Saturday, December 10, 2005
Holiday Molecules...
...thicken and swirl in the air around us all, as the street corners fill with fragrant greenery for sale, people purchase and sling large decorative wreathes over their crooked arms and head home thinking how and where to hang them...small holiday trees in red-wrapped pots, large fluffy Scotch pines that cost far too much and look proud of the fact, NYC becomes a veritable forest for a few weeks....these same proud trees will sooner than later lay in scorned piles on the same street corners, after we satisfied city-dwellers have had our fill of them..one of the saddest January sights are these piles of trees-past-their-time, their tinsel fluttering in the coldest air of all: that of abandonment and neglect.
But for now, each of these firs,pines and hemlocks offer promise and a s..Sexy whiff of "what if..."....we will buy our trees we will decorate!
Something almost chemical happens in this town around this time of year: people seem transformed from grumpy grey lumps into smiling red and green creatures of warmth and friendliness, and I have always wondered why...is it the prospect of the presents they may be receiving? Is it all the sugar they consume at the inevitable office Christmas parties? Or the chance once-a-year sexual encounters that may spring up there, after alchohol and proximity do their party best? Is it all that STUFF that is cheerily presented around us all, leaping and screaming from every shop and store window possible? Is it the message, loud and clear, that seems to get through despite all the other noise: PEACE ON EARTH? How can this be, when we are busy killing more people on the other side of the world in the name of freedom? What is peaceful about war? But that aside, dose the Christmas message get through to us anyway? And is that what changes us? It's a mystery. But huge boxes of food and chocolates that avalanche into offices all over the city...the inevitable client gifts: towers of treats...the normal grey spaces are lit with plenty and sweet plenty at that!
What a place to be at this holiday time....NEW YORK CITY: Christmas Central!
All that being said, there have been a few evetful treats lately that do seem to resonate in our life as real gifts:
Thursday night last (today is Saturday), Peter and I went to the Epic Rep Holiday Perty, and it was a small but warmly congenial gathering. Nice people , deeply committed to their mission of finding and producing new plays. We like these people.
A couple of the couples have already produced some beautiful Epic babies! And they were there too....and I learned more about the initial reasons for this group getting together...and of their past success in producing certain off-Broadway pieces while Peter and I were away in Virginia. I look forward to learning more.
THEN, after that little gathering, David Staller invited Peter and me to a dress rehearsal of MRS.WARREN'S PROFESSION at the Irish Rep, that he is playing "Praed" in, and Dana Ivey is "Mrs.Warren"...their first audience of any size at all, and there were only maybe 20 of us,if that! But wow, we were all genuinely transported to the delightful and brilliant world of G.B.Shaw and glad for the trip! Dana was a perfect and human and believable Mrs. Warren, deeply able to speak the language and deliver us the complex, strong, real woman who shocked Shaw's Victorian audiences into apoplexy, while making her extremely true to today's world as well. That dilemma of mother-daughter identity and love is timeless and eternal, no matter the age or era.
Staller developed a complex,idiosyncratic, appealingly gentle "Praed",making me realize what an accomplished actor he is....I love it when handsome men turn out to be able "character " men...my husband Peter does that...such cleverness and depth! David was wonderful! And the entire rest of the cast was remarkably wonderful! We had a ball. Charlotte Moore's direction was impeccable! And fun, and again human! We so loved seing this. It is a fine example of superb NYC theater at its best.
Thanks to David for the invitation.
MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION at the Irish.....go see it!
Dana Ivery: wow! David Staller: wow!
But for now, each of these firs,pines and hemlocks offer promise and a s..Sexy whiff of "what if..."....we will buy our trees we will decorate!
Something almost chemical happens in this town around this time of year: people seem transformed from grumpy grey lumps into smiling red and green creatures of warmth and friendliness, and I have always wondered why...is it the prospect of the presents they may be receiving? Is it all the sugar they consume at the inevitable office Christmas parties? Or the chance once-a-year sexual encounters that may spring up there, after alchohol and proximity do their party best? Is it all that STUFF that is cheerily presented around us all, leaping and screaming from every shop and store window possible? Is it the message, loud and clear, that seems to get through despite all the other noise: PEACE ON EARTH? How can this be, when we are busy killing more people on the other side of the world in the name of freedom? What is peaceful about war? But that aside, dose the Christmas message get through to us anyway? And is that what changes us? It's a mystery. But huge boxes of food and chocolates that avalanche into offices all over the city...the inevitable client gifts: towers of treats...the normal grey spaces are lit with plenty and sweet plenty at that!
What a place to be at this holiday time....NEW YORK CITY: Christmas Central!
All that being said, there have been a few evetful treats lately that do seem to resonate in our life as real gifts:
Thursday night last (today is Saturday), Peter and I went to the Epic Rep Holiday Perty, and it was a small but warmly congenial gathering. Nice people , deeply committed to their mission of finding and producing new plays. We like these people.
A couple of the couples have already produced some beautiful Epic babies! And they were there too....and I learned more about the initial reasons for this group getting together...and of their past success in producing certain off-Broadway pieces while Peter and I were away in Virginia. I look forward to learning more.
THEN, after that little gathering, David Staller invited Peter and me to a dress rehearsal of MRS.WARREN'S PROFESSION at the Irish Rep, that he is playing "Praed" in, and Dana Ivey is "Mrs.Warren"...their first audience of any size at all, and there were only maybe 20 of us,if that! But wow, we were all genuinely transported to the delightful and brilliant world of G.B.Shaw and glad for the trip! Dana was a perfect and human and believable Mrs. Warren, deeply able to speak the language and deliver us the complex, strong, real woman who shocked Shaw's Victorian audiences into apoplexy, while making her extremely true to today's world as well. That dilemma of mother-daughter identity and love is timeless and eternal, no matter the age or era.
Staller developed a complex,idiosyncratic, appealingly gentle "Praed",making me realize what an accomplished actor he is....I love it when handsome men turn out to be able "character " men...my husband Peter does that...such cleverness and depth! David was wonderful! And the entire rest of the cast was remarkably wonderful! We had a ball. Charlotte Moore's direction was impeccable! And fun, and again human! We so loved seing this. It is a fine example of superb NYC theater at its best.
Thanks to David for the invitation.
MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION at the Irish.....go see it!
Dana Ivery: wow! David Staller: wow!
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