greg - Greg Karvellas Theatre Director

Note 001: ‘Field Notes’ – An Introduction

greg — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 06:01:00 +0000

Here you are. You found my notes, or at least the start of them. That means you’re meant to be here, so stop scrolling and read!

Kidding. You do have to scroll to read this. It’s the way of the world now. No use fighting it… except I’m trying to fight it.

I have, like so many before me, decided to take the plunge and delete all my social media. To restart, reboot, and find a way to stop the oily slick of social media and doomscrolling from drowning out my creativity and happiness. Almost exactly a year ago (almost to the day) I started rehearsals for my production of DEAR EVAN HANSEN which deals with this exact thing. Art. Life. Imitation… etc.

What can I say. I scroll. I like. I comment. I think of witty things to write, awesome meals to post, humblebrags about my work. I get a dopamine kick every time I get a like, and I like it. I’m addicted to it, and it makes me feel gross.

So… the antidote. Replace one thing with another? Maybe.

The idea behind these Field Notes is to make a space where I can still do all the banal posting of my very average existence, but in a more intentional way. And leave it in a place where those who do care (and I’m very lucky to have a bunch of wonderful people in my life who care about me!) can come and see. And read. Or just look at the pictures (more on the picture thing soon).

So here I’ll post my words, my thoughts (snooze), adventures I think are worth sharing, and maybe even some writing about my work, or my constant attempt/journey at/of trying to be a theatre director, the only job I have ever wanted to do (except for a brief period when I was 12 and wanted to be a chef) and have been lucky to have done some.

And maybe I can finally reset my poor brain and dopamine centre and get it back to normal.

Why call it Field Notes? I didn’t want to call it a Blog.

Field Notes is just as lame, but hey, I’m almost 44 and I’m very happy to sink into the cringe.

So there we go. First one done. An attempt.

I’ll (try) write once a week. I hope some of this is interesting.

PS: I didn’t use ChatGPT to write this. I used it purely to spell-check. I promise

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Note 002 – The Difficult Second Album

greg — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 16:24:05 +0000

“The hardest thing about writing my second album is that I had 20 years to write my first album.” — Halsey

You know… now that I’ve started this, I realise I have very little to say…Ha! See, the scientists were right, social media and short-form content have made my brain shrink, and now it’s harder to express anything beyond short (witty) sentences and a curated picture… we’ve become cave people again. I have become a cave people again.

So what to write about… The weather! It’s snowing here in Berlin, the first real snow of the winter. We’ve had a few dustings here and there, but today it’s really coming down. I’m listening to FALLING by Julee Cruise, I think it was used in Twin Peaks? Anyway, it feels kind of thematic.

And being from South Africa, snow still feels kind of magical. In a bustling city like Berlin, it always makes everything slow down a bit. It literally freezes the city in time, which is wonderful.

I’ve realised I really struggle with Berlin. It’s a weird place, lots of positives but also a lot of negatives. Or maybe not negatives… When we first moved here, I read somewhere that Berlin either makes you or breaks you. You either are or aren’t a Berlin person. And I have to admit, I think it may well have broken me. Dramatic. I just don’t think it’s for me.

“The difficult second album” is a phrase used to describe a musician’s experience in trying to follow up their first (often successful) album or recording… Since moving from South Africa to Berlin, I’ve often felt like I’m in my ‘Difficult Second Album’ phase, my underwhelming follow-up moment. Ugh, lachrymose much? Wow… snow really gets one into a reflective mood, it seems.

Perhaps it’s this time of year? I’ve always felt like the first week of January is the armpit of the year. Awkward and neither here nor there. And now I’m just writing down short sentences again… just like on the socials…

Okay, so there it is, my difficult second album of a field note.

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Note 003 – Something You Didn’t Expect

greg — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 09:12:30 +0000

It’s a deep grey and icy day here in Berlin, one of those days where it feels like someone has put a filter over the city, a slightly hazy, fuzzy scrim. There are icicles (what’s the cute name for these?) hanging off bikes and car side mirrors. This is one of those days here in Berlin where it feels especially dark and cold. Par for the course, obviously, but with still three months to go before the glorious summer, it can get one down.

On days like this, I like to go for a walk, counterintuitive maybe, but I figure it’s a case of “the only way past is through”, just bundle up and face the real-feel wind chill, minus-five weather, and take it all in. Maybe find a nice coffee shop, all steamed up with the breath of a thousand other depressed people looking for refuge in the cold and dark, and have a pastry and (hopefully) a nice cup of coffee for under five bucks. Berlin gets a lot right, but sadly coffee is hit and miss.

What Berlin does really have is an endless supply of strange little shops that are so niche sometimes, and sometimes are open for two days a week with limited hours, it’s hard to understand why they exist and how they exist. I mean, just financially, and in terms of paying rent. Around the corner from our apartment is a store that only deals in bespoke-made guitar pedals, another store deals in mini little jars of sand, another is a sound museum, and another deals in designer psychedelics and mind-altering substances that are in a cat-and-mouse game with the German government.

It’s one of the things about this city that I love: that really there are endless rabbit holes to go down, if you just take the time to walk in and/or open the door, you may just find something magical, weird, or totally unexpected.

So, not all doom and gloom.

The other evening, after meeting a fellow theatre human from South Africa working on a show at the Neukölln Oper here on tour, we met for a beer to catch up. After our beer, we walked them to a theatre where he was taking in a show, and right next door we found a totally hidden gem of a little theatre bar restaurant. We wandered in and, in my fairly okay German, asked for a table, and sat down and started to take it all in. It felt like we had found a secret.

It was basically empty, except for the four really lovely people working there, and the jazz singer and pianist who were singing sad, soulful jazz on a small stage. The decor made no sense, but then it was filled with candles, masks, and any number of strange things. Just wonderful. I could have sat there for hours.

So all to say, it’s not all that bad. I am constantly reminded that Berlin, like life, often just requires a little more effort to find what you’re looking for, and being open to discovering something you didn’t expect.

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