freshplay

tonight was korrina's staged reading of her play for the mcc freshplay festival. her work was presented with another student's at 7 pm at the telsey studios on 43rd street just off of 8th avenue. morgana, greg and i made our way uptown at 6:15 pm.

her teacher, lucy thurber, was there to expound on how much she loved korrina all these years, how talented korrina was, and how much she enjoyed korrina's passion for the theatre.

korrina's writing is authentic and humorous, and her characters are incrediblly interesting. in just a few lines she manages to draw you into her characters' world. she's a blessing to actors . . just read a line and you can be in the moment. in this regard she follows in the footsteps of shakespeare and sam shepard. oh . . my! maybe i am just a little biased? but i wouldn't say anything if i didn't really feel this way . . congratulations korrina! we love your work.

the (short) date and the playwright (and the heat wave breaks)

before heading over to the beckett theatre on 42nd street, between dyer avenue and ninth avenue, greg and i stopped at westway diner for a short "date." thirty minutes, actually. he's been reading anna karenina, and i've been reading a series of mystery novels that takes place in venice (in addition to studying maps and tour books, travel books and other non-fiction books about venice). i also had my knitting, which i had been working on in the car, so it's not like i expected to sit in the diner and read and knit and talk to greg. i expected to read and eat and talk to greg. instead i took pictures and talked to greg. and i ate. i had a chicken salad sandwich of which i ate half and of which the other half is now sitting in our refrigerator (our NEW refrigerator, as our OLD refrigerator was no longer keeping food cold and everything was rotting . . ). greg and the playwright. korrina works with the MCC youth company; part of the MCC theatre begun by a group of actors, writers and directors in 1986. she's part of the playwriting lab which she auditioned for two years ago. it's a free program for nyc youth who get to work with professional artists to gain experience with writing, and acting in their own productions. her teacher is lucy thurber, whose expertise and thoughts she appreciates, and whose exuberance she loves dearly. korrina's play was wonderful. afterwards, she joined the actors for a discussion of the process with the audience, facilitated by her teacher. it was great to see her up on stage. she looked so grown up and capable; a young person really getting to work hard on something that means so much to her. it was really special to be there. where are we here? on rockaway! we met morgana and chanda with lizette and joe and sami at plum tomato, an italian restaurant on beach 129th street. (korrina traipsed off with her friends). when greg and i saw what lizette was having, we had to have one of that too: salad with goat cheese, beets, pear and raspberry vinagrette. and what's this . . . ???? an italian pastry cafe! conveniently located across the street from the restaurant! i tell you, rockaway is the place to be . . we had espresso and our favorite italian butter cookies filled with jam! we had the best time at a neighborhood cafe with neighborhood people who come up to you and say, "hey, let me take a picture of all of you!"

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so that's it for me for two weeks. we're off to connecticut for chanda's swimming lessons. greg and korrina will be holding down the fort and taking care of the cats (korrina begins rehearsal for an HB show for which she is stage managing). jack comes along with us. oh! and we're all happy tonight because the temperature has dropped and it's a balmy 78 degrees with a "real feel" of 85 degrees and we can sleep comfortably. all the pets are breathing more easily and not looking quite so torpid (as are we!).

sewing on friday

morgana attempted to make chanda's blouse for her modern dance recital costume today. she was skeptical about how it would come out . . she didn't use a pattern . . but all was well! the other sleeve just needs to go in now. there was a bit of an argument about where the length of the sleeve should be under the red elbow bands that will go on later, but reason prevailed! and it didn't come to blows . . thank goodness.

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korrina was out by 8 am this morning for her MCC show, uncensored. they had three shows today: 10 am, 1 pm, and 7 pm. the first two shows were school groups, and the last was their opening performance for the public. she said it went really well (she has two more shows tomorrow and two on sunday). morgana was up early for an isadora duncan dance class demonstration at the spence school. she helped her teacher with two first grade classes at 8:45 am and 10:15 am. she said the children were adorable and very open to learning the style. chanda and i had lunch with morgana when she came home, and then went uptown for her ballet performance. morgana went to her modern dance class and then came home to have chili and cucumber salad with greg. i actually cooked before i left the apartment today. morgana said i had the easy dinner to prepare!

. . home again

m and c and i have been in connecticut for c's swimming lessons. we just got home this evening. it feels nice to be back and to have jack up to his old tricks again . .

. . and to catch up with korrina and see how she and james are doing . . and how her play (untitled) is coming along. the performance is tomorrow and she's been busy in rehearsal all week . . doing re-writes, getting props and costumes together, setting james up on audio, and working with her director (who she's been so happy with). i've been going through emails and photos and i better get some sleep now. i said i would make french chocolates tomorrow morning for cast and crew . . ahem.