The Spirit of Abbie

Yesterday we opened the Abbie Fest at 10:00 a.m. with our Dino and Sheila Show. The theater was dark, there were bodies in various poses scattered throughout. We set up and kicked off the show on time. The survivors sought other refuge. We played to one person. He took some great photos. It was excellent; a "spirit," slot dedicated to my father, the fest, Mary-Archie Theater and the Maestro Rich Cotovsky. It was the complete other end of the live theater spectrum (see preivous post).

The Lovely Carla was sharp, exquisite (she truly is a force of nature). I was a little distracted, blew a few lines (who wrote this shit?), but didn't get rattled, I was completely comfortable in the role of Dino, and had a great time. We finished, packed up our stuff, and headed to breakfast. Then it was back to Mary-Archie for a full afternoon of theater.

I love this festival of plays. It really captures the spirit of the Chicago theater community. Cotovsky is one of my heroes. He is a no-nonsense practitioner. A dedicated, soulful man who opens his space for three days, and shares a vision of cooperation and collaboration. The good, bad and the ugly march up to the stage and do their thing. We saw it all: one really vile piece of trash, a couple hilarious pieces, an inane trifle, a few inspiring pieces and one absolutely sublime example of theater magic - "Sea Marks" (Mary-Arhcie's current production).

We left on this high note. The two of us, kind of staggering out into the sunlight, our hearts and heads on fire. Yes, "Abbie lives!" Ain't it the truth!