August 9, 2010
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Vanguardia: A Theatre Night To Remember
Our little festival that could. Vanguardia was exactly what Cutting Ball had hoped for: a festive evening featuring contemporary Latino voices, a packed house (the most the theatre has ever squeeze into its seats) and some amazing work on the stage by actors, directors and playwrights.
It was a long day. Mine was just sorta long. I arrived at 2:30pm to help print and fold programs. There were others who were at the theater at 10 am resetting lights and organizing cues for the show.
And how did time fly by. While I was wrestling with the printer and getting lovely black ink all over my hands (that thankfully washed off), there were people decorating the lobby, picked up the delicious tamales from La Palma (a Mexicatessen in the Mission), running the final tech rehearsals, running lines and prepping for the Intermission and post-show party.
I was nervous. More nervous than I’ve been in a while. I think the first time I’ve felt that nervous was the first time I had a staged reading in San Francisco back in 2005 when I was just a poet who had sorta written a play. Saturday I was wound up as a producer, hoping the festival would be well-received, that all involved and attending would be happy.
I had lots of friends there. Thanks so much to all who showed up and gave their support: Nakissa and Michael, Baruch, Carrie, SaraMitra, Adam, Ignacio, Ginny and Jon.
By Intermission I was feeling a bit more relaxed because their air was buzzing. The audience was having a great time.
My scene opened the second act. Thank you to my wonderful actors: Mary Ann Rodgers and Lawrence Radecker for their performances. And of course a big thank you to Evren Odcikin, who directed my piece.
The evening ended with tequila where I brought out my personal bottle of Patron to share with friends. I felt like such a freakin’ lush toting that thing around.
By midnight I was on my way home (miraculously, I thought I would have stayed ’til 1 or 2 am).
Will Vanguadia happen again. I hope so. But since it took 6 months to plan, I’d recommend they wait ’til 2012 to do another one. We’ll see.
-M
