Hadestown; Live Theatre and the Audience Exchange

 This week I twice saw Hadestown, the musical, at a local high school. The director (26 years? 27? on the job) is talented, experienced and came back in a big way after a long stretch of burnout. She loves the show they made, in large part because the students were ferociously passionate about the theatre they were creating. For context, this was a high school show during which there was NO BACKSTAGE DRAMA. Unheard of! Miraculous, even. The director was inspired and energized by the student performers’ commitment, and told me that the process was an absolute joy.

Now, the epilogue to the play comes after the bows, a song during which the cast toasts to the story that was just told. 

    “Some flowers bloom when the green grass grows” Persephone and Eurydice sing,
    “My praise is not for them
    But the one who blooms in the bitter snow
    I raise my cup to him.”

They continue: “I raise my cup and drink it up, I raise it high and dry - to Orpheus and all of us, Goodnight, brothers, goodnight.” The entire cast (and in this production, the tech crew) are onstage with cups, and as they sing they toast the audience. There was a hint at the very beginning of the show, during the recorded announcements, that the audience would be welcome to raise their cups as well - but that happened nearly two hours before the end, and most people weren’t really listening anyway. Wednesday night I lifted my water bottle in a return salute during the ending song and maybe one or two others did as well - everybody moved on and didn’t think much of it. 

Except for the lead’s mother. 

I came back Saturday night, closing night, and at the intermission several women stood up and started passing out black solo cups to each member of the audience. “It’s for the end,” they said, “a surprise for the cast.” We went through the drama (onstage) and tragedy of the second act and got to the curtain call. Initial bows, and then Persephone began “I Raise My Cup.” It’s a haunting song, lovely and melancholy and a little bit hopeful. Each time a lyric line referenced “raise my cup” at least a few members of the audience lifted a bottle or black solo cup, and you could see cast members looking a bit quizzical. And then the final verse, “I raise my cup to him” and the majority of the audience lifted their cups in response. And those students, who had poured their hearts and souls into the performance of an odd, tragic, musically difficult story experience*, broke down in tears. They somehow managed to finish the song, even while sobbing. I’m tearing up again just trying to describe it. 

There is something we all know about live theatre, even if only subconsciously: the audience is out there, taking in the performance, and in the best of times responding in a way that resonates with the efforts and passion and objectives of the actors. My friend, the director, recorded this particular curtain call while sobbing herself; I just wish someone onstage had been able to record the audience from the cast’s perspective while they felt the power and emotion of the theatre experience everyone had just had actively reflected back to them… with black solo cups. Orpheus’ mother knew that theatricality could respond to theatre and amplify a performance that wasn’t performative at all, providing props and perfect timing. We, audience and actors, all took our cues and made an indelible connection, completing the ideal theatre exchange. 

The show is over, but that moment (one of many) will live on. That’s the beauty of live theatre.

Teaching Adjunct

 This past term (Aug-Dec 2024) I have been an adjunct instructor at Utah Valley University (UVU). I’ve had two sections of Intro to Theatre, and honestly, it’s been a lot of fun. There have been two assignments that I have continuously put off grading (I don’t know why), but the students have been great. It’s been interesting teaching two sections of the same course one day after another - we’ve had some slightly better class discussions in the MW class, but the TTh class always got a somewhat more polished ‘lecture’ and slide presentation. (The jokes never went over quite as well in TTh, as it’s always hard to recycle something that was effective and spontaneous, but, like I said, the students were great.)

I developed a massive, nasty ear infection (both ears) right at the start of the term that almost completely blocked my hearing. I had to reconfigure some assignments and adjust the schedule and be out of classes for about a week and a half; everyone rolled with it. I prefer not to have anyone try to conduct online conversations; we moved everything to in-class discussions days with a written follow-up response. They had interesting insights, and great things to say, both in class and in their responses. I tried some new things with my lesson plans, and had some cool successes. And some topics just can’t be made super exciting. 

I gave both classes their weekday off after the presidential election, as they are theatre classes with a solid percentage of theatre students. I had more trans, gay, and non-binary students this term than I ever have before. We all needed some time off to process the election and start dealing with the incomprehensible implications. Two weeks after the election I asked each class if there was anything they wanted to talk about; I didn’t want to ignore what had happened, or blow over the events as if they wouldn’t mean anything. Some students had questions. Others tuned out. We all made at least an attempt not to alienate anyone who had voted for the winner. It was a bit uncomfortable; we moved on. 

This week, the first week of December and the only week in the term after Thanksgiving break, I showed both classes a play (so glad I could still find a copy on YouTube - I really need to try to find a better recording!) and we ran a group chat through an app for them to bring up different elements of theatre that we had been talking about for the last few months. One of the great things about that kind of class is watching the students when they get invested in a story, when they react to dramatic moments and revelations. Then these last two days we had in-class study sessions so they could prep for the final exam, reviewing a study guide comprised of questions written by the students (and edited by me) covering all the modules front the term. I’ll start grading those once the test closes for each class. The test really isn’t the important part; I think they’ll get more out of the review than the test itself. (*evil laugh*)

Yesterday one girl asked for my contact info for real life theatre consultations (basically). A few others thanked me and said I was awesome. Today one student gave me a Christmas card with a gift card; inside they had written “You were born to teach. Thank you for making class a safe space for us.” This same student lost both his parents about a year ago, and has since been made guardian for his older, disabled sister. Just a few weeks ago he missed class to visit a parent’s grave; while he was there a police officer approached him, told him there had been a call from a concerned citizen, and handed him a cup of hot chocolate. He happened to tell me about this incident during a class discussion period; I told him that he had the beginning of a play and I REALLY hope he writes it. Another couple of students thanked me and told me I was the coolest teacher they had, and that they really appreciated me. 

I did mention these students were great, right?

I have also taught dramaturgy and playwriting (scriptwriting) here at UVU, and was scheduled to teach a Theatre History & Literature course next term (it was canceled, not enough sign-ups). I’m also working on a new course with a professor from the Social Work department - it’s going to be on social work and Improv. 

And I have loved and continue to look forward to teaching Intro to Theatre, the most basic of them all.

2024 Presidential Election - A Record

 Things that have happened in the one week since the 2024 election:

- Vote counts are continuing, and it looks as though DJT will take less than 50% of the popular vote. It also looks as though he will win that count only by around 1.5% of the total. This is not anything like a landslide, or a “mandate.” Even the Electoral College votes are in a normal range for a winning candidate; nothing extraordinary.

- According to Benny Johnson (an influencer being paid by the Russians - literally) and DJT’s own actions, they lied about Project 2025 not being the Trumpublican agenda. Look it up; we’re evidently going full Handmaid’s Tale if the new administration has their way.

- Nick Fuentes, White Supremacist incel and online… personality (?), went viral for posting “Your body, my choice. Forever.” on Twitter after the election, and followed that up by going on a podcast and mocking women that their rights were being taken away and soon they wouldn’t have any at all. He repeated his phrase, giggling like a junkie. It became an attack line on Twitter (women were swamped with it), someone made tshirts, and elementary school boys have started taunting their female classmates with it (in one Utah school district, the phrase has been accompanied with a smack to the girl’s backside). Fuentes was subsequently re-doxxed and people started showing up at his house; he became so afraid for his own safety that he moved back in with his mother.

- DJT has named Elon Musk to his cabinet as a Secretary of the Department of Efficiency (there is not yet any such department); though it may take time away from Musk’s busy schedule of talking on the phone with Putin (seriously), Musk has promised to cut government output by around 2 trillion dollars. This will strip the government of basically ALL programs, and will decimate the economy (we’re talking Great Depression levels) for at least two years. Musk believes this is an acceptable sacrifice to “build the economy” [currently literally the best in the world] “into something better.”

- I paid $2.79 per gallon of gas today. This is the lowest it’s been in years, and it has nothing to do with Trump or the election.

- The Taliban congratulated the US for refusing to elect a woman president. They have also recently banned the sound of women’s voices in public, and started confusing men by beginning to restrict their fashion and personal grooming choices. The men are SHOCKED that the Afghani government that has completely repressed half the population is now starting to oppress them, too. The Taliban also made a point of mentioning that the agreement that got the US out of Afghanistan and allowed the Taliban full access to power was signed by Trump.

- By the end of last week (Friday?) the economic report on the radio described how businesses were pre-emptively raising their prices in preparation for the hikes that will come next year when DJT implements all the tariffs he’s so excited about. Trump voters have not seemed to have any idea how tariffs actually work, and have been shocked to find out that they will be paid by American consumers, not foreign countries. One anecdotal story tells how a manufacturing company in Pennsylvania had to tell all their employees (mostly Trump voters) that no one would be getting a Christmas bonus since they had to order enough supplies to last a full year because of concerns about the proposed tariffs. The employees were utterly stunned and confused.

- Even though the same voting machines were used in the same districts across the country, no one has tried to call foul or scream about a rigged election (there have been some isolated reports about election officials changing vote tallies in favor of Trump). Many have expressed surprise that those who were able to successfully rig the 2020 election evidently just… didn’t bother? to do it again in 2024.

- The position of “Border Czar” is evidently officially being created; it is to be filled by the same guy who said that splitting up families when they begin mass deportations won’t be a problem because they’ll just deport the American-born children as well. He is the same person who authored the section of Project 2025 that describes how they plan to deport 11 million immigrants. (Stephen Miller, evidently taking a break to come out of his coffin, posted that they have a “de-naturalization” program in place and ready to go. He wants to strip citizenship from people who have been here legally for years.) So not only is the country about to spend literal billions to try to deport illegal immigrants and their legal children, the country is projected to lose additional billions in taxes and labor provided by those immigrants. 

- DJT today reiterated his intention (as outlined in Project 2025) to eliminate the Department of Education. This will remove all educational standards, as well as all funding for special education programs and IEP’s. Apparently all autistic children (or anyone with any need of specific support) will be on their own.  

- It’s interesting that the vast majority of those who post messages about how “we shouldn’t allow politics to damage our relationships” seem to be Trump voters unwilling to listen to honest concerns and fears about the things DJT has said and the policies outlined in Project 2025. “It’ll all be OK,” they say, usually to people who will lose all access to health insurance if the administration succeeds in getting rid of the ACA. (Apparently, there are also Trump voters who rely on the ACA but don’t like Obamacare and are gobsmacked to realize they are the same thing.)

There’s more, of course, but it will have to wait for the next round-up. Y’know, if we still have access to the Internet.

Miserable Useless Menopausal Childless Single Teacher Lady here - I can’t complete the list because I don’t have any cats due to a slight allergy. Sorry, JD Vance. Looks like you’ll have to find some other way to talk about how you hate women. Fortunately, a solid percentage of men in this country agree with you and also hate women, so I’m sure you all will come up with something. 

Can’t hardly wait.

Maybe Avoid Public Spaces on Bank Holidays

 I had been very excited to visit one of London’s “hidden gems”, Kyoto Garden in Holland Park. Monday (5/2/22) was a bank holiday, which didn’t mean much until I got to the otherwise somewhat lackluster Holland Park and walked around marveling at the crowds of people walking around. The garden-in-the-park turned out not to be 1) all that much of a garden - it was basically a walking path around a pond - and 2) particularly “hidden”. The path was swarmed with wanna-be influencers getting their photo at the (admittedly lovely) man-made waterfall. Forget about serenity and reflection. I trekked around the park, did my loop around the pond in Kyoto Garden, and headed back to my Airbnb to pack up to move to the student flats the next day.

(My pictures do not necessarily load on the blog in the order the are saved on my phone; but I got tired of adding them one at a time. Eventually, I may get on here on my laptop and re-arrange them. But probably not.)

The British-est embodiment of a park EVER.

Love the wisteria.

Everyone getting stalled at the waterfall while waiting to move around the pond.

The most photographed element of Holland Park (by way of Kyoto Garden)? I suggest yes.

Lord Holland. Yes, that’s HIS pond. It’s…. a mess.

I love crowds. Especially stupid, oblivious crowds. Bank holiday? Thank you, no.

I headed from Holland Park into the Design Museum, largely because I needed to refill my water bottle and use the restroom, and the Holland Park bathrooms were out of toilet paper. It was interesting, and I needed to be in a better headspace to really appreciate it. (Also, to look better in pictures. Ongoing challenge!)

Life and Death

 Super-dramatic title, I know - but Brompton Cemetery is actually a fascinating example of how spaces of death are merged into everyday life. I spent an hour Sunday afternoon (May 1st) wandering around a city-block-(bigger?) sized graveyard stuffed full of historical artifacts. It’s been around for a couple of centuries at least, and has been planned (re-designed?) with community life in mind. The paths are full of walkers and joggers, and there is a posted dog-walking route through the space. Gravestones are piled together, all different eras, singles and family groups, and everything is roughly laid out in blocks. These sections have varying levels of greenery; some are nearly waist-high fields of weeds and wildflowers, some with stands of trees and bushes, others cut down to turf. I do wonder if there is a grass-cutting schedule…

There’s a major theme running through exhibitions and discussions right now on the Suffrage Movement, and Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the leaders.

Usually, when the community is invited in to this kind of space it’s because vampires are looking for a snack (Buffy).

A very small selection of the headstones and markers on offer - TONS of crosses and Christian symbology.

Fascinating place (includes - locked up! - catacombs) for walking and thinking and pondering mowing techniques.

Although…

 What is WITH the accompanist? What is his deal? The Sacrament hymn was beautiful as he played it, and it was also incredibly distracting (particularly the key change on the third verse). Does he expect no one to sing the parts? Does he not know, for all his apparent skill on the piano, that it is very hard to sing parts when there is random accompaniment all over the place? Anyone in the congregation with perfect pitch must have been going NUTS with the key change and knowing the notes on the page no longer matched what they heard. Or is the fancy impromptu arrangement his way of making the singers concentrate more on the words, since they couldn’t follow the written notes anymore?

Is he being deliberate, or just having fun? Obliviously, delightedly, talentedly, jackassedly having fun?

Argh.

ETA: Next post - Sunday wanderings in a crazy cemetery. Well, not that crazy. And not specifically limited to Sunday; that’s just when I happened to be there. Lots of picture, lots of thoughts. 

Church Is Wild, Y’All

 Caught a bus, made it to church on time, super proud of myself. Also forgot it was May 1st and, therefore, Fast Sunday, and had yogurt before leaving the house (but not the candy bar - Bounty! - in my bag). Slightly less proud of myself, but not cranky. So.

The meeting was a little bit crazy. The accompanist is highly talented and overdramatic; it’s not a BAD thing to play the hymns as written! People can sing the parts to the music when you do! (FYI, floppy-haired drama piano dude.) One of the first testimonies was from an older gentleman (my age? Urgh) with a fantastic beard who talked like a preacher from the early 1900’s. I’m fairly certain that one is not meant to preach to or ‘exhort’ the congregation while bearing testimony. Love the British accent, though. A slightly more confusing accent was up next; he looked like a Spaniard and greeted us in Spanish but his English bore traces of Scottish (verified when he talked about dedicating the ground to bury his father’s ashes in the garden of his mother’s house in Scotland). Great story: he talked about how this experience showed him his family is afraid of inspiration, and testified that following the Spirit is actually a revolutionary concept. The things we take for granted are definitely strange and new, sometimes!

Then an elderly man in a motorized wheelchair came up the aisle, shoved a stroller out of the way that was (literally) in the spot he wanted to ‘park’ in next to a bench, and proceeded to run over a little girl’s foot (twice) while trying to navigate the chair to where he wanted it. He had no idea - at least not until she started wailing. He caught on at that point.

An earnest young man said, as part of his testimony: “I believe in righteousness.” I haven’t thought all the way through that yet, but I love it.

It seemed like almost everyone who got up mentioned when they had been baptized, and a few counted down the anniversary. Justin was visiting from Arizona (he invited everyone to come visit him in the States) talked about a time he was having “a discouraging, but not disheartening, experience”, and I thought that was so profound. Adds some perspective, and a measure of control, even when we’re having some of our hardest times, yeah? He went on to talk about how the Lord is always mindful of us and the things we’re going through. Then a young dad got up, and mentioned how, during an episode of sadness he had the (very normal) thought: “This too shall pass.” However, he was then edited by the Spirit, which revised the thought to: “This too is a gift.” He said that every moment of this life is a gift; it has literally been given to us. Then he bore testimony of the gifts of the Lord and the Spirit and I thought: what about giving all the moments of our own lives as a gift to our Heavenly Father? Give Him the happy moments to share, and give Him the sad/difficult moments as a display of trust that He will know what to do and will help us get through them.

It was cool that nobody was blasé about their testimonies. They were sometimes slightly inappropriate, but what they were saying was always heartfelt and important to them. 

Somebody quoted Sister White from the April 2022 General Conference, on how waiting on the Lord is and should be a sacred place. (I need to go read/listen to that talk. Well, all of them - I was a little out of it this last Conference - and that would be a good one to start with.)

So when I looked back at my notes - I took notes! - I realized that I have a complete Sacrament Meeting talk here, made up of concepts and connections from things people talked about in their testimonies. It was fascinating, and quite lovely. I’ll have to report back (I will probably not report back) if I ever get the chance to give that talk.

Oh, and in this ward the sacrament was at the end. I suppose that might be tricky for some, but after a meeting of testimonies and wonderful moments (even with children shrieking - and not just the one who’d had her foot rolled over!) I felt well-prepped to take the Sacrament.