tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post111166210750518110..comments2023-08-21T03:58:31.236-07:00Comments on polyform: A Memory of Warsawpaulmonsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11740034654108442230noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1112252579109543962005-03-30T23:02:00.000-08:002005-03-30T23:02:00.000-08:00Hey, thanks BC! I do what I can. And yes, I'm pr...Hey, thanks BC! I do what I can. And yes, I'm pretty proud about how we handled the Bird. To this day, S. (the woman who played the Bird [but not my roommate, who indeed has the same name S.]) says that her butt and her knee work differently ever since she Fell. (It deserves to be Capitalized, it's that kind of a Fall, like what Milton talks about in Paradise Lost.) But we try not to think about that too much.<BR/><BR/>Closing a show and leaving the country certainly heightens things. But as an Actor, I also notice it liberates, too. Equity Actors here in the US know this; more often than not, they get work in cities that they aren't permanently attached to--even of my friends in NY, a great many of them live upstate or somewhere along the NE corridor of railways, due to NY's obscene cost of living. But as a result, their work doesn't feel constrained to their personal reputations in those communities--since, say, I really don't have much to lose by humiliating myself in Poland. (I mean, I can humiliate myself wherever I damn well please, and it's true, I certainly do, all the time, anywhere, really, and don't you forget it.) (um.) <BR/><BR/>My point being that knowledge of leaving a place utterly then opens that place completely to you, and sometimes this can do wonders. I can dare to do things in Berkeley or Poland that I wouldn't dare to do on a Portland stage. Just the peculiarities of space, that.<BR/><BR/>This extends to other living actions, beyond Theatre. I know everyone sees things, hears things, says things, does things they wouldn't 'normally' do, given radically foreign contexts. Hence, the Philippines and Greece and the UK and France and the rest of my wanderlustful litany. <BR/><BR/>Anyways. Thanks again, BC.paulmonsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11740034654108442230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1112029596426695652005-03-28T09:06:00.000-08:002005-03-28T09:06:00.000-08:00What a great story. Sounds like you have an excell...What a great story. Sounds like you have an excellent performer-audience relationship, and presence. Mistakes can make a show magical if you adapt to them properly. Good job with the Bird. You painted my mind with little flecks of brushstrokes and stars and the audience. I know that rush/relief of doing a show to some degree but it must interesting/sentimental/different knowing you are physically leaving that place, and your pilgrimage is as transient as your art. Glad that you kept moving and that your curtains will open again. You are theatre.sirbarretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17363339954053528997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1111736354487069472005-03-24T23:39:00.000-08:002005-03-24T23:39:00.000-08:00Thanks, everyone. I was, in fact, aware of the cu...Thanks, everyone. <BR/><BR/>I was, in fact, aware of the custom of leaving the door open for Elijah. Daydreaming about Passover and the wonderful legends surrounding the Prophet is what reminded me of this Warsaw memory to begin with. I mean, I've ever since carried this Warsaw memory with me, but I've often forgotten to actually write it down. <BR/><BR/>I'm honored to be shortlisted.<BR/><BR/>I'm glad you kept reading.<BR/><BR/>I find that I sometimes (truthfully, many times) forget to remember why I do this theatre thing. <BR/><BR/>The act of writing is already in so many ways essential to the act of acting (heh). By getting these memories out, I'm reasserting their reality, reasserting my why's and wherefore's. <BR/><BR/>Samuel Pepys said something about how writing lets you live everything at least thrice. First, as you actually live it. You live it again as you write it. And at least once more when you read it, and ever again as often as you read it. But each time is a new life of its own. One of the many wonders of this strange, strange world we live in.<BR/><BR/>Love and thanks to you all,<BR/><BR/>pjspaulmonsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11740034654108442230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1111700268320862512005-03-24T13:37:00.000-08:002005-03-24T13:37:00.000-08:00Whooosh. That's why we do this, isn't it?Whooosh. That's why we do this, isn't it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1111697498241648442005-03-24T12:51:00.000-08:002005-03-24T12:51:00.000-08:00I have no words, I truly do not. I wish I could te...I have no words, I truly do not. I wish I could tell you how much this post is pure beauty, how much of an exquisite writer you are, how afraid I was when I started reading bcs things aren't happy right now and your writing - well you know, and how grateful I am that I kept reading. nothing I can write will convey it, especially today. But do you know, we'll soon leave our doors open so Elijah can come in? He's never felt closer, and I'll be thinking of his coin, and the eyes.Lionesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11066691544599972381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1111693642311393022005-03-24T11:47:00.000-08:002005-03-24T11:47:00.000-08:00Dear Paul,Thank you for reminding me once again wh...Dear Paul,<BR/><BR/>Thank you for reminding me once again why I put myself through sleep deprivation and absence from my beloveds (husband and cats) to do this thing we call theater. And thank you for sharing this memory.<BR/><BR/>You are now on my short list of Actors I Would Work on A Street Corner With. <BR/><BR/>AutumnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8547177.post-1111687451980325362005-03-24T10:04:00.000-08:002005-03-24T10:04:00.000-08:00Wow.Wow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com