I was taught early on that there is no theater like NYC theater. And also that there is no glitz like NYC glitz, no corned beef like NYC corned beef (or bagels, or pickles, or rye bread), and no swagger and sass like they can do in NYC. I have always been a rube in Gotham.
Read More
Magical Musicals
Two musicals stand out in memory, as much for their impact as for the shows themselves.
Read More
The Sisters Remember
(Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve.
But I am the opposite of a stage magician.
He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth.
I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion”)
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
The Sisters Remember
My sister’s dream began on a hillside.
Having no idea where she was
she stumbled through a black forest,
caught her lace nightgown on a dead branch,
came to an open field of weeds.
Barefoot and alone
she walked forever under cloudy skies,
jumping over mud holes and daubers,
scanning the distance for anyone alive.
Suddenly visible stood a barren stage.
She hesitated at the strangeness
but had nowhere else to go.
As she approached the wooden scaffold
she noticed several rows of velvet chairs
unoccupied, but waiting.
She sat first row, front-center.
On the stage were also chairs
An array of golden benches
seemingly strung together by rope,
empty and alert.
All at once out of the curtained wings
the actors came forward.
Each one bowed before sitting,
saluting my sister.
Each one was someone she knew.
Each actor a departed luminary
who bought their light to the stage,
who acted out the play book
of timeline characters
and tragic goodbyes.
There are no goodbyes.
The troupe on stage was whole
and accounted for,
soul-beings of her glorious past.
The director’s light entered the arena
just as my sister stood up to leap forward
the curtain fell
A story of laughter (not) and forgetting (much)
It’s so humiliating
When you are wanting to enact your role as part of a “recently married couple”
And instead, you find yourself in a different kind of drama altogether
Read More