A PIECE OF MY HEART

here are pictures of Shirley Lauro's A PIECE OF MY HEART, produced at the playwright's center by theatre unbound.
based on a book by the same title, it's the story of women in vietnam, and the playwright was there opening night --called it one of the most moving producitons she's seen (also said in a post show talk that since 9/11 this is the third most requested show from samuel french).... at the end, i've posted a review that i couldn't find a link to.
it's two army nurses, a navy nurse, a red cross donught dolly, an army intelligence officer, and a USO girl (and one talented man who plays all the GIs, officers, and civilian men they come in contact with). the first act is how they got there, and their experiences in vietnam, and the second act deals with coming back and re-aclimating. it's bookended by them attending the dedication of the wall
it was set in the round, with platforms that had images from the war on them...with puzzle pieces missing. theatre in the round is an intense experience, and especially beautiful in this case, when on opening night there were so many veteran's there whose reactions became a part of the experience.



at The Wall Ceremony


the last image of the play, finally recognized and welcomed home


Mary Jo Kincaid, lead singer of the Sugar Candies All Girl Band, on the last night in SF before the USO tour


singing the Air Force song on the flight into Vietnam ("we'll live in fame, or go down in flames..."


a Head Nurse describes the series of Quanset Huts set up for the hospital

a series of descriptions and reactions to Tet:




they form intense personal relationships...




and they have good times too...

Mary Jo and the "Sugar Candies" performing "Proud Mary" for a group of Marines... you can see how the other actors flow in and out of supporting roles, it's an interesting challenge for costumes.

and then they come home to another life, and other expectations


The Sugar Candies are told by their agent that he can barely reimburse them for airfare, never mind the $1,000 a month they were promised


"in Vietnam, I was treated different, trusted." Martha and Leeann discuss the treatment they get in hospitals stateside, not being allowed to hang an IV, being trained in CPR



Leeann is met at the airport by a Gold Star father, who lost his only son in Nam and meets incoming flights to help returning vets make their planes. (if you think that's my dad's windbreaker, you're right)



Martha's army father assumes she'll stay in the Navy for the benefits and a career...she's unsure



they find therapy groups, ways to talk about things no one understands...they respond to commute traffic helicopters, the color khaki green, christmas songs...nothing is the same for them.




Review from Matthew Everett

Review - A Piece of My Heart
Filed under 5 Star Shows - Best I've Seen

They have plenty of Kleenex on hand in the lobby at Theatre Unbound's
production of Shirley Lauro's testament to women caught up in the Vietnam
War, A Piece of My Heart. And by the time the play is done, those tissues
are needed.

A sensitive acquaintance of mine had to leave at intermission - even though
the part of the play dealing directly with the war was over, and the
characters were headed back home. He's a gentle soul, and the first half of
the piece was powerful enough that he had to step away and process it all.

The playwright herself, in town for opening night, described this
presentation as "one of the top regional productions I have seen." A Tony
and Drama Desk Award nominee, produced both around the country and around
the world, Ms. Lauro's seen quite a bit of her work on stage.

There's a reason for these strong reactions. This is a powerful production
of an equally powerful play.

Inspired by the book by Keith Walker, A Piece of My Heart follows the
journeys of six women into the war - four as nurses, one as an intelligence
officer, one as an entertainer - and back out again.

This was in a time before the notion of "support the troops," whether or not
you agreed with the war itself, was not commonplace. The great crime is that
even after surviving a harrowing tour of duty in Vietnam, just like the
soldiers, when these women came home, they were still not safe. The first
peril was physical, the second and more long-lasting trouble, which followed
them home, was psychological.

It is strange to say - or perhaps good to say - but no one performance in A
Piece of My Heart stands out, apart from the others. The stories, and the
performances, are all interwoven, though they each travel very different
paths. This is truly an ensemble effort. It is the collective weight of
these six stories that packs an emotional punch. This group effort is the
commendable work of both the cast and the guidance of their director, Maggie
Bearmon Pistner.

There is the military brat (Beth Chaplin) who followed in her father's
footsteps and lived to regret it. There is the singer (Mary Jo) who gets a
lot more than she bargained for when she goes to entertain the troops. There
is the small town girl (Anna Olson) who just wants to get out and see the
world. There is the intelligence officer (Lori M. Neal) who has her valuable
insights devalued because she is a woman. There is a well-bred young woman
(Angela Marsh) who volunteers with the Red Cross in order to change her
sheltered existence. And there is the Asian-American pacifist (Sophronia
Liu), in search of a place where the majority of the other people look like
her for a change.

All of these women find what they're looking for, but it comes at a high
price. It is only by coming together again, and reopening the old wounds,
that they can begin to heal, and make something of their shattered lives.

This is strong stuff, but worth it.

The set (by Mark Koski), props (by Roxanne Skarphol) costumes (by Andrea M.
Gross) and sound (by Montana Johnson) are all deceptively simple. The stage
is a series of small platforms of different heights with spaces in between.
On the surface of the platforms are old military posters and other artwork,
broken down into puzzle piece form, always with a couple of pieces missing
or misplaced. The props are few. The clothes offer only a couple of
different looks. From this most basic of foundations, the cast creates
multiple characters (many supporting roles surrounding the primary ones) and
multiple locations over time. Fully engaging the audience's imagination with
these raw materials, the production works its considerable magic.

Mention also needs to be made of Edward Linder who plays all the men - and
there are many of them - that pass through the lives of these women before,
during and after the war. Keeping the many soldiers and civilians from not
blending together is tricky work, and he handles it well.

There's not a weak link in the bunch.

In a time when our country is once again questioning the motives and tactics
of a war in another part of the world, this production is especially timely.
But even if we weren't in such a time, this play would still resonate. In
order to avoid making the same mistakes again, we need to see them clearly.

Shirley Lauro's play, and Theatre Unbound's staging of it, show us a
troubled time without flinching. It's the kind of thing that a live
connection with an audience does best.

Highly recommended.

A Piece of My Heart runs through March 18, 2006. All performances are at The
Playwrights' Center - 2301 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis Tickets are $16
- Discounts for students, seniors, veteran/active military & groups - Info:
www.theatreunbound.com - Reservations: 612-721-1186

SNOWDAY!

so here's what it looked like at my house on monday... hasn't actually snowed since, but things are still kind of a mess. i mean, they have the snow thing figured out here, but it's still a lot of half melted crap everywhere.
show pics of A PIECE OF MY HEART still to come, but i'm out of time this morning... soon!




(that's ten inches of snow on my car... when i did leave, the space next to mine had been plowed, but it took me half an hour to get everything off my car. three cheers for myrtle the turtle and all wheel drive!!!!)

posted:

i'm looking for flexible work again, the chinese restaraunt didn't pan out.

meh.

the skies have been relatively blue, it hasn't been that cold, but i'm feeling burnt out the last two days, like i'd rather just hibernate. and i feel like there is SO much still to be done and dealt with in terms of the upcoming shows. A PIECE OF MY HEART dresses on tuesday, and is mostly assembled. the others are...nebulous.
the gig at the chinese restaurant's been good, i think it's going quite well, but the owner wants to talk to me (which i think is routine), and it's making me nervous. i'm terrified of having to search for another flexible job if this one doesn't pan out. so think good thoughts for me, i'll keep you posted...

working....too much, too little, and everywhere in between (also, SHOW PICS)

i had a job, through the temp agency --finally!-- and it sucked. a lot. data entry on adoption records. one chair, one computer screen, eight hours. over a thousand cards entered a day, double entry (surname, surname, man's name, man's name, maiden name, maiden name, woman's name, woman's name)...the only thing remotely interesting is how obvious i thought it was that some guy at ellis island just made up how your name is spelled (atkins: a-t-k-i-n-s, a-d-k-i-n-s, a-i-t-k-i-n-s).... and that was the INTERESTING part.
however, i wasn't scrubbing toilets or flipping burgers, and i could appreciate that. i renewed my relationship with my iPod (tho it turns out dj spree is NOT conducive to repetitive spelling activities). i met some people i wouldn't have met otherwise (thinly veiled euphamism), and then on friday they found someone else to do the job. and i was relieved in some ways, but had hoped to find something else on my own first. however, the second of the two weeks i had this job was also tech for SCAPIN (photos below), which meant 8 hours of that, 2 hours to do 4-5 hours of work/errands, driving to st. paul for rehearsal and coming home at 11:30 to get up at 5:30 and start over. boooooo. no time to look for other work.
so that friday, after being told i'd been replaced, i came straight here to the coffee house and started checking craigslist. there's an upscale chinese restaraunt three blocks from my place looking for day shifts --i went straight there. grubby jeans, hat on my head (turns out this cute new haircut is more high maintnence than working that early in the morning would allow), no restaraunt experience. boom, here i am. had a good conversation with the woman chef/owner on friday and a great conversation with her on sunday. tonight and tomorrow nights i'll start training. it's minimum wage for 15-20 hours of training and then host starts at 8, plus the servers tip out to the cashier, host, and kitchen. could go up to 10-15.... i'm genuinely excited...the idea of making some one's meal experience pleasant and memorable is really attractive to me, and the owner (tammy) and i definitely got good impressions of each other. so that's cool.
AND NOW FOR THE REALLY EXCITING NEWS!!!
on wednesday night, the costume shop manager from colorado shakespeare called:
"andrea, it's lee dumbrowski, how are you?"
"(laugh) well, i have to be at dress rehearsal in 12 minutes and i haven't figured out what i'm eating for dinner yet"
"hahahah... i know how that goes"
so we talked on thursday morning and she gave me the weekend to consider her offer --monday morning i called back and confirmed that i will be the painter/dyer for the 2006 season at colorado. not the assistant, not the apprentice, THE painter/dyer. the season is THE TEMPEST, AS YOU LIKE IT, & MERCHANT OF VENICE. the designer for TEMPEST uses a lot of paint techniques for (i guess) texture and highlight and shadow, but lee assures me that she's very hands on and will demonstrate how do what she wants. the other two will be more straightforward (dyeing to match...which is actually rarely simple, making something purple that was red, etc).
i am very very very excited and thrilled and you get the idea. i've wanted to be in colorado since... i guess since i was in the rockies in 2003 with laurie and dave and their friends. ROADTRIP! BOULDER OR BUST!

here's some SCAPIN.... it's a great, timeless commedia story, modern translation of Moliere....
(apologies, apologies, now that i've got the whole thing loaded i realized you'll have to turn your head 90degrees because i didn't rotate the images. so sorry....if i go back and fix it now i'll never get the rest of my day done)

there are these two old tightwads, who each have a son and a servant (stay with me, here, Argante's family is in cool colors and Geronte's is in warm, you can't get lost)





and each of the sons loves a girl their fathers don't approve of....


Hyacinth (in brown, beloved of Octave, who turns out to be Geronte's daughter) and Zerbinette (in black, who turns out to be the long lost child of Argante)

so the servants, Scapin the schemer (in the brown) and Silvestre -not so bright, but easily beguiled into playing along (in the blue) embark on a big adventure of tricks and schemes (including putting one of the old men in a bag and beating him with nerf bats...it's priceless)







and, as "a comedy requires" it all ends well... couples married, Scapin married off to Hyacinth's serving woman
Nerine (who enters periodically as a mystery woman looking for "Signore Pandolfe"-- Geronte's alias), and the fathers happy.


Leandre the Scrub and Zerbinette the Gypsy Girl (mysterious and sexy Nerine in the background)


Octave the Stylish and his lovely Hyacinth

presto change-o

YESTERDAY



TODAY!

not a rhetorical question. also, not a weather report

(altought outside the window a small terrier just went by wearing booties).

ok, here's the question, for survey, debate, or conversation....
what's the deal with the pressure you put on yourself?

do you find yourself hung up about where you are with your life or what you're doing in a moment or a friendship, and upon further inspection discover that the only reason you're angsty is because of some internal expectation or pressure?
and when that happens, and you acknowledge that it's a pressure or expectation of your own making, does it go away? and if not, why not? how is it that acknowledgement isn't enough to bring peace?

thoughts?

la la la!

the sun is out, the sky is blue, and i lied, the content of this blog apparently WILL be a weather report!
hahahahahahahaha!

coming down the pipe. or whatever

someone once corrected me and said that that expression is actually "coming down the pike", but as i don't live in a place with turnpikes, and can't imagine what a large whitefish has to do with it, i'll go with my version.

by april 1st, i will have opened four shows and been to the usitt conference in louisville. i may have mentioned that before, but let me just say that now that i'm in the process, and facing 40hours/week of work from a temp agency (data entry, for an adoption agency, starting maybe monday), i'm ASTOUNDED by it. the truth of the matter (which seems a little more evident, and upbeat, today that yesterday, or more accurately in this moment than in the ones on either side), is that i just spend three years living a minimum of 70hours/week of work. and frankly, the thing that was hardest for me from august until now was the lack of structure and busy-ness in my life. so here i go.

it's hard to even remember the chipperness with which i reported blue skies when i returned --it's grey, grey, grey, and although i have nothing to really complain about at 22degrees and warmer (i mean, this is january in the frozen north, it could and probably will be MUCH worse), i have to say that the grey grey grey, i am over. as i type, literally, a bright spot beams through the clouds. this is what passes for sun at this time of the year. 10 am, and peeping over the roof top of the three story building across the street is spot bright enough to blind you momentarily if you get too greedy and look too closely, but not bright enough to actually impart a smile or any vitamins.

all in all, though, it's ok. i'm busy, which i crave, and the days fly by toward visits with jacob and spring time weather. it will all work itself out. the first show to open is SCAPIN, which will be fun, and then SLAG HEAP, A PIECE OF MY HEART, and TANGO. there may be fewer posts until this insanity is over, but hopefully there will be pictures soon. can't wait to show you my work... in spite of how busy i am, and the fabulous tourism promotion i've just done, you should come visit. it's a great town no matter what time of year.... =)

from blue skies to blue skies....

from 50 degrees to 30...not that bad, all things considered.
from potholes to potholes and from too much going on to too much to do. and that's about where the similarities between california and minneapolis end...
it was a trip. a certifiable time...
thai food, good visits, shakin it in san jo and san francisco (peter's fabled pink lives up to its reputation for fine beats in a totally unpretentious atmosphere), christmas decorations, warm meals and great wine with friends from far and wide, RAIN, getting to show jacob my "natural habitat" (although it's been rightly stated that i don't have a natural habitat), the redwoods, the coast, the tidepools, the food, the reconnecting with long losts, the champagne toasts and new years kisses without the miles between, the arranging of sofa beds in the RAIN, the magic of sea ranch (where we're all adolescent, for better and worse, no matter how close to thirty we get), more thai food, bellying up to the bar at the peso drinking birthday jaeger with maya, willie brown at the globe and guiness creme brulee, pancakes and grilled cheese on a saturday....
happy new year

wrapping up

man, it's like a vacuum in here. for weeks the hive activity of exams has made it hard to find a seat in this cafe, and almost harder to draw a deep breath. today they must all be in classrooms expelling their knowledge, as it's wide open and chatty in my neighborhood caffinated office.
i've been busy getting ready to come home california on thursday, but not nearly as busy as this time of year usually finds me. i've an interview tonight, and a production mtg i've been busily designing for tomorrow night. found a technique with photoshop that i love and am very excited about.
the weather's been warmer recently, today it was 31 when i got up so i walked to the post office instead of driving. it's a little less than an hour round trip, and it felt good to do something outside besides scrape off my car and get in it. we're supposed to get 10 inches of snow by friday, but as long as it doesn't interfere with my plane i don't care.
let it snow!
let blow!
i'm going home where my toes will be warm!
anybody need anything, want anything, remember something i told you i'd bring with me? better let me know fast and hope there's room for it in the as yet unpacked duffle bag....

and, it's BELOW ZERO

at 11 am. with beautiful blue skies and lovely sunshine.
but none the less, it's below zero.

things are going reasonably well, a possible contract dispute is reportedly being worked out, and i'll be home for christmas soon. i mailed my applications to utah shakes and santa fe opera today, for summer employment. that at least makes me feel like i'm doing something for my self.
i have two shows lined up in the spring, one paying, one not (but so funny.... a modern translation of moliere's SCAPIN that is just clever and witty and rocks). and other than that i'm looking for income, trying to figure out what to do about the state of things here.
right now i think i'm placing unreasonable hope on the fact that when i come back in january the days won't be so short. yeah, that should fix everything.

CLOSE the SOA

i hope everyone's holiday was sweet and happy, and travels were safe.
i've been on the road an unprecedented amount the past two weeks. i went to st. louis, and louisville, with jacob to his family for thanksgiving, which was great.
the weekend prior i rode on a bus to georgia and back with Veterans for Peace to protest at Ft. Benning, where the US Army spends your tax dollars to run a school for foreign military. the imperialist notions that everyone should be like us should be reason enough to shut the place down, but the methods of torture, intimidation, and murder taught there have led to it's nickname of the School of the Assassins. you've heard of this place and its works, even if you haven't known it. 900 dead in el mozote; 6 Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter executed at the University of Central America; 4 churchwomen raped and butchered (more, admitadly propaganda-ized, information here)

here are photos of my trip... it was moving, and envigorating, even in the face of the horror you're trying to extinguish.

we left at 9:30am on friday, from the veterans' hospital in minneapolis. it was a 26 hour bus ride each way.


sunset in illinois (above) and sunrise in alabama:





saturday is an all day rally at the gates of Ft. Benning, and sunday morning there is a solemn procession, with the known names of victims read, while protesters carry crosses bearing names.




an organization i am honored to have been affiliated with...

the main gate, a focal point of the protest in years past, was covered by the Army during the day on Friday in order to thwart the protester's attempts to re-assign value to its symbols (you'll see in a moment how that worked out for them):




these buddhist monks walked 150 miles from atlanta

emily saliers of the indigo girls

from our bus, the mother and sister of mary swenson, a founding activist in the movement to close the SOA, who died this year.... and below, people from our minneapolis bus wait for the funeral procession to begin


i don't know these people, but their cranes were so vibrant and intense


hear the music? "this little light of mine, i'm gonna let it shine..." these women are nuns and sisters from our bus, and we got good and warm in the early morning mist on sunday

signs from both days....



(local response, although generally supportive and welcoming, has also generated a counter-protest in recent years, called "God Bless Ft. Benning Day" --this was the rearranged sign we passed on sunday morning)







sunday morning's funeral march....this is what 19,000 activists looks like.


the procession is lead by pallbearers and a puppet


followed by a reading of the names of victims. the crowd raises their crosses and responds: "Presente!"


the procession leads to the gates, where the pallbearers have become victims


even shrowded in Army-issue brown plastic, the gate becomes a monument to loss and hope:


as an act of civil disobedience, some protesters who have prepared for civil action, and had to travel a ways from the main gate, crawl under the fence. military police waited for them, cuffed and removed them from the area... one of the most moving stories i heard was of a blind man who crossed the line and how gentle the mps were with him

first minnesota snow!

yes, it's different than illinois snow. no, i'm not as excited about it as that exclamation point implies.
it snowed last night, and today it's twenty degrees with a stiff wind that must drop that figure significantly. my boots are warm, but also strange to walk and drive in as there's less ankle flexibility than...not wearing boots, i guess.
i've come to a new cafe today for internet access, the tea garden on hennepin, where there are indoor fountains on either side of the door bursting with fake lotuses and chrysanthemums. the tea is good, but the decor doesn't fool me, i know how cold it is out there.
to combat the cold (not really, i have better reasons) i've decided to go to georgia for the weekend, to participate in the protests there. i'll be gone from friday to monday, and turn around on tuesday to head to st. louis for a week over thanksgiving. two sets of travel, equally important emotionally but substantially different in content. it's recently occured to me that prior to grad school, there was more to my individuality than costume design (doesn't seem like much of an epiphany, but it was a pretty bright light to me) ...and as it's clear that i won't make a comfortable living off of design in this town this year, perhaps i can apply what my temp agency considers to be brilliant data entry abilities to an office i believe in. so i'm looking for paid (office type) work in the not-for-profit sector....suggestions would be welcome. i'm hoping the more than 24 hours of travel in a bus with the group Veterans for Peace will lead to some connections, whether profitable or otherwise. i'm looking forward to being able to meet people who will widen my experiences here in the cities.

ahhh, unemployment.

well... it's getting colder and more blustery, but no snow yet. actually, right now it's very nice out.
the weather's conducive to curling up in my dad's armchair and reading, and i've started both a collection of Kate Chopin's short stories (which i'm re-reading), and a book i bought a year ago but was somehow not in the right headspace for until now, "The Business of Theatrical Design" ...i'm not so far into yet, but i'm finding it interesting and useful.
everyone seems to be slowing down just a little and we're all reconnecting with each other --last sunday i ate with lora and lacy at this totally awesome st. paul place called "mickey's diner" and last night katie, courtney and jon took me to cleaveland wok for chinese. i was expecting "good, considering it's buffet" and it was just plain awesome. outstanding potstickers and garlic green beans. it's been good to feel not so overwhelmed that i can't talk to or see anyone.
now i just need some income!
this business of finding a way to be comfortable in my skin and happy in my work continues...somedays the path seems a little better lit than others, but overall it's ok.
how are you?

signs that it's cold and will be colder...

* squirrels have recently tripled in size. i swear i saw one take down a yorkshire terrier yesterday.
* you can see your breath until NOON (but you're so cool that you're still wearing a heavy sweater, scarf and cap, no coat)
* you can judge the hour by the shade and tone of the grey sky, you suddenly have the impression that you haven't seen any blue in days and days.
* it gets dark at five o'clock. (ok, not yet...the sun goes down at 5 though)
* you spend a pre-apportioned chunk of pay check on boots and do a little happy dance when zappos.com tells you you've been randomly selected for faster shipping.

ok, that list seems weak. i'll work on it. have to run now, but find some sunshine and send it to me!!!!

reviewed in CITYPAGES

i think this review is pretty concise.... of course, they weren't wearing any clothes, nor were the scenery, lighting or props significant. but nonetheless, it's a review...

thanks for the support, again.

yesterday i called opera theatre st.louis, and they have hired someone else for the position of costume design assistant. so someone else gets to go to st.louis and have my dream job....
on a brighter note, i got a parking space behind my building. so there you go.

phew.

heard from blue cross blue shield on saturday.... after a long bureaucratic road, i have health insurance. so thanks for holding your breath, or praying, or crossing your fingers, or dancing over chicken bones for me. now i can start wading through the next level of tape, red and otherwise...