Play's the thing

Yeah, so it's been a while since I've written. Had one of the best weeks of my life at my peaceful zen retreat -- Stovie said I returned "radiant" (entirely plausible, since something made the Enterprise guy not even charge me for gas when I returned with just a quarter tank 5 minutes before closing) (and I was wearing a zipped-up sweatshirt, thank you very much). But I've been dashing about since my return (and it took just 4 days back in Spookytown and environs to beat me back into my anxiety-ridden not-so-radiant usual shape): going up to Philly for Hellraiser's wedding (mazel tov Hellie!), prepping for this grad course I just started teaching at a certain local Jesuitish institution (no, not a monastery, although now that I mention it, my heart has in fact recently been captured by someone who does currently reside at a monastery, but that's another story for another day) (at least he's single and lives on the same continent, which is more than can be said about some other attractive people I've met this year). Oh, and doing what seems to be endless organizing, sorting, discarding, packing, and selling/donating of various items that I own (or no longer own) in preparation for my upcoming move to the Spookytown postage stamp.

Anyway, the thing that has compelled me to write is a play that I saw semi-performed yesterday. I say semi-performed because it was a staged reading, part of a festival at the Kennedy Center where local theaters put on readings of upcoming shows that will be staged sometime in the nearish future. I mostly didn't have time to see the show, especially as it takes a while to get down there from HippyDippyville and also because the reading turned out to go for like 2 hours and 45 minutes. But look, here's the description that drew me in:

"pangea"
Staged Reading of a new play by Stephen R. Culp
Kennedy Center, Terrace Gallery
Monday September 4th, 2:00 pm—Free

Directed by company member [Mr. Director], this play follows a team of scientists in Antarctica, undercover operatives in Istanbul and Kazakhstan, and a fifteen-year-old Sacramento boy (IM: Echo-Boom), as they all unravel a conspiracy that threatens the entire world.
Featuring [various actorly types].

Uh yeah, so we have here: 1) Pangea (who comes up in continental/metaphorical form quite a bit! I leapt a little in my seat every time her name was mentioned), 2) Istanbul (I've been studying the language spoken there, and have all kinds of connections), 3) Kazakhstan (have connections there too, including a "small world" incident from the retreat to be detailed later), and 4) spooks. Not to be all solipsistic, but it's like the play was written so I could go to it. And and and there's the Aurora Austrialis which plays a huge role in Act One and people, just last month I made a list of long-held wishes that I'm going to work on fulfilling in the nearish future (which apparently is a very Buddhist thing to do, I learned at the retreat, so that's pretty cool) and seeing the Aurora Borealis is like number 2 on the list. (Kayaking with dolphins is number one, and Stovie almost almost took care of that on my trip, except we only saw otters and seals and pelicans and many other lovely seabirds, so it's still kind of up there.) And the play was smart and topical and gripping and a little bit scary. I kinda wished I'd talked to at least one of the performers afterwards and told them how much I'd enjoyed the whole thing, but they had run late and all dashed off into some backstagey kind of room, so oh well. Maybe a group outing when it's finally staged? Hooray for pangea, the play!!!