Rock, Paper, Scissors
Mar. 24th, 2003 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI went to two one-act plays at Brandeis, written by people in the grad playwrighting program. One of them I've known since he was an undergrad at Harvard (and had seen some stuff performed that he'd written then; it was quite good). The other I didn't know, except that when I checked the program, it turns out she wrote one of the pieces in the 7 x 7 lineup last month at the Industrial Theatre ("Seven Little Days"). It's a small world...
First up was How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Danielle Slepian), which was, indeed, about how the protagonist spendt her summer vacation, the swirls of social activity, between breaking up with her girlfriend, managing her patients at an old age home, balancing family relationships, roommate situations, the works. There were a lot of fun (and funny) moments, lots of local references (the local Pride march, particular neighborhoods, etc). It was fun, but not quite there, yet. The ending was a bit too abrupt, a stop rather than big enough to be an end. And a couple of times the women playing lesbians seemed to be saying their lines rather woodenly. OTOH, there were a bunch of good things, some very funny dialogue, some characters in her play questioning their actions, their motivations, their fictionalized names (I tend to enjoy layers-of-reality sorts of pieces). I was highly entertained by the tallest guy in the cast being the one to be the drag queen, adding another 6 inches to his height (most of the cast had multiple roles). Fun, but not quite finished, perhaps.
The playwright came to the performance; I ended up meeting her by mentioning "Seven Little Days," which was cool. And since both plays have centered on lesbians, I started wondering if she is.
The second half of the evening was Fafrotskies (Jesse Kellerman), which had a completely different feel. I was tired, and had thought that if his play were first, I might've ducked out before the second half. There was no way they could've ordered the plays that way, though, as it turned out.
I chatted with Jesse before the show started (he had not planned to be there, but his tape had run out 3 minutes before the end of the show when he'd been taping it at the matinee...); it was good to see him. Sounds like he'll finally be leaving the area after graduation.
Anyway, the show was completely different, more intense, and more commercially designed, in that there were only three characters, rather than a cast of thousands. It was interesting to see which parts of the set had been made for which play, and how they used/ignored the other aspects of it: the oval ramp was more for the first play, while the background night sky was for the second, and had windows and doors bolted on the oval for different scenes.
A married couple are expecting their first child. The husband is an amateur astronomer, and the night of a meteor shower, a neighbor asks to see it through his telescope. A very strange neighbor, obsessed with things that fall from the skies, a category of things he calls "fafrotskies," which includes, apparently, some rocks, a dead frog, a whole box of scissors... among other things. And the husband ends up torn between his workaday responsibilities and his yearning for discovering something new, the glories of intellectual life. It doesn't make it easier that his marriage seems not to work particularly well at all.
I was rather shocked by the ending, and could well understand why Jesse had to have that...
I told him afterward it was intense, and he thought it a compliment, so I suppose it was. Wow.
No bread left; I foisted it off on people all through the weekend; perhaps there is some hope of finishing the flour.
And in the course of bread foisting, I got to explore interesting thoughts, and see a kilted bunny hop, meeting new people and getting to know known people better. :-)
Ugly usage of the morning: "... to innovate ideas..."
More free theater: there's going to be another reading of Lysistrata, Sunday March 30, at 2 pm, in the main Brandeis theater. It's part of the Lysistrata Project that coordinated over a thousand readings of this play last month (including the one I went to at the Cambridge Y).
Other theater: for anyone whio likes Samuel Beckett, there's going to be an "anthonology" of his works, April 27 at Brandeis.
[1100 addenda: Yesterday marked the first day there was no snow left on the sidewalk in front of my house. And this weekend was the first weekend I could wear sandals (hooray!). Unfortunately I find that the most wonderful sandals I have need replacing; I've worn them out. I wore them everywhere in the last couple of years, since they're comfy Tevas, but are interwoven leather on top, not velcro or obviously "sport sandals."
Interestingly, in today's Boston Globe there's an article on blogging... in the business section. They mostly talk about how news reporting can be different using blogs, including mention of some blogs I've seen mentioned by Hrafn and Queue... Interesting.]
"
First up was How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Danielle Slepian), which was, indeed, about how the protagonist spendt her summer vacation, the swirls of social activity, between breaking up with her girlfriend, managing her patients at an old age home, balancing family relationships, roommate situations, the works. There were a lot of fun (and funny) moments, lots of local references (the local Pride march, particular neighborhoods, etc). It was fun, but not quite there, yet. The ending was a bit too abrupt, a stop rather than big enough to be an end. And a couple of times the women playing lesbians seemed to be saying their lines rather woodenly. OTOH, there were a bunch of good things, some very funny dialogue, some characters in her play questioning their actions, their motivations, their fictionalized names (I tend to enjoy layers-of-reality sorts of pieces). I was highly entertained by the tallest guy in the cast being the one to be the drag queen, adding another 6 inches to his height (most of the cast had multiple roles). Fun, but not quite finished, perhaps.
The playwright came to the performance; I ended up meeting her by mentioning "Seven Little Days," which was cool. And since both plays have centered on lesbians, I started wondering if she is.
The second half of the evening was Fafrotskies (Jesse Kellerman), which had a completely different feel. I was tired, and had thought that if his play were first, I might've ducked out before the second half. There was no way they could've ordered the plays that way, though, as it turned out.
I chatted with Jesse before the show started (he had not planned to be there, but his tape had run out 3 minutes before the end of the show when he'd been taping it at the matinee...); it was good to see him. Sounds like he'll finally be leaving the area after graduation.
Anyway, the show was completely different, more intense, and more commercially designed, in that there were only three characters, rather than a cast of thousands. It was interesting to see which parts of the set had been made for which play, and how they used/ignored the other aspects of it: the oval ramp was more for the first play, while the background night sky was for the second, and had windows and doors bolted on the oval for different scenes.
A married couple are expecting their first child. The husband is an amateur astronomer, and the night of a meteor shower, a neighbor asks to see it through his telescope. A very strange neighbor, obsessed with things that fall from the skies, a category of things he calls "fafrotskies," which includes, apparently, some rocks, a dead frog, a whole box of scissors... among other things. And the husband ends up torn between his workaday responsibilities and his yearning for discovering something new, the glories of intellectual life. It doesn't make it easier that his marriage seems not to work particularly well at all.
I was rather shocked by the ending, and could well understand why Jesse had to have that...
I told him afterward it was intense, and he thought it a compliment, so I suppose it was. Wow.
No bread left; I foisted it off on people all through the weekend; perhaps there is some hope of finishing the flour.
And in the course of bread foisting, I got to explore interesting thoughts, and see a kilted bunny hop, meeting new people and getting to know known people better. :-)
Ugly usage of the morning: "... to innovate ideas..."
More free theater: there's going to be another reading of Lysistrata, Sunday March 30, at 2 pm, in the main Brandeis theater. It's part of the Lysistrata Project that coordinated over a thousand readings of this play last month (including the one I went to at the Cambridge Y).
Other theater: for anyone whio likes Samuel Beckett, there's going to be an "anthonology" of his works, April 27 at Brandeis.
[1100 addenda: Yesterday marked the first day there was no snow left on the sidewalk in front of my house. And this weekend was the first weekend I could wear sandals (hooray!). Unfortunately I find that the most wonderful sandals I have need replacing; I've worn them out. I wore them everywhere in the last couple of years, since they're comfy Tevas, but are interwoven leather on top, not velcro or obviously "sport sandals."
Interestingly, in today's Boston Globe there's an article on blogging... in the business section. They mostly talk about how news reporting can be different using blogs, including mention of some blogs I've seen mentioned by Hrafn and Queue... Interesting.]
"
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Date: 2003-03-24 07:18 am (UTC)