December Reflections
Doing
Enjoying the Heights Decorations
Although I did not get to Dyker Heights this year, I did walk around my neighborhood in the heights and got to see all the holiday decorations here. I thoroughly enjoyed the fire escape snowmen and reindeer and the bare tree branches laced with multi-colored twinkle lights. There were also many Hanukkah decorations throughout the neighborhood and lit menorahs in multiple windows. (Can you tell I love the winter holidays?)
Making Cookies
Yes, there is always one food-related activity in the “Doing” section, what can I say I am a born glutton. I love food and making Christmas cookies is a time-honored Eloise tradition. I got to make these with my brother and his mom and squabble over icing colors and design choices - for what are the holidays without gentle teasing and light-hearted arguments? My favorite cookie (not pictured) was the awful one I made that was supposed to say “Merry x-mas ya filthy animal”.
Washington DC Work Trip
This month I got to sit on a double decker bus for hours to visit Washington D.C. I truly love road trips and getting out of the city was incredibly refreshing. Washington DC is beautiful, but, I have to say, does not make any sense. Everything is either very near or very far away - just like the streets are very narrow or very wide. I did, however, enjoy the long walks along the Mall(?) and visiting the portrait gallery, which was quite beautiful.
Reading
French Waitress and other plays by John Patrick Shanley
French Waitress, An Old Story, Poland, Last Night In the Garden I Saw You and Tennessee comprise this multi-work book by Shanley. These are all plays about love - starting love, being in love, on the brink of losing it and having already had heartbreak. This seems to be the theme tying them together as each play features some sort of couple talking about their feelings - although each short is entirely different from the other.
Complete Works Vol. 4 by Harold Pinter
Old Times, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, Monolgue and Family Voices comprised this volume. I checked this out of the library because I honestly had never read any Pinter and I was inspired to check it out as one of my recent self-tapes featured a reference to him. Funnily enough, this volume had the play that was being referenced in the script I was taping. All of these plays are so kooky and unique- they are trage-comedies and absurdist but each is so funny and touching, I will definitely be reading more.
This Day Forward by Nicky Silver
This is not one of the funnier Nicky Silver plays - it was actually quite depressing. This play is about a man who marries a woman only to find out (on their wedding night) that she is in love with someone else. We follow them throughout the course of this evening before meeting with the again many years later to find out what their lives have turned out to be. I don’t know if this is a commentary on the inevitability of soulmates or the resentment that can grow in situations you feel trapped in.
Seeing
Between Riverside and Crazy
Boy oh boy was this a show. Absolutely wonderful. Honestly the worst part of the show was Common - I had seen him in films but he seemed incredibly uncomfortable on stage and very much not in his element. Everyone else was phenomenal. It was like they had gone inside my brain and taken what I had pictured when I read this play for the first time, tweaked it and opened it on Broadway.
1776
This musical, however, was not great. I may be biased because I am not a huge fan of musicals but I was not impressed after seeing this show. I appreciated the songs and the range of the actors on stage was incredible - one woman was pregnant and fully rocking out on the violin. However, the play itself seemed to be poorly written and any attempt to update it and modernize it fell short because of the deficiencies in the script.
Jane Anger
When this play was first put on at the New Ohio, I worked as the Covid Compliance Officer, Wardrobe Supervisor and SFX manager. And yes, it was a lot. This brilliant play by Talene Monahon featuring Amelia Workman, Ryan Spahn and Michael Urie is so much fun but I had never gotten to sit in the audience to see it! The work trip to DC allowed me to just be an audience member and enjoy these actors’ talent (and see the “Eloise” rig in action)!