An unnoticed anniversary (and an obit)
Tonight while driving to the reading of a friend’s new play at Moving Arts, it struck me that two weeks ago was our theatre’s 16th anniversary. Sixteen years! It seemed astonishing: both that we had reached that milestone, and that no one had noticed. It simultaneously filled with a little awe and a little sadness.
Then I parked my car across the street from the theatre and got out and walked past the art gallery that opened there two years ago — except now it wasn’t an art gallery any more. It was a hair salon. When had this happened? At first I couldn’t believe it, and stood there looking in from the sidewalk at people getting their hair washed and cut until those people grew uncomfortable at me watching them in a place where just a couple of months ago there had been people looking at art. The gallery lasted two years. Somehow, we’ve made it to 16.
Some of us at Moving Arts have been so focused on what we don’t have — a larger theatre, a bigger bank account, much more of I don’t know what — that we’ve overlooked the simple accomplishment of staying alive and sticking to our mission of producing new plays. That has been difficult, and I don’t see it becoming easier any time in the future, but we’ve been doing it for 16 years now. Somehow. Seemingly impossibly.
I went inside and there it all was: the tiny stage, the creaking seats circa 1916 from a former silent movie house in San Francisco, the duvatyne drape that ripped when I moved it aside, and more. But I saw good playwright friends Dorinne and Ellen, and actor/director friends Darrell and Mark were in the reading, and so was Chuck, whom I hadn’t seen in several years, and four actors who were new to me and whose work was exciting, and then there was all the promise of this very good, very well-written, highly entertaining and provocative new play, and once again I lost sight of what we didn’t have. Because actually, we have a lot. And we’ve had a lot for 16 years. And maybe, if we’re lucky, we can keep having that for a while longer, and whether or not we do, we’ll always have the hundreds (thousands?) of actors and directors we’ve touched and worked with, and the hundreds of plays we helped shepherd into the universe. So for all we don’t have, we’re rich.
Happy Belated Birthday to us.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I remember laughing until I coughed up a lung back in 1992 watching Now This/Then What one night. About a week ago I was looking at LA on google earth and zoomed in on Hyperion Ave. from GP Blvd to Lyric Avenue, AND THERE IT WAS… a stretch burned into my memory for having gone to City Hall to make Moving Arts (drum roll) a gallery – because the cute hippie dude behind the counter said…”look, you’ll need less parking spaces for a gallery, have a nice day.” Happy Birthday indeed. FORGET THE HORSE, JUST LOAD THE WAGON.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Over the weekend, I was giving a couple of workshops to students at Austin-Peay University in Tennessee. Austin-Peay was staging some one-acts of mine (including Subculture, which I don’t even remember if that was done at Moving Arts. Was it?).
Anyway, one of the workshops was about marketing and I ended up talking about how I had my plays produced and published. I mentioned the relationship with Moving Arts, which started with first a rejection and then a long letter Lee sent about Lawn Dart. A letter! Sent through the mail!
I never felt more like a playwright than I did when I had the chance to be at Moving Arts to watch one of my plays. Or, later, when they would send royalties — royalties! — for the production.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Yes, we did do “Subculture.” The actors were Kipper Adams and Carolyn Crotty, and the director was Matt Almos. I don’t want to sound biased — and I will admit to the times we botched a play — but I believe that was one of the best one-acts we did. I loved the script, and loved what Matt and the actors did with it. And I’ve been swiping from that (or at least thinking about it) in the 10+ years since.
Ah, “Lawn Dart.” I love “Lawn Dart.” I’m sorry I botched it. Really. I wish back then I knew what I know now (or however the song goes). That’s a wonderful play — so wonderful that even with my star-crossed direction some of it played well! And I loved the cast, which included Mark Chaet and Gary Grasso and Julie Briggs and Doug Nielsen, so I know it was me. Oh well. Sorry about that.
Re royalties and treating playwrights with respect: Thank you. That means a lot to me. That was my small attempt to pay back into the pool for all the people who’ve been nice to me as a playwright. Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Of course, Gandhi was all for just getting out of Hitler’s way, so what does he know?
November 17th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Oh my God. I have the worst memory in the entire world. Of course Moving Arts did Subculture. I was there for it. It’s all coming back to me now. There was music that was played at the beginning that I remember at the time I thought was brilliant. Any idea what it was? I swear I need to have a Total Recall chip implanted. This is embarrasing.
You didn’t botch Lawn Dart. Please. Lawn Dart just about botched Moving Arts, which didn’t happen only thanks to your Herculean efforts.