theater — Page 4

Nesting in Place

March 14, 2020 at 10:57 am by Claudia

We’re ensconced. “Nesting in Place” as I call it.

After a couple of hours of running yet more errands yesterday; stopping at the pharmacy, the art supply shop, the chocolate shop (essential), the bookstore and the supermarket, we were wiped out. The week has been stressful, as you well know, and I think it really hit us. I was out and about more this week than I ever am, getting supplies, then realizing we need more supplies, and then doing it again. Enough, already!

I am not going to read any more reports on the coronavirus this weekend. Nope. We have done all we can – we’ve washed our hands and used hand sanitizer, we’ve cleaned steering wheels and door handles and grocery carts and have stopped shaking hands. Now, we’re in for however long we need to be.

The scene in the grocery store yesterday:

This was the paper products aisle. Completely cleared. Nothing. The lady we spoke to at the checkout said more was coming in on Sunday. I can’t tell you how many conversations we had about these empty shelves with fellow shoppers. It’s the kind of ‘we’re all in this together’ feeling that we get when there’s an impending blizzard.

As you know, I just finished The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, listened to a podcast about the Mitfords, and now I’m a wee bit obsessed about these six sisters. I’ve read a fair amount about them over the years. I want to read more of Nancy Mitford, but Diana, Deborah, and Jessica were also prolific writers. I ordered a book through Amazon the other day, thinking I would have it in hand before I had to stay home indefinitely. It came yesterday, but I also remembered seeing a book about the Mitfords at a local bookstore earlier in the week. I found it when we were out and about yesterday and was happy to see that it was a different book than the one I had ordered. So I ended up with two books about the Mitford sisters.

I started reading The Sisters last night and I’m thoroughly engrossed. The volume of letters will be next. That book is used so I got it for $8 at the bookstore. The Sisters is written beautifully by Mary Lovell. Given the fact that these women led such unbelievably interesting and sometimes, quite shocking, lives, it reads like a novel.

I’m looking forward to reading even more later today.

I found out that Jane Eyre, which was supposed to have closed its run this Sunday, closed Thursday. Hartford Stage has also cancelled their next, and final, production of the season. I know that they are struggling, as is every regional theater in the country. This could devastate them. I pray it doesn’t.

By the way, we are trying to help our local businesses. They’ve had very little traffic the past few days. Except for the supermarket, which is part of a regional chain, every place in which we made purchases yesterday was a locally owned business. They need our help now.

So much change in a week.

But friends, there’s nothing we can do now but stay home if at all possible and, yes, here it is again:

Nest in Place.

Take care of yourselves.

Happy Saturday.

Friday Thoughts

February 21, 2020 at 9:16 am by Claudia

Sunny, but boy, is it cold out there!

I can’t believe it’s already Friday, but here we are. We have to recycle today, buy groceries, and run a few errands. Not very exciting, but very necessary.

Last night, we tried 3 different series on Netflix and Amazon Prime. All of them were new to us. In each case, we watched about 5 minutes, turned to each other and said “No.” We ended the evening watching a couple of our favorite Dick Van Dyke Show episodes and felt much better. There’s something so comforting about that show. An amazingly talented cast, wonderful writing- it takes us back to our youth and all those nights sitting around the television set with our respective families. We need some comfort these days and that show makes us happy.

I also spent a good chunk of time watching Michael Jeter sing “Let’s Raise a Glass” from the musical version of Grand Hotel. Jeter gives one of the best performances I have ever seen in my years and years of watching and performing in musicals. Something triggered that memory yesterday and I found a clip of it being performed at the Tony Awards. I played it for Don and he was amazed, so much so that he had me play it again. And again.

I saw it live during its out-of-town tryout in Boston, where I was living at the time. I had very little money, couldn’t afford a ticket, but in a wonderful fluke, I won a ticket in a radio call-in contest. I loved the musical, but to this day what I most remember is Jeter’s electrifying performance. And I mean electrifying. He brought the house down. I have never seen anything like it. The audience shot to their feet at the end of the number, cheering and shouting. These were the days when standing ovations weren’t routine as they are today. Today, almost every performance gets a perfunctory standing ovation. In those days, you had to earn one.

If you are so inclined, google “Let’s Raise A Glass,” and “Tony Awards” and you’ll find it on YouTube. The reaction from the audience at the Tony Awards is much the same as the reaction in Boston. Jeter died much too young at the age of 50. He was enormously talented and brave and wondrous.

Okay. Duty calls. I must get going.

Happy Friday.

Re-entry

February 16, 2020 at 11:13 am by Claudia

The view from my apartment window in Hartford. I was on the tenth floor this time instead of the usual fourth floor apartment and I had a better view.

These little trips are always so intense; packing, taking along some food and some coffee – whatever I might need for two days – the drive, toting everything 5 blocks to the apartment (this time in extremely cold and windy weather) unpacking, eating a frozen dinner, then off to the theater to take notes. The next day; writing up the notes, packing everything up, cleaning up the apartment, disposing of the trash, wheeling my suitcase 5 blocks or so to my car (which was in a parking structure right next to the theater), then grab a bite to eat because I won’t get home until 7 pm, then four hours of rehearsal and notes for the actors. Back in the car for a two hour drive home. None of it is difficult, necessarily, just a change from my low-key everyday life. Don and I have these kinds of days when we’re employed and then we go through re-entry when we’re back home. I’m grateful, of course, for employment and for the chance to change things up a bit, to interact with the actors and technicians. Keeps me sharp! It’s all good.

Most of the way home yesterday, I got to watch the most beautiful sunset! It was at its peak as I headed toward the Hudson River. Just gorgeous.

Jane Eyre looks good – they’re still in the middle of previews, those performances that are pre-opening night. That means they still rehearse during the day. The actors are pretty tired out at this point, so they will be looking forward to their day off tomorrow.

During Friday’s performance, a woman’s cell phone kept going off. She happened to be two seats away from me. Once? Okay. We all make mistakes. Three or four different times? No. The worst was when it kept ringing and ringing and I watched her push little buttons and look perplexed and STILL it kept ringing. This went on for a couple of minutes. I finally turned to her and said, “You have GOT to turn that off.” She responded that she was trying. Most cell phones have a button you can hit that will silence the phone. Maybe she was unfamiliar with the phone? Familiarity wouldn’t have been an issue if she had just turned it off before the show started.

Here’s the thing: There is an announcement at the top of the show reminding everyone to turn off their phones. It started to dawn on me, and I had this confirmed by one of the actors in the show, that in spite of the announcement, most people nowadays don’t turn them off. They put them away, or hide them, but they’re still on. The fact that they feel they can’t turn off their phones for a couple of hours for a live performance is a sad one indeed. The actors say that they can see the blue screens from the stage. So can fellow audience members.

I watched the people who were seated in our section – they were aware of the phone going off, clearly, but I realized they had now become used to this kind of thing happening. They accepted it. So, is this now going to be the norm?

It’s so disrespectful.

I found myself wishing that Patti Lupone had been there. Patti Lupone, who famously got so frustrated with an audience member’s constant texting during a performance that she reached down and took her phone away.

Here’s her quote from an interview: “We work hard onstage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones. They cannot put them down. When a phone goes off or an LED screen can be seen in the dark it ruins the performance for everyone else – the majority of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage. I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work onstage anymore. Now I’m putting on my battle gear over my costume to marshal the audience as well as perform.”

Don has said much the same thing – he has experienced it over and over again. It has soured him on theater; this, after over 50 years in the theater. It obviously wasn’t an issue during my acting days, but it sure as heck is now. As it is, when I’m attending a performance or working at a performance, I have had to remind people to turn their phones off more times than I can count. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of educating someone who doesn’t realize that the actors can see the blue screen. But most of the time, it’s because that person is so tethered to the phone that he or she simply cannot turn it off. That, my friends, is an addiction.

Today: laundry, cleaning, reading – the usual.

Okay. I have to hit Publish.

Happy Sunday.

Nesting in Place

Friday Thoughts

Re-entry

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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