BLUEST EYE / Michael Wyant, Technical Supervisor, talks about the challeneges of transferring THE BLUEST EYE from Hartford Stage to Long Wharf.

… in the spirit of SHIPWRECKED! (Thanks to Katie for the link…) 

March 4, 2008
By MOTOKO RICH

In “Love and Consequences,” a critically acclaimed memoir published last week, Margaret B. Jones wrote about her life as a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods.

The problem is that none of it is true.
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When I was a child, I had this old metal white painted bed that the paint was starting to chip off of. I just remember slowly chipping away at it with my finger nail - kind of like when you have a sunburn and you’re peeling away at the skin!

I was chastised and told to stop it, but couldn’t help myself. My parents kept saying they were going to repaint it, but never got around to it. It’s just one of those weird things one remembers that doesn’t really mean much of anything.

Ben Cameron, keynote speaker at the Southern Arts Federation, speaks about the issues facing the arts. Really gets the cogs turning…

Thank you for that lovely introduction and that kind reception. While I realize that Louisville—or Luhavul—does not necessarily consider itself a Southern City, I find myself here among many of my fellow Southern bretheren—to whom I say, “What a pleasure to be back among people where I don’t have to explain that Southern men who call their fathers daddy do so out of emotional strength rather than mental deficiency; where true haute cuisine is a plate of barbecue, a side of hush puppies, a jar of sweet tea and a Krispy Kreme donut; and where the three most important words in the English language, especially during NCAA March madness, are ‘Anybody but Duke.’” It’s good to be back home.

And indeed, we are all home, not because of geography, but because we are now among a family where all of us care deeply and passionately about the arts—a different home that is in a turmoil unlike any I have seen in my 30 years in the field.

This turmoil was apparent in a series of national conversations in dance, presenting and theatre, designed to capture the current state of the performing arts, that the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation convened last year.

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A photo memory from Board member Phyllis McGrath:

I have a black and white photo of my sister and me, taken at camp, probably in the early 1950’s. My father was a track coach at DeWitt Clinton H.S., in the Bronx. Like many phys ed teachers, he worked in summer camps as well. I was in camp from the time I was three months old. At some point, my parents bought Camp Tamarac, in Becket, Massachusetts, the Berkshires. I spent every summer there, as a camper, then as a counselor, until I was about 18. I was a shy kid, the daughter of an athlete but not an athlete myself. Camp Tamarac had a huge impact on me — although I’m still not a great athlete! Lifetime friendships were formed there.

We have this green three-seater sofa at home. We bought it when we lived in England but it has traveled around the world with us, in two homes in Singapore and now back in India. It has been the spot where I cuddled with my first boyfriend, where my sister and her friends practiced headstands, and where my dog makes himself at home when he feels cold, despite not being allowed on sofas. It has become such a part of our family, that one year, my dad bought my mom a painting from a local gallery because it depicted a family lounging on a green sofa, which you can see as you sit on our green sofa. When I was younger, I used to always ask that if we moved around so much, then which place was actually home. And my mom would tell me that home is where the family is. Which is true, but even more so when we’re all together again, lounging in the living room, watching tv, fighting for a spot on the old and crummy green sofa.

With Let Me Down Easy on the horizon, we’ve started to look at the ways its themes intersect with the New Haven and Connecticut community. One such theme is the question of quality of life. Alice-Anne passed along some materials from the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut yesterday. Through their statewide advocacy campaign for universal health care — healthcare4every1, UHCFC has been collecting “stories from across the state that tell the very personal consequences of our healthcare crisis.” You can read many of these testimonials here.

Photographic memories from Long Wharf Board member, George O’Brien:

These are photos of my father in World War II. He was in Naples for a year, including the last time Vesuvius erupted, but I assume these were taken in Rome. They’re not particularly memorable for me, since I don’t remember seeing them as a kid, but they’re timely with the Ken Burns documentary on PBS.

My parents, brother, sister and me on Easter Sunday 1956, in front of my grandparent’s house in South Hadley Falls, MA. My brother and I are wearing new, reversible jackets that I still remember. There are no signs of global warming.

The grouping of O’Brien males taken around 1924 consists of the grandfather I never met and his 7 sons in descending order of age. My father is the youngest, at the far left. I’m not sure who marked the names. We found it like that.

Last year I drove by my late aunt’s house, where her adult son still lives. My last memory of visiting the house was 25 years ago when she was dying of lung cancer. I was stunned to see her old car still parked in the driveway – the light blue buick, circa 1970, was so uniquely hers. All of her negative energy toward me came flooding back, like a punch in the gut.

I have many small replicas and photographs of the spire atop the Chrysler Building in New York.  The replicas and photographs are a reminder of my father, who worked in the building in the late 1940’s when I was a young child.  His office was on the 69^th floor, in one of the “fins”.   I know that I was inspired to commute to work in New York City in the 80’s, by my father’s daily commute to his office in New York.  For me the Chrysler Building spire represents his aspirations and my own as well.  It is also very beautiful.