Crazytown

WE'RE ALL MAD HERE.

In this review: SPOILERS for the experience of seeing Then She Fell. You've been warned.
By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer)

I am a sucker for immersive theatre experiences. I loved Sleep No More. I want all of my future theatre experiences to involve snacks and/or alcoholic beverages and even slightly intense prolonged eye-contact. Perhaps because I know what it feels like to be on the actor's side of the fourth wall, I love shows that totally destroy that wall and ask the audience to step over the crumbled ruins of it and into the action. If Sleep No More offers a voyeuristic haunted house for guests to explore masked, unguided, and at will; Then She Fell is a much more intimate, playful, disorienting experience that you engage in alone but constantly accompanied by members of the cast as well as nurses and orderlies of the institution. Oh, did I mention that you'll be spending the evening in a Victorian mental hospital? 

Inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll and his real-life, possibly romantic relationship with the child Alice Liddell, Then She Fell is a theatre piece I have come to, rather typically, several years after it started getting rapturous reviews in the Times. Honestly, it fell under my radar for a while, and then when it popped onto my radar I had to wait to rationalize the ticket price (admittedly, not cheap, but then the experience is WORTH IT), which I'm glad I did because they have a closing date of April 30, 2017. They've extended before, but who knows? So if you want to definitely go see this amazing production, I recommend getting tickets now and seeing it this spring.

Knowing that you're seeing a wildly popular show that only sells 15 tickets a performance is intimidating. For most of it, you are being directly performed to. I spent several minutes sitting silently across from an actor who was a sort of non-literal representation of the White Rabbit, painting a white rose red with a tiny paintbrush, feeling a genuine stress that we wouldn't be done in time. I participated in a mad tea party, smashing my tea cup on the table with the White and Red Queens, Rabbit, and Hatter, and then sipping a deliciously brewed concoction that I had helped choose before being whisked away again for a bedtime story (and being literally tucked into a crisp, white bed). I watched two Alices dance through a mirrored glass, once from inside the Red Queen's luxurious apartment, and once from inside a sparkling fairy burrow, while being fed purple grapes by the White Queen. Later, one of the Alices had me hand her clothing after her bath, all while asking me questions about love. At the end of that scene, we were looking directly into each other's eyes between the bannister of a staircase and she queried if I had lived happily ever after with that first person, that first person I ever loved. When I laughed lightly and said "No," her face darkened abruptly, and she ran up the stairs in a huff, too fast for me to run after. 

After the show, my husband Daniel and I tucked ourselves into a nearby bar and over a nightcap excitedly exchanged stories of everything that had happened to us since we'd been split up. We had seen part of the show together. For a few scenes, like when the Red Queen spiraled into insanity with a bottle of pills in a locked ward, we had been the only two audience members watching. But once we were separated, Daniel was led off by the Mad Hatter, a redheaded chanteuse whom we'd watched dance on top of a wardrobe earlier in the evening, and was asked riddles. I was redirected into a room with a gramophone and instructed to open increasingly large books with bottles hidden inside as a Doctor concocted me a cocktail. Then he left me alone with a stack of letters to read and the voice from the gramophone reciting The Walrus and the Carpenter. I barely had time to skim the first letter before the White Rabbit retrieved me to come paint roses with him. Meanwhile, Daniel peeled and ate an orange with one of the Alices while I, somewhere else in the building, was watching the other Alice wrestle with the Red Queen. 

Like Sleep No More, this is dance theatre. Most of the scenes have a movement-heavy element driving them. Unlike Sleep No More, the experience feels tailor-made for you and you alone. You aren't eavesdropping on these people, they are inviting you to take part, have a sip, take a bite, answer a question. "Do you take dictation?" the actor playing Lewis Carroll asked me in a room that would have been a regular writer's study, except for the pools of water sinking into the floor in unexpected places. After I wrote his letter, he signed it, placed it in a bottle, and waded into the black water barefoot to send it off with all the others. The Doctor retrieved me and brought me upstairs to play a game of chess with him. I knew immediately that it was the chess game from Through The Looking Glass. He explained the entire sequence of moves to me, guiding me through playing Alice's white pawn, as if he was reading a particularly perplexing case study. At the end, he handed me a cup of tea, retrieved the ring of keys I'd been entrusted with during the performance (and encouraged to use on any lock I found), and suddenly orderlies began bringing the 14 other people of the audience, including Daniel, into the room where I sat. The show was over. I had been the only one, maybe, to play chess with the doctor. I definitely had been the only one to finish my stay in Wonderland with the chess game scene. 

As a long time lover of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, I was delighted to recognize so many moments from the stories and from the sad and strange real-life tale of Carroll and Alice. The show is a beautiful and beautifully sympathetic exploration of duality, sanity, reality, and the magic of childhood. At the beginning of the show, just as the audience members are starting to be whisked off by different actors to begin their own personalized journey through the piece, the Doctor offers a definition of liminality. From the Latin limin, meaning "threshold". We get our English word "lintel" from here. Liminality is the quality of ambiguity and disorientation experienced by participants in a ritual, usually magical or spiritual, that occurs midway through- before the participant has been changed completely by the ritual, but are no longer what they were before they began. The show attempts to make adolescent Alices of us all. Not quite big, not quite small, not quite having drunk all of the bottle yet, but definitely having taken a nice sip. Few shows have touched me and haunted me as much as this one has, and I am excited to see more from Third Rail Projects, who developed this and other immersive pieces, as theatre like this becomes more and more prolific and available. I look forward to the day when the idea of seeing a piece of theatre that isn't located in a repurposed warehouse space in Brooklyn is unusual. 

The only photo here that I actually took (after the show was over of course) of my "prescription" for the tea I chose during the Mad Tea Party and the stamped program I was given at the end of the show. The two other pictures in this article are press photos. The current company of Then She Fell can be found here.

 

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
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PROTEST IS THE NEW BRUNCH

It's only February.
By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer)

When satire has become reality, when those leading our government are making Orwellian propaganda seem tame by comparison, when the creators of South Park don't even know how to make fun of the current administration, because truth has become too much stranger than even the fictions of their twisted minds... what is the right approach? What tone do artists take during times like this to resist fascism and authoritarian moves like literally attempting to destroy the amendment that maintains our government's fine line of separation between church and state? It isn't funny anymore, and making fun of it feels daunting. Why bother satirizing a man who can tweet stuff like this with a dead-straight face: "I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy..." I mean.... okayyyyy, dude. I literally don't know what to say about that. When you spend your entire Black History Month speech talking about how everyone likes you and you got more votes than anyone in the whole world ever and everyone else is losers, and then say things like: "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice," as if Frederick Douglass is a real up-and-comer in middle management of a small but promising office supplies company... I just literally don't know what to say. 

Which is why I'm realizing more and more that the only way to respond to this preposterousness is with total and complete sincerity. (Although, there is absolutely a time and place for wit, and this is making me laugh today in the face of the utterly ridiculous confirmation of Betsey DeVos as Secretary of Education.) So. What do I mean by sincerity? I don't mean a total lack of irony. I don't mean "eschewing the lifesaving gift of comedy altogether". I just mean like, show up. I, a total and utterly insincere jerk, have been going to protests. Singing "This Land Is Our Land" alongside people holding homemade signs. Writing postcards to my congresspeople. Calling my senators and representatives EVERY SINGLE DAY (and also calling the ones in Florida, where I grew up, because I still have a Florida area code, and enjoy calling Marco Rubio and reminding him that he got bought by Betsy DeVos). 

Some people have gotten really fired up about caring about the future of our democracy. A lot of awesome people I know have always cared about the political climate of our country, and are not foul-weather activists like myself, who suddenly realized a few months ago that being mildly displeased about things but only actually bothering about them when they affect you is a really shitty way to be a human. But some of us needed things to become really horrible to become involved. As a kid I remember reading about Anne Frank and Sojourner Truth and the French Revolution and thinking: "Oh, so like if I ever saw things get bad politically, it would be pretty clear who the good guys and bad guys are. Everyone I know and care about would also be like 'Yeah, clearly those are the bad guys and here's our secret hiding place and here's our box of stolen ration cards.'" But that's not how things are. Yeah, it's pretty easy to see who the bad guys are, but it's really unclear how to deal with them and how bad they actually have to let things get before it's justified to begin calling them bad guys. And it is certainly surprising how many people don't clearly see the same distinctions between good guys and bad guys. 

I guess what I'm saying is, life is way more complicated than I expected when I was eleven, but is also surprisingly way more simple. I'm mortified that our country isn't accepting refugees from the country my own family escaped from during the last century, and I'm even more mortified that I feel so utterly helpless about how little I can ultimately do. Some of my friends are deciding to refocus their careers and run for office and help become one of the good guys in our government. Others are leading the resistance and gently pushing back on every human rights-compromising decision coming out of the White House today. Educators like myself have their work cut out for them for these next few years. Raising more tolerant, kind, inquisitive, questioning, inclusive humans is clearly in order. Humans who don't bully, who understand that the success of a group can be really good for the success of each individual in the group. Humans who are confident enough to accept that not everyone has to think exactly the same way, but we do all have to find a way to work together or our planet is doomed. Humans who recognize that just because someone believes in a different religion than you, that doesn't mean they're dangerous. Humans who are students of history and encourage others to be lifelong students as well. 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair… we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”
- Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" (how did he KNOW, AMIRITE?!) -

If you live in (or are planning a visit to) NYC, and you'd like to partake in some art that embodies the sentiment of "resist, with sincerity", may I recommend a few things that I'm currently interested in?

-The Museum of Modern Art's curated displays of art from the countries affected by the administrations' unconstitutional travel ban.
- An upcoming production (starring a former director of mine, Kevin Del Aguila! Yay, Kevin!) of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a parable play about a dictator to be performed on February 20th, with ticket sales benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center. 
- Sweat, a widely acclaimed Public Theatre drama about the struggle of the working class transfers to Broadway in March.

A couple other things I'd love to recommend this week are an Oscar-nominated documentary that I loved (and at our house where Daniel tries and frequently succeeds at seeing every nominated film every awards season, I can tell you that I see a lot of Oscar-nominated documentaries): Life, Animated- a beautiful story about a young man with autism who communicates through the films he loves. Also, this week's This American Life was heartbreaking and timely.

A picture I took during this week's protest in Washington Square Park. #thisiswhatdemocracysoundslike
I am proud to live in a city that stands strong with refugees from the devastation in Syria (and every other place in need of hope and freedom). 

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who has no idea why La La Land has been nominated for so many Oscars.
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IN THE PRESENCE OF GREATNESS - AGAIN

I Have Talented Friends
By Sam Perwin

This time of year can be exhausting, but I always try to make time to support the supremely talented people I'm lucky enough to call my friends. Herewith, a roundup of some of the amazingness I've gotten to see over the last few weeks.

It starts with a production in November of A Burial Place by my friend and fellow Crazytown writer Owen Panettieri. As an alumna of many a Panettieri reading and production, I'm always thrilled when I get to see a full production of one of his plays. It was a moving, thoughtful meditation on friendship, loss, and just making sense of life as we know it. I can't wait for the next one.

I next want to give a major shout out to a new friend and colleague Brett Epstein, the creator and producer of The Rule of 7x7. Putting up a show like this every other month must be ridiculously exhausting. And since none of us are in this business for the money (ha!), wrangling seven playwrights, an unknown amount of actors, and making theater magic happen is surely a labor of love. He also wrote and starred in what, in my opinion, was the best play of the night. I'm excited to see and participate in this awesome evening again!

Next, I got a rare glimpse at what my brilliant friend, director Mary Birnbaum gets to do in her role as an acting teacher at Julliard. I've seen many of Mary's (similarly brilliant) opera productions over the years, but I was invited to observe an "open class" of the Artist's Diploma in Opera Studies (ADOS). The six singers performed a sort of improvised evening of arias and monologues they had worked on, basically stitching together the works with their own acting intentions. It was visceral and spontaneous and gorgeous to see new life breathed into opera. 

And finally, just last night I finally got a chance to see Ben Rimalower's double bill cabaret act Patti Issues and Bad with Money. Ben is also a new friend, one whose work I've followed, but never had a chance to see. both shows are raw, shocking, vulnerable, and very very funny. They both reminded me of the sacrifices and pain we artsy folk live through in order to justify our commitment to this sometimes difficult - if not excruciating - life we've inexplicably chosen. Ben showed all of that with wit and aplomb.

As this dreadful year comes to a limping close, it's nice to be reminded that there's still creativity and beauty and art and inspiring people who make inspiring things. So thanks friends, I needed it this month.

SAM PERWIN Actor. Singer. Writer. Tall. www.samperwin.com
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AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN (AND WOMEN): PART 3

The third in a series of how not to be an asshole for the rest of 2016.
By Jennifer Anderson (Actor/Singer/Setting fire to the last remaining garbage pile of 2016)

Happy December, Crazytown. I think you'll agree with me when I say that I'm happy to see 2016, a year full of trials and tribulations, finally draw to a close.

But 2016 isn't done yet. We still have a full 31 days left, and leave it up to this crazy year to let even more shit hit the fan before it finally dies with a colossal void of its bowels. Despite what the rest of 2016 has in store for us, there is one thing we still have control over: ourselves. So let's all agree to allow the generous and joyful spirit of the holidays to influence our actions for this next month, if not the entirety of 2017.

Today's topic: Keep on a-movin'

 

WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Right. This. Very. Minute.
By Alisha Giampola (Writer/Performer)

It doesn't feel like Christmas yet in New York. There's only been a brief flurry of snow, nothing to stick, nothing to take a picture of. Even I, grumpiest of cold-weather persons, have not yet unpacked my heaviest winter coat. The overall feeling of sadness and dread that settled over the city after the election has not yet dissipated. Difficult times, corrupt leadership, war and strife, these things frequently nudge our greatest artists to produce their greatest art. Beauty is always best forged in the hottest fire. This week, I took myself to see a dear old friend in a play that I absolutely love, but have never had the opportunity to see. Jonathan Larson, of Rent fame, wrote only one other musical in his too-short life. The Keen Company's Tick, Tick...BOOM! is playing right now at The Acorn Theatre in Midtown, and if you have a chance before your flight home this holiday (it closes for good on December 18th), I highly recommend that you see it. Besides the fact that the three actors in it (including my amazingly talented friend George Salazar), are all phenomenal- this show resonates right now in a way that feels incredibly contemporary, despite being set in 1990. Disillusioned by friends having to sell out and work for soulless corporations, struggling with the pull between creating art and seeking stability, uninspired by Bush-era politics, wondering what the decade of one's thirties will bring, and set deep in the heart of the AIDS crisis, I had forgotten how relevant so much of the script is. The AIDS crisis aside, it's basically the life of me and like 90% of my friends.

This holiday season, it feels like we just voted in the Grinch, Mr. Potter, Ebenezer Scrooge...(just basically every bad guy from every Christmas movie ever but with none of the redeeming qualities rolled into one) into office. It felt good to take in art- challenging, beautiful, heartbreaking art. It was a reminder that there is always ugliness, and the job of artists is to shine flashlights into the corners and make the cockroaches scuttle. And there are a lot of dark corners right now. When bullies vie for other bullies to be put in charge, when refugees are being turned away and innocent people are ducking bombs, when an entire country has been conned, it's easy to feel like kindness and generosity are sorely lacking in this world this holiday season. But what George Bailey and Tiny Tim and Mrs. Claus and the Cratchits and Susan Walker and Buddy the Elf and all the Whos down in Whoville want you to remember is that kindness and love and art are the best and really only way to protest anything.

2016 has been a hard year for our world and this new year feels both promising and slightly ominous. So much rests on the small, everyday actions of all of us. The kind of person who assumes the mantle of the most powerful person the world stage, yet feels the need to write a tweet every time someone satirizes him, is the kind of person who requires attention, positive or negative, at any cost. That's the kind of person who will continue to surround themselves with yes-men and sycophants, regardless of their danger to others or to democracy in general. Journalists have their work cut out for them, as do all persons currently in or planning to run for office in this country and in other world democracies. What can artists do in 2017? What should our New Years Resolution be? We can refuse to bend our moral compass towards the closest, brassiest magnet. We can choose our ability to express ourselves to others as a platform for love instead of hate, for inclusivity instead of hostility. We can call the emperor out for wearing no clothes, in numbers too multitudinous to be retweeted. We can keep creating. Keep questioning. As the last song of Tick, Tick...BOOM! reminds us: "Fear or love baby? Don't say the answer: actions speak louder than words." 

I've been thinking a lot about the finale of the operetta Candide by Leonard Bernstein. In college, I sang the role of Paquette in a staging of that final song we performed in a small cabaret of several opera pieces. It is a beautiful song with beautiful lyrics and when I try to talk about what I hope artists do with the time we all have in 2017, when I think about the words I would most like to be my New Years Resolution, if such things can be resolved, these are the words that keep playing through my mind:

Let dreamers dream what worlds they please
Those Edens can't be found
The sweetest flow'rs, the fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.
We're neither pure nor wise nor good,
We'll do the best we know
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow
And make our garden grow.

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Happy Hanukkah.
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AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN (AND WOMEN): PART 2

The second in a series of how not to be an asshole for the rest of 2016.
By Jennifer Anderson (Actor/Singer/Setting fire to the last remaining garbage pile of 2016)

Happy December, Crazytown. I think you'll agree with me when I say that I'm happy to see 2016, a year full of trials and tribulations, finally draw to a close.

But 2016 isn't done yet. We still have a full 31 days left, and leave it up to this crazy year to let even more shit hit the fan before it finally dies with a colossal void of its bowels. Despite what the rest of 2016 has in store for us, there is one thing we still have control over: ourselves. So let's all agree to allow the generous and joyful spirit of the holidays to influence our actions for this next month, if not the entirety of 2017.

Today's topic: Subway Physics

 

EVERY ACTION HAS AN EQUAL OPPOSITE REACTION

aka. It's Hamilton lyrics from here on out, people.
By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and a lot of New Yorkers are making the pilgrimage (haha, see what I did there?) back to the small midwestern hometowns that they moved away from to be the artists, writers, and other assorted over-employed roles this city requires of them. The holidays can be tense for a lot of people, and this year, 2016, the most ridiculous year of all time, is probably going to be an especially tough one for some. Before we go a step farther, may I recommend something that you should absolutely read in preparation for spending time with people who may not agree with you? (All credit for finding that goes to my thoughtful husband, who has been calling the SHIT out of our elected representitives this week, regarding Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon- and you can too.)

There has been a lot said since the election. A lot of noise from both sides. A lot of reminders that it's so important to fact check one's news sources. A lot has also already been said about how all this infighting by the electorate is distracting people from what is actually happening in Washington right now- or rather, a lot of it's happening right here in NYC since the president-elect has that perfectly nice tower here that he'd like to stay in. I have feelings that change every day about how much this political upheaval is affecting my life and the lives of those I care about. Some days I feel like a navel-gazing millenial who is as entitled and stuck up as the right claims the liberal elite is, and a lot of the rest of the time I am so nervous that I'm going to become one of those people who stand by and watch as totalitarianism takes over. I am afraid that one day in the next four years, I'm going to look around and not be able to tell the pigs faces from the faces of the people. 

This past weekend, after the cast of Hamilton publicly spoke after their Friday evening performance that Mike Pence attended, Donald Trump wrote a series of tweets demanding that the cast apologize for addressing Pence, calling the Broadway production of Hamilton overrated, complaining that Pence was booed (by the audience, not the cast), and hilariously invoking the sentiment that theatre is a "safe space" and by respectfully addressing Pence the cast somehow broke that bond. He has since tweeted about his hate of SNL, and Alec Baldwin's impression of him, demanding "equal" time, for the "other side", whatever that means (he does know there isn't another "side" to make fun of now that he's won, right? Not to mention that some of the funniest skits this week on SNL skewered liberals). 

"Thank you so much for joining us tonight. You know, we had a guest in the audience this evening. And Vice President-elect Pence, I see you're walking out but I hope you will hear us just a few more moments. There's nothing to boo here ladies and gentlemen. There's nothing to boo here, we're all here sharing a story of love. 

We have a message for you, sir. We hope that you will hear us out. And I encourage everybody to pull out your phones and tweet and post because this message needs to be spread far and wide, OK?

Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical, we really do. We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us — our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.

Again, we truly thank you for sharing this show. This wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men [and] women of different colors, creeds, and orientations."

- statement read by Brandon Victor Dixon (who plays Aaron Burr) after curtain call on behalf of the cast and creative team.

Pence's attendance at the show, Trump's outrage at the cast exercising their free speech, and the subsequent attention paid by the artistic community and others alike have been called a distraction by many. And there's a lot to distract from. What has actually happened in the week and a half since the election? While we are being distracted by tweets? During the internet's infighting about what constitutes peaceful protesting? SO MUCH STUFF. The president-elect's recent Trump University fraud settlement and ongoing accusations of molestation, his daughter who runs his business sitting in on a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, hiring a white supremacist as his chief strategist, his hotel in DC being a conflict of interest as foreign dignitaries are beginning to use it to garner favor (and his statement that presidents don't have to worry about conflicts of interest), the hedge fund heiress who is one of his primary backers and a powerful voice in how he runs things, Melania and Barron's decision to stay in Trump Tower and his plans to return there as frequently as possible (costing the NY taxpayers millions), his meeting with the press in which he complained about unflattering pictures used of him. By the time this post publishes he will have probably tweeted about like 50 other things.

But I disagree with some that this is merely a distraction that liberals are "falling for" and coming off as pretentious artists who are sore losers. I think it's also an indication that Trump is exactly as thin skinned as he has always seemed, so LET'S GET UNDER THAT SKIN. Sometimes things can be more than one thing at a time. We can note that he intends to distract and obfuscate real issues, that he has no intention of attempting to appear more "presidential" on twitter, while still remembering all the very real and scary things that he continues to say, do, and not stand up against. Having people continue to infight is good for the business of Trump. It's good for those he's put in power. Artists must remember their power as well. Satire, skewering, bringing things from shade to light is what artists do best, and despite what Trump may think, it's literally what theatre was created for. Props to Mike Pence for one thing (and one thing only, mind you): when he heard the booing from the audience as he walked into that theatre, he says he told his daughter "this is what freedom sounds like". Damn right, Mike Pence. Damn right.

Now is the time to focus more on him and the government that has been elected and those he appoints to surround him. We must not get wrapped up in our own internet battles about what constitutes racism and if political correctness has gone too far. Those are valuable conversations, but only if they're actual conversations. Everyone in America, left and right, is tired of the corruption in government and leadership that only serves itself and the 1%. It's time to take him seriously- he wanted us to, and a lot of us didn't. On both sides. He's an incredibly easy man to not take seriously and it is the primary mistake almost all of his opposition (average voters and the DNC like) made during the election. Let's remember --as his opposition now has over 1.5 million more votes than him (as far as the popular vote goes)-- that this is the most unpopular president-elect of all time. No one has entered the office with a lower approval rating. Like a lot of unliked bullies, Trump is jealous of those who are well-liked. He is protective of those who show any loyalty to him, regardless of their beliefs or qualifications. This is important. We must be paying attention, we must be listening. It sucks that this election has finally ended and yet we can't get on with our day, month, year, without thinking about politics again for a nice long while. But that clearly hasn't worked well for us in the past, has it? I'm talking to us, my bubble of  liberal elites here in NYC. I'm talking to our families in the midwest and other assorted small towns, some of whom were vocal during the election and now have become eerily silent, or who had remained silent the whole time and are now frustrated that things aren't going "back to normal". I'm talking to the most vocal of Trump's supporters, who are thrilled and victorious and wondering how many days into his inaguration he will wait before completing that wall- a month? Two? (Spoiler alert: nope).

Despite America's long history of political satire and using comedy to make clear that our politicians are members of a democracy, rather than a dictatorship, Trump finds this element of his new leadership position distasteful. Very much like when Gob in Arrested Development temporarily becomes president of the Bluth Company, demands that his employees roast him and then fires them all when they actually take him up on it, Donald Trump would love nothing more than to only surround himself with yes-men. Let's make that hard for him. Let's inundate him with sketches, satire, political criticism, peaceful statements of protest, until he can't possibly respond to each one with a snippy short-sentenced tweet. ("Very sad." "Overrated." "WRONG.") We have a long history of placing our leaders under scrutiny through the arts. In recent years, Obama, George W, Reagan, and Bush were all recipients of memorable satire and creative critique that I remember well, and they accepted as part of their jobs. The time for quietly ignoring, passing blame, or hoping someone else will take care of things for us is over. As for us theatre kids, let's remember those freshman Theatre History classes and get excited to be the political activists that the Greek originators of the modern art form of performance intended. 

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who would like to use this space to wish her Dad a very very happy Turkey Day Birthday!!!
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POPULISM YEA YEA

"And we’re gonna take this country back for people like us, who don’t just think about things."
- Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer)

"Take a stand against the elite...

They don't care anything for us

And we will eat sweet democracy

And let them eat our dust."

Reality television has a simple and deeply watchable formula. You get a handful of very different people into a house, or on an island, or on opposite teams, and then you gently poke at their insecurities and fears. You manipulate footage to make it seem like people are instigating fights, and then you let those inevitable fights play out. You ask leading questions and then sit back and watch as the building burns. Donald Trump looked at the America we live in today and he saw a brilliant opportunity. He saw immigrants, Muslims, an LGBTQ community with recently acquired human rights, women tired of a system that punishes both ambition and procreation, black Americans scared of corrupt police officers, non-corrupt members of the police tired of being blamed for the actions of others, genuinely down on their luck white people tired of feeling like all the assistance and attention goes to people of color, people of color confused but yet utterly resigned by the fact that white people can't see how racism is still so deeply ingrained in the system, liberal elitists alarmed at the dangers we pose to the environment we all live in, religious conservatives tired of being blamed for the extremist behavior of a few, and veterans who feel underappreciated by their government all while struggling under the constant wars our country has been engaged in since the Bush administration. Ideal reality show fodder. Toss in two political parties falling apart at the seams, and stir! 

Make no mistake, Donald Trump is deeply uninterested in actual governing. He has no interest in doing the boring stuff Presidents do in the not-remotely-guilded-enough oval shaped office he will now have to occupy, as little as he wants to be there. And that, more than anything else, is what I am worried about. He's a self-interested, thin-skinned, businessman who is wildly unqualified for public service. He simply saw an opportunity to premiere the ultimate reality show, complete with the edge of your seat promise that he may or may not accept the results of the election. Last Wednesday he accepted America's metaphorical rose, and immediately started handing off responsibility to the DC insiders and usual suspects he vowed to remove, backed way off of the dramatic and TV-worthy promises he made but knows he won't fulfill, and is clearly ready for the next 4 years to go by as fast as possible. He has gone from having nothing good to say about President Obama to recognizing the need to utilize his help learning what his job is, as he apparently has been surprised by the scope of it. He and his team weren't even aware that they would need to entirely restaff the White House. His civic knowledge seems lower than that of your average viewer of The West Wing. 

And is it really a surprise? Trump will be the only person ever elected to the presidency with absolutely no prior elected office or military experience. Donald Trump didn't invent the hateful feelings he has encouraged, and it's giving him far too much credit to suggest that he did. It's very possible he doesn't even really hold those hateful opinions himself, deep down, but encouraging something is exactly the same as subscribing to it. My wise Momma used to tell me when I was little that by not making a decision, you're making a decision. You don't get to instigate racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and other assorted hate that bubbles just below the surface of our society through tweets, vaguely threatening comments, evasive answers, and refusal to state your position. You don't get to toss matches like that into a building and then run away. He knows his followers were yelling racial and homophobic slurs at his rallies and he refused to speak against it before the election. My alarm at Trump’s winning is not equivalent to a conservative voter's alarm at Obama’s win 8 years ago. Obama, regardless of whether you agree with him about policy or not, never encouraged hate speech, radical ideology, or conspiracies. Obama felt the need to address the nation the day after the election and remind us that our democracy promises a peaceful transfer of power, a statement only necessary because the new president-elect frequently suggested that he may not accept the results of the election if he had lost.

A lot of Trump voters are confused about these liberal fears because they have received the exact reverse of the confirmation bias we all got. We saw the racism and xenophobia of his supporters, and what they saw was angry liberals whining about dumb, uneducated white people with guns. A really interesting perspective that can be gained from all this was written about very intelligently in this article, a relevant sound bite of which is: "I say 'racism' and mean 'a system, built up over centuries of American history, that privileges white people over everybody else.' Many rural whites hear 'racism' and think it means, 'You’re a bad person who hates black people,' when they believe they’re not actively discriminating against anyone because of race. And that goes for plenty of other terms as well — 'privilege' or 'rape culture' or even 'feminism.' There’s a communication gap, and there has to be a way to bridge it."

Now that he has won, Trump was asked on 60 Minutes if he would speak against the offensive rhetoric of many of his followers and, after insisting such a thing surprised him, he looked into the camera and said: "Stop it". But that's not how reality television works, and Donald Trump knows it. He has riled up a group of people who are afraid of a diversifying nation. He has poised a political party that before Tuesday was splintering and has just spent an entire presidental administration doing practically nothing other than obstructing policy, to now represent every branch of our government. We are deeply in need of checks and balances. Those who tell you this is politics as usual and "you win some you lose some" are misinformed. I mean, Glenn Beck and I are starting to have weirdly similar opinions on things, which is surely a sign of some sort of apocalypse. One of Trump's very first acts has been to nominate Steve Bannon (vocal anti-Semite, white nationalist, anti-woman founder of alt-right "news" source Breitbart...look up literally anything about this douchebag) as his chief strategist and senior counsel. When approached by journalists, neo-Nazi and former KKK leader David Duke (who, like his choice for president, enjoys ranting about things on Twitter) praised Trump's choice of Bannon, which is pretty much all you need to know about Bannon. And, in a twist of hypocrisy so ridiculously ironic that you would consider it a case of sloppy writing if it was a plot point in a legal drama, Mike Pence is now in the middle of his own withholding-email scandal. 

At this point, here is what I would most appreciate: those who voted for Trump and only paid attention to the news sources that supported their opinions, who possibly think all this white nationalist support of Trump is being overblown by the media, I would beg of these people to actually look into these white nationalists and their views. Read and listen to the actual words of Donald Trump and the responses he encourages. Decide what it means to you and your idea of democracy that the world leader most excited about a Trump administration is Vladamir Putin, and that his state-controlled news channels all favored Trump winning. Decide how you feel about a state-controlled news channel (this is a Fox News article that confusingly seems to praise Putin's imaginary approval ratings, while reporting on the fact that he has those approval ratings simply because he controls the media). After actually looking into these things, I would beg of those people to be appalled at the viewpoints of those who they must now align themselves with. That they, as supporters, demand that Trump take responsibility for what he has instigated (including the acts of violence against minorities perpetrated in the days following his election) and to distance himself from these people. Because so far he hasn't. So far he's only embraced the divisiveness that got him elected by choosing divisive people to advise and surround him.

I personally have overlooked the violations of my fellow American's human rights for long enough. Many friends of mine who are people of color, Muslim, and other vulnerable minorities, were not particularly surprised on Tuesday night. That I am surprised at all by the outcome of this election reveals the insane amount of privilege I have in my life. That the Democratic party is surprised by this outcome is an indication at how unaware they were that running an unpopular, if immensely more qualified, candidate from a Washington political dynasty was exactly the opposite of how to play the game of politics against an unpredictable antiestablishment "maverick", as Sarah Palin might say. I'm also deeply sad for the people who saw a Trump presidency as their only option. I'm sad for those who are uneducated and uninformed, who are disappointed in lack of consistent access to quality healthcare, lacking basic resources like safe drinking water, and struggling to even sustain themselves in our incredibly wealthy country. I am saddened that they were desperate enough to believe that a vulgar billionaire obsessed with ratings would actually have their interests at heart, or even have an interest in governing at all. For me, comedian John Oliver voiced it best when he pointed out on Sunday: "While some are arguing that Trump may not have meant all those things, that leaves us with two devastating options, either we just elected a president who didn't mean a single word he said, or we elected one who did."

Peaceful acts of protest in cases like this are not only appropriate, but necessary. I have personally become inspired to get involved beyond simply voting. It's been easy to be comfortable, even apathetic, for a long time- but now we must take our share of responsibility for the governing of our country and those in the electorate who saw no other options for their future. Donate to the ACLU, to Planned Parenthood, and organizations like KIND whch offer pro bono legal aid to immigrant and refugee children. Learn about the members of our Supreme Court and why the decisions they make are so important, write to your representatives, call your senators and congressperson and tell them your concerns, vote with your dollars (find out what businesses do or do not support homophobic/anti-refugee/anti-environmentalist groups); donate to charities that directly affect at risk and LGBTQ youth, the refugee crisis, the homeless in your community. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, a VA hospital, a women's health center, or with a fantastic local organization like The Uprising, which was started by a wonderful friend of mine and supports youth education and quality of life here in NYC.

Also, if you haven't already been vetting your news sources to make sure they are actual journalism- well, now's the time to start vetting. Work on a local level to support a third party you care about. So many people disliked both candidates, but ultimately only one of the two major nominees was going to win. Bernie Sanders, an independent, understood he would make a bigger difference running as a democrat. If you want a third party, work to strengthen it year round and not only once every 4 years. Remember that ultimately 947,584 (and counting) more people voted for Hillary than for Trump, and thousands more voted against him via a 3rd party candidate...and yes, in our government, the popular vote is not how U.S. elections are decided. Only half of those eligible to do so even voted at all, which is such a shame because that means those people forfeited having a choice on our congress, the senate, and many ballot initiatives. I am well aware that writing this on an artist's blog means I am mostly howling into that echo chamber I spoke of earlier, but it's specifically to ask that you take stock of what you can do that is active and meaningful, and to pledge that I will do the same. Here's a simple list of more suggestions to get you started and to give you some inspiration. Most importantly, educate yourself about history and do what you can to help educate the young people of our nation as well. As George Santayana wrote (although it is oft misattributed to Churchill, in an instance of truly meta-level irony): "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It's up to the American people to make sure that this is a Trump reality show that runs no longer than 4 years. 

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who thinks the supermoon was pretty amazing, actually.
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WINNING IS EASY...GOVERNING IS HARDER.

By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer/all around nasty woman)

You, reading this on Wednesday, know something that I, writing this on Tuesday night, do not. 

Who the president is going to be starting next year.

As I go to bed with this all too close to call, after waking up at 6am excited perform a civic duty that I as a women have only had the right to do for less then a century, I must reflect on why I'm saddened right now. And it's not JUST because as I go to bed, a horrible satire of a person, whom I did not vote for, is winning. 

No matter what happens, this election is the most embarrassed I have ever been for our nation in my entire life. There are a lot of people so afraid of people who are different than they are that they were clearly willing to vote against their own economic interests, and against their friends who are female, minorities, Muslim, LGBTQ, disabled, or vulnerable in any way. I'm incredibly disappointed in them but hold out hope for our democracy even in the face of this completely unpredictable and existential domestic threat. The Supreme Court is at risk, our constitution is at risk, our position globally and economically is at risk. People who wish harm on anyone just because of the color of their skin, the religion they choose to follow, or the sexuality they happen to be will be in danger from those who will see this as a validation that their hate is supported by others. A man with no interest in anything other than just winning, a man with no policies, who surrounds himself with dubious humans at best and dangerous ones at worst is shockingly close to representing who this country is. Is that really what we are?

As a people, what we can do is to preach love instead of hate. As a teacher, I'm sad to see a person so close to being the leader of the free world who is quite literally everything we tell our children not to be: a bully, impulsively self-serving, racist, entitled, offensive, reckless, hateful. As a resident of NYC, I have to remember what a spectacular echo chamber of my own beliefs that I live in. What privilege to live in an open minded, accepting community.

Malcom Gladwell, one of my favorite students of history, gave an interview this summer that I've frequently reminded myself of in the past few days. During times of the most momentous change, there is always a quick and dramatic push backwards- the birth of progress and positive transformation comes with a painful afterbirth. Many who have never had to check or question their privilege before- people for whom privilege is so instinctive it's never even occured to them that most other people go through this world in a very different way from them -are discomforted and uprooted to make room for new growth. 

I might be very conflicted about my faith in our country at this very specific moment of time, but I have to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. once wisely observed that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." 

 

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who is trying to be hopeful.
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YEAH, I MARATHON

How to feel like an elite endurance athlete when you’re basically just a pile of human refuse.
By Jennifer Anderson (Actor/Singer/registered for a 5k)

This Sunday is the 46th New York City Marathon, and there’s nothing quite like the annual race to motivate the crap out of you. Seeing thousands of people running a distance that killed the first person who tried it (without stopping for beer or donuts or a nap) is enough to make you want to sprint to the local Jack Rabbit, have Connor Flaherty from Boulder, Colorado tell you what pair of Brooks is best for your severely overpronating foot, and then hit the pavement to start training for 2017. But, if you’re like me, after that first mile when your severe bunion starts to throb and your hands go numb from that pesky herniated disc in your neck, you give up. This lady leaves you in the dust and you think “well, I guess I’ll never be an athlete.”

$20 says he totally stopped for donuts.

WRONG, CRAZYTOWN. You are already an athlete of the most supreme stamina. You just don’t know it. Luckily for you, I’m here to help you discover the power within you that you didn’t even realize was there.

1. Netflix
An obvious choice, but a strong one none the less. It takes SO MUCH mental and physical fortitude to watch an 8 episode season of Stranger Things. Or, if you’re an ultra-marathoner like my roommate, you’ve watched the ENTIRE series of Breaking Bad 11 times. That’s 682 EPISODES. I’m currently in training by re-watching all of the old Bob’s Burgers on repeat, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get to his level.

It's all about short runs and long runs. Shorts are your one-seasoners. Longs are your "Friends" and "Family Guy"s.

2. Waiting 3 hours for a Chicken Biscuit
Some might call you a lunatic. Some might question whether or not you have a life or a job. Others among us will call you dedicated. Others will marvel at the sheer willpower, unbeatable tenacity, and months of rigorous training it takes to stand on que for hours at a time, all for the glory and the sweet taste of victory.

3. Running 2 miles on the treadmill
Do you know how hard it is not to hit stop when the TVs at the gym are playing nothing but Dr. Phil reruns and the guy next to you keeps farting so bad you have to turn your head to the side to breathe??? Not to mention the fact that Pandora keeps playing 24 Karat Magic and when you’ve already hit thumbs down??? IT’S BASICALLY 26.2.

4. Taking the train from Manhattan to Brooklyn at 1:30am on a Tuesday
This race can take anywhere from 1 to 6.5 hours. If you can make it without threatening a plague upon the MTA or gouging your eyes out with a plastic fork you found on the seat next to you, you deserve a medal, foil blanket, and T-Shirt courtesy of Tata Consultancy Services.

They made it from 59th street to Bay Ridge, all local, in 2 hours and 45 minutes. #inspired

JENNIFER ANDERSON is an actor and singer living in Brooklyn. She's currently in training for a Turkey Trot. www.jenniferjanderson.com
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