Woke Up Singing:
And meet the young lady, who fell from a star.
She fell from the sky,
She fell very far,
And Kansas, she says, is the name of the star.
Kansas, she says, is the name of the star.
She brings you good news.
Or haven't you heard?
When she fell out of Kansas, a miracle occurred."
Either plain or grand?
Is it always "or"?
Is it never "and"?
That's what woods are for: For those moments in the woods..."
"Let the moment go...
Don't forget it for a moment, though.
Just remembering you've had and "and",
When you're back to "or",
Makes the "or" mean more Than it did before.
Now I understand-
And it's time to leave the woods."
Even my soul thirsts for flesh
Where your mind goes, energy flows
2: Are you going to rob us?
1: No, I'm simply starved for tea. You see, it's been a long journey and I'd rather not discuss it.
2: I understand.
1: So. This is your...room?
2: This-? Oh, no! No!!! (she laughs) This is the laundry room.
1: Oh. Right.
2: Do you often appear out of people's dryers?
1: Ah. I was curious about the dry conditions.
2: Yes, I'm very sorry you had to drop in mid cycle. That must have been dreadful.
1: Indeed. Never do know where I'm going to drop in.
but all he ever did was laugh and sing.
B: Because I know the difference between friendly and Friendly.
A: What's the difference?
B: A friend looks at me and wants to see me. A Friend looks at me and wants to eat me.
And scratch my scalp and say 'there there'
You touch me the way I touch you,
with care,
an unparalleled love,
Until now.
And there are these moments when you can't help yourself,
You just have to kiss me.
Like your soul is having withdraws,
Like you always missed me.
On a whim
Just trusting in Him
That I have all I need
That I need all I have
That He'll continue to give me all I need in order to succeed.
And so expansive
So magnificent
And so insignificant
Perspectives can be so delicate
Mid-Air Thoughts
I'm in a cloud
Up in a cloud
And some kid is looking up at me
And dreaming
Something magnificent.
I'm a dream to him.
2: What are you gonna do in Paris?
1: I'm gonna
Be.
I'm gonna
Just be
In Paris
Isn't that something?
Make it all real.
Stich up the fabric, so we can all feel.
Yeah. Right.
2: I highly doubt that.
Maybe you've seen my spirit before.
1: Huh
Maybe
2: Eh.
1: Ehh?
2: I'm feeling a little suicidal.
1: Sorry, what was that?
2: I'm okay.
1: okay. Good. Next?
I accept you.
You are valid.
Some people have dogs.
What do you have, ______?
B: Dreams.
A: Yes. But what do you have?
Repeat After Me:
I trust myself.
2: I can't.
1: Why?
2: I just - can't.
1: Why?
2: Because. Because - if I go to sleep it's like -
It's like I'm letting go of this world. This day. This moment. As it is. Letting go of this current reality. Releasing it into the unknown abyss of the subconscious mind. Spiraling, swirling, changing my molecular structure and reframing my thought distortions into new ones. A new reality.
I don't want to slip into a new reality. Because I don't know that reality. I don't know what will happen. Who will happen. How will happen.
And that terrifies me.
So no matter how shitty this reality might be, I cling to it, desperately,
because, at the end of the day, at least I know what it is. I know this reality. I know this world. This day. This moment. This time. I know it is awful and treacherous and wonderful and dangerous and it is comfortable and it is familiar and it is what I know because it is what has always been and always will be and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that because I know I'm capable of living in it. So, please, don't ask me to 'just go to sleep.' I can't.
This feeling?
Why do I feel so guilty?
Why can't I just let it go?
Let him go?
It's like I can't
It's like I won't let go of hope
That somehow
Some day
He will want me
Some day
He will tell me
He will admit
That all this time
He wished that he was mine
Like I can't get this fantasy out of my mind
Of him locking eyes with me
feeling as if this moment was meant to be
Him saying something
Neither of us hears
We just suddenly smile from ear to ear
Both of us, leaning in
Suddenly, it begins,
And after it's over, he tips his hat,
And says, "I've always wanted to do that."
2: He's not.
1: But what if he is?
3: I think everyone's a little bit gay.
2: Okay, 3...
3: Just cuz you don't like to admit / -
1 & 2: Okay/
3: That you used to have those dreams/
2: Alright /
3: Just sayin'
(beat)
2: He's not though, (beat) right?
(look from 3)
2: Jesus, maybe he is.
1: Damn. All this time I thought he was just asexual.
3: With that body?
(All 3 of them react in agreement)
2: Plus, you can't dance like THAT and be asexual.
1: I mean...
(2 looks at 1)
1: Damn.
3: And why's he gotta be asexual or gay just because he's not interested in you?
(1&2 react)
1: Damn
2: Damn, 3, why you gotta come at 1's ego like that?
1: No, no, 3's right. (beat) I think it's just a lot easier to process. "Maybe he's gay," "Maybe he's asexual," "Maybe there's some logical reason this man won't let me pounce him upon arrival."
2: (laughs) Pounce! Ha!
3: She is a Leo...
1: It just doesn't fit. I thought men were supposed to want women to throw themselves at their feet with no expectations.
3: Are there no expectations?
(beat)
1: No.
3: You hesitated.
1: Well -
3: There it is.
2: Are thre ever no expectations?
1: I just reaaaaaally want him.
3: Well, that's very generous of you, 1, but he's a whole ass human being, not a Squishmallow at Target.
2: Damn.
1: You're really coming at me today, aren't you?
3: I'm just sick of hearing about this boy as if he's the only match for you in the world. He holds your hand in an improv skit, ONCE, and all of a sudden you think he's prince fucking charming.
1: I don't think -
3: Like all some man needs to do to get your attention is curtsey and/
1: / That was once!
3: suddenly he's your destiny. Like god damn soul mates even exist.
1: They do.
3: If soul mates exist, then where are they?
(1&2 are quiet)
3: I've been waiting 35 years for a goddamn soul mate and I've gotten nothing but spite, hate, two receipts for the morning after pill, HPV, and Herpes. What have you got?
2: 3.
3: No, really. Why the fuck do we let ourselves believe in this bullshit? Why do we set up such unreachable goals, expectations, realities that will never be ours? I mean, look around. When's the last time you saw a happy couple?
(beat)
1: Well -
2: I mean -
3: And I'm not talk about your family, pretending at Christmas.
1: But -
3: And not those co-dependent idiots clinging on to each-other in public as if anyone would ever try to pry them apart.
2: Hey -
3: Really happy. Genuinely happy. Like, soul mate level happy.
(Beat)
1: Why should we say it doesn't exist just because we haven't seen it?
(beat)
1: Why can't we try to create it ourselves?
(beat)
1: Why can't we make soulmates a reality through out actions? Our behaviour? Our own experience? By loving one another?
3: Because your mistaking a soul mate for a body-building-fuck-boy /
2: /Jesus, 3.
3: /And you won't even admit it.
He doesn't want you.
(beat)
If he did, he would have already chewed you up and spit you out. Like the last one. And we'd be here to pick up the pieces. Like always. But you can't even see that.
(3 exits)
(Long beat)
2: So... Shark week, am I right?
(1 exits, following 3?)
End of scene.
Child: I AM A REFLECTION OF LIFE!
Adult 1: Okay, reflection of life, get in the car, it's time to go.
Child: DRAMATIC EXIT! (stomps offstage dramatically)
Adult 2: Where does she get her ideas from?
Adult 1: It's not from my side of the family, that's for sure.
Adult 2: Mmmhmmm.
B: Hey
A: Why you talkin to me?
B: You know why I talkin to you.
A: You think you're somethin, huh?
B: I know I'm somethin.
Do you think they did that on purpose? The Gods? I think they did. I think they wanted to remind us. Of them. I think they wanted to remind us that they live inside of us. Through our hands. Through the works that we do.
Does that make me selfish?
Like she thought I died.
Like I was lost.
Was I lost?
That someday I will give birth to the most beautiful children on this Earth.
Thank you for bringing me back to nature.
Thank You For The Power of Red
Thank you for my first lash lift!
Thank you for "The Prom"
I just wanted to thank you for your incredible talent, commitment, and bravery to tell the story of The Prom onstage at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. I had never seen the show before, and I knew nothing about it. I came to the theatre not knowing what to expect. Like Emma, I was not able to bring my girlfriend to prom when I was in high school in 2010. She and I were closeted and hid our relationship from the world. Like Alyssa Green's mom, my girlfriend's mother was very important to her community - in fact, one of the leaders in the local megachurch. All that to say - I had no idea the deep effect this show would have on me when we learned Barry Glickman never got to go to his own prom. I thought back to the AIDs Epidemic of the 90s that left so many of our loved ones dead and blatantly uncared for by the US Government. I imagined so many men, like Barry, sitting in those times, feeling unable to breathe, let alone go to prom. I thought of myself, going to prom with a man because he really liked me and I really liked him and I felt that was what I was supposed to do. I thought of how I spent most of the night in the bathroom to avoid being with him and to avoid seeing my 'girlfriend' with her own male date at the prom. Then, last night, watching the 'real' prom, where everyone was welcome at the end of the show, watching Barry finally wear his silver tux and tiara and watching all of these beautiful wonderful students of all sexual identities and gender identifications - all this beautiful reclaimed 'queerness' onstage: actors who were male at birth wearing skirts and women at birth wearing tuxes, and - I simply wept.
I cried for all those who were never allowed to bring those they loved to prom, to work, to school, to the ER, to their lives. I cried for my two moms who were not legally allowed to marry when I was a child and my college roommates who asked if they could put a "Say Yes" sign on the door when gay marriage laws were being drafted. I cried for the man I left clueless, confused, in a beautiful white tux all alone at the prom. I cried for myself, confused and lonely and lost in that bathroom. I cried for all girls everywhere who didn't have a Barry Glickman, who didn't have a mom or a dad or anyone to help them through the trauma that is prom - to get the dress, to find the shoes, the makeup, the hair. Like Emma, I didn't know what I was doing when it came to femininity or dressing up, so four hours before prom I drove myself to a Great Clips and paid one of the stylists there to 'do my hair for prom'. I had no idea what I was doing. I felt so utterly alone and so incapable. LIke I'd never be enough. And last night, seeing all those student characters up there on that stage, being free to be themselves, and not just free, but smiling, happy, so happy to be themselves, exactly as they are, dancing - just dancing. That's all that mattered, and it left me in sobs. Not tears of regret or sorrow, but tears of joy - so grateful, so happy that someone, anyone, even if in a 'fake' scenario onstage, could have a place to just dance exactly as they are with whomever their unruly heart loves.
So, thank you. Thank you for the memories. Thank you for the escape. But, most of all, as the high school principal (Tom?) said, thank you for the healing. Truly, your words, songs, dances, and actions are so powerful, and we need you up on that stage. So I thank you for what you do. And I hope you know the huge impact you are making every day on that stage. May you be blessed and have a wonderful Easter weekend.