Kim’s Domain

So last night, the moment I’ve been waiting for and dreading for the last couple months arrived.

My 10-year high school reunion.

Here’s how it started: I walked into Tommy Nevin’s Pub at exactly 8pm, because I’m a Stage Manager and it’s impossible for me to be late. I was told I was the first to arrive. The DJ hadn’t even started playing yet and there was no bartender in sight. So I politely told the people manning the name tags that I would be back and high-tailed it out of there. I started walking toward downtown with no idea of where I was headed. I spotted Bar Louie on the corner and decided I needed a drink to steel myself. Now mind you – I NEVER do that. I have never walked into a bar by myself, sat down right at the bar and ordered a beer. But I did last night. I chatted with the bartender a little, let him know it was my high school reunion. I drank my beer the way a drowning person clings to a life raft. With a third of my beer safely in my churning stomach, I looked around me. Lo and behold, at the table behind me I spy 5 of my classmates who call me over when they notice me. Ah, safety in numbers! We end up staying at Bar Louie drinking for somewhere between a half hour and forty-five minute before finally heading over to Nevin’s.

And what can I say? I had a GREAT night. Only 2 people were there that I hung out with on any kind of regular basis during high school, and they were two of the five I ran into at Bar Louie. Everyone else I ended up chatting and catching up with at Nevin’s were people I hadn’t even thought about since high school, a couple were people I hadn’t had much contact with since junior high. And you know, that might be what made all the difference. If all the people I used to hang out with had been there, there would have been more pressure to get back into that high school mode, to fit into a group. As it was I felt totally comfortable floating between people, and I got to talk to people who turned out to be really cool and interesting. I even exchanged a few numbers. And you know, all the alcohol helped, too.

Admittedly, I made no effort to share more than a “hi” with the north shore kids that in high school seemed to be too good for me, and vice versa, so it’s not like all the barriers were broken down or anything. But it was much less painful and more fun than I thought it was going to be. I do still wish more of my old crowd had been there, especially some of the people who were in acting class and on speech team with me (you know who you are!)

But I guess that’s what Friendster’s for now.

These seeming innocuous stats describe the 6th inning from hell I observed at Wrigley Field last night. Yes, all that in ONE inning. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the 11 runs scored by the Mets in that inning, including 2 grand slams.

But the really depressing thing was all the garbage that got thrown on the field by the disgruntled bleacher fans. I understand being upset, there’s no reason we should have fared so poorly in the game yesterday. We were winning 5-0 when David and I arrived in the second inning. And I’m pissed at Dusty Baker and the Cubs management, too. But the way to express it, as I’ve said before, is to stop going to games. Throwing shit on the field only hurts the poor innocent groundskeepers and makes Cubs fans look like assholes.

But enough of depressing stuff, here’s how things are in my world.

I go into tech tomorrow with SPARE CHANGE, the show I’m SMing for Steppenwolf right now. I’m so happy to finally be moving into the theater, as I think always happens at this stage of doing a show. Working on a brand new play has been such an interesting experience. The collaboration is fascinating and inspiring to watch, but I’ve also observed moments of too much collaboration where the playwright shouldn’t have been afraid to put her foot down and say, “no, we’re doing it my way!” But yeah, it’s been awesome. And the weird thing about teching this show is that because we’re in rep with two other shows, after we tech tomorrow we have two more rehearsals back in the rehearsal space, sans tech, and then we have one more afternoon of tech before the preview. And since we’ve hit this point of major things changing in the play, I just know we’re going to spend hours teching something that will change in the rehearsal room and then have to be re-teched all over again. But it really has been a great experience so far. I really like all my co-workers on this project. I can’t remember the last time I did a show where there were more people sitting behind the table than acting in front of it!

Below is the URL where you can check out what I’m working on:

http://www.steppenwolf.org/boxoffice/productions/index.aspx?id=345