Category: theater

Telephone

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I haven’t written in awhile because last week was so busy with seeing shows of people I know and teaching a lot.

It started off with a bang with a reading of Lynn Rosen’s Puddy Tat at New Georges.  I can’t wait until this play comes to the stage because it is surprising and funny and startling, watching a man become a beast and a “Cat Man” brought to life.  Then, there was Crystal Skillman’s Nobody at the wonderful Jimmy’s 43, a site specific piece in the darkened backroom of Jimmy’s which was moving and moody and mesmerizing. Next was Tongue-in-Cheek Theater’s production of Recent Tragic Events by Craig Wright and a Joyce Carol Oates in puppet form.  Lovely detailed character work and pitch perfect comic timing.  I needed to laugh next week.  Even if it was during a 9/11 play.  And while I never do it, afterwards, I traded 9/11 stories with a friend in the audience.

I was teaching at Hunter College High School.  That’s all I’ll say.  I taught through the whole school day.  The rest is a story for another day.

And then The Foundry’s Telephone just blew me away.  It made me decide to see shows earlier in a run so when they are that mind altering, I can tell people before they close.  It just closed.  Damnit.  What started out as a meditation on the telephone and conversation and communication by Bell and Watson turned into fragments of conversation in a darkened room.  Missing and catching one another.  Why do we do that?  Why can’t we hear one another across the phone waves or even, when someone else is standing right there?

My heart hurt afterwards, and I don’t exaggerate.  It hurt.  For the whole next day.

And I remembered why we do this.  Why we try to tell these stories to other people in a darkened room.

Red Rover and The Stimulus Package

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HARD WEEKS
Last week was hard.  We have some of those weeks.  Running back and forth between different sites, with different teachers and students, we have some successes and some losses.  While the good days were very good, the not-so-good days were really not so good, but we soldier on.  I have to find a way to build a culture of respect and safety in a classroom where those are foreign terms for many, many reasons.  I’ve pulled out every trick in my 10-year hat of working with young people and I’m still stumped.  If you have caught lightening in a jar, tell me how you’ve done it.  I’ll keep trying.  I am stubborn.  I am persistent.  I have patience.

RED ROVER
In other news, if you need to laugh, if you need to see something strange, see Red Rover, which is a children’s television show meets dark, dark comedy. It’s also by my friend Rey.  He is very busy this month.  This one, I had the pleasure of seeing as an installment in Vampire Cowboy’s Saturday Night Saloon series, but now, the five installments are one big play.

Red Rover

Monday February 16th at 8pm; Tuesday February 17th at 8pm

Written by A. Rey Pamatmat
Directed by Dominic D’Andrea
Original Music by Matt Park

Canada’s favorite Children’s live studio audience Television Show now in the US featuring the lovable Red Rover and Miss Clover and their musical adventures with counting, shapes, colors, and MURDER! A smash hit straight from the red hot Vampire Cowboys Saturday Night Saloon Series.

With
TJ Clark, Matt Park, Margo Brooke Pellmar, David Spangler, Alexis Black and more!

All performances will take place at the West End Theatre, 263 West 86th Street (between Broadway and West End Avenue) Tickets to all shows are $15 and can be purchased at the door, by calling 212-352-3101, or by visiting:

http://www.prospecttheater.org/default.php

THE FUTURE OF THE ARTS
Through the advocacy of the Association of Teaching Artists and Americans for the Arts, the Coburn amendment did not pass, which would have barred artists and arts organizations will be assisted by the stimulus package, like everyone else.  We were lumped in with casinos, zoos, highway beautification projects.  These things, apparently, are frills.  But, small victories, right?  If you have time to send some nice old-fashioned thank you notes, please do…

This, from Americans for the Arts (2/13/09):

Just moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives approved their
final version of the Economic Recovery bill by a vote of 246-183. We
can now confirm that the package DOES include $50 million in direct
support for arts jobs through National Endowment for the Arts grants.
We are also happy to report that the exclusionary Coburn Amendment
language banning certain arts groups from receiving any other economic
recovery funds has also been successfully removed. Tonight the Senate
is scheduled to have their final vote, and President Obama plans to
sign the bill on Monday – President’s Day.

A United Voice
This is an important victory for all of you as arts advocates. More
than 85,000 letters were sent to Congress, thousands of calls were
made, and hundreds of op-eds, letters to the editor, news stories, and
blog entries were generated in print and online media about the role
of the arts in the economy. Artists, business leaders, mayors,
governors, and a full range of national, state, and local arts groups
all united together on this advocacy issue. This outcome marks a
stunning turnaround of events and exemplifies the power of grassroots
arts advocacy.

We would like to also thank some key leaders on Capitol Hill who
really carried our voices into the conference negotiation room and
throughout the halls of Congress: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-
CA), House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI), House Interior
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA), and
Congressional Arts Caucus Co-Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY). We also
want to publicly thank President Obama for taking the early lead in
recognizing the role of the arts in economic development. These
leaders were able to convincingly make the case that protecting jobs
in the creative sector is integral to the U.S. economy.

From ATA

To whom to e-mail a THANK YOU!

House Speaker Representative Nancy Pelosi
sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

House Appropriations Commiitee Chair Representative David Obey
http://www.obey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=637&Itemid=187

House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior Chair Representative
Norm Dicks
http://www.house.gov/dicks/email.shtml

Congressional Arts Caucus Co-Chair Representative Louise McIntosh
Slaughter.
http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=506&Itemid=153

Shadows, Spring, O’Neill and Turing

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So, apparently, he saw his shadow.

6 more weeks of winter.  Sigh.

Have to keep warm in other ways.

In other news, I saw a reading of A. Rey Pamatmat’s Pure at Ars Nova tonight. It is the story of Alan Turing, the man whose theories gave way to the computer and was also persecuted for being gay and given estrogen injections on order of the British government as a “cure.”  I hope that this play comes to you soon, because it is quite something.

Also saw Target Margin’s Ten Blocks to the Camino Royale at the Ohio on Sat with my friend McKenna Kerrigan.  It an early version of O’Neill’s Camino Real.  It reminded me that fantasy is an important place to run around in.  Beautifully acted and realized.  In the cold, in hard times, it’s important to remember the dream life.  Sometimes, questions are answered there.

Taking Over

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i was talking about this play with some partners in crime from the women’s project tonight about this show and i was thinking i should get the word out and ask people to go, if they can. there are even $20 rush seats. i know it’s a lot in these trying economic times, but it’s possibly the stuff of changing the status quo.

i am of course talking about taking over by danny hoch at the public theater. i think it’s really incredible that he’s taken a form he helped to popularize and really take on the gentrification of williamsburg, and really, this whole city. his performance is for the most part nuanced and when he does an entire scene as a dominican car service dispatcher and a developer, inspired.

i’ve been thinking that this is what theater is for–to ask difficult questions. and it is nice to see someone asking us all to consider the question though he does not have the answer either. what we need, what he begs us to do, is to ponder this together.