Saturday, March 03, 2007

Actual

Sometimes, people ask me what religion I am. My students sometimes wanted to know -- what do I believe in? as in God. For many years, my answer has been the same: "I believe everything is everything." You know, like in Sly and The Family Stones' "Let Me Have It All."

I remember one of my high school students raising his hand. When I called on him, he said, "I believe that, too." I bet he did believe it, too.

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I'm sitting here tonight, listening to music by Tony Barilla. I found it right next to Al Green's "I'm Still In Love With You," album, which I was putting back during my search for "Fresh," as I was wanting to listen to "Let Me Have It All." While I put the music up, I thought to myself, "Intuition, you choose." So I looked and there next to Al Green was a compilation of music from shows by Infernal Bridegroom Productions, much of the music written by Tony, who's leaving with Emily for Kosovo tomorrow.

Kosovo seems so far, so foreign. I'm sure Tony will thrive there. Emily says they'll be there for a couple more years, maybe. Emily is a human rights activist/lawyer. In her early 20s, she started a non-profit organization in Houston to help Bosnian refugees navigate the maze of issues they would face when they arrived in the U.S. after the war. Now she lives in Kosovo and spends her days navigating back and forth across a bridge, to help negotiate a peace between the Albanians on the South side of the river and the Serbians on the North side. You can read all about where Tony and Emily are going here: stuck inside of heathrow on the IBP Forum.

I just heard the Opening of the opening of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. It took me back to that show, one of the first we did after Jason Nodler left, one of Tony's first as Artistic Director. I remember those damn Rhino heads breaking my arms at the end of that play. I worked the head behind Cathy Power. I felt like we were stashed in the hold of a slave ship, rowing our ship through the ocean in darkness. The effect of all those Rhino heads crowding into the room as Daisy and Berenger fall apart -- no words. Fantastic.

When Jason Nodler left, I was sad, too. Very sad. Sadder than I knew what to do with. I can't even talk about when he left, I was that sad. When friends leave, it breaks your heart a lot most times. If they're good friends, favorite friends.

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