31 Down at the Prelude Festival in NYC

Hello dear friends and fans of the Village Green. I'm away from my humble village in the big big city, attending the Educational Theatre Association Conference and having a wonderfully theatrical time.

Last night I went to see a piece by a young experimental company called 31 Down. It was part of a festival called Prelude 07. Upon entering the space, we were immediately offered champagne and crackers with cheese whip and olives on top by a wait staff that was continually distracted by cell phones ringing. On the floor, sitting in front of a TV was a young woman in yoga attire doing a series of poses, a cup of yogurt by her side. At an old computer terminal, sat a young man with a headset on, watching a monitor while eating from an enormous bag of popcorn.

At another place on the floor, another young man sat garbed only in his briefs. He too was watching a screen, this one a large TV. He had a gallon of Gatorade and a gallon jar of Miracle Whip, along with a loaf of Wonder Bread and two packs of bologna. His actions involved wrapping the bologna in a piece of bread then dipping it into the mayo and eating it, followed by guzzling of Gatorade and a large belch. Across the room sat a young woman dressed in a long fur coat and Russian fur hat. She was looking into a camcorder and her image was broadcast on all the other screens in the room being watched by the various characters.

Enter "Mike Sharpie" who was dressed in smarmy business attire, giving out his business cards and inviting us to call him. His card told us he was an "Event Planner and Personal Trainer." He kept offering us more champagne, while the young woman bartender got more and more surly while pouring the bottles.

Unfortunately, we could not get through on the phone to Mike -- and that necessarily changed the actions of the performance. However, the ending was strong and did involve lipstick smears on one of the screens, Mike's hand plunged into the jar of mayo and blobs of it sprayed over some audience members -- a form of unexpected audience participation! Mike drew graphics in the smears on the television sets, which was quite an interesting effect, as the video being displayed showed through in curious ways.

At the talk back afterwards (This was a serious, curated show!), we learned that the company was influenced by the old movie "I Am Curious, Yellow." This piece was also influenced by the lack of action/involvement by today's youth regarding protesting the current U$ war in Iraq. I made the comment that if there were a draft today, no doubt that young people would get more involved in protesting.

The inclusion of horrid food substances and all the TV and computer monitors made a powerful visual statement about how complacent and maybe even addicted we are to substances and forms of entertainment that are actually quite deadly to our bodies.

I'm typing this at a cyber cafe. My favorite cafe on 42nd street has vanished and now I'm at one on 49th which is far more expensive, so this is all until I return!

The Akron Beacon Journal Ignores Local Theatre

On Day 2 of Buy Nothing Day -- Buy Nothing the Akron Beacon Journal tries to sell you:

In today's ABJ, we have the annual "Black Friday" feel-good-about-shopping story by the retail reporter, Kerry Clawson. Kerry was demoted from the theatre beat to beating the drums for over-consumption in the Akron area. Damn, that has to hurt: removed from writing about one of the most elevating things human beings can do -- creating theatre -- to writing about ant-heap behaviors of the gluttonous. Meanwhile, the theatre beat was compressed into a one-reporter-covers-all-the-arts format.

For a sad visual of what the ABJ's reporting has become, look at this page. Note the empty places in the (Arts &) Entertainment section as opposed to the full box of sports writers. George Thomas is gone and along with him any local perspectives of movies and the film industry. Now we get canned UPI syndicated reviews. "Names in the News" is listed as one of the entertainment columnists! They won't even give us a name for the person assigned to compile snippets of Hollywood gossip from the wire services! (And by the way, Jane Snow's name should no longer be listed under the Living Section columnists. She too has vanished from the ABJ's pages.)

Elaine Guregian was supposed to be elevated to "Culture Beat" reporter, adding theatre to her usual music and dance coverage. Well I defy anyone to find theatre coverage online at the Beacon any more. There is no "theater" added to Guregian's title underneath her phone, and looking at a list of all of her columns, I can see only three related to theatre over the past two months: Spamalot on tour in Cleveland, My Fair Lady at the Cleveland Playhouse and a national tour Man of La Mancha at EJ Thomas of LaMancha. What do all three of these have in common? Yes, they are big splashy musicals, but more importantly -- none of these productions were created in Akron by Akron theatre people. I'm not blaming Guregian -- she has had an enormous amount of work heaped upon her and we will put the blame squarely upon her superiors as to what stories she is allowed to cover. So far, its looking very much like corporate theatre uber alles.

I miss the weekly Theatre Notes column that Kerry Clawson provided for us theatre workers and consumers. The word "theater" or more properly "theatre," is not even granted its own listing on the Entertainment page. And what of the local theatres trying gamely to fill their seats so they can afford to keep producing theatre for our community? How are they managing to succeed with no local coverage? The only way to change things is to keep yammering at them via emails, letters to the editor and so on. Go here to make some noise.