Our Town

Yo, Roderick! Welcome!

Roderick is a close friend, though not geographically, and he too works to add creativity to his life, mostly with his accoustic guitar, which he plays beautifully.

Last night the whole family went to see a production of Our Town. When high school theater directors get together, Our Town is shorthand for the kind of dated, safe, predictable theater that high schools are expected to do by overly cautious administrators. The directors notes made note of this, but also explained that the play is a classic for a reason, and, like all classics, is worth revisiting once in a while.

And the show is nice. I think it is a bit more subversive than folks usually realize, but it is more than a little precious, and it isn't subtle about hitting you over the head with the big-message stick. Still, if it doesn't move you at least a little, you might be dead.

What was interesting about this production is how it came about.

This production got started by a local advertising executive, Artie, who played The Narrator in Our Town when he was in college in, um, 77? I don't know. A while ago. Anyway, that meant a lot to him, and he was commenting to a friend, a playwright in New York whom I also know, that he hoped to play the role again in community theater someday.

Well, the playwright, who has inspired me as well, told Artie that that isn't how theater happens. If Artie wants theater to happen, he needs to make it happen.

So Artie did. He found a theater company to produce it, he hired a director, he found a school with a theater, he sent out word, held auditions, and put on a show.

It was pretty good. Very well directed, and the tech was excellent. Some of the actors were really good, some less so - but that was hardly the point. What was neat was that the cast was populated by people a lot like the folks of Grover's Corners itself, doing the show for the very motives that the show itself is about.

The best part was that in the lobby were little packages of candy that Artie's mom made for everyone. It drove the whole "live for the moment" message home.

The most creative thing I've done since the last entry:
Ouch. I've really fell out of the groove here. Haven't done much of anything. I had a couple of moments of silliness working out a piano-ballad arrangment of Earth Wind and Fire's "Fantasy."

The least creative thing I've done since the last entry:
Tried to fix the sliding glass door and made it worse.

Stuff that helped:
Our Town. Graceland, believe it or not.

Stuff that hindered:
Travel.

Current project:
Oof. I need to face the fact that I'm putting off the big project for far too long.

Next project:
Yeah. Same.

Guitar?:
Actually, a little bit of this before I left for the trip. I'm up to "Love Me Tender" in the teach-yourself-guitar book.

What I should be reading these days:
Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. A history teacher and I are designing a new course called The American Story, and I'm trying to fill in gaps.

What I'm actually reading these days:
I am reading A Farewell to Arms. But also some comic books.

Today I recommend:
This video blows my mind and inspires me and moves. It's about twenty minutes long. What happens when a left-brained neuro-scientist has a stroke and discovers her right brain? Powerful stuff.