The hot weather's here, but luckily I've been indoors all day. Where? At Steppenwolf Theatre Co. Woke up extra early this Saturday morning (9 AM...yep) and was at Steppenwolf for a reading of a new play by playwright Laura Schellhardt called "Auctioning the Ainsleys"...and honestly, for a "new play," this was brills. I felt this show, with just a few edits, could be picked up by a theatre company very soon...Laura Schellhardt...Auctioning the Ainsleys...Keep an eye out for this one!
I also had the chance to see "Sex with Strangers," a new play by Laura Eason, directed by Jessica Thebus, and one of the three plays in Steppenwolf's 2009 First Look Repertory of New Work. Again...this is one show that I know is going to be picked up soon. With just a two-person cast of Stephen Louis Grush and Amy J. Carle, this play, from its first reading back in June, was one that I felt could very well be on the Steppenwolf Mainstage. I can not wait to see this show get the full production it deserves.
Part of the play is about the guy's, Ethan's, blog turned book, sort of like a Julie and Julia thing, but only instead of cooking and life, his blog/book deals with his sexcapades with random women at bars. And with this blog, and another one, started by the girl, Olivia, sparks the question of who we really know/how much we really know about people nowadays...And I thought that was a very interesting subject to tackle in a play. Especially since right before the show started, my 3 friends and I were all on our phones, texting and checking Facebook. But thinking about it, and going through your friends list on Facebook or your followers on Twitter, how many people are really close to you, besides your family? You can have over 500 friends on Facebook and over a million followers on Twitter, but what does that mean for you? That people are interested in you, right? But really, how many people do you really know? Does meeting someone once with a quick, "Oh Hi! Your performance was awesome!" count as that person being your "friend" now? I definitely know people who think so...but it's weird, isn't it? We can follow all these people, be "friends" with them, but really know nothing about them, besides the fact that they're folding a towel or walking their dog. Even with a blog, how do you know the blogger is not making their identity up, as Olivia does in the play to protect her name from possible critics? How do you know if what someone posts on their blog is at all true, or if everything they post is just part of an act, creating who they want you to see them as? You really don't, do you? You can never know what's really going through someone's mind, and I think the internet has just made it harder for people to really know each other. Do you? I want to get to know people! I know people, myself included, who are afraid to call people now. Actually afraid, and who'd rather email or text someone because of its impersonal nature. It's like with emailing, you're not really talking to that person...no one's on the other end of the conversation, and you don't really have to let them see how you really feel, nor do they have to really let you know how they truly feel about whatever it is you're talking about. With a phone conversation, you get to hear the other person's immediate reaction, and with a face-to-face convo, you can actually SEE his/her reaction, but with an email convo, that person can wait days or months to formulate a response. Everything just seems so impersonal and people seem so disconnected from each other now. I don't know, what do you think, internet strangers?
Moving on, I'm still having trouble with my Dailybooth account. The site's a bit slow, but the main problem is I can't take any pictures! Anyone else using a Mac having a problem? iSight does not turn on even when I "allow" it to. I was up until 3:30AM this morning trying to take one picture. Didn't work.
Try again soon, but in the meantime,
Breathe and smile!
seanchang
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