00011: Random Stuff, 2

Day 4, four items

In the fall of 2019 (which seems like ages ago), I was directing my own play “Frida Kahlo: The Woman; The Artist.” It wasn’t a smooth experience because people kept dropping the show and replacing them wasn’t easy. At some point, I even had to adjust the script in order to accommodate the lack of actors. The worst thing that happened was that when we arrived at the technical weekend and week, we barely had any technical support. (There is a lot to unpack here, but I am not going to get into it right now. I will later, for sure). As a result, we postponed opening night for a week in order to re-imagine how to do the show with limited tech support.

One of the technical issues (among many others) was the costumes, which were not ready at all. Actors in the show came together and helped as much as possible. If it wouldn’t have been for one actress who spent lots of hours making, adjusting, and creating some of the most important costume pieces, I do not know if we would had been ready. My husband even got involved by creating fake “trenzas” for the female actresses. He made several sets of them, which we used. The first fake trenza he made was never used and I kept it to remind me of his hard work and as a sign of my appreciation to him for spending hours after work, making such trenzas, especially when he was working 8 to 12-hour shifts.

Today, however, whenever I look at the trenza, I get an uncomfortable feeling in my chest because the trenza brings back not only the stress and the disappointment to have had the joy and excitement of a “world premier” ruined by the lack of technical and administrative support. I also get angry (in the inside) the moment I see the trenza, and sometimes I even cursed under my breath (I told you, there is a lot to unpack here). For this reason, and for the fact that the fake trenza just takes space and accumulates dust while in my home office, it has to go. The other three items are simply junk.

I thank my husband for creating the trenzas and the students for coming together and making the show happened. One day, in the near future I hope, I will be able to direct the play as if it was meant to be. In the meantime, the de-cluttering must continue.

#carlosmanuelspeaksthetruth