'you are in no danger. i am an actor'

Found by Peter Church on a post - Granville Street, near Broadway.  

February 26, 2014

photos | kolmanskop, namibia | patterson, marom, omelyanchuk, van oosten, kerwin

Freeman Patterson 

Erez Marom

Andrey Omelyanchuk

Marsel Van Oosten

James Kerwin

fudge caskets in a dessert mausoleum

 

wunderkammer

 

jean louis garçon | enlightened

Last night on stage, 25 minutes after the play we're playing, power outage throughout the theater block. We stopped and then a bystander turned on his phone light, then another, then another and then full and they said "we see you well." And we played like that with the spectators who enlightened us. No music or effects since no power. The cut lasted for almost an hour and the public literally enlightened us at the end of our arm. Then the juice came back 15 mins before the end. The audience applauded us a lot. On the way out, in front of the theater, there were many left, big smiles on their faces and glitter in their eyes, because they knew we lived together, a unique moment! Long live the theater and the live show for the magic it closes. For those who want to see her.

La Pépinière Théâtre, Paris, France

feb 18 | letter to the editor of the new yorker

Subject: Your neighbours* to the north

Dear Mr Remnick,

There is a country just north of yours, called “Canada.”  Our nation’s capitol, which we refer to as “Ottawa,” is about a seven hour drive from New York, so I understand if that falls outside the purview of The New Yorker, or outside the interest of New Yorkers. But I feel it is worth mentioning that you have at least one reader who resides outside of Manhattan, and that reader wonders why there has been no mention in your publication of an unprecedented crisis in his country, the aforementioned “Canada."

Twenty-one days ago, a convoy of anti-vaccine, anti-government protestors occupied our nation’s capital.  There are many links with far right movements which, as I understand it, have been active in your country as well.  On February 14, the Prime Minister - which is kind of like your President, but different - invoked, for the first time in our nation’s history, the Emergencies Act, in order to remove the protestors; though about fify years ago his father, also a Prime Minister, used similar powers, the War Measures Act, to deal with Separatist extremists.   

Ottawa’s mayor declared a State of Emergency eleven days ago. Eight days ago Ontario’s Premier- which is kind of like the Governor of one of your state, but different - declared a provincial State of Emergency to end the “seige” of the nation’s capital.  On Tuesday of this week, the Ottawa Chief of Police resigned; on Wednesday, the police services board chair resigned her position; on Thursday, the newly appointed police chief withdrew from the position; these are rather concerning developments in current circumstances.

Late yesterday, a large police force began arresting the occupying protestors and towing their vehicles from the area of our nation’s Parliament - which is kind of like your Capitol Building in Washington D.C., but different. You might say that this three week occupation is kind of like the seige of your own Capitol about a year ago. But different. (For example, nobody killed anybody yet.  We are Canadian, after all.)

Our country, and our little national emergency, are different, yes.  But not insignificant.  Except, it seems, to the New Yorker.  

But still…  I would have thought this not-especially-violent little fracas might occasion at least passing interest.  Okay, maybe this will help.  This illegal political action, with the express purpose of removing our Prime Minister from office, is significantly funded by your countrymen - Americans  - who have also taken it upon themselves to help jam phone lines to the city’s 911 emergency telephone lines.  Americans.  Does that give you the angle you need?  I bet some of them even live in New York.  Oh, and their pals shut down the bridge between Detroit and Ontario, costing American automotive manufacturers tens of millions of dollars a day.  Americans and money.  Surely that?

Come on, Dave.  Throw us a bone.  At least pretend that this is as important as the monobob, or a six year old photo essay on Mexican commuters.  (Mexico!  That’s your other neighbour, even further from New York!  You can do this!)

Long-time subscriber,

Ron Reed

* “neighbours” - pretty much the same as your word “neighbors,” but different.  But not all that different.  I would have thought.

madness

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Allen Ginsberg." 

Madness

robert frost | acquainted with the night

 

luci shaw | mary's sword

Yes, and a sword will also pierce your own heart...

Luke 2:35

On the fortieth day, the little family waits 

in the temple for old Simeon to bless the new Baby.

His declaration is one of promise and divine import 

for the human race: our rising. Our decline.

And then, quite shockingly, he turns to Mary, 

the young mother with prophetic words: 

“Also, a sword will pierce your own heart.” 

Does she suck in her breath at the violent word? 

And did the thrust of foreboding haunt her, living as 

she did, on the fringes of her Son’s too-brief life?

We’d hope that her own pain eased as she watched

her Son’s healing miracles. When others leaped up,

restored by his creative touch, perhaps she sensed

her own heart’s flesh knit, its raw edges scarring over. 

But we guess that Mary lived the weapon’s threat 

for all those years until its deepest wound, 

there at her Son’s harsh dying,

when a sharp spear-thrust in his own side assured her, 

and each of us, a healing, and a resurrected life.

carl jung | somebody who's tired and needs a rest...

I've realized that somebody who's tired and needs a rest 

and goes on working all the same 

is a fool. 

Carl Jung

I'm pretty sure my own tendency to just push on (and on, and on), working long past the point of feeling tired, has many times led to a kind of exhaustion that's really not good. Still...

"I've realized that somebody who's tired and needs a rest 

and goes on working all the same 

has a job." 

Ron Reed

I understand what Jung's saying. That said, if I hadn't spent a good part of the past thirty years doing the opposite of what Mr Jung prescribes, there might very well be no Pacific Theatre. I would have written no plays. I would have left rehearsal halfway through, many days - and, most other days, I would have had no one to rehearse with, because one or another of my fellow actors would have called it quits, depending on their own levels of energy. No grants would have been written, few budgets balanced. How many appointments would I have cancelled without notice, and how many others would I have walked out on midway through?

Muscles get built when you continue working them once they've tired. Character gets built when you do what needs doing, even though you'd rather do something else (like resting, for example). People get cared for in hospitals, artistic breakthroughs occur, crops get planted or harvested, children get fed and cleaned and loved, when people continue to do what they need to do even when they are absolutely bloody exhausted.

I'm glad I wasn't one of Carl Jung's patients. "Oh, doctor Jung won't be seeing you today. He prefers to have a rest."