Theatre Ketchup

So this weekend I saw a lot of theatre! And it's time to play "catch-up"

Thursday 10/8: A Flea In Her Ear presented at Source Theatre. This French farce was hilarious! All because of a pair of suspenders, one household in France is thrown upside down as one spouse thinks the other is cheating! The show was great, I saw a Pay What You Can. The space is awkwardly long, so some of the action was far from me, but because of the intimate seating, I could deal with it. The acting was great too!

Friday 10/9: The Alchemist by Ben Jonson at Shakespeare Theatre Company. I have a subscription to the Shakespeare Theatre Company this season, and so far, I'm enjoying it. The Alchemist is about two swindlers who's plans unravel as the play draws to an end. This was my first show by Jonson (A Shakespearean contemporary) and was very enjoyable! The acting was superb and I really enjoyed the show (other than sitting next to a woman who thought the show was WAY more laugh out loud than it really was).

Saturday 10/10: Mike Birbiglia at Warner. This man is so funny! I love him, he quickly became my favorite comedian! But I did have some problems with the show as a "Show." I see a lot of theatre. But I've never seen a show start 20 minutes late! That was crazy. Then there was a crappy singing comedian who performed for 20mins! I expected some sort of warm up act, but this guy just never made me laugh. Then there was a 15 min intermission! (Which seemed like a waste of time. )

Monday 10/12: Laramie Project Epilogue presented locally by Arena Stage. Is a look back at what Laramie is like now. This play was presented in 150 cities across the world last night (free). The actors/actresses were amazing as was the script. It still asks the tough questions of what is life like after a hate crime; what can we do to make life easier for GLBT people all over the world. I was in complete tears the entire first act!

Komondor

If anyone wants to breed this dog in a miniature version, and then give it to me, I'd happily accept.

A Three Hour Tour...

Ok, so I don't hide it... I love driving! I love tanking up my car, burning the fossil fuels and traveling at 70 miles an hour to some desitination. I love taking back roads and using my high beams.

But what do you do for the hours on end. Here's my usual run down.

Gas the car before the trip (or usually to a half tank to get me out of the city and to the cheaper gas).
After about 30 minutes into the trip I stop for a bathroom break, gas if needed, and coffee (with only one good eye, driving is a bit of a strain).
During that first leg I usually jam out to musical theatre.

Now it's the second leg. The shoes come off, and podcast comes on (right now always about Disney). Set the car in cruise control and "play games;" my favorite being that once I'm in cruise I pick a lane (center if its a three lane road, right if only two) then I try to stay in the lane without breaking (so I have to time the lane switching for passing) Childish I know, but it keeps me amused.

About 1 - 1.5 hours later, time for a stretch break. More coffee (if needed) but definitely some sort of food. This break is usually signifies a state crossing (usually just before or just after Delaware: see Delaware rant lower). Then it's time to listen to an audio book. God these things are amazing! In the past five years, I've probably read just as many audio books as regular books.

Finally I'm getting antzy and am ready for another break, but am so close to my destination I just push through. When I arrive I use the restroom and am so jonesed up on coffee that I can't even sit down for about a hour!

It's soooo much fun...

DELAWARE: I hate driving through Delaware. I've been driving on 95 in Delaware for 7 years. I always hit traffic. 95 in Delaware is 5 miles long. It usually takes 30 -45 minutes! I HATE DELAWARE!!!!!

Dear Kirk Cameron

In response to my friends blog I have decided to write an open letter to Kirk Cameron.

You might want to check this out first, for context of this post:



Dear Kirk Cameron,

Back in 1990, when I was 6 and you were on Growing Pains I had a weird crush on you and Tracey Gold. I wanted to be a part of the Seaver family. It was a great show that was exciting to watch and always could offer a laugh.

Time goes on, and TV shows disappear and you and Tracey moved from the limelight of my 6 year old eyes into the recesses of syndication.

19 years later, and I've discovered that you are crazy as a loon! Here is a list of my several problems with your video:

1. I'm an agnostic. I have been since YEARS before college! My top 100 university professors did not teach me how to be agnostic. My high school teachers didn't teach me to be agnostic. The Catholic Church taught me to be agnostic. I spent 14 years of my life trying to believe the "word of the lord." But it just didn't make sense to me. How could there be fossil evidence of dinosaurs when the Bible said the world started with Adam and Eve? How could Jesus have been the son of god (yes that is lower case) when god is incorporeal? And hundreds of other questions that didn't make sense: Most importantly, how could the church hate like it does, when Jesus loved everyone.

If we take for a fact that everything in the Bible is true, than Jesus was a miracle worker, he kept company with prostitutes and beggar and lepers. Basically the slums of the people of the time. He preached love, tolerance and acceptance of these people, not total disregard for who they are. He taught everyone to love all of god's creations. Not HATE! (Like you and the Christian right are doing). How could a religion based on the teachings of this "saint" be promoting bigotry and intolerance? That's when I left Catholicism.

When I understood that I was gay, and that god no longer accepted me, I realized that religion wasn't a place where I would find solace and acceptance, just hate and ignorance.

2. I believe there is a higher being, for some of the same reason that you mention. There is no scientific proof that on what actually created the universe (whether some sneezed and we're the by-product on it, or god needed to be created and in the process the big bang happened, but until we have a reason for the big bang, I have to agree that something started the whole thing). But I do hold the believe that that is where it ended. God isn't part of my life, he doesn't control my choices, he isn't holding a scale to weigh my heart against my sins. He's just not around. Where's the proof?

3.  I'm a teacher. I teacher Kindergarten. I allow my students to read whatever they want. I allow them to talk about whatever they want. And as long as they are talking pure and unhurtful words, I allow them to say whatever they want. When they ask if I believe in God, or if I go to church I answer truthfully, and say "Yes, I believe in a god." And "No, I don't go to church. Do you?" And if they ask religious questions I always defer with "This is a question to ask your parents." I don't push an agenda on them, I just help them be tolerant of EVERYONE!! (not just who the religious right think we should be tolerant of).

4. You are a loon! And you and the religious right need to rethink your scare campaigner. Us on the left won't put up with it for long. Even you said that Atheism and Agnosticism are on the rise. You loose more and more people when you preach hate and intolerance (btw, how many modern scientists would agree with your statements, it's easy to pick names from the distant past to give credit to your argument. How many of those same people believed the Earth was flat!!!!!).

It's time to understand that the Bible is not the word of god, but a few men's stories.

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:5


Thom

P.S. STOP BEING A LOON

"Gotta Sing, Sing..." Why Musical Theatre is the best...

Ok, so I know that I'm pretty gay, but this is one stereotype that I'm proud to have!

Musical Theatre, particularly American Musical Theatre, has changed my life.

Let's begin as a child. I watched 7 movies over and over as a child. 6 of which were musical theatre: Mary Poppins, Hello Dolly, Grease, Grease 2, and Wizard of Oz (and Saved by the Bell Hawaiian Style is the non-MT one). (Look soon for a post on Saved by the Bell). Musical Theatre encompassed a lot of my life.

I would watch these movies over and over and over again. I love the way these movies would make me feel and how I could easily relive the movies by just thinking of the music. As I grew older, you know, like 5, Disney reached it's Animated Renaissance with Little Mermaid, and I found out something important about musical theatre (particularly the Disney genre): Ariel wanted something, she needed it, she had to have it, and she went for it (as with the other movies above). I've since come to realize that my love for Ariel has come from my homosexuality, because she wasn't excepted by her family for the person she loved. I can empathize with her, because I'm ostracized from some of my friends and family because of who I love. So as a young boy I saw myself reflected on the screen in a female mermaid!

Then there came other movie musicals. Best Little Whorehouse! OMG. MAN ASS. That's not the only reason I loved it though. I found this musical by the time I was 6. Again, I found something in the musical that I wasn't getting from the rest of the movies I saw: Adult themes and exposure to things that would matter later to me in life (like female prostitution).

Gypsy came next. We never had this on tape, but I saw this on AMC once and loved it. Mom and I stayed up past midnight to watch it all. Again, this musical was about being something that you're not. Changing who you are and why you do what you do. Louis was being forced to be her sister (which younger bother has never felt like that). And once she found something she was good at (stripping) she finally became confident.

Then I rediscovered Grease and Grease 2. This time, it was Grease 2 that really stuck on me. Just like the original, it has great music, but this time it was a male lead. And he hid in his "Charades" pretending to be the cool rider, while being the "nerd." By the end, after his reveal, he was some sort of combination of the two. Many years later, I auditioned for my high school musical theatre program with his song and little did I know that I had been playing in my own charades and it was only musical theatre that allowed me to confront those issues (discussed later). [BTW if anyone has a motorcycle and a leather jacket, I'd love to reenact the scene when Stephanie gets taken away from the gas station by "cool rider"]

Then something amazing happened! I went to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway! That opened a new door. When I saw musical theatre live, I finally understood something. You can't lie when your in a musical. You can't lie when you sing. The need for singing comes from you soul and you can't lie from your soul (unless you truly believe what your singing). But look at RENT, despite all the deception that happens it's only when Roger and Mimi sing to each other, does all the truth come out. Sweet from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode even says something to that effect (and is the point of the episode that Buffy can no longer hide the fact that she is living in hell because she was in heaven)

My "charades": It was when I was performing in Little Shop that I realized I was gay. Because of the accepting environment of the cast of MT, I was able to accept myself for who I was, and just like Seymour, come to terms with who I am (I just hope I don't get eaten by a big plant).

Then came Wicked. Taking one of my most beloved stories from childhood (I had even dedicated the month of May as a child to the Wizard of Oz), and giving it a new twist. The musical explores the friendship of GaLinda (The Good, of the North) and Elphaba (The "wicked" witch of the West). I found this musical when my own friendships were being tested and tried! When I finally saw the musical, I felt like I could never be the same person, because the story was so soul searching, that I can't even describe yet how it has moved me.

Granted, some musicals are purely entertainment: Legally Blonde comes to mind right away, but most have truly struck something deep within me. And in the words of Ariel, "Watch and you'll see, one day I'll be, part of your world!"

 

(As Always, these aren't my pictures)