Sublimity and Supression. Why Tuesday Never Has A Blue Monday experienced both this evening.
Robert Heide, the wonderful playwright of the piece, was at La Mama this evening and dropped by afterward to catch our second show. He sat and watched, laughed, nodded. At the end, he had tears in his eyes. I couldn't help watching him watch the piece. I saw his engagement with it but also the memories being stirred up in him when seeing and hearing it again. It was performed at La Mama at 122 2nd Ave. in August of 1966. He told us we got it. I was touched.
Then, before the third show, a woman appeared yelling and screaming at us. "You can't be here. You need a permit to perform on the street. I am calling the police. I am calling 911," she yelled at us with her cell phone on one ear. I found out that she is a current tenant of 122 2nd Ave. Our line director, Jon Murphy was right at my side to help, calling Ralph. I called Barry who told me we do not need a permit to perform and have permission from Officer Hernandez from the 9th precinct. Ralph showed up quickly and began negotiations with the tenants of the building - a Czech gym/club on the 1st floor, an acpuncture/massage place on the 2nd floor and the angry woman on the 3rd who stirred up the trouble. They were all on the street at this point. Jon asked me if I wanted the third tour to skip us. I said "no way." We performed anyway even while the tenants were standing there threatening us.
Okay, one admission - we had plugged in a light to an outdoor outlet that belongs to the acupuncture place. Ralph had contacted them to ask permission and even offered to put an ad for them in our program but had not gotten a response. We decided to go ahead and plug in, and it hadn't been an issue up until tonight. Yes, we were "borrowing" a little electricity. We turned the light on for the 5 min. scene and immediately turned it off in between. The 3rd floor tenant made it her personal cause to accuse us of being complete crooks. We unplugged the lights for the 3rd and 4th shows. We are switching to battery lights for tomorrow.
Lots of action for us this evening in a variety of ways!!
from director Elaine Molinaro
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4 shows tonight.
Show #1 - we're in the middle of doing a little rehearsing, when all of a sudden "they're here!" 10 minutes earlier than last night. - we start the scene as Elaine runs onstage to reset props. Somehow we missed the warning from our line director
Show # 2 - a few minutes before the show someone asks us "What's the name of your show". I take a stab at the title, which I've never been too sure of. I get it right. Good thing. The passerby responds "well, the playwright's right here." Elaine gives up her camp chair to Bob. We perform our scene, and Bob is very gracious and makes us feel great. We hang out talking to him a while, he goes off, we're feeling touched and honored, and . . . what’s that commotion?
Someone is unplugging our coveted electrical cord. There is an outlet on our wall We have had the luxury of actual stage lighting in our scene - to go along with an actual set. No one has minded that we lit up for 5 minutes the past two nights, but now someone is screaming at us that we can't be here, that she wants to see our permit. That she’s calling the cops, that it’s illegal to steal electricity. The woman from the acupuncture clinic now insists we unplug. Elaine, Michelle, and I talk to the angry lady and the acupuncture lady. We have individual styles – Elaine tells them that they WERE contacted, we DO have permits, Ralph called them several times, they were offered an ad in the program, it;s great publicity for the accupuncture clinic. Michelle is very nice and apologetic. I just want to offer them money for the electricity. Our line director is calling Barry. Elaine is calling Ralph. They both arrive. I want to pay the acupuncture lady for electricity, but I have no money with me in my costume.
It’s time to start show #3. It’s dark. Our line director asks us if we want to skip this run due to all the tumult. We say no, this is what it’s all about. We run the scene, accompanied by the angry lady screaming into her cell phone that she’s going to call 911.
In-between shows, Ralph makes nice to everyone. It turns out that the electrical outlet has a history behind it, and so, no paying for electricity. We’ll have to play in the dark tonight, and hope for batteries tomorrow. The Ukrainian social club guy is o.k. with us being there, once he learns it’s only two more weeks. -- we’re not permanently setting up a bizarre psychotherapy office on his sidewalk, Ralph says the magic words are that Officer Hernandez from the 9th Precinct is aware of our project.
Show # 4 -- a minute into the scene, our remaining source of light – the illuminated “Acupuncture” sign is rolled away. We think it’s revenge at first, but later realize that it’s 10:00, when the clinic closes. If we can get our last scene in before 10:00 we’ll have light. Otherwise no.
It’s been a great exhilarating fun night. But tonight I go out for a beer afterwards, so I don’t take the angry lady home with me.
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