Crazytown

A NEW DRUG

Fully funded by the FDA.
By Jennifer Anderson (actor/singer/pharmaceutical rep)

Crazytown friends, I recently wrapped up an amazing class at the Magnet Theater called Video Creation Level 1. Led by director, writer, and producer Joe Whelski, I (along with 8 other awesome fledgling filmmakers) wrote, directed, shot, and produced our own scripts over the course of 2 months.

So today, I'd like to present my final, finished product: "NEW DRUG." Hope you enjoy it!

 

Special thanks to my actors Manu Menon, Rachael Shaffer, and Garrit Guadan. And additional special thanks to www.bensound.com for providing the soundtrack.

JENNIFER ANDERSON is an actor and singer living in Brooklyn. She needs a refill on her thoughts and prayers. www.jenniferjanderson.com
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A DAY WITHOUT A WOMAN

By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer)

Today is International Women's Day, and a lot of women around the country are participating in a "strike" organized by those who also organized the recent Women's Marches, in support of income equality and also resistance of the current administration's agendas that so disproportionately affect women. Some schools are even closing because of how many educators requested the day off, which is awesome. The school I work for sent an email to us encouraging those who were still teaching today to wear red in solidarity. I encourage my fellow artists to participate in any way you can. For many of us writers, freelancers, performers, actually striking today will be impossible. But we can wear red, call our representatives in congress letting them know how the current administration negatively affects women and women's issues, and demonstrate our economic power by choosing not to spend money today. If half of the population becomes marginalized, especially the half that represent the lion's share of jobs in caregiving and education, everyone loses- the next generation most of all. You can support women's voices in the media and the arts- may I recommend a great article written by my dear old friend Rhana Natour, a journalist for PBS, who yesterday wrote this super interesting article about the divisions in our country?

Even though I can't fully strike today, I can wear my red and my awesome new "Nevertheless She Resisted" shirt, and stand with all you awesome ladies (and lovely feminist guy allies, of course), and refrain from a regular full-length blog post. See you all next Wednesday, same time same place, and Happy International Women's Day to all! 

Solidarity, sisters!

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer and strong female character.
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TIPS TO POWER THROUGH THAT RUSSIAN ROSETTA STONE, FINALLY

Because now is as good a time as any to learn the new national language.
By Jennifer Anderson (actor/singer/девушка)

Last week on MSNBC, California representative Maxine Waters sat down with Chris Hayes and the rest of the nation for some good, old fashioned Tea Time.

Since the Kremlin Klan has already influenced elections, probably won the Patriots the Super Bowl again and gave the Best Picture Oscar to La La Land, we're not that far away from having to learn the Cyrillic alphabet like Mr. Garrison had to learn the Canadian one.

 

So why not beat the rush and start learning some Russian now? As someone who's attempted to learn the Slavic language once when she was bored on a cruise ship 7 years ago, I feel like I can lend some helpful tips and tricks for mastering this tough and cryptic language.

1. Just skip the voice stuff. I literally got stuck saying the Russian version of "hello" for 35 minutes before I just gave up an moved on. We won't need to say "hello" in new Russia anyway.

2. Imagine the weird looking letters as the bones of our founding fathers turning over in their graves to help you remember them. For example, the Cyrillic B...

...kind of looks like Benjamin Franklin hanging his head and crying into his protruding belly.

3. Let the pictures remind you of happier times, like this one: 

Ah, remember those pre-DeVos days when you actually learned how to read in school and girls were looked at as more than hosts?

JENNIFER ANDERSON актер и певец, живущий в Бруклине. Она любит мать Россию, да она делает. www.jenniferjanderson.com
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AND THE AWARD GOES TO

...Baby iguanas. Seriously though, read on.
By Alisha Giampola (writer/performer)

This week, we learned that we might be living in The Matrix. After a totally crazy last minute envelope mixup at the Oscars, America went from thinking the highest film award honor of Best Picture had gone to preposterously over-hyped and under-whelming La La Land to realizing that it had actually gone to the deeply moving, amazingly written, and incredibly beautiful Moonlight (strong opinions mine). This alternate reality scenario in which the best possible outcome happened to be actually true, got most of us wondering "can we go back and maybe check that presidential-election-envelope again?" 

But no, you-know-who is still currently the 45th person to hold the highest office in our land, and daily proves himself to be just a genuinely revolting human. On Monday, he realized that healthcare (as an entire concept) was much more complicated than anyone could possibly have ever anticipated. No really. Then he had a joint session of congress and basically said things like how he will "promote clean air and clean water" while literally earlier today he issued an executive order to withdraw the Clean Water Rule. No really. 

I will say that his complete lack of knowledge of the American system of government has encouraged myself and a whole lot of other people to get significantly more knowledgable ourselves in order to appropriately arm ourselves to intellectually fight back. If you haven't already availed yourself of the amazing Indivisible Guide which has been breaking the internet recently, may I recommend that you find a local group and get active? My husband, Daniel, whose preferred coping method is something I like to call Extreme Organizing, formed a local Indivisible chapter in our neighborhood. You can check ours out at our website here, and come join us for a meeting if you're interested! Our group is called the New York Indivisible Action Council, or the NYCIA Council. Haha. (Say "NYCIA Council" out loud and feel free to enjoy the little ecumenical-historical joke I made purely for my own entertainment.) 

There were a lot of amazing moments a the Oscars this year besides Moonlight's big win. Viola Davis made history as the first black woman to have earned an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony in Acting categories. Asghar Farhadi, from Iran, won for his Best Foreign Language film, and had a powerful statement against the recent unconstitutional travel ban read on his behalf by Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian/Muslim woman in space. Not to mention that Janelle Monáe wore my new favorite outfit of all time:

I MEAN.

With the awards season wrapping up and the resistance honestly just getting started, it's been a pretty busy time. If you've also been busy, and a little overwhelmed with the state of the world, may I recommend checking out the new season of Planet Earth?! Like you need to do this immediately. We watched the first two episodes (Islands and Mountains, respectively) last night and we literally shrieked like children seventeen times. I swear at one point Daniel and I were both yelling "FASTER FASTER FASTER!" at baby iguanas on the screen. 

OMG OMG OMG OMG.
(Watch the full trailer for Planet Earth II here.)

Have a great week, Crazytown. And remember: even a baby iguana can outrun a pack of snakes. (Is it a "pack" of snakes? No. According to this, it is several possible things, all of them creepy. But a group of rattlesnakes is called a "rhumba", which is absolutely fantastic news.) 

ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer who, just like you, had to Google whether or not that was Mel Gibson's girlfriend or daughter and, just like you, was deeply mortified to find out that she was his WIFE.
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OUR FAVORITE KIDS' BOOKS TAUGHT US EVERYTHING

Everything we need to know, we read when we were five. We already have all of the tools we need to get through this next sticky stage in our times. We didn’t lose these tools, they’re just hiding in the way backs of our memories, behind the cobwebs.

by Liz Richards (writer)

I don’t know why I suddenly thought of the classic children’s books I used to read as a kid. But it occurred to me that some of the best remembered and most loved children’s books out there from twenty – and even fifty – years ago take on exactly the very grown-up issues that we are grappling with today. And while these childhood classics may not have all the answers, they just might have some.  

About the environment:

Sometimes we forget about our relationship to nature. We misremember the fact that everything we have, no matter how much we build and accomplish, comes from a generous planet that will always have our back, even to it's own detriment. We learned that in Shel Silverstein's 1964 poem "The Giving Tree," which was always one of my favorites. 

We can also sometimes forget how destructive we can be, because we really don't mean to be destructive at all. If we took time to think about Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, we'd think twice before we did things like, say, cut down trees, or remove indigenous people from their legally protected lands to construct one more oil pipeline that won't benefit us in the long term, create permanent jobs, or do any good at all except maybe in the very immediate futures of the super rich. We don't mean to do those things at all, it's just been too long since we've read The Lorax. 

About the travel ban, trans rights, women's rights, increased deportations and the very expensive wall:

Remember how, in Green Eggs and Ham, the protagonist refused to try the eggs because they were a different color, he'd probably heard some bad things but had never seen them in real life before, and when he finally tried them they were exactly like all other eggs and all that fuss and the big mess he made was all over nothing? Yeah, it's maybe the most popular kids' book ever, so I'm sure you've read it. Here's an animated video for reference:

About race and police brutality in America:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series, that made up one of the most famous childhood movies, taught us that friends come in all shapes and sizes and that we all have our own very personal and individual sets of wants and beliefs, and in the end we all need to be understood and treated with fairness. It also taught us that sometimes, authority figures are not what they seem and that they are often times individuals themselves who operate out of their own wants and experiences, and while they're doing the best they can, that's not always best for everyone. In the end, it's critical that we learn how to love ourselves and friends who are very different from ourselves but just as deserving of love and every opportunity we ourselves are granted. 

About the potential budget cuts of programs like Americorps - which fights hard for literacy and equal opportunity across the country - and the National Endowment for the Arts - out of which our favorite books, and learning TV programs, and productive art comes from:

Well that's just so plain stupid and self-harming that no one's thought to write the book on that yet. 

 

SINGING PRESIDENTS!

Don't think about the current POTUS, there's plenty more out there.
by Alex Syiek (Writer/Performer)

Happy President's Day everyone! As we enjoy this day off from our worries, and celebrate the greatest office in the world, remember, we don't have to respect our current president, when there are plenty of others in the past to look back fondly on. And many of them are in musicals! Yep, let's look at the greatest musical moments of the American presidency in our history!

1. 1776 (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson)
In our first example, we have two future presidents in one show! 1776 tells of the battle to draft the Declaration of Independence in balmy Philadelphia many moons ago. Here are the two soon to be Commander-in-Chiefs along with Ben Franklin from the movie of 1776.

2. Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson (well, Andrew Jackson)
In one of my favorite musicals, the Jacksonator tears apart traditional American politics for his unique brand of populism to forge a new path for our country. Seems a little too on the nose in our current day and age, and I think the show could have run a lot longer had it opened this season. Rock out for a bit.

3. Assassins (Too Many to Count)
In another of my favorite musicals, presidential assassins (and wannabe assassins) interact with each other and the POTi they are known for slaying. In this clip, we see the American public react to hearing the news that their president has been shot. From the joint ACT/5th Avenue Theatre production.

4. Annie (FDR)
You didn't think I would forget that little orphan, didja?

5. Merrily We Roll Along (JFK)
And finally we end with one of my favorite numbers in Music Theatre. "Bobby and Jackie and Jack" from Merrily We Roll Along. An entire song about the Kennedy dynasty? Sign me up! This clip's from my alma mater, Baldwin Wallace (Feat. Ryan Hook, Anthony Sagaria, and Emily Prentice).

Happy President's Day!

WHAT I KNOW

...and what I don't.
by Kathleen Choe (actor/singer/writer)

I know that it’s been hard to write this blog lately. I know that these days I’ve been putting it off until the last minute, wondering if anything I have to say is of any value in days like these. That my thoughts have been in a constant jumble.

I know that I’m heading up to Rochester, NY today to work on a devised theatre piece based on the concept of the American Dream. I know that I’m going to be working with some very talented people. I know that I’m going to see a very dear friend of mine when I’m up there. I know that 10 inches of snow yesterday got dumped in NYC and that “there is no real snow upstate” (direct quote from said friend who lives upstate). The irony of that makes me chuckle.

I know that making theater makes me happy. That acting and creating always does.

Existential Detective.
Don't ask (super-fun, though).

I know that these days, the state of the world weighs heavy on my mind. That hearing opinions and actions based in ignorance and fear, or people sharing “news” or information without first checking what the sources are makes me want to scream. I know the last is because it's consistent with their view of the world, but these days it’s too dangerous to share information without checking out where it came from first. As a journalist friend of mine said, “I'm always bitching for people to 'get to the second thought' of questioning an idea. If we don't take the extra minute to research or think something through, we're all dead.”

For God’s sake, stop and get to the second thought. For God’s sake, STOP and THINK.

I know that these days my patience is thin for people making the same mistakes over and over…and that includes myself.

I know learning is not always linear.

I know that “I Am Not Your Negro” is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very, very long time. That what James Baldwin said 30 years ago still applies today. I know that I wish everyone could see it, that I hope it’ll make light bulbs go off in heads all over the world, inspiring them to take action.

 

I wish and hope that it will.

I know that when they played the theme to Star Wars on WQXR on Wednesday in honor of John Williams’ 85^th Birthday I almost cried at work. Because that theme song and that movie always reminds me of everything I loved in my childhood, and right now I’d do anything to feel that pure, simple, love for something, rather than these days when joy seems to be so fleeting. Yesterday while trudging through the snow I had to stop for a minute and laugh. Why? Because snow was falling in my eyes and sticking in my hair, and all that kept running through my head was, “Echo 3 to Echo 7. Han old buddy, do you read me?”

NYC or Hoth?

I know that I’m a nerd. I wear that label proudly and apologize for nothing.

I know that these words of James Baldwin sum up what I know better than I can right now: “I can't be a pessimist because I'm alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter, so I'm forced to be an optimist. I'm forced to believe that we can survive whatever we must survive.”

I know that if we want to see a better world, we fight, live our lives, and go on.

 

KATHLEEN CHOE is a NYC based actor, singer, and writer. www.www.kathleen-choe.com
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THE DEVOS CURRICULUM

New and exciting changes to your public school education, courtesy of your new secretary.
By Jennifer Anderson (actor/singer/I can barely joke about this anymore)

This Tuesday, Billionaire Betsy DeVos was named the Secretary of Education in an historic senate vote.

Hey, kids! You too can be whatever you want to be when you grow up. Just make sure you have a shit ton of money.

As expected, the nation's public schools will start to see some changes in its required curriculum. These anticipated changes include:

-Mastery of home economics (girls only)

-Master of Grizzly target practice using AR-15's (boys only)

Image via

-The ability to recite all Bible passages accurately and with enthusiasm (counts as a public speaking credit, applications of lessons in the Bible not required.)

-The completion of a scrap book containing screen shots of Donald Trump's tweets covered in red, white, and blue glitter (counts as an art credit)

-The competition of the new Presidential Fitness test, which requires all participants to kneel and genuflect in under 5 seconds.

-Mastery of Dressing like a woman (again, girls only)

-Mastery of living off credit cards, since the entirety of your paycheck as an adult will go towards your massive, unrepeatable student loan debt.

JENNIFER ANDERSON is an actor and singer living in Brooklyn. She wants to start a band called Potential Grizzlies. www.jenniferjanderson.com
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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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FASCISM CAN BE FUN

How to laugh through the difficult times.
by Alex Syiek (Writer/Performer)

Donald Trump is not immune to the internet. While it is his greatest tool (thanks, Twitter), it is also his greatest enemy. Here are just a few ways you can laugh at the biggest joke American politics has given us since Vermin Supreme.

Of course, there is Alec Baldwin's spot-on portrayal of our Commander-in-Chief, readily available on the Youtube:

Tremendous.

And this wonderful webtoy where you can literally 'trump' the Trump.

And of course, Trumpsults, a wonderful soundboard, where you can hear just a sampling of all the horrible things Donald has said to various citizens of our country.

Keep being awesome and weird, internet. Maybe we can survive this after all.