are beautiful people and the help you have given me is going to be what gets me through this. The world needs more people like you. Until Next Time...

"But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl."

Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go

The Burden

My name is Joey Stamp, I'm a post-college graduate. I make just enough money to be above the poverty line, and I'm currently somewhere around $70,000 dollars in debt with student loans. 

This is me. This is my story.

The frustrating part about it all is that it feels like there isn't anyone to help. There's no one who can give you advice on what to do to tackle this mountain of debt. I mean I can talk to my parents, and they are helpful, but I don't want to worry them or stress them out with my problems, and what if I want to try and solve this on my own? Trying to sift through the mounds of unintelligible and unintelligently designed paperwork literally takes years off my life.

But let me trace back my story to the beginning for you all...

It all started after a young and innocent 18 year old boy was accepted to the wonderful Clarke University in Dubuque Iowa. This was the college he wanted to go to, and he was going to go to it. But soon after the acceptance letter came the cost letter. Because this boys family was a well-to-do middle class family, he didn't qualify for any government assistance. Even after calling the government agencies and pleading with them that he was going to pay for college on his own, and that his family also had two other kids to pay for (something they don't look at when determining governmental assistance eligibility.). So, even though this young boy was paying for college all on his own, because his dad was doing ok financially, the boy received no help.

Because the young boy wanted to go to college and pursue his dream of directing, he decided to take out student loans to help shoulder this financial burden. Over the course of the next 4 years he had a great time at college. Met a bunch of awesome people, made a ton of memories, and had an overall great time. Unbeknownst to him, though, that his loans we're being bought and sold behind his back by banking and loan corporations. Now he is done with school and moving to New York to continue to pursue his dream. The grace period on his loans ended and repayment had to begin. Although he was struggling with making ends meet in this expensive city between rent and transportation costs, he began to tackle his debt. Then he received more letter and more emails from loan corporations and, come to find out, he has 12 different loans between 4 different corporations for an amount much larger than he originally thought and he wasn't even sure how to begin tackling this debt. 

Well turns out that boy is me. I literally feel helpless. I don't make enough to cover the cost of rent, loans, and food. Because my loans are divided up, they are essentially blind to each other and because I have a decent job, they won't grant me forbearance or reduced payments, even though I literally can't cover the costs. To them they only think I have their loan. They don't care that I have other loans. and the frustrating part is that, originally  all these loans were from Iowa Student Loans, but they decided to sell off some of my loans for profit, and now I'm paying for it.

But whats a kid to do? I need a college education to get a job, and I need money to get a college education, and I need a job to get money. But If I don't have one of these three things the pyramid collapses and I get buried. 

The frustrating part is that even if i find money and If I just pay the minimum payment, I will never pay off the loan because of accumulating interest. and the worst part is that my parents are the co-signers, so if I can't pay the loan they have to shoulder the burden, and I don't want to wish that upon them. Even if I were to declare bankruptcy, the loans stay. If I run away to Asia, the loans stay. If I were to die, the loans stay. There is literally no one to escape the loans other than paying for them. And there is no way to pay for them unless I make upwards of 40k a year and I only make 18k after taxes. And there is no service that I have found that is in place to help students try and pay for their loans. And trying to work with the loan companies is nigh impossible because they are literally made to take the most money from you as possible, so they don't care if you default because that means they get more money. 

To make matters worse, I have a combination of Stafford Loans (which are controlled by the federal government and thus subject to federal law), and then private loans (which are controlled by private corporations and thus subject to very little federal law). Because I have both private and federal  I'm doubly screwed because I can't get the same help with the private loans that I could possibly get with the federal loans.  There are some programs in place to help with federal loans (though they are nearly impossibly to apply to) but there are none to help with private loans. 

This is totally a vent blog. Writing is very therapeutic. I don't have any answers. But I wanted to let those readers out there, young and old, know what its like for a postgraduate arts student in the 21st century. Until Next Time....

"I have to win. I owe it to too many people not to lose."

-Goku, Earths Greatest Hero