Content Warnings and Capitalism—
Elizabeth Goes to the Theater

Amy: I’m sorry if I sent mixed signals, but I’m not attracted to you. You’re wasting your time and your feelings.

Peter: Feeling things isn’t a waste. Why must you continually divert all power to shields?

Amy: I’ve been hurt, so I protect myself. Isn’t that my right? The psychic in New York told me that I’ve probably been abused in several past lives, not just in this one…

Peter: I thought the psychic in Bucharest told you that?

St. Mark’s Community Theater makes sure Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” is as safe as possible.

I know a thousand people terrified to jump out of a plane, tell a story onstage, quit a job they aren’t suited for, move away from an established stomping ground. I know a thousand people and they all know a thousand people who, in turn know another thousand who fear risking humiliation or failure than to step up and step out and do something risky or stupid or both in pursuit of a goal that may not seem reasonable.

One of my personal favorite shorthand directions when working on a staged play I stole from my second ex-wife.

"Move with purpose."

So simple.

Translated it means that if you are going to cross from point A to point B, have a reason to do so that connects with the character's life in the play. It funnels down to mean that all movement, down to scratching your face or tying your shoe needs to connect with your purpose. As an actor, it's an extremely helpful tool as I have a tendency to move around a lot with no function other than I just have lots of freakin' energy.

Perhaps the desire to have an omnipotent god floating above and beyond us is the desire to have some being see and record the objective truth, untainted by human memory or the traps of ego or of believing that which you choose to believe rather than what is true.  An idea that somewhere there is an accounting for our mistakes and misdeeds, or silent moments of suffering or failure, the betrayals and disloyalty, the hidden opinions expressed in odd looks or coded phrases by someone or something untouched by our daily grind.