Hanging out with Ziggy Stardust
Playwright Nicholas Wardigo between playwright Laura Lee Lenhoff and actor/Ziggy Stardust impersonator Sean Collins.
I spent Saturday night at the Old Academy Players, watching a series of ten-minute plays. I don’t see very much community theater, and I’m not sure if that makes me a snob, but it might. I try not to indulge in too much self-reflection. To quote David Lee Roth, “A lot of people look in the mirror and can’t deal with what they see there. I never look in the mirror.” Or, in light of the photo above, perhaps Bowie is more appropriate, “So I turned myself to face me, but I never caught a glimpse of how the others must see the faker. I’m much too fast to take that test.”
The short of it is that I had a lot of fun and actually laughed out loud more than a few times. I’m still impressed by the production values of community theater. Sure, it isn’t the Arden or even Theatre Exile, but it’s still better than half the stuff I’ve seen at the Fringe. The acting was all over the spectrum (thought there were certainly some shining moments), and the scripts were a bit uneven as well (although, again, some great bits), but that’s hardly the point. It was a lot of fun. I mean, look at that photo. That guy is dressed like Ziggy Stardust! For a two-minute joke! That’s commitment right there. Anyway, thanks again to playwright Laura Lee Lenhoff for making me aware of this shindig.
I was just made aware of a new event: actor Seth Reichgott is performing his ukulele shenanigans at L’etage tomorrow night (Tuesday, July 19). I recently had the privilege of interviewing Seth for an upcoming episode of Martinis with Nick, and I’ve seen his skills all up-close-and-personal, so if anyone needs help with their drinking, you can meet up with Aurora and me tomorrow night. And if you need even more encouragement, Seth has some of his ukulations on Youtube. Enjoy!