So what have i been up to? Theater benefits, mostly; or so it seems. Guess it's the season for them! The first of these was stage-managing a benefit performance for Cleveland Shakespeare Festival at the lovely old Brooks Theater of the Cleveland Playhouse.
If you know anything about theater in this town at *all* you likely have a soft spot for the Brooks; i know i do. That it may become one more monster hospital parking lot Real Soon Now is simply heartbreaking. Some of my first exposure to theater outside a college milieu was at the Brooks; both my children have had pieces read there when they were at Cleveland School of the Arts. Its a quaint little brick box with faux-medieval touches - which happen to include an unheated booth. Did i mention this show was in January? Brr! But getting to wander a wee bit in the basement of the Playhouse - the Playhouse, yo!! - during set strike made it almost worth it. i also came a little too close to breaking my finger during that strike by dropping a door onto it (a framed door, set into a bit of prop wall, with supporting wings). i probably did put a hairline crack in the bone but wtf, its not hurting now.Next up was Street Beat! the annual benefit for Near West Theater, who i had not worked with before. This is their 30th year, i believe, and they clearly are both established and - by the shoestring standards i'm used to - moneyed. Their benefit was held at Trinity Cathedral downtown; another survival from the days when Cleveland was mentioned in the same breath as New York and Chicago. i happen to have another soft spot for neo-Gothic cathedrals, having spent quite a few happy childhood hours in one (Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Hts - but that's another story).
As their theme was a street carnival, they hired me to perform as a statue, reprising my Snow Queen outfit from Yuletide (late-breaking addition: a photo of me at the benefit!). They had really done up the interior, with street lights, scaffolding, recorded construction and traffic noises, and an Emcee dressed as a cop. i was strategically placed near the entrance so i had a good view of everything. As always seems to happen, when i first get up to perform, i have a few moments when i think, i'm not going to be able to do this. My knees hurt, i'm not standing right, this outfit is way too hot. And as usual in about ten minutes i got into Statue Mode, where i apparently just sort of tune out a certain amount of body awareness; and i was fine. i'm not sure if i'm getting 'better' at it, but this was the first time i've had someone stand so close i was actually poking them with my hand, and they didn't seem to realize it. This happened two or three times that night. i wonder if i had given them an actual poke or pinch, would they have jumped out of their skin?
The best part of the evening for me - well, aside from the to-die-for little tarts filled with almond creme - was getting to speak with one of the directors of the Ingenuity Festival. i'd already pretty well made up my mind to apply as a performer there this year, but talking with him helped me shape a concept a little more clearly.
i think i can work something out that i can use there and at the Fairie Festival - oh, did i mention i'll be performing there as a statue this year as well? Yep, got accepted. Awesomesauce with those magnificent tarts on top. You'll be hearing more about that, never you fear. Incidentally, this photo of Spoutwood's own Greenman with my pals Frenchy & The Punk (formerly the Gypsy Nomads) comes from The Painting Queen, coz its WAY better than any of the ones i've taken.Then finally we had Zombie Prom, the fourth annual Liminis benefit bash. Isn't that logo lovely? Our own Jim Smith did that.
It seems there's a musical by the same name; but as a resolutely NON-musical theater, none of us knew anything about that. The space was decorated as, i guess, for prom; since my BFF and i were stoner kids, we opted to buy some more 'lumbos rather than spend the cash on going as Carrie (replete with pigs blood) and her beau, as was our original plan; so i don't actually know what prom looks like. Except i can guess it probably never has body parts dangling from the ceiling like ours did - ! i'm not a big fan of the whole zombie thing; somehow i just don't Get It. Which maybe explains why i waited til not quite a week before to go shopping for a prom dress.
Naturally, in that short a time, i wasn't able to find anything remotely suitable (and in my size). i did, however, find a lovely blue satin bedsheet for under three dollars. Well then, i guess i'm making a dress - ! Fortunately, i have a pattern i'd even made before that is simple and quick to assemble. Ah, but the imp of the perverse was not content with quick and simple. As i was finishing basic assembly, there came an imply whispering in my ear. "This dress isn't turning out half bad," it said. "Be a shame to get stage blood all over it". Well, that imp might be perverse, but it happened to be on my side, this time. It reminded me that at least one kind of zombie is created by voodoo - and who do voodoo but a Creole priestess? Now as it happens, i've done a bit of research into the ways of the Loa and their priests and priestesses; so not only did i know just what to wear, i was able to assemble a costume right from my very own wardrobe. Sadly, however, not too many *other* people there knew much about Voudon; so i got mistaken for a gypsy more than once (but when is a gypsy ever dressed all in white, with dreadlocks? *sigh* These people). Maybe i should have brought cornmeal and drawn veves on the floor; i considered it. Or marked a small bottle as 'rum' and gone around spraying mouthfuls onto things. Somehow, tho, i don't think our director would have appreciated either one, authentic behaviours tho they might have been.
So that, gentle readers, is how i've whiled away the snow-filled hours this past dark month. Which is getting brighter! Here's a lovely picture of my outdoor guardian gnome taking in some sun after a recent crazy snowfall. i'm already busy busy busy with projects for these last few weeks of winter: sound design for the season opener, holding a sustainability salon, an art project for next month's ArtWalk that is totally *me*, and more. But i'll tell you all about that next time, so be sure to stop back when the moon is new!
