Year of the Tiger

I know I'm a little behind the ball with this post, but things in my life are very hectic (and very stressful, I might add) lately, so you'll have to forgive the delay.

BUT! A week or so ago, I celebrated my very first Chinese New Year's, in Philadelphia's own Chinatown.

We rang in the Year of the Tiger with our most ferocious tiger faces (l-r: AJ, Mel, me, Arizona the tiger):

There were so many dragons out and about!

Deb's tiger face: Meow!

I cuddle up with my favorite Arizona Tiger, just back from her trip to Hong Kong:

Firecrackers were lit, and as the gentleman in the picture so nicely demonstrates, they were LOUD!

Soon the whole street was filled with dragons and people beating drums and cymbals, chasing away the evil spirits. A dragon even bit Melanie, which I think is going to bring her good luck this year.

So many dragons! The dragon dancing was beautiful, and catching sight of the little baby dragons was so darn cute.

Dragons dancing around a firecracker strand:
Arizona gave us all the traditional red envelopes that held a piece of Chinese money. I'm keeping mine close, hoping for a fresh start in the Year of the Tiger.

Game Night

Lately I feel like I'm trapped in Narnia. You know, in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, where the Witch curses Narnia so that it's always winter, but never Christmas? Yeah, like that.

Last night I watched a forecast for the week ahead, and it was exactly the same for the whole week: cold and windy, punctuated here and there with a few snow showers. And then back to being cold and windy again. In fact, the forecaster (Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz-- amiright, Philly?!) said that the temperature hadn't risen above 40 degrees the WHOLE MONTH of February.

Sigh. For a girl who hates cold and winter, this hasn't been a fun couple of months, I tell you that right now.

To help take the sting out of winter, Deb and I recently got together with Mel and AJ and had a game night. This kind of thing reminds me of cold and snowy winters growing up in Central New York, and it's pretty perfect in this awful Philadelphia winter as well.

We got really into our game of Golf:

Game night is always better with a little libation:

Deb and AJ plot their next move:

Melanie took some time out to give Hyde some love:

Hyde decided to try his paw at a round of cards:
It was pretty much the perfect antidote to my winter blues. I can't wait to do it again soon!

So it would seem....

...that we have a bit of a rodent problem up here in Studio 3:

A rodent that finds stage management paperwork quite delicious:

I know I should call maintenance, but they will just put out those awful glue traps and I can't stomach that. So instead Lauren and I are cleaning and wiping everything down with Clorox wipes.

Besides, it's cold and snowy outside. I can't say that I blame the little mice at all for prefering the warmth of our office.

War Stories

(l-r Edward Furs, Ephraim Lopez, Nick Anselmo)

Well, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning... and we're already in rehearsals for our next show, Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue. It's a really moving play about three generations of a Puerto Rican family going to three different wars. Rehearsals have just started, but I can already tell it's going to be a great show. Plus the cast is a totally fun group-- it's so awesome to have four Puerto Rican actors plus a Puerto Rican director up in Studio 3! Makes me think of my own extended Puerto Rican family. Not to mention, after two all-male casts in a row we finally get an actress up here. Our director is Jose Aviles, the Walnut's Theatre School Coordinator. I've been seeing Jose around the building these past four years and it's really great to actually work one-on-one with him.

So don't miss this one-- it's going to be really great. We run February 23rd (my mom's birthday!) through March 14th.

On a totally unrelated note, my friend Alison has started a new blog. Read it here-- it's hilarious, just like Alison.


The awesome photo at the top of this post was taken by Tom Miller, our Communications Manager.

Stand OUT

I watched the documentary Outrage last night, and found it extremely thought-provoking.

Written and directed by Kirby Dick, this movie explores that uniquely Washingtonian phenomenon of gay politicians (especially gay Republican politicians!) to stay in the closet and work very hard to oppose all aspects of gay rights.

This film is quite controversial in that it actually does out several closeted politicians. Now initially that concept gave me pause-- I firmly believe that it's very wrong to out people who aren't ready to disclose their sexuality. It's a very hard thing to be gay in American sometimes, especially in conservative atmospheres. We all have our own experiences and demons to face, and coming out of the closet is an extremely personal thing.

BUT. The more I watched the movie, the angrier I got at these closeted politicians. It's one thing to prefer your personal life be kept private, but it's quite another to be a gay American and work every day to deny other gay Americans basic rights. It's not a matter of privacy any more when you are letting hypocrisy and fear affect the lives of millions of people just like you.

And what really got my blood boiling was the section of the movie that discussed early legislation regarding HIV and AIDS. In the 1980's, when HIV was just being discovered, several closeted politicians worked very hard to deny all funding for AIDS research, to sweep all patients under the rug, to deny people basic human rights. They literally have blood on their hands. For shame.

My only criticism of the film was the talking heads featured were awfully male and awfully white. It would have been great to hear from some more gay women/people of color.

But I highly recommend you checking it out! Very thought-provoking indeed.

Seriously....

All of you spammers need to fuck right off. I'm not interested in investment portfolios or cheap Viagra. So stop leaving comments, 'cause they just get deleted.

Also, you suck.

That is all....