The Nance

Cady Huffman as Sylvie

I saw The Nance a few weeks  ago (being in rehearsal and writing a commission do not lend themselves to much blogging time).  Primarily, I was going to see Cady Huffman, and Nathan Lane and Jack O'Brien couldn't hurt, right?  Lewis J. Stadlen I'd seen play Groucho Marx in Groucho:  A Life in Revue which my late, great friend Rusty Magee had musical directed.  I was not a big Douglas Carter Beane fan; I'd seen Advice from a Caterpillar and The Little Dog Laughed.  Not bad, but really not my cup of tea.  When I read Hilton Als' review in the New Yorker ("The Nance ... is a nearly perfect work of dramatic art"), I thought he's lost his mind.

Well, I was wrong.  I loved it.  I loved the script, and the fact that within the first 20 minutes there are references to both Singer's Midgets and Julian Eltinge, and the Lyceum is the perfect theatre for it.  I'm not sure I would have visualized Cady as a Communist striper, but I believe her every moment.  She and Lane are both touching and hilarious.  John Lee Beatty's turntable set is fantastic, Ann Roth's costumes are perfect (she is Ann Roth, I realize, but that baby doll nightgown that Cady wears with the hands on the tits is simply hilarious), the acting is across the board good (best thing I've ever see Stadlen do-  he and Lane even perform the "Niagara Falls" routine), the direction is just right.  Beane and Glen Kelly wrote new period-appropriate songs for the burlesque numbers. So good, in fact, my friend composer John Prestianni and I thought they might have been actual burlesque songs we weren't familiar with.   

Nathan Lane as Chauncey and Lewis J. Stadlen as Efram

 The Nance was extended through August 11th, and I'm going again.

Lincoln Center Theatre photos by Joan Marcus.

My Trip to Kansas

Back in October and November, I did a residency at the William Inge Theatre Festival (Peter Ellenstein, Artistic Director) in Independence, Kansas.  I shared Inge's birthplace with Adam Szymkowicz, who was working on a new musical about pan-sexual female pirates.  Adam was an excellent housemate!

Peter  took the beautiful photograph of the combined casts and creators of "My Dark and Scurvy Heart" (Matt Sherwin, lyricist, is sitting next to me; and Adam Szymkowicz is behind Forrest Attaway's head) and my play, "The Benders," which is set in southeastern Kansas.  Our shared actors were the wonderful Joe Gomez (the man with the mustache) as Johnny; Hannah Joyce-Hoven (next to Joe) was Actress #1 (who was so good I wrote more for her); Forrest Attaway (next to Hannah) was Actor #1; the lady in green was our beloved director Tamara Fisch; I'm in between her and Matt Sherwin; Sean McDermott (so funny, and so much menace, played Pa); Cady Huffman (yea!) played Ma, and Nellie McKay played Kate.

There is a zoo in Independence which I did not get to on my previous trip.  But Tamara and I made an effort to visit it this time.  It is, as Cady Huffman describes it, "a zoo with a door."  It is free.  There are monkeys on an island.  There are burros who tried to follow me.  And there were some pretty fine looking swans (this is my artistic photograph of the swan and its reflection

It’s been 5 years (Really?  Hardly seems possible) since Open Source Gallery’s first Soup Kitchen.  I know that after the horrible fire on Fifth Avenue, I hosted a Soup Kitchen night in my apartment-  I think that was year #3.  My play, Mi Tigre, My Lover, opened the new gallery space up the block last year.   My dog Augie and I will be serving soup 7-9 on Tuesday, along with Christmas cookies.  I’ll also read a monologue from my Christmas play, Let Nothing You Dismay.  Or, rather, I am hoping to-  I have laryngitis at the moment, but I trust I’ll have a voice by Tuesday night.  The thing I love most about the Soup Kitchen is that I meet such interesting people.  Every time.  I’ve had conversations about art, food, recipes, the nabe, the dog, everything you can imagine.  Please come on Tuesday- it’s free, and the soup (I did a test run on Friday) is excellent.  It’s nice to have a friend who’s a chef (Giuliano Hazan was my scene partner in grad school).  Press release follows.  

Playwright Serves Soup and Reads

On Tuesday, December 11, Brooklyn playwright Anne Phelan will host Open Source Gallery's fifth annual Soup Kitchen.  Soup will be served 7-9PM. This event is free.  All are welcome.  Phelan will serve Giuliano Hazan’s Leek and Chickpea Soup (from his How to Cook Italian), and read an excerpt from her play about the holidays, Let Nothing You Dismay. 

Phelan is an award-winning produced and published playwright.  She was Playwright-in-Residence at the William Inge Theatre Festival in October and November.  The Festival workshopped her play The Benders (about the first U.S. serial killers), featuring Tony Award-winning actress Cady Huffman.  Phelan has had 4 plays produced at Open Source, the most recent of which was a September reading of The Tiger Play, which grew out of Open Source's exhibit of Naoe Suzuki’s work Mi Tigre, My Lover. 

Monika Wuhrer and Gary Baldwin are the curators of Open Source Gallery.  The Open Source Soup Kitchen seeks artists, cooks, friends, and neighbors to join them for a month of cooking, eating, sharing, and celebrating. For as many nights of the month as they have volunteers, they will provide the cookware and utensils and the volunteer chef will be responsible for the “one-pot meal” of the night. They welcome all kinds of unique dishes from any ethnic tradition.

Volunteers each choose a night and cook for approximately 15-20 people. Usually dishes are a soup or stew. The cook is also responsible for providing an artistic element to incorporate into the evening. In the past, participants have displayed photographs on the walls, read monologues, or played music. While the volunteers do not necessarily have to be artists, it is encouraged. Those who attend the soup kitchen vary from neighbors to artists to others who are down on their luck or simply hungry. Not a traditional soup kitchen, this event focuses on conversation, community, and art. Sometimes the conversation flows easily, and sometimes not, but the food is nearly always tasty (it’s New York, after all – we have standards!). So join us for good food, good art, and good conversation.  If you are interested in volunteering to cook for the Soup Kitchen, there are still slots available.  Please respond to contact@opensourcegallery.org.  Open Source Gallery is located at 306 17th Street (near Sixth Avenue) in Park Slope, Brooklyn.