What Inspires Me Today - The Book Of Mormon The Musical

Ma'hanibu eebowai!

These are some of the last lyrics in the musical The Book Of Mormon.

After starting out singing "F-you God" and all kinds of terrible things about God and faith... the Ugandans and the Mormons together sing the phrase "Thank You God" at the end of the show.

In a string of bizarre and hilarious circumstances, Elder Cunningham and later the rest of the Mormon missionaries share a not-quite-right interpretation of the Mormon faith with the villagers - who have been living for years under the oppression of warlords and evil, death, disease, and more. Having lost the respect of the Mormon church for not spreading the correct word of God, the Mormons, depressed and ready to return defeated, realize that it wasn't the tenants of their faith that "saved" the village... it was the hope the stories (made up of course) gave the villagers... who bonded together for the first time around a shared experience and in that, gave them the strength to rise up and surmount some of their worst problems.

Sort of like theatre / art / music / experiences

In difficult times we have to come together to share the tenants of our experiences. We have to find hope in our stories, find hope in our faith, and for those not of any faith, find hope in each other. Love, hope, faith all come together to allow us to surmount even the darkest of times. Sometimes this means overcoming physically and politically, and sometimes it's just overcoming the dark clouds our situations have rendered.

In all cases...

We need each other

We need our stories

We need to hear

We need to see

We need to love

We need that bond that the gives us hope for the road ahead

And the strength to carry on.

What Inspires Me Today - Kimberly Akimbo

 Kimberly Akimbo

Working in the Broadway Industry, there a lot of shows that inspire me. In fact, one of the things that gets me through the business side of Broadway is seeing the shows, hearing from the artists, and watching or being a part of the creative process. Broadway IS entertaining, but it is also inspiring. Theatre / Art should always inspire... feeling, thoughts, creativity, action, and our hearts.  

Which brings me to Kimberly Akimbo.

I specifically want to talk about the main character, Kimberly Levaco. She goes through a lot of shit in this story - and she has a heavy heavy weight to bear for a teenager. She is facing an early death, looks and acts different than her peers, and is dealing with all the ridiculousness of being a high schooler in the late 1990's.  Add to that parents who are difficult, but seem to actually care in their own way, and a criminally crazy, hysterical aunt who definitely cares about Kim - again in her own way... and Kim has got a lot going on.

She has a lot to be down about. I mean... this girl has a LOT to be down about. 

Yet... after a scary near death moment in Act 2, she decides to take action and live her own Great Adventure with her friend (boyfriend) Seth. She essentially takes Aunt Deb's advice and when life gives you lemons - you gotta go out and steal some apples 'cause who the fuck wants lemons.

And that is, I think, the message of Kimberly Akimbo.  You can't wait around for life to get better - you can't wait for your love to be requited from someone who can't do that. You can't wait for your parents to care more than they do already. You can't wait for someone to give you permission to be wholly you.

You just have to believe in yourself and do it.
And I think part of that message (and what I've been gleaning lately) is that you need to live out how you want other to treat you too... if you want people to be nice to you, be nice to them. If you want to be given opportunities, create them as well. If you want friends, be a friend.

First Things: In the Now

This morning I'm really thinking about the importance of what lies before us... of the now.

This idea has really been impressed on me lately as I've been teaching my improv classes. In any acting situation, the actor always strives to be "In the moment" with his scene partners and with herself. When an improviser is focused in the moment, nothing goes by in a scene without it being picked up, examined and devoured.

The best improvisers do this by habit. On stage they LIVE in the now. Your character is tying his/her shoes and misses tying the shoelace - "watch out, you're going to trip over that." A character sneezes - "You have a cold, Damn - I knew it stay away from me!" Not only are they in the moment, they are there with the strongest of emotional choices and imperatives.

This moment that has just happened is the most important thing in the world RIGHT NOW and we need to take action on it before we DIE.

A little dramatic, but the point is there.  Don't miss those moments.

And so it is with life. We live our best lives when we are present in the moment - when we don't gloss over someone's emotionally tinted comment, when we listen with our ears, our mind, and our heart, and when we react to the thing that just happened and deal with it before we move on.  Sometimes that means making tough decisions, or halting something else, or waiting for another opportunity. But we have to live in this moment because that is where our lives, our memories, our world is built.

First Things: Finding your Ring Of Keys moment

Tuesday night we opened the musical Fun Home at the Fisher Theatre.

This is absolutely one of my favorite musicals because I can really relate to the main character, Alison, as she tells the story of her family, her coming out experience, and dealing with her father's closeted sexuality and the price it paid on their family.

Now, my story is different. To my knowledge neither of my folks had closeted sexuality issues - but we had / have many many issues... which is really the reason this musical resonates with so many people. Yes it's a coming out story, and yes the Bechdel's have specific issues, but what family does not have issues and to be honest, who doesn't have something they can relate to Alison's realization that she's gay?  The story is quite universal when you boil it down to its base.

There is a song in the musical called Ring Of Keys. It is about young Alison's experience seeing what the script calls an "old school butch" walk into a diner and her immediate connection to her. She was 8, maybe 10 at the time. She didn't know that she was gay, probably didn't know that the woman she saw was gay, but she had an immediate, fulfilling, sense of herself.

In that moment she had the calm, heartening, acknowledgment of "I'm like her." There was someone in the world she could relate to and that was it.  Ring Of Keys makes me cry every time I listen to it. I have had these moments, many times. Not just in a sexual way -but in a self-aware, reassuring, moment that this person I'm talking to, or I'm seeing, is LIKE ME. We are connected on a deeply human level and I know more about who I am because they exist at this moment, in this space, in my life.

There are a wealth of other things to talk about from this show. I could write for days. But this celebration of the human condition, of our connection with each other, of our need to see ourselves as a part of something greater than ourselves, as like our brothers and sisters, as not alone in the world... this gives me profound joy. It is cause for celebration. It is something to seek out, find and cherish.

And see Fun Home if you have not. It is the BEST show on our season this year and many people are going to pass it up because it is an unfamiliar name/story. Don't pass it up.

http://www.broadwayindetroit.com/shows/fun-home