July 23, 2012
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2012 Bay Area Playwrights Festival: Opening Weekend
This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday I attended four (of the six) play readings presented at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Four plays in three days is a lot of theatre. And summing it up, well, perhaps it’s time for a stream of consciousness list.
- Friday night plan: catch 10 Townsend to Potrero Hill.
- Next Muni lied! I am not waiting 45 minutes for the bus.
- Jumping on a Muni train to Church Street to catch the 22 Fillmore bus.
- Early.
- As usual.
- Goat Hill Pizza: two slices to go, please.
- Sitting on the steps next to the theatre eating my pizza.
- Met Patricia Milton in person (have known her via Twitter for a while).
- Aaron Loeb: Is that your mini cooper with the license plate: “playwright”?
- ???
- It was Patricia’s.
- Lots of familiar faces.
- Warm. It’s warm.
- I have a fan (prepared–last year it was very hot in Thick House without any AC).
- First play of the festival: Grounded by George Brant.
- A one-character play that isn’t a one person play–successfully puts us both in character’s head and puts action in the present.
- At end I’m left thinking about how warfare has evolved (play is about a fighter pilot who flies drones by remote) so has the types of trauma suffered by those engaged in battle.
- I catch a ride to the bus stop and enjoy the cool night air coming in through the windows.
- Saturday.
- Why is the 1 California not running at regular intervals. Oh well. 38 Geary here I come.
- I almost miss my stop at Fillmore because I’m listening to the conversation between a mother and her daughter. They’re dressed for the beach.
- 22 Fillmore detour.
- Early.
- Of course.
- 12 noon play is Ideation by Aaron Loeb.
- I sit by Aaron’s wife Kathy who benefits from my constant fanning.
- Fellow playwrights Garrett Groenveld and Brian Thorstenson sit behind us–miss seeing them regularly (we were in residency at the Playwrights Foundation together).
- Aaron has a gift for dialogue that’s both complicated yet accessible and rife with humor, even when the topic is disturbing. Yes that’s a gift!
- Many moments when I get a chill of recognition/understanding–Danger, Will Robinson!
- Afterward I have 5 hours until the next play.
- 5 hours!
- Luckily my best friend Carrie just finished a dance class nearby. We meet on Valencia Street.
- We eat at Limon. I’ve heard great things about it. In the end, while good, I’m a Destinos’ gal (Destinos is another Peruvian restaurant).
- Then we meander around Valencia.
- Eat homemade popsicles.
- A round of drinks at Blondie’s.
- She departs.
- I still have 2 hours.
- I walk to 24th and Mission. Don’t know why when my feet already hurt.
- I buy a burrito at my favorite taqueria (El Farolito) and BART back to 16th street to catch the 22 bus.
- I sit outside of the theatre eating my burrito.
- It’s delicious.
- It’s warmer tonight = fan in use entire time.
- 8pm play reading is Samsara by Lauren Yee.
- It’s funny, quirky, imaginative, tender and unexpected.
- “I love you, Microwave.”
- I catch a ride back to Valencia and hail a cab.
- Sunday.
- Sunday I time my bus rides better and get to Peet’s on Fillmore and Sacramento to grab an iced coffee and citrus bread.
- I try to do something I do at the Peet’s near work: ask for a small in a medium sized cup (so there’s extra room for milk).
- This Peet’s is unfamiliar with this type of request.
- They give me a small filled to the brim.
- I ask for a larger cup thinking they’ll give me a medium.
- They give me a large. Tons of room.
- I pour in too much milk.
- Oh well.
- I catch the 22 and make my way to Thick House.
- 12 noon play reading is The Hundred Flowers Project by Christopher Chen.
- I’ve heard scenes from an early draft when my residency at the Playwrights Foundation’s overlapped with Chris’.
- It’s changed (the play).
- It’s a sort of cerebral exercise of form = content.
- Chris is one smart guy.
- I walk out into the sun, past the people playing baseball in the park.
- I catch a cab and head for my futon.
- Exhausted.
-M
- Friday night plan: catch 10 Townsend to Potrero Hill.
