After The Husband and My Kid left for work and school I drank coffee and thought about laundry, but I dressed for the gym and unlike other days when I put on sweats I actually made it to the Y. I didn’t get there in time for the class I had intended to take but I swam laps and took two other classes in addition so I’m feeling a little bit proud of myself. It counts as clown work because I’m not really in shape or have the stamina (to perform a full-length solo stage show) that I would like to have. On the way to pick up My Kid after school I stopped at a grocery store to buy some things for dinner, which I them proceeded to carry from Manhattan to her school in Brooklyn and then to the Barnes and Noble on Court Street and then to the Modells on Atlantic and through Atlantic Mall and the rest of the way home. Next time I’m going to the expensive corner store near our apartment. After supper I took the subway back into Manhattan to catch the last hour of Clown Lab because it was the first one in several months. Jef is back in town for the Broadway run of “Slava’s Snowshow” and I wanted to touch base with him and the regulars. “Snowshow” was reviewed by Charles Isherwood in the New York Times today. I found his description of the show as a “delightful kiddie curio” offensive even though it was a positive review. 
The show was fun today with lots of tots in the house!
We had a lively audience of people who were less than 3 feet tall. The Husband and My Kid were there and our friends with their 3-year-old and 6-month old. The performance felt a lot different today with so many little ones participating. Nobody really cares what we do when there are walking babies on the stage. Stakes are low and fun quotient high. It really worked today! Too bad we’re done.
There was talk of an extra show next week at the festival party showcase. But, we’ve got some scheduling issues in the cast and so we’re not going to do it again. I didn’t think it would ever turn anything more than a baby-music-circle-time-class on stage the first time we met to rehearse and got absolutely nothing done with the kids there in the space too. (But I’m a pessimist.) In the end we did develop something that was much more and it has potential to rise out of the diaper bags again.
I had a nice conversation with Amy Salloway who is in NY to perform her solo show, “Circumference”, at the festival. The Husband and I know her from Seattle when we were all in the fringe theatre scene out there. Amy said she was recently in Seattle and a lot of the funky old theatre spaces we use to know are gone. All slick and no charm now I suppose. She said the young people on Capitol Hill are all working a high maintenance goth look. Grunge was so a much easier. I totally used to wear a black skirt over leggings with Doc Marten boots with an oversized t-shirt under a plaid shirt on top. So did everyone else. (It bugged me so much when Bridget Fonda had it wrong in the movie “Singles” because she wore black nylons with her Doc Martens. The Hollywood foreigners co-opting our Northwest style got it wrong! Only opaque leggings or tights were ever worn under a skirt with Doc Martens!!!! (I suppose because I wore Doc Martens with skirts, I have no right to criticize the young ladies of New York in their UGG ugly boots.) Amy is loving New York and wants to live here. But how. How does one come up with the cash, or the job, or the relationship, or the scholarship to project ones self from the West or the Mid-west all the way to New York City to do theatre. It’s hard.
After we left the West End Theatre today, we walked down to 84th and had lunch at Ollies. Then we walked down to 72nd to catch some air before catching the train. That took about three hours because the 3-year-old and the 8-year-old had some shopping to do… My Kid introduced a pre-schooler to the wonder that is Claire’s. All those accessories. My Kid who does not yet have pierced earrings can’t get enough of the clip-ons. That store used to be for the tweens and teens who cruised the malls, but now with all the Hannah Montana, and Princesses and even Dora accessories, they’ve lowered their target market age to include the pre-school set.
Home now and My Kid is watching TV and The Husband is taking a nap.
My goal is to get them to the Brooklyn Lyceum by 8:00 pm tonight to see The Civilians “Brooklyn at Eye Level” at the Lyceum. It’s a theatre piece based on interviews with real people involved with the Atlantic Yards development (which I hate so much I could go on for pages and pages about how awful it is). The mommy friend we saw today is involved with The Civilians theatre company. Her biased opinion was that the show is great and we must see it.
OK blogging time is over now. My Kid is hungry.
I don’t know why I’m still awake except that I saw someone else’s solo show tonight
Tonight I went to see Victoria Libertoire’s “The Should Dream”, part of the Six Figures Artists of Tomorrow Festival. My my mind wanders to what I would do alone on the stage. What would my show be??? For one thing I would wear more clothes. Burlesque is not my thing (especially after what I saw in the dressing room at the store today. My torso needs more Pilates than I can afford.) When I was pregnant I realized; “Damn I should not have been too shy to be naked on stage or in photographs.” That body was cute and now it’s gone. Forever.
Victoria had great rapport with the audience. The old performer that was the framing device at the beginning and end of the piece was my favorite part of the show. Some of the transitions were absolutely seamless. It was an admirable evening of theatre.
I’ve always wondered what a woman would do if she wanted to be a drag queen, I think it’s burlesque.
The Yellow Kid of my youth
Last night out in cyberspace I came across video of the 1995 Annex Theatre production of The Yellow Kid. Seeing it again… an amazing production–so ambitious in scope for a Seattle fringe theatre company– has me revisiting what is important in my life and how I respect or disrespect my own art.
In a September 21, 1995 Seattle Times interview, Brian Faker told Misha Berson:
“The thrust of our play is the decisions an artist makes – what do you do just for the bucks, and what do you do for your heart’s inspiration? In the end Outcault actually murders the Kid, symbolically destroying something in himself.”
Low-budget production
The struggle to earn a living while maintaining one’s artistic integrity is one that Faker, 35, a versatile stage actor with credits in many Seattle theaters, knows intimately. Currently living on unemployment benefits, he scrambled together $1,100 to finance this shoestring fringe production.
“We’re doing `Miss Saigon’ at the Annex,” he laughs. “We’ve got 27 actors, a cat, a goat, two dogs, 200 slide projections, film, rolling scenery. It’s just a monster.
“We’re funding this completely out of pocket – and out of favors. My wife (actress Peggy Poage) is probably our biggest contributor. And a lot of other people just decided to go insane with me on this.”
I was in that production and The Husband was in the booth as stage manager. We began dating during the run. A framed poster from the production hangs in our living room, next to photos of My Kid as a toddler in long yellow shirt.
Oh My Toe!…Why I Walk So Slow
Yesterday after the matinee, I decided to walk across Central Park and go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by myself (instead of meeting up with The Husband and My Kid to see the new movie “Bolt” with the voice of Miley Cyrus. My Kid needs to see it opening weekend. Me I can wait…) But, I didn’t enjoy myself, my feet hurt and I was tired and wandered around the museum without purpose. By the end of the day I knew I was coming down with something.
Monday is the traditional day off in the theatre world. I either have the standard “show-is-opened-and-now-I-have-time-to-be-sick” or I have the standard seasons changing cold. This week it got cold, really cold, find the hats and mittens, get the down coats out of the back closet cold. This too seems to trigger illness in the city because of all sudden changes from hot buildings to cold streets to damp steamy trains–YUCK get me out of here. Husband and I have noticed that since we moved to New York City the germs we’re exposed to cause much more spectacular illnesses than anything we ever experienced “Out West”.
So anyway, the show opened yesterday. It was fun. There were tiny personages in the audience who didn’t know what to make of what we were doing.
When My Kid was tiny, we took her to see the Big Apple Circus and she watched Justin Case the trick cyclist and acrobat ride the bike that kept falling apart and she took it in totally straight. She carefully watched a grownup do something, ride a bike, which she could not do but would learn someday. She had no history with bicycles. She did not know it was unusual for a bike to be ridden in a handstand, or turn into a unicycle. Adults laughed. My kid did not.
It’s tough to be the one to introduce a child to the concept of theatre.
Aurelia’s Oratorio
The Girls Night Out mommy party I went to last night was a big deal. It took over two weeks of e-mails to get a group of mothers who were hungry for a more conversation than the hi/bye of school pick-up and drop-off to get together with food and wine but without the spouses and children.
So it took a little effort to get up and out and to rehearsal way up at the West End Theatre this morning.
Then after the rehearsal for our very minimal show, (Our set is made of cardboard boxes and brown paper.) I got on the subway to go directly to meet The Husband and My Kid in the West Village to see a matinee performance of the meticulously produced “Aurelia’s Oratorio” at NYU’s Skirball Center.
Photo by Richard Haughton.
Aurélia Thierrée in Aurélia’s Oratorio, written and directed by Victoria Thierrée Chaplin.
She is clown and theatrical royalty, her grandfather was Charlie Chaplin, her great-grandfather was Eugene O’Neill and her parents created “Cirque Imaginaire” which influenced Cirque du Soleil. We were lucky to see it as the show only played 3 performances in New York.
Home
I’m home and in bed now. The Husband and My Kid are both sound asleep. It was such a fun GNO with the other mommies from My Kid’s school. I hope I don’t have any trouble getting up in the morning to get to rehearsal on time–And My Kid has a soccer game…
There was wine…
There was lots of food…
We’re still all talking about Obama…
And…
Sarah Palin in front of a turkey exterminator…what the….Sarah Palin at the Wasilla turkey farm
the flier
Oh My Toe!…Why I Walk so Slow
Inspired by The Yipiyuk by Shel Silverstein
An interactive theatrical experiment for kids and their parents
Sunday, November 23rd & Saturday, November 29th at 12PM
Saturday, December 6th at 12:30PM
The West End Theatre
located in the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew
263 W 86th St. b/t Broadway and West End Ave.
1 Train to 86th St.
Suggested Donation $5
The Experiment . . .
Creating this production has been an experiment in involving children in the rehearsal process. Instead of gathering a group of adults together to generate theatre for children, we decided to invite our children (ages 8 months to 8 years) to rehearse with us. We developed the show as a group, using Silverstein’s poem as the basis of our inspiration. There was no particular agenda regarding how the children would be involved. They could perform with us, watch quietly on the sidelines, play and shriek on the sidelines or ask to be held by their performing parent. Involving children in the production from its beginning has enriched and challenged our creative process. We now invite you to join us!
Sitting alone in my apartment looking forward to a theatre festival
I was feeling sad and lonely a few moments ago after pawning my kid off on someone else’s babysitter for a play date and then stopping at the Target in Atlantic Center for some bulk packs of paper towels and TP on the way home from the school’s early pickup–it’s parent/teacher conference day in our world. I was dwelling on the fact that one of the mommies I know has written more plays than I thought she had. Another friend has founded her own theatre company in New Mexico, (I don’t know if she is a mommy but her website is pretty impressive). Me I got nothin’…! So I looked up the website of the Six Figures Theatre Company which is producing the Artists of Tomorrow Festival at the West End Theatre beginning this weekend–which I am in thank you very much. I’ve worked there before in several of Kendall Cornell’s clown pieces. It’s a great space. It’s on the second floor of the Church of St Paul and St Andrew United Methodist Church. I think it used to be a chapel.
As a side note about theatre companies in churches; in my own neighborhood, the Irondale Ensemble Project has finished renovating the upstairs Sunday School room, and mounted a new production in their new permanent theatre space at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church (which was founded by abolitionists)–where my own baby went to toddler play group several times a week for the first two walking years of her life.–and opened their first show in the new theatre space. Some churches are really cool.
Anyway,
This coming weekend and for the next few weekends I will be on stage in; “Oh My Toe!…Why I Walk So Slow”, an theatrical experiment developed with children in the room, conceived by Lindsay Newitter.
In the same festival I am looking forward to seeing my friends:
Victoria Libertoire…
in “The Should Dream”; “An old vaudevillian illuminates the secrets of humanity. Victoria Libertore, aka Howling Vic, lip-synchs, shimmies and hula-hoops her way through perverse, profane and saucy characters including the crone, prostitute and hedonist. Libertore uses her trademark style of combining humor, sensuality and a touch of the inappropriate in this wild and cheeky montage”.
And
Amy Salloway…
who is from Minneapolis but who I knew when we were both part of the fringe theatre community in Seattle… is performing her solo show “Circumference”; “Ghosts of Gym Teachers Past meet the Fear of Fitness Centers Present and the Obsession with Weight Loss Future in an all-new solo comedy about size, sweat…and exercising your demons. From Minneapolis actor/writer Amy Salloway, creator of the hit touring productions “Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?” (Artists of Tomorrow 2004!) and “So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!” comes the show the Calgary Herald calls, “hilarious, honest and unsparing, with a great sense of pace.” Says The Ottawa Citizen, “…an appealing and marvelously funny performer…you can also add brave and original.” And from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “A MUST-SEE: poignant, sensitive and hysterically funny.”
And
Jenny Lee Mitchell…
will be in the cast of “Dress”, “The war was over yet Communists were lurking in your backyard. Follow Susie, Ace, Betty, Bill, Madge, Mitch and Ralph the Negro Milkman as they navigate their way through Cold War paranoia and forced morality told in the Technicolor style of a 1950’s sitcom.”
That’s three nights for which I either need to arrange for a babysitter and make it a date-night with The Husband or confirm that he will be home from work in time for me to be able get to my friends’ shows by curtain time…
The weekend calendar…what really happened…
Let’s see…
Saturday:
6:45 am I woke up.
7:05 am read a 6:57 am e-mail from My Kid’s soccer coach saying he was assumed the game would be called because of rain.
7:10 am I told My Kid she was off the hook, no 8:00 am soccer game.
7:15 am My Kid is sound asleep.
7:20 am Reading coaches latest e-mail sent at 7:13:50 am; “AYSO just identified that games are on for the day.
7:25 am I try to rouse My Kid without success.
7:35 am I give up on getting to the soccer game, My Kid’s not dressed–My Kid’s not even dressed. The car service isn’t her–the car service hasn’t even been called (We only take car service for the very early games, otherwise we take the subway.)
7:45 I am wracked with with guilt having just read a blog by a woman who describes; “8:00 am soccer games as a test of her commitment to parenthood.”
8:00 am soccer game
12:00 pm Brownie Girl Scout field trip to Brooklyn Children’s Museum–this one did happen. I got my kid to the Court Street subway stop to meet up with her troop leader and the other girls going to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
1:00 pm I’m walking alone in SoHo.
2:00 pm rehearsal Theatrelab, 14th Street, Chelsea Warshaw Sudio, Wooster Street, Soho.
Between 4:30 or 4:45 I arrive at the Court Street Subway station in Brooklyn Heights to wait for My Kid. I chat with another waiting mother, about things like working out in the gym after the age of 40 and making proper meals so the kids won’t eat cereal for dinner… until they arrive at nearly 6 o’clock.
5:00 pm Fort Greene Momument lighing ceremony
Took My Kid home on the subway, stopped at Ralph’s. (The Election Night Fort Greene Street Party till 3:00am Ralph’s!)
Cooked some pasta and sauce.
Watched some TV.
Ran a bath for My Kid.
Read some “Geronimo Stilton” and some “Hans Christian Anderson” out loud.
Listened to some music from a different century on WNYC.
Talked to The Husband on the phone.
Fell asleep eventually…
Sunday:
Mass at 9 am or 11 am or 7 pm (…?…)
11:00 am Rehearsal at the studio in Soho–except that My Kid and I were very late because of all the different things things (kid slow to dress, printer acting up, forgot the script and went back for it, walked the wrong way after getting off the train, etc that each added about 10 minutes to our transition time–the baby and toddler mothers have certain issues in the rehearsal space; I have different issues just getting to the space with my “tiny teenager”–then my kid has her Ninetendo DS fro backup in case of boredom and everything is fine–not like those tiny little hungry, teething, nap needing, eccentric “lotion mushroom”, sharing-learning people we deal with during rehearsal. (And I feel very guilty about being late to rehearsal, but this post is about the whole day…)
1:00 pm, rehearsal is over and an hour is plenty of time to get to the Guggenheim: stopped at Anne Klein store on the same block as the rehearsal studio to buy the boots that were on sale I looked at yesterday. Then we stopped at the Dean and Deluca by the subway stop where My Kid chose pre-packaged cucumber and avocado sushi for her lunch. Then on the 4 train going uptown towards the Guggenheim we ran into a Brooklyn-mommy-friend and her kid also going to a museum, but they were on their way to the Whitney to see the Calder Circus, the mommy said they’d already seen the Catherine Opie exhibit and it was good. When we got off the train at 86th and Lexington, My Kid was cold on the street so I said, lets go into that drugstore there and get one of those cheap hat/scarf/glove sets that are everywhere during the winter. Well we went to a Duane Reade, a Wallgreens and a CVS enduring some tears and almost giving up and going straight home before we were able to buy a red High School Musical hat and glove set to keep My Kid warm as we walked the four blocks to the Guggenheim. She commented as we walked along 88th Street that the buildings were all ordinary and not at all like what she expected since she’d seen pictures, and then she saw it.
2:00 pm Guggeheim Family Day, PS 8 event–We arrive at 2:45
5:00 pm (almost) we leave the Guggenheim and catch a cab to 72nd and Columbus because we want to go to Tip Top Kids shoes because My Kid wants black boots (like mine) and I agree because we never did get around to getting her proper school shoes this fall so…We get to the shoe store and there are a mommy friend and two of her daughters, 2nd and 3rd grade sisters and friends of My Kid from her school in Brooklyn Heights, who select matching pairs of running shoes. My kid gets her black boots, (Eventually choosing the more expensive waterproof warm ones over the shiny fancier pair). We are the last customers in the store.
I thought we could eat on the Upper West Side and get dinner over with (when in doubt I always choose the restaurant I’ve never tried). My Kid said she’d prefer to go home, drop off our purchases and pick up her homework and eat at a restaurant in our neighborhood. So we got on the train. The 1 train was crowded and we stood for a few stops, when we sat down I was slow to realize that the man sketching next to My Kid was Eric Davis. We recognized each other and spoke for a while. He was drawing ideas for his next incarnation his Red Bastard show. He asked what I was doing and happily I had an answer; “My kid and I are in rehearsals for something for the Six Figures Artists of Tomorrow Festival at the West End Theatre.”
When we got off the train at Atlantic Center in Brooklyn we made a quick detour to the Children’s Place for some socks. By the time we got to Fulton Street, My Kid was cold enough to decide she didn’t want to walk outside anymore that a frozen entree from Fresh Garden at home would be just fine.
And so here we are at home, My Kid’s finishing her homework and I’m starting to fade.
Weekend To Do List:
Feed kid 6 meals and 4 snacks (mmm pretty much yeah…)
Make kid do homework (She said she’s done.)
Make kid read (She read some.)
Prevent kid from watching too much TV (She couldn’t watch that much, we were gone most of the time.)
Clean some part of the apartment (maybe if My Kid falls asleep soon, or if I wake up early…
Where did my single spacing go and why can’t I get it back? That’s what I want to know!
Wash some dishes (yeah, I’d better get that done before I go to bed…)
Put away some laundry (It’s still in bags in the cart in the middle of the living room…)
Read something (I didn’t even buy the Times…sigh.)
Write something (Does a blog post count?)
Fill out some application forms (Well that didn’t happen!)
Shop for some food (do two trips to the corner deli, ten minutes before a meal, count?)
I’m done. Gonna clock out as soon as the kid’s asleep…(maybe)…better go turn off the TV…