Dance cards were a thing a lady used to have at a ball - a charming little booklet with an attached dainty gilded pencil to mark down promised dances and her gentlemanly partners.
I've always kept a scribbly, scabby version of a dance card myself, to remember what shows I've promised to design, for which theater group.
Well, I did until covid.
Today (while updating my theater how-to book Alice Through the Proscenium, watch for this new expanded! edition's publication date) I happened to need to refer back in time, to see what shows I was juggling in 2019-2020. After I remembered that I had a little black book, found it, and blew off the dust, I saw... well, the perfect illustration of just exactly what covid did to the schedules of every theater artist.
Here's my dance card for 2018 and 2019:
Thirteen shows I designed in 2019, for eight different theaters. In 2020 it was eleven shows, seven theaters, and an Off-Broadway showcase.
Here it is for 2020 and 2021:
Two real shows I designed that actually appeared on stage, one speculative hypnotism show that did not, a cancelation and... blankitude...
That's what covid was like for me and for most of us for those two years.
One day last week I started the day with a wild party!
In Minecraft (so a virtual party), but a party! We wore party hats, had a bounce house, party favors (rainbow color changing sheep), cake! Well, we couldn't actually eat the cake (because virtual) but we fed the cake to virtual pandas who could virtually eat the virtual cake. Other refreshments. We inaugerated the Palace Ballroom with a dance party! Real music from virtual jukeboxes and real dancing by virtual parrots! Minecraft avatars can only sorta bob up and down, but we'll call it "dancing." And we built a piano... all the stuff you do at parties!
It was surprisingly fun.
And then I put on my mask and left to get my second shot of the miraculous vaccine.
What could be more happy-pandemic than that?
Switching topics slightly: here's the last of those Minecraft avatar portraits, this time for my guy.
I like the way Bart here is completely unaware that if he succeeds in maiming this kraken-squid that he's going to shipwreck and die... Also, as a fellow player pointed out, Minecraft squids are non-aggressive creatures in the first place.
This portrait series has been huge fun to do!
The world I'm working in, Illias, started as a pandemic project. It certainly became an important project for me during thiese last months. Sanity saving probably.
If you're curious, HERE is a link to Astrophagy's You Tube videos. And a little taster vid, "Running the Canals of Illias":
In... I almost typed "the real world", but this was, in fact, virtual too, kinda, Kitchen Dog Theater recently produced an online video play Last Ship to Proxima Centari. (I should have promoted this here earlier - but never mind, check them out to see up-coming theater!) I wasn't involved with this one, but I enjoyed it and thought it worked pretty well in the online format. So theater IS continuing in some fashion.
I did take part in their most recent Craft episode, to talk about the development and design of the then new play End Times. Two more episodes coming! May 20th and June 17th. I really enjoyed being part of the conversation between the playwright, the director, and the designers. The old video clips of me were strange to watch though: I don't think I said anything particularly dumb, but I did look younger and My Studio Was So Clean! It was uncanny!
It made me feel homesick for theater.
But theater is coming back. And meanwhile there's a Minecraft city to build!
I'm forwarding on a plea from one of the best theater lighting designers I know:
Please.
"Extend the COVID 19 Emergency $600 per week additional unemployment assistance until at least December 31, 2020, and longer if necessary.
Why is this important?
Over the span of fourteen weeks, more than 47.1 million Americans have filed unemployment claims across the country because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This amounts to nearly 14% of the US population who are now out of a job—and that's only those who have formally applied for benefits. The actual number of newly unemployed people is likely much larger and will continue to increase in coming months.
Many people who are laid off due to COVID19 won't find work for a very long time, maybe never because some jobs lost today won't be coming back. People will need time and resources to learn and develop a new skill. By ending the $600 per week additional unemployment assistance too soon, we will certainly be dooming people to tragic futures. This will have far reaching ramifications. We need to look out for each other during these unprecedented times. Please let's help each other save and serve those who are in most need."
You can find a petition HERE, but better still, call or write your US Representative and Senators.
Public domain image - by Moziru
The truth is, most theater and other entertainment jobs won't come back this year. Or until there'a a vaccine and audiences are safe to sit next to each other again. Hard-working entertainment people just can't work at their crafts until then. They'll find what work they can of course, if they can...
(Me? I'm kinda okay. My husband will feed me - especially since I'm cooking! But many of my friends in theater don't have that second non-arts family income to fall-back on.)
This is very strange... For days - longer - I've been impatient that Texas authorities didn't seem to understand the seriousness of the coronavirus situation. I've been, mostly, staying home myself and reading too much about Italy and to me the danger was clear: Dallas County has 2.7 million people and, because of Texas' policies, 10% of those people have no health insurance. Potential disaster. We got a heads up that the governor of Texas had a 3:00 public announcement... fifteen minutes late... and I really suspect that in those fifteen minutes businesses talked him into stepping back from the shelter-in-place order he had prepared. So Dallas County ordered shelter-in-place instead. And now that I got what I am convinced we need... I feel oddly shaken. This is going to be bad. So bad. Good thing I planted tomatoes this morning.
public domain image
Well, those luscious tomatoes above are what I'm aiming for. This is what I've got so far...
