Lessons of Florence

I think this is the longest time you’ve not heard from me since I moved to Florence. I don’t even know where to begin to catch you up.

Since last we left Bari she was about to open her one-woman show, “Net Worth,” in a music club in Florence with the hope the vigili wouldn’t shut them down for illegal acting without a license. . . .

The vigili haven’t quite heard about us yet. Although I don’t know why….. we somehow lured over 300 people into that little space over the first two weeks of FITC’s life, had them tell friends, come a second time, love it and stay after the show to talk with the “actress/writer” while the stage ‘magically transformed’ back into the music club it always was meant to be. It’s amazing how much magic is in my life lately. The kind that’s “dressed in overalls and looks like hard work” as Thomas Edison said. I am watching my vision unfold every day. I am watching prayers and hopes I had for my time in Florence “magically” occur in front of my very eyes. An idea to participate in commemorating the Florence flood of 1966 - 40th anniversary which was in November….over 100 people came shoved into a room for 70, stood in the doors, some were turned away. That was at 6pm on a Wednesday night. By 7:30 I was lugging my laptop across the Arno at full speed in order to perform “Net Worth” only three hours later. Has there ever been two English language theatre productions in Florence on either side of the river on the same night by the same company? And we had audience members who followed me and attended both! What else has happened? Let’s see…….

I had a meeting with the Rabbi of the synagogue here which everyone said was “too closed a community to get involved with anything outside their own concerns”…. that’s saying a lot in Florence, let me tell you. But, an hour later, he was showing me the auditorium and saying we could use it whenever we wanted. It’s not really right for making most theatre but I hope to create FITC’s event for the Day of Remembrance there….. to bring the community of Florence into the Synagogue. To use the event… to use theatre…. to do what we have started at the BeBop…… bringing people together to a creative event which motivates them to discuss its themes and creation afterwards. I’m sure one or two points of discussion will be touched on when we do this in January. It’s sure to be exciting. But as exciting as……

Our current life?….. I have been playing a reindeer in our Christmas production for “adults only” (see flyer created by my father and photos). It’s me, Aaron and six other actors - three of whom have never acted in English before. It’s been an amazing journey working with them. There are things one never considers…… for example if you drop the word “the” a sentence can make absolutely no sense to an audience. But if you are not a mother tongue speaker you don’t necessarily understand the value of the word “the” and can’t be sure how to fix it if something does get dropped or forgotten.

I’ve dropped and forgotten a lot of things lately. Like weight. I weigh under 120 lbs. I don’t know if I weighed this little when I was 16 years old. I can’t imagine that’s a good thing. I don’t really know how it happened. I don’t know if it’s stress, or that I forget to eat because I’m too busy. It’s amazing, I had to move to Florence to finally get my body to the emaciated glory all actresses in Hollywood dream of. I think when the man who sells you cat food says “tu sei troppo magra” (you’re too thin) “e’ questa una scelta?” (is this a choice?) you know you have to start dumpin’ the gelato down a bit more frequently. I think I’ll wait until after I’m wearing a skirt that comes up to just below my butt cheeks. (see photo). Thank G-d I wear a costume that is distracting enough to keep the audience from paying too much attention to my performance….. my first real rehearsal was opening night. There was just so much directing and producing and marketing and volunteer co-ordinating and costume acquiring and set shopping to do! I’ve never felt so unprepared for anything in my life. I just kept saying to myself “believe in the wig… trust in the wig…. and all will be well.” (see photo of me in wig). I don’t know what it is about hair and men…. they really do prefer it straight….. it does something to their hormones…. they get all….. well, I don’t take it personally when I take the darn thing off with my curly disarray underneath….. not anymore anyway. I’m just too tired to care! I must say that’s one thing that helps a great deal with walking the streets of Florence lately…. exhaustion…. and determination make a very non-sexy appeal to Italian men. It’s so ironic that I play a character who is total sex - Vixen - for about fifteen minutes each night but the rest of the day I’m like a bag lady on acid……. at least I no longer hear “scusa, ti conosco?” (excuse me do I know you?) every other day……..

Let’s see…. what else…. Oh yes!

The children’s theatre play is doing well also (see photo) and is the beginning of a journey to create a unique type of theatre…. one that educates, entertains and expands the minds of the audience while addressing the fact that they are not all native English speakers and can be taught aspects of the language through theatre. I like this challenge. I want to create a program where they also write plays and we perform them together. There’s much that can be done here with children’s theatre and we’ve taken a great first step. I’m very proud of everyone….. you should have seen the faces on these children the other day (see photo). Magnificent! And everyone is so grateful! It’s at the point now where I get an e-mail or two a week thanking me for moving to Florence. How can this be? I don’t even really know what to say to this…. except to feel grateful that I have the opportunity to follow my instincts and have a partner who is as crazy as I am. We do have fun, Aaron and I, even when we are so exhausted that one of us….. who will remain nameless… almost falls asleep in the middle of important meetings with the Communale or an influential person we’ve been introduced to…….. actually, at one point or another…. it was either him or me……

So much is happening, has been happening….. I’ve had no time to write. So here it is for now…. something to touch in on….. to say “ciao tutti”……. I guess since the last time I wrote we were ABOUT to open our first play and now we are about to close our fourth, then a lot has gone on in under two months. We will have created 29 performances of theatre where almost 1,000 audience members attended. It’s amazing! But of course, almost all of my focus has been in building the theatre and in looking at what that means. What it means for me to take on such a huge task….. to drive a vision toward a realization. Sometimes it take more than people realize. More than some want to give, more than others want to imagine it takes. And that’s been an interesting journey as well. And there are still days…. when I consider the whole of my life….when I wonder if I did the right thing….. am doing the right thing. I seem at a real distance from myself here. Because in Florence, you see, there is not the “flow” of energy which brought me here in the first place. There is, ironically, very little room for spirit here. For community support. For individual gentle growth and expansion. To make something happen you have to force it. You have to push against those stones and concepts and cultural negativity and pessimism. You not only make but you must prove you can make. And that requires great expending of energy and effort. And if you do what you say you planned on doing…. you are considered almost a miracle worker. Which, actually, is why great miracles can happen here. And, as I complete this text to you on the third night of Chanukah, it seems apt that the word miracle comes to mind. Out of a great darkness came a great light. The light of faith.

What else has finally come to mind is a name for my new kitty. Louis FITC Hochwald. . . . . Louis because Aaron and Frank call each other that for some …. man game reason . . . . that I will never understand AND because it’s my Grandfather’s name . . . FITC because the Italians pronounce the first letters of Florence International Theatre Company as one word, not by saying each letter so with an Italian accent it’s “feetch” . . . and Hochwald because….. well because he’s mine.

So ragazzi…. we’re all caught up now.