All posts by Ben Kaplan

small world

So we got back from Texas last Saturday and a really funny thing happened…

Kim checks around this souless, arts wasteland of a place for the things going on in “theater”.  She comes across an audition posting that has already happened for…her.  It is a conglomeration of solo pieces written by mothers who write, about motherhood.

*sigh*

For those that don’t know, Kim is a solo performer, who writes her own material, which is sometimes about motherhood.

Yeah, no kidding.

Anyway, Kim is REALLLLLY fucking good.  I’m not being a biased husband.  Really.  She developed quite the carreer in San Francisco, and has fans there, LA, San Diego and now…soon…here.

Anyway, so this audition/production is by a group called Mothers Who Write (MWW) and is being produced by the Arizona Women’s Theater Company (AWTC).  Kim does a little research on the MWW and finds an email address.  She sends this woman, Amy of the MWW, about herself and coming across the audition and how she is sad about missing it and all, and would they be interested in talking and such.

So Amy writes back and seems kinda jazzed about Kim.  They hit it off.  This all happens on Sunday.  There were many emails back and forth that day between Amy and Kim.

The next morning, Kim gets another email from Amy, “hey, can you audition tonight?”

So Kim agrees and goes down to the audition…and of course…wows the shit out of the director.  The director expresses that she wished she’d seen Kim last week as she already cast the main role and that Kim was perfect.  So the director ends up casting Kim as the understudy as the woman she already cast is an understudy at for another show.  Then she convinces the originally cast actress to share the role with Kim!

So, turns out that the part that she’s been cast in is the work written by this woman Amy from MWW.  Now, in the mean time, Kim has googled this woman to find out her history and had a lot of discourse with her.  Kim and Amy have a very similar style of writing and dark sense of humor.  These two were made for each other.  Very odd.  It is not at all surprising that Kim found it really easy to read her material.

Ah, but the plot thickens.

So, Kim began writing “Munched” about 4 years ago.  She’s been working hard on this ever since and just had a festival production of it last fall in San Diego, where she won all sorts of awards for it.  What prompted her to write this particular piece was an article she read at the time about Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.  It turns out it was written by this woman Amy from MWW.

Ok, so what is even stranger is it turns out Amy lives only 3 blocks from us.

It’s a small world, eh?

Texas

Just got back from a week in Texas.  It was lovely.

There is tons of forest, and rolling hills, and clean air.  We were in College Station for the first half of the week with Kim’s family, then in Austin for the second half of the week.

Kim’s family is fun to hang with.  They are relaxed and easygoing.

Austin is just fucking cool.  I can’t wait to move there.  *sigh*

bread

I have discovered bread making.  *whee*

I’ve made french bread, rustic boule (in loaf form), and hallah all this week.  I’m hooked.  Hell, why pay for it, when you can make for a few cents.  Damn, its just flour and water, plus a few other things.

Tonight I made my second hallah.  I kneaded it just right, and let rise just enough.  Ohhhhh, it is goodness.  Airy, sweet.  ahhhhhh.

I like this bread making thing.

I think, when I move to Austin…eventually…I will have a party.  I will invite my friends from across the country…one or two may show up if I invite enough…my family, and the neighbors.  I will brew a few cases of very tastey beer, bake some very tastey bread, and maybe cook  some indian food (we shall see what my fancy is at that point).

It will be a heady party, a yeasty one, but it will be in my “own” home, not a rental, and I will be surrounded by friends and family.  The richest one could be.

*sigh*