Tennis Week 2017 - another terrific time! (part one)

photo credit: Uli Seit

You all know how much I love it when my mom comes to visit for Tennis Week.  It's definitely one of my favorite weeks of the year - we just have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs when we're together.  I need to do a better job with her flight times, though, I feel as if we missed some good times yutzing around with LaGuardia airport...

Mom got here last Monday and I already knew what the main event for that day would be: a friend of ours had posted photos of his ferry ride from downtown Manhattan to the Rockaways and my mom always enjoys a ferry ride.  So we made plans to do that. Because LaGuardia is such a nightmare at the moment, due to all the construction, I actually took a car over there from my apartment so I could meet my mom and then we took a cab ride back to my apartment.  It seemed easier to do that than to try to relay the maze that is the ground transportation hub to my mom over the phone. After we got her settled in the apartment, off we went to Pier 11.

When we got off the subway at Whitehall Street, we were met by a lot of vendors trying to sell us ferry rides out to the Statue of Liberty.  I asked one of them where I could find Pier 11 and he told me to take a left at the next street.  My mom and I did that, and as I tried to get my phone's GPS going, I could hear someone yelling "MISS! MISS! MISS!"  I suddenly realized it was the nice vendor running after us - he told us we had to cross the street and then turn left.  I thought it was very nice of him to make sure we were going the right way.  If we hadn't crossed the street first, we would've gotten completely lost. Monday was a really sunny warm day and, we had forgotten, it was also the day of the eclipse. When we got to Pier 11, the line for the ferry was already pretty long.  I was surprised, thinking a weekday morning wouldn't be very busy.  My mom got in line while I ran in to buy our tickets; when I got back, she told me the ladies in front of her said that one of the NY papers had printed that the Rockaways would be the best place to watch the eclipse.  Aha! That's why the line was so long!

We stood in the line for about a half hour, then we got onto the ferry; I dashed ahead so I could find us seats up on the top level.  Success!  The ride is about an hour long, with a stop about fifteen minutes in.  It was breezy, sunny and wonderful!  It's pretty loud, so you can't have much conversation, plus I had to hold on to my hat pretty tightly, but it was such a fun ride out to the Rockaways.  We passed Coney Island and went under bridges, it was great.  When we landed in the Rockaways, we crossed over to the boardwalk to look for snacks.  We at first thought we'd try a pub, but it was full of smoking, already-drunk-at-11-am gents, so we passed that by.  We went to the frozen yogurt shop, but they were on a break.  Some cute kids waiting outside said the owners would be back in about a half hour.  One of them said there was pizza nearby, but it seemed kind of far to me.  And then one kid said that she'd send us over to the boardwalk to eat, but it was too hot and too dangerous.  Uh, dangerous?  Mom and I looked at each other, and walked to the boardwalk anyway.

We finally came upon Caracas, which was a terrific little place with arepas, empanadas and some fun beverages.  I got the hibiscus iced tea, which was icy deliciousness, and Mom and I shared an empanada with chicken and some french fries.  Weird combo, I know, but Mom and I like french fries.  They were crispy and good, and the empanada was SO good.  The dough was flaky and rich, and the chicken was really fresh and flavorful.  I think it came with a fruity habanero dipping sauce, which was a little hot for us, but we used a dab a couple of times.  

Since it was pretty sunny and there wasn't a lot of shade to be found, AND because the ferry only travels once a hour, we pretty much just walked along the boardwalk for a bit after lunch, then went back to the boat dock to ride back to Manhattan.  We were on the boat when it was supposedly high-eclipse time, so my mom kept shouting "Don't look at the sun!" whenever I turned my head towards the sky. She kept making me laugh.  I had had enough sun on the ride out to the Rockaways, so we sat downstairs on the inside going back.  If there was a view of the eclipse, we missed it. It was also FREEZING in there, which was nice for the first fifteen minutes or so, then we were just cold.  Oh well.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride.

When we got back to Pier 11, we walked uptown towards the South Street Seaport, which doesn't look anything like I remember.  I thought there was a shopping mall there, but I couldn't find it.  We were just kind of wandering around, then just happened to find ourselves at a magical location: in front of the Big Gay Ice Cream food truck.  SCORE!  I was so excited!  I've been wanting Mom to try a Salty Pimp (one of the specials at Big Gay Ice Cream), but we never seem to make it to the Village when she's here.  Happiness.  We shared a Salty Pimp and it was glorious.  Various people kept wandering past us, looking into cereal boxes that were turned into eclipse viewers, but we still pretty much missed the whole thing.  Oh well.  We did a little bit of shopping downtown, then took a train uptown, so I could show my mom some stores I thought she'd like, and a grocery store where we could pick up some snacks for our upcoming tennis viewing.  All in all, a fine (and busy) first day.  We decided to watch a movie on my Roku when we got back to my apartment - I Saw the Light, a biopic about Hank Williams starring Tom Hiddleston.  I didn't think the movie was all that, but Hiddleston is always good, and Cherry Jones played his mother.  She's always great.  Plus, Hank Williams' music is terrific, no matter who sings it.  So I guess I'm glad we watched it.

I think I'll save the tennis talk for my next post - enjoy the photos I got on (and off) the ferry!  

Terror and Rage

I have been bothered, angry, upset and on the verge of tears all day, and I'm not quite sure why or how to move forward.  Of course this happens the day AFTER I see my therapist and she's going out of town for three weeks.  I thought maybe, like my first blogging impulse, if I put this out of my brain and into the world where maybe fifteen people will see it and it will be done, I will be able to get on with things.  I guess that's what I will try to do. I'm not sure I'll be able to share this more widely, but we'll see.  I'm going to say things here I don't think I've ever said out loud before.  I also guess I should say there may be trigger warnings in what I write below - mine (which I didn't even realize I had until last November) were certainly set off...

This morning started off like any other - off I went to the subway, as I do every day.  When I saw on the monitor that my train was eight minutes away, I figured I would get out my book and read until the train arrived.  When my train arrived, it was very crowded; I had to walk as if through a maze to find a spot where I could stand with my book.  I was standing, holding a pole, alongside two other women.

On the other side of the pole was a very large man (this is actually pertinent), who looked at me and said, "heh, I didn't think YOU were going to be able to fit in that tiny space!"  I looked at him askance and said, "I fit fine, thanks."  Then he said, "I don't know why all you women try to fit in where you don't belong.  There are too many women here trying to fit in where they don't belong."  I looked at him, blinked, and looked away. Then I stealthily put away my book (cover photo is at left) because I was afraid it might get him started again.

As we all stood there uncomfortably, the man kept inching his way closer to the other two women, who kept inching away from him. They were both younger and smaller than me, and much smaller than him.  He was using his size and his gender to intimidate us all, to remind us that we couldn't take up as much space as he could.  The women looked at me and I looked at them - we all looked at each other with recognition.  We knew we would protect each other, if necessary, but were still afraid in the moment.  It was a tense ride and thankfully he got off about three stops later, after bumping into one of the smaller women on his way off.

This man may have been mentally ill; he may have been socially awkward; we may have been overreacting; I guess I'll never know.  What I DO know is that while I was standing there, feeling a threat in the atmosphere, I was suddenly thrown back to the time I was groped on the subway.  I was suddenly thrown back to the time I was assaulted in college. In both of those moments, I was silent, because I was too afraid to make sound.  On the subway, something I do every day, I was filled with terror, all because a man thought he had the right to intimidate me in an enclosed space.  And then I was filled with rage at the fact that I LET him intimidate me. I LET him fat shame me.  I chose to be afraid and put a book away because I didn't want to add any fuel to his fire.  I did that.

I've lived in New York a long time. As I've gotten older and larger, I guess I've felt safety in my age and size and hidden behind the invisibility of an older, larger woman.  After the election, and certainly after last weekend in Charlottesville, I feel myself getting more and more afraid - afraid for myself, afraid for my friends, afraid for the world. Something has been unleashed, and people (mainly men) feel empowered to do and say whatever they want.  I also feel myself getting more and more angry, at basically everyone, but mainly at the members of my family who voted for this...this...hate.  That man in Washington D.C. is a physical manifestation of hate. I'm so afraid of the answers that I'm afraid to ask those members of my family the hard questions - why?!  How?!  WHY?! The feelings of betrayal are going to be hard to get past.  

How am I supposed to fight my rage, especially when what all the supporters do is use my hate to justify theirs? False equivalencies are driving me insane. Nearly every day, I find myself screaming in my head at something else someone in government said and I think, "What the f*ck is wrong with you?!?!?!?!" That's all I keep screaming, over and over, but I'm screaming it inside.  My migraines, long held at bay, are back.  I started grinding my teeth after my surgeries in 2011 and it's now worsening.  I keep starting my therapy sessions with "I'm so MAD."  But so is my therapist.  She says it's becoming harder and harder to talk about anything else in most of her sessions with clients, because the anger and fear is everywhere.  And it's hard to figure out how to fight the fear, or channel the anger and put it to good use. I've been contributing money to worthy causes left and right, but that can't last. 

Like most everyone else, I have my demons.  With the opening of the Pandora's Box that happened in November, I deeply resent that my demons have been unleashed as well. Things I thought I had lived through, dealt with, and moved away from are now terrorizing me on a near-daily basis.  I deeply resent that I am frequently afraid, while also recognizing my privilege - my terror is mostly in my mind, but my friends' and fellow human beings' terror is right in front of them.  It's like living in a daily f*cking Kafka novel.
I've been reveling in the safe space that is the theater lately, but even there, I find myself retreating inside myself instead of giving in to the wonderful feeling of community.  The readings I've been attending lately are evenings filled with joy, yet I've remained outside of it.  It's been much easier to smile, wave, run out and email my praise later.  I hate myself when I do that.  I guess in the interest of self-care, we all do what we can to put one foot in front of the other.  But when I scream to myself "What the f*ck is wrong with you?!?!", I know the answer and still don't know which way to turn.

Summer RW 2017 - Lupa and Irvington

Whatever happened to the good old days, when there was time in the summer to do things other than work?!  I've been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to blog.  I need to work on that.  So I'm combining two recent Restaurant Week experiences for your entertainment pleasure.  I'll also include another recommendation at the end of this post...

I don't know why I haven't been to Lupa before - it's been open for years and I do enjoy a Mario Batali restaurant.  Plus, Lupa specializes in Roman cuisine and we all know I love me some Rome. Maybe it hadn't been included in Restaurant Week before?  I don't know why it took me so long, but I'm glad I finally made it to Lupa. It's in a nice location in the Village and has two attractive seating areas - the more open front area and the secluded back room. I didn't even know there was a back room, so it was a nice surprise to be led back there to eat with my IHBB (and intrepid Italian adventures companion).

The Restaurant Week lunch menu was so good, it was hard to decide what I wanted.  Since it was quite warm outside, I finally decided to get the 'lighter' options, so I wouldn't feel so heavy wandering around NYC after lunch.  My IHBB ordered a completely different three-courses, so I'll include photos of his delicious choices at the end of this post.  Oh, and even though it sort of negates the $29-for-lunch-is-cheap aspect, I also ordered a cocktail.  But it was DELICIOUS and I could've had four of them, but I'm glad I stuck to only one watermelon margarita adorned with basil salt.  It was incredible and went very well with my lunch dishes.  

For my appetizer, I got the fluke crudo with the summer melon 'panzanella.'  It was light, refreshing and very yummy.  The fluke was very soft and tender, and the melon was nice and acidic.  The 'panzanella' portion were tiny little croutons and they were the perfect complement to the dish.  A little crunchy, a little salty, they added a nice kick to the rest of the dish.  My IHBB got the goat cheese sformato with pickled strawberries and boy was THAT a punch in the face of deliciousness!  Mine was airy and delicate, his was bold and direct.  Two really terrific starters.

For my main course, I couldn't decide between the octopus and the pasta, but then I figured I didn't want to have two fish dishes, so I got the tagliatelle with summer squash and burrata.  WOW.  Again, so complex and delicious, yet light and refreshing.  The squash was beautifully sauteed, so it had a hint of saltiness in the luscious pasta with soft burrata.  Loved it.  I also loved tasting IHBB's pork ribs agrodolce with charred onions. His was another mix of bold flavors and mine was more restrained, but both delicious.

I had ordered the espresso granita for dessert and was disappointed when the server told me they were out of it.  I almost ordered the ricotta with toasted fennel honey, but figured that would be a little too much cheese after the burrata, so I got the tartufino, as did my companion.  It was quite a tasty morsel of sweetness - chocolate ice cream, covered with a chocolate shell, and I think there may have been some fruit and nuts inside the ice cream.  It was lovely and the perfect end to a delightful meal.  I will definitely head back to Lupa sometime soon.  The service was very pleasant and the food was wonderful.  The rest of their menu looks equally good, so I'm ready to try more of it.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to try another new restaurant for lunch with another handsome friend.  I am indeed a fortunate girl to have so many handsome friends who like eating lunch with me.  :)   I had a meeting in the Union Square area, so I decided to find a restaurant nearby.  A new restaurant that I had never heard of popped up in my search, so my handsome friend and I decided to give Irvington a try.

Irvington is located in the W Hotel, I think in the space formerly occupied by Todd English's restaurant Olives, which I never tried.  It's nice and open, with today's apparent favorite decor, wood and glass.  But it was very attractive and the sound didn't bounce all over, which was great.  Our server was very pleasant and attentive and we had a lovely afternoon with lively conversation.

Again, I had trouble deciding which appetizer to go with, but I finally settled on the sweet corn arancini, because I'm a huge fan of fried rice balls and also a big fan of sweet corn. Score!  These were delicious!  Three tasty little nuggets of yummy fried deliciousness, but not greasy or heavy.  There was also some mozzarella cheese inside the arancini, which made the sweet corn taste even better.  The dipping sauce was a calabrian chili aioli, which was the tiniest bit spicy, but I enjoyed putting a dab on each piece. Thumbs up for a delicious starter.

Since I had a work event to go to right after lunch, even though my heart said 'get the burger,' my head said 'get the fish.'  So I obeyed my head and got the fish, a striped bass, with green apple, asparagus and sitting in an ajo blanco (a kind of white gazpacho). This was another deceptively light and elegant entree with a ton of complexity.  That white gazpacho was to die for and the fish was cooked perfectly.  I might've preferred the skin be a little crispier, but that's not a big deal at all. I enjoyed this dish a lot - the tart green apple added some crispness, which I appreciated, and the asparagus was nicely just-underdone.

For dessert, I chose the vanilla panna cotta, with fresh berries, verjus and a lemon cookie.  I ordered this because, hello.  Panna cotta.  I will always order it. And it was scrumptious - slightly sour, maybe from buttermilk?  The berries were plump and juicy, the lemon cookie was perfect, and the verjus (the pressed juice of unripened grapes, according to Wikipedia) was amazing - almost as potent as balsamic vinegar, but more mellow and sweet.  This was a fantastic dessert and the perfect ending to my fun meal. I'd definitely go back to Irvington again - the menu has a lot of dishes that look interesting to me and the vibe was casual and unpretentious.

panel discussion

So ends my Restaurant Week visits for the summer - I highly enjoyed all of them!  There are now so many restaurants on my special occasions list that I'll never get back to them all!  But I do still get a kick out of trying new places whenever I can.  Double bonus when they turn out to be good!  And the other recommendation I have is that I've been attending the Asian-American MixFest at the Atlantic Theater Company.  They're doing a whole festival of new play readings by Asian-American playwrights.  I've already been to a panel discussion and two readings and have enjoyed them a great deal.  There are more readings every night next week, so if you're into new work, you should check them out. They're free, but you have to RSVP on the Atlantic's website - hope to see you there!

Review - Hamlet

Last year, during my idNYC free-membership-phase, I had a free subscription to the Public Theater.  I enjoyed a couple of productions during my free year, and the last thing I did before it expired (due to finances, I couldn't afford to renew) was book a member ticket to Hamlet, starring Oscar Isaac.  When it was first announced, I thought, oh, I like him, that could be interesting, but I should save my money.  But when Charlayne Woodard and Ritchie Coster were announced as Gertrude and Claudius, I was in.  They, for me, made this a 'must see.'  I went earlier this week, but have seemingly been in meetings ever since.  I'm approaching brain death, but I will try to report accurately on what I've seen.  Oh, and there will probably be staging spoilers, so if you have a ticket before the show closes and you don't want to know how things shake out, you may want to stop here...

Anyway, Woodard and Coster, along with Isaac, were definitely worth the price of admission.  Was this my favorite Hamlet ever? No, probably not.  But it was interesting, for the most part, with some eye-rolling directorial nonsense thrown in.  I was mainly engaged for the nearly four-hour playing time.  On the whole, they told the story well, which is my number one ask of a play, especially Shakespeare.  Well, one scene was confusing as heck in the storytelling aspect due to some directorial nonsense, but because I know the play pretty darn well, I worked my way through it.  For someone going to their first Hamlet, I wonder if they ever figured out what was going on...

photo credit: Carol Rosegg

This is a very well-spoken Hamlet, led by the wonderful Oscar Isaac.  He has a wonderful ease with the language, keeping its heightened beauty while also making it accessible and conversational.  The famous soliloquies, most especially "to be or not to be" were really expertly done. That Isaac is charm personified is probably well-known to his film fans, but seeing that charm harnessed and put to terrifically good use on stage as the young Dane was one of my favorite parts of the evening.  I'm a big fan of charm, as you all well know, which cannot be taught or manufactured.  You either have it or you don't.  And Isaac has it.  Plus, to be shallow for just a moment, he is handsome as all heck and spends half the play clad only in his underwear.  Sigh.  Ok, moving on.  Isaac is playing a dreamy Hamlet, a boy/man who is so grieved over the loss of his father than he sees him everywhere (this is one directorial choice I enjoyed, except for that confusing scene I referenced above - both Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet's father are played by the wonderful Ritchie Coster).  The look of wonder and awe on Isaac's face whenever he is speaking with the ghost of his father was quite magical.  In fact, the best and most moving scene in this production (in my humble opinion) was the scene in Gertrude's bedroom, after the ghost of Hamlet's father enters to warn his son. The love and pain and wonder and regret on all three of their faces was quite astounding.  For me, this was probably the only scene where all the elements came together and made Hamlet.  At least, Hamlet for me, which I realize is a highly individual thing...

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

This production emphasized humor, sometimes in conjunction with the script, and sometimes just awkwardly added on top of the dialogue.  Keegan-Michael Key opened the show with a pre-curtain speech that had a comic, light touch that probably put us in a more light-hearted mood than normal.  Which isn't bad, in itself, but it did make it easier for people to crack up during parts of the play that maybe aren't necessarily funny.  My seat was extreme stage left - at one point, I wondered why the audience in the center and on stage right were howling with laughter at one of Polonius' speeches. When I heard a toilet flush afterwards (and read various reviews), I realized he was sitting on the toilet. Uh, really?  I'm rather glad I didn't 'see' that, because what did it add, except a cheap laugh?  And there were TONS of cheap laughs during the Players scenes, especially the death scene in the Death of Gonzago section.  I didn't really get on board with that, nor did I appreciate using Polonius' dead body as a seat-filler, a la Weekend at Bernie's.  But the rest of the audience seemed to, so I guess it worked for most people.

Speaking of Polonius' dead body, here come some staging spoilers: the putting of his body in a theater seat was at the end of the second 'act', then the third 'act' started with his body positioned center stage. During Ophelia's mad scene, she continually brought in planters and dropped the dirt over her father's body.  Um.  And then she came out with a garden hose and proceeded to 'drown' by pouring water all over herself and her dirty father.  There was mud everywhere and she laid down next to him.  Then there were a few scenes done around them, as if they weren't there, which was awkward, then there was a blackout and when the lights came back up, Polonius and Ophelia sat up and proceeded to play the First and Second Gravedigger.  Ok.  So, I think the point for all of that was to get the shock value of their sitting up together to do those scenes, so it seemed as if it were staged backward. Or something.  I didn't much appreciate that particular directorial choice.

photo credit: Carol Rosegg

As I mentioned earlier, one directorial choice I did like was doubling Claudius with the ghost of Hamlet's father.  I found Ritchie Coster to be sublime, all strutting, slimy charm as the new king, which turned into fear as he realized it was all slipping away, and then he was so haunted and sad as the ghost of Hamlet's father.  He spoke the language beautifully and presented some compelling images throughout the evening.  I did NOT like his also playing the Player King - I guess the idea of his acting out the scene where he killed his brother was interesting on paper, but it just made everything really confusing.  And cut the moment where we see Claudius realize that Hamlet is on to him.  Since Hamlet has taken so much time to warn Horatio about watching for that moment, the fact that it's now not there is odd. Charlayne Woodard was her usual fantastic self as Gertrude - she was regal, dazzled by Claudius, yet worried about her son.  I loved how she constantly put herself in between people threatening either Claudius or Hamlet - it gave her a real strength and fortitude that sometimes can be missing in the character.  She, of course, delivered her dialogue stunningly and was beautifully specific in her gradual turning away from Claudius.  It was a lovely performance and she had great chemistry with Coster.

The rest of the cast was quite good as well - it took me a bit to get used to only nine actors playing all the roles, and I've already shared my quibbles with some of the doubling, so I won't dwell.  I found it interesting that the gal playing Ophelia had the same blunt, flat affect that Laura had in the recent Glass Menagerie revival (both shows directed by the same director, btw).  Where I found that affect to be very revealing in Menagerie, here I found it too false, jarring and contemporary.  So that character didn't work for me, unfortunately.

Another production aspect that DID work for me, though, was the music - there was an onstage musician, playing the cello and some kind of small pipe organ.  I did like the underscoring - I thought it was very effective and didn't intrude or force mood, just heightened things.  The lighting and sound choices were also very good - at first, I thought playing the first few scenes with the ghost in the dark was a silly idea, but with the terrific lighting and even more terrific acting from Coster as the lights dimly showed him as the ghost, I came on board with the concept.

All in all, I enjoyed myself at this production of Hamlet, quibbles and all, because Oscar Isaac, Charlayne Woodard and Ritchie Coster were fantastic and overrode the aspects I didn't enjoy as much.  I'm glad I saw it and I look forward to seeing all of them, maybe especially the talented and charming Isaac, on stage again soon.

Review - Pipeline

One of my very favorite recent-ish theater experiences was seeing Dominique Morisseau's wonderful Skeleton Crew at the Atlantic Theater Company (you can remind yourself of that night HERE) - I was so happy to hear that Dominique will soon have work produced at my favorite space (Signature Theatre Company) and once I heard she was being produced at Lincoln Center this season, I made sure to pick up a ticket.  I will say that getting full-priced tickets to Lincoln Center is a costly endeavor these days and I was a little worried that I would be seeing the show on a Friday night and might be too tired to fully appreciate it, but I needn't have worried.  I had a marvelous time experiencing Pipeline.  I don't want to give too much away, so I won't be sharing much plot here - I think experiencing the play without knowing too too much is really powerful.

Pipeline is an intense piece about many things; well, not many things, exactly, maybe 'great big ideas' is more accurate, but the main character is Nya, a public school teacher and the divorced mother of a young man who is sliding out of her control. The first scene is Nya (played by the amazing Karen Pittman) leaving a voice mail message for her ex-husband about her son's latest troubling experience at his prep school - just in this one scene, I learned so much about the characters and the world of the play. It was so specific, yet so relatably universal, I was immediately pulled in.  As the play progresses, we see Nya's son Omari struggle with his future, and his prep school girlfriend, magnificently played by Heather Velazquez.  She is at once a laugh riot as a stereotypically egocentric teenage girl, and she's also a tragic figure because she knows she's bound to get left behind. We also meet another hardened teacher at Nya's school, Laurie, who is played with hilarious pathos and brio by Tasha Lawrence; the school's security guard who has a soft spot for Nya; and Omari's distant father, Xavier.  When the two men meet by accident late in the play, there's a lot of humor and a lot of electric danger in the air.

photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

Running through Pipeline and its fantastic dialogue are references to the Gwendolyn Brooks poem "We Real Cool," which we hear recited and interpreted several times, and its strong, bold, spare language is beautifully strange inside the incredibly stark truth that Dominique has running through the play. We also hear a lot about Richard Wright's Native Son, which is rather the inciter of the play's plot. Seeing how everything circles around education, knowledge, and the fear of both, is one of the many strengths of the play.  Another strength is the acting company, which is superb.  Every last cast member wrings every bit of truth out of their characters and they deliver Dominique's amazing dialogue so beautifully.  Some of the monologues are just transcendent - I wanted to remember every last word, but had to move on to experience what was happening next.

One of these quotes from my review of Skeleton Crew really rang true for me about Pipeline as well:  "The play is serious, funny, moving, tragic and authentic, all at once.  I knew these people, even while they were completely original, and I got so caught up in the situations that Dominique thought up for them."  Yes, yes, yes, to all that.  As a former teacher, the passion, the commitment, and the fears of the teachers rang so true to me. But as a white woman, hearing about the inherent obstacles and terrors a whole generation of students and parents experience was a real eye-opening lesson. I can never truly understand. I can't deny that at one point, about three-quarters of the way through the play, I just started weeping (in the best theatrical sense) at the accumulated emotion I had been experiencing.  And then I completely lost it during Omari's monologue to his father about why he did what he did at his school. I started thinking about my nephew, another boy who is angry and lost and doesn't know how to express it, so I started feeling fear, too. Which I know is nowhere near the fear of parents like Nya and Xavier.  I don't know, I can't really express myself as well as Dominique (who can?!), but all I know is that I learned something, I was moved by something, and maybe how I now think about things could be exponentially changed.  That adds up to some mighty fine theater, if you ask me.

The run of Pipeline is ostensibly sold out, but I saw a few empty seats at the theater last Friday night, so I'm guessing that cancellations are happening now and then.  Even though it was a pricey endeavor, I highly recommend that you go check out Pipeline.  For me, Dominique Morisseau is an important voice in the American theater and her work should be supported any way that we can.  You might learn something, too.