3 Things

I've valiantly resisted the viral "25 Random Things" Facebook post, but I have to admit that the format is pretty enticing to a girl buried under the first month of her last semester of undergrad. So here goes my edited version: Twenty-Five minus Twenty-Two Not Very Random Things About Me and Theatre.

1.) I think a lot about how a surrounding can influence the impression of a production. I was recently able to revisit this idea first-hand as the lucky recipient of a friend-of-a-friend's extra ticket for Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard at BAM. I was leaving work when I got the call, and before I knew it, I found myself mingling with a group of charming upper middle (lower upper?) class folks. My favorite was a sassy old woman boasting a diamond-studded Obama shirt, enlightening the entire women's bathroom line with her (intelligent!) ideas concerning the possible purpose behind the production's design concept. Sure, I felt a little out of place, but I was in total rapture. OF COURSE, the play I happened to catch was centered on social Darwinism and the dangerous mixture of class structure. I was relishing my new found atmosphere, much like Lopakhin was in his climb towards the top, and my fondness for the company I was with sentimentalized those characters on their way down. This is a production I would have enjoyed anywhere, but the warm, sparkling camaraderie I discovered myself misplaced in was a magnifying glass, drawing the play closer so I could recognize the familiarity.


2.) I'm quite steeped in theatre theory currently, as I've started an interesting course on 20th Century theatre. While reading an excerpt from Wagner’s Outlines of the Artwork of the Future! (Sorry Wagner, but an exclamation point belongs at the end of a title like that) I noticed that he used the masculine pronoun to describe all artists, but he used the feminine pronoun to describe art itself. I don't know if I should be offended or complimented. What do you guys think?


3.) On a whim, Collin and I went to see a show we knew absolutely nothing about, just because there was a pay-what-you-can special. All we had was an address. Turns out it was Virginia Woolfe's only play, Freshwater directed by the talented Anne Bogart at The Women's Project Theatre. Wow. That was lucky. GO SEE IT. It's a little pricey if you didn't catch the deal, and besides obvious artistic merit, they make it quite clear that there is not much more the play offers other than top notch hilarity. Yet in that promise they sure do deliver; this farcical, slap-stick, absurdly ridiculous parlor piece might as well equip its audience members with seat belts. I can’t remember the last time I had so much good, clean fun at a play.

When was the last time you had a blast at a show? (If you say Blasted, I will hunt you down and punch you in the shoulder...or eat your eyeballs). Seriously, though, I really want to know. What show was it? What was it about the show that made it so much fun? Let me know! Thanks for reading (and dealing with my obsessive parenthetical phrases)!