Well, here we are Intrepid Readers, in what may be the busiest week of my sabbatical. It’s so busy I may not get to start the new text in my stack: Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull, or the five new plays I got in New York this past weekend: Confederates by Dominique Morisseau, Anthropology and The Catastrophist by Lauren Gunderson, and Dear Elizabeth and Becky Nurse of Salem by Sarah Ruhl. I read a sixth new play, Ms Holmes and Ms Watson Apt 2B by Kate Hamill on the plane rides home yesterday until this coming weekend when I am in Atlanta for Intimacy Director Training with TIE at Emory University.
The rest of this week is going to be taken up with last minute meetings and working through the aftershocks of a new cell phone I got last week after 5 years with my old one. The aftershocks include being logged out of all my apps, including my BFF Evernote, and Instagram, and making sure that my old phone is cleared of all data. I foresee calls to Tech Support in my upcoming days. Pray for me, Intrepid Readers.
But quickly, before I’m off to a meeting and then the grocery store and then tech support dear god please help me, my thoughts on New York:
New York is so energizing and such a recharge and a rush to be there. Walked miles. Exhausting. Loud.
Six was quite fun and the design was better than I expected it to be with the integration of sets and lights. I appreciated that it was only the six actors onstage and didn’t include a chorus. I also noticed that this is not a choreography-forward production. The actors are singers first, which was nice.
Jordans was a show I was expecting be more of everything that was in its content warning. I was prepared for maximum blood, nudity, sex, violence, and vomit. We really didn’t get to maximum on any of those levels. It was good, weird, funny, weird, and I wanted the succubus angle to really get pushed more. Are they supposed to be succubi? I thought so. If so, then LETS GO THERE.
Orlando was fantastic. The directorial concept was sharp, clear, and totally aligned with the text. Costumes amazing. Set surprising. Cast perfect. I’m going to go back and read the text to discover what was inherent and what was excellent directing. I’m betting a lot of it was excellent directing.
Blackbirding is a work in progress (the producer said so herself at the start of the show.) With that in mind, this is a good show that I could see moving in different, yet all worthwhile, directions. The use of flags and jersey fabric was interesting–that could be a direction. The use of water at the end was on the way to being interesting–that could be a direction. The overlap of the historical use of the term “blackbirding” (kidnapping free Blacks and enslaving them) with the overpolicing of Black people today is interesting–that could be a direction. Incorporating dance and/or song more fully into the text–that could be a direction. Or, another direction I haven’t even thought of yet.
This is the last official week of sabbatical, but I’ve got two more bonus weeks, so you’ve got at least four more sabbatical posts from me. The next two weeks, the Great Plains Theatre Conference wrapup in five weeks, and a reflection on the whole time and process. See you next week, Intrepid Readers!
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