Life feels unbalanced at the moment. I’m not exactly sure why that is but it’s likely from a combination of factors. The first is the wonky weather we’ve been having in the southland. This past week, we had ice and snow everywhere, things were shut down and the temperatures dipped into single digits this past Saturday. Here we are a few days later, and the temperatures are fifty some degrees higher, and it’s raining with such a high level of humidity that water is seeping absolutely everywhere. This is playing havoc on my condo building where condensate and water is getting into the elevator shafts and controls shutting things completely down. This is not a huge inconvenience for me who deliberately bought a unit on the first floor but I do feel for my multiple octogenarian neighbors above me who did not bargain on seventh floor walkups. Management says that things will be fixed shortly. But seeing as they have been telling me that they are going to fix the tile on my terrace for nearly two years now, I am not holding my breath.
I suppose the second is work. There’s nothing really new or especially wrong going on and last week, with the MLK holiday and the freezing weather, was pretty much a wash out. That’s allowed me to stay caught up. I think it’s because I know the time has come to figure out the final arc of my medical career but I have yet to have that come into sharp focus regarding what I should do and on what sort of timeline. I could retire now but I figure I had better wait until my Medicare kicks in in a little over three years. My health is stable, although I move a little slower than I once did, but I am all too aware of the things that can happen after the age of sixty that will upend one’s life and over which we have minimal control. UAB has finally seemed to have figured out that the clinical pieces of our jobs are becoming untenable and is making noises about moving in some new directions to reduce burdens but it remains to be seen if those noises will translate into anything with practical application.
We’re in crunch period with Into The Woods. Tonight was the final run before tech. The show is gelling nicely although there are bits here and there that still require some work. I’ve done the show before (in a different role) and had forgotten just how complex it is to perform. Enormous parts of the show are underscored and the timing and back and forth between dialogue, orchestra, and song, is very difficult to get just right. Fortunately it’s not much of a dance show. I was never much of a dancer even on my best days and now I have sixty year old hips, knees, and ankles. There is musical staging in the prologue and the finales but I finally seem to have gotten my steps all down. It just takes me a week or two of rehearsal longer than most. The set is fairly complete and has been fun to play with. We get costumes this weekend. Per usual, I seem to be supplying a good portion of mine. I don’t mind pulling from my extensive wardrobe. I know it will fit. I really haven’t changed size all that much in decades so I have stuff in my closet dating back to the 70s and 80s not to mention all the strange pieces I’ve collected over the years for various shows, especially Politically Incorrect. As I am playing yet another drunk with a flask in this show, I am happy to pay homage to PIC and Diane McNaron by using the flask I bought at her estate sale on stage. I am continuing my usual run of stage drunks, butlers, and aristocrats – this character being two out of the three.
I suppose I should say a word about Touch, the Helen Keller opera that had its world premiere with Opera Birmingham this past weekend. I had nothing to do with the actual production other than housing the pianist but I was the president of the board during most of the developmental period so I’ve been very interested in the process of seeing the show go from an idea to a fully staged work. I had seen it about a year ago in workshop where I noted some dramaturgical and musical issues that I thought needed addressing. I am pleased to say that the majority have been fixed in the opera’s current form and that the end result is musically lovely, and compelling, despite the familiarity of the characters of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. The opera deals with their later life, long after the water moment at the pump at Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, starting with Helen’s graduation from Radcliffe and covering the next thirty or so years through Helen and Annie’s adult relationship, the men in their lives, and Helen’s emergence as writer and ultimately icon of the triumph of the human spirit. It’s the first time I’ve seen an opera in which the central character does not sing. Instead of Helen having a voice, a quarter of other actors are her inner voices. Alie B. Gorrie who played Helen, dominated the stage and production with a finely nuanced portrayal that was both funny and heart breaking and carried the show despite not singing a note. (Her one vocalization being one of the most effective moments). I still feel there’s a little tweaking here and there that could be done to make the piece stronger but we’ll see what the creators do. There is interest in other productions and I hope it has long life beyond this initial run. And if other companies are smart, they’ll hire Alie to recreate her role.
I got my annual statement on book sales. The Accidental Plague Diaries (all three volumes) continue to sell in dribs and drabs. It’s never going to make me rich but it seems to have found it’s own little corner among those who are interested in the pandemic and what it did to society. My publisher could use some more sales so if you haven’t bought a copy or recommended it to a friend yet, I would be most grateful. I could also use some Amazon or Goodreads ratings/reviews for those of you who are into such things. The thing I’m most curious about is who in Germany bought six copies. I’m wondering if an English Language bookshop ordered them or if some small book club in Ulm picked it at random. I have started on a new writing project which will involve essays on various aspects of the intersection between the aging Baby Boom and the health care system but I won’t really be able to think about that until after I get out of performance. Of course, I have a symphony concert in March (Brahms’ German Requiem) and a play I’m doing in April and I’m looking at auditioning for a musical that goes up in June but that’s all pretty typical.
I suppose the last major contributor to imbalance is the complete insanity currently present in American politics. Whether it’s the mass cruelty towards and bullying of the trans community (one of the smallest and least powerful groups in America), the complete undoing of border policy in order to make the current administration look bad at the behest of the opposition candidate (which seems to be devolving into threats of some sort of shooting war between the feds and state militias – I doubt it will come to that but if it were, I think the weekend warriors of the Proud Boys and their ilk, will be very unpleasantly surprised at what would happen when facing a professional well trained fighting force), or the barbaric execution which happened in this state earlier this evening. I’m sorry, but there was no excuse for that one and it’s a stain on the state and everyone in it that the officials we elected allowed it to proceed. My pastor was out front of the protests. I did not see the pastors of the churches of prosperity who purport to represent the message of Jesus anywhere in evidence. I suppose they were all too busy figuring out ways to bar the stranger, and continue to rally their congregants into voting for politicians who wish to continue to cut our meager social services, ban books and dumb down education in the name of protecting the children, and create more hell holes in our correctional system. Rant over. Maybe I should stop reading political news. (I refuse to watch it on TV). But withdrawing from the world won’t help. You can only change things through engagement.
I’m diving in over the weekend. I’ll be up for air the first weekend of February once the show is safely open.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 