Virginia's Point of View: One Last Look

Only one more week left of the 2014 season. I can't believe it's gone so fast! But you know, that's part of working in theatre. We focus energy on ephemera. We create things that are only meant to live a short time. That reading of Other Desert Cities last week is a great example. We worked for 8 hours on it and then shared it with you. Now it is all gone, never to be concocted in quite the same way again. Because this is our world, theatre people are all pretty good at giving the past a great big sloppy kiss and rushing off into the future!

So, see me rushing.  I'm teaching two directing classes next semester. One with a brand new grad class who'll be with me for three years. The other with twelve undergraduates, many of them directing for the very first time. They will be directing short scenes from a play I love, Mary's Wedding. I always like to work with a beginning directing class on a favorite play. They give me so many ideas! But, if I don't get those syllabi done this week, I'll have to work on them in my precious ten days of vacation! That would make me very teary eyed!

We just recently chose a new Artistic Director for Theatrix, the student-run theatre company. I hope to spend some time with him before the week is out, to prep him for the fun he has in store. My next project for the university will be directing Thornton Wilder's Skin of our Teeth, which will open next winter. Each of the 3 acts in the play finds the human race in another disaster, from which we recover by the "skin of our teeth." What could be timelier? I've begun working on it already. I think about it on my dog walks and have started to write little notes in to myself whenever I have a pen in my hand.

Speaking of beginnings, tomorrow Susan Levine Ourada's new dance company, SloDance will give its debut performance P(l)aying Due(t)s on the Howell stage at 7:30. We're so honored to have her choose us for this event.

Speaking of endings, I will also see each of our plays one more time this week. It is ephemera, but it will live vividly in my memory and certain moments will keep touching me as long as I live. And that is also what theatre is.