There is a moment, when performing a stage play, when you, as an actor, instinctively know that everything is working as designed. It usually happens sometime in the first act (and it’s generally best that it happens within the first fifteen minutes) – there’s a change in the energy in the theatre. You can feel that the audience has absorbed the rules for the evening and it engrossed in what’s unfolding on stage. You can relax as you know that no matter what happens moving forward from now until curtain call, it’s simply going to carry you, your cast and crewmates and the audience through to the end of the evening. It’s something like a river flowing. You just surrender to the current and trust. Doesn’t mean you don’t move the tiller or change the position of the sails occasionally to take advantage of what the river offers.
Soul Food: Another Serving, my current project, hit that mark last night. I wasn’t really expecting it. Due to various issues with production, getting the show on stage in final form was something of a drama in and of itself and opening, night, while the usual theatrical magic held it together, had its shaky spots. Last night, however, the blend of comedy, drama, great performances, and an audience eager to see characters to whom they could relate on stage made everyone realize something special was going on. And I can’t wait to do it one last time tonight. (Although, as the Soul Food series of plays appears to be ongoing, my character may be back in another one sometime).
Moments like last night remind me of how important it is to have theatre for particular audiences, not just pieces designed for mass consumption. There need to be pieces that represent and speak to different segments of society, that reflect who they are and their aspirations, and how they too belong in the wider world. And audiences need to be inquisitive enough to seek out works that don’t necessarily speak to them. Go to a show aimed at Black audiences when you’re not Black. Go to a LGBTQ themed show when you’re straight. Go to a political show which attacks the status quo when you’re well off and benefit from current systems. It’s the sort of thing which makes you think, see the world in new ways, and helps you become a better person. I love traditional American musical theatre and could easily spend my time, talents and energy solely working with and promoting that artform but, as I have aged, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s far more important for me to work with and encourage smaller companies with very different objectives. We’re only going to get through this current political moment by finding our commonalities and being willing to see other perspectives, otherwise tribalism will continue to be the order of the day and those with the biggest mouthpieces will dictate for us all.
The metaphor of the river has been popping up in various places all week. My current classic read (I’m usually reading four or five books at once in various categories, one of which is a classic I missed along the way) is George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. I’ve never read any Eliot before (Dickens being my Victorian novelist go to). In terms of style, Eliot is a lot less fun than Dickens and a great deal more ruminative, but she digs deeper into the psychology of her characters and their relationships with each other and, more importantly, with the strictures of their society regarding gender and economic status. I haven’t quite reached the end but all of the references to the River Floss and various floods suggest that heroine Maggie is likely to end up like Eustacia Vye in Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native.
We’re all more or less caught up in a the river of socio-politics and current events as well. Each of us in our own little boat. I’m rowing mine solo these days, more often than not, so there’s not a lot I can do other than be carried along by the current but I am keeping alert, trying to keep myself from running aground on the shoals and trading information with the skippers of other boats so that we all navigate safely downstream. It isn’t easy. Current headlines tell me that the US is trying to force a Russian victory which will likely irrevocably damage NATO and Europe down Ukraine’s throat. The fallout from that is likely to be unpleasant, no matter what goes down. Everyone’s favorite congress critter MTG has announced her resignation. She used her special vituperative brand of rhetoric against Democrats and the Left for years without consequences. She turned it on the Right and has been deplatformed in a matter of weeks. That should tell you something.
Given my personal expertise, the grimmest development of the last week is the CDC website now trumpeting antivax propaganda at the behest of RFK Jr. The CDC has long been the gold standard of health science in this country. It has now been thoroughly politically compromised and there is no way to trust anything that appears under its imprimatur. It’s sad. It will take decades to repair that kind of damage. I won’t be part of the medical system that has to rebuild in that way. That will be up to a younger generation. I hope William Cassidy MD of Louisiana who cast the deciding vote in favor of this philosophy can look back on his legacy with pride. I’m spending the next couple years working on my medical legacy. I think it’ll be a bit more positive.
In the destruction of the Department of Education, the federal government announced this week that nurses, physical and occupational therapists, social workers are no longer ‘professionals’ in the way that physicians or even chiropractors are. In practical terms, this will limit the numbers entering those fields as they will be unable to finance their educations with federal loans. This announcement, coming six weeks before the first Boomers turn eighty is not only enraging but mystifying. The health issues of those in their 80s and 90s, being chronic in nature, require the kinds of interventions made by nurses and therapists and social workers far more than the kinds of interventions made by physicians. I can only do what I can do because I work in terms and in tandem with the professionals in those fields. We already have shortages in these fields, especially when it comes to caring for geriatric populations. Without this workforce, the aging Boomers, unless well healed and able to contract for private care, will die prematurely. I guess that’s the point. Lower the geriatric population and life expectancy so Medicare and Social Security costs go down. The decade I refer to as The Uncertain 80s are about to get a lot more uncertain for us all.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 