The Line - a play by Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen

Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank (Joseph Marzullo/Media Punch)

In the Onstage article in The New Yorker (Aug 3 & 10), attention is brought to a play called "The Line", streaming on YouTube through September 1st.

The article goes on to say, "also available with Spanish subtitles, in closed captioning and sign language and audio description for the visually impaired.  So far, more than twenty-eight thousand people have watched the play, likely a far larger audience than the physical theatre could have accommodated over the course of a run."

The play is only an hour, done in the form of a documentary style of play-making which involves interviewing the real people they depict ....

I watched the first 1/2 hour last night and am going to finish it tonight.

Compelling.

The article says "an urgent, heartrending hour, ... maybe dramatized truth can slip through a window when the doors of reasons have been slammed."

The play is by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen about New York City health-care workers battling COVID-19.

7 Stories - Reprise

 ... 2 out of 3 spectators succeeded in looking bored ...

The conversation about the play on the home in the car is often a litmus test to how good a play was.

At least for me.

In the case of the 7 Stories presented by the Department of Drama here at UVic , we laughed so much on the way home that I was wondering when the conversation would be over.

What kept it going is that we could say the set up line in the play, the punch line, and then we would laugh again at how funny it was, either adding in something about the costuming, or the timing, or the music blaring out of a speaker, or even the joy of watching the protagonist fly from one ledge to another near the end of the play.

The show?

7 Stories
LtoR: Duncan, Rebecca, Arta

Can  you see the blue of the sky
a la Reneé Magritte in the set?

Just a joy.

All of us said we wanted to se it again, but not from the vantage point of row C.

That was a little to far to keep looking upward to the 7th floor where the protagonist was about to jump off of the ledge.

Pick seats higher at the back of the theatre and see the actors dead on.

Arta

Drafting a Genii Costume

Mary at the sewing machine.

Naomi’s school is producing Aladdin Junior. 

Naomi has the part of the genii.

I don’t know much about the show; only enough to know that the genii has the potential to steal the show.

Naomi has been working on her lines for a few weeks – enough that the lines are under her belt now.

 ... this is the second life for this shoe ..... 

 And they are good lines.

 When she delivers them I laugh.

Rhiannon doesn’t like me to laugh.

I think my costume is fabulous

 “Not that funny, Grandmother.”

 I don’t know how may times I have heard her say that.

Mary asked about costuming for the play. 

Naomi said she didn’t know who was doing the costumes.

 Mary went downstairs and brought up some turquoise and yellow embroidered material, with a hint of eyelet.

 “I will just make this costume and send it to school.

 If your teacher likes it, OK. And if she has something else in mind, no harm done.”

 The sewing machine has been on the table for a couple of days now.

The bodice was done first.

Then there was a lot of internet research on genii pants before they were drafted. Today there was a trip to Fabricland for Velcro and some elastic.

... are these cuffs really going to work? ...

At some point the genii has to rip off her golden (hand) cuffs so Mary has been figuring out a large gold detachable cuff tonight.

 Looking good.

 Leo took Naomi to Value Village.

 They came home with high heels that will work.

OK

 Maybe they will only work for a photo shoot.

 I told Naomi a pair of heels like that would give a woman reason to go to church, just to wear them.

 Mary spent the rest of the evening cautioning Naomi about walking in them.

... enough room in these pants for me to really move? ...

 Naomi took to the shoes like a duck to water: she danced, she prance, she modeled, she laughed. 

Her first platform heels, but she has decided not to wear them for the play.

She is practising in a low, blue leather slipper, but I think those high heeled shoes will come out again.

A woman needs a little practise in them before going out in public.

Arta