Friday

After all the structure and tunnel vision of the past year, July was pleasantly chaotic, everything changing at the last minute, moving in unexpected directions, leading to curious consequences.  Creativity growing from that as well as it does from strict form.  Knowing what the norm was and then breaking it.

Lying in the dry grass, attempting to read and dozing more often, the sky has gone from clear blue to completely overcast.  The wind shakes the magnolia leaves, and it sounds like rain drops.  Engines roar overhead, reverberating against the bricks. Anywhere else, I go for cover, here I fall asleep again.  Context is everything.

Went to a night of one acts at ACT, and while there were things I liked about each play, I wasn't crazy about the line-up in general.  With Steve Martin's "Patter for the Floating Lady," I thought there was some beautiful imagery in the language, but not sure that the best vehicle for showcasing that was a play.  The second one was Woody Allen's "Riverside Drive," and much against my will because of my dislike of him, it was my favorite play of the night. It had the most coherent story, and the best dialogue of the three.  It was funny.  But I fell asleep.  At intermission, I was telling that to some friends and one of them also fell asleep, she was thinking it might be the modulation of the voice, how it didn't change, but kinda' droned on and on at the same level, tempo, and tone.  Someone walking past us, was also mentioning that they fell asleep.

The third one was Sam Shepard's "The Unseen Hand," it's just strange, a mish-mash of cowboy and alien. Hanna Lass as the alien "Willie" was fun to watch, the way she moved, spoke, used her face, etc, and the acting was good, but I wasn't crazy about the play.  Great tech on it though: set, lighting, sound, etc, really nice work.  I guess it has to do with free will and self-limitation, and I suppose I can see that, but, eh.  And why did the other actress (who wasn't in this play) skip across the back of the stage during the part where Willie's mind is set free and hail falls from the sky?  Maybe it's in the script, but it seemed very random and unnecessary.

We were curious (and reviews I've read have also questioned) why these plays?  Shepard's is from 1969, Allen's from around 2003, unsure of Martin's.  They probably had a programming reason, but since I don't know it, I'll agree with a review I read, that there was a lack of diversity in the choices: are there no women or writer's of color writing one acts, right now?  It's fine, they are good writers, but, curious as to why that was the programming choice.