Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Dreamings, 5-Course Love and the Perception of Women

I haven't blogged in a while, so this one's all over the map.

I was absolutely blessed to see two theatrical productions within one month- I didn't realize how much I missed going to theater since I had left the Bushnell.

Elena & I saw 'Dreamings', performed by both the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble and members of the York Correctional Institute for Women in the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford. The cultural center is housed in CT's oldest synagogue building - there were glorious architectural gems to spotted in the building: stained glass windows, gorgeous chandeliers that would make great earrings, beautiful woodwork. (I brilliantly deduced we were in a synagogue by observing the Hebraic script right smack in front of me on a beautiful window....)

The performance included projections (brilliantly...projected...by a reacquainted Old Friend) on sail-shaped screens that enhanced the portions of the performance in which the dancers created a ship on the sea, traveling back and forth through the stories. (That particular portion of the performance strongly reminded me of the scene in 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead' that shows the Shakespearean actors silently recreating the well-known scenes from various plays. ) There was beautiful a cappella singing by a trio of women; modern dance sequences that were entertaining and thoughtful; and some spoken word pieces that, frankly, were.....not great. I do think the entire production was enjoyable, considering it could have been really heavy-handed.

Afterwards, I said hello to my Old Friend (now elevated to Friend category) and Elena and I hied off to a bar (shocking, I know) for a nightcap. Elena is one fun date.

Next: 5 Course Love-
Marko and I went the fabulous Spirit of Broadway theater in Norwich to see this musical comedy after dining at Paul's Pasta (Home of the Suitcase Full of Pasta) in Groton. The SoB is a tiny theater that maybe seats 100 people, so there's never a bad seat in the house and the productions are wonderfully minimal. Another added attraction was the ability to bring a bottle of one's own wine that they would uncork for a small fee.

Three actors played the three parts in the 5 vignettes of this performance. They were all fantastic, funny, talented, sometimes interacting with the audience, and the costumes and set were very stripped down, which only enhanced the script.

The book, music & lyrics were written by Gregg Coffin and it was fun, clever (in a good way) and the music did not sound like Rogers & Hammerstein, for which I am eternally grateful.

There was a little RHPS action during the German S&M/sexpot vignette: whenever the character's name of Heimlich was spoken, everyone was to turn their head & cough - very funny.

After the show, we trudged uphill to Billy Wilson's (Pub? Tavern? Ageing Still?) to have a nightcap and see every single person we know in Norwich. The bar actually had some decent wine! Marko is one fun date.

Ok, The Perception of Women. I'm prompted to write this because it just seems lately that world-wide culture is just dumping on women more than ever. I was listening to a story on the radio today about an American Idol-type contestant (who I'm sure is now world-famous by this point) who is modest, not botoxed, bleached and boob-jobbed out of proportion, and even more shockingly, is TALENTED: Susan Boyle. I watched the clips of her beautiful performance and was horrified at the smirks and disrespect directed towards her by the audience and 'judges.' Are you people really that shallow and unappreciative of others? The follow-up interviews of this 'miraculous' performance are even more idiotic as Ms. Boyle's looks and manners are still the major topic and not her beautiful singing- whoever the git was on NPR going on about how she's 'too far along' to be famous at this point in her life should be shot. If this was a man, his looks would never come into play to this insane level. One of the many reasons I loved watching 5-Course Love is that NONE of the actors were conventionally beautiful- what a nice change of pace.
And do I even need to spit about the new Afghan marriage law that essentially legalizes marital rape? Or some idiotic movie that has a 'well, it's not humor for everyone, so you women should just get over it' date rape scene? And I won't even go into the 'Powderpuff Girl's Football' email I received from the Athletics Department at work....we have Women's Basketball here, not sure why it can't be called Women's Football....

Thanks for tolerating my anger- come on over to the Aloha Alcohula* and I'll serve you a drink in my new Bearded Clam mug....


*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT (TM)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Awakey Zone say:
A tiki mug w/a b00b job--what ELSE did Bernie bring back from Vegas? ;D

CL said...

That was lame, Joey.

And I agree with your venom, Queen.

The Queen said...

Actually, Joe, it's not merely a mug with a boob job. It's a mug with a figure of woman with her very obvious nether region's hair wafting in the breeze.....probably created by some guy who freaks out at the sight of one single hair any any woman's body.

So, I may just be inspired to create my own line of 'Danny the Limp Dick Drunk' tiki mugs.....

C. Margery Kempe said...

QoE, you rock with a righteous anger. I'm so damn sick of any old washed up actor being declared "sexy" when he's drooling into his beer while a fabulous woman of forty is sneered at as "too old" that wrinkles and sags are horrendous to most people, that women have been whipped into botoxing, cutting their flesh and mortifying their curves into some insane and BY DEFINITION impossible notion of "beauty" just so merchandisers can sell more product. I HATE EVERYBODY!

And the theatre nights sounded wonderful! You are lucky to have such good dates.

The Queen said...

I always seem to have good dates!

Kate: criminy, let's hope Johnny Depp never gets to drooling in his beer....ON a beer, ok, but not IN.

I was hit hard by the Unfairness Due to Gender factor this week, lemme tell ya...

Hsin-Yi said...

I agree with you. It really bothers me to see pre-teens wearing thongs and low-riders. What exactly are we teaching the future generations of women? I want to see more strong women represented (and I'm hoping that Michelle Obama takes the initiative on this).

On the same (yet tangent) note, I was discussing children with a friend yesterday - have you noticed that many women are having children at a younger age again? Maybe I just notice it more b/c I don't live in a city right now, but it seems to me that there is a renewal of the housewife who is under 25.

We've come so far, yet we've got a long way to go.

The Queen said...

Hsin, I think the reasons that women are having kids at a younger age is due to excessive hormones in the meat people eat (which has been proven to create situation in which children mature earlier sexually), the rise of raunch culture (which is a lot for 10-15 year olds to realistically process), lack of sex ed in schools and at home and my favorite, lack of parental oversight.

I really had an overwhelming feeling that 10-15 years ago women had more in hand than they do now.
(And, wow, if that doesn't create it's own pun, I don't know what will...)