The play's the thing

It's time for another pair of readings by Project Rushmore Theatre Company. Tomorrow night, we are doing Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and two days later, on Thursday, Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson and William Berney (in which I have a part, and some bits of singing).

The most obvious connection between the two plays is the use of witchcraft in the plots, and the tension between Community and the Other. This tension has been much on my mind lately, as it is causing such turmoil in my church, in this nation, and throughout the world. Who is "Us"? Who is "Them"?

I remember reading Crucible in high school, probably in my junior year. At the International School of Brussels, Miss Julie Belle White took my 11th grade English class through a survey of American literature, so that seems the likely year. I don't recall much past Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. A boyfriend I broke up with painted a big red A on my locker, which preternaturally seared that book into my synapses, and the rest, as they say, is silence (except for Moby Dick). Such lapses (even if trauma-induced) do not please me. Whenever one happens, I worry about all my memories dusting away like topsoil on the wind. I will forget everything I know, every lyric, and be left with only a random selection of verses of The Ballad of Davy Crockett, King of... something, but what?

Good thing it's a reading in which I have been cast, and not a by-memory recitation of Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha.

The Rushmore readings start at 7 PM (The Crucible on Tuesday 1/25, Dark of the Moon on Thursday 1/27) in the Ellington Room on the second floor of Manhattan Plaza (43rd St. and Ninth Ave.). Reservations are not required, and there is no set ticket price - we are delighted with any donation you might be able to make.

It will be lovely to see some of you there. Both plays are very fine, and we can guarantee that no spidermen will be hurt during these performances. Now, that's a promise you won't get on Broadway.

                                           Hey Spidey! Wrong play!   (photo by Fabricio Marvel)