Tonight I saw my last play in the Woolly Mammoth season, Bootycandy. It consisted of a collection of sketches (which ultimately were revealed to be interconnected) that appeared to be comedic on the surface, but covered challenging aspects of race, racial culture, sexual identity, etc. The cast were mostly black with only one white actor. There were a couple of unique aspects of the production, where just before the intermission, after about four of these sketches, there was another sketch that sort of broke down the barrier with the audience of a conference of theater writers (the audience was the conference attendees), where each actor played the author of one of the preceding sketches and described a bit of what they were about. They also explicitly said it’s not supposed to be easy to watch … “it was hard to write, it should be hard to digest”, directly addressing some of the challenging topics. In the second half they again pretended to abruptly halt due to the emotional state of one actor, brought up the lights, reset the stage, and moved onto the last scene.
There was one sketch that was hilarious: the un-committment ceremony of two women. The speeches mirroring wedding vows, where they ripped each other, and even the preacher’s variant of Corinthians espousing the power of hate, were perfect parody. I’m sure anybody who had gone through a divorce could have related.
The acting was very good, and despite the subject matter that made me a bit uneasy, it was a wonderful play to see. I’m going to miss having and avant garde theatre like this a block from where I live.
Tonight I got another example of the spontaneous fun activities that seem to come up for me in DC. My friend Kathy and her daughter Megan were planning on going to a Washington National’s baseball game, and she invited me along. We snagged some tickets from an apparent season ticket holder on the street, and got some discounted tickets for seats down the third base line. This had been something that had been on my DC list of things to do, but as time is running short, I hadn’t really expected to accomplish it. I was a humid warm evening, and the Nats didn’t do too good against the Seattle Mariners, but it was a fun evening with good friends, and it gave me a chance to check one more thing off my list.
During a quick trip back to CA to interview for my new job, I rescheduled the first play of the 
Tonight I saw my last play in the Lansburgh Theatre, Harold Pinter’s Old Times. The director’s notes referred to this a a modern classic. It was written in 1970. I was definitely different from most of the plays I’ve seen recently. A very minimalist set, all in white with a few pieces of white furniture, and only three actors (all of whom were on stage most of the time). The play was fairly short, just over an hour and a half including a 15 minute intermission. 
My last day in New York City, I followed some of Dan Jobe’s suggestions and took the double decker red 
After returning to Manhattan, I hopped back on the bus, which looped back up along the east side. I again hopped off by the South Street Seaport and walked up towards the Brooklyn Bridge. It took a little doing, but I managed to find the pedestrian path and walked out to the first tower on the bridge. Amazing old stone construction of the towers, and beautiful patterns made by the supporting cables. It’s a little weird that the pedestrians (which were thick) are on a level over the traffic; the trash barrels were filled to overflowing with plastic bottles, and I could just imagine stuff dropping down on the traffic below.
This walk provided some great views and I took lots of pictures. I made my way back to the bus line and completed the downtown tour, through the East Village, and past the UN again. Although that tour should only take about 2 1/2 hours, with all my side trips, it was late afternoon by the time we got back to Times Square.
It went around Central Park, through the West Side, past Lincoln Center, through Central Park West (where we caught a glimpse of Yoko Ohno), up by Riverside Drive, across through Harlem, and back down the East Side of Central Park. By the time I got back it was around 7 pm, so I’m glad I didn’t try and squeeze in another play. The bus tour was a great way to get a good broad sense of the various neighborhoods and sites of the city.
At the end of my second day in New York City, I attended the play Jerusalem at the Music Box Theatre, starring Mark Rylance. This was my third play in three days, and it was great. 
The play then gets going with the main character coming out, and doing a head stand over a water bucket (right in front of me), dunking his head in and shaking it off, soaking all of us in the front row. It was a good vantage point for all the subsequent acting (if a bit low). It was an interesting story of an iconoclastic rebel, with later undertones of ancient English mysticism. The play lasted a little over three hours, with two brief intermissions, and all took place in one scene, but it moved along very quickly. It had great acting and I’m so glad I saw it.
After a great start to my trip to NYC, my second day was composed of a random walking exploration of midtown Manhattan. I began by walking up 5th Ave to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Then I went over to Rockefeller Center. I decided to go up to The Top of the Rock where I got a great panoramic view of Manhattan: Central Park to the north, and the Empire State Building to the south. It took a while to get used to the height (~66-68 floors up), but it was a great view. Being way up there on that tall building I got a new perspective on the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11. They were probably 50% taller than that building, which seemed extremely tall, and it made me have a more realistic sense of what it meant to have them collapse. I spent quite a bit of time up there, and took a lot of pictures.
As I made my way back towards the hotel, I crossed a section of 3rd Ave that was closed for a street fair (or just a street market) that was kind of interesting. I bought myself a cheap NYC souvenir T-shirt. 
I decided to grab some pizza for dinner at a place across from my hotel. I was hoping to experience a true NY pizza by having a slice. Maybe I did. It was good, but I still like by California style pizzas better than anything I’ve had out east. After dinner, I headed to the Music Box Theatre for another Broadway play that I’d gotten a ticket for at the last minute, 
Following a pleasant train ride, and an enjoyable Italian meal, I spent my first evening in New York by attending my first Broadway musical on Broadway. I went to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. It was at the 
Making some last minute plans, I finally made my way to New York City for the long holiday weekend. It turned out to be a great vacation. Following a somewhat late 