Back to the Theatre

I headed into Times Square today on this seemingly first day of winter for a play. But before I get to that, I must write a bit about this over-constructed theme park of a collection of streets united by one thing only. Commerce. The lights, the tourists, the fast food, the souvenir shops, the theme restaurants -- all vying for the dollars of tourists whose cameras are poised upward at this sign or that.

I bought into it once. I'll admit it. And it is a little overwhelming, but it is overwhelming not for its present but for its past. The numbers of names who have walked the streets is what fascinates me. The directors, writers and actors who have made Broadway and its various "off" shoots possible are, for me, what fuel this area's glow.

Today I saw a friend in an "off-off" show called "The Servant of Two Masters." It's a commedia dell'arte story of arranged marriages, gender bending, class distinctions and, well, as this genre of theatre goes, farce.  Gray, one of my three first-year NYC roommates who went to the Actors Studio, played one of the servants. And she can act her ass off. I'll never get to see her performance in her thesis piece, which blew me away. And I can't wait to see her in more.

Just like I can't wait to see Erin in more. Both of them, having landed in New York four and a half years ago, are members of the Actor's Equity something or other and they are both currently involved in plays with theatre companies. Sweet.

But back to Times Square. One thing I will give it is that there are few strollers that jet and amble throughout the middle of the sidewalk. Perhaps this is because tourists understand that, have baby, will not travel to New York. This differs madly from the near-subdivision mentality of the sidewalks of Park Slope. Where parents, privileged in their minds, take up space with double-wide strollers and the belief that theirs is the best as the eye can see. Ah, Park Slope. It needs a kick. But so does Times Square.