They were all a part of last night's very interesting school hosted event with an unsettling ending.
If you know me then you know, I love my school. And you also know I do my best to take advantage of all the resources that are available to me as a student. I use services, participate in workshops, aid in research, and attend events. Last night there was an event called Dinner with 12 Strangers.
The theme of my event was Film & TV. Although I am currently an English major, I've studied for 3 years in theatre and have taken many film related courses, workshops, and seminars. In fact, at my school I've taken more film related classes than classes in the English Department.
The dinner I attended was in a part of Hollywood that I have previously never visited. There were multiple dinners last night in various locations and with various themes (and apparently some dinners had no themes at all).
The hundred year old house the dinner was hosted at was very lovely. It had hardwood floors, wood paneling, wood beams on the ceiling and great decorative details. The hostess had lit with various candles around the space giving it a warm-angelic glow. There were even candles in an outside candle chandelier framed perfectly in the large bay window in the front room.
There was plenty of wine, at least 3 types of grapes, huge strawberries, crackers, 4 types of cheeses, and chocolate spread around the dining room. The chocolate also appeared around the seating area in the living room. At the begining the students were allowed to mingle and mixed for a while. The typical college introductions swirled around the dining room table as we munched and communicated with each other. It was a great group of students.
Before long the Hostess gathered us all in the front room to hear several of the guest speakers speak before dinner was serviced. I was over joyed to learn that our hostess is a writer. Since I aspire to be a writer myself, I found it particularly enjoyable to take part in that specific dinner last night.
Another very interesting and unorthodox thing she arranged for us was a series of film and TV speakers to interactively speak with us. There were 4 writers, 1 actress, 1 director/editor, and an acting/voice teacher in attendance.
The first two to speak had to leave early. The first was a director/editor who worked for an independent production company and an actress who says she's being doing about 5 movies a year for the last 20 years. They gave really good advice. The actresses wanted to get the student introductions before she spoke and she wanted to know what part of film interested us most, so that she could try to tailor her advice to her audience.
After the actress spoke, we broke for dinner and enjoyed chicken, rice, croissants and salad. After I got my dinner I noticed a girl on the couch crying, we'll call her Emotional Emily. There was another girl comforting her and I went over to see if everything was ok. She seemed comforted after a few moments. And I returned to my seat in enough time to start enjoying dinner as the remaining speakers began.
The hostess reiterated her stance that getting a masters in any area is very important before the teacher then began speaking. The teacher had to leave shortly there after but gave a very motivational talk about the importance of education. After the teacher spoke a visiting writer spoke and gave some information about her writing career.
After she spoke, the professional screenwriter spoke. I commented before he went on, "They saved the best for last." He was very insightful and gave great advice. A reoccurring themes that got tossed around a lot last night was "the process", persistence, practice, patients.
After he spoke the group broke to mingle and mix a bit more as we listened to music. The screenwriter and writer came to talk to me and I asked them about their writing processes.
Our conversation was interrupted when Emotional Emily was being carried into the room. She quickly began puking and passed out. Someone said, "She's having a seizure." I rushed over to help others with her. After a minute or so she came to. She was weak and responsive enough. But the paramedics were called. They quickly showed up and begin asking her a bunch of questions. They decided to take her to the hospital because her blood pressure was low. I stayed by her side until they carried her out.
Because I had driven others to the event, I decided not to go to the hospital. And the Hostess and 3 other students had already offered to go to the hospital with Emotional Emily. As we were making the arrangements outside, a car pulled up and Sandra Oh was driving. She asked the hostess what had happened and the Hostess explained.
Sandra Oh drived away to her home and the Hostess explained that Sandra lives down the street and would have been a speaker at the event but she had to work that night. Sandra Oh is the very first celebrity I've actually seen and recognized since I've moved to L.A. nearly 6 months ago.
I was unsettled the remainder of the night and even had disturbed dreams. I still haven't heard about Emotional Emily's condition as of yet.
Up until the Emotional Emily's collapse the evening was wonderful. We even agreed to meet up as a group at a restaurant near campus.
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