Saturday

...I performed in a benefit for Lovestreet Theatre (Julie's company, with which I did Shakespeare's Women in its various forms, and The Trojan Women). It went MUCH better than I anticipated. I was responsible for about 20 minutes of material (there were three of us, Julie, a colleague of hers, and me), and Julie had said I was going to sing and do some Shakespeare. At first I was thinking I'd do the stuff I'd done for Shakespeare's Women but then I realized most of the audience would've seen that stuff--and I should take the opportunity to do some of the monologues I haven't done in a while, like my Cressida and Puck stuff. Also, originally I was just going to sing "Linden Lea," a Vaughn Williams piece I learned in high school (a choral piece--I'm actually not sure if it's ever been arranged as a solo) but then I started throwing in other pieces, like "The Trees on the Mountains" from Susanna (an American folk opera by Carlisle Floyd, absolutely beautiful work) and "That Younge Childe" from Britten's A Ceremony of Carols.

I was telling Doug about this last week, and he suggested we do a scene together, which I thought was a great idea. I thought the first scene in the forest between Rosalind and Orlando would be a good choice, since I knew it so well, plus it's a Rosalind-driven scene (not that I wanted to overshadow Doug, just that since the scene was unfamiliar to him, it would be better if I drove the scene). It went very well--Doug's training showed through. Such nice diction and he takes direction so well. After Brendan (God love him) in Eternity, it was nice to have a scene partner who actual talent.

So, the benefit went well. Although I haven't worked the Cressida as much as I would've liked, I felt good about it. It felt--alive. Julie did a piece she'd written, part of a one-woman work about an opera singer from the early 20th century. I'd never heard Julie sing before, although I know she used to be an opera singer--she sounded fantastic. There were something like 15-20 people in the audience, and one of them was a playwright whose play Julie wants to produce, about the women in Shakespeare's life. Apparently the playwright really liked me, so that was good. The space was small but cozy and clean and nicely decorated. Things like that matter to me--I can perform anywhere (and God knows, I have) but I love a nice pretty little space.

I was surprised that the singing went well, because when I was warming up in my apartment I sounded like ass. The acoustics there suck--as soon as I rehearsed in the space, I sounded different. It got me to thinking, about how my body is an instrument, both for singing and acting. I go into a different mode when I perform and I think of my body as this thing--an organic part of me, to be sure, but an instrument that I tune to pitch, to produce what I want. I don't often give it the respect it deserves and that it requires to perform at peak ability, and I'm going to change that. I've been blessed with being able to stay a certain weight even though I eat a lot of crap, but it's not just about staying thin, it's about giving the body what it needs, wholesome foods and not too much liquor and lots of liquids. And sleep, and regular exercise and discipline. I really love the implied equation of technique--you do this with your body, and this is what will come out. I think it's the athlete in me. Inspiration is important, but so is discipline.

From the New York Times...

What a great article--it's all about how to fight, in small ways, irritating things that corporations do today. I do the pressing zero thing, because voice mail annoys me to no end.

This was cool:

During the Solidarity movement in Poland, people expressed their disapproval of the government-run news media by taking a walk with their hats on backward at exactly 6 p.m. when the state news program started. When the government noticed the trend, it issued curfews, but people then put their televisions in their windows facing outward so that only the police walking the streets would see the broadcasts.

Also from the New York Times...

ALLEJO GANTNER, the new artistic director of the avant-garde mecca P.S. 122 in the East Village...[blah blah blah snippage]... Here's what he is hoping to see during his tenure in New York.

• Cheaper tickets. I'm shocked by the prices in New York. How can people see things?

• Theater and performance that isn't stuck in a conversation with itself, referring only to other work and playing to audiences comprised solely of other theater makers. Sometime in the 80's I feel like theater lost its sense of being able to change the world, and I fear audiences now agree.

• I'd love to see how the economic "trickle effect" - from Broadway to the experimental scene - that I keep being told about really works, or indeed if it's there at all.

• We need performance and theater to stop copying TV and popular culture's pervasive mores, and start leading it.

• A foyer at P.S. 122 to escape from the First Avenue winter winds. [Ed. comment: YES!]

• Plays written for performance, not for reading. Too many plays are written today that prevent interpretation by a director or company - their intent is too literal, too predictable. They are written to be read, not performed. We need writers who question every idea of what a text can be, of how it can work with an audience, and who embrace the idea that an audience can leave a theater arguing about what the whole thing was about.

• Unpredictable and visceral ways of seeing theater grab onto the political fire that's in people of any persuasion's bellies at the moment. Too much theater is written about a problem but refuses to use the form itself as a tool. Dance that works with political ideas is far more interesting at the moment.

• I'd love to see a big cheesy Broadway show. I've never caught one.