7/24
Martin and I sit down for a long conversation. He has time
for a breath before tonight’s Antigona
performance. It’s been quite a few weeks. Now that the reviews are in,
tickets are starting to fly. We think back to our first meeting 3 ½ years ago when
he was first relocating from Spain. Looking for a home for his company. The ups and downs and times of being close
to making it and when we thought the doors would close but we kept on anyways.
We both remember Teddy (Mapes) and how he would have loved this. Martin more
than anybody understood the vision of what this place was supposed to be. He
tells me that Antigona is here
because of that vision. We both take pride in the New York Times reference to downtown
vibe. It’s been that way since Woodshed
walked in here in 2011 (http://www.playbill.com/multimedia/video/a-walking-tour-of-the-tenants-haunted-apartment-building-223658?r=n
) But we're still just under the radar. That was our
first Times review… http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/theater/woodshed-collectives-tenant-at-west-park-presbyterian.html?_r=1
)
The question is of
course, how do we keep the momentum going? To have the quality of event and
programming that keeps the vision alive and fertile while still paying the
bills? Explain how it’s the interaction of space, performer and artist here
that produces what gets created here…And how difficult it is for me to explain
sometimes how this is ministry, in
the meta sense, and that this is not space rental but relationship and out of that relationship
magic can happen that has intersection with spiritual and political realms.
Which is what art does. Which is, in the end, sacred.
Martin paid me a
compliment when he said that after meeting me, Carlos, who plays Oedipus, said El pastor Bob es Tiresias….el ve todo…I appreciate that.
We will see.
A special guest pianist
for ETHEL is rehearsing in the sanctuary on the Beckstein before their
performance tonight at the Met. Alex F is in the chapel preparing for her gig. Later
Mr. Martin arrives as out of thin air to
tune the chapel pianos. Like the work crew arrived unannounced to repair the Mc
Alpin Hall floor. So David and Dion are now telling me that there will be no
open mic tonight because of the fumes from the glue. I print up signs for RL
that say OPEN MIC CLOSED TONIGHT DUE TO CONSTRUCTION…..
As I’m dealing with that,
my guest for the night Junia, from the Brazilian consulate, arrives. We’ll have
time for dinner and a chance to catch up before the performance. She goes back to the days before closing
when my associate Regi was still here and we had an afternoon multicultural
service, Enlace de gracia….(And she's a flutist who played in our Shakespeare Sonnets event which she hopes we can do agin next year.
There will be other
guests, clergy friends, others from my writing group…
We still are embraced by grace…
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