TCG Conference Day 3

Okay, it's Thursday June 17th, 2010, this was the official first day of the Theatre Communications Group's (you must know by now that I'm writing in past tense. Today's real day is Monday June 21st, the longest day of the year, hooray for Summer Solstice. Did anyone get out to The Trail Mix(er)?) International conference. If you don't know what TCG is by now (from reading my blog) then visit here.

Had fun until the wee hours and woke up needing a diner breakfast. I googled "breakfast in Chicago's South Loop" and was directed to an interesting eating establishment a few miles away called Blackies.  Wow. This was deep Chicago. The patrons were both old and young, but they all dressed weird. One woman her hair sprayed into a helmet-like mold had on yellow slacks, a terrifically green blouse and bright orange lipstick. Her man was equally 70's. A frightening sight for the early morning. The younger versions of people had on super hip eyeglasses (and by super hip I mean the giant mom glasses my Mom used to wear. Cute?) And lets not forget the sagging but somehow tight-ass skinny jeans, plus headbands. Something was wrong. Then I saw the food selection. Your typical cafeteria style line, meat first, rice/potato, salad and a Jell-O display and fountain beverage counter. I didn't smell eggs or bacon. This was a meat town nightmare.

I got back on my bike tooled around for a while and landed at The White Palace. That spikey blond-haired, over excited food guy had been there and his face was plastered on their menu. Both sides! I sat at the counter, ah the counter, and ordered 2 eggs (over easy) hash brown potatoes and whole-wheat toast, dry. Mint tea and water. The only thing that could have made this a perfection meal would be veggie sausage. Mmmm.

After breakfast I rode to The Palmer House for registration. What a beautiful hotel. High ceilings with ornate carvings, a marquee-like entrance (it was like entering a Broadway theatre) and the air of money abounding. On the 4th floor TCG hall the registration line circled around the room. The conference was sold out and 900 people were waiting to get in. Due to my Fox status I cut right to the front of the line (it does pay to be special.) Good thing as I had to make the Jose Rivera playwrighting workshop across town at The Goodman Theatre at 12:30.

Chicago is easy to navigate but I was a bit late and was invited to attend the 500 Clown workshop on Risk/Play. I was kind of sad. Nothing against 500 Clown, I really enjoyed Adrienne, the workshop leader. But, I feel like I've spent my entire life in the Risk/Play room but have yet to experience the playwright room. I was looking for a different exchange. Oh well, what happens is meant to happen and an experience is an experience. Actually, I’m glad I went because I learned something that was super valuable to my process.

We were playing a trust exercise and in the 3rd stage of it the leader was blindfold leading the partner around. Our partners only job was making sure we didn't hurt ourselves. I really wanted to leave the room. To explore the hallway and see if I could walk down the stairs. But I couldn't seem to find the door. 6 minutes went by and I still hadn't left the room, then finally I come to the panic bar of the door. Success!! I push the door open and it feels as if someone was standing on the other side keeping me from entering. I though "you better let me in" and pushed some more. The door opened slightly and was pushed back on from the other side. Deflated and a bit angry I walked away. The I though "fuck that, I'm going through that door, I don't care what's on the other side." Someone could have been undressing, having sex, in a private meeting, giving a speech, I didn't care. I wanted in! So I turned around and pushed again. The same thing happened. I pushed the thing on the other side pushed back and would not let me enter. Arghhh.

I turned away sad, but soon was distracted by some pushpins in a corkboard along the wall and forgot all about the door. That is until we all (about 40 of us) sat in a circle to reflect on all the stages of the game. I remember what had happened and asked my partner what that was all about. Why wasn't allowed to go into the other room? My partner answered back "Tami, you were pushing on a door that was already open."

That took some time to sink in and when it did I thought what an amazing metaphor. Blind as a bat demanding to be let into a door that's completely open. That energy seems familiar. Like "the answer is in front of you." Or "you have everything you need." What a wonderful and personal reminder.

5:30 we all met again at the Goodman for the opening plenary. The Keynote speaker was Johan Lehrer, this super cute 12-year-old-looking super thinker. He's a NYT best selling author and a Rhodes Scholar. Nuff said. Follow his blog here, you'll understand soon. Or buy his books "How We Decide" and "Proust Was a Neuroscientist." The best two things I took from his talk were the story of the marshmallow experiment and delayed gratification (google it) and the idea of inviting non-traditional professionals to the table in order to solve traditional problems. Fascinating stuff. Basically a problem that took a group of same field scientists 2 1/2 months to solve took a group of diverse field scientist 10 minutes to solve. Think about it.

After the speeches we took trolleys back to Chicago Shakes for a party. Egg rolls, dumplings, hummus (a recurring theme at the conference) aplenty along with the wine and beer flowing, and the party spread out on 6 floors of this amazing theatrical structure. The bathrooms had the most amazing view of Lake Michigan.

At 9:30 I had tickets to see Itsoseng (a one man show by a charismatic South African artist) that played in the studio theatre of Chicago Shakespeare called "The World Stage." Awesome idea for a series. The actor was lovely and the show was sad, but like most one-person shows it left me feeling that something was missing. My fear for the show I'm building keeps building.

I took a lovely walk back to the dorms while touring the Chicago Skyline. What a magical city.