Lessons of Florence

I write to you now as an official resident of Florence (once the vigili - police - come to my home to make sure I really live here).  I am pleased about this.  I think it’s healthy for me to embrace the city this way.  I was looking at it as a casual next step in my relationship with her.  I was completely ignorant to the fact that it also gives me a voice in the city I had no idea I would ever have (not intending to ever become a citizen of Italy).  Who knew that being a resident also grants me the right to vote!!

Suddenly I feel very powerful.  Suddenly all those meetings with all those officials of the Comune (city government) where I knew they looked at me as a “straniere” (foreigner) and not a “voter” are seen in the light of a new context.  I am resident of Florence and Producing Artistic Director of Florence International Theatre Company…. AND American citizen who believes in the power of the vote (even when the system gets a little “corrupted”)….. hear me roar!….. or at the very least see me vote for Sindaco (Mayor)!!!!  Now when I walk into my next meeting with Lastri or Renzi who are both running for that position I can look them in the eye, know that nothing they say will have any affect or value AND that I can add my little action of voting to the future of this city.

But…. really if I listen to my friends and if I mark my own observations… as well as read the newspapers and listen to the radio…. what exactly IS the future of the city?  “Nothing happens in Florence, it has no future” is pretty much the way people feel.  And, at the rate it’s going I would have to agree with them.  It’s a sad thing to watch.  And to be engaged with as someone trying to do something about it positively.  I went to my friend Andrea at Club Paradiso today to have a discussion about Florence Art Crawl…. now that the holiday month is over and everyone is getting back to work I thought it would be good to get things back on track and really grow it.  He sees how the Art Crawl could really affect that area of the city positively.  Bring in healthy tourism to a part of town not normally visited.  Certainly not ever in this way.

We set our plan and then moved on to other topics.  I shared with him my new revelation - that there are really two cities in Florence.  The one run by the Comune where people jockey for power and position and talk a great deal ma fare niente (do nothing).  This is a huge world which a lot of people want to get into in Florence.  It’s a world I wanted to get into for a very long time as well.  I thought if FITC was going to have a real place in the city it had to have a real relationship with it.  For me that meant creating projects with the city and good rapport with those who served her and so - as you know - we went to meeting after meeting and created relationship after relationship which demanded proposals and papers and more meetings all resulting in….well, nothing really.  Although a few people gained from saying they “were working with an international organization” on x,y, or z.  But after 3 years of this, I’m not as interested as I was.  I have other goals now.  Other strategies for Florentine survival.

Then there’s Florence #2.  The city of the residents.  The city where real people live and need things, and watch their city suffocate and don’t really know what to do about it or how.  The city of people who are frustrated and angry as they watch Florence #1 destroy il cuore della citta’ (the heart of the city) as the theatres close, the cinemas too, more leather shops and minimarts open on each corner (two on my block alone in the SAME week!  I wonder which will survive?) and the artisans can no longer afford to pay rental on their storefronts.  They watch the Comune sell the city to the tourists and the tourist industry (Clelia and I are mourning the decision for the city to sell the palazzo of the Assessori Culturato where we had our meetings with the Assessori (Ministers/Directors) of Culture and Tourism.  It is a gorgeous building with an inner garden…. guess what the idea is?  It will be turned into a hotel! There simply aren’t enough of them in Florence. 

But Florence #2 is where the heart is still holding hope…. trying to envision and finding ways to do not only survive but thrive.  Florence #2 is the city of the residents……

Wait a minute!  I’M a part of Florence #2 now!  And on this day that I became a part of #2 and officially resign from #1 (although I’m not so naive to keep from taking these meetings for the “face value”) I am feeling the freedom to release myself from a part of the city I fought with so hard for three years.  Somehow this freedom should be celebrated….. what better way then to share with you that the following was published in one of the better papers here - Corriere Della Sera - on this very day!  Ready to practice your Italian?

“Eventi Pitti: Top Five.  Tour fotografico.  Annoiati dai soliti tour turistici in citta’?  Approfittate della nuova esperienza full immersion targata FLORENCE ART CRAWL.  Un modo originale per vivere Firenze ideato da Bari Hochwald, direttrice del Florence International Theatre Company.  Il pezzo forte? Il “Nighttime Photography Crawl”, serata creativa in compagnia degli artisti del FITC tra San Frediano e Santo Spirito muniti di macchina fotografica.”

Basically…. we were in one of the Top Five lists for the section of the paper which was covering the Pitti Uomo (a major event here for male fashion each year) showing things visitors to the show could do while in Florence.  It talks about this original way to “live” in the city through spending a creative evening with FITC artists.  This concept was a dream I had three years ago…. and here it is in print.  With a nice photo to boot!

So…. even though I am sure my vote won’t matter all that much to those in city #1 …. I feel happy to think something I’m doing might make a difference….. in some way…..eventually…… to “My” #2.

Cioa Ragazzi……

Bari

When you live more than three years in a place I suppose a decision needs to be made.  Basically, are you really living there?  That’s occurred to me a great deal lately.  Do I really live in Florence?  As I ask that, my cat Matilda who came here with me from LA is asleep by my side, I am looking at my living room walls covered with posters of the work created since I’ve lived here.  My “Ode-to-Andy-Warhol” installation of American products looks down from the top shelf…. I am, most definitely, ensconced.  But do I “live” here?  Is Florence my home?

Two days before New Year’s la mia banca (my bank) called me to tell me that the small bank transfer that was being made from a friend who I had loaned money to brought to their attention that my account was for residenti (residents) and not for straniere (foreigners) and that they would have to change my account immediatley.  Of course, I’ve been with them for three years - subito dopo arrivare (immediately after arriving) - and they are the ones that arranged the type of account for me.  That was back in the day when I was terrified of everything official…. and even non-official… in my new world.  I assumed they knew what they were doing.  Apparently they didn’t and I had to change the account which would mean a whole slew of things that I could not do with the new version which, after three years, and not really abiding any where other than Florence, would become quickly unnacceptable.  So, what could I do?

I decided to become a resident.

Now, that’s not such a big thing I guess for some people.  It’s not like saying “I decided to become a citizen.”  Although, for me, it feels a bit like that.  It’s a formal declaration (my appointment is tomorrow at 9:10) that you LIVE in Florence Italy.  That this is where you ARE and you are not somewhere ELSE.  That you have your cat (or two) here, build a life here, pay taxes (when you work).  And all of that, of course, is true.  Florence is where I have my life currently.  Not the states.  Florence is where I express myself, where I seem to learn more about myself in warp-speed than ever I did in the calm waters of LA therapy sessions.  Or, of course, maybe it was those oceanic journies which allow me to learn so much so quickly here in “Floville” as my friend calls it.

“I am a resident of Floville.”  That could sound nice.  That has a ring to it.

But to live here…. to truly live here… a great deal is missing for that to be the case for me.

First — there are about seven boxes of my life in two garages, one in Burbank and one in Reisterstown, which hold the things most precious to me.  They are not here on Via Ghibellina.  Why I wonder?  I tell myself it’s because I don’t trust the Italian postal service to get them to me safely.  And, that is absolutely true, I don’t.  But I could put these things in suitcases…. and bring them over bit by bit or send them with friends.

Two — I work too hard here.  That’s not what Italy is about you know.  No American in their right mind comes to Italy to work.  You come to Italy to live “la bella vita” (the beautiful life).  Let your crazy American friends back in the states do all the work… here the wine is good and the cheese incredible.

Three — I have no love life.  There I said it.  It’s confirmed for all to read.  I could have a love life, of sorts.  But that of course is more of a sex life, or a life of being desired which - believe it or not - is not enough from the wrong person anymore.   When I arrived, it might have been fun to play with Fabio the waiter who I have nothing in common with other than his wanting me (which I did for a while), or Pasquale who still leers with hunger from his pizzeria when I pass or Marco who would, sadly, give anything if I would just come back to his bar for a cappuccino someday soon (I stopped going when I realized how truly in love with me he is and it can NOT be returned).  It’s not that i think having a love life consitutes living in a place.  It’s just that I think it opens aspects of a place which allows you to experience it differently.  I’d like to try that for a bit if I’m going to be a resident.

Which, I suppose by 9:30 tomorrow morning I will become.  It’s amazing how simple it is to do.  I wonder if that could be a theme for this next year and the next three years of living in Florence — ease.  A bit of it would be nice.  As well as a nice piece of Pecorino Fresco (fresh Pecorino cheese) and a glass of Vernaccio from San Gimignano (a GREAT local white you should try it!).  Oh, and what the heck…. a kind, fun man sitting next to me on the sofa who is looking at the newly arrived box of memories of my past which I brought back from my trip to the states……

why not live the fantasy?

New resident of Florence signing out.

Un bacio grande,

Bari

There was not a time in my life when I thought I would hungrily read a 537 page book on marketing strategies.  Of course there was a time when the idea of living abroad never would have occurred to me either.  I’m actually, contrary to all evidence, not an adventurous woman.  But I guess I believe in things.  And it’s this belief more than anything that drives me daily and drove me originally so far away from home.  And…. which sparks interest in certain things and connects them for me at this stage in my life.  I find most things here both interesting and more times than not an enormous challenge.  Even a book on strategies for marketing the performing arts which is written clearly and even inspirationally is something that can’t be taken for the straight-forward guide it was intended to be given where I am.  We need intelligent marketing, of course, in order to grow FITC.  But our markets are so -  very different - that it offers a huge challenge to know how to articulate what we want to communicate.

I was sitting in a bar in Milan yesterday with Emily, who you may remember from Christmas three years ago. 

She’s my friend from college who’s lived here 22 years and is married to Franco a great man and musician.  They are very intrigued by what I am doing in Florence and feel there is a strong possibility of collaborative work between here and Milan.  Franco contacted an old friend and very well-connected actor to meet us for a coffee.  He wanted to talk to him about FITC and see what could be done to help me.  Alfeo was very nice.  He listened to everything Franco was saying (I let him explain about FITC first) and then he asked me some random questions in that way that always makes me a little tense…. he would ask the question, I would try to answer it, then he would stop me before I was finished and say he didn’t understand and ask another question.  This happens a lot when I meet Italians.  I finally - in this bar in Milan - came to understand a bit better why.  Because, even if we are speaking the same language - Italian in this case - we are NOT speaking the SAME language.  He would rush to conclusions of what I was saying before I finished speaking because his references are different.  Culturally.  And THIS is why - even after 3 years of speaking about what FITC is - of defining and re-defining it, Italians still don’t - for the most part - GET what it is.  There is no such thing as regional theatre in Italy.  The average theatre company travels around the state.  They don’t even have a phrase for community outreach which is a stong aspect of FITC’s mission.  This became so incredibly clear to me….. that as passionate as I am, as much work as we have done, as many initiatives and projects as we have created….. the concept which is the basic core of FITC is not clear.  Because it can’t be.  Yet.

So…. what’s a Producing Artistic Director living in a foreign land with her 537 page “Standing Room Only: Strategies for Marketing the Performing Arts” book to do?  Well, I’m going to finish the book, and figure out how to talk to my Italian audience and future audience in a way they can understand we offer them something they would really enjoy and benefit from.  And Alfeo’s going to help.  He’s going to set up an interview for me on a large local television station.

Of course I’m not really sure if he’s doing that because he finally “got” what FITC is…. or because, apparently, he finds me attractive.

However…. culturally speaking, and from the chapter I read on the train back to Florence: “Target Markets and Positioning the Offer”…. maybe my book will guide me well in Italy…. as long as I remember to wear lipstick, smile nicely, and let the nice Italian men finish my sentences for me!

Ciao ragazzi!  Never a dull moment in “Floville” as my friend says.

Bari

It’s 2009 - only for one hour so far - and the center of Florence is celebrating New Year’s in the same way it does every year — with deafening firecrackers and screaming people on the streets and broken bottles laying in smashed bits of green and clear glass everywhere.

For a city of the Renaissance, it certainly attracts modern celebratory habits.  The stone buildings and narrow streets are wonderful echo chambers for firecrackers.  I am snuggled safely in the interior part of my apartment - in my living room/dining room/kitchen which is in the back of the apartment - not along the street.  My bedroom - purtroppo (unfortunately) is along the street side with windows that aren’t the double paned ones the Realtor said they were which is why it took me about 7 months to adjust to the noise that starts at about midnight and continues until 5 am most days.  However a night like this…. there is no adjusting to.  I’ll sleep on the sofa.  Happy New Year!

But before I do, I thought it might be helpful to think a bit back on 2008 before looking forward to 2009.  In order to prepare from lessons learned.  I think I’ll focus on the use of my time. 

Everyone who knows me here knows I work 7 days a week, and I don’t eat properly when we are nearing production because I don’t have the time to shop, cook or eat and I don’t sleep enough because there’s too much to do.  Obviously all of that needs to change.  I am getting older and can’t - and don’t want to - keep this pace going for much longer.  One of the things I do a lot of is take meetings.  I’ve been thinking a great deal about these - whether they really have been productive or not.  So I think I should make a list of the meetings I’ve had along with the results…. to evaluate them.  Here goes:

2 meetings with the Director of the Mayor’s Staff/Offices about the rapport between FITC and the city of Florence.  Result: at the last meeting he suggested we contact Il Perfetto who has the responsibility of the health of the city.  The office of Il Perfetto can’t imagine why he should meet with us.  Time spent - 1 hour in meeting time, 4 hours in strategizing how to get to Il Perfetto, 2 hours in letter writing and translating.  Value to FITC: ZERO

1 meeting with Assessore al Turismo (Minister of Tourism) about the rapport between FITC and the city of Florence through the tourist office.  Result: he said he would be holding a large meeting with FITC and his staff to determine the best way to go about projects.  We never had that meeting but we did end up with a meeting scheduled with the head of Ufficio Sviluppo Economia (office of economic development regarding tourism).  Of course the lady forgot about the meeting so we met with a Director of a department instead who turned out to be quite nice.  I’ve had, in total, four meetings with him to determine if FITC can do some aspects of the Florence Art Crawl projects legally in the city (knowing everything needs a permit).  We’ve determined we can and how and were told we would receive the patrocinio (patronage - don’t get excited it doesn’t mean money) of the Assessore al Turismo.  Time spent - 1 hour meeting Assessore, 5 hours meeting Director at other office, 15 hours with internal meetings to prepare for these meetings; 7 hours preparing documents of proposals and translating them.  Value to FITC: MINIMAL (information gathered) ZERO (regarding rapport established), still waiting to hear about the Patrocinio

5 meetings with Presidente Marmugi of Quartiere Uno about the rapport between FITC and the historic center of Florence (see a pattern growing yet?).  Result:  Marmugi (everyone uses last names here because first names are very common - Stefano (Marmugi’s first name), Simone, Lorenzo…. so last names are helpful) anyway… at the first meeting Marmugi said he wanted to create a big meeting with FITC, him, and other reps of the city to see the best way to engage our work, particularly with university students in the city.  Time spent: 7 hours in meeting Marmugi, 20 hours of internal meetings to determine next steps; 15 hours in preparing various proposals and translating them. Value to FITC: ABSOLUTELY ZERO.  Still waiting on that big meeting.

Well… it’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m too tired to write the rest of the list which is MUCH more expansive and, I’m beginning to think, have pretty much the same statistics.  Mainly lots of time spent, and very little gained.  There is a perspective in this city that having a rapport with the Comune (the city government) is important.  But in Florence - unlike Hollywood where I lived and worked for 15 years for example - the part of “who you know” is all there is.  It’s simply a big game of “who you know” and it results - mainly - in mediocrity and lack of actual, valuable projects or initiatives for the city.  And… it’s a waste of my time!

And I didn’t even list the hours upon hours of trying to simply GET a meeting with the new Consul General of the United States.  But, I’ve determined that meeting is irrelevant.  Apparently she doesn’t think there is a real problem with US students and binge drinking in the evenings so our Creative Campus project is really not something she’s interested in learning about.  I’m sure the girl who fell out the window on Borgo Pinti the other week because she was plastered was just a fluke against the statistics.  I will take her example and not waste my time.

So one of my New Year’s resolutions is just that…..to stop wasting my time - and FITC’s - by taking these meetings.  We know what we are doing…. and are on the right track.  We’ll just continue on our own.  Then - when they need us.  We’ll see if we have time to meet with them.  Hopefully we’ll be too busy doing great creative work on tremendously effective projects.

Buona notte ragazzi… grazie per permettermi controllare questa cosa.

I hear sirens…. I truly hope no one has been seriously hurt out there.

Buon Anno - un anno con pace, benessere, felicita’, amore, creativita’ e soldi!/Happy New Year - a year of peace, health, happiness, love, creativity and money!

Bari

Yesterday we had a performance of Marble’s Christmas at La Bottega dei Ragazzi.  It was one of our interactive performances which uses theatre to ‘activate’ English for children.  As usual, the kids loved it and didn’t want to leave.  Carolina, Bernard and Alessandro make me laugh as they work.  Because I know what’s ‘really’ going on. Bernard and Alessandro are more improvisational performers.  They have their own company - TeatroLa’ - which focuses on children and Bernard’s exceptional puppet mastery.  Carolina is more of a structured performer….. and thank God has the capacity to remember the format of the telling of the story to guide Alessandro (who was Marble) on his way through the hour.  He tends to go off on the “fun” of it and forget there are necessary plot points.  Which is only important because he’s the Italian language conduit to the story telling.  Bernard does the puppets….. and English is his third language so sometimes he says “I do think” instead of “I don’t think”…. so it’s best to give him lines like “yes” and “no” which don’t require grammatical strucure.  But… as I said… the kids didn’t want to leave.  They never do.  And Carolina, when she gets mad, sometimes tries to push Alessandro into reacting with her and away from his improvisation …. I liked it when he was lifting imaginary ‘bells’ to help with singing “Jingle Bells” and they seemed to be giving him difficulty.  Carolina said to him “Oh, Marble…. You’ve got very big bells”…… that was a moment the parents in the room joined in with me on a good laugh…. apparently she thought the kids wouldn’t understand “heavy”……

     

Afterward, we all went to a small bar for a couple of bottles of chianti and an apperitivo.  The perfect thing to do after a children’s show.  Fabrizio, Carolina’s boyfriend who is a wonderful young filmmaker and, I hope, will become our Technical Director when we are ready to pay him for it so he can stop working at construction and work with us instead, was there as well.  It’s Christmas/Chanukah/New Years you know and so, of course, I’m a wee bit triste (sad) to be in Florence even while being with good new friends such as these…. I do feel “stuck” here … unable to go home and see my parents, my nephew who is at least a foot taller than last year, my friends.  I’m missing the states a great deal lately.  As we all now know Florence is a hard city….. it’s not the “bellezza” alone that can define it…… and sometimes you need a break from her harshness.  Sometimes you need an abbraccio dalla mamma (a hug from your mother).  But… times as they are… I am here…..

Anyway, I stated this desire to go back to the states…. and I guess, honestly, it was tied a bit into the fear that I won’t be able to do what needs to be done so that I can remain here…. so that I (i.e. Florence International Theatre Company) can thrive.  And that maybe a time would come when I would have to go and not come back.  That I won’t have the strength and energy to continue on….. to continue to physically build the foundation with better material on a house that people are already happily beginning to live in.

And that’s when Fabrizio said the most amazing thing.  He said “Tu non puoi lasciare qui.  E’ non giusto portare speranza e poi prenderlo fuori”  Which means - you can’t leave.  It’s not right to bring hope and then take it away again.

Mio Dio……

sono senza parole ragazzi.  Verramente sono senza parole.

un bacio grande.  Non lasciere speranza……. non mai.

Bari
(My God…. I am without words.  Truly without words.  Don’t let go of hope…. not ever)

Florence truly is a quiet town now.  Things are still and people are away.  Or feeling the darkness of winter and keeping indoors  and out of the chill.  Christmas Eve a mist hung over the city so thick I couldn’t see the river when I walked over the Ponte Vecchio to see my friend Alessandro who was playing Babo Natale (Santa Claus) at a Pasticceria (Pastry Shoppe) in via Maggio.  I felt as if I was back in Hollywood on a set with a hidden fog machine somewhere.

Sometimes things are that way in Florence.  Hidden.  Such as gardens.  Did you know there are many large and gorgeous gardens in this city hidden behind the walls of the palazzi.  There was a time when stone was considered a sophisticated concept and nature was considered less so.  However, obviously, mankind still needed that contact so the wealthier Florentines have interior gardens.  Once a year they have a day here where there are some “giardini aperti” (open gardens) and you can walk within the walls and see a greener side of Florence.

It’s the “hidden” aspect and closed doors of the city which strike me so strongly as of late.  I’ve come to a realization which I think is accurate.  Florence will never be my home.  That is not to say that I may not live here for a very long time.  That I don’t have a life here that is complex and satisfying, albeit extraordinarily challenging.  But for me…. for who I am and what I do here… Florence herself will never truly let me in.

This is the understanding I’ve come to with FITC.  We tried for three years to create a relationship with the city.  But it’s not possible here for those who run Florence to ever understand the vision of what we are offering.  Because they can’t see how it serves them directly.  How it either makes them money, advances their career, or gets them elected. 

This may seem as though I am a cynical expatriate, but truly this is not my intention.  Any one of you that have been reading my blog from the beginning know I went through my phases of dissolutionment long ago.  No, this is more a gentle realization of where I am.  And of what is needed to stay here.  Florence hides from those of us that are not Florentine.  And “Florentine” as was described to me recently by a friend that is one, means that your grandparents are buried in the cemeteries here.  Not that you were born here…. but that you were raised out of the stones themselves.

No, it is clear to me that in order for me to stay here… in order for Florence International Theatre Company to thrive and serve…. I and we must be completely independent of Florence herself.  Because, sadly and surprisingly, what else Florence hides from the world through the mist of her fame is that this is a city in 2008-about-to-become-2009 which lacks vision, passion, creativity and innovative thinking.  That all which was born here 500 years ago has faded into history books and frescos which long ago lost their lustre and depend on the kindness of foreign money and concern for history to keep them brightly offered in the light of modern day.

I believe the vision I hold for Florence is good for her…. and those who live here.  And I feel strangely free - and far less angry - in finally understanding that she herself is incapable and unwilling to assist in the creation of something which will serve her.  It is an odd sensation - creating an artistic institution with such strong ties to the community and absolutely no relationship of any real value to the city itself.  But this is Florence.   I don’t love her less for it.

But I certainly don’t love her more.

Notte ragazzi.  Parleremo ancora…. questo era solo un pensiero…..
Bari