This week I got to try on my SQuja’ shoes.

We began the week with the second to last language intensive, in this case, it was a Chicago “qepHom” or “little gathering”. We were joined by Klingon speakers from the Chicago area as well as our language coach, Jeremy Cowan. This was a lot of fun. We did a variety of language learning activities to help us pick up more thlIngan Hol, my favorite of which being Klingon Scrabble. I needed a lot of help from Jeremy as I played (it was hard to concentrate with a Klingon insult war going on in the background), but it certainly helped me absorb a few new words.

The rest of the week we ran three scenes that I perform Young SQuja’ in! These were a little challenging for me as a performer. I’d spent tons of time working on Klingon outside of rehearsal and not enough time “finding” Young SQuja’ as a character. Additionally, the rehearsal schedule had Young SQuja’ aging backwards! It was tricky, but as the week went on I discovered more and more and by the final day (the earliest Young SQuja’ scene) I felt I really had a bead on what makes the character tick. There’s some cool interplay between the visions of Young SQuja’ and his older self that I had fun finding with Kevin Alves as he performed SQuja’. I think the audience will definitely dig it.

Just yesterday, we had our final language lesson. We sang, practiced pronunciation, and wrote stories in Klingon. I definitely feel more confident in my Klingon and the rate at which I am able to learn and memorize lines is increasing. While the final language intensive was enjoyable, the highlight was certainly kicking back after rehearsal and doing a bit of cast bonding. There’s great chemistry and a pleasant creative buzz. thlIngan maH!