"a change we can believe in"

That was the theme of the Democratic National Convention last night as Obama took the stage for the biggest speech of his life. A minor thing but as my Obama-blogging friend Sam pointed out-- that line begins with my three initials... Coincidence??
Just kidding.

After the second performance of Sexual Perversity in Chicago at the WHAT Harbor Stage a few of us went over to my friend Siri's house for an impromptu viewing party. My very old friend (and the director of SPC) Brendan Hughes came, as did the actor Lewis Wheeler. Siri's younger brother and sister were also there and we watched the coverage completely rapt in almost total silence for over an hour. We got excited about all the different viewing parties that were being shown (Times Square had the look and energy of a typical New Year's there) and were delighted that people of all ages, classes, ethnicities seemed to be energized by Obama's words the way sports fans might watch the Superbowl or cinephiles-- the Oscars. But this is neither sport nor entertainment-- there is an aspect of each... but this is MUCH more serious than that.

I was so thrilled by all of the points Obama raised, his elegant tone, the nitty-gritty of his policies and the McCain attacks he anticipated and gracefully shot down. I loved his charisma and his warmth and his passion. Brendan was saying he is like a cross between JFK and Abraham Lincoln and I like that idea. Most of all, I trust him. And really, that is the most important thing. When he spoke so eloquently about the complexities of race politics in that speech in Philadelphia I was amazed at his unbelievable (and sometimes rare in men, much less politicians) ability to see the multitudinous sides of a thing, different and valid perspectives, different motivations, generations of ignorance/patterned behavior, etc. Again last night I felt like his recognition of how our different life circumstances inform our different hopes/desires/needs from our leaders and our government. [When he talked about how a hunter would have different ideas about gun control than city dwellers threatened by gun violence, etc...] His understanding of America is incredibly-nuanced and as such his record and his ideas for the future are exactly what this country needs right now. Not only for our domestic policies but for international diplomacy and America's street cred as a great and generous nation... Obama and Biden are our ticket.

Most of all the message that resounded with me last night was about compassion. We might not always be perfect, we might not always be at the top of our game, but we must ALWAYS be compassionate. We must help each other, and treat each other with respect and dignity, and look out for the future of our children and our planet.

Brendan has a one-man show that he has been working on and performing weekly out here in Wellfleet called Oomphalos. [Last show this Saturday at 9pm, what.org] I saw it last week and I loved it. One of the major points Brendan touches on in the show is also about compassion. He shares tons of facts and philosophy with us, and a fair share of personal history-- and makes us laugh and makes us pluck rubber bands that give the sensation of our heart strings reverberating... and he shares his wonderful world view. He says if the 20th century is about ideas and great inventions and the like... the 21st century must be about how we treat each other and our planet.

Last week he also made a video that he showed as it was indeed the fateful anniversary... and I think it will make you laugh and think a little bit.

diving bells

The leap, not the step, is what makes the experience possible.
Heiner Muller

I just finished Anne Bogart's A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre, and I feel like I am poised at the top of the diving board. Like the very young Chinese women who amazed in the Olympics last night, I feel so ready. I arch my back, I fold forward, I put my hands on the ground-- stretching and extending each finger and pulling up and pushing down simultaneously. I pitch my hips and raise my feet slowly into a handstand, I balance, gripping each finger, pushing down, rising up. Then, a little burst, and lift-off. Flip after flip after flip I close my eyes at the exact moment of entry. In one fell swoop I disappear like a flicker of light. The water doesn't even ripple. I am in.
My God it's deep in here.

thank you Erica for giving/loaning(?!)...

sand sand sand luck luck luck

I think I am the luckiest girl in the world.
I truly feel SO lucky.
I had a day off today and I got to run, swim, read, eat, drink, talk, act, write, watch, and play. I have a cray-pas set that says "Learn * Play * Enjoy" on the side and I am heeding those directions.
I just finished up a week in one of the historic dune shacks on the Surf Side of Route 6 in Provincetown. It was built in 1949 and rustic-- no electricity, water only from a brilliant red pump well (I thought of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan every time I used it!), an outhouse, and a 35-minute hike over steep dunes to get in. But once you were there-- HEAVEN!~ At times I felt like I was in The English Patient or The Little Prince or this great exhibition I went to in a museum in Paris in 2000 where different artists explored ideas of 'deserts' and 'mirages' etc... Sand sand everywhere! One night, our first time walking back in the dark in fact, we had a real adventure when the flashlight we had stopped working about 1/16th of the way into our journey. It was a cloudy night sky so not much help from the stars and with literally only dunes in every direction-- it took us over an hour but we found our way home. One of the craziest parts is I entered the lottery to win this week in early February, and I picked this week sort of randomly, and then lo and behold this job brought me to Wellfleet... Was it fate? Is there such a thing? I'm just saying...
Different friends, old and new, came for visits-- we even moved 'rehearsal' to the beach in front of the dune one day and had a great picnic and tennis-ball catch session. Another morning I woke up and mentioned to my mom that I had figured out how I might be able to get a director I worked for this summer's email... I would call another old friend who had worked for him... not two hours later my mom and I are walking around Ptown and said director rides by on his bike. Three hours after that he was at the dune shack and we spent a lovely couple hours talking shop and not-shop.
Coincidences? Manifestations of desired outcomes? I guess the why is less important to me than the 'events' themselves...
Just keep 'em coming please!
here are a few pictures:

picture this

a love letter to the here and now

sitting on an adirondack chair in the middle of a field in williamstown, massachusetts-- I feel so lucky for the past two months.
thank you and big ups to:
Alex T., Lee E., Erin K., Vanessa C. Katie F., Darren G., Matt McG., Kate B., Darrell H., Bryce P., Caroline K., Arla B., Matt McC., Kerry M., Stacey B., Sam F. & Sam G., Amy H., Stephen S., Justin W., Emily R., Nikki, Kristy H., Beau W., Andrea S., Portia K., Aya C., Rosemarie DeW., Stephen K., Mano F., Joe T., Cary D., Ethan H., Hondo W.-R., Jason McD.-G, and Rebecca S., Emily K. and Reed W., Amanda C. and Amy K., Morgan R. and Charlotte too, Heather R., Joey A., Ariel J., Elizabeth B., Becca L., Torie G., Jake, Chris K., Michael F. and Michael G., Peter M., and Roberta M. ...
and all the other apprentices for working so hard and making all the magic happen all summer...
I am moved by all of you.

polarity

sometimes I think my life is extremely full, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes exhausting... but always, packed. And often, sort of intense in many different areas. It is hard to explain-- I have several interests and sometimes I am pursuing them all simultaneously and at times this hurts rather than helps perhaps but I'm very decisive when I can be and don't force the point otherwise.
Anyway, here is today:
I woke up to a text from Adam forwarding a text from Steve who is acting in a one-act I wrote and directed that is playing in LA right now. Apparently last night there was sort of a fancy benefit performance (not to pay the actors or playwright or director anything, mind you...) and the following 'names' were in attendance: Natalie Portman, Devendra Banhart, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Alec Baldwin and some other people whose names are known. I was not in attendance since I'm 3,000 miles away so I don't know if they laughed or cried or patted each other on the back or what.
Cut to 20 minutes later, I am sitting in a hot not-in-use Kosher Dining Hall called Upper Greylock listening to the esteemed playwright John Guare talk about life and art and New York and LA and theater and movies and money and art again. A few of my favorite parts:
he & Lanford Wilson & Terrence McNally all had balconies that opened onto the same courtyard garden on 10th and 4th Avenue around 1964 and they would sit out there and typitty-type and try to torment each other that they were writing more... but of course they were not the names they are now then, they were just three guys. Sam Shephard was just a guy who was a waiter at a cool restaurant downtown. Guare's rent was 32 dollars a month.
"People used to go to plays to see the outcomes of extreme behavior... Oh, there's Othello... oh look, that's what happens if you get jealous..."
"Don't keep it in your head."
"All you can do is throw yourself into the action."
"Make yourself available-- try to swim in the water."
"You don't realize magic while you're in the middle of it."
"A big question-- is the choice I'm making going to humiliate me?"
"Why don't we make theater a place of poetry? Why ever just try to recreate reality?
"Nobody needs us ever.. well, okay, so in spite of that how do you give words to your heart? Why not bet on yourself?"
"Poetry in the theater is where you don't need big sets, effects... it's where the language itself is making the theater."
"I hate to write about people who can't speak. I think people are incredibly eloquent."
I also loved when he talked about Sam and Amy and Noah. I know those people. And I am in their fan clubs too.
He told great stories about being in the Army and the day he met Joe Chino and about how he got to know the kinds of people that don't brush their teeth so that they don't have to worry about their teeth later, because if they were enlisted and their teeth rotted out the military would give them a nice set of dentures free. "These people that are not us-- this is what they're doing... that we don't even know about."
And all of this and it wasn't even noon.

I want to tell you about sitting outside under a tree with Kristen Johnston and about going for a run in this gorgeous incredible place and about sitting at the library reading and getting ready for the reading I'm doing this week, and about shopping for birthday presents and about seeing the first preview of John Rando's production of Flea in Her Ear, and working concessions and meeting some great old-times who haven't missed a Williamstown show in 54 years... and all the thinking I am doing right now about big big things. But there is all this life happening outside and I am feeling pulled and in the middle of it and like Guare said, sometimes all we can do is throw ourselves in, right?

Compleat Victrola Sessions part I