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hoobaroo
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  • such a graceful composition

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  • Hello, everyone! A bit strange to return here after all this time but I simply had an itch. Maybe to celebrate the incoming new year, maybe to return to something that personally felt unresolved. Either way, something compelled me.

    https://docs.google....ZQsEtnmkM4/edit

     

    A short play, and a little backstory.

     

    This is a short play I wrote for a theater class that I was taking at the time, called "Train". I wrote and finished it right around the time that H2H9 had kicked into gear, circa May 2021. I didn't write it in conjunction with/for House by the Sea, but looking back, I clearly see now that these two completely separate works are, personally, inseparable. So it didn't feel right to be holding onto the other half after all this time.

     

    My professor was very enthusiastic about the play, and a year later, as far as I know, it was put on and performed (with my permission) by some actors/thespians in school. I had completely removed myself from the production, and I didn't contribute anything beyond the script, as I personally felt that it was missing a resolution, an answer, and that I wasn't satisfied with just how it ended (even though it is the right ending for the script alone). And to be frank, I was not ready to see it performed, as it was very personal to me, and I did not feel equipped to embark on that path. I felt much pain surrounding it. I now feel that House was, in many ways, an extension of the play, and perhaps even the resolution, or the next step beyond it. House was my way of making sense of "Train", of exploring and confronting it. And so, the theater production did not have House by the Sea, and you all did not have "Train", and I ended up not getting a resolution to either, haha.

    As for the creative process of House itself, I also now realize that there was not much of a chance that it could have succeeded. I was withholding crucial parts of what the piece was really about, for myself, and thus making it impossible to access creatively for the other builders, outside of guessing. It was too vulnerable for me, and so it was by design that I would try and fail alone to complete an impossible task. 

     

    Finally, this is maybe why I return to write this all out. I continue after all this time to feel a deep gratitude to this community, for this moment of time in my life. I was dealing with so much outside of the contest at the time, from mental health problems, to family struggles, my life was chaotic and catastrophically turbulent. Some were aware of this at the time, especially Josh who really was an amazing friend to me. This contest, and more broadly NE, was perhaps the first time I felt truly safe expressing myself on a personal level to a community, putting my soul into something and having the bravery, the safety of sharing it with others. It was one of the main factors that I look back at that year of chaos as simultaneously one of the worst and best years of my entire life. As I've grown and developed myself, my sense of stability and strength, I think I've unconsciously restrained the more creative side of myself in fear of what being so vulnerable could lead to, secretly holding onto the belief that one day I could be strong enough to show it again without destroying myself, hurting others. Daring one day to be brave. And maybe, going into the future, I now look back at this creation, this moment, not as a failure, but as a triumph, of giving and sharing myself with you all. 

     

    So, thank you all. I love you NE!

  • Congrats, Leon. Your style and your work has always been inspirational to me. It gives off the impression of an effortless confidence; composition that is so clean but never safe, always pushing the bounds of a more subtle aesthetic mastery that is really unrivaled. It's very cool to see that insight into your process to see that it is not always as smooth as the final product would suggest; which adds even more to the quality of your process as a whole, and I'm sure is also a relief to some of us as well, haha. You're just too good, dude...

    It's also cool to see you talk about artistic pursuits outside of RCT. We really are artists, and the things we can extrapolate from our work in RCT can so widely be applied to life outside of it if we believe and put our minds to it. 

     

    Of course, much looking forward to seeing what you come up with outside of the contest. Hopefully the learning and reflection of your process will translate to your work going forward. 

     

    I'm hoping to leave a detailed review of these 4 final parks soon, as they surely deserve it. All four of you have produced amazing work this contest. Big congratulations to all of you. 

  • could use a few more Cola trucks

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