Bare Bones: A Language of Their Own

The performance of A Language of Their Own on Thursday was spectacular. We got a good crowd who seemed to really engage with the actors and the material. The performance itself was electrifying--funny and heartbreaking and thought-provoking and powerful in just the ways I had hoped from the time I first read the script. Judy Yen, the director, and her cast did an amazing job with the material and really drew the audience into it. After the show we had a conversation with those who wanted to stay that lasted more than half an hour and was full of interesting questions and observations and gave me the opportunity to say a little about the ongoing conversation about diversity that has been taking place within Theatre@First over the past year.

roozle has posted a review of the performance and I've been hearing very positive things from other audience members.

In response to that post, I wrote the following comment that I want to record here:

I have a special fondness for readings, because I think that by demanding such deep engagement of the audience's imagination, it is possible to achieve an experience that is even more intense than watching a staged performance. Running the Bare Bones series is, for me, a way of inviting our audience to enter more fully into the work that we're doing and to continue expanding the "community theatre" label that we've claimed for ourselves.

The potential goals for Bare Bones have continued to expand since I first began to develop the idea. I am very excited to see where it continues to lead us.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen, including zendzian who is a fabulous last minute light op! And a special thanks to everyone who came out to be in the audience--you were wonderful!

Bare Bones: A Language of Their Own

The performance of A Language of Their Own on Thursday was spectacular. We got a good crowd who seemed to really engage with the actors and the material. The performance itself was electrifying--funny and heartbreaking and thought-provoking and powerful in just the ways I had hoped from the time I first read the script. Judy Yen, the director, and her cast did an amazing job with the material and really drew the audience into it. After the show we had a conversation with those who wanted to stay that lasted more than half an hour and was full of interesting questions and observations and gave me the opportunity to say a little about the ongoing conversation about diversity that has been taking place within Theatre@First over the past year.

roozle has posted a review of the performance and I've been hearing very positive things from other audience members.

In response to that post, I wrote the following comment that I want to record here:

I have a special fondness for readings, because I think that by demanding such deep engagement of the audience's imagination, it is possible to achieve an experience that is even more intense than watching a staged performance. Running the Bare Bones series is, for me, a way of inviting our audience to enter more fully into the work that we're doing and to continue expanding the "community theatre" label that we've claimed for ourselves.

The potential goals for Bare Bones have continued to expand since I first began to develop the idea. I am very excited to see where it continues to lead us.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen, including zendzian who is a fabulous last minute light op! And a special thanks to everyone who came out to be in the audience--you were wonderful!

2010: Our Hideous Future

Last night I was delighted to see 2010: Our Hideous Future. Written, directed, tech'd and performed by a very talented group including many T@F vets, it is a cyberpunk musical comedy with catchy tunes, clever lyrics and so many laugh-out-loud lines that I can't begin to list them all.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

If you haven't seen it, there's one more chance tonight! Go, go, go!

2010: Our Hideous Future

Last night I was delighted to see 2010: Our Hideous Future. Written, directed, tech'd and performed by a very talented group including many T@F vets, it is a cyberpunk musical comedy with catchy tunes, clever lyrics and so many laugh-out-loud lines that I can't begin to list them all.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

If you haven't seen it, there's one more chance tonight! Go, go, go!

Building a Home with My Husband by Rachel Simon

reprinted from Goodreads:

I requested this from the library after hearing part of a review on NPR about it and in the first chapter I thought I was going to have difficulty liking this woman. She does a lot of things that I have little patience for--looking for a Life Purpose and taking nineteen years (including a six-year break) to figure out that she had a great guy and there's no such thing as True Love, whining about her First World Problems (oh noes, they'll have to cut their renovation plans back to only $130,000!). But the prose was very readable--except for the jarring tense shifts--and as I kept turning the pages and learned more of her story, I found myself having more compassion for Rachel Simon.

The framing device for this memoir is the renovation of their home in Wilmington, Delaware. But the real story is the personal history that Simon rehashes and the realizations that she allows to come to her through the process. She deals with that pesky Life Purpose question. She struggles with worry for her aging parents, with her own decision not to have children, with her fraught relationships with her sibling, with her ideas about commitment, and many more. She is remarkably honest about her own flaws and personal demons and brings the reader with her to new levels of understanding, even as she relates the setbacks and frustrations of the building project.

There are so many quotable passages and important life lessons that she relates along the way. But I think the one that I will really take with me is her husband's response to the question "Why me?!" which is "I think there's only one answer and that's 'Why not me?' None of us is so special that we can avoid suffering."

I think I may have to buy several copies of this book and give them to people in my life that I think would find other passages to be their favorites, who would enjoy this story of a woman rebuilding her home and her idea of herself.

Building a Home with My Husband by Rachel Simon

reprinted from Goodreads:

I requested this from the library after hearing part of a review on NPR about it and in the first chapter I thought I was going to have difficulty liking this woman. She does a lot of things that I have little patience for--looking for a Life Purpose and taking nineteen years (including a six-year break) to figure out that she had a great guy and there's no such thing as True Love, whining about her First World Problems (oh noes, they'll have to cut their renovation plans back to only $130,000!). But the prose was very readable--except for the jarring tense shifts--and as I kept turning the pages and learned more of her story, I found myself having more compassion for Rachel Simon.

The framing device for this memoir is the renovation of their home in Wilmington, Delaware. But the real story is the personal history that Simon rehashes and the realizations that she allows to come to her through the process. She deals with that pesky Life Purpose question. She struggles with worry for her aging parents, with her own decision not to have children, with her fraught relationships with her sibling, with her ideas about commitment, and many more. She is remarkably honest about her own flaws and personal demons and brings the reader with her to new levels of understanding, even as she relates the setbacks and frustrations of the building project.

There are so many quotable passages and important life lessons that she relates along the way. But I think the one that I will really take with me is her husband's response to the question "Why me?!" which is "I think there's only one answer and that's 'Why not me?' None of us is so special that we can avoid suffering."

I think I may have to buy several copies of this book and give them to people in my life that I think would find other passages to be their favorites, who would enjoy this story of a woman rebuilding her home and her idea of herself.