small arts

Has anyone seen this yet? Or tried applying yet?

naked mole rats

Production meeting for Chicago Avenue Project (where kids do the playwrighting) today. Discussions about how to make oversized, foam-core naked mole rats pop out of holes in foam-core "dirt", whether the elephants will need hands, how to do costume and make up for a character named "Fatso" who is half-human, half-donkey and looks like Gene Simmons, and whether they still have the costume for the character "Stupid Head" who is back in a sequel this year.

I wonder if something is missing from adult theater because this is way funner.

day five, where do you want to go today?

If I actually succeed in quitting smoking, I might just have to credit Apple for making such a fabulous machine.

It's been, I don't know, 15 years since I used a Mac on a regular basis. (It was an Apple IIvx if that helps anyone date it.) And then I became a software engineer, which required moving to PCs and the occasional Unix machine. And I've been stuck in Windows ever since.

When the friendly guy at Geek Squad told me the cost of repairing my PC, something just snapped and I asked him how much more it would cost me to throw this Windows machine in a dumpster and buy a Mac. He laughed and then spent 15 minutes trying to talk me into doing just that. This was at Best Buy, where they don't even sell Macs, so I trusted and enjoyed his advice a bit more than I normally would.

I told him how much I missed the Apple world but that I still occasionally needed to do some database stuff, and with the exception of a cute, but horribly limited little database program called FileMaker, all other database software needs Windows. Then he told me about how easy it is to emulate a Windows environment on a Mac these days.

We happily tore up the repair ticket together. Off to the Apple store. The Windows emulation is everything the Geek Squad guy said it would be, except actually faster than a real Windows machine. So now I can occasionally slide over into a parallel dimension of Windows where people are oppressed by Microsoft and terrified of viruses, but I can always come virtually home to my hippie, happy, stable, pretty Apple world. And seriously, it's much more relaxing here. Which helps when one is trying to break free of a seriously intense addiction.

So I'm still smoke free. Awesome.

totally unfair

Day two. My computer crashed. Spent the whole day trying to recover it.

Day three. Defeated in my own attempts, Geek Squad says the hard drive is done. Cost of repair is more than computer is worth.

How unfair is that, to lose my computer in the middle of trying to support several busy projects, ON DAY TWO of quitting smoking?

Still not smoking. Chewed a lot of gum. And bought a Mac.

day one

Alan has the car a lot these days and my bicycle is in the shop getting pampered like it's never been pampered its entire life so I'm walking everywhere lately. Which was perfect today. Walking, walking, walking, faster, faster, breathing deep, clenching the jaw, tightening then loosening the fists, rolling the head to loosen the neck, flaring the nostrils, humming, blinking extra frequent and extra hard, chewing, chewing air, chewing nuts, chewing gum. That's what I did today instead of killing anyone or smoking a cigarette.

I've made it since midnight last night so far. Pant, sigh. This is good. I will begin to smell wonderful things soon. The tiny, perky, supportive booklet that came with the Nicorette gum says I will taste new things soon too. I highly doubt that since Nicorette gum floods my mouth, throat and belly with a completely overpowering and fairly disgusting taste, and I'm popping them every two hours.

I've rented a whole stack of old movies in preparation for the insomnia I expect tonight. The last time I quit smoking, not only was it hard to fall asleep, but once I did fall asleep I'd wake up throughout the night alternatively because I was craving a cigarette, or in alarm because I dreamed that I smoked a cigarette.

In my calmer moments, when I can do that thing where I separate myself from my desire and observe myself from a distance, it's completely fascinating to watch the addicted body and mind freak out.

Friends who smoke please be patient while I hide from you for a while. For that matter, all friends should probably hide from me for a while because I am frequently going to be a raging psychotic bitch. Wish me luck. See you on the other side I hope.

phew, fringed out!

Sorry I fell behind on my Fringe posting. I got wrapped up in seeing shows and working and then I left town for a couple days toward the end of the festival - I know, mind-blowing, how could I? Well, there's this precocious nine-year-old playwright named Jaiden who is writing a play for Pillsbury House Theatre's Chicago Avenue Project, and I get to be her dramaturg and director. So I went on a retreat to the Baker Wilderness Area with the other CAP folks to work on plays, swim in lakes, and eat s'mores. Yeah, it was more fun than the average theater project. If you've never seen Chicago Avenue Project, you are SO missing out. Come see this one. I promise it will make you remember why we do theater. Seriously. Performances on Monday and Tuesday, August 27 and 28 at 7:00 p.m. at Pillsbury House Theatre.

I saw lots more Fringe shows, most of which I loved, a couple which I could have missed, one which was one of those beautifully mesmerizing train wrecks, and one which was that great Fringe experience: something totally original, wonderful, young and by people I've never heard of before. That last was my final show of the festival, the encore of Forks!

[Note to Buckets and Tap Shoes, sorry, I'm a loser, I missed your show, not for lack of love for the glory you guys make, will see the next one.]

Closing night party was worth catching just to see theater nerds take over First Avenue, though I had to cut the evening short because two vodka-tonics did not agree with me forgetting to eat and sleep and wooziness took all the fun out of it. Maybe I got woozy from the closure, I don't know.

But it was fantastic to see everyone again, to see the festival happen without me, to see Robin up there giving statistics and kudos to staff, volunteers, artists. I first discovered the Fringe as a binging fan and it was so nice to return to that perspective. I kept thinking, "Wow, there are nearly a thousand artists here and I don't know what any of their problems are."

Hopefully, with the festival over, people are done asking me how I *feel* about seeing the Fringe now that I'm not running it. Looking forward to moving on and directing lots of great shows. This fall, Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin at Starting Gate, and next spring Everywhere Signs Fall by the fabulous Alan M. Berks for Gremlin Theater. Plus I've got an application in to the Chekhov Festival at BLB for A Rain of Seagulls by Meron Langsner (a parody of The Seagull) to be produced by Ministry of Cultural Warfare along with a companion parody of Uncle Vanya to be penned by Matthew Foster. Plus, talking to History Theatre about a script by Jeffrey Hatcher for Raw Stages.

So good to be an artist again.

And a few more ...

The Most Mysterious Day of the Year (from the wonderful people who brought Wonders of the Word: Recite last year)
Killer Smile
The Cody Rivers Show: Flammable People

And I can't wait to see Tom Thumb, or the Tragedy of Tragedies by the fabulous and brilliant Charlie Bethel, but I had to wait for Alan to get back to come see that one with me. After all, Charlie married us, so we have to share him now.

And yes, oh yes, oh happiness, Alan is back. Taking a night off of Fringing tonight to have him all to myself. But will be back out there to do more theater binging soon. Sunday night I came home from the Fringe so binged on art that I played my keyboard for hours ... I guess that was my version of purging. Artistic bulimia, awesome!

Yay for theater

I've seen ten shows at the Fringe so far, and nine of them were just fantastic. One was, uhm, incoherent, but it was only 30 minutes so not much skin off my theatrical nose. It's been such a long time since I got to binge on theater without feeling responsible for any of it.

Nice to play reunion with Fringe artists, local and visiting, whom I haven't seen in a while. But I'm trying to be low-key at the Nightcaps because I'm getting really bored listening to myself answer the question, "Is it weird for you, do you miss it, what are you doing now?" Wish I had a costume that would disguise me as just another Fringe-goer.

Spent Saturday evening on the West Bank, Fringing by bicycle. Trying to get from there to the Varsity for the Disco Ball was a sad trial-and-error experience finding a bridge that was open. The closed ones were all being guarded by police eating pizza. Traffic on all the alternate routes is a reminder of our infrastructure collapse, but completely closed highways and bridges with ambulances stationed at every end are a much more visceral encounter with the unreality of the crisis.

More Fringing today, looking forward to more of the inspiration I've gobbled up so far. In case anyone's reading and curious, my list of nine fantastic shows so far:

Pigeon Man Apocalypse
Same Difference
Around the World in Eight Days in Under Sixty Minutes
Bards
The Most Mysterious Day of the Year
Spotless
the limitation of sight
The Tyranny of God's Love
Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle Party

Fringe on!

So this is what the Fringe looks like

Saw two shows tonight. Very relaxing. Gee, I nearly forgot how fun this could be.

Unrelated to Fringe, I wish I could jump in the river and save people. Feeling rather helpless about the bridge ... just awful. Really no other words for that. Just awful.