Yesterday I went to see THE PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER at the New York Fringe Festival.
GO SEE IT (tickets and info here or here) you have three more chances. Its as good a show as you will ever see and one the greatest one person shows I've ever seen. Trust me I've seen hundreds if not thousands of shows over the last 20 years and its that good.
Anyway- sitting in the front row I had a seat free next to me- and this woman behind me asked if it was free and I said yes. So she comes around and takes the seat.
Now picture this - its an older woman in her late 70's early 80's. She has a top hat on, a black Japanese manga/anima goth girl shortish dress on, stockings and four inch platform shoes. I'm thinking go girl....
And then the play starts.
The play is Dorothy Parker in her residential hotel room in 1943 talking to an invisible girl sent to help her put together the titled book.
And I'm loving the show. And the people around me are loving the show- except for the geriatric goth chick next to me, She freaking hates the show.
First she starts opening and closing her pursue to take cheese out of her purse to eat it. Its very deliberate open the purse-fish around- find it- take it out-unwrap it- take a bite-rewrap it-open the purse put it in close the purse.
She does this a couple of times- and mind you we're not that long into the play- and then she does the whole open the purse thing- but instead of cheese- she takes out her phone- and she checks the time and then puts it back,
She starts to do this every five minutes- 25 after 7, 730, 735...
...time for cheese... no-not cheese.... letters- this woman takes out letters and starts to read them. Out of the envelopes- opening the envelopes- unfolds the letters and she reads them....
And remember this twit is in the front row- FRONT ROW- in a theater so small the front row means you're as close to her as you would be if you were sitting with her at a small table. And this twit keeps freaking doing this....
And all I'm thinking is how do I stop this bitch? I mean I can't say anything or nudge her or drop poison in her ear because I too am in the front row....
But you know what happened. She who should be dropped in a pit of fire finally stopped. Amazingly somewhere around and hour in she stopped and pretended to go to sleep. I guess all the extra activity wore her out.
But you know what the best part is? The best part - and one of the reasons that Margot Avery gave one of the greatest performances I've ever seen on stage was that she never blinked, never looked at her, never broke character, never left the moment- she went on from start to finish straight on to morning.
God bless Margot Avery
When it was done the rudest audience member I've ever seen chatted with the people she knew and headed off. (One can hope she'll be hit by a bus)
As we left my friend Mary and I told Ms Avery we loved the show (she was breaking down the set herself) and we headed off.
Margot Avery rocks.
You need to go see the show before the Fringe ends. Tickets and info can be found here or here. As I said you have three shots at this show.
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I half-jokingly want to ask if anyone wants to help run Unseen Films because I’ve hit the wall.
For the first time since the early days I really don’t have a huge bank of pieces sitting and waiting to jump up on your computer screens. Yes I have things planned to November but that’s because I took the incase pieces- about 18 repost pieces- and slotted them after the New York Film Festival. After that I have nothing. Other than a week of bad movies for Thanksgiving. I’m clear until eternity
The reason for it is twofold- first it’s taking a great deal of time just doing ‘BS office stuff’ . I’m fielding requests, trying to match up films with writers and simply trying to make sure pieces are getting up. I’m falling into long discussions with PR people who want stuff ASAP on my end but drag their feet on theirs. I’m losing time dancing around one MINOR film when I could be doing two or three other better films.
The other part of the reason is that the way things are coming is its either all at once or nothing. For example I’ll get five requests for films all coming out on the same day with no real notice but little in the way of future releases.(Correction I’m getting a ton of stuff for midday screenings which I can’t go to unless I use a vacation day from the day job) Everyone wants their film covered now. The problem its not just now. It’s the 90 minutes to watch the film plus the additional two hours or more writing the piece on that film that’s the problem. I don’t have time to work ahead. (And having too many films lined up is resulting in shorter pieces).
Going whole hog into festivals like NYAFF, Japan Cuts and Fantasia devours even more time. Over dinner Tuesday night Joe Bendel was trying to get me to cover less films at festivals- I don’t need to cover everything. I know I don’t but I like to see as much as possible and share it.
The weird nothing/too much feeling is like I’m either dancing around in a field all alone when there is nothing going on or being crushed against closing walls when multiple requests come in.
I know I’ve been hinting at this the last couple of weeks, but everything just came to the head in the last ten days when four interview opportunities showed up and I got hit with requests for coverage for more than a bunch of films in the next two weeks.
My head exploded.
I’m thrilled that I’m getting stuff tossed my way- but I also want to walk away and never watch another film ever again.
Not to worry I have a plan.
Well I have a vague idea of a scheme that may turn into a plan. We’ll see what happen.
For right now I suggest you keep reading to see if or when it either falls apart or comes together.
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And now Randi's links:
Art works that never were
Literal Dehumanization: Erasure of the Black Face in Hollywood
The move away from comments sections
On Lord Horror and it's battles with censorship (adult content and not for most people)
JFK conspiracies debunked- except one
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