Saturday, October 22, 2016

last night at.....

Ensemble studio Theater, a theater where I directed many workshops and readings in the eighties and early nineties, I went to a seven play short play grouping, done by the theater's resident company called Youngblood. Very disappointed, quite frankly I hate the short one act form. Nothing ever really gets done in it. Originally started just for galas or fund raisers by not for profits wanting to show their stable of authors, it has become a kind of staple for companies, but somehow I think it defeats the playwrights. These seven plays were all efficient, and very well acted and directed, but in the end, I felt like I had seen simply seven versions of the same play. A kind of efficient coldness seemed to be part of the whole evening. I went because a gentleman whom I had met at the Bushwick Starr reading the Sunday before was in one, and in the same play was Anne, an actress whom I had worked with in the late eighties, who was once a friend of mine. Saw her briefly after the plays, said hello, she is very talented, missed my friend.
Afterwards went to Lansdowne Road for a beer, hung out there for a while, very friendly place, even if my server friends "the twins" were not there Miss them, should try to visit them soon. Not much else to say, caught the 11 at around 10, and went home.
This evening is still the big choice: do I want to go to the five hour "arts pageant" on East 4th street, which could be daring and erotic, or find a place to watch the really important baseball game between the Cubs and the Dodgers. Two sides of the same coin----will probably take the risk of going to the pageant---baseball I can see any time, but still hesitant. Of course, there are a million other things to do tonight as well, culture wise---never has there been a time in NY when so much to see in interesting and available, but of course, the other side of it---the gap between rich and poor moves more quickly---52nd street, once an obstacle course as you went to Ensemble, now all luxury housing--the whole tenth avenue corridor bewteen 52nd and 55th is like that, as is the first part of West End Avenue---a gruesome stretch of luxury housing as West End moves south into 11th avenue.Who lives in all these buildings? Are there some many people who can afford the 2,500 dollar studio? Very sad.
 More about this some other time, must go now---will report on "adventure" tonight.

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