The PopCycle » France

“Without” at The Looking Glass Theatre

nonirohr — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:18:51 +0000

My play “Without” that I wrote in 2004 and was a finalist that year for the Samuel French Short Play Festival is being produced again at the Looking Glass Theatre in NYC June 4-7. I originally wrote the play while studying playwriting at the Actors Studio Drama School at the New School. There is some interesting history to this play and it’s sort of ironic that it’s my most produced play (this is the third time it’s been produced in NYC). Oddly enough, every time I get a production I re-write it a little, so it’s kind of always evolving. The play is about a young woman who is attacked by a gang in Paris and as she’s trying to piece together what happend and who attacked her she discovers something – a miracle perhaps? It’s one of my plays that deals with the psychology of the mind and plays with an alternate universe. The Looking Glass Theatre is blogging about it, so if you are interested in checking it out – you can buy tickets on their site.

One last good one: Bullets, Bums and Barack

nonirohr — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:28:13 +0000

Hope. Now I have it. I’m so excited to see what Barack Obama is going to do with his presidency! I feel proud for the first time that I am an American; that I had the chance to vote, to make a difference.
My interview project is nearly complete. From September 17th – November 4th, I attempted to interview one person a day as an exercise to keep me writing. The result is pretty amazing. It’s a journal of New York City as we prepared to elect the first Black president. On September 17th, the day after I arrived in New York after spending two weeks in California, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the beauty of the city in the fall. It was as if someone had put V-juice in my coffee. Or, I was in love again with New York. The trees, the air, the people…everything was cracking with change.

All around me I was allowed to engage in political discussions and activity like never before, so that’s when I decided to start The Pop Cycle.

One minute I was getting my hair done, the next minute the girl tells me she’s from Alaska. So I decided to take action and launched into my very first interview on September 17th with Melody Olsen, a hairdresser. Normally I asked people a few key questions, which are:
“What do you like most about New York?” “Who are you going to vote for?” Why?
And my favorite, “What’s the craziest thing that ever happened to you in New York?”
My other rules: You had to be sitting across from me (no phone or emailing responses for the most part) and I had to take your picture on the spot.
Some of the late interviews that didn’t make it into the post were too great to toss, so I will at least try to mention them here.
Last Friday I was out with my friend Marisol for a stroll around my hood. Marisol just started a new job as a theater teacher for an urban school in NJ.

Marisol

We got coffees at Joe’s and ended up at Sheridan Square, a sinister little drug park located right off 7th Ave and Christopher. To be candid, I wouldn’t sit in the park if I were alone; it’s full of Crack dealers. But Marisol and I decided it was the best location for me to take some notes during The Pop Cycle interview. Just as I was taking her photo, an ominous looking man walked up to us and asks if he can take our picture (with my camera).
“Only if you promise not to run away with my camera,” I said.
“Me?” he said.
Hmmm. He actually seemed nice enough. So instead of Marisol, I turned my attention to my first criminal.

Jose

Who: “Jose”
Where: Sheridan Square, NYC
Occupation: Ex-convict
Marisol asked Jose about his necklace which seemed to have some symbolism.
“How’d you know about that?” He said, seeming shocked.
“I’m a Latina,” she said proudly.
Marisol, who has light skin and beautiful brown eyes doesn’t necessarily look Latina, but just talk to her and you’ll get it. When we first became friends as students at the then Actors Studio Drama School, I was shocked by her stories. Marisol had seen her fare share of violence while living in LA.
“I was trying to fit in and be part of group, it was very close to a gang situation.”
“Jose” was in gangs too, but his were more dangerous. So I asked him a few questions:
“The gang life was great when I was young. I was driving a BMW.”
“And what about prison?” I said
“I don’t know…I was stabbed four times in prison and shot twice on the streets of New York. You tell me, what do you think is safer?”
Now Marisol is reformed from her gang teenage days. Standing before me is a proud Latina, a teacher, a wife and a woman who, with persistence and hope gets what she wants.
“I pray as often as possible,” said Marisol.
“So do I,” said “Jose.”
“And what are you doing now?” I asked “Jose.”
“Enjoying my freedom.”
“Oh yeah, who are you voting for?” I ask
“Obama. But I can’t vote.”
Next up:

Ricky

Who: Ricki, owner of Snip and Sip
Ricky is my hairstylist who not only has the coolest looking shop in New York – he’s also the most amazing hairdresser. Seriously, he makes me look fab.

Snip and Sip Window dressing

Francessco Rulli

Who: Francesco Rulli Owner of Filmannex.com

Where: Union Square, NYC

He told me outside of September 11th, the craziest New York adventure was “having children. They are like little monsters.” He said this in a loving way, actually like someone who sees things through a lens, like a filmmaker.

On election day, I ran into my old friend Kate Sessions at Joe’s, so I sat down and chatted with this North Carolinian native, before we both ran off to watch election results.

Kate Sessions

Who: Kate Sessions
Where: Joe’s Coffee House, West Village
Occupation: Actress
The most exciting thing about Kate at this very moment is that she absentee voted in North Carolina.
“I always do,” she says with a twang.
So, to cut to the chase – what’s the craziest thing that ever happened to you in New York?
“When I first moved to New York , I was working late at a bar, standing behind the counter, and at three in the morning, a bullet came through the ceiling above, just missed me, hit the bar, ricochet to the mirror behind me, smashed it, and then flew into my metal shaker, which I used as my tip cup.”
I was pretty much speechless after hearing this story.

So, I am done for now.

At Least We Have Paris (and New York)

nonirohr — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:30:27 +0000

I am so behind on my interviews it’s not even funny. My mom, her best friend Ginny and my brother Curt visited me in NYC for a week. It was non-stop eating, drinking, plays, shopping and parties. It’s so fun to have visitors, but life kind of stopped while they were visiting, which is both good and bad. Now that they are gone, it’s very sad and I wish I had more of them hanging out at my house like a dorm room…
While they were here, though, I felt a little bit removed from normal life. It just so happened that I took a copywriting job right before they got here and started a Russian class, uh and I have my blog to write…so it felt weird to spend so much time just hanging out.
Virgina and my mom Starr have been friends since they were ten years old. They grew up in Indiana together and share memories of having sleepovers at each others houses when they were kids. They are the cutest best friends I think I’ve ever seen. My mom’s middle name should be “everything is so hard” – while Virgina is very chill and easy going. “Ginny” as we call her spent her first four days in NYC going to Aikido – she’s studying for her 3rd degree black belt. She’s in amazing shape.
My mom on the other hand missed the “Jane Fonda” movement in the eighties. After having two kids back-to-back, she gained weight and never really lost it.
When I was growing up, I used to look at old pictures of my mom when she was young and think she was a model. She was the most beautiful young woman I’ve ever seen. Being the daughter of Dale Messick, who created Brenda Starr Reporter, she must have had a lot to live up to.
Even though she’s curbed her eating habits, working out is not her thing; even walking these days is cumbersome. She has bad knees. So the two of them together, Ginny and my mom are a little like a comedy show.

Who:“Ginny” my mom’s best friend
Where: NYC
Occupation: Tourist and Aikido Master (studying for her 3rd Black Belt).
“Ginny” lived in NYC for twenty years during the seventies and eighties while she worked as an executive at IBM. She sold her apartment on 93rd and Lex at a really bad time @1989. She just heard her apartment is on the market again for 1.2 MM, so Ginny was set on telling me that she has “bad timing when it comes to real estate.” I told her to “stop that,” and then I saw the apartment in question. Wow, I can’t believe she gave up a two bedroom, two bathroom in NYC. No wonder she has regrets.
In 1989, while I was still in high school, Ginny was once again off for an adventure. She fell in love with her Paris born and raised Aikido instructor and impetuously ran off to Paris and married him. Her story reminds me of Carrie Bradshaw kissing New York goodbye for a shot at Paris; except unlike TV, Ginny really did sell her NYC apartment and she hasn’t been able to move back to her favorite city.
Since Michele (the French guy) didn’t want to learn English, she had to adopt her entire life around his; she learned to speak French and became a Parisian as best she could; which is not exactly an easy task. She suffered from loneliness and had trouble making friends because her French never got better than functional. Therefore, talking about deep feelings became impossible, and well, the French are sort of, uh, French and her husband was no different – he was “uh” French – proud and impossible.
When I moved to Paris for a working internship in 1994, I remember thinking it was odd that Ginny technically knew French better than I did; but she stumbled when speaking, when I soared. While I spoke quickly sans accent, just like the French, Ginny’s words were tentative, like a little bird. I wanted to speak so I found a way I guess. Ginny doesn’t need to talk a lot; she is the quiet observer and a great listener. No wonder why men like her so much! It’s nice, I suppose, for awhile anyway, to not speak and not to be heard.
Ginny had enough of “quiet times” and divorced the “French guy” and moved back to the states (to Florida) in 2002, but she hasn’t been able to afford to live in NYC again, which I think makes her a little sad. See, for all of us who want to leave, we should remember that we might not get to come back — ever. This is our time, right now. I love Paris, and always thought I’d live there again, but in fact, I’ve been back only a few times since living there in 1994.
At least Ginny and I will always have memories of walking near the Seine in Paris; and for as long as I live here, and she likes to visit, we have New York.