Friday, April 27, 2007

Battling a Cold; Hectic May

I caught a little cold on the way back from Honolulu. But I've got some neat photos of the family and lots of stuff to share. Also got right into rehearsals for Kiss Me Kate in June. (I just wrote out my schedule for May and it's hectic.)

In addition, I'm planning for a Sex Police reunion (the AIDS-awareness Hip-Hop dance group I helped start in 1990) on Sat., May 19. It's a lot of stuff for one month. But expect to see some neat stuff about all of that in the coming posts!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

David Henry Hwang's Golden Child

I found David Henry Hwang's Golden Child at Silk Road Theater to be a very satisfying evening. All of the actors were very strong, and the concept of bringing change to a traditional household (bringing Christianity to a home with an established Chinese religion) can cause much heartache. Nor does the reason behind why change must occur seem virtuous. For everyone, it's not about Jesus and what the religion stands for, but about what each one needs. For instance, the head of the household (a man with three wives), it's about wanting to be with one wife; for the all-too-eager-to-change wife, it's about power; and for an adoring child, it's about being released from a tradition of foot-binding.

It all ends tragically but resolves well as a "ghost" reveals to a newer generation the suffering that brought about a "better" way years later. The play explored an interesting time in a way that makes the seemingly foreign truly relative to what we experience today.

As an aside, six of us from Asians and Friends Chicago went to see the play, eating at Siam Rice prior to the show and then following up with a trip to Gentry on State for cocktails and live piano bar music. Siam Rice was truly an unexpected pleasure. A really classy ambiance with a down-to-earth price. It was a really nifty evening.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Change In Plans

Well, we decided to give ourselves more time with the Saigon gala and now have our sites on Sept. 2007. We're narrowing down the weekend, but once we do, we'll regroup and start making use of the extra time we've given ourselves.

In the meantime, we're throwing a party atop a Sky Terrace room overlooking the Lake in downtown Chicago as a reunion for our AIDS-awareness dancers, the Sex Police. It'll be Sat. May 19, 2007. Tickets will be $25 presale until April 30 and $30 after that. Call (773) 772-8237 for more details or visit our Web site at www.schoolstreetarts.org.