Away, Now
I was driving home one night, and saw this scene: a sign being painted, proclaiming that a neighborhood theatre was closing its doors after many years in Silver Lake -- that's a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles. I parked a block away and ran back, and these two kind souls let me snap away while they finished their job. The main tool used by these painters is the brush, I suppose. And a fine thing it is, with many a storied variant for a full range of capacities. But let me just add to the list: the ladder, the words, the lighting, the physical comportment, the breathing technique as they scale the heights, the walls we all face, the frame of their lives and their boundless hopes, the actor's rootedness and the rootlessness, the spirited commitment -- these things are all the tools of the trade, with the play being the thing. I was told that the theatre would soon reopen in Downtown L.A., and I wish them all the very best. But I applaud the setting, staging and determination of the here and now. Everything is a last gesture and a step forward, is it not?
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