Archive - 2015
August 17th
Returning to The Fringe - #FringeNYC
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 09:06In 1983, I left my job as a consultant at Bell Laboratories, gave up my apartment on Mott St in New York City, which I shared with some aspiring actors, and hit the road. Some of those actors were going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival later that summer, so I added Edinburgh to my itinerary.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was fantastic, and for the next several years, I went back every summer, watching an average of five plays a day for at least a week. Eventually, I settled down, started a family, and the trips to Edinburgh came to an end. How I wished that there was something like that in the United States.
I settled into the typical corporate suburban life as my children grew, but after a divorce, remarriage, the oldest kids heading off to college, and a career change, I found myself working as a freelance journalist and was invited to cover the New York Fringe Festival. It was different from my youth in Edinburgh. Instead of staying in youth hostels, I took the train into New York City from the suburbs of Connecticut. One day, I took my eight year old daughter in.
That was five years ago. Soon afterwards, I took a new job as a social media manager for a Federally Qualified Health Center, and it’s now been five years since I’ve went to the fringe.
My youngest daughter is all about movies, television series, web series, and acting. My wife watches television with her and takes her to the movies. I pretty much don’t watch television or go to the movies anymore. Ever since theaters like the Thalia or the Metro closed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan many years ago, I’ve found the mass produced media less and less interesting. Yet the fringe, that is where I’ve always found the most creativity.
This summer, my youngest daughter, now thirteen, was complaining about how uninteresting the assigned summer reading for school was. She wanted to read Shakespeare. My wife and I looked at each other. Was it time to return to the fringe, this time, bringing Fiona to several shows?
So, I got in touch with old contacts, arranged to take an extra week of vacation, and set things up to go to the fringe. Shortly, the two of us will return to the fringe. Today, we are planning on seeing three plays, which I hope to write about tomorrow.
As I’ve described my plans to friends, I have been surprised at the number of people who don’t know about the New York Fringe Festival. If there is any way you can make it, arrange a trip to the festival.
August 16th
Prepare Ye...
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/16/2015 - 20:46It has been an interesting day. I started off with me watching some videos on Facebook of Presiding Bishop Elect Michael Curry preaching at a pilgrimage in honor of the Martyr Jon Daniels in Hayneville, Alabama. He spoke about Jesus not coming to start an institution, but to start a movement. I stopped to watch parts of Godspell on YouTube and then headed off to church, to a local nursing home, and then to a gathering of longtime friends from a church I attended years ago in New York City. It has been a good day, with lots to think about.
I also read a quote on Facebook, “Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.” I suggested that the companion quote might be “Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture that was around our grandparents more than the Christ within us.”
There were many comments, often about organs, guitars, bee bop, rock concerts, choir concerts, and so on. Most of them seemed more concerned with the culture around us than Christ within us. How does this fit with Presiding Bishop Elect Curry’s comments about movements and institutions? How does this fit with Godspell?
I’m finding the clips from Godspell looking incredibly dated, but also incredibly joyful and powerful. What sort of movement are we looking for, what sort of joy? How do we understand experiencing the presence of God, in silence, in chaos, in organ music, choir music, rock music, or bee bop? Do we exclude people who experience God’s presence and overwhelming love in ways different from how we do? What do we do to change that?
Or, to quote Godspell, quoting Mark, quoting Isaiah, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”.
August 15th
At The Clark
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 08/15/2015 - 19:29Standing in the presence of great beauty
as portrayed by an artist in great pain
amidst a crowd of visitors,
driven up from the city.
What was his illness
and who were the people
he painted in the public gardens
of Arles?
How curious they are to me,
like the crowds of men and women
that caught Whitman’s attention
on the Brooklyn Ferry
Did any of them suspect
their place in history?
My great grandfather
was in the park in Arles
with Van Gogh.
My great aunt
rode the ferry
with Whitman
from Brooklyn.
Now, we stand in museums
looking at Van Gogh’s paintings
We go to special poetry events
where Whitman is read and discussed.
And somewhere,
young men are sitting in libraries
learning a quote
from Emerson
about
Cicero, Locke, and Bacon,
forgetting that Emerson also
was once a young man
sitting in the library
years before Van Gogh painted
or Whitman wrote.
August 14th
Learning from the Lectionary
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 08/14/2015 - 18:52Over the past few months, I’ve been spending a lot of time to get a better sense of what God wants of me. I’ve been reading various books, talking with various friends, and paying close attention to the Episcopal lectionary.
Wednesday was the feast day of Florence Nightingale, and I spent a little time reading about her and writing a blog post about it. Today is the feast day of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who died fifty years ago during the civil rights movement. I read this biography and listened to some of this documentary.
What can I learn from Florence and Jonathan during my journey?
Some of this is to prepare for a meeting I currently have scheduled for September 10. So, I’ve looked at the lectionary for that day. It is the feast of Alexander Crummell, another person whom I don’t know much about, but who seems fascinating and perhaps another person I should seek to learn from.
August 13th
#FringeNYC PreGame @TUMJ1701 @lousinesh @jonathanldent @IHoratioPlay
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 08/13/2015 - 21:21I have started making my list of shows that I hope to see at #FringeNYC. I was hoping to fit four or five plays in next Monday. The first on my list is The Universe Of Matt Jennings; the coming out of a black gay Christian in a Star Trek context. It sounds, as I imagine Spock would say, “Fascinating”.
Next on my list was Shake The Earth, another one person show at the same venue. The play asks, “Can this meek gay Armenian stand up for herself and recount her great-grandfather Georgi's remarkable story of survival during the Armenian Genocide?” Unfortunately, this performance has already sold out.
An alternative might be ‘The Princeton Seventh’. It starts at 3 PM at a venue not far from TUMJ, but I suspect TUMJ won’t be over in time to rush to The Princeton Seventh.
This show is followed, at the same venue, by ‘The Broken Record’ at 5:15. “The Broken Record examines the violence between black youth and police officers in the United States,”
For the final show on Monday, tickets permitting, I’m hoping to stay at the same venue for “I, Horatio”, a Shakespeare derivative.
Are you going to #FringeNYC? What plays are you excited to see?
