Rave reviews count, even when they’re from a dear friend! Here’s a link to Ms Kristy’s assessment of the show: “Hey, Sailor” transforms and delights. Thanks, Kristy, you are ever so sweet and awesome!
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We had a wonderful first weekend, I’m finally over the flu, and looking forward to enjoying the next six performances. Miraculously, I still remember all my lines after four days off! Once a show has seeped into my body, it’s there for good– I wonder if I’ll be reciting Squeak’s syphilis monologue for the next ten years…?? The show is just getting better and better, as all of us get more comfortable in our characters, in the theatre, and with our lines.
On Saturday I felt well enough to go with friends out after the show, which is my favorite thing to do, since I’m usually wired from performing and excited to see people. It was a balmy SF night so we walked a couple of blocks to Mel’s Diner and through the giant Oracle craziness in Yerba Buena Gardens, which was sort of magical-looking, with tents and fairy lights everywhere. As we walked and talked, we realized we’re all in some form of big life/career transition. Maybe that’s what our late 30s are about… M wrote and received a giant government grant, so now she’ll be moving from being a professor to administering a campus-wide program to improve outcomes for underserved Asian Pacific Islander students. F is thinking of leaving his corporate training gig so that he can actually learn something new himself. And J is only two weeks back from a long stint Beijing and still in culture shock, yet people keep asking him “What are you doing now?”
I shared my own personal metaphor for that, when people ask me what I’m doing next — before the book has even come out! It’s kind of like there’s a woman having a baby, and they’re cutting her open, and the crown of the baby’s head is just coming out, all bloody and sticky, and the baby hasn’t even taken its first breath yet, let alone cried or fed or pooped or puked, and someone says to her, ‘So what are you going to do NOW?’
Really, what I’m doing now is just trying to BE in the transition. That has a few elements:
– Being in “Hey Sailor” … shifting from the inward and isolated mode of writing to a much more extroverted art form, working in collaboration with a great cast and crew. Aside from the awesomeness of the script, it feels like great pre-book-tour training as I learn what it takes for me to perform, connect with audiences, and stay sane and healthy.
– Working with a coach, who is helping me to set goals and clarify where I want to be in a year, and how to get there.
– Writing up a business plan for myself, a culmination of a great class I took from the Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment, which has helped me understand things like “cash flow” — i.e. why some months I can afford shoes and other months I can’t! The business plan is great because it gives me a sense of how I’m going to be supporting myself over the next 18 months, how much & what kinds of paid work I need, and how to get it.
– Laying the groundwork for marketing and book touring, connecting with folks everywhere.
– AND, enjoying life, relationships, family, friends, myself, yoga, the City … Just taking time to, as a friend suggested, bask in the feeling of completion. Sometimes I still don’t *really* quite believe that durn book is DONE!
Dear Minal,
It was great to see your show and view your talent and brilliance from yet another angle. The script is indeed very moving and it was a treat to find the venue (I love discovering great art in an ally) and climb my way up to my seat. Your performance shone. Squeek could have been one-dimensional and pathetic, but you brought out her depth. And your comic timing is fantastic!
I’m sorry I didn’t get to stay afterward. It was a weekend of “wearing many hats” and I needed some rest.
I’ll add myself to your list of folks experiencing major life changes. What is it about the impulse of people to ask each other about what you are doing next? One would hope that by your mid-30’s ALL your experiences are building on each other and the “beginning” and “end” of projects are less defined. Based on the looking at my live and the people around me, I think we should get really comfortable with grooving with the continuum of transition. We all have so much going on that change is here to stay, so we might as well enjoy it!
Monday morning musings…
big hugs,
Kat