MOXIE in the UK

Here I am. It’s somewhere around 1:50 am in England.   Now is the time when Americans think ….”oh cool…how is London?”. No, I’m not in London.  I’ve been to England 6 times in the last 4 years and only spent one evening in London.  Nope…I’m in Pucklechurch.  Yeah you heard me right. Pucklechurch sounds like a mystical place where fairies may live…or perhaps somewhere gnomes live but it’s a real place. Pucklechurch is a village half way between Bath and Bristol.  Most Americans have never heard of either of those places so I’ll explain further.  Pucklechurch is in Gloucester which is in the area of England called the midlands, which is to say I am in the center part of the country toward the west.  But what you really want to know is…why am I in Pucklechurch and why the hell have I ventured to England 6 times and not seen a single show on the West End while I’ve been here.

My husband Matt is British and this is where he grew up.  We come back often because his family can’t travel for health reasons.  It’s cold here right now and I find it funny that I was sick of the warm sunny weather in San Diego just a few days ago.  The timing is excellent though as I prepare to direct the next MOXIE show The Sugar Syndrome which is an English play.  Just because we share the same language doesn’t mean Americans and the English have a lot in common.  Being here reminds me that one of the fabulous things about the play is how English it is.  If you know many English you know what I mean when I say there is a fabulous contrast of being reserved and polite and at the same time completly unshocked when it comes to anything bodily.  Sex is on TV here everywhere you look.  They may blur out area of the screen where actual penatration takes place  but that’s about all the decency required in the afterhours on regular tv. The though of old English ladies sipping tea and watchin softcore pornography before bed makes me laugh.

This is what you see as you climb over the old stone wall in the back yard of Matt's house where he grew up...no kidding!

Penny was fantastic on the plane.  She has been really well behaved and seems happy despite the freezing temperature which has us housebound most of the time…but she isn’t going to let me get away with changing her schedule around…so she has decided to spit everything I try to feed her in my face.  She doesn’t want jarred baby food…or food I make fresh…or finger foods she can feed herself…she is happy al long as I don’t attempt to feed her anything. We go out with friends and I watch in admiration as they’re daughter eats all her food.  Mommy guilt takes over…maybe if I prepared all Penny’s food fresh like this mommy does then she would eat.  Matt takes me to the fabulous English grocery store.  I buy ingredients to cook Penny some more “wholesome meals”…and she spits them in my face.  I could hug her.  Thanks for the reassurance that you love me just the way I am…as a busy mommy who can’t cook fresh baby food for her at every meal. I’m glad to have those yams in my face because I know it’s not me. I think if she’d gobbled them up my working mommy heart would have broken a little.

Amy’s set design is getting me hot

When I first felt inspired by a photograph of a skate park and thought about using it  as a concept for The Sugar Syndrome,  which has nothing to do with skate parks, I felt a little unsure of sharing my crazy idea with my set designer. 

How cool is this place?

When I showed it to her and she totally got it and ran with it…I felt like I had won the lottery.  Amy Chini (read more about Amy in the spotlight they did on her in the San Diego Union-Tribune) just sent me a sketch of what she is thinking about and working through some of the specific needs in the play (places to set things, sit and entrances and exits).  I sent her image back with notes and questions in red.  This process is thrilling.   I am so excited!  Watching another artist create a world in which the actors and I will play and create this play is exhilarating.  I find myself thinking “I wish the audience could know all about this process as they go into the theatre.”  Wait…they can.  Check out drawing # 1 an #2.  I hope when you get to the theatre you’ll see just how cool I think this is going to be!

Amy's Drawing

My explosion of thoughts inspired by Amy's drawing

Odetta

Odetta died Tuesday at the age of 77. She had performed 60 concerts in the last two years, many of them from her wheelchair. I love watching her glasses go on and off.

December 1st is World Aids Day

Dear Starbucks…

A macchiato is not that, and your Breakfast Blend is not my favorite, but I do appreciate the attention you draw to World Aids Day.

In theory.

Dear Starbucks, I already know that you manipulate me, because otherwise I would never have forgiven you for beating out Seattle’s Best Coffee for the market share back when I lived in Seattle and espresso was the highlight of my straight-edge, teenage day.

Are you manipulating me now? 

You tell me that five cents of my purchase will be donated to a cause I really care about.

Is it possible that you are using my concern and desire to have impact to get the other three dollars and ninety-five cents? And maybe another dollar seventy-five for a pastry to go with it?  

I am easily distracted, it’s true. You flatter me by using fancy names like “macchiato” to describe that tasty icy thing that sort of resembles a milkshake. And you have very hip music on your CD racks. I totally got excited when I saw that you were selling the Decemberists, just like you knew I would.  

Today, I think I’m going to go one step beyond wearing the red ribbon, and even one step beyond wearing a red ribbon on Facebook. I’m going to skip the Starbucks specialty beverage and donate the whole four dollars to World Aids Day. 

It’s easy. And it helps.

P.S. Dear Starbucks, I do greatly appreciate the way you employ my friends and colleagues.

P.P.S. And I really dig the pumpkin bread.