Days and Landays

(Why am I naming days?) (And what does it mean to “Help build the honeycomb?). 

Things somehow got busy again, and I found myself a little overwhelmed by the Trayvon verdict and subsequent responses, and so I’ve been a little truant here with my updates. Here, quickly, is my round-up of day-naming and honeycomb building:

7/10/13, Day 13, 761: Day of Sad Ducks
So-named for this moving article about how animals experience grief in Scientific American. Commitment to vegetarianism=renewed.

7/11/13, Day 13,762: Dreaming the Next MicroFest
I am blessed to be on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters, and this day’s highlight was our board phone call. We discussed potential options for the next series of MicroFests. I’m still unpacking the transformational experiences of the MicroFests in New Orleans and Honolulu this year, and was grateful to participate in the dialogue about where we might land next.

7/12/13, Day 13,763: Dreaming the Next Forum
Conveniently, the next day’s highlight was a TCG meeting to discuss plan’s for TCG’s next Fall Forum on Governance. My colleagues Dafina, Devon and Julia are so wonderful to work with, and I’m very excited about the (for now secret) direction of this Forum.

7/13/13, Day 13,764: Salvage Scene 2, Meeting Mandy
I finished scene 2 of my new play Salvage, and introduced a new character, Mandy.

7/14/13, Day 13,765: Flux Sunday Takes to the Bathroom
After a longer than usual break, we returned to Flux Sunday, which featured for the first time not one but two scenes staged in the bathrooms. Welc0ome back.

7/15/13, Day 13,766: Innovation Station, or Who Gets to Play?
At TCG, we participated in an innovation planning session about which I cannot say much, except to say that I increasingly feel that the big questions facing theatre, and quite possibly America, emerge from a simple yet persistent question, “Who Gets To Play?” I also participated in a brainstorming session for the Lark (aka my favorite people), so this day was definitely Innovation Station.

7/16/13, Day 13,767: Faust Reincarnate, or Soul Jello
A great meeting with Marielle Duke, who will be directing my adaptation of Faust for her company Adapative Arts, focused on how to update the theology and cosmology of the Goethe’s play to feel urgent/dangerous/personal today. A highlight was our coining of the words, “Soul Jello.” Shove us into shallow waters before we get to deep…

7/17/13, Day 13,768: The Reading Party of GIF-Laughs
Flux hosted a reading party to push through our completely overwhelmed literary department, and not only were we treated to a great turnout of readers, but Will created the funniest GIF ever involving him, Adam, and a slow shake of the head.

7/18/13, Day 13,769: The Howl for Creative Justice
I co-moderated this. Much more on this anon, too.

7/19/13, Day 13,770: Animals on the Terrace
Our first real dinner party in our new place featured a meal on the terrace with two dear friends and many animal-themed stories, including but not limited to: The Tale of the Bioluminescent Stingray; The Dog and the Faun; The Mosquito Mist and the Avenging Dragonflies; and Sad Giant Grates Cheese.

7/20/13, Day 13,771: Mohonk Mountain House Moon Landays
Our first day on our weekend vacation at Mohonk Mountain House involved navigating an amazing rock scrambles, swimming and many other rejuvinations; but my favorite moment was trading landays about the moon in English and Spanish with my beloved wife: “The moon tries to joke/ But takes a month to wink”

7/21/13: Day 13,772: Mohonk Mountain House and Zadee’s Bower
More vacation fun weekend fun, including a hike on a rock scramble called Zadee’s Bower that we particularly loved.

A short version of ways that I helped build the Honeycomb over this past week and a half (partial list, but some list is better no list, right?)((Due to time, I’ve just posted links to my petition/call activity because I don’t have time to rewrite them all-personal like)):

• We started composting: http://www.grownyc.org/greenmarket-site/queens/forest-hills-greenmarket
• Tell the DEC to ban the dumping of gas drilling wastes in New York landfills, and study the environmental and public health impacts of this waste stream.
• Visited a dear friend in recovery.
• Call your senators today. Tell them to stand strong for filibuster reform. It’s past time to end the 60-vote requirement for action in the Senate.
• Attended a workshop on eco-theatre practices to green up Flux.
• Please click here to join Daily Kos and CREDO in demanding that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats pass meaningful filibuster reform that eliminates the filibuster for all presidential nominations, including judges.
• You can share your views by sending an e-mail to let your Members of Congress know that they must protect and strengthen anti-hunger programs as this process continues.
• Met with interns at the Lark to share my experiences–the interns are awesome, and I hope my advice was helpful!
• Urge Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to release Herman Wallace.
• Participated in a brainstorm session for the Lark’s upcoming 20th anniversary.
• Please tell your Senators, whether Republican or Democrat, to allow McCarthy’s nomination to come to a vote.
• Co-moderated the Howl on how theatre-artists intersect with social/political events.
• We’re not giving up until they do. Help us keep the pressure on by making your own quick phone call — and let us know what the grocer tells you.
• I shared my feedback with an a playwright friend at her Lark Roundtable
• Will you join nearly 100,000 of us in calling for more Wall Street reform, starting with a new Glass-Steagall Act? Sign here!
• I finished a post from Flux’s NET/TEN activities to share out the learnings from our collaboration with Touchstone.
• Click here to automatically sign your name to our petition defending women’s rights to make their own health care decisions today.
• Engaged in multiple online and in-person conversations about Trayvon’s trial…much more on this to come.
• Demand that Congress take steps against superbugs by curbing factory farm antibiotics use right now.
• please click here to sign our petition to Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray, urging him not to veto the living wage bill that passed the D.C. City Council yesterday despite threats from Walmart that it will cease operations in the city if it has to pay employees $12.50 an hour.
• Sign my petition at FixTheFilibuster.com: Demand that Senate Republicans lay down their filibuster threat and give these qualified nominees an up-or-down vote.
• Tell Senate Democrats: End Republican abuse and support filibuster reform now.
• Tell Egypt’s leaders there is no excuse for rape and sexual assault at protests.
• Don’t let thousands of public comments go to waste. Take action to protect river herring and shad »
• Take action today: Urge Congress to instead adopt the funding level proposed by the administration for international humanitarian and poverty-focused development assistance for fiscal year 2014.
• Tell your Senator to vote YES for Cordray and give consumers the protections we deserve!
• Sign our petition demanding an open investigation of the Texas state troopers’ conduct, and that appropriate disciplinary action be taken.
• Sign our petition – stop Iceland killing endangered whales
• Tell the Attorney General Eric Holder to bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. Click here to automatically sign the petition.
• Please tell the EPA to take action to protect our beaches ur beautiful beaches and our health by proposing a strong rule to curb runoff pollution immediately.
• Tell your member of Congress that the time is now and you are counting on them to support a commonsense immigration process that includes a roadmap to citizenship. 
• Tell President Obama and the agency responsible for managing our public lands that the new rules are unacceptable, and ask them to ban fracking on public lands.
• Please act now…hundreds of communities need and deserve strong protections from coal ash.
• Signed up for SURJ.