Prop 8 and the Dallas Principles (and my monologue)
So a monologue I wrote was performed at the ADC in Cambridge on 17 May and it was purely, purely autobiographical. A mother in a kitchen in Cambridge tries to write a play but is interrupted by her children's and family's needs. Pretty simple. The end is good though: in the end, the mother runs out to stop a crying baby and just doesn't come back to the waiting laptop.
The very professional producer, director and actor treated the character in the monologue as completely fictional and discussed her at length at rehearsals. I was there. This is what the director said:
"There are three women at war in one woman: a mother, a writer and a former professional who misses her old life. And the three voices are identifiable in each line of the monologue."
Hearing something like that is better than therapy. Of course it helped that the Director brought her one-year-old to rehearsals and he frequently interrupted proceedings.
On the night it was pretty well received, none of the English people laughed at the jokes but in the audience discussion after the plays, I felt that great swell of empathy: many mothers in the audience appreciated the expression of frustration in the monologue. It was good.
But tonight I am all trial lawyer, baby, and that brings me to today's ruling from the California Supreme Court. They could possibly be advocates of chaos theory. Making a random handful of same-sex couples in California legally married and others denied that right by accident of a window of time is seven flavors of crazy. But maybe that was the idea.
Indulge me: (see perhaps earlier post re Lincoln) I am no expert in American history, but prior to the Civil War, didn't the U.S. have this completely random patchwork of laws as to the status of slavery, freed slaves, rights of states to collect runaways: I mean the whole thing was so confused and stupid - the last sputtering of a system rightly conquered by the strength of democracy. Ready to collapse under the weight of its own irrationality. (Iowa? Really?) Those judges are hanging out in Sacramento laughing over their Sankas: "It's so fucked up!"
This is a rights issue that our government needs to remedy. GROW A PAIR AND GET IN THE FIGHT! How can the Feds sit back and spend our money and micro-manage the car industry and not step in on this increasingly important issue in America? I don't mean the courts should step in (although that day is coming) - I mean Obama. I want the executive branch to take a stand on this rights issue. They should adopt the Dallas Principles (the recent statement by gay rights leaders). The House and Senate should adopt them too.
And if our government remains silent on this, we need to make a louder noise.
The very professional producer, director and actor treated the character in the monologue as completely fictional and discussed her at length at rehearsals. I was there. This is what the director said:
"There are three women at war in one woman: a mother, a writer and a former professional who misses her old life. And the three voices are identifiable in each line of the monologue."
Hearing something like that is better than therapy. Of course it helped that the Director brought her one-year-old to rehearsals and he frequently interrupted proceedings.
On the night it was pretty well received, none of the English people laughed at the jokes but in the audience discussion after the plays, I felt that great swell of empathy: many mothers in the audience appreciated the expression of frustration in the monologue. It was good.
But tonight I am all trial lawyer, baby, and that brings me to today's ruling from the California Supreme Court. They could possibly be advocates of chaos theory. Making a random handful of same-sex couples in California legally married and others denied that right by accident of a window of time is seven flavors of crazy. But maybe that was the idea.
Indulge me: (see perhaps earlier post re Lincoln) I am no expert in American history, but prior to the Civil War, didn't the U.S. have this completely random patchwork of laws as to the status of slavery, freed slaves, rights of states to collect runaways: I mean the whole thing was so confused and stupid - the last sputtering of a system rightly conquered by the strength of democracy. Ready to collapse under the weight of its own irrationality. (Iowa? Really?) Those judges are hanging out in Sacramento laughing over their Sankas: "It's so fucked up!"
This is a rights issue that our government needs to remedy. GROW A PAIR AND GET IN THE FIGHT! How can the Feds sit back and spend our money and micro-manage the car industry and not step in on this increasingly important issue in America? I don't mean the courts should step in (although that day is coming) - I mean Obama. I want the executive branch to take a stand on this rights issue. They should adopt the Dallas Principles (the recent statement by gay rights leaders). The House and Senate should adopt them too.
And if our government remains silent on this, we need to make a louder noise.
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