ASL Awakenings

Saturday evening found us leaving the kids at home with a babysitter, picking up my friend Miss D, who is deaf, and heading into the city to see a Broadway show.  Our destination:  Marlee Matlin, Camryn Manheim, and Spring Awakening.  One-time Tony-award-winning best musical starring a pre-"Glee" Lea Michele, the show has been revived by Deaf West with both deaf and hearing actors.

And it is AMAZING!  (Insert my doing the ASL sign for "amazing" here.)

It was touch and go for awhile.  Roads were closed all throughout midtown and cops were everywhere, even though the pope had left Saturday morning.  But, the UN has its General Assembly now and they must all be staying at the Waldorf!  Then there was a street festival up and down 6th.  Took more than 2 hours to get to the parking lot, what should barely have taken 1 1/2.  But Mama and I pad time schedules and we still had enough time to have a delightful dinner at Sapporo, on 49th, the kids' favorite.  Katsu, curry, miso soup, Japanese potato salad.  We knew better to have soupy Ramen before a Broadway show.  Especially because there are never enough restrooms.

We got to the theater with plenty of time to spare and were swarmed by drama students from a local program--one of their alumni was in the show.  But, as far as we could tell, there were no other Deaf people in the audience.  My friend, who uses ASL as well as read lips and talks, definitely kept her eyes peeled.  She did know someone:  she had gone to camp in elementary school with one of the Deaf cast members!  Small world.

Mama got us great seats, front row mezzanine on the aisle, so we had a totally unobstructed view.  I had really looked forward to the production; we had loved Deaf West's production of Big River more than a decade ago and I still can sign to some of the songs.  As soon as they announced they were coming east again, I wanted to go (they regularly do shows in LA, but don't often come to NYC.)  And then Oscar-winning Marlee Matlin joined the cast.  Sis and I watch her in "Switched at Birth" every week and I have enjoyed her in other shows ("West Wing," "L Word," and of course Children of a Lesser God.)  I knew other actors, too--Daniel Durant from "Switched at Birth" and Ali Stroker from "Glee Project" (and the first person in a wheelchair to be on Broadway!)  And then Camryn Manheim, who is fluent in ASL, joined the show.   My friend, who had never seen a Broadway show, was similarly excited to go, so we began making all the arrangements.

What a wonderful evening!  I hadn't seen Spring Awakening before.  As Mama summarized it,  the story is about "horny 19th-century German teenagers who have trouble communicating with their parents, make some mistakes, and suffer permanently for them."  Sex, abortion, suicide, molestation, child abuse, S&M, gays, prostitutes.  It's not a show for little kids.  The music is modern, though, very rock.  In fact, you might say, it was Rent for Millennials, in the same vein as Once:  the musical embraced by a generation feeling marginalized.  I'm not of this young generation and so I could both understand the teenagers and their parents.  That miscommunication was the major theme of the show  with dual communication systems being its central device strengthened the power of both.

The show is beautiful, powerful, mesmerizing.  Some characters were played by Deaf performers, some by hearing.  Some characters--like Wendla and Melchior--have one of each, the Deaf character and his or her Voice (Mama recognized the parallels of the costumes of the pairs.)  The use of doubles was more subtle than in Big River, especially the way the Voice almost seemed to be the inner voice talking to the character sometimes, instead of two separate people standing side by side. All the actors signed, both Deaf and hearing.  In fact, as my friend noted, the only way you could sometimes tell was that only the hearing actors were wired with head mics.  I loved seeing Marlee Matlin in person, even though her role was smaller.  Even I could tell that her signing (aka acting) as Frau Gabor was totally different from her role as Melody on "Switched"--tighter, more precise, closer to her body, while Melody signs more fluidly, with more pauses for connection with her listener.  And Camryn Manheim was fabulous!  I loved her signing and her acting and even her purple costume.

Visually, it was very striking--light changes and pulses (and these weird electric-point glow-in-the-dark gloves) and color switches and full blackout (which was shocking the few times it was employed) to match the beat of the music, which had a lot of bass for the Deaf actors and audience to sense; clever use of projection of subtitles so that some things weren't voiced (the rare power of the absolutely silent Broadway stage); the clash of 19th century and modern in set and costume and music; creative staging with members of the company forming a tree that two lovers sat beside or sitting as chairs representing tombstones (not unlike Our Town); and, if you reflected at all on the history of what would be Germany in the decades after the story takes place in 1891, you could see the seeds of totalitarianism in the rigidity of the adults (and the single salute and goose-stepping of the kids.)  As the Times noted in its astounding review, the fact that one of the company was in a wheelchair was seamlessly incorporated.  I hadn't realized how symbolically colorless and drab it all was until the teens walked off into a beautiful forest at the end, leaving their parents behind.  I'm still mulling over the symbolism of their coming out in their very white undergarments, donning drab costumes for the show, and then relinquishing the drab at the end to leave into the color wearing white.   There was even incense!  I'm not sure I've ever been at a show with scent.  Or with the no-cell phone and camera warning being conveyed visually by men holding placards at the front of the various sections.

I was amazed at how much of the ASL I could understand--thanks to my friend who started as my ASL teacher--though, I was also absorbing meaning through hearing the lyrics. I think I got more out of it with the signing and wouldn't have caught all the words otherwise.  The signing was very choreographed, creative, and dramatic.  Romantic performance of signs on each other's bodies; synchronized signing across the company; a seamless connection of signing and full-body movement; even some inside ASL jokes, only 1 of which I caught--the use of the sign "vagina" becoming "heart" when Wendla's mother can't bring herself to explain where babies come from (there's also the intertwined "love" sign on the poster.)     Check out a video of the first song here.  We clapped and signed applause after nearly every song, as did the whole house.  There was a loud and long standing ovation at the end.  We loved it.

We couldn't stage door, though.  All those college students were waiting to see their alumnus; we couldn't even see the barricade to join in.  It's okay.  I would probably have been too shaky to sign to Marlee Matlin et al how much I enjoyed the show.  So we stopped for Junior's cheesecake instead and  made it home by 1 a.m.

I can't shake the happy vibes the evening gave me (even though it's kind of a downer of a show, even with the last upbeat song), especially the joy of my friend at her first Broadway show, especially one in her language.  It was all unforgettable.

Whew!

What a wonderful, exhausting, frustrating, fun first 24 hours.

• Kids' Service Team event.  The kids' service team is a great combo of community building and helping others.  We shared pizza, salad, and brownies at church, and then the kids made fleece blankets and the adults tried their hands at knitting.  Sis and a few of her friends joined us and we practiced casting on and knitting . . . and fixing our mistakes.  I learned a few new techniques--the one needle cast-on, how to prevent curling edges in an all-knit piece by dropping the first stitch of each row, how to rework dropped stitches with a crochet hook (over-under, over-under), and how to pull stitches off a needle and put them back on (very carefully, making sure stitches are facing the right way)--with the help of one of the experts.  It was all fun.  But now I have a scarf to finish!  
• Ice skating!
• Kung fu!
• Cookie booth--oh, the stories I could tell.  And so I will.  Of course, the GS cookie booth troubles started a couple of weeks ago when the store that had agreed to host several troops selling cookies changed their minds and we all had to scramble for new times and places and reschedule everybody!  Then today, we our people showed up at a different store, they said we weren't supposed to be there, though we had registered and our contact was on her way to smooth it over.  Well, don't mess with Cookie Moms!  And so we stayed put.  Until we had to move--our shifts were split between two stores because of the aforementioned schedule change.  THEN, a GS mom stationed at the store we'd just been at came over and harassed us for being at our store, saying we were competing with them and ruining their sales and that wasn't supposed to happen (though, there had been another troop at the store all morning--the troop of an older sister of one of our girls.) It happens every year.  EVERY Year.  Novice.  Again, don't mess with Cookie Moms!  But all of our girls worked their shifts, even in the cold, and we sold 40 cases of cookies, which is excellent.  We are very proud of our troop and very grateful to all of our volunteers.
• The VAGINA Monologues:  Our old church sponsored a fundraiser reading of the Eve Ensler play this evening and I went with a bunch of friends, who first gathered for dinner together.  Veggie lasagna, salad, garlic bread, flourless chocolate cake, and almond cake.  Yum!  And the show, oh, the show was amazing.  I'm ashamed to admit, as both a feminist and a lesbian, that I had never seen it.  But this production was perfect because I knew 95% of the cast, from old church and around town, and there they were saying things like vagina, cum, cunt, orgasm, hair, coochie snorcher, folds, clit, lips, wet, etc etc outloud in public!  And talking about rapes in Kosovo, female genital mutilation, repression, and even dry cotton tampons and cold duck lip specula!  We laughed riotously--at the Angry Vagina and the dominatrix who curated moans of her female clients (and demonstrated several of them, like the WASP moan and the exhausted Zen moan!)--and sighed at the "cellar" and "tulip" and lack of self-awareness (and cheered at the painful, glorious discovery of such), and choked up at the memories of violence.  It really was a wonderful evening.  So proud of the cast of wonderful, talented women, and of the UU church community that brought them together to benefit a women's outreach center nearby.  Well-done!  (It was also great to see so many old church friends, whom I miss often.  Took me awhile to hug my way out the door.  Haven't felt that much love and support and energy in a space, like that, since lesbian coffeehouse in Chicago.)
• I got home to discover that my BIL had been called back to work a hospital shift tonight.  He was with the kiddos and his sis for about an hour.  They were very sorry to see him go and quite subdued when I got home.  We know he'll try again soon and we'll have a good time and besides . . . . . 
• It looks like the weather is turning ugly earlier tomorrow than we expected, with anywhere from 1-6" coming (depending on whom you believe) plus ice, and so it is probably best that he won't be on the road tomorrow night.
• And so we'll see what tomorrow brings weather-wise, along with church, Soup Sunday, and the arts and crafts party.

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Solo Almond Bundt Cake

Almond Glaze Topping
1 cup confectioners sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoon light cream

Cake
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
3  eggs
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 can Solo Almond Cake and Pastry Filling or 1 jar of any other fruit filling
1⁄4 cup milk

Chocolate Glaze Topping (no chocolate on the one at church)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa
1⁄2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoon buttermilk or low-fat milk

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside. Beat butter and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in almond filling until blended. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt until mixed. Add to almond mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Beat until blended. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack. To make glaze, combine ingredients in small bowl, and stir until blended and smooth. Spoon or drizzle over top of cake. Let stand until glaze is set. Or top with fresh fruit and whipped cream!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Do You Hear the Penguins Sing?

It has been a remarkable summer for the Penguin and Bunny Theater Troupe.  They have presented, under the direction of Bud, both The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, with a very short run of The Battle of the Penguins and Bunnies and selections from Wicked.    The performances take place in our living room, in front of the blue backdrop of Bud's comforter.  For Les Miz, Bud was especially creative with the sets, utilizing small wooden chairs in different positions for the barricade, bridge, sewers, and "Master of the House" tavern. The boat on the lake from Phantom, in "Music of the Night" (my favorite scene), was used here as the death cart.  (The mirror scene in Phantom was also great.)   Mama loved Smeak as the flag bearer in "One Day More," while I loved the little groundhog as Eponine.  Tango, who appeared as the Phantom, is Valjean here.  We look forward to the next production, though there do not seem to be plans in the works for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

The Penguin and Bunny Theater Troupe

Marius and Cosette sing a duet, with Eponine below

"One Day More," with Smeak waving the red flag

Do You Hear the People Sing?

Yep, we're singing . . . "One Day More," "Master of the House," "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," "Who am I?," "Bring Him Home," "Red and Black."

But not "Castle on a Cloud"--none of us like that song.  And we all laughed when Madam Thernardier mocked it!

We went to see Les Miserables on Broadway this weekend.  And it was fabulous!!!  It is Mama's favorite show, one she was quite taken with as a teenager.  She's seen it in the theater several times--even once in French in Montreal!--and owns numerous recordings (including French, Dutch, and now Spanish.)  She can't abide the movie because it rejects the usual theater conventions (and has mediocre singers.)  In fact, she wasn't sure she wanted to see the new production because, among other things, it didn't have the iconic revolving stage.

But I talked her into it, saying this might be the only chance the kids have, for years, to see her all-time favorite musical.  And even if it's not as great as the original production, at least it's not, ahem, the film.  And she relented, out of curiosity and desire.

And while she did miss the revolving stage and bemoaned the slimmer production values, she did like the show and was especially gratified that the kids loved it, too.  We had spent the week prepping them--playing the concerts on tv, summarizing the characters and plots, and prepping them about the sex (prostitutes, penis-size jokes) and violence (almost everybody dies.)  We even said, that on the off-chance they got lost by it all, to just enjoy the music and the production and not worry about who's who and what's what.

No worries, there.  They followed it all and even noticed a few minor changes from the concerts (like who sings the line about the Captain wearing his shoes.)  And we were all impressed by Ramin Karimloo, who played Valjean.  (We knew him from the Phantom 25th anniversary concert and also as Enjolras in the Les Mis 25th concert.)  Such a strong yet tender voice.  We also really liked Will Swenson as Javert.  And Nikki James as Eponine.  Really, they were all good.  And I liked the gritty realism of the costumes and sets and even the lighting; but then, the show has always had a serious dark side.  And it took all my powers not to sob outloud at my favorite line, "to love another person is to see the face of God."  I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Whew.  After the show, we went for our traditional post-theater snack at Junior's--cheesecakes, egg cream soda, and cel-ray soda.  We didn't stagedoor because it was a matinee and many of the performers don't appear.

We stayed in Union Square this trip, far from the bed bugs in Times Square.  The kids liked the neighborhood--Forbidden  Planet, the Strand bookstore, Max Brenner chocolate restaurant.  Even the Whole Foods was more interesting than ours!  And we had a great view of the park and also the World Trade Center/Freedom Tower (I don't know what we're supposed to call it, but I don't really like FT), glittering in the distance.  Oh, the noise, though.  Even six stories up, we heard loud drunk people and car horns all night, much worse than Times Square.  But still, no bed bugs (yet.  We took all the precautions and are boiling everything here at home.)

And the next day was Comic Con, but that's a separate post . . . .

Singing Down Memory Lane

It all started when Mama watched Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary at Royal Albert Hall  when she was sick.  Then we watched it together.  And then Bud came in during the Masquerade scene and loved the costumes and the song.  He begged us to let him watch.  So, the next day, we all watched all of the first act and some of the second.  The kids were entranced and sang snatches of the songs all the next day until we finished the show.

Right now, they are watching it again.

They've found the soundtrack on our iPod.  They've dressed their critters up as various characters and done a puppet show with them.  Then they acted it out themselves, though they want the full soundtrack with dialogue!  Earlier this morning, I was Christine to Bud's Phantom and we sang "Phantom of the Opera" together.

For me, it's quite a walk down memory lane.  I was obsessed with the musical in high school, just as Mama was obsessed with Les Mis.  I listened to it, read the novel, read about the production, and longed to see it.  And then in 1990, on my way to Tunisia for a summer of archaeological digging, Gommie and I traveled via London and saw the musical on our last night there!  We were doubly glad to be there because we'd had a stomach virus most of the time we'd been in England.  It was phenomenal--not just the show, which exceeded my every expectation, but the beautiful old theater where they even sold ice cream in the (very narrow) seats at intermission!  I sang the songs the rest of the summer.  A few years later, I saw it again in NYC.  (See, they come by obsessive tendencies honestly!)

But I haven't really paid it much mind since the late 1990s.  I really didn't like the movie.  At all.  And since it wasn't Mama's favorite, we rarely listen to it.  I think for awhile it was a bit baroque for my taste.  Now, I'm as excited as the kids to revisit it.  And I still know every lyric of every song!  I especially like the 25th Anniversary celebration at the end, with some of the original Phantoms and also Christine, though Michael Crawford didn't sing (Colm Wilkinson, of Les Mis fame did, though, which sounded strange to Mama) and Sarah Brightman seemed aged compared to the young ingenue Sierra Boggess, who is actually in the role here in NYC for the next couple of months.

I'm tempted to take them to see Phantom of the Opera soon.  Lion King first, though, and then Les Mis when they are much older.  And later still, La Boheme since they're interested in opera; then Rent!  But, yes, Phantom of the Opera.

Until then, they're already planning to be the Phantom and Christine for Halloween!  Think they sell child-sized white half-masks?

Advent Activity: Best. Show. Ever.

Yesterday, we took the kiddos to see the New England Ballet Company's performance of The Nutcracker, only their second live theater performance (after a puppet show of Goodnight Moon; concerts of Laurie Berkner and Imagination Movers don't count.).  They'd seen part of the ballet in school and watched some of Pacific Northwest's version on dvd.  And so, after talking to to them about theater culture (blinking the lights to send you to your seat; intermissions) and etiquette (no talking or getting up; go to the bathroom beforehand), we dressed in our holiday best--Sis in her new red tulle over black skirt tutu-like holiday dress and Bud in a button-down shirt with reindeer sweater--we headed to the theater.  Yep, me too.  Because this particular theater has boxes set aside for people with disabilities--large empty spaces at the back of the theater with movable seats primarily for people using wheelchairs but perfect for me to pace in with no one behind me and lie down in the extra seats pulled together.   Sis, Bud, and Mama sat in real seats right in front of me.  It was beyond perfect and I sniffled through the whole first act, having never thought I could go to the theater again in the near future, which was a loss because Mama and I love musicals.  It was perfect.

I also sniffled for other reasons, being a sniffler.  I remember the last time I went to The Nutcracker, the only other time actually.  I was probably 7 or 8.  Gommie and her friend, dear Miss Betty (who died a few years ago), and maybe another adult though I'm not sure, took me and the other neighborhood kids (Aunt Banana, do you remember this at all?  Was I older?  Were you there?) to Houston's fancy Jones Hall to see the ballet.  I felt so grown up being in that big theater and the performance was beautiful and magical.  I bought a small red Nutcracker to hang on the Christmas tree that I still have.

And I was so glad that the kids were getting to see the show.  They're interested in the story and love to dance around the house.  More than that, I hope that going to the ballet (though, it's our least favorite performing art), musicals, the opera, plays, the symphony become a regular part of our lives.  Especially with Broadway, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall not so far away.

This production was perfect for us.  Small, local, child-friendly.  Colorful, vibrant costumes.   Loud, fast-paced score (Tchaikovsky on speed!).  And with a large children's cast, including two of their little friends from Daisies, that they could identify with.  Bud liked the Mouse King best, and even bought a Mouse King nutcracker.  Sis liked the finale when they all danced together.  I liked the Waltz of the Snowflakes and the Waltz of the Flowers.  Basically any scene with the corps de ballet and a principal.  And the whole score.   Mama, well, I think Mama was caught up in all the body and gender issues inherent in the art art form.

When it concluded, Sis yawned and stretched (she was bored by all the Sugar-Plum Fairy and her cavalier), but Bud proclaimed it, "The best show ever!"

We celebrated afterwards with a run to Pinkberry, the tony frozen yogurt place. Chocolate with M&Ms, peppermint with chocolate, mango with fruit, original with fruit, almonds, and mochi.  And then we danced and hummed the rest of the evening away . . . .

Next year, Lincoln Center and Balanchine.