The Plan

I was at the 99¢ Store on Lincoln (get used to it, I’m po’) when I suddenly realized that everyone around me was speaking French. We’re talking about a fairly large number of people here - say fifteen or so. The cashier, the customers, the children begging for toys and mercury-laced candy. Even the crazy guy standing behind me and muttering to himself was muttering in French, although in his case I could tell that he didn’t REALLY speak French. This relieved me somewhat, since it implied that he was an American crazy person who was really making an effort to stand out, as opposed to a French crazy person who was just really lost.
I can’t say with 100% certainty that this really happened; even now it seems more and more dreamlike. But I’m pretty sure. Maybe there’s some French enclave out there that I knew nothing about.

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There’s nothing quite so disappointing as the realization that the people you work with get their casual conversation from sitcoms and things their parents used to say.

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I have a show coming up which I’ll say more about shortly, in addition to a few other things - not least of which is the song with Darrell, which I hope to finish up soon once Dancing with the Bad Man starts up. All of the music in the show is his.

One of the things that I hoped for from all this was that my increased mobility and freedom from my own inertia would allow me to respond more quickly to things and to experience things that I might have otherwise missed out on. It seems to be working.

Last night, through a combination of scheduling mishaps and misanthropic furniture, I attended the LA Stage Alliance’s informational meeting regarding their Free Night of Theatre 2006.

The basic idea is pretty neat: get a whole mess of theaters and companies to donate seats for shows on the same day (ideally; it’s sort of centered on October 19th, but there will be some spillage beyond that) and have one central location for promotion and logistical support.

The idea that American theatre is dead or dying is pretty widespread. It’s a bit overstated; it’s been in the state it’s in for a while and it’s still around. It’s not like it’s going any lower than it is.

But there are some interesting things on the wind. It seems as though we may have an extremely strong chance, perhaps not to restore American Theatre to the glory it never really had, but to at least remind everybody that we’re here. There’s the incredible (and I mean that in the most sincere way) 365 project, spearheaded by Susan-Lori Parks, and now there’s the Free Night of Theatre.

The program is halfway through a testing and growth phase, so it looks like we won’t see the full-on national juggernought version until next year. Still, with heavy promotion and strong results from last year’s even smaller version, this looks like it could be really successful.

As for me, just being out and part of the biz was pretty cool. I met some really cool people from Theatre East who told me about an upcoming original piece they’ll be presenting called “They’re Not Zombies!” which they seemed pretty excited about. Between their obvious enthusiasm and the presence of the word ‘zombies’, I’m looking forward to the show.

An Ark rep was there, and that was fine - although my polite nod was dismissed pretty quickly, which is ridiculous considering the actual events of the Incident, so the hell with politeness.

It was just nice to feel involved, and to pretend I knew what the hell I was doing. In graditude for the opportunity, I say: Royana, I’m glad you cracked your head open, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

LA Stage Alliance: Free Night of Theatre 2006

Theatre East