I’m en route to Australia, via a 24 hour forced stay in LA. United Air bungled the flight connection so I’m in an unbelievably shabby motel (Motel 6, don’t go there people!) in a small wasteland of freeway overpasses, roaming cars, shuttle buses, Golden Arches and many much nicer hotels. There is no coffee, tea or food in this hotel, can you imagine? It looks like the kind of place prostitutes bring their clients, and I felt a little out of place in the check-in line at 1 in the morning amongst some of the more amorous clientele. I think I’m the only person here with a full set of teeth.
Wandering up the freeway in search of sustenance this morning, I felt adrift in a Raymond Chandler short story. Yet my skin and spirit love the softer air, the light–the West Coast is just that many hours closer to Australia than North-eastern USA. One day I’ll live in San Francisco, when the money angel magically comes up with the rent and a job there. (more…)
Well, our Trojan Barbie readings went really beautifully. I was so happy to work with Jayne Wenger as director, who brought an iron hand and a clear sense of style to the play. She is also a great collaborator so we could groove in the room… Trojan Barbie only works when its distinct registers of speech and style clash together and Jayne brought the necessary formality and structure to the performance. Our audiences loved it and our Cassandra’s sexy “horse” monologue will remain in many undercover fantasies, I’m guessing!!! Who knew how many young women wanted to declare bestial passion on stage (and how many men wanted to watch it)? (more…)
So, we are rocketing through our rehearsal hours for Trojan Barbie’s staged reading with Cutting Ball. Jayne Wenger has stepped in as director as–in a rather dramatic beginning–my nominated director Mei-Ann Teo was stricken with a nasty virus and had to stay in bed instead. But everyone’s rallied really well. This play is a collision between Euripides and contemporary warfare, so we have ancient Greek choruses smashing into a kidnapped English tourist. I’m aiming not so much for anachronism and the dramaturgy of the fragment (a la Charles Mee) as a smashing together of worlds while each keeps its own integrity. One of the seed images from contemporary life that inspired this play was the siege of the Church of the Nativity by modern Israeli soldiers–the ancient and the modern colliding along the faultline of war. (more…)
