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![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) loracs and I went to see a staged reading of The Drunken City by Adam Bock (some may know him from Shotgun Players). We started the evening by getting dinner at a new (to us) restaurant in Castro Valley called Genghix (or Genghis, there seemed to be a little confusion between their sign outside and how the name was spelled on their receipts). A really nice restaurant friendly, quick service amazingly fresh sushi. I enjoyed their tonkatsu, very tender and tasty, but I sort of wish I had ordered the lamb chop. I tasted some of loracs's and it was really good. We will be going back there. After dinner we headed for the Morrison Theater (a part of the Hayward Recreation and Park District). To see The Drunken City which was light and funny. There were a few dialogue bobbles especially in the second half of the play. Some of the jokes depended on some fairly specific timing which they pulled off sometimes and other times really didn't. Of course that kind of thing is difficult in a staged reading, but the first half of the play was very tight. The second half just didn't live up to the polish of the first half. Neither of us liked the decision to keep the house lights up. The light on us was very distracting, but we had a very good time. The theater itself was just barely accessible. The only place for a person in a wheelchair to park was at the back of the house and I can't imagine more than four wheelchair users attending a show there. Except for the entrance to the theater there seemed to be steps everywhere. Clearly a theater designed and built before that ADA. Still, we had a wonderful evening. Tags: access, carol, food, theater
Current Location: My study
Current Mood:  busy
Current Music: "Price-Tag", Jessie J
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Lemme es'plain: loracs mentioned on Facebook our misadventures last Sunday, I thought I would give details. We decided to go out for a late breakfast (I think 1:30ish in the afternoon counts as late). So we got in the car to go to an Italian place near our home that we thought served breakfast that late. loracs parked near the place and hit the button that opens the door and deploys the ramp. I backed up and did my dance to get turned around and leave the car. I wasn't being as cautious as I can be at times, so I didn't notice that the door had opened, but the ramp hadn't deployed. I drove out the door and promptly fell forward. Fortunately, the curb was pretty high and my foot rests are (apparently) very sturdy. My foot rests sort of caught me so that my front wheels were on the curb and my back wheels were in the car. I couldn't move forward or back. I couldn't even push the joystick even if I had wanted to because my upper body was thrown forward and I couldn't pull my head back. If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt, I would have been pitched to ground. I called loracs and she gasped on seeing me. She asked me what we should do and I told her I thought we needed help. I thought she would find a passerby or go into the restaurant to find help. She immediately started shouting, "Help! Help!" Three people on the street rushed over. They asked what they could do and I told them to help lift the front end of my wheelchair so I could back up into the car. Because of my misadventures a while ago when my wheelchair decided to do the samba in a sandwich shop, I told loracs to turn the power off on my wheelchair. She did and they started lifting the front end of the chair. We forgot that the motors had to be disengaged before my wheels would move freely. So we asked the two good samaritans to wait one second. loracs got around back of the wheelchair and disengaged the motors. Now that I was freewheeling they pushed me back into the car. loracs reengaged the motors so that I wouldn't roll right back out. I thanked my rescuers. It took me several minutes to recover my equanimity, loracs helped me get reassembled. My tray had fallen to the curb as did some cushions I have under each elbow. loracs tried the ramp again, this time it cooperated. I exited the vehicle and was surprisingly unharmed except for my dignity. :-) It's not like this whole episode was fun, but it was better than it could've been. Unlike many times in my life everyone paid attention to what I told them. No one just took over, they waited for me to tell them what I needed and did what they could to help. loracs paid particular attention to my instructions and gave helpful suggestions. For example, I had completely forgotten about disengaging the motors until she mentioned it. I got through everything relatively unscathed. Yesterday while out and about on my own, I did notice a certain "punchiness" (if that's a word). I was overly careful going over bumpy sidewalks feeling like they would drop out from under me, but that will fade eventually. I want to thank loracs and my helpful strangers (I wish I had gotten their names, but I wasn't really myself.) Over and above the help I received I feel very respected. Tags: disability
Current Location: My study
Current Mood:  thankful
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Yesterday I went to see Watt, a play by Samuel Beckett being performed at the Zellerbach Playhouse with wild_irises and waywardcats. Beckett happens to be a favorite playwright of mine, so I was thrilled to go. Although short, the play was well done and I enjoyed it. I had previously arranged with loracs to pick me up around 10:15 thinking that the play would be longer. Before the play began, we called loracs to let her know that I would need to be picked up earlier, but all we got was voice mail. After the play, we all went to Bancroft where I was to be picked up. Last night was amazingly cold and after waiting for a while, we decided to head for Smart Alec’s (where we had dinner before the show) and shelter. ( Now it gets embarassing )Tags: beckett, disability, fun to watch, theater
Current Location: My study
Current Mood:  dorky
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A couple of days ago I had the opportunity to see Richard III at the Curren theater in San Francisco. The play is a problem for me as a person with a disability. Richard is the twisted in body, therefore twisted in mind stereotype of a person with a disability. This production does nothing to help that, but I'm willing to overlook it as a work of its time. Kevin Spacey does an amazing job as Richard. In fact, the play loses a good deal of energy when he's not on stage. There are several lines that never quite made sense to me until this production. Other lines read completely different than I had understood them before. Except for the fellow who played Buckingham (who was very good) most of the male actors were underwhelming. In fact, I was surprised at how often I couldn't even hear what they were saying. The actor playing Richmond was particularly bad and the performance of Edward IV wasn't much better. All of the women's performances were particularly strong. I especially loved the the actor playing Margaret Anjou (I'm sorry that I'm not coming up with the actors names. If I get ambitious later, I'll try to insert them.) Margaret was played with such power and dignity and sadness. She was every bit as good as Kevin (and that is saying something in my opinion). The last performance of real note was Lady Anne. A part that I think is very very difficult to play. I very much liked the direction of this play. Starting sections of the play with names of the character important in that scene really helped organize things for me. I think anyone unfamiliar with the play would have been helped. The set design was spare which worked very well for this performance. Lighting was amazingly effective. I really like how they chose to present the execution/death of several characters. And the tableau of Richard's murder victims towards the end of the play really got me. Music direction was amazingly helpful. I truly loved the drumming it really moves the play. I will admit to one tiny problem for me. Kevin was very disciplined in keeping his body as crooked as possible except during the sword fight when his leg worked perfectly well to my eye. It wasn't enough to spoil the play, but he had done so well until that point. The first act of the play was too long, as many have said, and there was a lull towards the end of the first act that felt a lot like the director saying, "well I have to get a lot details in, so let's get through them as painlessly as possible". I felt my mind wondering during the last 15 minutes or so of the first act. The play was a real treat for me. Kevin Spacey is one of my very favorite actors and my esteem for his work gets better all the time. Tags: richard iii, san francisco, theater
Current Location: My study
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