Jen Thorn is Changing the World Again

Here’s a bit of the email that just popped up in my inbox: 

My professor in college laughed a little snidely at me when he asked if “theater could change the world” and I raised my hand. My classmates, who were all a little more “realistic” than I, rolled their eyes.  If we aren’t doing what we do because on some level we think it matters and can make the world better…then why?  I applaud you for what you do and for putting your hearts into the reading that night. It changed lives. 

Jen is referring to a staged reading we did last season of selections from Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. It wasn’t even an entire play, and I think it took a total of three rehearsals. And actually, I’m not sure of that, because Jen sent me home after day two, not because I was incompetent, but because she was so on top of her game that she couldn’t figure out how to use me.

Here’s the rest of her email.

I just wanted to write and let you all know that our event was just awarded as one of the top 5 Educational Events in the Pacific Region for the Young Presidents Organizations…It will now move forward to be judged on the Global YPO scale which is has 20,000 members in over 100 countries.  If it wins I will go to Miami to accept an award alongside people from all over the world. I want to thank you all for participating and lending your talent.

Young Presidents Organization is a global leadership network of business owners and CEO’s. Jen teamed up with a YPO presenter to create an educational event using theatre to access the issue of sexual abuse, which is the subject matter of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize winning play.

Our event was named the “Best Risk-Taking Event 2007-2008″ for the Pacific US Region.

Thanks for taking risks, Jen!

Audrey…you kick ass!

Last night MOXIE did a brief performance of an excerpt from Bleeding Kansasat the open house of one of our board members Julie Godfrey.  Julie gathered all the smart people she knew together in one room to celebrate her new office space in Rancho Bernardo.  Julie is a financial advisor who also happens, thank goodness, to have an aprreciation of and dedication to theatre, namely MOXIE.  After MOXIE had performed and Delicia, Jo Anne and I had worked the room along with board member John Brooks (he worked the room…we didn’t work him…god, your minds people), we ended up at the open wine bar (no surprise) talking to Audrey who works with a certain big name insurance company who shall go unnamed (simply because our topic of conversation had nothing to do with her company).

Let me paint you a picture of Audrey.  She is 45 (she said so) and put together. Perfectly fitting business looking black and white ensemble with an edge of sexy.  Her hair is done, her nails are done, her heels are on…the woman is ON.  I begin chatting with her about being a mother.  She has 2 teenagers and she tells me that her role as a mother is what is most important to her.  Audrey is smoking hot.  She is a New Yorker so she  makes no effort to be “modest” in that annoying way that some successful women feel the need to be.  She lays it out on the table.  She gets up at 5 am so she can see her kids off to school, get dressed in something fabulous, go to work and eat a can of bad ass for breakfast.  She comes home and her family plays a game around the table where they use note cards with vocabulary words to spur discussions about a wide range of things.  Then she get in bed an makes love to her husband BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO.  Audrey started to say that women can “do it all” but then she stopped herself…and said “we can do anything we want to”.  I appreciated that distinction.  What Audrey was saying was that she wanted to do those things and so she did. She made the important distinction between the idea that feminism means we have to do it all and the truth which is that feminism is a belief that we can do what we WANT…and that means one day if she WANTS to be the head of the PTA and quit her job and do puzzles…that’s cool too.  She shared with us how bad ass she is.  No fake modesty…but no over inflated ego either.  She shared how bad ass she is because she could see and appreciated that she was talking with women who eat cans of bad ass for breakfast too.  I felt a kinship with her.  She felt like one of my sisters.  So even if I never see you again Audrey of my dreams…way to go.  You rock our world.

Protecting the Tribe (posted by Jo Anne)

As many of you know, lately I’ve been struggling with not sleeping. It sucks. I’ve never had this kind of insomnia / late night anxiety stuff before, and wow, can it screw with you.

But, one of the things I’ve found most interesting is how many of my friends and acquaintances are having trouble sleeping right now, too. Each in differing ways and for individual reasons, but still basically similar ailments. What is it in the universe that’s permeating our beings at that core level? Yes, a lot of people in the world are not sleeping because of the problems in the economy. I have to admit, I don’t think that’s me (at least not on a conscious level – an advantage of not having a lot of money is not having so much to lose in times like this). But, I do wonder if that collective, communal energy is somehow disturbing us on a level and in ways that we can’t see on the surface. I’m certain, actually, that this is true.

And, so my question is what to do with that energy? How do I create a strong, powerful force around myself and my community that counterbalances the fear and anxiety our world is generating? Or, should I just give in and accept that this is just a cycle that we have to move through until we come back around to a period of rest? Or is the answer somewhere in between? I have no idea, but want to believe that there is action that can help my tribe and me navigate through this time.

Lately, I have felt simultaneously isolated and completely surrounded and supported. In the middle of the night, when I am all alone and can’t sleep, I feel so lonely and scared. But, then in the light of day, I reach out and so many beautiful hands reach back.

So, I’d like to share my latest visualization. It is of a tent. It is big and light, with flowing walls and lots of comfortable places to sit and be. It offers shelter, but the breeze flows through, offering fresh breath. My amazing friends and I wander in an out, entering heavy-laden with fears, concerns, sadness, anxieties. And, within the tent, we transform each other – taking all of that shit and using our magic to turn it into gold. Then we send each other back out into a world that needs our healing. We are so much stronger than any crap this world can throw at us.

I heart Levi Stubbs

The lead singer of the Four Tops, Levi Stubbs, passed away yesterday at the age of 72. I’ve been humming this song (okay, belting this song) ever since I heard. Milo is also in on the act. Fortunately for you, we have just a tiny bit too much taste to post our own performance, so here’s the real thing:

The Four Tops keeping it clean for television in 1966.

Come on, admit it, those highwaters turn you on.

producer who can’t sleep…will blog

It’s 2 am.  I should be asleep. My daughter will wake up soon for her middle of the night feeding.
Being in rehearsals means she misses a feeding because she is my daughter and therefor stubborn…which means she refuses something mediocre once she’s gotten a taste of the high quality top shelf variety…in this case that’s milk from the source. But tomorrow is Opening Night and I have a million things on my mind. Here are a few of them…in the natural order I fret over them in bed…for your enjoyment.

1. We had a good preview tonight but I know I need to stay fresh and alert for tomorrow’s opening (I am acting in this one).  I felt nervous and on edge and determined to hit Delicia’s notes before the preview so I can’t rest on the fact that it went well.  I need to stay hungry and on my toes and listening.

2. We need to make some money tomorrow.  How can I make sure that the moment I am off stage I am making connections with donors and subscribers and speaking to the urgency of supporting the arts in these difficult economic times?

3. What am I going to wear tomorrow.  I want to feel hot.  I wander if any of my pre-pregnant clothes fit again?

4.Damn…that stationary store I like is closed down…the one with the great shiny red folders I love to put the press kits in.  I wonder where I can get some nice ones in the morning.  I bet the press don’t even care about those shiny folders…but I do…I love shiny folders…I should try to find some.

5. Damn its already getting to be close to 2 am.  I should sleep…what was it Delicia said she did to get to sleep? Imagine confronting her jerk of an ex-boyfriend and telling him off…that was it.  Which jerk of an ex-boyfriend would I like telling off the most…hmmmm…

6. Maybe I should just get up and work.  There is no way I am going to bed.

7. Damn…do we have good ticket sales for Sunday?  Maybe I should just get up and check the numbers.

8. I could eat something while I am up….

9. Yeah I should totally get up.

10.  Mmmmm…chocolate peanut butter organic ice cream.

I hope you are all sleeping well…if any of you post comments before 6 am I’ll know you were right here with me!

Thursday Inspiration

Which dragon do you vote for?

In this year 2008, the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan has enacted universal suffrage–granting the vote to all adult men and women. In previous years, the law allowed only one vote per household, which was almost always cast by a man. 

This particular woman is voting for a dragon.

The International Museum of Women explains:

Fearful that Bhutan’s citizens would not understand how to participate in the new democracy, the king instituted a mock election so that people could practice voting. In late April of 2007, four fictional political parties, named for colorful Druks, or thunder dragons, the country’s national symbol, were put forth: Druk Blue, Druk Green, Druk Red and Druk Yellow. Unsurprisingly, Druk Yellow, which stood on a platform of traditional values, won by an overwhelming majority. For the first time in their country’s history, numerous women lined up to vote and served as election monitors.

Here’s a picture of the real election, which took place in March of this year. Women candidates took three of twenty seats in the National Council, and four of forty-seven seats in the National Assembly.

Countdown: three days to opening!

Today’s Union-Tribune has a sneak preview of Bleeding Kansas, written by UT theater critic James Hebert. Check it out.

No tornadoes. No Dorothy. No cranky ladies on bicycles.

Sorry, wrong Kansas. The Midwestern state in Kathryn Walat’s play “Bleeding Kansas,” which the Moxie Theatre Co. opens this week at Diversionary Theatre, is both more real and in some ways more scary than the place in “The Wizard of Oz” (and not just because Walat’s work might remind you of everything you missed in U.S. history class).

Read the whole thing here.

We open on Saturday. Woo hoo! However, for the discount shoppers among you, there are pay-what-you-can previews tonight and tomorrow. Go to www.moxietheatre.com to find out more.

And, repeated from the comments below, here’s our first review. Thanks, Noelle!

See you there!

One MOXIE’s Dream Birthday & Bleeding Kansas Update

My birthday was Monday.  I have to share the gifts I received because they were so moxielicious.

-Tickets to see Madonna in concert
- A Makita Nut Driver (one bad ass power tool I have been dreaming of since I borrowed Lighting Designer Mia Bane Jacob’s)
-Gift certificates to places I can buy shoes.

You see…with Madonna, power tools and sexy shoes…I think I might be able to rule the world.

Now a Bleeding Kansas Update:

Opening Night is this Saturday and the show is so ready.  I feel thrilled to be a part of it.  It’s MOXIE so you know the female characters rock but it’s the men in this play who have my heart.  George, Josiah and Red are three characters I feel like I know now.  Three men who feel close to my heart…but that might be because of the incredible men who play them.  David S. Humphry, Chris Buess and Mark Petrich are so stellar in this play, not to mention downright sexy.  In boots, suspenders, baby oil and dirt…how can you resist?  Here is just a taste of sexy Kansas.  You have to buy tickets and come see them yourself though. Click here to do that now BUY TICKETS NOW

Chris Buess as "Red" Photo By Erin Bigley Photography

Sorry ladies and gentleman…I met his super cute girlfriend the other night so he is totally taken!

The Build

We’re cruising right along here in tech week…

The walls are up, the sky is hung, and we’ve added lights, sound, costumes and props to the mix.  

Here are a few pics of the build, courtesy of John Brooks… 

 

The beginnings of a wall

 

Dustin, our TD, hard at work

 

Jo Dirt                                                            

 

                                  This is ours y’all, don’t be getting any ideas                                  

 

Lydia supervising                                               Milo keeping his eye on PJ

 

 

 

 

 

Twas The Night Before Load In

The Place: Diversionary Theatre

The Time:  Mmm, Eight Thirtyish 

The Crew:  The Diversionary Boys, Miscellaneous MOXIEs

Diversionary’s production of No Exit (directed by our own Esther Emery) did just that.  No sooner had the audience laughed it’s last laugh than walls were being torn down, staples were being carefully pried from moulding, (carefully may be a slight exaggeration), and the stage was being prepped for the first phase of the Bleeding Kansas load in.

We drug platforms into the space and slapped various legs on them.  Legs of different heights, which will create the raked stage that Jerry Sonnenberg designed.  Dustin had them all marked, and ready to rock, and it really should have been easy.  But I’ve gotta say, there was a little swearing.  A bit of sweat on the old brow.  And lots and lots of laughter.  One of my favorite moments was watching Missy scream loudly in her screw gun’s face, in a moment of unbridled frustration.

As we were packing up to go around 11:15, our lighting designer Jason Bieber was just arriving to begin hanging lights.  

Jason Conners, our sound designer, will load in tomorrow night, and JBG will bring costumes in Tuesday, the first day of tech.

In the meantime, the rest of us will be back at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning to continue where we left off. Walls will go up, glue will be spread, paint will be splashed and dirt will be piled.  From the checkered floor of No Exit, Kansas will spring up, and in a few short days we’ll have our first preview.  

Fun fun fun!