Crazytown

HINDSIGHT 20/20

Have you ever wished you could go back and slap some sense into your younger self? Yeah, me too.
By Ali Gordon 

From the ages of 11-15, I needed guidance. Since I didn’t have an older sister to simultaneously respect and burn with envy over, no one was there to kick my proverbial ass when I was headed down the wrong path. Teenagerdom is a maze, and one I didn’t do a very good job navigating. Have you ever wanted to find your younger self and shake them, hard? I mean, really hard? Yeah, me too. Here are a few choice words I would have had for younger Ali.

• Your parents raised you well, Ali. They instilled a great deal of self-respect in you, and they taught you that your brain is the best thing about you. (Note: Ali, later in life, call up your parents and specifically thank them for instilling this in you. This information makes you feel better after all of your break-ups.) But also, Ali, it doesn’t hurt to look good, either. No, no, I’m not saying you should become vain, or value looks over personality, but would it really kill you to get a haircut? I mean, it’s down to your butt.

Lucky ladies and gents... this is a real picture of my real hair circa age 14. And it still looked that raggedy after AN HOUR AND A HALF of blowdrying! 

• One day you will be sitting in the car with your father and he will be playing an album by Harry Nilsson. After listening to his warbling for a while, you will angrily exclaim, “Dad, you only listen to music that absolutely sucks.” First off, Ali, don’t talk to your Dad like that. He’s awesome. Secondly, let me tell you now that at the age of 23, Nilsson Schmilsson is one of your very favorite albums. Surprise! Now, go get a haircut.

HEY NYC, WHERE ARE WE DRINKING OUTSIDE THIS SUMMER?

Mother's Day happened, Arrested Development Season 4 is about to happen (!!!!!), and I'd just really like a cold beverage.
By Alisha Giampola (Actor) 

It's finally almost Memorial Day, and while I'm just as guilty as the next New Yorker of spending most of the summer defaulting to Blockheads, this city is full of absolutely fabulous places to get your drink on al fresco. Not the least of which, of course, is Central Park. Read this and learn how to not get caught while guzzling champagne out of a Whole Foods bag.

Or you could just go ahead and skip any unnecessary steps and have a sensible flight of beer IN a Whole Foods, like fellow Crazytowner and classy lady Erin Sjostrom and I are about to do in this picture. 

Out of this fantastic selection, which place am I most excited about? Gallow Green, obvi. My obsession with Sleep No More knows literally no bounds. They also recommend a few places I personally have been and loved, including Berry Park, which makes some of the best Dark and Stormys on the planet. This list is also pretty thorough and because they also repeat-recommend both Gallow Green and Berry Park, I feel like we can trust it.

Outdoor drinking is one of the good things New Yorkers have to compensate them for having to live in the sixth circle of hell that is New York City during the summer. And by that, I mean that temperatures on the subway platform actually rival the sixth circle of hell. 

Drinking inside in the summer is great too. That most sacred of New Yorker experiences, Brunch, is a great thing to enjoy in an air conditioned space, since you probably are going to have upwards of 5 beverages in front of you (coffee, juice, mimosa, water, bloody mary, tea, etc) and also possibly an omelette. 

 
I used to really like this song. And then I waited tables for a while.

ANIMATION CEL BLOCK TANGO

Your favorite toe-tappers from an unlikely source...
By Ali Gordon 

Today's post is dedicated to unexpected and, ahem, unsung musical heroes... great music found in animated TV shows! And no, Disney movies and any sort of full-length film don't count. I'm talking 20 minute, animated, made-for-tv episodes with music that nails it. 

Strangely enough, "adult" cartoons like Family Guy have embraced the big-orchestra, full-chorus, pull-out-all-the-stops musical number as a means of humor and entertainment (think not just the Fat Man Anthem but also Shipoopi) but it's just not cutting it with "kids" cartoons anymore. Even the Arthur theme song is somehow superior to say, anything ever on Dora the Explorer. 

Why is that? Everyone loves music, and it's been proven that children learn better when lists and facts are set to music. Yet, somehow, the 90s were a time for killer music in animated shows. And many of them are underrated, still.

This may not count, because the song isn't found "in" the TV show, but Disney's PepperAnn had one of the best theme songs ever.

 

I'm sorry, but if this song didn't introduce all you soon-to-be musical theatre nerds to the notion of "screlting" I don't know what you were doing in your childhood. (P.S. It's freaking me out that this video was found on "retrojunk.com" because if this is 'retro' I'm offically old and going to jump off a bridge.)

And does this song stand the test of time? Let this cover answer that question for you.

 

(Hint: the answer is "yes.")

ART OUTSIDE THE CITY

A theater girl somehow ends up living in the Midwest-- am I doomed to an art-less existence? (Part 1)
By Lauren Silverman Durban (writer)

 “Don’t sing, Mom!”

It comes in a tiny but insistent voice from the back seat. I ignore it, and wait for the resigned toddler sigh.

My poor kids. At 5, 2, and not even 1 year old, they are well-acquainted with the fact that I DO sing, pretty much all. the. time. Someday they'll understand why.

I finished college exactly ten years ago. If you had shown that girl what my life looks like now, she definitely would have thought you were on drugs. Up to that point I had always lived in LA, and I was positive I’d spend my life doing something in the theater. I have always been obsessed with musicals, and did show after show, wherever I could get cast. It was my drug.

Today? Well, today I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. Let that sit for a second.

My house does not look like this.

But wait—we’re just getting started with the random. At 31 years old, I am “retired” after a seven-year career as a reporter and then an evening news anchor for the local ABC affiliate^[1]. I am married to the Executive Director of a children’s museum, I own a house in a suburb and, in addition to some freelance writing and marketing gigs, am raising the aforementioned three small children. Life’s funny, right? 

But here’s the truly shocking part—my life here is pretty awesome, and it is not without art.

CALL ME EMILY DICKINSON

What do a tiara, a Winnie the Pooh onesie & a famous poet have in common?                                                                                            By Gena Oppenheim (Writer)

This morning, while on line to get a coffee in Cobble Hill, there was a little girl in front of me dressed in what should be standard Sunday morning attire: a Winnie the Pooh onesie and pink tiara. Her mom was holding her hand, but Winnie kept pulling away. She seemed to be muttering something intensely. After a moment she started screaming passionately, "Call me Emily DickInson." Her exasperated mom firmly stated, "Molly what do you want for breakfast?" Winnie though, would have none of it. She grabbed her crown, threw it on the ground and said "MY NAME IS EMILY DICKINSON! CALL ME EMILY DICKINSON" She repeated this hysterically four more times.

Sighing, and noticing the long line behind her, the mom bent down and said gently, "Emily Dickenson, please retrieve your tiara and tell me what you´d like for breakfast?" After the poetess´ order had been placed, and the tiara and fury had been put back into place, the mother smiled at the rest of us and exclaimed, "If you think this is bad you should have seen her Sylvia Plath stage."

GENA OPPENHEIM Gena is a fourth generation New Yorker who teaches second-grade. She is a graduate of Barnard College and received her MFA from NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. http://twitter.com/#!/genabeans 

BORING IS EASY...YOU'RE GOODER THAN THAT!

Need some pep in your step?                                                            Gena Oppenheim (Writer)

Recently at the end of a frustrating writing day, where I spent more time googling  “the proper way to wash towels” then finishing a screenplay that's morphed into a non-fantastical Never-Ending Story, I bumped into my eight year old neighbor. We were both in line to get croissants, as one does at 8pm at night.  She asked about my day. When I mentioned about my writing frustrations, she patted my arm and said: “Don’t worry, Dr. Suess took forever to write his first book, then got rejected like a million times! Now he’s bigger than The Bible!”

In honor of my neighbor and wise kids everywhere, I wanted to share the below video… cause we all need reminding sometimes that "Boring is easy. Everybody can be boring, but you're gooder than that."

  

GENA OPPENHEIM Gena is a fourth generation New Yorker who teaches second-grade. She is a graduate of Barnard College and received her MFA from NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. http://twitter.com/#!/genabeans 

THEATRE ETIQUETTE

Shouldn't we already know this? Let's review...
by Loren A. Roberts (guru of multi-hyphenate media)

Quick mini-rant here today, because I attended an otherwise-wonderful performance at the Pasadena Symphony this weekend. It was a textbook case of what not to do at a show:

• When they get on the P.A. before the show and tell you to turn your cell phone off before the performance, it's not a guideline -- it truly kills the moment when your cell phone goes off right when the clarinet is hitting that transcendent high note. Turn the friggin' cell phone off. If you're too important to turn your cell phone off, you probably can afford to have the Symphony play at your private residence so you can answer the phone without disrupting our enjoyment of the show.
• When you bring children to a performance of any kind, go over the rules with them beforehand: no talking. No Gum Chewing and popping bubblegum. (Really!???!) No opening a bag of chips during the show. (Really!?!) Put the program down on the floor so that the kid is not rustling the papers through the whole performance.
• Even if the venue is not completely full, find your seat number and sit in it. Don't assume that you can sit anywhere. Unfortunately, right before the show starts, you are going to have to move because you are in someone else's seats.
• I have experienced many different parts of the world (including here in L.A.), and I love smells. But I don't love smells that I can't get away from, and I have family members who are allergic. If you're going to be sitting next to me, please shower, make sure that the coat you only wear once a year doesn't smell like mothballs, and go light on the perfume/cologne. Pleeeease!

There are plenty of concert/theatre etiquette lists online [here, here, and here are a few]. Make yourself and all of your friends aware of them, and let's make the show wonderful for everyone involved.

LOREN A. ROBERTS produces films, videos and music, designs magazines and logos, plays and sings in a rock-and-roll tribute band, and is a student of what happens when science and technology and the arts and culture collide. www.hearkencreative.com
EMAIL HIM |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

LISTEN TO THE OTHER SIDE: PART 2

Last week, I talked to Melanie Closs and Rebecca Hackett-Levy about The Other Side and their new piece, LISTEN. This week, we discuss Theatre of the Oppressed, Cultural Competency, and creating a new work in eight hours.
By Rachel James (Treasurer/Writer)

Once Melanie decided she would be going back to India to create a sustainable theatre course at Pardada Pardadi, she wanted to enlist the help of fellow teachers and theatre practitioners to bring her vision to life. Enter director/facilitator Rebecca Hackett-Levy.

“I wanted to be involved just because I, one - love Melanie, two - love the way she works, [and] three - I like the subject matter: the wandering woman; the idea of being a conscientious artist and a conscientious woman.”

In order to create the piece, Melanie and Rebecca gave their actors (four girls, ages 14 and 15) a crash course in Theatre of the Oppressed. A method created by Augusto Boal (and explained in his titular book), it is theatre by the people and for the people. “It is theatre that is meant to empower people,” said Melanie. “It’s not theatre ‘for’ the oppressed, it’s theatre ‘of’ the oppressed.”

Not only does this methodology help the people to share their stories, it’s also an exercise in finding solutions. “The idea is that if you can act out, if you can practice - rehearse - some action that you can take in this controlled theatrical environment” she continued, “you can then go out in the real world and actually implement those actions. It’s like a rehearsal for the real world.”

Rehearsing LISTEN in Brooklyn.  Photo courtesy of The Other Side.

Rebecca created a curriculum from which they worked. They brought in various pieces of inspiration, such as facts about life for modern American women, articles about current affairs in India, and documents from feminist history, such as the Declaration of Sentiments from the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. The actors then used those pieces, as well as their own histories, to create a narrative on what it’s like to be a girl in America today. And they did all this in eight hours.

LISTEN TO THE OTHER SIDE: PART 1

In this two-parter, I sit down with new theatre company, The Other Side, to discuss their new project, LISTEN.  Like pen pals. But with theatre.
By Rachel James (Treasurer/Writer) 

In trying to expand my cultural consuming horizons, I decided to go see a piece 
some friends of mine were developing called LISTEN.  In it, four teenage girls 
discuss what it is like to be a girl growing up in America in the 21st century, 
using poetry, tableau, and their own stories. This piece will then be brought to 
the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society in Anoopshahr, Bulandshahr, 
Uttar Pradesh, India.  In witnessing this piece,the girls at Pardada Pardadi will 
develop their own piece about what it’s like to be a girl growing up in rural India. 
As The Other Side states...it’s like pen pals, but with theatre.

Melanie Closs is the creative mind behind The Other Side.  Originally, it started 

as a piece she created about what it’s like to be an other.  During 2009/2010,

she travelled to over twenty countries, adding to the piece and changing it with 

the different experiences she encountered.  It culminated in a two person show 

at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  And while it was about her experiences 

traveling, a lot of it focused on her time in India.

“It was just the strongest experience I had being an other in a culture.  Because 

I was in a village, was the only white person for miles and miles; It was [a] real... I wouldn’t say culture shock, because I had gone through the shock 

already going to all these other countries.  But it was definitely the biggest 

cultural difference.”

"WHEN I GROW UP I WILL BE A SPY. I WILL BE THE BEST SPY THERE EVER WAS."

On growing up, but not completely. 
By Alisha Giampola (Actor)

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a lot of things when I grew up. Which is why I became an actor. Hypothetically, the plan was to get to vicariously be all those things I wanted to be while I was growing up, but never actually have to get a degree that specialized in any of them. This seemed like a great plan, although I think I forgot that REAL lawyers and princesses actually make a lot more money than most actors. 

Mostly, what I wanted to be for most of my childhood, was Harriet The Spy. 

I mean, look at her. She just oozes cool. This is a girl that sees everything and then writes it down in her notebook. She has SPY TOOLS. She loves tomato sandwiches, just like me!! She hates math, just like me!!! And best of all: she actually sneaks into other people's houses and spies on them.

That is what I liked best about Harriet...her audaciousness. And, of course, that she was as interested in other people as I was. She watched ordinary people doing ordinary things in their everyday lives and wondered why they were doing them- and if, perhaps there were sinister or criminal motives behind their actions.

People-watching became my new favorite sport. I actually asked my mother to buy me a composition book, just like the kind Harriet used, so I could write down everything I saw in block letters, like she did. I decided I needed to follow a "spy route", just like Harriet, but I was only allowed to walk by myself in our neighborhood as far as the road that interesected with the entrance to the subdivision. This enormously limited the amount of people for me to spy on, and I longed to live in Manhattan, like Harriet, where interesting people lived with 26 cats or dumbwaiters. No one in my neighborhood seemed to have anything even remotely that fascinating, but I dutifully wrote down everything I saw in my notebook: "CURTAINS CLOSED IN ALL WINDOWS OF GREEN HOUSE NEXT DOOR. WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?"