Milliner?

Some days, like today, I want nothing more than to open a hat shop.
I do love hats of all kinds, there are hats for every occasion and people do not wear hats as often as they ought in my opinion.  I think I would do brilliantly as an owner of a little hat shop.
Yet, would it make any money?  Is a hat shop an unnecessary thing?  In my opinion no.  It's totally necessary.
I have often wished there was a good millinery shop nearby. 
Am I however a total odd ball when it comes to this?



Hats as Art, Art Hats. 

Why have we gotten away from this?  Don't our heads require adornment anymore?

Where writing begins

It's hard to stay enthusiastic when you wake before the light and have a long commute. 
Occasionally however things go well, students are enthusiastic about the material and there's a lively discussion about the beginnings of writing.  Where the love of words begins.  In the womb perhaps?  Ought we to read to our children before their birth? 
Do you remember your favorite book, your grandmother reading it to you, you all curled up in your bed with a soft blanket pulled round.  What was that book?  Can you remember the title?  Or the size, the weight, the content. 
For me there was a  large yet not too thick hardcover book of the tales of fairies and goblins and the the like.
With short poems and stories of the lives of these elaborately drawn creatures.  It was kept at my grandmother's house, where I know reside.  In the little room with two single beds one for me one for my sister.  Soft worn blankets, a room that just fit the two beds, a nightstand and a dresser.  The book was kept on the bottom shelf of the nightstand.  It was read and re-read by myself and my sister, and no doubt my cousin as well.  We added a bit to the already colorful drawings contained within.  I remember my sleep in this little bed to be magnificent, I liked the bed on the right of the room furthest from the window.  Maybe it was the sea air, maybe it was the fairies dancing in my imagination.
I believe this book has influenced me more than I know.  The short form of the stories, the integration of my own images into an already rich world, the imaginings the dreamings.  I see this now in my plays in my world in my notebooks full of scrawlings and words, designs and ideas, flowing in and out.


What are your early memories with books?  How have they influenced your life? 

Afterglow of Happiness

Travels to London ended up being about old friends, new friends and loads of visual art. 
Surprisingly enough i didn't see any theater.  Just the way things worked out.
No matter though, had an incredible time. 
I now feel reinvigorated for life and art and travel and hope and change and and and and and and.

Today back on the beach near my house and I walked and I sang and I gathered sea glass from the edges of the water and in my mind formed a sea glass creature, a sea glass puppet rather.
I'm thinking clear plastic with sea glass glued upon.  Two hand manipulation.  A hand within the head to manipulate the mouth and upper body movement.  and a hand to work the feet and hands with two rods to the back.  Hmm will have to figure that a bit more.  But I see this human like sea glass creature emerging from the waters to tell the tale of its creation. 

Oh, oh, I come from the crashing and the mashing of the waves.
Broken bottles and the like that you've tossed away.  

A sort of sea shanty tall tale of the how our discarded glass has a life it's own. 

Not a shell, nor a rock nor a snapping crab.
Yet I sparkle and I shine on the shore line you crave. 



Isn't it odd and absolutely wonderful that a person can be so perfectly at home in many places.  Home with friends with love no matter the scenery, the city the sea. 

Teaching...New York

Spent a whirlwind weekend in New York, as per usual for a quick visit to NYC. 
Hit up PS122 on Friday night and saw the Nonsense Company's new show, Storm Still. 
Although there were moments that were purely masturbatory towards the end of the play, overall I thoroughly enjoyed the play and found myself able to believe once again that there is good theatre out there.
Imaginative and Inventive.  I laughed loud and hard.  King Lear was never so funny.

It's so hard to find theater that I actually like.

At current, I have all of my students writing papers about social issues or current events.  I've diverted from my syllabus slightly in order to get them to wake up and pay attention to the world around them.  Hopefully being required to pay attention will shake them out of their bubble world that is college, at least for a brief moment.  This is of course, this blindered view that is not unique to the college student, it's just far more extreme in the college setting.  I constantly have to remember to engage with my world, locally, nationally, and internationally. 
It is extremely easy to wander around in our small lives, comfortable and mildly happy. 


Let's try it, eh, WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTION! 

Breathing....yeah right

I want to see soooooo many shows when I'm in London.
Won't be enough time.  Not enough at all.
www.offwestend.com
This site is amazing and It is going to be impossible to choose what I go and see.

The Uncle Hans-Peter Party at Camden People's Theatre, seems right up my alley.

This puppet and poetry piece is very intriguing. 

Triptych
On from 03 Mar 2011 to 03 Mar 2011
Little Angel Theatre
by Wattle and Daubt

How will I choose?

Water by FILTER and David Farr
at the Tricycle Theater looks fantastic.

At the moment, Camden People's Theatre and Little Angel Theatre are really standing out as companies I must check out. 
Why is there a pink stripe below?  Only you can answer this question.  

London

So, as I prepare for a trip to England, I am inundated with memories of London from my semester abroad at Goldsmiths College back in the Spring of 2003.
It's hard to believe it has been that long. 
Memories of Performances, of mediocre to excellent theater come to mind.
As an international student they offered a class where every week they bought us theatre tickets, we all attended the show and then in class we would discuss it.  Brilliant!  They also always had extra tickets, so I took my mates along for free as well.  (Seeing as I was one of the few Americans to make an effort to actually get to know the British Students that I was surrounded by, it was always easy to grab the extra tix.) I could never understand how these Americans could go to London and not make friends with Londoners.  What's the point of being in a foreign country if all your going to do is hang with other Americans.  I had the time of my life.  I think these other students were just on an extended vacation.

So as I prepare to see some old friends from my Uni days in London, I also prepare to see some London Theatre.  Any suggestions?

Of course, as I don't go to Broadway when I'm in New York, I won't be going to the West End while I'm in London. 
Speaking of New York.  I'm on my way to NYC the weekend before I head to London.  Not too shabby.
I'm going to be checking out the NoPassport Conference at the NUYORICAN POETS CAFE on March 4th and 5th.  This conference is headed up by an amazingly prolific woman, Caridad Svich. NoPassport
If you're in NYC.  This is worth checking out.  


I'm also really excited to be attending Storm Still by the Nonsense Company at PS122.  
It runs through March 6th and is worth checking out if you're in NYC.  


If you're in Providence, RI this Thursday-Sunday.  You absolutely must go and check out what the Resident Artists are up to at Perishable Theatre, RI's Research and Development Theatre.  Here's the most recently updated schedule.  Some absolutely fantastic and diverse works.  

Please note the following updates to our

Resident Artist Showings In Progress.

Thursday March 3 through Sunday March 6 at 7:30pm

There have been some slight shifts in our showings schedule.

Thursday March 3Phil Goldman of Live Bait fame with more stories of mayhem
Leigh Hendrix- "How To Be A Lesbian in 10 Days or Less"

Friday March 4Rick Massimo- "Madame Bovary" hip hop style
Vanessa Gilbert- "Architectural Aria from The Legend of the Fairy Melusine"
Leigh Hendrix- "How To Be A Lesbian in 10 Days or Less"
*There will be a talkback at end of show

Saturday March 5Rick Massimo- "Madame Bovary" hip hop style
Vanessa Gilbert- "Architectural Aria from The Legend of the Fairy Melusine"
Fluxus artist Tom Hurdle’s "Mortal Sins"
Leigh Hendrix- "How To Be A Lesbian in 10 Days or Less"

Sunday March 6Phil Goldman of Live Bait fame with more stories of mayhem
Fluxus artist Tom Hurdle’s "Mortal Sins"
Leigh Hendrix- "How To Be A Lesbian in 10 Days or Less"
*There will be a talkback at end of show

For complete details of each showing please go to the Resident Artist page of this site.
All tickets are general admission and cost $5.
Reservations can be made by calling Perishable’s box office at
401-331-2695 x 101

Seriously,  if anyone has suggestions for plays to see in London, let me know.  I'm out of touch with the London Theatre Scene.