Vital Signs New Works Festival
presents an evening of 4 short plays featuring
Ayravana Flies or A Pretty Dish
By Sheila Callaghan
Directed by David A. Miller
with Fletcher McTaggart* & Lauren Walsh Singerman*
December 12-16 @ 7pm
2162 Broadway, 4th floor (at 76th Street)
FREE Invited Dress on Wednesday the 12th
$18 Thursday through Sunday
Tickets /Vital Signs New Works Festival
*Members of Actor’s Equity
“Tensions were apparently somewhat high in the talks, which have been taking place at the law offices of Proskauer Rose, the firm representing the league.
About 2 a.m. yesterday, a union official who was outside with other officials for a cigarette break got in a fistfight with a panhandler who was walking around 48th Street.”
I was visited by two members of Swedish parliament a few weeks ago and we talked about a Swedish production of Waiting for Godot performed in the community by convicts who escaped during one performance and were never to be seen again.
I find it fascinating that this Didi and Gogo (because in my imagination that is who they played, not Pozzo or Lucky) who on stage did not move after asking and answering, “Shall we go?” “Yes, let’s.” were truly considering going–bolting even–each time they exchanged these lines.
In searching for more information my eyes have been opened to the numerous cases of something similar–a situation that I had never even singularly considered.
Sju tre (1999) is the most controversial theatre production in Sweden in modern times. Lars Norén, a well-known playwright and director, staged a dialogue involving three real convicts, of whom two were outspoken Nazis. Shortly after the last performance, the latter two men were involved in a bank robbery in which two policemen were killed. These scandalous events are discussed from three different perspectives, all, however, revolving around the uncertain boundaries between aesthetic, ethical, and political issues. By virtue of its performative impact, the theatrical event proved to be directly linked with critical questions of democracy, although conceivably at the expense of the artistic integrity of the director and the theatre as creator of public opinion.
CJO – Abstract – ‘It’s the real thing’: performance and murder in Sweden
There are amazing things happening on 26th Street these days. I had the pleasure of spending a Saturday afternoon seeing the sights, from phenomenal installations (Do Ho Suh at Lemann Maupin Gallery) to interesting long exposure photography (Hirsh Perlman at Robert Miller Gallery) to Owen Wilson* (seen at Four Friends).
*When he called out to his friend–as they both bicycled down 26th–”It’s right here!” He sounded remarkably nasally in an Owen Wilson-like way.
For the artist named David A. Miller in your life: Absolutely anything from Bierkraft.
For more pieces of impressive work from this talented graphic designer, go here.
For couples and those who love them: As Long as We Both Shall Live, a catalogue of black and white photographs of long married couples by the gifted and thoughtful Robert Fass, a fine actor in addition to being an amazing photographer who I met doing The Kids. Get your copy of As Long… here.
For the quilters in your life: The innovative AnglePlay Templates or the many incredible books housing the creations from the brilliant color & design eyes of Margaret J. Miller who I met 35 years ago today on the occassion of my birth.
I would like to declare that I officially own the trademark to the Sports Court TV Network. Even if I don’t. And even if at this moment it does not exist. Because some day it will. Yesterday I was assured that it will. I sat in the bar of the glamorous Newark International Airport TGIFriday’s and witnessed the OJ Simpson pretrial on not one but two flatscreen TVs in front of me on two different ESPN stations. And it wasn’t even OJ on the screen, it was Riccio and the banter (as I read on the closed captioning) was about how to pronounce his name. It was clear that between the OJs, the Michael Vick’s, and the participants steroid parade alone that a 24/7 Sports Court TV Network is possible. And I own that trademark. Seriously.
Is it just me or is Tears for Fears’ Songs from the Big Chair a great album? For more than 20 years I have had it in my cranial catalogue of music. I had the cassette for as many years, but it was only last weekend, on the sidewalk not far from the marathon, that I bought the CD and have started listening to it again. And I think its great. But I truly can’t tell if it is just the nostalgia talking.
