Shut up and Do

Thursday we had a noon call so to have a line through and a final dress before we reopen at 7 pm. The actors are sooooo ready to be done. They work, work and work at lines, but there is a lot of "3 more days and we are out of here." There are numerous beat changes, lines and whole scenes that make little to no sense. However, since Rebecca has never asked them for their thoughts, they just "shut and and do." I know Peggy, the playwright, would welcome their thoughts and ideas (we saw this happen last week), but Rebecca does nothing to facilitate these conversations.

We had a nice two hour break before performance call, so I finalized my "reopening night" gift bags and Christmas cards for the actors. I gave Kaipo a USF t-shirt, but I put together a bag for the women that included something that represented each of their characters and me. I included the NY Times best selling Love Eat Pray (Janice), a baseball key chain (Bonnie), Christmas bath gel (Bev) and Christmas socks (Mary Lou). They loved it.

The Women's Project had a Men's Auxiliary bake sale in the lobby all afternoon and evening. Since there was so many goodies left over, they encouraged me to take what I wanted. I put together a couple of goodie bags for Valarie and my friend Ben, who is a stagehand at the Overwhelming at Laura Pels Theatre.

After the show, I dropped off Ben's "Secret Santa" goodies and then went over to the Public Library to check on Valerie. She wasn't there. All her stuff was, but she wasn't. I waited for about an hour and a half, but she never came back. I was a bit confused because it was quite late, and she is usually asleep by now. I left the treats with a note.

Sitting watching the world go by on 5th Ave was a humbling experience. First of all....the stares. People seemed to be curious as to why I was just sitting there, but no one asked. I obviously did not look homeless, but yet I had dared to crawl over the barriers they place at night and sit on the steps. Also...the mice. They play and scrounge for scraps. I am not going to go so far as to say that I am conquering my fear of the little vermin, but I am realizing that they are just small living creatures doing the best they can...not so different from me...or Valarie.