I did my funny little play about revolution and empire in Tampa last week at the Tampa International Fringe Festival. A total of six performances at the Silver Meteor Gallery of Ybor City, a fun little space that’s right beside the Amtrak tracks for the Silver Meteor. I was interrupted twice by trains. I also tried an experiment whereby I did the show outside. Amazingly, people showed up and sat in. 

courtesy of Morgan Biessert, my very friendly and long-suffering stage manager. To clarify, he is NOT a mean drunk afaik.

Here’s me posing with the train. It interrupted a couple shows, no damage done.

Still processing everything that happened. A great twelve days, met some amazing artists, got a review of sorts from the GUMBO theater folks from Japan. 

Brief thoughts on NTHE. The South is in massive denial about global warming and pollution. You could take pics of a highway in NJ and contrast them with pics from SC and the difference in what we’re driving says everything–lotsa big-ass SUV’s and pickup trucks as long as tractor trailers on the road once you pass the Mason Dixon Line. And the I-95 corridor grid is seriously decrepit–it took over four hours to get from DC to Baltimore coming back, and it wasn’t WAZE’s fault (at one point we were put through the center of DC because the I-495 Belt and I-95 were in serious gridlock). Also, it occurred to me that the Interstate system was brand-spanking new when I was in a baby seat on the first family trip down to Florida after my birth. Very limited new technology since then, and ability to expand it for more traffic is truncated by the ‘development’ around it that flourished in the 60’s and after. Speeds are now SLOWER than they were in the 60’s owing to overcapacity use . The road grid was never designed or envisioned for the traffic levels we have 60 years later.

And there doesn’t seem to be much acknowledgement of environment in Tampa. Apartment complexes don’t do recycling. Newspapers, bottles, cans–it all goes onto the landfill unsorted. I realize that recycling won’t save us from extinction, but the fact that it doesn’t seem to be recognized as a good thing to do is telling. 

I’ll be writing more about the Fringe in coming days. For now, ummmm… I’m back in Brooklyn. Wanna see a show?

#tampafringe