It's Not Exactly Love in the Time of Cholera, but...

UPDATE:  I was in the middle of writing this when our offices decided to close for the time being, now that most theaters are closed for a month.  I was supposed to see four new plays in NY and five in KY this month; I'm sad I probably won't get to see any of them (we don't have official word from KY yet).  This is definitely the right move, but I really feel for our industry.  So many theater people live day-to-day (I almost do; not quite, but almost) and so many shows either won't open or won't succeed because of outside forces.  I saw a friend's amazing play the other night that has to close early - it's heartbreaking.  There are many things to rail about (especially how that horrible orange person has been mishandling this national crisis), but I guess I'll just stay quiet for now and finish the below post.  After a week or so of no-new-theater, I may change my mind and start posting rants.  I guess we'll just have to see.  Stay safe and healthy, my friends; I hope to be back soon.



...I did travel to Minneapolis for work during the early stages of the US dealings with COVID-19.  It was a little surreal - the plane smelled like Purell (probably because I was wiping everything around me), it wasn't that full, and everything seemed to happen the way it was supposed to happen.  Maybe it was because Minnesota hadn't announced any cases until we had arrived, I don't know.  But it was a pretty uneventful travel scenario, thankfully.  Just way more Purell.

I went to Minneapolis mainly to attend a new musical written by dear friends and I was fortunate enough to be able to build a work event around the trip.  We did a class for area writers that went extremely well and I hosted a talkback conversation after the performance, which also went extremely well.  It was a grand weekend, filled with wonderful work friends, delightful theater, and terrific cocktails.  Oh, and I tried Ethiopian food for the first time - whee!

My work chum and I arrived in town last Friday night, checked into a very nice hotel, then walked about a half a block to Town Hall Brewery, which is a very nice pub/local spot with a pretty big menu and an even bigger list of alcoholic beverages.  Beer is their claim to fame, but since I haven't acquired the taste for beer yet, I went with their Towncar, which was bourbon, lemon juice, and something else I can't quite put my finger on.  It was super-delicious.  As was the Friday night special, fish and chips.  The fish was beautifully battered and fried and the chips were crispy and yummy.  It was a delicious meal to start our weekend.

Saturday was our class, which, as I said, went extremely well.  After the class was over, we walked to the corner and ate lunch at Black Dog Cafe, a very cute pub-type spot that had live music.  They had very tasty iced tea and a delicious (enormous) turkey club sandwich.  It was a very nice break and a very nice, relaxing meal.  After lunch, I took an Uber over to the Guthrie Theater, just so I could walk around and see what it looked like (I didn't have time to see a show there).  It certainly is something to see!  I was grateful that you can walk around in the building without having a ticket to see one of the shows, though there was an older volunteer at the information desk who kept asking if he could help me.  But the beautiful building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, is wonderfully striking.  The Endless Bridge was open because it was a gloriously sunny day, so that was cool to take in.  The views are stunning and there's something to look at all around the building.  Even the gift shop is gorgeous!  Of course, I did treat myself to a couple of souvenirs - I love them already.  I'll put some photos below.

After walking back to the hotel and having a little liedown, my work chum and I went out to the Gremlin Theatre to see the Frank Theatre's production of Danai Gurira's The Convert.  This play was originally produced in 2012, though it was a new title to me.  When looking through the listings of all the offerings in Minneapolis, I immediately chose The Convert, because I loved Eclipsed and Familiar, and because I want to remind Danai Gurira to write more plays, please.  Never one to shy away from big bold subjects, this play takes on British colonialism in southern Africa, notably the use of Christianity as a tool of religious, cultural, and social disruption.  It's quite evenly balanced in its excoriation of the patriarchal traditions of the past and the horrors that could be conjured by supposed progress through religion.  I was moved and shaken several times throughout the evening.

photo credit: Tony Nelson

The acting in this production of The Convert is first-rate, though at times I did feel as if the dialect work got in the way of character development.  But that's a quibble.  Also, during some of the beautifully-written long scenes, there was very little, or very static movement, so I did feel that on occasion the direction could've been more incisive.  I realize it was a very small theater space, but the stage could've been used a little more creatively here and there.  In my opinion.  But this story is a strong and necessary one, about ancestry and belonging and appropriation and brutality.  I enjoyed seeing The Convert and hope to read it soon, so I can revel in the gorgeous language, specific characters, and exquisite construction by Danai Gurira.  I look forward to seeing more of her plays soon, please.

photo credit: Rama (on Wikipedia) - not my plate but similar

After the play, my work chum and I went back to Town Hall Brewery for another delicious cocktail and, since it was so late, I just had the pizza rolls appetizer.  WHICH WERE DELICIOUS.  Geno's pizza rolls will never do after the ones I had in Minneapolis.  Sunday, my work chum and I met with my amazing writer chums at Dilla's, an Ethiopian restaurant near our hotel.  I've never had Ethiopian food before, so I was looking forward to giving it a try.  The restaurant seems to be a popular local spot, it was full of young people enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon.  They were offering a vegetarian buffet, so we all got that.  I placed some injera on my plate (the spongy Ethiopian bread made with sourdough and teff flour), then put a spoonful of each dish on my plate.  Except the beets.  I didn't need to experience the beets.  But the lentils, split peas, and other delicious things I had on my plate were delightful.  Everything was deeply spiced, but not muddy-tasting, and rich yet light.  I really loved our meal, though I didn't eat a lot because of my 'don't eat a lot before a show' edict.  My work chum and I have decided to try an Ethiopian restaurant around the office so that we can get more of a sense of the cuisine.

photo credit: from Mixed Blood website

After lunch, we walked over to Mixed Blood Theatre to catch the matinee performance of Interstate, basically the entire reason for the trip.  Interstate is a beautiful musical about so much, I can hardly talk about it.  It's about love, intersectionality, acceptance, community, the power of art, and so much more.  I love the show (and its creators) so much it's probably pointless to go on; please, if you're in the Minneapolis area, go see Interstate.  This cast is off-the-charts brilliant!  I had seen bits and pieces of the show in earlier stages, but seeing an entire production was a glorious experience.  As was leading a talkback discussion afterwards; the audience loved the show and hearing young people ask questions and comment on how they loved seeing people like themselves reflected on stage felt so extraordinary.  Interstate has joy and pain, laughter and tears, and incredible words and music.  But mainly joy, which I need so much right now.  I hope I can see it somewhere else again soon.

The rest of the trip was pretty quiet; Sunday night was spent in my hotel room with room service and script-reading, and the flight back on Monday was uneventful.  On the plane, I watched the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? and it was a powerful experience.  We may never see that type of selfless influence and humanity again and I was lost in thought afterwards, wondering how I could try to effect that same sort of change.  I couldn't come up with anything, but I'm glad Fred Rogers did.  What a humanitarian; I'm so glad I finally got the chance to catch the film.  It was a grand trip, filled with lots of Purell and beautiful life-affirming theater.  I'm so glad I could go.

OH, I should also mention that when I got back, I was fortunate enough to attend Women's Day on Broadway.  It was a moving and empowering day, which ended with a closing keynote from Hillary Rodham Clinton.  I may have cried when I saw her.  There were so many takeaways from the amazing day, but I think my favorite may be a quote from one of the panelists.  She said (something like), "If they think you're too much, clearly they're too little."  Whee!  As someone who has been told my entire life that I'm too much or too loud or too...something, this was a powerful phrase to hear.  I'm going to repeat it to myself frequently, as should you.

souvenir

pizza rolls

post-Interstate talkback with authors

Review - Grand Horizons

I am so tired and running in place trying to catch up that I almost let this season's only new play on Broadway written by a woman get by me.  Thankfully, I found the energy to see the next-to-last performance of Grand Horizons.  I got a discounted ticket at almost the last minute and happily I was seated in the orchestra.  However, it is FREEZING in the back of the orchestra at the Helen Hayes Theatre (which I had forgotten).  But I just wrapped my scarf around my neck and settled in.  For the most part, I enjoyed myself, though I admit to feeling that I wished for something more (and that is entirely on me and no one else)...


I saw one of the playwright's previous Off-Broadway efforts, Small Mouth Sounds, a few years ago and simply loved it.  I thought it was bold and audacious, so I was expecting something that bold and audacious in Grand Horizons.  What I got instead was a pretty old-fashioned boulevard comedy, played at high energy and high speed for big laughs.  That's ok, but it wasn't what I expected (which, again, is totally on me) and so I was vaguely dissatisfied.  The play WAS funny and terrifically acted, I just didn't see the compelling reason for putting this play on Broadway.  Though, I guess if making it a Broadway play meant we got to see Jane Alexander and James Cromwell, then maybe it was probably worth it.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Alexander and Cromwell play Nancy and Bill, a long-married couple living in an upper middle class retirement community; at the start, we see a silent ritual we know is played out every night, where she is preparing dinner and he is helping get the table ready.  They finally sit down, after the perfectly choreographed ritual, and then Nancy, very politely, states that she wants a divorce.  After a pause, Bill says, "All right."  It's all very polite and sedate and the audience cracks up at the juxtaposition.  End of first scene.

The rest of the play is Bill and Nancy justifying their reasons for divorce to their adult sons, one of whom is married and expecting the first grandchild, the other of whom is a high school theater teacher.  Neither son can comprehend why their parents would want to split up at this stage of their lives and they're having high comic difficulty processing the news.  They also have high comic difficulty when their parents start to talk about their sexual needs.  I have to admit I vacillated over wondering if it was cliche writing to have Jane Alexander talk so graphically about sex, knowing it would make the audience laugh to see such a patrician older woman talk about naughty things.  Would it have been just as funny with a different actress?  I don't know.  There was quite a bit of that kind of vacillating happening in my mind throughout the play.  And I think there were maybe two scenes that I didn't really need, though having Priscilla Lopez on stage is always a treat (her character reminded me a bit of Anita Gillette's character in the film Moonstruck, which isn't necessarily a bad thing).

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

So, I guess now would be the place where I say that my parents' names are Nancy and Bill, so that freaked me out/cracked me up just a little, to be honest.  I'd like to think that were my parents to announce they were getting a divorce, I wouldn't lose my shit like the two kids in the play did.  I say kids - both of these gents are in their mid- to late-30s, I think.  Maybe the playwright is making a comment on how men never grow up...hmmmm, I just thought of that.  But after a while, I didn't think the guys were funny, I just thought they were annoying, immature, selfish jerks.  So there's that.

There was one plot point that made everyone in the audience laugh, except me, and it really only needed one little tweak to make it work for me, too.  Michael Urie played the high school theater teacher son and part of his shtick is that he doesn't want to disappoint any of his students, so there are 200 kids in the school production of The Crucible that he is currently directing.  I was having dinner with a playwright friend last week and she mentioned this plot point had made her see red as well, so a tip of the hat to her for giving me advance warning.  No, actually, it is not sweet to want to cast 200 kids in The Crucible, it's technically not even legal.  Arthur Miller didn't write that.  If only one other character had said, "wait, that's not legal, is it?", or "you can't do that, can you?", then I could've laughed along.  If one audience member decides to now do that because it sounded so funny, then we might have a problem.  And when I say 'we,' I mean 'me.'  Which I totally know is a complete silly overreaction.  Oh, and I had a little bit of a squeamish thought that the non-wacky people in the play who kept telling the family that they were wacky were the actors of color.  I appreciate that the cast was diverse, but the weirdo white family learning something from the characters who happened to be played by actors of color stood out for me, in a vaguely negative way.  Perhaps I'm just overthinking things (yet again).

I did laugh throughout Grand Horizons and I did appreciate the actors very much, so seeing the production was mainly an enjoyable experience.  I know the fact that my expectations were for something rather different is completely my fault, though I can't help but wonder if I either missed something or if this play exists merely to be funny.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  I can see this play having a huge life in the regions and in community theaters around the country, which is great.  But when every now and then something else, something deeper, was hinted at, like the inevitable process of women becoming invisible as they age (and the daughter-in-law's realization of it), or adult children realizing they're missing something in their life because of what they saw growing up, I felt a little twinge of sadness that I wasn't really seeing a deeper exploration of that kind of narrative thread.  Which, again, I know makes it my play and my problem and not the playwright's.

Seat neighbor story that shows what a dope I am:  I frequently confuse actors Darren Criss and Michael Urie.  Please don't ask me why.  So the fact that Darren Criss was in the audience of the show that Michael Urie was in sort made my head spin.  My head also spun a bit at the sound design of the show - at one point, characters make reference to the loud tv playing in the neighbor's apartment, but a lot of the time I couldn't tell if the sound was coming from the stage or my seat neighbors' cell phones.  I guess it didn't really matter either way, but it was a little disorienting.  All in all, I'm grateful to have seen Jane Alexander on stage again, she has long been a favorite of mine (I thought she was amazing in Albee's The Lady from Dubuque) and I always enjoy James Cromwell.  I guess I just need to recalibrate my brain and relearn to watch what I'm watching and not make things try to fit in the box I've created for them.  Clearly, it's a long process for me...