Theatre Review- Kill, Kill, or Die and Tom Sawyer

Kill Kill or Die is a great show about a hospital that is under attack by zombies. The doctors, nurses, and their peeps try to get out of the hospital but the can't. Anyway, you think this is a regular show, but it is an opera! That is right, a zombie rock opera. It was a fantastic grown-up production, but I loved it too. It was funny, scary, weird, and a romance. I loved it so much I could write my own zombie rock opera. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 My favorite song was Run for Your Life. It was my favorite part because my friend Ben tied his shoe in the middle of running.

Can You Pass the Pimp Hat, Please… OR… What I Did Over My Summer Vacation: By Amy Cordileone

So, what had happened was- in mid-June, Hero, Nick and I fled the floods of New York (now hurricanes), for Dayton, Ohio, where Nick performed in The Lion King for two weeks; we then hightailed to London-town, for some working family fun (work and fun for me; all fun for them). After two weeks of British bliss, my jet-lagged babies arrived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. A mere week later, it’s there that I joined them, and we’ve had almost a month of Gazelle Company fun. Coincidentally, it’s there (Ottawa) that I write this post. Correction… wrote this post. Past tense- as in it takes us new bloggers an average of 4 weeks to get our posts up. This should be fun. Full stop.

So… Ottawa… the capital of the entire Canada; a beautiful place, scenic really- so many picture-perfect, stand alone environments: the statuesque and statue-filled parliamentary compound, lush hiking and biking trails on Rideau canal, and the vibrant colors of fresh produce being hawked along Byward market. Honestly, our lives felt so chaotic leading up to this time, that I really had no expectations for Ottawa. I have been was delightfully surprised! And… as I search for a segue… it dawns on me that surprise may very well be the codename for this summer… perhaps the rest of our lives (as parents at least). Surprise- life as a family on tour has begun! Surprise- the Canadian dollar remains stronger than the US’. Surprise- your 9-year-old is really 9, so like it or not, the times they are a-changin’.

At the heart of the latter are two instigating concepts, which I will quickly share; they are centered on the FBI’s definition of rape and the pimp hat.

Moment 1: Sitting at the dinner table on our 5^th floor balcony in downtown Ottawa, we chat, grill our meal, and Nick checks his email. We fondly reminisce about the trip to London, our beautiful weather, and lament mom’s broken leg, when the conversation turns to an email Nick receives from CHANGE.ORG. The email is focused on a petition asking the FBI to widen its view and qualifications of rape. As Nick reads the email and we dive into discussion of the issue, 9-year-old Hero stops us all in our tracks asking- okay, so what’s rape?

Flash Forward to Moment 2.

Moment 2: As Hero and her friend Kailah are getting ready for the put-in of their original show, Motha Don’t Belong In My Room No More, they begin to costume the production. Included in their list of needs is some headgear, so naturally Hero calls out from the rehearsal room (my bedroom), and points to the top shelf of the closet: MOM! Can you pass me that pimp hat, please?

RIGHT!!!!! I mean, that’s two paradigm-changing moments in two very compact sentences. You have to know that Hero has cleverly avoided any talk of sex, with Nick and I at least, and from the clues that she unwittingly drops, we are pretty sure she got as far as the word “erection” in Human Development this year, and promptly turned off all functioning listening devices. So, our explanation of rape was purposefully simplistic. We jointly took a parental deep breath, and stated what we believe the definition to entail, in the most concise way possible. I wasn’t so fortunate when the pimp-action landed in my lap. My reaction was reactionary, to say the least. While introducing the names fedora, Indiana Jones, and Humphrey Bogart into Hero’s vocabulary, I simultaneously offered a lesson in globalization, hegemony, misogyny, and capitalism. She was wide-eyed… with boredom.

So here's the deal… and it seems kinda unfair, so deal may be a poor choice of words, anyway… she, Hero, our 9-year-old child (I feel I cannot stress this enough), has a lifetime to develop her understanding of these major ideas. We, on the other hand, her loving and thoughtful parents, have mere moments to plant the seeds of that understanding, and we can only hope to plant them in a way that they offer her depth and flexibility. Why the face? That’s why. How in the heck can we begin to prepare ourselves for these types of family learning moments? And more importantly, how do we try and scaffold them? How do we do all of this in such a way as to provide logical steps, in terms of a thinking process? I mean the jump from erection to prostitution is in no way a small one, so what sort of crash pad did I offer once we took the leap?

And, oh wait- there’s something potentially more disconcerting: I continue to ask myself about the margins of error within Hero’s growing understandings that I will realistically be willing to accept. Do we, as parents, actually believe ourselves when we say that we want them to be their own people? I mean, I do hope that Hero will develop flexible understandings of life’s major issues, but what if that flexibility leads her to conclusions vastly different than my own (no doubt that it will)? Am I really as amenable to this as I say I am? That question is rhetorical… but only sort of. All I know is, I don't know how to do anything but ask questions these days.

PS- Today 4 weeks ago, my kid threw me another curveball as she staged an actual protest against my decision-making (such a New Yorker). The issue: she would say that ballet DOES in fact require leaping and bounding onto the rented couch in our rented living room, and I was suppressing her right to artistic freedom by asking that she resign herself to doing cartwheels on the rented laminate flooring.

See- flexible understanding.

Harry Potter

I went to the Harry Potter premiere in London! I saw the actors from the movie

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2- The actor got to walk on a long red carpet.

The company had a big flat screen TV so the people that came could watch the second half.

People got autographs so they would not forget their trip to the premiere.

I went on someone’s shoulders so I could take pics. People could have been bored so they put on music. They had fire for cool decorations! It was so cool to see the actors but I didn't see my favorite actor, Alan Rickman! –HERO CORDILEONE

London Calling

Hello everyone.
I want to let you know that I love the city called London.  I'm a bit of an anglophile and guessed that I would have a blast there- long tick on that count.
Our adventure started with Hero and I driving from Dayton, OH home to New York City.  We stopped briefly in the Poconos to see the Lipitz household (Ben is Pumbaa in LK).  We then took an overnight flight to Heathrow.  Jumping in the deep end and learning the tube to meet up with Amy at NYU's London campus and housing = perfect intro.  A touch of rain to greet us as we made it to our flat in Camden.  Other than that and maybe one other time, the weather was amazing.
Typically, the days were for Hero and I to explore a bit while Amy was running the study abroad.  Evenings were for seeing shows.  I think we saw 15 shows in 14 days. Too Fast, The Beauty Manifesto, and Gargantua which were all at the National as part of their Connections series.  Also at the National was One Man, Two Guvnors, War Horse, and Cherry Orchard.  Let's talk about the National...Unreal.  Tons of great work- classics, rethought work, challenging stuff.  One of Our favorites was a verbatim musical called London Road.  It was Autotune the news meets The Exonerated.  So forward and exceptional.  Another show we were blown away by was Shakespeare's Globe's Much ado About Nothing.  Charles Edwards and Eve Best were Benedick and Beatrice and it may have been perfect.  All of the traditional devices were employed to such a wonderful effect, down to the boo/hissing of the villain and ending with a dance.  A few months ago, Amy and I saw Jerusalem with one of our favorite actors (and Globe alum) Mark Rylance.  That show was originally put on by the Royal Court so we were excited to see Chicken Soup with Barley.  Beautiful theater.  Very interesting socialist play with some rich performances.  Less thrilled by Government Inspector at Young Vic, but it was cool to see The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt.  We hit a mildly absurd realism at Soho Theatre.  There was such a cool vibe at this theater.  A couple spaces dedicated to new and avant garde works and acts.  Had an Edinborough feel.  Terrible underwhelmed by Trevor Nunn's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.  A lot of play acting and it really made me rethink what I have liked about previous productions.  We were fortunate to visit RSC and see the controversial Cardenio.  It is thought by some to have been cowritten by Shakespeare and Fletcher.  I thought there was a lot to like bout it and the history of the play made it more interesting.  A few cool design elements and some talented performers couldn't save Macbeth for me, but I am glad to have seen it.  The rep of the Donmar Warehouse made a visit a priority and Louise Miller was the fare.  Well acted and reminiscent of some Shakespeare.

We did see a lot of sights, some museums and the Eye and such, but this trip was about being together and seeing as much theatre as possible.  The town is just wired for the arts.  The National is a place to go to see free events, in their Watch this Space area, spend 12 pounds to see world class theatre, or participate in celebrating theatre for young audiences for around 5 pounds.  The variety was ridiculous.  RSC, same deal.  So so rewarding.  I know we will be back.  Like Uganda several years back, this was a truly life changing time.

p.s.  The most interesting fact to me was that London was started as a Roman colony.


Excelsior!(?)

Here are some photos

Calypso a la Hero

Calypso is a water park in Canada.

When I went to Calypso I went on lots of different slides. I went with Kailah, Rob, Selena, Dad, and Mom (Grandma could not go because she broke her foot).

The slides were awesome, scary, and fun!

There is normally a long line but it was a cold day so there were not many people. That was good.

We went on a lazy river; IT WAS NOT LAZY.

On a scale of one to ten it was 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000,0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000,0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you could choose to go to Calypso or Six Flags go to Calypso!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Together at Last

So for the first time in a year, our family is together for an extended period of time.  We are starting a chronicle of our atypical existence and passing the savings on to you (iffy turn of phrase at best).
We're having a blast and hope it makes for fun reading.
More soon...